Spirit Hunters

1 || Death's Mark

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*****

Cassia had managed to convince herself she wasn't losing her mind until she noticed the kindly grandmother who approached her wasn't human.

Humans didn't have pure-white eyes with a third eye in the center of their wrinkled forehead or little horns poking out from their greying hair. They also didn't have tiny incisors as if they'd requested baby shark dentures after losing all their teeth.

Heart hammering in her chest, Cassia glanced around at the four other Heartwood High students waiting for the crossing signal to change. None of them showed any sign of noticing the unnatural lady or reacted to the strange words Cassia thought she'd said.

Cassia raised her phone to her ear in case she really was the only one who could see this old woman, but she kept her eyes fixed on her. "Did you say something?"

The woman laughed softly to herself. "I asked, do you know that you're marked for death, dearie?"

What? Cassia almost dropped her phone. Thankfully, she caught it, but she couldn't stop her jaw from falling open. Marked for death? What?

Footsteps sounded behind Cassia. It took her a full five seconds to understand what it meant. She whipped her head around. Her schoolmates strolled along the sidewalk across the street, their cheerful chatter growing distant. The green silhouette of a person walking flicked back to a red X before her mind could catch up.

Cursing, Cassia hurried forward and smashed her finger against the crossing button. It wasn't an undo button, though. The traffic lights wouldn't change their minds just because she didn't move on time. Already the cars that had been waiting drove onward. She was trapped on this side. The other students hadn't been able to see the inhuman old lady, but at least then Cassia hadn't been alone.

Her heart hammered, each beat seeming to echo the woman's words. Marked for death. Marked for death. Marked for death.

Cassia turned.

The woman was gone.

Cassia only spared a quick glance in each direction before releasing a defeated sigh and focusing on the cross signal. Searching for the strange woman wouldn't do anything. At least, it wouldn't based on any of her recent incidents.

This was not her first experience like this. Perhaps the most extreme, but not the first. Over the last week, she had seen over a dozen strange things she couldn't explain. Floating lights, flashes of translucent people moving down halls, darting animals that never quite looked right, and even more oddities. Nobody else ever saw them, and they always appeared out of nowhere, only to vanish just as suddenly.

None of these things had ever seen her, or if they had, they'd never spoken to her. Before, she'd easily dismissed them as seeing stuff. Now, though...

There was no breeze, but the air felt much colder. Cassia wrapped her arms around herself and stared intently at the red X, willing it to change. The sooner she got to school, the sooner she could be around others.