It was a crisp, Autumn day when Cassie discovered her best friend was the Chosen One.
She wasn’t expecting much out of the day when it started. She spent too long in the shower after already hitting the snooze button too many times, so she had to rush out to the bus stop after only giving her hair a minute with a blow drier.
She was relieved to see Phoebe still at the bus stop when she ran down the street. Her friend was sitting on the bench, playing with her messily braided, blonde hair. As Cassie jogged to her she watched Phoebe undo the braid only to begin braiding it all over.
"Hey," Cassie said when she made it and leaned against the bench to catch her breath for a bit. She ran her hands through her hair in a vain attempt to get it to dry faster. When Phoebe didn’t immediately start lamenting her choices in constantly late friends, Cassie sat carefully next to her. Phoebe was staring off across the street where someone was setting up a store display.
"Hey?" Cassie tried again. Phoebe turned and stared at Cassie like she was trying to remember who Cassie was. Then she blinked and shook herself and smiled. Cassie smiled back instinctively but waited for Phoebe to collect herself.
"Hey, sorry, mind is not here today," Phoebe said.
"I don’t blame you," Cassie said. "I almost didn’t get out of bed this morning. It is too cold to be alive."
Phoebe gave a distracted nod and turned back to the shopkeeper, then jerked her head down to stare at the ground for a full minute. When she looked up again Cassie smiled and pretended she hadn’t been staring.
"What if we, um, skipped today?" Phoebe asked, fingers going back to her hair.
"...Seriously?" Cassie asked, unable to keep a smile off her face. "What would we do instead?"
"Well, what about that cafe you’ve been bugging me to try? We could go there?"
The last time she had convinced Phoebe to go to a cafe, Phoebe had tried three different, overly sugary drinks before denouncing them all. Cassie had had to finish all three, plus her own, giving her a caffeine high she had never been able to top.
Cassie looked at Phoebe, really looked; dark bags under her eyes, lips bitten raw, hands and feet never pausing.
Cassie put on a smile. "That sounds great! I was not looking forward to today, you have no idea." Phoebe’s smile was paired with a small sigh of relief. Cassie stood up and held her hand out to help Phoebe up.
The walk to the cafe was filled with Cassie’s attempts at conversation, growing more desperate with every one word answer Phoebe gave. Phoebe was either pinpoint focused on Cassie, or so distracted Cassie had to grab her arm to keep her on the sidewalk. At one point Phoebe stopped dead in her place and stared at a man going past. Cassie tried to see what was so important but all she saw was a balding man in an old button up. The man hurried away from Phoebe’s and Cassie’s odd stares.
Cassie almost breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the cafe but
Phoebe beat her to it. She opened the door to let Phoebe in and then led the way to the counter.
The coffee shop was like how Cassie imagined a coffee shop should be: muted but warm. Each mismatched lamp around the room gave off half light and made the orange walls look subtle. Around the place were tables and chairs, but also couches and low coffee tables covered with giant books on Greek era art or famous anarchists.
"Hello ladies, what can I do for you today?" The barista said as they walked up to the counter. On the way to the menu Cassie’s eye caught on the barista’s blank name tag. She furrowed a brow but ignored it.
Cassie looked at the chalkboard cafe menu for a moment. "So I really like-" she began before seeing her friend’s expression. Phoebe was squinting at the barista like she had just woken up and was staring at the sun.
"Are you...all right?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah, it’s just, really bright. Order me something, will you, I’m going to find us a table to sit at." Phoebe power walked away like she should be wearing a pink track suit and holding a water bottle with vodka in it.
Cassie gave herself a moment to take in the fact that, yes, her friend had just called the dim coffee shop ’bright’ before running away.
"I’m sorry about my friend, she’s been...off... Are you okay?" Cassie asked the barista. All the color had drained from his face as he stared at Phoebe’s retreat.
"Ye-Yeah, sorry. Sorry. Your um, your order?" The barista gave Cassie a smile like someone was pulling up the corners of his lips.
Cassie ordered and pondered if something was in the water as she waited for their drinks.
"I got you the drink with the longest name," Cassie told Phoebe. The table Phoebe had sat at was in the back, away from the windows and the ordering counter. She sat down, took off the lid of her coffee with a ’tsk’ of disapproval, and blew on her drink.
