There Is More To It
Chapter One
It was a warm early Spring day in Pepper City. The air was thick with the sweet smells of flowers in bloom and heavy with the sounds of insects buzzing around the school yard gardens. Sen sat under a huge oak ever green tree, reading a book. She paused, looking up as two butterflies flickered around the grass at her feet, dancing in the gentle breeze together. She sighed, smiled and turned back to her book. She was absorbed in her reading, failed to notice the shadow of another student stalking her.
She yelped in surprise, slipped against the tree and fell to her side as Kyrie dropped a pine cone on her opened book. Kyrie roared with laughter, but offered Sen her hand, helping her to her feet.
"Oh Kyrie! I've got dirt all over my book." She muttered as she tried to brush the dirt from her pages. Kyrie laughed again, shaking her head.
"It's not like you haven't read that one before. You know how it ends. Some magic prince flies in on a horse in shining amour to save the princess from the Evil sorcerer..."
"I'll have you know the magic prince rides a dragon in this one." Sen said sarcastically. They both laughed.
The school bell suddenly rang, to signal the beginning of classes. Sen and Kyrie picked up their school bags and began to head across the school yard to the giant oak doors that lead into the white washed stone building. They were deep in conversation, generally relishing each others company.
Kyrie and Sen had been best friends for as long as either could remember. Both of them came from reasonably wealthy families, and both had scientists for fathers. But thats about where the similarities ended. Sen came from a large family, where she shared her home with three brothers and a sister. She was well mannered, extremely polite and friendly, and loved to read and draw. More intriguing, was the fact that Sen was an albino, a true albino. Her long curled hair was so blond it was white, her skin had almost no pigment at all, and her eyes were the color of blood. Her eye lases and her fingernails looked transparent, as if they were made of glass. In all, she looked fragile and easily broken.
Kyrie was the complete opposite. She was an only child, living with her father on the Graves Estate. Her mother had died when she was young, and she had learned to be strong like her dad. She was full of life and energy, and played soccer on weekends and took kick boxing classes twice a week. She was full of color as well, her skin a creamy tan, her shoulder length hair auburn, although it shone gold in the sun light. Her eyes were a grassy green and she often wore clothes that colors clashed violently, like bright blues and oranges and violet. Unlike the well spoke Sen, who chose her words carefully, Kyrie was boisterous and usually spoke her mind with little fore thought of consequence.
To the outside eye, nobody could understand how two completely opposite people had managed to become such close friends. But Kyrie and Sen didn't care. They never had. They understood each better than anybody else ever could.
School finished with a loud bell ring, and the doors flew open to a sudden flood of Pepper City Private School students, all wearing the same black and navy blue uniforms. Kyrie and Sen left side by side, heading to the school gates. They stood back and watched the usual humming of activity as a whole fleet of expensive looking cars pulled up trying to collect the students. It was always the same. A yellow school bus was down the street, only a small handful of students heading towards it. Kyrie and Sen wormed their way through the crowd of students, past the car fleet and the bus, heading down the foot path. Kyrie glanced up instinctively at the huge hills that bordered Pepper Cities Eastern Side. They were covered in dense green pine trees, but about half way up one, was a sudden expense of lawn, with the glinting white of a barely discernible mansion. It was several miles away. The hubbub of sound died behind them as cars pulled away and the student mass shrunk. Kyrie and Sen turned a corner, heading away from the school. Sen lived in the center of th city in a high rise pent house apartment. They talked about their classes as they walked, cursed their science teacher for setting them such a huge amount of home work, and laughed about the silly antics of the boys in their classes.
It was a good twenty minutes through the cities heart until they reached the bottom of Sen's apartment building. Kyrie waved half heartedly, agreed to meet Sen tomorrow at school, then watched as Sen disappeared into the foyer. Kyrie turned to the city street, crammed with people and cars who all had better things to be doing. She sighed to herself and began to walk. It took her another half an hour to get out of the heart of the city, walking slowly up the built up residential area, the houses ludicrous and huge.
A car horn, and she whirled to see one of her father's science lab assistants, Raymond waving at her from the driver's seat of a hover car. Kyrie sighed, and jumped into the passengers seat.
