Chapter 6: Chapter 2.1
"Oh. So-sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you," I apologized, stuttering slightly.
The boy that stood before me looked intimidating enough to get me stuttering. Baylor Allantoi was partially still a new student that transferred to our school the previous year, arriving within the same time range as Andrew Penna. He was in a senior class and might as well as being from another planet. He didn't play on any sports teams, didn't go to football games, and mostly kept to himself, other than his occasional outings with the skateboarder guys who often ditched classes to smoke cigarettes near the service entrance of the school's cafeteria. He smoldered of danger and mystery and had an actual tattoo, and it wasn't some silliness he had given himself with a marker and a pin. Teachers despised him and most kids, sophomores especially feared him. His senior class arrangement was a curious arrangements of the required gym class period, wood shop, auto body workshop, remedial English, and inexplicably, Advanced physics.
While Andrew gained his popularity from his charming behaviour and football success, he gained his due to his psychotic behavior, super-hot looks and non chalant characters.
"It's cool," Baylor said, wearing his usual scowl. "I don't think it's your fault."
I nodded in agreement and proceeded to walk past him, but stopped when he called out: "You're Lisa, right? Your brother's Dane."
Stunned that he knew my name and was actually willing to have more conversation with me, I slowly turned and met his gaze once again. Baylor studied me, and shifted his weight from one sparkling white Nike sneakers to the other. His smoldering eyes continued to study me, his lips tilting at the left end corner. "Yeah? You're Lisa Higgins, sister to Dane on the football team."
I picked at my nail polish. "Yeah," I told him and then held my right hand. "Please tell me he didn't flirt with your girlfriend. I swear I know nothing about that."
Baylor grinned amusedly. He ran his right hand through his hair and quickly suppressed the chuckle that threatened to make its way out. His Adam's apple bobbed and his lips remained a reddish, love shaped pout. "No, no. Not that," he scoffed, and shuffled about nervously. "I just. I — uhm, always noticed you around him and needed to. . .You know, I always noticed you."
"Uhm. Cool," I uttered. "Never knew you notice me."
Baylor started to walk away, but slowed down at the sound of my voice. Turned and began to walk backwards, not wanting to slow his pace to his car. "Why wouldn't I?" He called out. "We're neighbors. I moved in few months ago. Guess, you never noticed I lived seven houses away."
My eyes widened. I seriously didn't know he lived very or that close to me. Last time, when he just got to the school, Tamara had informed us he lived close to the town's square but then, I found out he was living just few minutes walks from my house. I had never even spoken a word to him before until that moment. Times when we passed or came across each other in school, I'd noticed his eyes on me but never took meaning of it. Realizing I was looking stupid gawking while Baylor continued to walk backwards, I raised my voice and called out:
"Are you going to the game tommorow?"
"Nah," he said, stating the obvious. "I've got some errands to run tommorow, and besides. You know I already used all my school spirit this year by just showing up on the first day."
"See, ya," I said, weakly.
"Bye, Lisa."
The window to Shelly's infiniti rolled down as soon as I walked up to the car. She was staring at me in disbelief, her mouth hanging open and lashes blinking rapidly. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" She exclaimed, eyes wide, hands clutching hard the steering wheel. "Was Baylor just trying to flirt with you?"
I'd seen that she had been watching from a distance while pretending she wasn't at all concerned about it, and assessing her newly expensively polished nails while leaning against her car.
"No, biggie," I scoffed and opened the door to settle inside, on the seat next to the driver's. "Just coincidence or perhaps he's in a good mood today. Not like he was hitting on me or something."
"Oh, yeah, he was totally hitting on you," Shelly rolled her eyes in disbelief, before kick starting the car. "We're gonna stop at my house to get umbrellas. It's gonna pour and the others are going to come join us at Bobby's diner later in the evening."
I looked up at the sky. The clouds were darkening, angry storm clouds and it looked like at any minute, it was going to start pouring heavily.
"You know," Shelly gave me an evil, conspiracy smirk. "You should totally ditch asking Andrew and go to the dance with Baylor. He's a freak but a totally hot freak."
"Not gonna happen," I disagreed, even though I mused over the subject greatly, and looked far into the parking lot for any lingering signs of Baylor Allantoi.
