Fated (Sequel to Timeless)

Chapter 6

"First thing's first, we need to recruit some extra muscle, because, no offense, but neither of you strike me as the 'manpower' type."

I shrugged and Logan just pouted.

We followed Circe through the city, trying to blend in as best we could.

I had painted Logan to look like an electrocuted zombie, and had decorated myself to resemble some sort of glowing, paranormal skeleton. To add to the look, I let the green tips of my hair glow brightly. Circe hadn't even questioned that part, which made me wonder if she knew something about my mood hair.

But anyway, we soon came to a large office building, complete with rickety, rusty fire escapes and cracking, crumbling foundation. In other words, if some sort of natural disaster occurred, this thing was coming down. Which was one of the many reasons why I was more than a little hesitant to go in. But Circe just waltzed on in, so I had no choice but to follow her and Logan into the should've-been-condemned building.

Once inside, there was a cramped waiting room filled past its capacity with all sorts of gruesome individuals. One had an axe planted deeply in his skull, one was twitching uncontrollably as she held a sparking toaster, and another even had his head shrunken to the size of a baseball. It was all extremely unnerving, but I masked my discomfort well. Logan, however, didn't. As soon as he saw a bug crawl out of a dude's empty eye socket, I swear he turned more green than my hair and his body paint combined. He held up a hand to his mouth as he made gagging noises.

"Dude, I think I'm gonna hurl...."

I quickly shushed him, avoiding eye contact with any of the waiting room's inhabitants who were now undoubtedly staring at us. "Logan! Get it together! One of them could've heard you!" I whispered-shouted.

Circe whipped around and glared at the both of us. "Shut up!" she hissed.

Logan and I went silent as we followed her up to a counter. A sign above it read "Department of Hauntings and Recently Deceased". A little sign on the window at the counter simply said: "Welcome new arrivals!"

The window had blinds drawn in it, so we couldn't see inside. Circe knocked on the Plexiglass. Getting no response, she dinged the bell. A few seconds later, a green-skinned, red-haired woman drew back the blinds, looking a little annoyed. She was wearing a tight red dress and a sash that said "Miss Argentina" in big, bold letters. When she saw Circe, she sighed tiredly.

"What do you want, chica?"

"Good to see you, too, Tina," she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I need to talk to Melody. It's urgent."

"Alright, alright. One second."

She closed the blinds again and we heard her heels clicking on the floor as she went in search of whoever this "Melody" person was.

I was about to ask Circe what exactly we were doing here, but the receptionist - Tina, I think Circe called her - opened a door to the left of the front desk.

"Melody's in the back." She motioned for Circe to follow.

"Come on, guys," the demon girl said to Logan and me, and we followed her.

Tina arched an eyebrow at the two of us. "Friends of yours?"

"Uh, more like acquaintances," Circe replied, shrugging.

"Right," she said in return, not really even questioning any of this.

I guess she was kind of used to Circe's shenanigans.

We walked back through a bunch of offices and cubicles, filled with all sorts of people who met some sort of grisly or unfortunate fate. I tried to keep my eyes in front of me to blend in, but I felt like a fish out of water, to be honest. I could tell Logan was a tiny bit more relaxed, but I could also tell he was still a little weirded out about this whole situation.