Destined: 2 Be Continued

11. Not Heather

Jeremiah opened his eyes. He had just woken up, of course, otherwise his eyes wouldn't have been closed for a peculiarly long time. In his dream, Vindex, an inverted version of Carnifex, was trying to tell him about what Locust had left for the Destined. However, Vindex had only recently learned how to dream-travel, and only a part of what he said. The only words that Jeremiah could understand were "not," "think," "watch," and "disguise." While those words definitely sounded suspicious together, Vindex really needed to practice dream-travel so Jeremiah could hear the rest.

Jeremiah rose to his feet. Today, he elected to wear a gray t-shirt and show off his manly scars. As he slipped on his pants, he thought about what he was going to do that day. Obviously, they were going to search places that had crops, for that was what Locust was oddly attracted to. Jeremiah then remembered he had to take a shower.

After re-doing his morning routine, Jeremiah stepped into the breakfast room. He grabbed himself a cinnamon roll(Alex was right, he did always grab one) and some orange juice from August's genius buffet table and sat down, again the first one to rise. However, it was only a few minutes when Heather came in. Her hair was neatly done, as opposed to how it was yesterday morning. She grabbed herself some cereal, as opposed to a cinnamon roll, and sat down on the other side of the table from Jeremiah.

Hmm.

Alex walked in next, and Heather barely noticed him. Alex elected to join the others in the cinnamon roll party and sat down next to Jeremiah, where Heather normally would sit. "I feel a lot better today," Alex mentioned. Jeremiah was glad for him; it was obvious the guy was troubled with the idea of beating up a six-foot pest with a bunch of strangers. It was a relatable situation, that was for sure.

The other slowly trickled in. Penny was the only one, aside from Heather, that grabbed cereal. It seemed she didn't want to join the party just yet, and Jeremiah was fine with that. Timmu, when Jeremiah was on the island, had taught him to wisen up and calm down--everyone had their own time. Jeremiah recalled the situation that had called for that teaching and snickered.

"What's funny?" Alex asked nonchalantly, seeing Jeremiah's silly grin.

"Nothing, just remembering something involving classical music and an axe," Jeremiah vaguely answered. Heather made no reaction.

Hmm.

Jeremiah finished his cinnamon roll and orange juice and set his dishes on the table. He could clean them later. Everyone else finished quickly, and they all went back to their rooms.

Jeremiah practiced with Marionette in the training room for a few hours, but he wasn't focused.

"What is on your mind, Jeremiah?" Marionette asked when Jeremiah was knocked down for the eighth time. Jeremiah stood up slowly, badly bruised by Marionette's fighting expertise. "Heather seems strange today," he answered. "and just last night, Vindex tried to tell me about something. The only things I heard were 'not,' 'think,' 'watch,' and 'disguise.' Do you have any ideas?" Marionette transformed his arm from a scythe back into a hand and put it to his chin. He was thinking, obviously.

"Do you know anything that could disguise itself?" Marionette asked after a moment of thinking.

Jeremiah couldn't remember; it had been two years since he would have seen anything like that. "Not that I recall. That sucks, I know I've definitely heard of something like that. Dang." Jeremiah sighed, then sat down. He couldn't think of anything, but he was sure he had met something that had copied something!

Heather came in, closing the door behind her. "Oh, hey, Heather," Jeremiah greeted, doing his best not to sound like he was suspicious that she was a fake. Heather didn't seem to notice. "Hey, Jerry," she answered a bit affectionately.

"Don't call me Jerry," Jeremiah chided. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh..." Heather responded.

Hmm.

"I needed to...uh...talk to you." Jeremiah snuck a glance at Marionette, who knew it was best to fade into the shadows. Jeremiah stood back up and walked over to Heather. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?" he asked uncertainly.

"Something I should have done two years ago," Heather answered, the grabbed his shirt and kissed him.

HMMMMMMM.

Heather(Or whoever that was, since it was certainly not Heather), in Jeremiah's opinion, was an excellent kisser. She leaned over him and slowly lowered him to the ground, keeping him in a lip lock. Once they hit the ground, Heather let...Jeremiah didn't want to think about it. He would have been fine if this was the real Heather, but this...thing was clearly a fake. Jeremiah tried to break out of "Heather's" embrace, but she was much stronger than he was.

HMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Finally, "Heather" finished. "How was that?" she asked, way too seductively for a normal person. At all.

"It was...It was great, Heather. Thanks." Heather left, and Jeremiah looked back at Marionette, who had just appeared. "Definitely suspicious," Marionette confirmed. Jeremiah nodded trying to remember what had copied him the time before, two years ago.

"Let us keep training. We will both think of what is on your mind," Marionette suggested. Jeremiah accepted, and they returned to practice. They had grown much stronger since Rok from the Island of the Feather had taught them combat magic. Marionette could shapeshift into anything, Jeremiah could create much more from shadows, and both had the power to turn shadow into Spectral Onyx.

"I know it ends with -path," Jeremiah remembered. Marionette seemed to realize something, then slashed with his scythe-hand across Jeremiah's chest. Jeremiah blocked it with a shadow wall. If Marionette had a tongue, the creature's name would be right on the tip of it. Marionette even turned one scythe into a hand so he could snap, trying to remember.

Finally, the two remembered exactly what they were trying to think of. Two years ago, Jeremiah had been impersonated himself!

"That's right!" Jeremiah remembered.

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"You're very clever, Locust," Heather told the clever villain. He had left a Chaopath in the barn, invisible to the Destined while it was cloaked. The Chaopath, during the night, had captured Heather, transformed into her, and handed her to a Grasshopper, which left her in yet another abandoned barn. There sure were a lot of abandoned barns around the area.

"Don't tell me what I already know," Locust answered.

"You know, no matter how clever you are, you'll never beat the others." Heather was tied to a pole, bound by her stomach and shoulders. Her legs were tied together, too, to prevent her from doing anything else.

"Don't say that yet, you heathen," Locust grumbled.

"It's Heather, actually."

"GRR!" Locust, sick of Heather's nonsense, it seemed, ran over to her and gagged her with a bandanna. I suppose I deserve that, Heather thought, struggling against the thick ropes.

I'll think of something.