I was a bit thrown off when Dave asked about the church, but seeing his story, I shouldn’t have questioned his methods. I was glad that I didn’t have Dave project the story into my head; his voice was really nice, and I was able to imagine everything anyway. I got up from the table, collecting the tea settings, “Hey, should I pack or something for this trip?” I asked him. He seemed a bit up off by the question, and he narrowed his eyes. “No,” he said “Absolutely not. You’re not coming, it’s too dangerous, and I don’t care what that thing called you, I don’t want someone dying because of me.”
I stared at him, incredulous. “You tell me a story that I shouldn’t believe, I see things that you say no mortal should see, I get threatened by a being that even scares the daylights out of you, which I shot by the way, and you say it’s too dangerous?!” I pretty much screamed. “Hell, you’re right, I should’ve shot you. It would’ve helped whoever wants to kill you.” I stomped down to the door, even if I can’t go, I’ll still get him his flipping church. Heck, I could get Skeets to read his last rights, seeing that it would be apt. Right before I throw open the door; I heard his voice call from the kitchen, deep and soft. “Fine, you can go with me, I cannot, however, account for your safety in anyway. You might want to say goodbye to any friends in case you don’t come back. I’ll change now, and after I’m done with the church, you’ll have ten minutes to pack. Don’t worry about packing too many space clothes. Chances are you’ll only need one other outfit.” Suddenly giddy with excitement, I threw on a jacket, and still ended up throwing the door open; hunting down Skeets.
His house wasn’t that hard to find, then again, maybe I shouldn’t say I hunted him down; his house was right next to mine.
I well near kicked down his door when I walked up his front steps.
I should probably explain who Skeets is, and why I seem to know him so well. Obviously, he’s been my neighbor forever, at least our families have been, and seeing that he’s two years younger than me, we meshed pretty quickly. However, once middle school hit, we seemed to have gone our separate ways, at least on the surface. Skeets ended up disappearing into his books, finding this new niche within the real of computers and software programming. I vested most of my time in both playing futbol and studying Nadaa history, seeing that my grandfather was a local legend for his contribution to the war efforts. Beneath the surface, Skeets and I still stayed close, spending time together studying, occasionally going to dinner together; dumb stuff like that. In fact, he even fought someone when I broke my ankle during a match, which was funny to see, seeing that Skeets grew tall and thin like a weed. There was a time when he grew the courage to ask me on a date, a real date, but after we realized that it was better that we remain friends. Though I will admit that we did pretend to date just to shield one of us from other people; one day Skeets shielding me, the other me doing the same for him.
Anyway, after I was done kicking down his door, I remembered that even though it was almost afternoon, Skeets wouldn’t be up for another hour or so.
Too bad
I charged up the stairway, opened his door, the proceeded to open every window in this bedroom, causing him to crash out of bed. I heard a brief “What the-“before he hit the ground. He stood up, and I saw the light play on the shock of blonde hair he had, just before he stooped down and put on his glasses, so thick they almost blocked out his eyes in the light. “Sarah, what the heck?” he asked, “Where’s the fire?” Slowly, what I had just done dawned on me, and I felt terrible for it. But hey, I’ve done worse to Skeets. I also noticed that, tall as he was, he was still an inch or so shorter than Dave, which was surprising. I stammered a bit before I found my words, “I had a visitor last night, like, legitimate stranger. Oddly enough, he wants in the church.”
Skeets looked at me for awhile, before a scowl slowly formed on his face. “Listen Sarah, I know that this whole ‘being the oldest’ thing has hit you hard, but making up stories won’t make it better.” I almost punched him then, but I came up with a better idea: I’d show him.
“Come on, get changed,” I said, “I’ll show you, and if there’s nothing there, you can finally examine my head” and plunged down the stairs, careful to make sure Skeets grabbed the church key before we both went outside, and ran back to my house. I opened the door, but to my disappointment, Dave was no longer there. I sighed; however, just as Skeets came up behind me, Dave came down the staircase, throwing on a trench coat, brown again, “Well, looks like you brought a guest. I thought my visit here was supposed to be secret.” He mumbled to himself.
Skeets looked at me incredulous, “Wha-“ he stammered, “Sarah, when did he…” He trailed off, “But the fog wall…”, “Uh, hi, my name is Skeets.” He finally managed to say. Dave stuck out his arm; the metal one. “Dave” He said, “Oh, and try to use your real name around me Mereb.” The blood drained from Skeets’ face; no one knew his real name, not even me. Though seeing how it sounded like an Eastern name, I can see why he went by Skeets. “Anyway, what was this about me being fake I heard?” Dave continued, “Because it’s really rude to call someone fake until you actually meet them.” He paused to take a breath, “Oh wait, you’re the one Sarah was talking about yesterday, with the whole getting lost in the fog wall, aren’t you? Well, that would explain why you’re so defensive about her.” He took another big breath. He opened his mouth to talk again, closed it, opened it again, and promptly collapsed onto the floor. Skeets said a soft curse, and ran towards Dave, checking his pulse. I stood there, rolling my eyes; I had a feeling Dave was just faking it, seeing that I saw what it really looked like for him to collapse last night.
Did that really all happen only last night? Of course it didn’t.
Anyway, Dave got up pretty quickly, laughing, as he patted Skeets on the back, “That, my friend, is why I imagine she almost fell for you. Then again, there’s always time to convince her. But that’s irrelevant to me; show me this church if you wouldn’t mind.” Skeets looked at me, utterly afraid; I looked back, feeling that my face looked the same: if he could unravel Skeets this fast, I’d hate to see what he would do to anyone who he actually didn’t like. Skeets lead Dave out the door, and I followed: Dave waited who knows how long for Skeets, he could wait a minute or two while I packed, seeing that I didn’t have much.
