Episode 4: Friends and Foes
Jane took a deep breath and looked into the mirror. She wiped her tears delicately with her fingers careful not to ruin the make-up she had worked so hard on. She smiled and watched her face twist in a fake innocent simper. She sighed seeing how futile her attempts were.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Just a second!" she said careful not to let her voice waver.
Jane smiled again, this time hiding the sorrow with confidence and went out. On her way outside she greeted a few friends who had come while she was away. Elvis Presley's magical voice beamed out of the speakers and Jane was sure that Michael, their closest friend, had already taken control over the stereo.
She stopped for a second. When had she started to call herself "we" instead of "I"? For how much longer would she be able to do that?
She stepped outside and saw her husband, Chris, and their mate Walt already preparing the barbecue. She almost once again fell into tears.
Jane had suspected it for a while already but today confirmed her worries. Chris was cheating on her. People often thought nobody noticed but it was more than easy to spot the signs: the prolonged handshake, the avoiding of each others eyes and the whisper in the ear during the kiss on the cheek.
She wasn't surprised though. The girl, his co-wroker, was younger and prettier than she was. She liked the same movies as they did and didn't mind a good horror. Jane had heard about her a little too much.
"Honey!" She heard Chris call her. "I forgot the ketchup, could you get it? And I believe the chips should be ready in a minute."
Jane smiled. She was so lucky with him. She didn't have to be the housewife when he was home. He took care of everything before she could even ask for his help. She hadn't cooked a meal in two weeks. The thought of him slipping through her fingers was just too much to bear.
"I'll be right there," she said, happy that she could think about something else for a while.
The chips were indeed almost ready. She turned the cooker off and took them out of the oven.
Screams lured her out of the kitchen. At first she thought that maybe one of the guys was doing a prank on the girls but the cries weren't that of accusation or fun. They were full of horror.
The living room was now filled with guests who hid behind the transparent doors to the garden. A few people were still trapped outside, mesmerized by the sight. One of them was Chris, his hand squeezed tightly on the metal spatula.
The attack came from nowhere. The animal grabbed two people at once and flew up, at the same time readying his beak to peek down and grab another human snack. The prey wasn't even running. The people were too stunned to realize what was really happening. It wasn't until the pterodactyl attacked again that everybody started running.
Jane watched the creature stand on its back legs and rip its prey into smaller, swallowable parts. Two other bodies were lying by its feet one already dead and one still twitching weakly. They had been slashed up by the pterodactyl's claws during the first attack. Jane couldn't even recognize them.
It was obvious however that those three were not enough to satisfy the creature's appetite. It quickly abandoned the carrion and glanced at the person closest to the grill. It gave out a cry but that only hypnotised Chris even more.
"Chris! Chris!" she shrieked with desperation. But the words hadn't reached him until it was too late. She tried running out to help him but someone grabbed her arm and stopped her from opening the door. She couldn't see him or hear him, her eyes shut and her shouting the only thing ringing in her ears. She then opened her eyes and watched Chris try desperately to defend himself with the spatula in his hand and fail miserably. The pterodactyl flew away with all its prey leaving only scraps of gore and a lot of blood behind.
Jane fell down to her knees and covered her lips with her hands. Her fingers were trembling and her lips were quivering trying to form words but the only sounds to leave her mouth were almost inaudible wails. She didn't even feel tears flowing down her cheeks like two wild streams. Somebody tried comforting her but she shoved their hand away shouting, "He's not dead!" she cried. "He can't be dead!" her voice broke down.
"She needs some space," somebody said. People gradually left her until only one person remained with her by the window.
"I'm so sorry," the person said. Jane recognized the voice of the girl who had made everybody leave her. "I'm Sarah, I worked with Chris..."
Jane sniffed. Her anger multiplied upon hearing that name. "Sod off," she said. "What right do you have to talk to me! You shagged him didn't you! Oh, don't give me that look! The only thing he did was talk about you, you think I wouldn't notice?"