The rain started its heavy downpour the moments we stepped into Bobby's diner. The only place in town that was open twenty-four hours and where the coolest kids in school hung out and had fun. Shelly was right about us stopping by her house to get umbrellas. Her house was empty as and as usual her parents weren't around. While, I shuffled about her parent's kitchen and had left over cupcakes, she got changed into simpler wears of short jeans, grey hoodie and water proof sneakers before stepping out. We settled into a booth at the far end corner of the diner, next to the glass wall and made our orders while enjoying the sound of heavy beads of rain drops hitting against the window panes and muffled chatters of families and teenagers having early diners. Once in a while, the sky rumbled loudly and lightening lit the sky and brightly illuminated the already bright diner.
While we awaited our orders, Shelly drummed her long, pink, polished fingers on the table. "So, one of your mom's patient was a sick, wild dog that belonged to your neighbor?"
Shelly's blue — blue, aquamarine eyes were focused intently on me, unwavering. I hadn't expected her to begin such crucial topic on such mild note. Underneath the table, I tapped my fingers on my kneecaps and exhaled nervously, my heart pounding erratically against my ribcage. A feeling of panic hung in the air and nauseated me. Over Shelly's head, the big TV hung up in the diner was showing a re-run episode of walking dead. The gnarly, withering images of dead humans with blood stains on their shirts and wobbly, skinny legs wasn't stable for long before someone changed the channel across the room, from the counter to a celebrity show that suited everyone in the diner. Families, kids and teenagers alike.
"Yes. Crazy, right?" I gave an answer to her, grimacing. "I mean, she did say the owner of the dog told her it had gleaming red eyes and it attacked him. That is just odd. It went out and came back the next day, blood dripping down its mouth."
Shelly leaned forward, her silky blonde hair framed her face and colluded with her tanned-olive skin to enhance the beauty of her eyes. "It could have been rabies. But do you think the blood belonged to someone or something?"
My gut churned at her question. I swallowed hard and shook my head, tongue watering. Typically, I was forced to agree my gut sickly grumbled and stomach watered due to the fact that I'd underestimated hunger and picked at my food during lunch. Sweet aroma of warm food wafted through the air. I took in a sharp breath and looked in the direction the waiter was undoubtedly going to come from. From across our booth, a child probably not more than 6-year-old and clad in cute, little Junior soccer training uniform had his eyes focused on me. He was seated with his family of four and had mustard smeared all over his mouth and puffy cheeks. I forced a smile and looked away, feeling even more spooked.
"That night," I began, "the cat, when it came violently at the window. Its eyes were gleaming red and I'm perfectly sure it had blood smeared against its mouth. Do you think that's a coincidence?"
Shelly face-palmed herself and gave a muffled groan. Her right hand held up her hair as she spoke. "Cats don't get rabies right? Or any kind of mad animal diseases. It could have been a coincidence, maybe the cat just had kittens or maybe even agonized reactions to the hit."
"Whatever it is, something's just not right," I said, trying to put points together to come to a valid conclusion. "That cat was wild enough for its owner to have killing it as an idea just as Mr. Jeff's dog. That man that night seemed like he knew what was going on with the cat and for him to have being so relaxed and cool enough to stand at a close range—" my eyes widened. "—maybe he did something to the cat."
"Oh, oh!" Shelly perked up, index finger stabbing the table. "Maybe it wasn't even his cat in the first place. The man did seem like he was lying. He could have drugged the cat. . . something like that."
"Something's definitely going on," I said, analysing the points I had that could lead to a conclusion. "Different pets. Same symptoms. Different men but same reactions by killing of their own pets. We need to find out what's going on, Elly."
Shelly's brow arched over her eyes, and her face became expressionless. "Nah. Nah," she disagreed, shaking her head the negative for emphasis. "I totally want nothing to do with this issue. We're not the police. I don't think we should get too involved, Lisa. It could be more than we can handle. The issue might be mere coincidence."
"You know it's not," I uttered, disappointment dripping from my tone. "You know it, Lisa. That cat tried to get to me."
