Sinner (Children of the Corn/Malachai)

Chapter #3: The Outlander

I stared in shock at this girl in front of me. She stood facing me with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.

    "Did you hear me ok, kid?" She questioned.

Kid? She looked as old as I was, why was she calling me that? Feeling lost for words, I tried to come up with something to say back.

    "Yeah, I heard you the first time." I stammered, putting a bite in my tone. The girl cracked a smile.

    "He speaks!" She joked.
Walking up to me now, she giggled slightly.
    "I'm just messing with you. But in all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen you around here before -- you new in town?" She asked.

Something told me that I shouldn't tell her I was from Gatlin. I didn't want to take any chances, so I had to come up with a lie. Fast.

    "Yeah, uh, my parents and I just moved here today...from... Wheelersburg." I made up.
I wasn't even sure if the town I had said was a real place.
But, it seemed to fool this girl.

    "That's a hell of a drive, allow me to welcome you to Hemingford then." She grinned, holding out her hand.
    "My name is Katie by the way. Katie Pacosky." She added.
I shook her hand, adopting a hard expression.

    "Malachai Boardman." I spoke.

    "Interesting name, I like it." Katie commented.

    "Thanks." I replied flatly.
Little did she know that wasn't my legal name, but the new one I had been given by Isaac the day we became followers of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. My legal name was Craig Boardman, but that was the name my non-believer parents had given me. I would never go by that name ever again.
Thinking about this must've made my face scrunch into a sneer or something, because now Katie was eyeing me weirdly.

    "Are you ok? I didn't mean to offend you if I did." She stated.

I shook my head to rid myself of my thoughts, looking back down at Katie.

    "No, you're fine." I assured, still in a monotone voice.

    "Ok....Well, did you come up to the shop because you needed something? Or did you just plan to stand out here and watch me carry boxes off the truck all day?" Katie teased.
I shot her a look now.

    "I came for a bottle of water." I answered.

    "We're getting somewhere now. Come on inside, I'll ring you up." Katie offered.

I followed her inside the store, immediately feeling a cool relief from the hot air outside. The shop was small - shelves of snacks and drinks lined the floor and walls and a few coolers with soda and water were up by the register. There was also a door in the back that I'm assuming led to a storage room.
Katie leaned against the counter to wait for me to grab my things. As I browsed the shelves of food I could feel her eyes on me - watching me like a hawk.

    "So I have to ask, what's with the odd get-up?" She inquired now.

Snapping my head towards her I gave her a questioning glance.

    "What do you mean?" I wondered.

    "Your clothes. They're not exactly what a normal guy your age wears around here." Katie pointed, pushing off the counter and coming up to me.

As she stood in front of me now, I took into account that Katie was a few inches shorter than me. The top of her head came up to my bottom lip. And she had very intense blue eyes.

    "How do you know how old I am?" I shot back at her, a bit harshly.

    "Well, if I had to guess I'd say you're the same age as me. 18. Am I correct?" Katie responded, a coy smirk played across her mouth.