"Jane, Jane..." Sarah tried to shush her, stop her shouting accusations.
She succeeded finally, Jane breaking into tears, her head falling onto Sarah's shoulder. She kept repeating "he's gone" over and over again.
"We were just friends Jane," Sarah said soothingly. "He was so in love with you. He kept talking about you. He said we'd be great friends. Shsh... It's going to be fine."
She also started crying letting out tears one by one.
The police came twenty minutes later, asking everybody what happened. Aside from Chris there were three other casualties. Jane wasn't the only one in the room mourning the death of a loved one.
o*o*o
Sergeant Dave Kossner never really liked working for the police. It was, however, his family profession. All of his relatives were either policemen or soldiers. He had little choice facing the expectations of his father and older siblings. But what he liked even less were situations like this. Talking to people who just made no sense at all.
"A dinosaur," he repeated the words of an over-excited man. There was a hint of irony in his voice.
"A pterodactyl! I'm dead serious!" the man insisted. "It ate them!"
"Right... And what did it look like?" Dave said, not really knowing what to do.
"Drop it, Dave," Brad approached him. "The spooks are here already. You know the drill..."
Dave rolled his eyes. The thing he hated the most about his situation was Torchwood. They would mess up even the easiest assignments and often you'd hear of weird things wherever they were involved. Life was complicated enough without them appearing everywhere.
He went out and watched five people leave the black SUV. Three of them he recognized: the American bloke - apparently the leader, the raven-haired woman and the tall slim man who had in himself something of a butler. He had had the "pleasure" of having his job taken away by them before. The other two he didn't know. One of them was a young man who didn't look as professional as the rest. He looked more like a college graduate than a civil servant. The other was a black woman slightly taller than the college bloke and with a lot more self-esteem.
Dave felt greatly irritated by that slick grin on the American's face. He decided to act like he didn't see them when they passed him.
"You're unusually cheery today," he heard the black-haired woman say as they were approaching him.
"Let's just say I'm reuniting with an old friend today..." the American answered.
"You know somebody here?" the tall bloke asked.
"Nope, not a soul."
"You don't mean the..." the college-boy started but his voice stuck in his throat.
"Yes. I mean Skippy."
"Since when was he called Skippy?" the raven-haired woman asked.
"Me and Ianto were bored once... You wouldn't imagine how many things in the Hub have their own names."
"I don't remember that..." Ianto said.
"You don't remember a lot of things Ianto."
"I don't think I would want remember if I were you," the black-haired woman said.
Dave sighed when the group had passed him and he couldn't hear their voices anymore. Such casual and meaningless conversations during work hours. He could never understood that lot.
o*o*o
"It clearly didn't have any teeth..." Martha said after examining the body part. "There are no teeth mark on any of the remains. I think it's what they say it is."
"I told you it was real," somebody whispered behind them.
"Will somebody get those people off the crime scene?" Jack asked loudly very irritated with the human behavior. Only a second ago they were screaming and running and now they all wanted to take a peak at what had happened.
Some of the guests backed away into the house but a few persistent individuals remained.
"This is a crime scene everybody, please go back inside," Gwen said at the same time discretely revealing her holstered weapon.
"Tobey, what have you got for me?" Jack asked.
"Traces of residual rift energy but its only a little more than what appears elsewhere in the city. Practically negligible."
"Are you sure this is really the one we had at the Hub?" Gwen asked.
Jack smiled with confidence. He approached the grill and picked up a plastic bottle. The label read "BBQ Sauce". "It's Skippy, alright. Seems like he survived the explosion."
Tobey glanced at the two talking. Ianto was talking to the witnesses and Martha examining the remains, none of them specially surprised with the nature of the conversation. He himself decided to wait with expressing disbelief until they were not in the public eye. Or police eye for that matter.
