Quote:
Predatory Puddles (6) : Summer rains aren’t uncommon, so finding puddles dotting your path isn’t in itself particularly surprising or abnormal. However, as you walk past them, you feel the sensation of being watched, like eyes are on you. If you look into the puddles, you don’t see your reflection--nor the reflection of anything familiar to you. Instead, you see strange, decayed buildings, and odd, rotting plants. Something is watching you through the puddles, but before you can investigate, between one blink and the next, it’s all gone. When you look back, the puddles are oddly non-reflective, and then in the next blink, they’re all gone. The feeling of being watched doesn’t fade, though.
Caius didn’t like being out after dark. He hadn’t for a long time--even before he’d been attacked by a youma and had a stroke of luck and powered up. Even being a Page now didn’t bring him much comfort; he felt like any time he was out after dark, the shadows could just stretch up and swallow him.
He’d survived one youma, would he survive another?
Would he power up in time?
He shuddered and clutched his bag closer as he hurried, mindful not to poke himself on the Star Charm he'd picked up; he’d had to spend some extra time at the library today, and though he’d enjoyed stopping by the bakery to see Nick and Arias for a little while--and to accept their constant, generous, offerings of food--he still regretted being out so late.
Caius couldn't remember when it had rained, but then--he hadn't really been paying attention to the weather while he was inside. The puddles smattering the ground as he hurried back to the house weren't anything worth worrying about--or, at least, he coudln't have imagined how a puddle could have been worth worrying about. None of the pot holes around here were worth getting stressed out about.
The sensation of eyes boring into the back of his head though, that was another story.
Caius' anxiety had spiked rapidly since he left the bakery, and despite the fact that the road was fairly well lit and he'd never had any issues coming this way. It didn't occur to him even remotely that he should care more about the puddles beyond watching his step so he didn't soak his shoes.
But.
He was starting to learn that nothing in Destiny City was as it seemed.
The first time he passed a puddle and didn't see his reflection, he didn't think anything of it.
The second time, he felt like he understood why his blood had run cold, and he stopped in his tracks.
It was a trick of the mind, right? Because he'd been stressing himself out, and staying up late to try and finish this project for Nick and Arias--that he'd taken upon himself to do at irresponsible speed just because he was so desperate to impress them, but still...
Slowly, he dragged his eyes back to the puddle and peered into the darkness.
He felt like he could hear his heart screaming in his ears, pounding so loudly that he was rapidly making himself dizzy. He wasn't in the puddle, but some strange, dark world was. It looked decayed and horrifying, like it had been swallowed up in some nightmare. He could have sworn he saw decaying plants stretching over tall buildings, and it looked like fungus speckled every other surface he could see.
He didn't like it, but more than that, it scared him.
He didn't know what he was looking at, because it felt so real. He knew he wasn't dreaming, he knew he hadn't made it back to the house yet.
He knew he was staring into something he didn't understand.
But then, there was a lot that seemed like it was over Caius' head right now, and he knew he'd barely even scraped the surface of being a Knight.
He didn't want to have to go to Nick and ask him for everything, but when the alternative was wondering if you were crazy?
In a burst of adrenaline, Caius stepped in the puddle, disrupting the disturbing image instantaneously. He was afraid his foot was going to disappear into a wave of water, afraid something was going to grab his ankle and drag him in. He was afraid that when the water settled, he would see what had been watching him.
...But he'd rather see what was going to torment him instead of just stand her helplessly, imagining it.
Caius was frigid, like his blood was made of ice that couldn't melt, even in the uncomfortable warmth of a summer evening. Despite his long walk, or the fact that he was still in his school uniform, he felt like it might as well have been the middle of winter.
It didn't help that he'd locked up--that he couldn't move.
His eyes were fixated on the puddle as the water settled.
Nothing had grabbed his ankle, which was a good start, but until the water stopped rippling, he couldn't be certain.
It felt like it took forever; the puddle couldn't have been more than foot across at it's widest point, and--while Caius hadn't stuck his whole foot into the puddle, he'd kicked the water out of it. He was pretty confident that it couldn't have been more than a few inches deep at most--certainly not deep enough to cause a car any damage.
Nearly a full minute passed before the water settled into enough calm that he dared to look in again. To his relief, there was nothing.
But then, to his ever growing dread, there was nothing--not even his reflection.
It didn't feel like whatever was watching him was in the puddle anymore, either, and as he stared with cold dread at the absolutely unhelpful surface of the puddle, he could have sworn he heard something move behind him.
He stood up straight and nearly willed himself to power up preemptively, but he suddenly forgot how that was supposed to work.
He froze up.
Again.
Which was just another good reminder that he really shouldn't have been trusted with any sort of power or responsibility that was dependent on him knowing how to act and being able to act.
He didn't know if he should kick every puddle in the area, or if he should just power up and start attacking every suspicious shadow--or if he should just give up fighting and run back to the house, as quickly as possible.
...Arias and Nick had told him to be safe. Caius was scrappy, but he wasn't going to get into a fight just to do it.
No one else was in danger right now, it was just him--maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
...Maybe he just needed to get out of here.
He could always ask Nick to help him investigate later, once he could guarantee he was safe.
Caius didn't waste another moment thinking about it, or worrying about it.
He sucked in a breath and forced his legs to work--and he ran all the way back to the house, desperate to lose whatever creature seemed so intent on watching him.
