Fate Bound

part 2 chpt 4

“KEANDRA”

It was raining again.

Big fat droplets splattered the glass panes, blurring the grey images of people hurrying out of the rain and into shelter. The window fogged up as she breathed out. Resting her back on the corner wall of the window seat, she drew her legs up and wrapped her arms tightly around them.

Rain always gave her peculiar feelings, and they were different for every type of downpour. For this particular cloud of thick fat droplets of acidic rain, she felt slightly ill. Such rain always gave her an oppressive, smothering feeling in her chest and sent tingles to her fingertips.

Well, at least she wasn’t suffering in it like them, she thought, as she watched a plump man with a beer belly run towards the lobby of her flat, his mini briefcase raised above him in futile attempts to block the rain. She tilted her head and squinted at the people. They seemed so tiny.

“Keandra! Dinner will be done in a few minutes!”

 Kyen sighed and made a noncommittal sound in reply to her aunt. As she uncurled, her leg accidentally nudged a thick book which fell to the floor with a loud thump! The silvery letters of the title seemed to shine in the dim light. Divergent. She stared at it for a moment, just replaying back the scenes she had imagined while reading. She gnawed on her lip.

She knew that people who wished for excitement always got more than they bargained for – usually leading to loads of pain and suffering. But still.

What she wouldn’t give for a bit of adventure.

Fortunately or not, the next morning went by with relative normality. Relative, as she didn’t think everyone considered hearing a few voices and seeing a few shadows here and there as normal.

So Kyen ignored the strange sight as she saw a snake-like shadow slither past her on the sidewalk, not noticing as the shadow detoured and hitched ride on her graying white canvas shoes. All she cared about was the stack of homework in her bag that needed doing.  

“Yo Kyen! Game tonight at 12! ”  

“Yeah you better not forget!”

“See ya nerd!”

She twisted her body to grin and give a jaunty salute to her friends. The man walking past her glanced at her. People found it strange that a girl was friends with a group of unruly hooligans, no matter how boyish the girl. Kyen didn’t care – they were her best buds.

Leo, Jules and James, they were to her, like brothers.

Though the afternoon sun was strong and burning as usual, the breeze that ruffled the short brown strands of hair made it bearable. Out of habit, she let her eyelids droop, enjoying the cool the wind brought.

“Oouff – !”

Something knocked into her shoulder, roughly. Kyen cursed at her stupidity to walk blindly on the streets and opened her mouth to apologize.

“I’m so sorr – ”

She froze.

 A pair of black irises glared fiercely from under a shag of grey hair, filled with utter disdain and arrogance. No, arrogance was wrong, more of primal superiority. As she continued to stare there, she noticed the eyes suddenly shifted from condescension to sly surprise.  She had been wrong, they were more purple than black. Something about him just put her off, giving her the experience of spiders crawling in her bones. Unnatural.

The man suddenly jerked his head sharply to his right, sensing something. And then he blurred.

She barely had time to gasp, instinctively dodging to the side as his body barreled towards her. Not fast enough. As she lost her balance, she noticed another streak brushed past her, this one a darker, an inky almost black colour. Chasing after that guy. She landed on the pavement on her back with a painful thud, the air slammed out of her lungs. Used to roughing about with Leo and the gang, Kyen sprung to her feet immediately.

They were gone.

People were giving her weird stares, as she stood feet apart, head swerving about for any sign of what’d just happened.

Kyen rubbed at her elbow absentmindedly.

The hell did I just imagine?