"Alright, lets pack up and leave the rest to them," Jack pointed at the policemen.
o*o*o
Tobey woke up and saw his cup next to him. The coffee he had had earlier, almost drunken up was now replaced by a new one, apparently freshly brewed from the smell of it.
"Thanks," he said, still half asleep, but knowing that Ianto was somewhere around.
He couldn't really figure that man out. He knew absolutely nothing about him and he had never seen him complain although he obviously worked a lot more than the average work day. In fact he had seen him sleep only once although he knew that he had some sort of medical condition that had something to do with his loss of memories. He couldn't help but think that such an amount of work was a bit too much for somebody who looked as sick as Ianto did. But the man never expressed even the slightest bit of annoyance or even question. In fact, he seemed to have an answer to any of Tobey's problems whenever he had asked him for advice.
The technician yawned. He had once again slept over against his will. He was more used to the unusual hours now but still dozed off when faced with checking countless internet sites searching for any clue as to where a pterodactyl might have appeared. He didn't remember when exactly he had fallen asleep but when he had last checked it was four in the morning. He couldn't help remembering that Ianto was still awake at that time occasionally lurking out from the archives to check something or make a new cup of coffee for him. Jack had disappeared suddenly and Tobey had no idea where he went because he had heard neither the cog-wheel door open or the invisible lift go up. Martha and Gwen had left first - neither of them needed for anything more for the time being.
"I'm going to pop out for a second," Tobey said turning around. He needed a good shower to wake him up and an even better breakfast.
There was nobody around so Tobey just drunk up his coffee and left the cup on the table.
o*o*o
"Finally..." Kate said annoyed but with a dose of relief. She was alone again and could go to her own school now. She couldn't understand why she was forced to take her little brother to school every single morning. He was already ten years old, he could go by himself. She was sixteen, she had exams and friends and not to mention a life of her own. She bitterly remembered all her lost chances to hang out with Greg because of that little twerp.
She was still thinking about the unfairness of her life when she met up with Maria and Diana.
"Sorry, I'm late... " she said. "I had to take care of Travis again."
"No, I get it," Maria said but despite her face smiling and her voice being sweet her eyes expressed carefully concealed annoyance. "Anyway, you won't imagine what happened to me the other day!"
Kate listened to the story with excitement. It was one of the good things about school. Hearing about other people's lives. It was easy. She didn't have to think about what she could or couldn't say because somebody else was doing the talking. And once the story was finished all that was left was to show approval or disapproval according to the other person's expectation.
They were two blocks away from the school when Kate stopped. Her throat was itching as if something had gotten into her mouth except she didn't feel anything there. She tried coughing but it only made matters worse.
"Are you OK?" Diana asked.
"It's fine, something's just stuck at my throat," Kate lied. She knew something was wrong but she couldn't put her finger on it. She had seen a tiny glitter of light right before feeling something fly into her mouth. "Just go on, I'll catch up in a second."
"All right, just don't go ditching school without us!" Maria said before going after Diana.
Kate coughed again. The itching was gone but she felt differently. She had more energy, more life. Her whole body was burning with this fire as if she were sick except she knew she wasn't. She felt better than ever and it was scaring her.
She looked at her hands: as normal as ever except... A grey mark was growing on her palm and she felt pulsing in that spot. She closed and opened her hands. The mark was gone.
Kate looked up. The school was barely a hundred meters ahead. She took a step forward. But she wasn't getting any closer. Her feet took her some place else, some place she didn't know. The rush she felt previously was gone. Now all that was left was fear and a vast darkness in her soul.
o*o*o
"This is mental," Brad said looking at the video on the screen.
Andy glanced over the shoulders of the three policeman hunching over a small computer screen. The video they were watching was of a girl, approximately fifteen years old mutating into something, something which Andy was sure was alien. Only a few moments later she was standing over two dead bodies. All the movements were blurred and the image was shaking so it was impossible to determine what exactly had happened between the mutation of the girl and the death of her victims .
