The Hirt

Chapter Eight

8

The drive to the airport was long and slow.  Heather sat in driver’s seat of Carlos, and Henry sat beside her.  It was dead silent in the car.  Heather shifted her weight uncomfortably to the brake as she slowed down for a red light.  She thought back to the first time she met Henry in the psychologist’s office after her encounter with killer Dr. Thompson, when a thought hit her.

“Hey, why did Dr. Thompson turn all evil?  Do you guys see that too?  Is it, like, part of the flashes?” Heather asked, taking her eyes off the road for a second to glance at Henry.

Henry had been slumped against the car door, but when Heather started talking he sat up.  “No, that’s part of being the Time Bearer.  You can see people’s true identities for a few seconds.  No one else can do that.”

“Whoa.  That’s pretty cool!” Heather exclaimed as she leaned back in her seat and continued driving.  “What else can I do?”

“Well, you can freeze time, as you found out.  You can also go back in time, but just in short spurts.  From what we know, the Time Bearer can only go back about 5 minutes.  If they go any further, it’s too much power, and, in theory, their head would implode, causing instant death,” Henry stated matter-of-factly.  Heather blinked a few times, too shocked at Henry’s bluntness to say anything.  “Besides the usual Kidellian powers, that’s about it.”

What about Matt? What else can he do?” Heather asked, blushing at just the mention of his name, and her stomach doing this weird flippy-floppy thing.

Henry sighed.  “Look, Heather.  There’s something you need to know about Matt.  You know how he’s a shape-shifter?  Well, all shape-shifters that Damien has had in the past lose all their memory of ever being a Kidellian after a certain number of transformations, and they lose their ability to shape-shift.  It’s as if the brain can only handle so many shifts into different bodies before it just completely burns out.  That’s why it’s so dangerous to trust him.  If his memory is wiped at the wrong time, Lykos might get a hold on him before we can, and turn him into a Mordan.  Once he forgets, the best thing for him to do is go on and live a completely normal life.  It’s really dangerous to try to get them back as Kidellians; all the information could potentially destroy their already fried brain.”  A solemn silence settled over Heather and Henry as Heather tried to process this information.  After a few moments, she opened her mouth to speak, but something darted in front of Carlos.  Heather slammed on her brakes, she and Henry jerking forward, and Heather screamed. 

“Oh my god,” she whispered to herself, placing her hand over her rapidly beating heart.  She looked up and out the windshield.  The cutest kitten Heather had ever seen sat in the middle of the road.  “Aaaawwww!” Heather cooed.  “She’s so cute!”  The kitten wrapped its fluffy tail around its legs and stared at the headlights with huge, green eyes.  Heather had the weirdest feeling that she had seen it before.  Then it hit her: the emblem.  She squinted at the kitten again, trying to figure out what the kitten from the emblem was doing sitting in the middle of the road.  She could hear cars honking behind her, yelling at her to go, but she was shaken by the kitten’s appearance.

“Heather . . .” Henry cautioned.  Heather tore her gaze away from the kitten and looked past it.  Hundreds upon hundreds of adorable, fluffy kittens were prancing down the road.

“Oh, they’re so cute! I could just eat them all up!” Heather fussed, forgetting about the emblem kitty.

“Yeah, but why are they walking in a pack of two hundred and why are they walking down a busy road?” Henry asked skeptically.

“I don’t know, but I’m just gonna go pet them a little, okay?” Heather mumbled, completely entranced with all the cute little kittens.  She placed her hand on the car handle, and started opening the door before Henry jerked over and slammed the door shut.