Chapter Four
The Red Affect
Seeing as how this was a new day, Friday in fact, Sara figured the best thing to do with a piece of her gifts from Mesagog was to get herself changed into some new clothes. Having left the alley Elsa had dropped her into after leaving wherever it was that she had been "escorted" to, the first store that Sara had spotted sporting clothes displays was one of the best she could have hoped for. The display sign on the building read – Surf and Skate – and Sara made a beeline straight for it, but not without looking both ways as she had to cross a street to do so. Upon entering the store Sara was greeted with the sweet sounds of SUM 41 playing throughout the store and felt so much more relaxed than she ever had since all this crazy insanity had begun. There were so many things to look at, and Sara at that moment had all the time in the world to search through racks of t-shirts, various pants, sweatshirts, and other clothing items that littered the floor of the small store. For over an hour and a half Sara had looked through everything in that store and tried on various new outfits. After finding a few complete outfits she liked, Sara brought them to the cashier and purchased a little over eighty dollars worth of clothes.
Once done with her little shopping spree and having used a changing room to switch out from her current outfit that was dirty to say the least after having fallen in the woods, and changed into a pair of black Dickies that rested in a loose comfortable manner on her, along with a lime green long sleeved shirt with a darker green Volcom symbol at the center. Her shoes were replaced as well seeing as how her white VANS had been screwed up with all the walking and running she had done through all kinds of dirt. These she through a way after she slipped on some new black kicks by DC. Now fully changed and feeling better for the most part, Sara left the store with two other bags in hand; one containing her other new clothes and the other holding her old ones. After leaving the store Sara felt her stomach suddenly grumble and placed a hand over it. "That's right, I haven't eaten anything since dinner at the hospital." She muttered to herself while looking around real quick for the closest place offering food. And as luck would have it, the first place she saw was that juice bar restaurant she had gone into the other day. "Irony thy name is…" Sara read the name of the place finally to complete her statement. "Haley's Cyber Café. Interesting."
Crossing the street over to the next block across from the Surf and Skate, Sara made for the front doors of the Cyber Café and entered once more as she was looking for lunch this time and not directions. Oddly enough the woman named Haley she had been talking with the other day was behind the counter again. She's gotta be the owner. Smack, no duh! Especially if her name is Haley and this place is called Haley's Cyber Café! Geez, you idiot. Taking a seat at the bar she smiled at Haley who looked a bit surprised to see her but returned the smile nonetheless.
"Hey…Sara, right?" Haley asked making sure she remembered the girl's name correctly. Her answer was a nod of the teen's head as she confirmed this to be true. "Good. I was hoping I remembered that right. So, can I get you anything? Directions to somewhere else maybe?" she asked while laughing in good humor at how the last time she had come in it was for directions only.
Sara shook her head while laughing as well. "Nope, not this time. But thanks for yesterday." She replied.
Haley gave her wink while still grinning. "Not a problem. Always happy to help when someone needs it."
"Good to hear. Um, what's your lunch special here?" Sara asked while looking up at the menu hanging on the wall behind Haley, who had turned to the side so she could point out what Sara was asking for.
"Well, today's special is a tuna salad sub and your choice of a large smoothie." Haley recited off the board while looking back to Sara to see if this sounded okay to her. When Sara nodded to this Haley got to work on the sub sandwich. "What smoothie would you like with that?" she asked while looking up from the bread she was cutting into at that moment. Reading the long list of various flavors that the place offered, Sara settled for a strawberry blitz that included blueberries, raspberries, and orange pieces mixed in. Haley nodded as she placed the sub bread in a small toaster oven on the back counter and then set to work on the asked smoothie. In a few minutes Sara had the drink before her in a tinted green glass that was actually pretty big for a large with a straw sticking up out of the drink itself. "Were you able to find the police station okay yesterday?" Haley asked as she spread the tuna salad across both pieces of toasted bread and adding in lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion.
Yeah right. "Uh, yeah, I did. Thanks." Sara replied quickly as she lied with a small grin towards the redhead who was now setting before her a white plate holding a rather delicious looking sandwich. Paying Haley the five eighty-five for the meal, Sara took a big bite from her sandwich as Haley returned to filling new orders that a few customers had asked for. "Oh my god this is good." Sara commented after swallowing most of her first bite.
Haley grinned over at Sara. "You're welcome." She stated as she mixed up a berry smoothie for someone.
Busy with her meal, Sara hadn't even noticed as the same guy from yesterday came in and was at the counter again a seat over from her calling for Haley. She still didn't take any notice as Haley greeted him with 'Oh hey Dr. Oliver.' While leaving the last of the smoothie orders on the counter for a waitress to come over and pick them up. In fact if it hadn't been for the fact that Dr. Oliver took notice of her and said her name, Sara would have been completely oblivious to his presence since she was focused on getting food in her stomach. Once her name had been called Sara looked over to her right and was startled to have Dr. Oliver there at the bar with her. Swallowing what was in her mouth, Sara grabbed a napkin and quickly made sure there wasn't anything left on her face before speaking. "Oh, hi." She greeted while giving the paleontologist a smile.
"Hi, I didn't expect to see you here so soon again." Dr. Oliver stated while glancing over at Haley from the corner of his eye. The fact that Sara was at the Cyber Café had in fact given the doctor a sense of relief that only he knew the worry too and also shocked him at the same time. Does she have it on her? "Did everything go okay yesterday?" he asked slowly as he was referring to the fact that the teen had been wanting to get to the Reefside police station, but had a hidden meaning as well to what he was asking.
Sara paused a moment before answering the same way she had with Haley. "Yeah. Yeah it did." She replied while turning her attention on to her smoothie and took a long drink through the straw as she hoped that Dr. Oliver wouldn't ask any other questions. However, this hope was dashed as her left sleeve was pulled down slightly by her own movements and revealed a small glimpse of the bracelet stuck to her wrist.
Seeing this, Dr. Oliver's own eyes went a bit wide before he covered up the surprised look on his face so Sara couldn't see it. "That's a nice bracelet." He commented while he was still keeping his attention focused on her. Haley was seeing this as well and for the moment didn't understand what was going on until Dr. Oliver shot her a quick look that stated he would explain later.
Looking up from her drink to look at Dr. Oliver and then to her left wrist, Sara groaned mentally as she noticed that the bracelet was showing just out from under her sleeve. Forcing a smile on to her face she looked back at Dr. Oliver. "Thanks." She replied while pulling the sleeve back down and then took up her sandwich to take another bite from what was left of it. "So, what's the word on that stone I handed over to you yesterday?" Sara now imposed upon the doctor before taking a bite.
"Oh, well that, my research into it are still on going for the moment." Dr. Oliver stated as he noticed the fact that Sara had changed the subject to avoid any further talk of the bracelet on her arm. Seeing this caused Dr. Oliver to seriously think about his own musing upon the stone she had given him yesterday and now the bracelet on her arm. "Haley could I talk to you for a moment?" he asked while looking over at the redhead who had just been watching the whole time. Snapping to attention she nodded and motioned for him to follow her off to the far side of the counter away from where Sara was sitting.
Something doesn't seem right with this. Sara swallowed the last of her sandwich quickly before sucking down on her smoothie that was still half full. I better get out of here before they come back with more questions. Fighting back a killer brain freeze brought on by her fast drinking, Sara left Haley a two dollar tip before grabbing her bags and leaving the Cyber Café before she was noticed by the two adults talking to each other. Outside, Sara looked back over her shoulder as she walked away to make sure neither was coming out after her and then hurriedly walked off to another part of this small shopping district. After coming a good distance from the café and coming to where she was out of sight from it, Sara slowed down and exhaled heavily in relief of having dodged a bullet. That wasn't even funny. She growled to herself after remembering the fact that she had been shot in the hospital parking lot and then somehow ended up in a city she had never heard of, watched a group of five people fight some sort of Creature of the Black Lagoon thing and kill it, had a bracelet just appear on her wrist with no way of coming off, and just recently encountered a talking dinosaur! Oh yeah, Sara was now hating bullets all together with an extreme disgust and having a possible phobia growth she was unaware of.
Since it seemed as though maybe just having some time to think about things was the best right now, Sara started to explore the small shopping district but made sure she kept her distance from the Cyber Café's location. For seemed like an hour or two of just window shopping and looking through various stores Sara had forgotten all about the situation she was in and just how she came about to being in Reefside.
Indulged with a racing magazine inside a small book store Sara had been reading an article about the up coming NASCAR season when for a moment she thought she felt the ground suddenly tremble under her feet. Looking up from her magazine for a brief moment Sara raised a brow to herself before shaking her head and returning to her reading. Another tremble this time shook the store walls slightly to where things rattled and caused everyone inside to stop what they were doing and look up. Sara closed her magazine and placed it back on the rack as another tremor rattled the store a bit harder. An earthquake! She wondered while coming out of the store along with a handful of other customers who were close to the front door. Apparently the people outside had felt the tremors as well and were looking around. Of course many were thinking a possible earthquake, but then a huge explosion rose up from behind the backside of the block across the street that continued on the shopping district area further. A ball of flame popped and then wafted away as a thick cloud of grey smoke.
Seeing this people started to panic only to be thrown into mass hysteria as another explosion just like the first followed. Everyone seemed to be screaming and running in various directions that lead away from the block over. However, instead of being just as afraid as everyone else, Sara felt herself drawn to find out what was going on over on that block. Without even realizing it Sara started to make her way over, crossing the street and following the sidewalk while pushing through swarming crowds of pedestrians headed in the opposite direction. As the difficulty of trying to get to where the two explosion had occurred started to lessen rather quickly, Sara soon found herself coming into a large food court in which every table and chair had been over turned and thrown about in a giant mess. Stopping dead in her tracks, Sara watched with wide eyes as again she was seeing that same group of five people fighting it out with a monster that was nothing like that last one. This time it was covered head to toe with long shaggy orange fur and stood in a hunched over posture with clawed hands that were striking out to catch anyone of the five who got too close. Its face was elongated and held a near werewolf-like appearance over all. Holy crap! What is with this town! Sara thought while frantically looking around for a place to hide so as not to get caught by any one.
Ducking down behind a pile of white plastic tables and chairs, Sara dropped her bags beside her and stared out through a gap to watch the fight. The black, yellow, and blue ones were attacking the orange monster from three sides with those same curved swords. This only proved to be a distraction as the red and white came running up from behind and hit it with sword in hand. They struck the monster across the back as it had been caught off guard. The orange monster hollowed in pain before charging through the others and headed straight for where Sara was hiding. Seeing this through the gap, Sara started to panic and became frozen for a moment until she was finally able to force herself up and run. As she scrambled to her feet to get away the orange monster came crashing through the pile and knocked her aside. Sitting up quickly Sara stared up with large eyes as the orange monster loomed over her and brought its snarling face close to her own to where they were nose to nose. Drool dripped off its bared teeth as it started to sniff her scent in.
"HEY! Get away from her!" the red one cried while running towards then with sword ready to strike.
The orange monster looked over at the rushing attacker and then looked back to Sara who was now staring at the person in red coming towards them. "I know who you are by your scent. Do not forget the offer Mesagog makes to you, Sara-child." The monster stated in a gruff voice thick with a canine snarl after catching her attention and then ran off into a shimmering vapor in the air and disappeared entirely.
Still on the ground, Sara just stared at where she had seen the orange creature disappear in even after the person in red reached her spot and gave a frustrated groan while folding the blade of the short curved sword so that it rested forwards on the hilt and then placed it in a holster strapped at the side. "What was that about?" the person in red directly asked of the teen sitting on the ground before him. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Sara looked up at the guy in red and blinked a few times just to make sure she was seeing things right. The same red helmet stared down at her with the razor toothed motif decorating it about a black visor strip that ran across the eye area. Taking the whole sight in, she was near gawking at the fact that this person wore an entire one piece suit of red leather (or so it looked, maybe even a soft leather to say the least) with white strip running over the shoulders, arms, and down the legs where red boots ended the pattern. Who the hell…? Well, it's a guy I can see that, and hear it, but seriously what the hell. "What?" she asked while pushing herself up off the ground to stand on her feet with no help from this red suited guy.
"I asked you what that was about." The guy stated again while pointing after the already gone orange creature.
Furrowing her brow at this guy's attitude, she was already taking a dislike to him. "I'm fine by the way." She stated while going to dust her hands off only to find a sharp sting travel through them. Looking down at her palms Sara saw that they were scratched and turning red where the abrasions were located. "And I don't know what you're talking about anyways." She now replied while hiding the grimace from the pain and looking up at the guy again.
It looked as though from this guy's body language he was ready to say something back to her that wasn't going to be very polite, but that was when the others came up from behind him and the black one interrupted quickly. "Calm down. I'm sure she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." The black one state with a male voice that seemed a bit familiar to say the least.
You could say that again. Sara stared between them all as she took note of each color they were solely dressed in. Red, black, blue, white, and yellow. The yellow one Sara took to be a girl as the legs were covered with a mini skirt of same color and material. That or there was a very confused guy in this group. At any rate, she had become fed up with whatever this whole thing was and stalked over to where her bags were still sitting. Turning on her heel to look back at them all, she held a greatly annoyed look on her face. "I have no idea what or who you people are and what was with that thing, but you know what, I don't want to know." She stated while grabbing her bags up. "And for your information red," she snapped while directing an angry stare upon the stated guy. "I have no idea what that thing even said to me or what it wanted. So get over yourself."
As she turned to leave in a huff, her ears picked something up that sounded as though it were just spoken out right when in fact it had been muttered quietly under the red guy's breath – "Stupid girl." Dropping her bags, Sara turned on her heel and marched right over to him so that she was near up in his helmet covered face when she came to a stop. Without even thinking about what she was about to do and how incredibly ridiculous it would look, Sara smacked the guy across his face covered helmet. And lucky for him he had that on or he would have some serious sting after affect to experience as Sara's hand was now taking. However, right after Sara's hand had come into contact with the helmet the bracelet started to glow an eerie green while remaining silver still. As a result Sara felt herself start to go weak as if all her strength was seeping away.
"Not again." She muttered as her eyes fluttered, Why does this seem to be a consistent pattern now, and then collapsed as everything went black. Fortunately for her, the guy in red was still in shock from the fact that when she smacked him he had felt it through the helmet unbelievably, actually caught her as she fell. It was more on instinct than anything else, but still, he caught her.
