The Soul

BEFORE: Chapter Five

     "Mom!"

     Shocked, Cara reached the window, hands gripping the windowsill as she leaned out and looked below, dreading the body she knew she would see sprawled on the pavement below. There was no way she could have survived the fall from up here.

     But nobody lay there bleeding and still. The outside looked just as lifeless as it had looked before.

     Michelle had just...disappeared.

     Cara's hands traveled up to lightly grab at her own hair, much in the similar manner that Michelle had been doing just before...just before what?

     What had even happened to her?

     Taking tentative steps back from the window, Cara let out a frustrated cry, beyond confused. This night had completely gone to hell. She waited for the tears to come, but they didn't. Only the frustration and physical pains remained.

     First the lizard, then the man, then-

     The man.

     Cara had completely forgotten about him. He was the one who had told her to go to her sister's place.

     Had he known this was going to happen?

     Did he mean for her to witness it firsthand?

     All the questions made her head pound, doing nothing to help her vertigo.

     Where was he even? If he was still alive, that is. She had been here for at least twenty minutes now and felt it would be naive of her to wait around for a stranger in an apartment housing two missing people.

     Deciding to make a run for it, and figure everything out when she was far away from this place, Cara quickly left Bree's apartment, taking the stairs down two at a time, but not before she snagged a pair of shoes from the closet by the door. It would draw too much attention if she was still out on the streets when the day started and people headed out to work. The last thing she needed right now was for someone to call the cops on her when she looked like she'd just been mauled by a bear. Not a bear. A lizard.

     The night air was soothing after the stuffiness of the apartment, slightly clearing Cara's head, making it easier to think about what needed to be done next.

     She could head back to her apartment? See if the lizard had just magically disappeared like Michelle had?

     No, too risky.

     Maybe she could walk to her old High School? Even if it was summer vacation, surely they would open the doors occasionally to give the classrooms a good scrubbing? Then she could call in an anonymous tip to the nearest police station, reporting suspicious activity at both her and her sister's apartment addresses. They wouldn't be able to track her down since the location would come up as the school's. There was the matter of her apartment linking to her, but she wouldn't be showing up there anytime soon for them to question her.

     If she was right and the lizard had killed the man, then his body would be lying in her bedroom, and she highly doubted the cops would be able to track it down to a giant lizard gone astray. They would immediately condemn her as a suspect, and she needed to be long gone by then.

     Deciding that was the only course of action that made even remote sense, although it did not lack faults and a great risk to her identity, she took the last couple steps off of the landing to head in the direction of the school and–

     came to an abrupt halt.

     There he was, walking out of the shadows, the man from her apartment building. He took long steps, not as if he was rushing but because of his tall build. Raine could see now that he was dressed in a tight but not too tight black muscle tee, the short sleeves leaving his biceps and forearms bare. There were straps criss crossed in front of him and leading to his back, where Cara assumed the bow he had used against the beast hung. His pants were black too, not jeans, almost sweatpants but thicker, leading into tough-looking black workman boots.

     As he stepped within reach, she could see green liquid smeared onto his hands, undoubtedly from the beast. But as she searched for any red, indicating his injuries, she found none.

     "I'm gonna assume by the forlorn look on your face that you have come to know of your sister's disappearance."

     He didn't waste any time, getting straight to the matter at hand. No introduction, no "are you okay?"

     Nothing.

     "Yeah I-"

     He cut her off. "Good. We don't have much time before more show up. We have to leave."

     "Now", when she didn't move.

     That raised her shackles. "Are you serious? You're the one who barged into my apartment shooting arrows at a giant lizard that, believe it or not, was not an overgrown pet of mine. It was your voice I heard in my head telling me to run before you even came into my room, which I also don't understand. How did you even climb up to my window? How did your arrow hit the lizard before you were even in my room?"

     The more she rambled, the more hectic her mind felt, throwing different questions at her.

     "My sister has disappeared and Michelle just jumped out of a window to certain death but her body is not even ther-"

     He cut her off again, this time in increased urgency. "Your mother jumped out of the window?" His voice was loud, demanding an answer.

     She's not my mother, but Cara knew better than to waste time by saying that. Instead, she nodded in the affirmative.

     "We have to leave right now. This is not good," he said more to himself than her.

     His hand came to grip Cara's left wrist, pulling her along after him as he made his way quickly down the street. As hard as Cara tried, she could not twist out of his grip, protesting as soon as he got a hold of her.

     "Stop."

     It was a command, one that got her to still her twisting and stare at him. 

     "I will explain everything to you as we walk, but you have to walk quickly."

     She figured it was as fair a trade as she was gonna get.

     "Fine, but let go of me. I can walk on my own, thank you very much."

     She knew was being incredibly rude to him, especially since he had undoubtedly saved her life, but she had a feeling it was due to him that she had even been at risk in the first place, so technically that canceled out any of his good.

     He complied, letting her go, although reluctantly. Perhaps he felt she would slow them down. Determined to prove him wrong, she quickened her pace, taking two steps to equal one of his own, keeping in pace.

     "Okay. I'm walking. Now explain."