From a distance, the waiter that looked about college aged, approached with our orders. Both I and Shelly took that as our cue to stop talking. The waiter set our orders down while stylishly looking Shelly over as she stared dejectedly at me, her nose wrinkling and totally ignorance of him. The name tag attached to his shirt pocket said Thomas Dickson and when I looked up to meet his eyes, he winked in a flirtous manner, ran his tongue over his lower lip and left. Shelly's eyes trailed after him, even though she was still absent minded.
"Lisa," she continued. "Whatever is going on with the animals, can I like not take part in it? Because I'm scared as things are turning out already."
Even though I said nothing, I knew I could never stop the issue from pricking my over inquisitive heart and also knew I had to find answers no matter what. I decided to stop pressing Shelly on the matter and focused on thinking of ways to find out what was going on without her help. The aroma of the foods set before us wafted through the air and stung my nostrils, thereby causing my gut growling with uproarious cries of hunger. Steam spiraled into air and vanished half way, disappearing into nothiness. Shelly ordered bread and warm, salted almond while I did just spaghetti. We dug in without uttering anymore words to each other.
When the door chimed open, my eyes followed the noise. Over Shelly's shoulder, a tall man proceeded into the diner. He had on thick, black raincoat, rain dripping down his body. A sudden tingling feeling of recognition tickled me as a sensation when he pulled down the hood of the raincoat. His hair was tousled and unkempt. He had long, jet black curly bangs toppling very close to his almond shaped eyes. He had rugged features and they sure were alluring. For a while, he stood by the door and glanced around for an empty booth, eyes squinting and jaws ticking. He looked just as old as my father, even though he was more handsome.
I was sure I'd come across that face and features before. And it struck me like lightining when his eyes met mine and he quickly glanced away. I recollected him as the man of that night. The one that gunned down the cat we'd hit. My heart picked up pounding pace in my chest and despite the cool temperature of the diner, I broke into cold sweat. My eyes trailed after the man as he found an empty booth few feet from ours and settled down, stylishly but not so subtly looking over his shoulders at me.
"Shelly," I whispered, and prodded her hand with my index finger, my eyes focused over her shoulder. "Be subtle when you look. There's the man that killed the cat."
Shelly's eyes widened and she stopped mid-chew, her mouth slightly hanging open. She ducked her head, narrowly missing her strands of her hair getting into her food, and then looked over her shoulder. The man simultaneously looked back and probably, he and Shelly's eyes met and she froze, dumbfounded. A deep scowl marred his face and his lips formed a sickening scorn. He certainly didn't look happy about seeing us or perhaps the fact that we remembered him, considering the fact that it'd been a whole week since the night of the cat's hit and run. A waitress appeared before him and called for his attention. After a while, he pinched the bridge of his nose and looked away.
"Oh, God." Shelly's eyes narrowed at me. "It is him and he looks really mad at us."
"What do you think is going on?"
"I don't know. But do you think he'll hurt us."
I panicked, and suddenly began to pick at my food, appetite already washed off. Shelly pushed her food away from her and pouted in fear, eyes glistening. The possibility of the man hurting us was so bone chilling. He did look like someone suffering from mental disorder and a psycho that could hurt two defenseless teenage girls. My parents weren't home and wouldn't be till late at night and I sure wasn't expecting Dane till later. I picked my phone from where I'd placed it on the table and fumbled with the edges. We just couldn't call the police then to report that a man we'd seen gun down a cat we'd hit was seating few feet away from us and gawking madly.
That would make no sense and we probably were going to get ourselves in trouble.
My phone hummed against my palm and the screen came on. I quickly typed in my passcode and glanced through it.
Today 6:29pm
TAMARA
You guys still at Bobby's. We're right outside. Wanted to be sure before we stepped into the rain. Also, TJ's with us. Offered to pay for us all.
I heaved a sigh of relief and quickly typed back a reply. TJ was Mae's super nice senior boyfriend. At that point, all I could think of was his tall, athletic body and muscular arms protecting us. It seemed Shelly also got the text because relief washed over her features and a smile pushed up the tip of her lips. When I looked at the man again, he had ear phones on and was going through the menu, and acting as if he hadn't been madly staring at us seconds before that.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone