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.
Another spontaneous summer shower is finally over... Her internal voice was clearly unamused when Mother Nature decided to piss on her day off.
It was supposed to be a beautiful day! At least, that was what the weather reports had predicted. It is why she had chosen to take a break from her grueling research to actually stretch her legs and relax; do something fun or productive! Her home in the Dark Kingdom was in dire need of restocking; most of the food was almost gone and anything still untouched was likely bad at this point. Laundry still needed to be done but that's something she could take care of on a weekday when the laundromat had fewer customers since this glamour she wore could only last for a few hours at best.
When the weather changed, Marissa had thought it was going to be a light sprinkle that would last for only fifteen minutes then back to blue skies. Oh boy was she wrong. The light mist turned into a downpour and within minutes and before she realized it, Marissa found herself being pulled by a random pedestrian holding an umbrella over her head towards a coffee shop where customers were holding the door open for people seeking shelter.
Looking back on it, she should have probably pulled away then found cover in some alleyway so she could teleport back to the Dark Kingdom, but hindsight is 20-20 and she was too startled by the action to have made an escape. Then again, it could have simply been her reluctance to go back home that kept her from fleeing. At least this way she got a hot drink and sweet treat while waiting.
Minutes turned into an hour when finally someone excitedly announced that the rain had finally stopped. Marissa heard a kid from a few tables over clap excitedly. There was an exodus of customers and in a few short moments, there were only two other groups of people still sitting at their tables finishing their drinks when she too got up and left.
The streets of Destiny City were now stained a darker shade of grey and while leaves on trees hung limply from the weight of water still clinging to them, the flowers appeared more refreshed if not lively. If plants could have emotions, one might say that the daisies looked particularly happy now that they have been properly watered.
"Doesn't feel like I have much time to get anything done now," Marissa mused. With an added sigh she leaned her head back to look up at the parting clouds and could see cracks of blue that promised better weather for what she hoped was the rest of the day. "Guess I'll take what I can get," she smiled and began walking at a leisurely pace.
Her mind wandered from throughs of Wolframite to her recent promotion before settling on Tinaksite and how things between them had settled into an uncomfortable stalemate. Neither of them really willing to talk to the other because they were both being stubborn. It was a shame, really. With most things, Lavendulan can usually let things slide; water under the bridge as she would often say. But when the actions of one put another in danger, especially when those actions almost got her boyfriend killed, the half-youma was finding it impossibly difficult to forgive even if Wolframite was willing to let it go and move on.
Without being consciously aware of her actions, Marissa's gaze drifted downward. No longer was she really paying attention to where her feet were taking her as her thoughts became memories which eventually became background white noise accompanied by the sound of cars driving by and the dog barking across the street.
But then she abruptly paused mid-step when the rough textured concrete shifted into the smooth reflective surface of the standing water. Puddles were not an uncommon thing, especially after a good rain and it wasn't as if this one appeared to be too deep where she would be concerned about her socks getting wet if she crossed it.
No, that wasn't what gave her reason to stop.
It was the reflection.
What should have been a storefront to a floral shop with a pink canopy and hanging baskets was instead a decayed building, the front door hanging by its hinges with moss clinging to what appeared to be a wooden frame. The glass windows were broken, nothing but sharp shards still stuck in a time-worn frame. If there were words written anywhere they now indiscernible, not that it mattered, that isn't what caught her attention. Beyond the shattered glass, in the darkroom, a shadow shifted. Near imperceptible but when one was half monster and spent time in the Rift, you tend to look at what's beyond for things out of place.
Something was watching her, the skin beneath her scales tingled and her youma nature stirred; shifting between agitation and excitement. But then she blinked and the image was gone and that feeling of finally finding something new yet it being just outside her reach immediately dissipated.
What was that dying place she had seen and who, or what, was looking back at her through the waters reflection?
[697 Words]
