6. Cal
CHAPTER 6
CAL
“Frank-N-Furter’s farts!” Steve shouted. His fingers moved furiously on the controller as he tried to fight off whatever enemy was on the giant TV screen in front of us.
He threw a wicked grin at me before whipping his head back to the screen. “Dude, this shapeshifting weapon thing is hilarious! Did you see me take that guy out with a toilet seat?
On his other side, Felix groaned, dropping his controller and throwing his hands in the air. “Dang it, the one with the mace got me.”
“I’ll make sure she regrets it,” Steve vowed. He manipulated his controller with renewed determination.
We were sitting on a huge brown leather sectional sofa. It was four recliners across facing the TV, then it cornered on each end into another seat. The room we were in was enormous, with big windows on three sides.
Steve glanced over at me again. “What are you doing? I need help over here!”
I didn’t respond because I was still looking around .
He paused the game, his forehead scrunched up. “What’s the matter? Are you okay?”
Felix leaned over to peer around Steve.
“Sorry,” I said. “But I think I’m having a vis ? —"
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I twisted around. A man—I was pretty sure, though his face was blank where his features should’ve been—stood behind my recliner. He squeezed the side of my neck and leaned over to kiss my cheek. His lips were soft against my skin. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” he said. He glanced up at the TV, then he put his lips next to my ear. “How about we get in the hot tub when I get home?”
I sat up in bed with a gasp. 4:47am. Fuck.
I put my fingers to my cheek. Had it been a vision? It’d felt like a vision. One of those innocuous visions I used to have all the time.
Except I’d never had a vision about myself before.
And some guy was kissing me? Or would be kissing me in the future? My cheek seemed to burn where his lips had touched.
First a bear-man and now a vision where I had, what, a boyfriend?
Shit was happening way too fast. I rubbed my face before throwing back the covers and getting out of bed.
Might as well kill time at the gym.
It was Saturday, and also the day Rogues Gallery employees volunteered to clean up trash and cut back overgrown shrubbery along the trails in one of the parks in Bent Oak. It wasn’t a required activity, but we usually had fifteen or twenty people show up if the weather was decent like it was today.
I backed my truck into the parking space closest to the trail map. People would throw the bags they’d filled with trash into the bed of my truck, and I’d take them to the dump outside of town. I didn’t mind getting my truck dirty for such a good cause.
I was just getting out of the truck when Steve trotted up. “Hey! I’ve got the cooler set up in the shade over by the picnic tables.”
“Great. Let me know if we run out of ice, and I can stop on the way back from one of the dump runs.”
I followed Steve over to the picnic area. I’d help gather trash for the first part of the morning, but then I usually ended up being busy ferrying bags to the dump. Steve would order lunch delivered for everyone as a thank you when we were done.
Not many people had shown up yet. Leaving Steve to dole out tasks as the others arrived, I grabbed a couple of trash bags, some gloves, and a trash picker stick, then I headed down the first trail.
The air was cooler under the trees. Birds chirped and there weren’t many mosquitos. I wasn’t finding too much trash—just enough to reinforce my opinion of humankind. I ambled along and let my mind drift, though I nudged it away from anything vision-related.
I’d almost filled my second bag when I heard voices up ahead.
The first voice, a woman’s, was loud and kind of raspy. She said, “I heard that wolf shifter Lloyd connected with someone. An NPC, if you can believe it.”
“No!” gasped another woman. “I never thought he’d settle down. Has he told him or her yet?” Her voice was higher pitched but also harsh, like she’d been yelling recently.
“I don’t think so. Oh, look, Arlene, that guy’s picking up trash. How nice.”
I peered around, but no one was on the path, and I couldn’t see anyone among the trees.
“I think there’s a group doing a cleanup today,” the second voice said.
I heard her so clearly, I instinctively looked right at her.
In the tree.
Sitting on a branch.
There were two of them. Big black birds. Crows, maybe. I wasn’t an expert. But this time the second selves overlaid across their figures were humans. Women.
Holy shit. How many of these shifter-people were there?
“Hi, cutie!” the one on the right said. She’d been the first one I’d heard speaking. “Thanks for cleaning up the park!”
The other bird-woman laughed, but said, “Yes, thank you!”
Steve’s mom had always told me if I didn’t know what to say, I should just be polite.
“You’re welcome, ladies. I hope you’re having a good morning.”
They were silent, staring at me in shock with both their bird and human eyes. Which was a little disconcerting .
The one on the left recovered first. She cocked her head to the side. “You can understand us?”
I nodded. “My name is Cal.”
The one on the right said, “Cal! You’re the Cassandra!”
It was my turn to cock my head. “Uh, the what?”
“The baby Seer! It’s a nickname for people with magic who are born to NPC families.”
The bird-woman on the left leaned over and full-on pecked her friend in the neck. “Shh! The DM should be the one telling him this.”
The one on the right batted her away with a wing. “He’s obviously met shifters before. He’s not an NPC.”
The other one seemed like she was about to respond, but I held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Are you saying ‘NPC’ like non-player character ? And who’s the DM?”
They looked at each other and shuffled their feet on the branch nervously. The one on the left said, “Uh, we need to get going. Nice to meet you!” She leaped into the air and flew off, her friend right on her tail.
I stared after them for several minutes. Then I dropped my bags of trash to the ground and leaned against the nearest tree.
Somehow I managed to successfully get back to the truck, make several round-trips to the dump, and interact with my coworkers. Steve threw me a couple of concerned looks, but he was the only one who seemed to notice I wasn’t myself .
Normally after a day of hauling trash, I stopped at the car wash on the way home. Today I couldn’t be bothered. Sure the bed of the truck was littered with pieces of trash that had fallen out of the bags, but given how old the truck was, and the poorly-repaired and repainted rust spots all over the body, what difference did those bits of paper and plastic really make?
I got home and took the hottest shower I could stand. Then I threw on some sweats and a t-shirt that said, “English is important, but math is importanter”.
I went into the second bedroom, which I used as an office. My “desk” was a u-shape I’d made out of three rectangular folding tables. I had four monitors attached to a docking station for my laptop. The back wall of the room was covered in large whiteboards.
I sat down and the first thing I did was text Steve and Felix to meet me for brunch tomorrow. I needed to talk this out with someone, and those two could keep secrets.
I woke up my laptop. I’d briefly considered using the whiteboards for this, but somehow it felt too exposed.
I opened a new spreadsheet and started a list of what I knew so far.
Animal shifters were real
I was considered a “seer”
A Cassandra was a “baby seer” who was born to an NPC family
There was a DM somewhere – so the DM was running this (whatever it was) as a game? I wasn’t an NPC, but could I opt out of being a player?
Delphia Shaw had to be involved in the game, because how else would the shifters know about me ?
Delphia is the mother of Malcolm’s friend Greg
I tapped my cursor over Greg’s name. I might be able to get some answers out of Delphia, but I’d googled her, and she lived over an hour away from Bent Oak. I’d go there if I had to, but it’d be easier to start with Greg.
I nodded to myself. I’d call the pet resort tomorrow and see when Greg would be working next. Then I’d ambush him.