Chapter 1: Metamorphosis
Bloom hated tourists.
Without fail, any time a tourist walked through the front door of Crosby's, they got sat in her section. And without fail, every single damn time, they walked away without tipping. She couldn't exactly blame the tourists; they weren't from the United States, they didn't understand tipping culture. But she could blame Tilly for seating every obvious tourist in her section, even when they should go to another waitress. After five hours of work, she only made $17.50. Three out of her six tables didn't tip. She didn't even make enough today to warrant calling a taxi home, so she was left walking home in the rain, in her hideous gingham shirt and suspenders. At least this job let her wear jeans.
She couldn't understand why anyone would even want to visit Chicago in the first place. Sure it was the Windy City, but there was nothing here, except for tall buildings filled with people who didn't want to be here either. The parking is expensive, the food is expensive, the apartments were expensive, she was just waiting for a day for someone to come on the news and say they have a new tax on breathing air. When Bloom moved to Chicago after high school, she couldn't even afford to bring her car; it was an extra $100 on her rent just for a damn parking spot. Even if she did have her car, the traffic is so bad she wouldn't want to drive it anyway.
Four months she'd lived in the city, and she hadn't had a single break. She auditioned for every ballet company in the city, applied at every dance school to teach. Nothing. And with the hours she had to work at Crosby's just to make rent, she hadn't been to a single class in a month. Day by day she could feel her muscles atrophying, and her flexibility was worse than it had been in years
She shivered and clutched her arms closer to her body. It was hot and sunny this morning, but the sun had gone down hours ago, taking all the heat with it. The drizzle that had started during her shift didn't help. Usually she didn't mind the rain, but her shirt was thin and she forgot her jacket when she left in a rush that morning. Trying to ignore the drizzle, she focused on the sickly green patterns a neon sign was making in a puddle at the end of the alley. She could hear the rowdy customers at a bar with its back door open; this late at night, they were either drunk or well on their way.
She jumped as two girls ran past her. Barefoot and running down an alley with their silver strappy heels in their hands. Classy.
Briefly, Bloom considered that taking this route back to her apartment might not have been the best idea, and told herself that in the future, if she walked home this late, she'd use the sidewalks. At least she lived in a safer area of the city; there were some real slums in Chicago, but she thought her apartment felt safe. It wasn't too far from work; only four blocks, and if she cut through the alleys, it barely took ten minutes. That being said, she was growing more and more disturbed with the shadows and the fire escapes. Sidewalks had bright lights illuminating the streets...now she was walking in the dark with impenetrable walls of brick on either side. Only way out was forward towards the light at the end of the alley.
She picked up her pace, sliding the pepper spray from her keychain into her palm with her finger on the depressor. Her feet ached from hours of work.
The light at the end of the alley was suddenly blocked by a large man. No, too large to be a person. A car? Was that a car?
It started barreling towards her. It roared. What the hell was it?
Screaming, she turned and ran down the opposite end of the alley. She put her arm up high and left a trail of pepper spray behind her, hoping that it would dissipate with the rain and get in that thing's eyes.
"Help! Help me!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. These were apartments above her...couldn't anyone hear her? Is this what Kitty Genovese felt like?
It was gaining on her. Why was it chasing her? There was no way this thing was a person. Did something escape the zoo?
She felt an iron grip around the arm holding her pepper spray. Her screams echoed around the alley but no one opened a window, no one turned on a light. The pepper spray rattled on the ground, rolled down the aggregate concrete towards the storm drain. Was she going to die?
Her fists met its skin. It felt like old, dry leather, and had no give to it. She must have been drugged. What had she drank?
Her arm burned like fire, she was bleeding. It cut her.
Her whole body filled with heat. Her vision grew tunneled. The tips of her fingers tingled, and suddenly the entire alley was filled with bold light. The creature flew back away from her, knocking her to the ground in the process. She cried out as she landed wrong on her ankle. The light was gone as quick as it came, as did the wind. The creature was getting up. It walked towards her. She was paralyzed in pain and fear, rooted to the ground. She closed her eyes, crossed her arms in front of her face, and waited for the inevitable.
It didn't come.
She opened her eyes when she *heard something large hitting the ground, feeling the impact from where she sat. A group of four men stood over the creature, one with a strange, blue gun in his hand, another with two sets of giant rings that resembled handcuffs. She stared at the weapon, shifting her eyes when she heard him speak.