"What is this?" Andy asked.
"Oh, some kid recorded this with his mobile before contacting us," Brad said not taking his eyes off of the screen.
"Yeah but Torchwood was there before we even got to the scene," Dave added with a hint of anger and annoyance.
"Torchwood's there?" Andy asked.
"Should still be, I think. We only got this twenty minutes ago."
"Gwen..." Andy whispered and left the room.
It took him another ten minutes to reach the crime scene - a back alleyway behind a supermarket. Jack was there with a girl he didn't know.
"If you're looking for Gwen then you've better of reaching her on her cell," Jack said overlooking the girl, probably a medic, analyzing the bodies.
"To be honest, I want to speak with you, Jack," Andy said. Indeed at first he thought about talking about that mater with Gwen but now that Jack was here he thought it would be better to talk to the source.
"If so it's gonna have to wait," Jack dismissed him. "I have a meeting with someone after this."
"It's only one thing! I think you can answer my one question," Andy's protest was unusually loud.
"Make it quick!" Jack said focusing more on Martha than the policeman.
"I know I have a possible promotion pending, I want to know if it had something to do with you," Andy said. He had started suspecting it a few days earlier and the thought couldn't leave his head. He didn't know if he could bear pushing his career forward with nothing but contacts.
"I thought you would be happy, Gwen said you were only waiting to get out of patrols," Jack's casual answer only enraged Andy even further.
"Well, yes but not like this!"
"Then how do you intend on climbing your ladder up to the top? By gracefully filing in reports when needed and being an obedient puppy? It doesn't work that way in the real world. I can't wait for you to become a proper police officer! I need you to do your job and not fetch coffee for your superiors! If you want to work for me then you have to prioritize!"
"Are you trying to tell me there's nothing more important in the world than Torchwood? Face it, Captain, when you were gone everything was going smooth and you need me to do all those odd jobs for Torchwood like collecting Easter toys or spying on my superiors because Torchwood has absolutely no allies in the real world!"
Jack frowned for just a tiny moment before his face returned to its original confident smile. What Andy said wasn't spot on but it wasn't false either.
"Is that all?" he asked not intending to continue with the argument. "Martha, did you find anything?" He clearly ignored Andy at the same time announcing the end of the conversation.
"Not much," Martha replied standing between the corpses. "No weapons were used and all I can say is what is already visible on the video. Except there's some liquid spilled here. It doesn't look like water or blood and it might be connected to the killer. We can pack up everything and take it to the Hub."
Andy rolled his eyes seeing how it would be impossible to regain Jack's attention even a little bit. "Torchwood, eh?" he murmured. "Saving the world from killer bunnies, without it we're all doomed!" He didn't even attempt to hide the irony in his voice.
o*o*o
Lois stepped of the train and onto the platform. She proceeded into the main building and smiled seeing how Jack was already waiting for her there.
"Lois Habiba," he said greeting her with a kiss on the cheek, "just the person I wanted to see."
"Hi," she said meekly. Jack's directness in work was a real blessing but when she had to talk to him personally she didn't always know how to do it. "Sorry, I couldn't come earlier, heard you had a few problems in the meantime."
"Don't worry, it was nothing we couldn't handle. Had a talk with Ianto then?" he continued, taking Lois' luggage and pointing her towards the parking lot.
"I was surprised to hear him answer the phone."
"I was surprised to see him in Cardiff."
"Well, I suppose I've seen stranger things happen," Lois continued and Jack knew she wasn't just talking about the Four-Five-Six.
"Did you do what I asked you?" Jack asked suddenly cautious.
"I have all the files in my purse," she showed him her black leather handbag. "Including last month's electricity loss and all the clocks restarting. Everything even remotely uncommon that had happened while you were away."
"Perfect. I knew I could count on you."
They reached the parking lot and Jack unlocked a black SUV that was parked closest to them.
