Look Behind You

Action Collection: Look Behind You

To: action

"So it's lifted completely?" she said, half running as she tried to keep up with the man's long strides. All around her was the buzz of a small town on Halloween, the children's tinkling voices melding into one, the jack-o-lanterns and other lights illuminating the usually dark nightfall. It was a generally happy atmosphere- one that she, however, wasn't part of.

"That seems to be. I was alerted to excessive supernatural activity and, like always, I was right." He smirked and continued to walk at an annoyingly fast pace, swishing his sensor, a silver stick with a flashing blue light.

The streets in this town were narrow, much like the town itself, and the doors of the houses, oftentimes, were right beside the footpath. As they passed by one home, an elderly lady opened the door, grinning widely, a batch of freshly baked cookies in her hand, cookie dough in her grey hair. Her green eyes sparkled just a bit too bright, emitting a faint green light.

"Want some cookies, dear? Sorry, I ran out of sweets." She grinned, her cheeks dimpling, and the girl stepped forward, smiling at the much shorter woman as she reached for the cookie. "Don't mind if I-" she was yanked out of the way by the man, wild look on his face. They ran to the side of the house, backed against a cool, damp wall.

"Etcher." The man, not even out of breath.

"Nonsense! That's Mrs Patty! Why, she gave me a batch of cookies last week!" The girl, heart beating fast and panting from the suddenness of her run.

"She's Mrs Patty, all right. The thing's inside her-"

"What? Why?" she whisper-shouted, throwing her head to the side, expecting the lady to suddenly appear.

"Etchers can't interact with humans, or objects- touch them per say- in their natural form, only see and hear. This is common information! Think, girl!" The man, pacing in the yard, crushing the flowers and wet grass as he stomped.

"What? Why would they want to touch us?" She scrunched her eyebrows.

"Touch may be too light a word." His face had an apologetic grin on it.

"You're saying they want to harm us- why?" Her voice containing more and more suspicion, her face grim.

"Well, that's what we're here to find out, isn't it!"

"You're a time traveller- can't you just travel to the future and ask yourself what you did?" The dark sky seemed to overflow with a sense of foreboding, the smell of candy and rain and grass and earth no longer comforting. The orange street lamps- why must they be orange? cast enough light to see shadows, but not much else. They had a solution, she could feel it-

"God! Of all the things to ask! Why must I get stuck with the dumbest companions?" He threw his hands up in the air, effectively breaking the mood.

"Hey!"

"That's not how time works, girl, or I'd never have to use my brain- just hope my future self had. No, if I were to leave this place for the future, I'd never be here, which means this problem would never get solved, and my future self wouldn't know how to solve it either." Condescending. It was almost as if time travelling were normal.

"Trick or treat! You promised last week, Isabelle!" Another shock- she started out of her thoughts. Kids were desperate for candy, it seemed, for Johnny's toothy grin and pale blond hair appeared in the most inconspicuous hiding spot. Was she ever like this? She couldn't remember. He held a jack-o-lantern in his chubby hand, looking up at the girl with wild eyes that seemed just a bit too bright-