"Just a mild tranquilizer. He'll only be out long enough to get him on the ship."
"Sky," the blond haired one putting shackles over the creature looked over at his partner, speaking in a warning tone. "What happened to what Saladine said?"
"They said no Earth witnesses. Clearly, she's not from Earth."
Bloom looked between the group of men. They wore the same clothes, but didn't look like soldiers. They really didn't look much older than her; college aged at most. Should she correct him and say she was, indeed, from Earth? Where else would she be from? She must have been drugged. She felt so tired.
The brunette one-Sky-crouched down before her. He pulled a kit from his belt, and asked if he could see her arm. She stared, apprehensively.
"It's okay," he reassured. "It's a first aid kit. We need to clean your arm before it gets infected, troll venom can be poisonous."
"Did you just say troll?" she asked, finally speaking. Her voice didn't sound like her own, it seemed far away and foreign.
Sky rifled through his kit before looking over his shoulder. "Hey Timmy, do you have any antivenom? I think I forgot to restock after last time."
The one with the glasses walked over to them, leaving the other two to wrap up the...troll? "I told you to double check your medpack. It should always be stocked before a mission," he chided. She could almost laugh as Sky turned back to roll his eyes at her.
"You have it or what?"
"Obviously, I stocked my medpack," he handed a tiny glass bottle with a stopper down to his friend, before looking over at Bloom. "You don't know what trolls are?"
"Well yeah, I've heard of trolls, are you telling me that's what that thing is?" she pointed at the creature the blond had finished tying up.
"You are from Earth, aren't you?" the black haired one spoke up with surprising hostility. He and the blond were fiddling with rolling the creature onto a blue stretcher that she didn't remember them having.
"Uh, yeah, aren't you?" she countered.
"Sky," Black Hair growled. "We need to speak with Saladine. She's a witness."
"How many Earthlings do you know that can summon up an energy field? She knocked the thing clear off his feet; something's going on here."
"All the more reason to call Saladine and figure this out," Timmy reasoned.
"What's your name?" Sky asked, grabbing her wrist again. He pulled out the dropper out of the bottle, aiming it over her cut.
"Bloom," she winced as the liquid made contact.
"Sorry, should've warned you...it stings a little."
Timmy crouched down beside Sky. "The antivenom will keep you from getting sick, but you should still take a shower at home and make sure you rinse it well. Where is home?"
Now she knew she heard warning bells. Did these guys drug her? Why did they want to know where she lived? "Not far," she said vaguely.
"Can one of us walk you home?"
"No," she said immediately. "I'm fine."
She stood up on her own, ignoring the burning pain in her ankle.
"We gotta get this guy back to the school. Time to say goodbye," Black Hair quipped. He didn't look at Bloom, speaking only to his partners. "What should we do with her?"
"Excuse me?" she asked, patience snapping and matching his hostility.
Sky gave her an apologetic look. "It's not an emergency, so we shouldn't wake up Saladine."
"Not an emergency? You gave us away to an Earthling!"
"It can wait. And there's clearly more going on here. Bloom," he turned to her, "would it be okay if one of us met you here tomorrow to talk? About what happened tonight?"
She stared at each of them in turn. The black haired one glared daggers at her. His blond partner seemed more preoccupied with strapping the troll down to the board than really looking over at her. Timmy and Sky seemed friendly, at least. She did want to hear more about what happened here...if she met them in the day time, how dangerous could it be?
"Okay. I can meet you back here tomorrow. But on that sidewalk," she pointed towards the streetlight, "not in the alley."
"Then we'll meet you outside the alley tomorrow, one o'clock. Does that sound okay?"
"Sky," hissed Black Hair. "Let it go."
He seemed to ignore his partner, so Bloom did the same. I can always not show tomorrow, she reasoned with herself. "Okay. One o'clock. Tomorrow."
It's been a minute, whoops
To current readers: I've edited and am reuploading the chapters as well as updating the story. I didn't realize how many typos there were; I have quite a severe case of dyslexia, and I rely pretty heavily on my spell/grammar check which apparently has been telling me a lie this whole time. Thanks Google Docs
So a) I got a better word processor, lol and b) I invite and encourage you lovely readers to please point out typos and grammatical errors if you find them when reading. Because holy hell did I find a lot. Kinda embarrassing lol. I do spell check these, believe it or not...
To new readers: Congratulations, you don't have to read the really heavily typo'd version!
(seriously i found like five a page)