"I see Torchwood is really something." Lois smiled remembering meeting the team for the first time. Their expertise was boundless but stories about smuggling themselves out of the city in a truck full of potatoes could make some people doubtful.
"Have you ever doubted us?" Jack asked with a whimsical smile on his face.
"Last time we met you were still fugitives," Lois pointed out.
Jack laughed and dismissed what she said with his hand. "Happens all the time!"
Jack's cheerful attitude spread to Lois and she also started giggling. "That's one thing I know I can't doubt."
The Torchwood leader opened the passenger door for the girl and he himself sat on the drivers place. He started the engine quite loudly, without a doubt to show off in front of Lois.
They were already halfway to the Hub when Lois stated something that had been troubling her since Jack's call over a week ago asking her to help out for the time being. "The things that Torchwood deals with..." she started. "Are they all like them?" she asked referring to the aliens encountered during the summer.
"If you mean the strange taste in drugs then no," Jack answered, trying to lighten up the atmosphere. "But if you are talking about the danger then you never know, it might get worse."
Lois swallowed, trying to gather her thoughts. "I won't be able to work for long in Cardiff," she finally said. "It's not Torchwood, it's just that my whole life is in London. I have obligations."
Jack smiled. "I never planned on having you stay here for too long," he said.
The girl looked puzzled. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.
Jack's smile widened but the mystery remained. "You've got bigger things ahead of you, Lois."
Lois leaned back, trying to drown inside the soft chair. She had talked with Jack only a few times but whenever he got mysterious it suddenly became very hard to continue the conversation naturally.
"Bigger than Torchwood?" Lois asked trying to make a joke. When she had applied for a position as Bridget Spears' assistant she had expected to become an ordinary secretary like thousand in the world. When the Four-Five-Six incident started and Torchwood came along it was her curiosity that drove her to help them. And curiosity as they say killed the cat. But Lois Habiba was still alive, working as an assistant for a press representative of the Minister of Defence, with a nice salary and promotion prospects. The curiosity called Torchwood didn't kill her just yet but made her life better and more interesting.
"You'll just have to wait and see," Jack winked.
The SUV swerved right into the parking spot and the two of them left and headed towards the invisible lift. Jack smiled. He loved this moment.
He stood on the pavement right next to the place where the invisible lift was "hidden". He reached out towards Lois and had her stand right next to him on the block of pavement which coincidentally also served as Torchwood's front door.
"Hold on tight," he said, giving his arm for Lois to squeeze right after pressing a combination of buttons on his wrist strap. The moment the lift moved Lois jumped and grabbed Jack's hand.
"What is this?" she asked half scared and half laughing. "Isn't it a bit irresponsible? Won't the people see it? Won't-" her voice stuck inside her throat as she finally saw the Torchwood base from inside.
The water cascading down the rift manipulator grasped her attention at first but as she looked down she noticed the computer workplaces, blinking screens and lights. Two people were working behind the screens, so concentrated that they didn't seem to notice the two descending from ceiling. Lois recognized Gwen as one of them. A little further a black woman was working on what looked like a... Lois raised her hand to her lips; it was a corpse! Lois looked further around trying to locate Ianto but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, right until the lift reached the ground she tried to take in the underground station-like interiors and the individual rooms on the different levels of the Hub.
With a thump the block reached the ground and Jack immediately stepped off reaching his hand out towards Lois to help her do the same.
"Welcome to Torchwood." The voice which said this was not Jack's. Lois looked around and saw Ianto with a mug of freshly-brewed coffee ready for Lois to drink it. In the other hand he had a small tray with a bowl full of biscuits.
"Hey, Ianto, that was my line!" Jack complained.
"I think you got enough of the cool action, sir," Ianto smiled.
"Let me introduce you to everyone," Jack said.
Lois was surprised that suddenly everybody was right next to them.
