Soul Chains

Chapter 40: Duality

The next morning, I decide to go visit the cafe again for breakfast while the others are mostly still asleep, the only exceptions being Ciana, who stayed in our cabin for the night and is currently balled up in a cocoon of blankets and watching TV, and Dimitri, who's working on sharpening his weapon. On the way to the cafe, I pass by the cloaked woman again and her blazing eyes meet mine, making me feel somewhat uncomfortable and I suppress the urge to shudder.

The cafe is fairly empty in the morning and there's a different barista, this time it's a female, and I spot Kat almost right away in a white fur jacket with a black tank-top, white shorts, black winter leggings, and calf-high white Timberland boots. She leans over her pumpkin spice latte and blows on it slightly before she lifts it gently, cupping it between both of her hands, and takes a sip from it as she sits there on a black bar stool with her ankles crossed behind her.

I make my way over to her and sit on an empty stool next to her, watching as she glances over at me.

"Well, hello there," Kat smiles, "I told you I'd see you again."

"Yeah, you did," I smile back and the barista looks to me for my order.

"What would you like, Sir?" she asks as she holds out a notepad and a pen, watching me expectantly.

"Do you happen to have pancakes?" I ask.

"Which kind would you like? We serve blueberry, strawberry, regular, and banana. We also have a seasonal pumpkin flavor," the barista asks.

"I'll have one banana and one blueberry, please," I smile and the woman nods, "oh, and a lemonade."

"Your order will be ready shortly," she says and I nod.

"Thank you," I say as she starts working on my order.

"So, how are you?" Kat asks as she takes a sip of her latte, her eyes intently focused on me.

"I'm kinda tired, but other than that I'm good. You?"

"Me too," she says with a curt nod, "but I like coming out here early. There's less people around."

"You don't like people, or?" I ask.

"Well," Kat hums thoughtfully for a moment, "I find people very interesting, but they're typically too intimidated to talk to me. So, I'm usually quite lonely. But, when there's hardly anyone else around, I feel more comfortable because it feels like I'm not being pressured to make conversation when nobody wants to."

"I see..." I trail off, "you must be pretty isolated, then."

"Yeah, I guess so," Kat smiles sadly and continues drinking her latte.

As Kat shifts around on her stool, I notice a silver necklace glinting in the light and I furrow my eyebrows because something about it seems so familiar. The hanging orb pendant has black shadows swirling around inside of it that disappear from sight every so often and the letters 'KL' are engraved on the glass on the front of the orb that's surrounded by elegant silver framing. My eyes continue to focus on the swirling shadows inside the orb and it's almost as if they're drawing me in, wanting me to only pay attention to them in a hypnotic manner.

"I'll have one mochachino, please."

I snap out of my thoughts whenever I hear a woman's voice from next to me and I glance over to see the woman in the cloak, my eyes widening. She stares straight ahead at the barista and only looks over whenever the barista turns her back to us. Because she has her hood pulled up, I'm unable to see her eyes, but her lips twitch with interest as she looks in our general direction before she turns back to the barista.