Forces Beyond The Grave

2.7

Lennox was different. That was the one thing Skye knew for sure. It'd been a month since she and Kaila had returned and the two seemed closer than ever, but there were obvious changes in Lennox that nobody seemed to care about. 'She'd been through a lot' they'd said. 'She'll be fine once she readjusts'. But it'd been a month and the only person who seemed concerned with how closed off she'd become was Jay. Skye had asked to have coffee with Jay whilst he was on his lunch break, so he'd met her at the cafe on campus and then taken a walk. Although it'd been nice to catch up with Skye and see how she was doing, he was curious about why it was just the two of them.

"So where's Caleb? Studying?" 

"Yeah, he's got a lot of tests coming up so he's super busy at the moment." 

"And how are your classes doing?" 

"Pretty good. I have a midterm next week and then a final set of exams before summer, so I'm not as stumped as Caleb at the moment." 

"Nice." 

"What about you? How's work?" 

"Could be worse, a few robberies, couple hit and runs, nothing too gross." 

"So no murders you can tell me about?" 

"No, Skye, no murders." Jay chuckled at Skye's interest in his homicides. 

She'd always been a murder mystery fanatic, so it was highly appeasing for her to have a friend on the force who dealt with cases like that. A silence fell over the pair as they studied their surroundings. They were walking through one of the many green areas of the town, nowhere close to Evergreen, and although the weather was wet and full of humidity, it didn't take away from the beauty of their town. After a minute or so Jay decided to ask what was going on. 

"So how come you just wanted to meet with me? Not Lennox too? Or Kaila?" 

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about Lennox." 

"Okay, what's up?" 

"Well...it's just..." She fumbled for words, Jay raising an eyebrow as he watched her try and word it right. "She's different, isn't she?" She finally got out. 

He nodded instantly. "So different." 

"You see it too!" Skye said excitedly, then reigning herself in. "Wait, what kind of different are you talking about?" 

"She's just...a blank slate. She's cold, and only ever talks to Kaila now, at least that's what I've seen. I don't know, she just seems so emotionless." 

"That's exactly what I thought. I thought it was just me." 

"What, you didn't say anything to Caleb?" 

"I did, and I tried bringing it up to Mr Rosewood but they both just said she needed time to recalibrate." 

"No. I mean yeah, she probably does, but it's not that, something's off. Kaila's different too." 

"Right? I thought the same thing but I can't figure out how. Like...she looks like Kaila, and she acts like Kaila," 

"But she's not like Kaila." 

"Yes! You think so too?" 

"Yeah. They're both different. Lennox seems completely disconnected from her feelings and anyone else's feelings, and Kaila just seems...evil." Jay frowned as Skye nodded in agreement. 

"Exactly, it's like she has this dark energy going on." 

At that Jay cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah. That's exactly it." 

"Well I mean who knows? She spent two years underground that's gotta drive a person crazy at some point, right?"