"Gwen and Ianto you already know, the lovely lady is our amazing Martha Jones - medical officer with a big talent not only in medicine, and lastly Tobey Magpie, the newest addition to the team - a computer scientist, still a bit rough around the edges but recommended by the best! This is Lois Habiba - without her the Four-Five-Six incident probably wouldn't have been brought to a happy ending."
"Hi," Lois said, correcting the purse on her shoulder. "It will be a pleasure to work with you."
"OK, everybody, debrief in ten minutes, I want you all there," Jack said suddenly switching to his boss-mode. "Ianto, in the meantime I would like you to show Lois around the Hub."
Everyone nodded. It was more a habit than the need of confirmation that made them do it. Gwen, Tobey and Martha headed towards their respective workplaces, the technician already starting a casual conversation with the taller woman: "you worked here before?" he asked but before Lois could hear the rest Ianto spoke to her: "shall we go?"
However, just before they proceeded Jack stopped them by grabbing Ianto's arm. "How come I never get cookies?" he asked with a fake complaint.
o*o*o
Jane's red and swollen eyes looked at Sarah from behind the glasses. It was a look of misery and desperation. Sarah was certain she had never before seen such sadness in somebody's eyes. She reached out and touched Jane's hand.
"I am so sorry," she said forcing a smile. "I know you probably want to be alone right now but I'm so worried..."
It had been hard getting Jane to meet up with her, especially because the widow still felt hostility for her. She probably had trouble believing that Sarah and Chris hadn't had an affair. Now they were sitting in a small cafe just down the road from where the widow lived. The bright interiors seemed dimmed with the weight of her new friend's sorrows.
"I saw my friend go through something similar before," Sarah continued. "I realise that I don't know what you're feeling right now but Chris was a very good friend to me this past year," she survived Jane's deadly glare, "and as much as I can I just want to help you."
"It was so sudden," Jane sobbed. "That beast... I can't even blame anyone..."
The widow closed her eyes. The sun was unusually bright this spring and it only made her feel worse. She wanted rain, she wanted everybody to stop smiling and feel as miserable as she did.
"I want that damn thing dead!" Jane hid her face in her hands. She couldn't control herself anymore, not even in front of Sarah, who until yesterday was her mortal enemy.
Sarah stroked her head and it felt surprisingly soothing. For a moment Jane considered being her friend as a good thing. But her pride didn't allow her to accept that just yet.
It was at that moment that the sun was blocked by a tall shadowy figure of a man.
"Excuse me ladies, but I think I overheard your conversation there," the person grinned a wicked smile, "and I think we could help each other out."
o*o*o
The moment Ianto put down the last coffee Jack started the briefing. "We've got two cases on right now so we have to get working on both of them. I think that yesterday's incident is enough proof that Skippy needs to be found quickly."
"Skippy is our pet pterodactyl," Ianto explained Lois with a smile. This bizarre fact was one of the most interesting things about Torchwood that Ianto had discovered since his return.
"Ianto I think that you should get on this case as Skippy knows you best of all of us. You've found him once before so I think you could do it again. This of course doesn't mean the rest of you can rest on your laurels and do nothing on this case. Any news of Skippy I want you to pass onto Ianto. As for the crazy alien girl case I want to know what you have so far; Martha?"
Martha stood up and turned on the projector. She put on the video of the mutating girl and explained her findings. "From what I got from the bodies these killings are obviously not done by anything human. I found organic tissue on the wounds but I couldn't identify it. There was nothing in the database that matched the DNA pattern. It's probably a parasite alien or one that can assume human form. The video was not clear enough to see how the mutation proceeded. "
"So we've got nothing yet," Gwen interrupted.
"Not enough to identify it when we see it, no," Martha admitted. "Unless of course it walks around in its alien form but we would've heard about it already if that were the case."
"Tobey, any luck with identifying the human form of the alien?" Jack asked.
"Not yet," the technician said. "I can't take anything from the video because most of the time she's facing the other way but even when you can see her face the video is too low quality for any identification. And none of the CCTV cameras around the crime scene seemed to catch her which is a bit suspicious if you ask me."
