The Unnaturals

Chapter 7

I stared at the length of rope, sure it was the same one.

I had walked in on the scene after the police, listening in on the radio where they would be, followed shortly by Aedan after I called him.

I walked past the police tape without anyone questioning my presence; the kind of privileges you get when you help the police solve many a case.

A police officer had been trying to untie the girl suspended by her wrists to a tree, but wasn't having much luck.

"Here," I offered, taking a pocket knife out of my pocket and sawing through the rope. The girl dropped to the ground, landing nimbly on her feet.

"Thanks," she said, rubbing her sore wrists. "My name's Tory. You?" she asked by way of introduction.

"Seth," I replied. She smiled coyly.

"Nice to meet you, Seth," she said in a way that I was beginning to think was flirting. But I didn't know for sure- who knew with girls? She had just asked my name and said it was nice to meet me. She hadn't told me I was hot and asked if I wanted to go somewhere. I blinked.

Or had she?

My thoughts were veered away from that line of thought when Aedan walked into view.

"Seth, look at this," he'd said.

I walked over to find him pointing to the tree Tory had been tied to. We both peered at the weird markings on the tree trunk where the bark had been scratched off.

"Probably an elk rubbing his antlers on the tree," an officer said, coming up behind us.

I remember looking behind me and seeing the rope still lying on the ground, thinking the police would probably collect it for evidence. I turned away, and that had been the last time I'd seen it.

Now it was here, in the room no one had been supposed to go in however many years ago, in the room that had scratches on the walls that now looked eerily similar to the ones on the tree.

You're being paranoid, I thought. There's no way that could be the same rope or the scratches could have any kind of resemblance. This is ridiculous. And yet I had superpowers. I didn't think that the concept of "normal" applied to me anymore.

As I stared at the rope, however, the more and more I became convinced that it was the same one. I recognized how the end was frayed by my pocket knife, how the rope was stretched slightly from holding up a 100-something pound girl. There was something else about it, something I could quite grasp...

I heard the sound of a car pulling up outside and jumped. I spun around to get out when suddenly I coudn't breathe, couldn't move. Clouds covered my vision and before I had time to question what was happening, the clouds overtook my mind and everything went black.