A Natural Disaster [PTX Fanfic]

10: Can't Hold Us

Kevin's POV

    I was hit by a rush of warm air as I swung the door to the ancient shop open. It still consisted of the same mild smell of mildew and mothballs. Even though I had already been in here before, the store had not failed to put me in awe for a second time.

I gracefully walked in with the other four following behind me like baby ducks.

I heard Scott and Mitch right behind me making conversation.

"We should definitely adopt Scottie. That little Mikey was so cute! If we adopt we could name him Mitchell Jr!" Mitch exclaimed.

"Okay, one, we are not adopting a kid. And you can't rename it, if you could we would name it Scott Jr. And two, stop calling me Scottie, it makes me sound like that breed of dog."

"Awww but I love dogs." Mitch said as he rested his head on Scott's arm.

I stopped and dragged my fingers across a shelf with some hieroglyphics on them and shuddered as the texture swept across my fingertips.

"Kevin?"

"Huh!?" I snapped out of my awe induced coma and turned to face Avi.

"You do remember what we're here for right bro? I know you fall in love pretty easily..." He said sarcastically as he looked at the hieroglyphics. "...But what are you waiting for?"

"I'm waiting for you to grow up." I rolled my eyes and kept walking.

We approached the front counter, eagerly hoping to see the same old man from the last time we were here, but he was nowhere in sight. Instead, standing in his place, was a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties.

"Can I help you." She chirped as she flashed as an award winning smile.

She was very beautiful, and seemed so kind. But I tried to keep my focus on the reason we came back here.

I inched a little closer to the counter. "Umm, yes. I can't quite remember his name, but we're looking for the fairly old man who was running this shop a little while ago?"

A look of despair came across her face. Her gaze dropped down to the floor and she bit her lip. This was not the same energetic girl I was talking to a second ago.

"Oh, he passed away a few days ago." She mumbled. "I'm his granddaughter."

"Oh I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks, it's alright. Is there anything else I could help you with."

I turned around to face the other guys to see if I should ask her the question that was intended for her grandfather.

Avi looked at Mitch, Mitch to Scott, Scott to Kirstie. They then all nodded and agreed I should go forth with my question.

"Alright, this gonna sound crazy, but I promise you I'm not crazy."

She gave me a strange look, but decided to go along with it.

"I am a man." I pointed to myself. She looked like she was trying to hold back a laugh. I continued. "And he is a man, and he is a man, and she is a woman."

I looked at Mitch. "And he is a...Mitch."

She tilted her head like a confused puppy. I could feel her eyes looking me up and down over and over again.

"So you're saying that you all just, flip flopped genders?" She questioned.

"Exactly!" Scott shouted from the back of the group.

"Not to be rude, but, what does this have to do with me?" She asked again.

I replied. "Well, this was the last place we were at before it happened. And we were thinking that since this place is full of ancient artifacts that-"

Then I remembered. I my mind raced back to the last time we were here. The cake squares. The images of them sitting on that platter danced across my mind, the eerie glowing color of the frosting burned into my brain. I could almost taste the strange concoction of sugars and creams again.

"Cake squares!!"

"Excuse me?" She said.

"The cake squares. The last time we were here I found a cute little platter of cake squares and gave one to everybody. That had to be the cause!"

"That can't be right. I was the one who made those cake squares. They're there every day for the customers." She answered. She then pointed to an aisle way behind me where there was a full platter of cake squares.

I was shocked. This had to be the answer, there was no other way. "But...but...I knocked a piece of paper off of the table. Was it some sort of warning?"

"Yeah," Kirstie backed me up. "And I also found a piece of paper that had a warning on it."

The girl chuckled. "Oh that? That was just a piece of paper that I had set aside when I was moving things around. I didn't mean to set it next to the free samples. My bad."

Avi chimed in. "You're bad? You're bad!? Then what the heck happened to us?! Do you know everything we've been through?! I AM NOT A BASS ANYMORE!!!"

Avi finally broke down. I've never seen him so angry before in my life. His face was bright right and his eyebrows were furrowed, carrying tiny beads of sweat. His once green eyes almost seemed to be turning red. Kirstie grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. She sat him down on a bench next to her and began speaking to him softly. What she was saying to him was incomprehensible.

Whatever was going around must've got to Mitch too because he started freaking out as well.

"I-I-I gotta get outta here." He said as he fanned his eyes. He then bolted out the door to the shop and went who-knows-where.

I turned to Scott. "Looks like you and I are the only sane ones left."

He looked at me with fear in his eyes, "I don't blame them, what if we never get back to our original selves?"

I had no answer.

"Don't worry, I'll go find Mitch." And with that he followed the path Mitch had taken outside of the shop.

AN: Hey guys thanks for reading! So, I was starting to think that the story was going by too quickly, so I decided to slow it down a bit and focus more on detail. If you have any input or criticism, please put it in the comments belooooooooooooww :)