"What about the person who took the video?" Jack continued his interrogation.
"Oh, that was easy," Tobey smiled. "I got all the witnesses' details from the police records. There were six people in total present when the girl became... that. Two are lying on the table in the autopsy room as we speak and four managed to avoid death. Three of them reported to the police what they saw the fourth one was the one who anonymously sent the video recording. He didn't leave a name or address but I did managed to trace the I.P. address from which he emailed it to a house near the crime scene."
"Great, Gwen and Lois, I want you to interrogate the witnesses see if the girl can be identified. When you're done I want them to forget. Tobey, I want you to see if you can enhance the footage, we need to find that girl. Also, eliminate any trace of that video from the web. I don't want to see it on any youtube or vimeo or any other video hosting sites. Martha, do you think you can get any information about the alien from the victims?"
Martha nodded. "I still need to identify that substance which was on the victims' bodies. I think it will tell us a lot about the way the attacker preys on the victims."
"One more thing," Jack said. "What do we know about the habits of this alien?"
Martha blinked not exactly understanding the question.
"Why would it kill those people?" Jack asked.
"From what I analysed there's no particular reason for this behavior," Martha said slowly. "There's no sign that the alien feasted on its victims and the attack seems really spontaneous, the victims were not even aware of it so they couldn't have provoked it."
Jack frowned. There was always a reason, he hated when there seemed to be none. It seemed to be like giving a point to the old Torchwood, the Torchwood that killed anything alien without an attempt at understanding it. Jack couldn't stand when all they got were the Weevils and parasites and all the damnation of the universe. And ever since he had gotten back it seemed to him that that was all they were getting. And that together with the fact that the rift was acting unusually made him suspect this wasn't a coincident at all.
"We have to find something," Jack said with determination. "For now that's all. I don't want to see any more corpses on that table so get to work."
o*o*o
Kate woke up and noticed she was sitting by the desk in her room, her forehead leaning on her pencils and notebooks. Her head was hurting and she was certain that all the objects had by now imprinted themselves on her face. She raised her head and looked at her hands. The grey spot had gotten bigger. Now it was on both her hands and slowly reaching out towards her wrists. It looked like a blot of ink slowly getting bigger and bigger, moving, trying to spill onto the largest area possible. She felt sick at the very possibility. She touched it but she couldn't feel it. She pressed harder, pinning her fingernail until blood was coming out but there was nothing, no pain, no touch.
"What are you doing?" Travis asked standing in the door to her room.
Kate immediately hid her hands. "What are you doing here?" she asked harshly. "You should be at school right now!"
"I was feeling ill and our teacher allowed me to go home," Travis answered scared of his sister's anger.
"She let you go home alone?" Kate asked suspiciously.
"I told her mom was already waiting for me outside. I was feeling really bad..." the boy said meekly.
"You were feeling ill," the girl corrected him. "Speak properly."
"But you talk like that too!" Travis complained.
"I'm older so I'm allowed," Kate used this excused for everything. Starting with getting more pocket money and ending on bullying Travis.
The sister looked at the ten-year-old. He really didn't look too well. He was pale and sweating, his eyes looked like two shiny saucers. She approached him and touched his forehead. She felt cold sweat running down her spine. She couldn't feel heat as well. She tried with the back of her palm and was glad that now it worked. Travis was indeed running a temperature. She sighed. This had always happened whenever their parents were away. The only thing he could do was cause trouble for her. He was always the one learning well and bringing pride to mom and dad. And she was stuck with taking care of him every single day, taking him to school, collecting him from school, taking him to friends, cooking dinner, helping with home work. She could feel the irritation in her friends voices whenever she mentioned her brother's name. She could never hang out properly and of course she had to come back home early because if she didn't she would wake up Travis. Thank god they at least didn't share a room.
