Freeze Red

5

He begins to walk into the trees. I follow, blankly aware that this was usually the scene where he turns around with a butcher knife.
I shudder at the thought and speed up, attempting to keep up with his swift movements. Jasper moves a branch out of his face and it flips back, whipping my cheek.
"Ow! Do you mind?" I grouch on each time he did that.
He simply ignored me.
So much for not hurting me.
"That's not hurting you. You don't know what hurt even means." He says deeply, obviously I was an open book... Of sorts.
"Mind reading too? What next, magical ponies and rainbows?" I joke.
Jasper laughs his musical laugh and looks back. His golden eyes seem happier now that I lightened the mood.
"Are we there yet?" I ask childishly.
He sighs, "Have we stopped?"
"No."
"Then we aren't there yet."
I scowl and his theory.
We walk for so long that I begin to worry about Abbie. While thinking about her I trip over a tree root, falling onto a hard concrete ground.
I realize that Jasper had stopped, "I guess this means we're here." I mutter as he helps me to my feet.
He studies my face closely and I frown as his face begins to change. His eyes look green and his hair turns hazel his height grew immensely, even though he had already been quiet tall before.
I'm shocked, "What the-"
Jasper smiles, "We just shape shifted, when I touched you we changed looks. For disguise. You now look like a tall blonde chick with blue eyes. Ok? Now do me a favor,"
"Sure."
"If anyone asks, my name is Nick and you are Alice." He says seriously.
I nod, "ok. But this is just your house right?"
"It's a shared house. The people who live here don't know who I am really. And if they find out that you're here... It's for protection." He explains.
"Protection? Disguise, shape shifting and a house of strangers that you are trying to hide from? I don't want to go in, take me home..." I think of the intruder, "or at least my friends house. And turn me back to normal. You can explain at a restaurant or something more... Normal." I sulk.
Jasper's fake face turns unreadable, "Do you really not feel safe?"
"Not when you are asking me to walk in there," I point to the house, "and not when there was someone in my house. Not to mention you, who knows everything about me. Why should I feel safe?"
He nods, taking it in, "ok, somewhere more open?" He asks, "Like a cafe or shopping centre."
"Cafe. Is that ok? I mean I do trust you in some weird way but the fact that you know more about me than I do myself... It's a bit odd." I admit. I don't know why but I have a strange sense to be careful with his feelings.
Jasper touches me shoulder and he returns to normal. I feel shorter again and I touch my hair to check. Yep. It's red.
I sigh with relief.
"I couldn't take you seriously as a blonde." He laughs and picks me up in his arms.
"Oh crap-" I mumble as we begin to zoom through the trees. They pass quickly making my queasy, I close my eyes.
When I open them again we are right across the road from my favorite cafe, Shockers.
I smile, "this is perfect." I couldn't shake this odd feeling. It was odd that Jasper brought me to a house full of people that would do who knows what if that knew I was around.
"I knew it was your favorite. Close to familiar faces and hopefully no prying eyes or ears." Jasper holds the door open for me, charming and slightly scared.
We take a seat and he carefully looks around the room, as if to make sure.
I lean back in my chair, "Ok, talk. I won't react badly, I promise."
"Straight to business then," he smirks, "I'll put this simply- You're Finorian." He says.
"Uh-"
"And so am I. Ok, I talked. Would you like to know why I'm suddenly appearing in your life?" Jasper inquires casually, as if he were ordering food or something.
I try to swallow what he just said. Finorian? The thing I found on the Internet-
"Are you the one who hacked my laptop?" I ask angrily.
"That would be the guy that was in your house. The reason I'm here..." He trails off in thought.
"Ok. So who were the people in that house?" I ask calmly.
"There were none. It was a test to see if you actually would go in there. Luckily you knew better than to walk into a strange house that doesn't exist." Jasper explains happily.
I let out a sigh of relief, "you really aren't a part of a psycho rapist family. And we're... Not human?" I let it sink in.
"Exactly. You were always a fast learner." He waves off a waitress that appeared.
"Always? How long have you known me?" Curiosity trickles down my spine.
"That question I might not be able to answer." Jasper actually looks uncomfortable now. Ha, serves you right for popping up in my room like that.