"I could have walked Raymond." Raymond was an energetic and boisterous man and simply shrugged.
"Yeah, but look at this way, you gave me an excuse to get out of the lab." Kyrie laughed.
"Fair enough." He asked her about her day at school, and she delved into cursing her science teacher again.
In a hover car, the trip to the giant white marble manor half way up the hill, took only minutes. Kyrie headed inside, tossing her bag on the floor of the giant foyer. Murals decorated the giant four story tall domed ceiling, and intricate marble patterns layered the floor. Hand carved pillars supported the incredible stair case that led from the hall, up and then split in two, curving around to the second floor. She paid the details little attention, instead, sniffed the air. Her stomach gave a loud growl. She turned away from the stairs, to a door to the right that led through to the kitchens.
Maria, the resident chef was nothing short of a brilliant cook. She was a large stout woman with fly away hair and poor manners, but she had the best sense of humor Kyrie had ever known. As soon as Kyrie walked through the kitchen door, Maria had her in a bear hug, before shoving a plate of sandwiches into Kyrie's hands and shoving her towards a stool at one of the kitchen benches. Kyrie listened to Maria as she regaled Kyrie with her wild jokes and warped opinions on the political issues that Maria had been listening to on the talk back radio. Maria worked as she talked, handling the food with incredible skill and ease, preparing a large scale feast for Kyrie's father's guests.
Kyrie palmed her forehead in a gesture of forgetfulness.
"I forgot dad was having one of those formal party things tonight."
"That doesn't surprise me." Kyrie turned to the kitchen door, beamed at her father as he walked in. He was a tall, lanky man, currently unshaven with messy ginger hair and the same bright green eyes as Kyrie. He walked over to Kyrie, gave her a hug and she returned the favor.
"Hi dad." Kyrie said simply. Her father chuckled, ruffed up his daughters hair.
"I have a lot of important people coming around tonight. It's a sort of official celebration of the success of the company. The Spice District Governor will be here, as well as a large gathering of very important corporate suits and political allies." He smiled down at Kyrie. "For the first time in your life, and I know it's asking a lot, but could you please look like a lady?" Kyrie snorted.
"I hate dressing up like a snob." Her father pouted, pulling a sad puppy face. Kyrie grumbled under her breath, then sighed. "Alright. Just for you dad. But your so taking me to the theme park on Sunday!" Her dad laughed.
"Deal!" He kissed the top of Kyrie's nose, waved absently to Maria, then left.
"The guests will be arriving around six. It's Four thirty now, Missy. I'd be getting myself off to a shower if I were you!" Kyrie nodded, sighed, and headed out the door, leaving behind a half finished plate of sandwiches.
Six O'clock rolled around all too fast for Kyrie's liking. She hated the formal events, found herself feeling like a doll on show. She sighed to her reflection in the mirror. She had washed her hair, tied it up in a bun on top of her head, let part of her fringe hand in front of her ears. She was wearing a simple black dress, that hugged her waist. She had never been able to wear heels before, and so she chose a pair of nice flat dress shoes. She topped the whole thing off with a pair of gold earrings and her mothers locket. It was one of the only things she had of her mother, aside from a photo of the brown haired, blue eyed beauty sticky taped to the mirror. She looked at her mother now as she smoothed down her dress, felt saddened, but tried to force it from her mind. She had to make a good impression, for her father's sake. She heard the music start up, heard the guests beginning to enter, and so she left her room, to head down stairs.
The night seemed to drag on. Kyrie found it hard to keep smiling and thanking guests for their compliments. She found it harder still to pretend to listen as various men and women in outfits that could buy a new house for the poorer people make long and complicated speeches. After the official dinner was served in the massive dinning room that had been fitted with additional tables and chairs for the occasion, Kyrie managed to slip herself away from the crowds, heading up stairs to her room.
Kyrie's room was not the largest in the house. It was more homey than the lavish guest rooms, with a simple bed, a set of drawers, a vanity desk and a walk through bathroom. Her favorite feature however, was the small balcony that over looked the hill's reserve, the cities lights glowing in the distance. The walls were plastered with posters of various bands, sports players and pictures that Sen had drawn for her. She flicked her stereo system on, and removed her shoes, massaging her sore feet. She threw herself on her bed, lying there, trying to relax herself.