"Great," Phoebe said. She didn’t move. Cassie nudged the drink across the table until Phoebe finally wrapped her fingers around it.
After a moment of silence in which Cassie amused herself with swirling her coffee around and seeing how high she could get the liquid before it spilled out, Phoebe said,"Something has been happening to me recently."
"Oh?" Cassie said, folding her arms on the table and accidentally placing her forearm in some spilled tea. She grabbed some napkins to dab at her sweater sleeve, her attention fixed on Phoebe.
In the background some coffee machine hissed. One of the few patrons coughed. Cassie waited.
"I’m...I’m not sure how to say it. What to say," Phoebe finally said.
Cassie grabbed her drink and took a sip despite it still being much too hot. She kept the cup in front of her lips and said again, "Oh."
Phoebe blinked a few times, then reached across the table to rest her hand in the center of it. "Oh no, I want to tell you! I will! I just, I don’t know how to yet."
Cassie nodded and set her drink down. "Take your time. We have all day. Hell, I have longer than that if you need it."
Phoebe smiled gratefully and then turned her attention to the drink Cassie had got her like she only just realized it was there. She messed with the cardboard wrap around it, tapped her fingers on the lid. Cassie waited. Phoebe looked around the cafe before jerking her gaze back to their table when she saw the barista again. Cassie took another sip of her drink; still too hot. Phoebe slid down in her seat until she was eye level with the table. Cassie crossed her ankles and gave Phoebe what she hoped was an encouraging glance.
"I’m seeing things," Phoebe blurted out, loud enough that she blushed and glanced at the rest of the room.
Cassie froze. "What... kinds of things?" she asked, tilting her head as she furrowed her brows at Phoebe.
"It’s hard to explain," Phoebe said, still red from her accidental loudness.
"Can you try?"
"I guess. I mean. It’s like. I mean, I guess it’s like. Or maybe?" Phoebe groaned and placed her head in her hands. "I think I’m going crazy."
"Well," Cassie said, shrugging her shoulders. "That’s a pretty good sign. That you’re aware you could be insane, I mean, that you know it’s probably not real. Most really mentally ill people don’t see that."
"You always say the nicest things," Phoebe dead panned.
"I live to serve," Cassie replied.
Phoebe took a deep breath and punched it out. "The barista is on fire. Like, he has actual flames coming off of him. But they’re not hot, they don’t give off the same warmth that fire does. His clothes don’t burn, he doesn’t smell like he’s burning, he’s just...on fire."
Cassie gave a slow couple of blinks. Luckily Phoebe couldn’t see the look Cassie was giving her with her head still buried in her hands.
Cassie opened her mouth to say something, although she didn’t know what, but Phoebe continued.
"We walked by a man today who had skin like a lizard, and his eyes were like mirrors. A guy buying shoes the same time that I was had yellowed skin, like that way paper gets when it’s old and looks like it’s going to crumble any second? And these aren’t like, metaphors or similes or whatever. I mean I’m seeing these things and I don’t know how to deal with it because it’s not going away or stopping or even getting worse just I woke up days ago and suddenly the world wasn’t what I thought it was anymore." Phoebe’s voice had taken on a broken undertone and Cassie gave her a moment to gather herself.
"What do I look like?" Cassie asked finally.
Phoebe gave a small laugh and finally pulled her head up. "It’s not every person. It’s not even half the people. It’s only a few and I don’t know what it means. You don’t look like anything. I mean, you look like you’ve always looked, like yourself."
Cassie nodded. Then nodded again. Then a few more times for good measure. "Okay," Cassie said. "All right." She took a sip of her drink, then reached over and took a gulp of Phoebe’s, who didn’t even blink at the borrowing.
"Are you going to say something?" Phoebe asked.
"Give me a moment," Cassie said.
Cassie didn’t get a moment before someone came over and sat down next to Cassie. A boy with a baseball hat advertising for some team that Cassie didn’t know, the brim pulled down low, slouched down in the chair. He placed his arm on the back of Cassie’s chair, making him lean into her.
"Um," Phoebe said.
"What are you doing and stop it now," Cassie said with no leeway in her voice.
"That man behind you, at the table a few ways down from you," the boy said. He paused and Cassie rolled her eyes before turning around and looking. Indeed there was a man there with a large to-go cup he brought himself and a notebook that he was scribbling in.
Cassie turned around to give the boy a blank stare that she guessed he didn’t see considering his dramatically shielded eyes. "What about him?" Cassie asked.
"He’s been looking at you guys the whole time he’s been here."
"Wow," Cassie said. "And that’s somehow worse than a stranger inviting himself to our table?" Cassie turned to tell Phoebe they should go but Phoebe was stock still, staring at the man at the table. Phoebe had to lean over to get a better look, a plant blocking her line of sight. With a shock Cassie realized Phoebe’s hands were shaking.
"Phoebe? What is it? Do you know him?"
"I-" Phoebe started but her voice cracked and she swallowed, then grabbed her drink and gulped down most of it. She started again, "That man was across the street, in the shop. Across the bus stop. He was there."
"What? Wait, the store guy, employee, whatever? That’s him?" Cassie leaned in and kept her voice down. She realized what she probably looked like and she leaned her forearms on the table to try and emulate a relaxed pose. "The one you were staring at?"
"You noticed that?"
"You were staring at him?"
Both Phoebe and the boy talked at the same time. Phoebe looked back at the boy and gave a small gasp. Cassie turned to see what was wrong with him. He had finally looked up and even pushed the cap brim up so nothing was blocking their view of his face.
He was gorgeous.
He had sharp cheekbones and eyes that looked artfully sleepless. He was wearing a black, pinstriped vest over a white t-shirt, a leather jacket, and black jeans that had a rip in the thigh. He had a look like he belonged in an artsy, hipster music video for a song that had a harpsichord and a banjo in it.
"Who are you?" Cassie asked. "What do you want?"
The boy grinned a charming grin at her, his teeth crooked and smile lopsided. "A knight in shining armor."
Cassie waited for a moment. The boy said nothing else. "You- okay, wait." Cassie said. "You want a knight, or you are a knight?"
The boy squeezed his eyes closed for a second and when he opened them he gave a smaller, more real smile and scrunched his nose. "This is harder than it looks. How about you just come with me, in public, where everyone can see us and will know if I do something wrong, and away from that guy that is following you?"
"Yes please," Phoebe said, standing instantly. Cassie scowled but stood up as well. The boy leaped to his feet and led the way out of the cafe.
"Who are you?" Phoebe asked as she walked next to the stranger. Cassie walked behind the two and tried to use the store windows to check behind them and see if anyone was following. She wasn’t very good at it.
Her eyes kept wandering to the reflections of the people in front of her.
"My name is Ezra," the boy said. He looked behind the group, then took off his baseball hat and chucked it aside. As he messed with his hair he said, "Can you guys change your appearance? Just something small so that it might not be you on first glance."
Phoebe shared a look with Cassie, who shrugged in response. Phoebe grabbed her bag and pulled out a slouchy, gray beanie and tucked her falling apart braid into it. Cassie passed her messenger bag up to Phoebe with a quick ’hold this’, but Ezra grabbed it for her. She took off her jacket and turned it inside out. It wasn’t stylish, but the inside was lined with some sort of black, faux satin material instead of the light gray wool outside. The wool itched but she grabbed her bag back from Ezra and hurried along with them.
"What is going on?" Cassie asked, trying to make her coat more comfortable. She wished she had worn something long sleeved instead of the cap sleeved shirt she had on.
"That man back there, he’s not as he appears. He’s something, someone...he’s just not a good person?"
"Wow. That’s convincing," Cassie said.
"Hush," Phoebe said and her urgency made Cassie quiet. "What does he want from us?"
"I don’t know," Ezra said. "Sometimes it just happens. I mean, that, girls are targeted. You know? Whatever it was, that guy was bad news. I’ll drop you off somewhere safe and then take care of the guy."
"Like report him? For what?" Cassie muttered under her breath.
Cassie watched Ezra and Phoebe in front of her and before she even knew it she had grabbed Phoebe’s arm. "Pheebs? Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Um," Phoebe started, looking at Ezra. He nodded.
"This is really weird, I get that, go and talk. I’ll stay here and watch for the guy."
"Thank you," Cassie said, already dragging Phoebe further down the street, away from Ezra.
"What is it?" Phoebe said as she was dragged along, her arm much further ahead than the rest of her body.
"What- What is it?" Cassie asked, whirling to face Phoebe and stopping in her tracks. For a second she wasn’t sure if she heard right.
Phoebe’s steps stuttered at the sudden stop, ending up in front of Cassie. "Are you joking? You must be joking. I can’t believe you would seriously say that to me. What is it, you- I don’t- I can’t believe this right now." Cassie let go of Phoebe’s arm and dragged a hand through her hair, getting it stuck in a tangle. She wasn’t able to use her detangling serum on her hair before she ran out the door and she wondered distantly if it would start frizzing. At least she had straight hair now. "Some weird, possibly deranged boy is taking us to who knows where and you’re just following along like it’s nothing. Have you seen that boy?"
"Um, he’s gorgeous? Do you mean that?" Phoebe asked, frowning.
"You don’t trust people like him. He’s like, maybe 17? Somewhere around our age. What do boys our age wear? Khaki shorts. Polo shirts or ones with horrible memes on them. Socks and flip flops in the winter. That boy," Cassie pointed behind her to where she assumed Ezra was. "That boy is dressed like a model. I don’t care how attractive you are, boys don’t actually dress that well on their own.
"I do not know who this boy is. I don’t know what he wants. That in and of itself would be enough to never, ever trust him. But add on the fact that he’s a hipster wet dream and, I just, you don’t trust boys like that. You just don’t."
Cassie finished, taking a deep breath after not inhaling for so long. Her breath was harsh in the quiet, Phoebe not saying a word and her mouth dropped open. No one said anything. Cassie looked behind them. Ezra was a store away, leaning against the window casually, looking like he should be in black and white. Cassie’s skin crawled.
"For one, I can’t believe you’d be so shallow." Cassie turned at the sound of Phoebe’s voice to see her now scowling.
"Shallow?" Cassie asked incredulously but Phoebe soldiered on.
"This guy is protecting us-"
"From what? Some shop dude who likes coffee? How dangerous, truly, thank goodness he came long to save us, what a hero among men-"
"And all he’s trying to do is help us, and that guy was not just a normal guy-"
"What do you mean not ’normal’, he was drinking and writing in a coffee shop, that’s as normal as you get-"
"He was...He looked like..." Phoebe’s words trailed off and Cassie quieted with her. Phoebe’s eyebrows edged down as she stared at the ground, wringing her hands all the while. "It was almost like he was made of water, but the water was also him? I don’t, it’s so hard to describe! He was, it was, I don’t know. He wasn’t normal. I don’t think he was human-"
"Phoebe," Cassie interrupted. "Is that what you think this is? That you’re seeing monsters where there used to be people?"
Phoebe’s arms wrapped tight around herself and she gave a small shrug. "I don’t know, but that guy pointed him out without ever knowing what I saw? So I just..." Phoebe slid into silence, staring at the ground.
"You want to believe that it’s real," Cassie said.
Phoebe paused. It took a minute for her to respond. "Wouldn’t you?"
Cassie bit her lower lip, gnawing it between her teeth. "I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. But why is it that this guy suddenly shows up when-"
The sentence was only partly out when Ezra pushed his way between the two girls. He wrapped his hands around their arms and dragged them forward.
"Sorry, hope you were able to hash something out there, but we got trouble a-brewing here and we need to hurry up," Ezra said as he hurried them along.
"What?" Cassie asked, twisting her neck to see what Ezra could mean. Her heart sank when she saw the guy from the cafe, looking through a shop window. He glanced over and caught Cassie’s eye. When he saw their retreat he threw aside his window shopping and charged after them.
"Crap, oh no, oh my god, run," Cassie said breathlessly. Ezra took one look behind them and started running. His grip on their arms forced them to take his same pace.
They ran down the street in huffs and puffs. The air wasn’t cold enough to make clouds but the air burned in Cassie’s lungs. She was too scared to look behind her so she tried to put her faith in Ezra.
It didn’t work very well.