Please don't eat me

Please Ask Her

  "Boris the Hatcher," Henry said. "Harriet the Lost, Carl the Confused."

  "Is that last one even real?" I questioned.

  He looked up from his notebook at me. "These are all urban myths. None of them are real."

  I scowled. "I know that, but how is 'Carl the Confused' even a myth?"

  "My question," Monica said, "is why are we even doing this?"

  And that was a good question. When I had woken up this morning, the beginning of a new week, I had a plan. I was going to man up and ask Angelica to Jasper's party. By this time, I had figured it would already be too late of notice for her to accept, so asking her would satisfy my friends and keep me from any potentially embarrassing situations. It was a win-win. But before I could have even gotten a hello out to her, Henry had leapt at me with a notebook full of fresh ideas. 

  "Look," he said, "this is just another theory I'm working on. If Conrad is actually real, then maybe one of these stupid legends are as well. All of these people have one thing or another in common with him –"

  "Even Carl the Confused?"

  "Yes, and I just want to run these names by you guys to see if anything might stand out to you." He gestured to Angelica and Monica.

  Angelica sighed, leaning against the railings, and said, "It's okay Monica. Let Henry's gears turn."

  "Thank you." He said, clearing his throat and returned to his list. "Eskin the Furry."

  "Oh, come on." I complained. "What does he have in common with me?"

  "A human who transformed into an animal." He said and shrugged under the face of our stares. "What? I was grasping at straws here! Look, there's only a few names left. The Nightmare, Samirah the Immortal, Akash –"

  "Wait," I suddenly said, now perking up as I felt the blood in my veins slightly chill. "Repeat that last one."

  He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I could tell the other two were looking at me, but I kept my eyes on him. "Samirah the Immortal? What about her?"

  I shook my head with a frown, unable to shake this feeling off my chest, and shrugged. "I – I don't know. Why did you pick her?"

  He looked at Angelica and Monica before shrugging. "Well, she's the most famous Shaman myth. She's what mothers tell their children at night to make them behave. I just included her because, well, why not? You really want to know about her?"

  Now I looked at Monica and Angelica, who were giving me looks I couldn't decipher. I looked back down, tried to play it cool, tried to act natural, and the spine-chilling feeling started to leave. I shrugged and said, "Yeah, sure. What makes her so special?"

  He shrugged. "Well, she's immortal, for one. Which is already pretty crazy."

  "It is?" I asked. "Really?"

  "Yeah. Shamans can only live for about as long as normal humans. There are only a few exceptions to that rule, but they aren't close to being immortal and they definitely didn't become that way the same she does."

  "How does she?"

  Now getting into it, with a sneaky smile on his face, he looked for anybody walking by before leaning closer to me. "Well, legends say she's been around for centuries. Slowly amassing power and life. They say she's a fallen god who wanders the earth. They say she's a risen devil looking to conquer everything. But no matter how different every story is, they always have one thing in common."