A sudden gust of wind blew against the currently closed doors of the balcony. She sighed to herself, rolled out of bed, and headed to the balcony. She threw the doors open, and stepped out into the chilly night air. She hugged herself from warmth against the breeze, listening to the sound of the pine trees as they moved in the wind, drowning out the music from her stereo. She felt her skin tingle, and she stared down at the freshly clipped lawns. She saw the mass of expensive hover cars parked neatly in the huge drive way. She could see the light that the opened mansion doors threw across the gardens.
She studied the shadows at the edge of the lawns where the forest began. She could see nothing but black, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. She turned back to her room, walked inside. She left the balcony doors open, loving the smell of the pine forest. She pulled a pair of comfortable cotton pants out of her drawers, as well as a singlet, stripping herself of the night dress. She slipped into her preferred choice of clothes. She removed her earrings and her mothers locket, placing them gently back in the small jewelery box she had on her vanity desk. She undid her hair, brushed it, let it hand loosely around her neck and face. She looked at her mother's photo, sighing to herself. Something in the corner of her eye moved, and she froze. She stared at the reflection in the mirror, barely able to stop her self from screaming in terror. A seven foot shadow with gleaming pink slit eyes was staring back at her from the corner shadows of her room. It made no attempt to move, simply locked it's gaze with hers.
Slowly, she turned around, facing it. It cocked it's head gently to one side, curious. Her mind whirled, panicked. She had never seen anything like this creature before. Suddenly it moved, stepping forward slowly out of the shadow, revealing itself to her. She couldn't stop the sharp sudden intake of breath. The creature was at least seven feet tall, although it stood slightly hunched over. It resembled a man, but with sever characteristics of a lizard and of an insect. He had a leathery orange beak instead of a mouth, a 'V' shaped crest on his head and green speckled amour over his body. She noticed the shelled wings behind him and the long tail with a needle like stinger on the tip.
She couldn't stop herself from staring, couldn't control the fear that she knew her face must be betraying.
"H... Hello?" She whispered quietly. His leathery beak suddenly stretched to the sides, and she realized he was smiling at her.
"Hello." His voice was deep and rasped. She swallowed, not knowing if the fact that this thing in front of her was intelligent, was a good thing or not. He didn't move, simply stood there, watching her as if expecting something. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.
"Um... Are you hungry? I can get you some food... Or a drink?" She asked.
"No." Kyrie couldn't help but feel a little annoyed at this thing, it's lack of trying to communicate with her.
"Erm..." She found herself suddenly unable to think of something else to say. He moved then, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, his movements fluid, graceful. She felt her heart hammering away in her ribcage, as he lowered his face to hers, deadly close. She could see the extreme detail in his eyes as they locked with hers. She could see the intelligence, in those eyes, the cold cool intellect. She did not fool herself that creature was friendly. She could see the way it's body moved, the way it's body was designed. It was a stealthy hunter, a stalker.
"Is there... something I can do for you?" She asked, hating herself for the waver in her voice. The creature moved away from her, taking in the details of her room. He moved to her vanity, stared at the photo on the mirror. Kyrie had the overwhelming urge to hide the picture of her mother, but didn't move. She felt dirty as the creature examined her room, invading her privacy. She watched his tail, flicking every now and then, like a snake ready to strike at any second.
It seemed like an eternity before he finally turned towards the balcony. He stepped into the night air, standing up to his full height. He turned back to her, smiled at her.
"Kyrie." Her name sounded odd coming from him. Sounded wrong.
A sudden knock at the door, caused her to spin around to her door. She glanced back at the creature, shocked at his speed. He was gone as quickly as he had come. She couldn't calm herself down, tried hard to look fine for her father as he wished her good night. If he suspected anything, he said nothing. She was left alone for the rest of the night. She tried to sleep, couldn't stop thinking that it would simply appear at her bedside again during the night, that it would return. Her mind tried to sort out the thing, figure out what it was, what it wanted, and how the hell it knew her name. She couldn't wait to see Sen, to tell her what had happened. Sen had a rational mind, could calm Kyrie down. Finally, as her mind whirled, she fell into a restless, nightmare filled sleep.