Chapter 12 Rachel: The Lion
I was flying around town for awhile looking for Tobias when I decided to head back towards the mall. I was supposed to be looking for Tobias, but according to Jake Cassie is also missing. And what kind of teenager doesn't go to the mall during a huge sale, Cassie, I thought, that's who. Also, I didn't want to admit it but there is this huge sale at the Gap that starts today. All items are half off. So I decided to head to the mall to check out the sale. I couldn't go in of course, I mean it'd be kinda odd if a bald eagle just walked into the Gap and started looking at shoes, but I could at least look in through the windows and the skylight.
See, bald eagles hunt for fish, and that means they can see through water, and seeing through glass is a lot like seeing through water.
So I'm flying over the mall, looking through the skylight, trying to see if there were any other sales when I glanced by one of those electronic signs that tells the time and temperature. You know what I mean, the ones you see by banks. When I saw the time I cursed to myself, I had fifteen minutes left in morph. So I decided to land of the roof and demorph. I've done it many times, the roof is so high that you can't be seen from the parking lot, plus, there are a bunch of giant air conditioners on the roof you can hide behind.
I landed and started to demorph, I scared some poor pigeon on the roof, apparently it missed me land but saw me demorph. It flew off like it was drunk, all frantic and off balanced. Ha, I laughed to myself, stupid pigeon.
When I was fully demorphed I sat for a minute, morphing is always tiring. So I decided to catch my breath. I was thinking about the sale at the Gap when it hit me, I didn't have to just sit up here thinking about the sale, I could just go in the mall and check it out. I remembered that I had stuffed some clothes up here in an old broken cabinet that the maintenance crew used to use. I peeked around the giant air conditioner, nope, nobody was up here.
I walked over to the cabinet, slipped my street clothes over my morphing suit and headed to the maintenance door that connected to the top floor.
I peeked out the door, making sure nobody saw me. Then headed to the nearest crowd walking by. I was safe, nobody saw me. It was Saturday morning, everybody who was anybody was at the mall today. With all the sales going on you would have to be crazy not to show up. I turned the corner passing some old mall cop on a segway that was eating a corndog and I headed to the Gap.
I arrived at the Gap when the sale was in full swing, every single square inch of floor space was taken up by a body searching for a great deal. I was by the tees when I heard something that at first I thought I imagined. Until I heard it again, it was someone, wrong, not just one person but a whole group of people yelling. At first I thought it was just an argument, it has happened before, during sales, people can get a little crazy. But it was what they were yelling that got me. I swear I heard someone yell lion. I couldn't tell for sure so I walked out of the store careful to put the shirt I was holding down. I was at the door where I could see the madness. People were yelling, screaming, running past me, bumping into me when I heard what sent all these people fleeing for their lives.
"Oh my..." The voice yelled. "That's a lion."
I was dumbfounded, how could a lion be in the mall? Actually, it has happened before, when David attacked Jake. But David was gone, so it couldn't be him.
I ran, like a fish swimming upstream, going against the crowd, trying to see this lion. I knew that it was stupid, that it was crazy. Something Marco would call insane. But that's why he calls me Xena: Warrior Princess. I live off crazy.
I turned the corner to the food court when I saw it. It was not an African Lion, the one with the mane, like I thought. It was a mountain lion. 160 pounds of muscle, nine feet long with a sprinter's body and a killer's instinct. With large, powerful canines designed for tearing into your neck removing head from shoulders. It was thirtyfive feet away. It stared at me with those fierce, intelligent eyes. It lowered itself to a running stance when I heard a roar, but the lion's mouth was closed. Then from a nearby restaurant another lion joined its brother.
I was shocked, two lions in one mall. I didn't think they lived in a group.
The lions looked ready to run at me when they suddenly stopped, they just turned their heads and ran out the door. They actually went through the glass door.
The mall stood silent until the police showed up, talking to witnesses and getting everybody out of the mall. I slipped away when nobody was looking and headed towards the woods to morph.