"Come on." She took his hand and guided him to the kitchen. She found the cold medicine and made the boy swallow the pills. "You hungry?" she asked.
The boy shook his head but Kate still made him eat a nutella sandwich.
She then made him lie down in his room.
Finally, she was free. She returned to her room and glanced out the window. There was a strange man standing on the opposite side of the road. He was tall with a mane of black hair. He had a dark long coat on despite it being quite warm today. He wasn't looking at her window but for some reason she felt as if he were observing her. She studied his face from a distance. He seemed familiar but she couldn't tell where exactly had she seen him before. But this wasn't the time to worry about him.
She looked at her hands. The blood had already stopped flowing. She hoped Travis didn't notice the grey and red spots on her hands. She wondered whether she should have called the hospital. But if she did mom would say she's only causing problems for everyone. She frowned. Maybe it would go away? She tried the internet but the top results were nowhere close her query: "I have grey spots on my hands what should I do?". Instead they answered questions connected to chicken pox or tattoos. She rephrased her question a couple of times but still nothing gave her any clue as to what was happening to her. Not only did that weird mark appear on her arm she suddenly lost consciousness and woke up in her room. Only now she realized she had no idea where she had been those three hours in between going to school and waking up at home. But before she could concentrate on that thought her cell phone rang.
Kate immediately reached out for the device and by habit answered and placed it to her ear. Except the earpiece didn't reach her ear. She dropped it half way suddenly realizing she can't feel the phone's vibrations. She couldn't take it anymore.
She didn't scream but crawled on the ground trying to find the ringing phone. She felt warm tears gathering in her eyes and finally gave up on searching. She wrapped her hands around her knees and wept silently.
o*o*o
"I don't believe it," Diana said annoyed. "She didn't even answer the phone!"
"I can't believe Kate ditched school without us, especially when we specifically told her not to," Maria continued the complaint.
"She can be such a bitch sometimes, always making everybody pity her. Oh, I need to take care of my little brother, my mom doesn't respect me," Diana mocked her friend.
"She's such a drama queen, isn't she?"
Diana's phone rang cutting the conversation short. "Oh it's her. I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind," she pressed the green button and put the phone to her ear. "A'right Kate?" she greeted her friend.
"Hey, listen, sorry about not answering just now, I put my phone somewhere and couldn't find it," the girl on the other side of the line lied.
"OK, whatever you say. But what's that about ditching school today? I thought I told you to tell us if you were planning anything!"
"Oh, about that... I suddenly felt really ill and I thought it better if I went home," the girls voice was weak and seemed to crack every now and again.
"Oh, 'right then," Diana wasn't so sure of that 'piece of mind' of hers anymore. Kate did sound a bit ill. "I'll let you off today. Just tell us if it happens again, OK?"
"Yeah..."
"Are we still on today? You know that Greg's gonna come and I just spoke to him earlier and guess what! He asked if you were coming!" Diana smiled conveying the good news. Everybody knew that Kate fancied Greg.
"Yeah, I think I can make it today," Kate's voice had nowhere as much enthusiasm as Diana.
The second girl grimaced. "Oi, what's with that attitude? I'm telling you that Greg's interested in you and that's your reaction?"
Diana could hear a sigh in the earpiece. "Yeah, sorry it's just that my head is hurting real bad and I have a migraine."
"Well, migraine or no migraine you can't ditch today!" Diana said hearing how Kate obviously preferred to finish the conversation. "See you!"
"She has a migraine, yeah right..." Maria said, rolling her eyes.
"You know, she did sound a bit weird... Like something was happening..." Diana turned to protecting her friend.
"Something, like what? She hurt her finger? Tripped over her shoelace and scraped her knee? That something better not ruin our afternoon! We just got to go through English and we're free!"
Diana smiled. "Oh, but Beardy is such a drag! This will be the longest forty-five minutes in my life!"
Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading and lasting so far. Also huge thanks to Ash-Varnei for betareading :)