Never Lost

05 - The Pants Are Optional

TO BE EDITED

Kayda sniffed and crushed a pretzel between her fingers. "The stupid thing is, she's had that key since we were kids. It was just a stupid key to her family car. It meant nothing for our entire lives –"

"Until it did?" Torch asked gently.

"Yup." Kayda downed the rest of her coffee, now sober enough from talking to zone back in on her surroundings. Torch and Monty were looking at her silently as if waiting for her to continue the story, but as it stood their time together was up. A long story is a long story, and long stories take time they didn't have.

 "The key to the universe is one of the most powerful objects in existence," Kayda murmured. "When we were teenagers, before either of us really knew what the key did, Angelina pledged herself to a goddess from another world. She formed a pact to serve this goddess until her final breath, serving the known realms in the duty of an elite brand of werewolf hunter, wolfrunners. Angelina was the alpha of her pack, a truly good person. Her bow was gifted to her by her goddess, Domayos. A true sign of honor that bound her both to our home world and the universe among the stars. We survived many things together in that world –"

Monty seemed like he was having a hard time catching up. "So, in this lifetime you knew Angelina, you were a wolfrunner also?"

"Me, psht no." Kayda laughed, looking down regretfully at her empty glass. "I was a college student who loved the sky. I was something else entirely...hell, I was a lot of things before I met her again. I was a shadow in a grander scheme. As it always goes, she was light and I was something hidden just beyond reach."

"Is she always this cryptic?" Monty turned to Torch who just shrugged.

Kayda reached for the bottle again, but it was just beyond her grasp. "Our world was destroyed pretty soon after I started college. Zombie virus type deal."

"What –"

"It's a long story..." Kayda's memories were swimming. It was all such a long story.

Above them the ceiling rattled. The Groundhogs were outside, below them, above them, everywhere and soon, they would fill the room as well. "Point is, we moved on and went our separate ways. Hadn't seen each other for thousands of years. Yet when I saw her again that day, she had renounced her goddess. I think her whole pack did –" Kayda sat up abruptly and shook her head. The lighting fixtures were beginning to shake noticeably. 

"Um okay, I appreciate that you guys are the most attentive audience I've had in years..."

Monty and Torch nodded with wide eyes and "Mhmm'd" in unison but otherwise seemed oblivious.

Kayda pointed at the ceiling with her pinkie finger. "... but shouldn't we be a bit more worried about all that?"

Monty leaned back on his stool and stretched his arms. "Ah, right I suppose. They are getting a bit close, aren't they?" He blew out and when Kayda looked up he noticed that he was looking at Torch with sad eyes, as if he were wishing the story would go on forever.

Torch looked at her glass, then back at the front door – more frustrated, than concerned that they were probably going to get killed by the people they had spent the last several days running from.

Seriously. All this running, and she decides to stop caring now.

"Why did you have to go and get all big like that." Monty asked – causing Kayda to realize she probably wasn't welcome in their moment, and that maybe they weren't listening as intently as she thought. 

She tried to slide off the stool discreetly but found that she couldn't move without causing a big racket. And just like that she was stuck in a wholy uncomfortable social situation. Man did she hate, wholy uncomfortable social situations.