Kay smiled triumphantly as the scenery around her began to change. It was kinda neat, actually, almost like talking to the Computer in a Holodeck simulation…
Whoa, back up a second there, Kay, she thought bemusedly. Where'd THAT thought come from? Well, she'd always known that she had been forced to watch old Next Generation reruns with Reese one too many times for the good of her own health and well-being.
Her surroundings presently solidified into a dingy, run-down bus depot which, Kay judged from various tourist posters advertising everything from the Mass. Museum of Fine Art to the U.S.S. Constitution museum to Fanieul Hall and Quincy Market, could be located nowhere other than Boston. Passengers were hurriedly filing off one of the buses, with a lost-looking Grace among them, whose new surroundings seemed to have deprived her of all of the snarling confidence she'd possessed at the cottage. From the way she was being knocked back and forth as she tried to climb off by hurried travelers, Kay could tell that she was not at all used to being on her own amongst so many people. Grace turned her head, almost meeting Kay's gaze, and the teen suddenly noticed dried tears staining young Grace's face.
Finally managing to get off of the bus, Grace drifted slightly out of the main line of traffic, and paused, as if trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Before she had a chance to another step, though, her suitcase went flying out of her hands when a handsome young man of about twenty-five or so bumped into her.
"Oh, I'm awfully sorry," he apologized in a sincere tone. "Here, let me help you with that." His dark brown hair, bright green eyes, and wide, open smile all came together for an honest, friendly appearance, and yet Kay felt an instant vague distrust of the guy.
Grace evidently didn't share her future daughter's apprehension, for she let him finish repacking her suitcase and hand it back to her with an easy flourish. "Thank you," she started awkwardly, "Mr…?"
"You can just call me Sebastian," he smiled once again, even more brightly. "And your name, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Grace Standish," she answered voluntarily.
For a brief second, Sebastian looked inexplicably pleased. "Well, Grace, I am very sorry about bumping into you so rudely."
"Oh…don't mention it," she replied, looking down at her feet while absently brushing a rogue strand of hair back behind her left ear.
"No, really, I insist on making it up to you somehow. I know, there's a diner right on the corner. It's not great food, but it's convenient. Would you like to join me for a bite to eat?" He smiled again, which made Kay wince. This guy was oozing so much oily gallantry that she half-expected him to slither away at any moment.
His demeanor didn't seem to bother her mother, though. Grace agreed, and she (as well as Kay), followed Sebastian to the aforementioned diner, where the two of them traded the standard polite small talk for a seemingly endless length of time. Just as Kay was starting to get really bored, though, Sebastian decided to up the ante.
He leaned in a bit, bringing his face just close enough to Grace's to create a feeling of intimacy without invading her personal space. "So, Grace, you, your sister, and your mother have lived in a cottage in the woods outside of a small coastal town for as long as you can remember. What made you decide to leave?"
Grace began to play with her food. "It was a lot of things, a lot of problems that had been going on for a long time. Mostly, though, I felt like nothing would ever happen to me if I stayed, that I was wasting not only my life, but something else." She laughed nervously, as if she felt foolish saying any of these things out loud. "I can't even describe it, and I'm sure I'm not making any sense."
Sebastian gently took a hold of her hand. I think I know what you're talking about. You felt like you were wasting your potential."
Grace thought about it for a minute. "That's a strange way of putting it, but, yeah, that's exactly what it was. For a long time, I've had the feeling that I could do so much more than I have been."
"And I'm sure you could," he replied with a bit too much of a glint in his eyes, and Kay was now convinced without a doubt that her suspicions were right, that he'd been playing along with the young, and despite her earlier bravado, still fairly naïve Grace Standish for some higher, sinister purpose.
"What do you mean?" Grace sounded confused, and more than a little uneasy.
"I could sense it from the moment I met you, Grace. You have the Power."
Shocked by such a direct statement, Grace feigned ignorance. "I-I don't know what you mean…"
"Oh, I think you do. You've always had it, haven't you? But you couldn't explore, or develop it, because your family said it was wrong. So you were stuck, even though you always thought it ridiculous not to use what you'd been given. Am I guessing right?"
Grace was astonished. Kay wasn't. "Yes! Exactly, but how did you…?"
Sebastian stopped her questions with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's a common story, especially with a family history like the one you told me about. They were holding you back Grace, weren't they?"
"Yes," she admitted with an amazed expression on her face, as if incredulous that she was sharing feelings she'd never before voiced even to herself with someone she'd only just met. "I mean, we all had premonitions and visions, and we also had other powers, but my mother always taught us not to use them, so all we ever could do was sense some impending doom, without ever being able to do anything about it, feeling totally helpless."
Sebastian's smile was gone now, and he looked deadly serious. "You don't have to feel helpless, Grace, not ever again. I can teach you how to use your gifts."
Grace narrowed her eyes in suspicion, though she couldn't hide her rather obvious interest in his proposition. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Just someone else who's in touch with forces greater than ourselves," was the smooth reply. "There's a whole bunch of us, we live not very far away from here. Why don't you come, check it out? I think you'll fit in very well."
Kay scoffed. Okay, this was in no way suspenseful in the least. Strange as her mom was acting, this was still her mom, who would still be much too self-righteous to ever take part in anything she even suspected was really Wrong, and this Sebastian guy was obviously involved somehow with the Dark Forces. So confident was Kay that her mother would tell this scumbag to get lost that she was completely unable to do or say anything for several moments after Grace replied, "Yeah, I think I will," and left the diner with him.