She felt the shift in the air, felt a shiver down her spine. Nothing unusual except for the fact that the sun was sitting majestically in the middle of the sky. She was searching for a sense of familiarity . . . anything to show her or tell her that she's headed in the right direction, she sat lost at the park. She just admired the brute strength of nature and wondered how mother nature decided on who was fit to carry certain burdens and who had the right to curve to depression when the heat got too hot. She wondered why she felt the weight of saving all humanity upon her shoulders.
A shiver ran down her spine and she felt that telltale of a sickening feeling at the pit of her belly . . .
She felt like howling like a mad wolf to the air for no apparent reason and the dreadful feeling wouldn't leave her alone. She started thinking of things that truly mattered to her and reflected on all the things that's happened to her leading to where she was right now.
"Am I really that lost . . ." she mused out loud.
A single tear escaped from her left eye unnoticed, what was a single tear when she blamed herself for all the wrong in the world.
"Da . . . naaaa"
She turned her head thinking the children were pulling a stunt on her
"Princessssssssss"
She had been sitting atop a rock this whole time but as it became clear that the voice she heard was no prank from just a child she stood up and tried looking around her. It then hit her, the chills . . . the dreadful feeling . . . she should've just known better than to think those damn old people would leave her to breathe even if just a second. She sat back down and exhaled loudly.
''Why won't you just leave me be?'' she said quietly as if talking to herself but she knew it made no difference seeing as they were able to locate her just fine without being physically able to follow her.
"Do you care so little of your perfect human family now Princess?" She knew it was a mock question but she couldn't help but react to it. Even though she had an outward reaction for a split second, she knew it didn't go unnoticed by the other party.
"Do you at least acknowledge that you are nobody to me so your opinion of me and my family means as much to me as your stupid cultic bullshit''
It was clear the old woman hadn't been expecting such crude words from Dana, hence her clear display of shock. She was taken aback by her sudden burst, but then she suddenly had an amused smile on her face as if she just figured that Christmas was coming a week earlier that year. Dana tried her best to seem not interested in the whole act. She knew firsthand how tricky these people can get yet she still hadn't mastered the skill of deflecting their tactics of trying to draw her in.
"Nobody blames you but yourself Princess" she was back to her menacing undertone.
"What do you want?" She spat out much harsher than she intended to but she knew it was no train smash hurting the old woman's feelings every once in a while, seeing as they didn't mind messing up her life every chance they got. The old woman maintained a bit of silence before she exhaled out loud, she opened her mouth as if to say something but then closed it again as if she was gaging just how much she can say without actually revealing too much.
"You are in grave danger Princess . . . yet you don't even realize the shadows beneath your feet are dancing to the approaching doom"
She made a pout . . . her signature pout.
"Just when I thought we speaking English" she muttered under her breath and drew her eyebrows into a forming crescent shape which made the old woman smile cryptically, yet another thing that didn't escape Dana's sharp eye.
"Wondering about me again young one? I am going to take a raincheck on your analysis. I am not a mystery you can solve . . . well at least not today"
That creepy mind reading thing again . . .
"Do you like surprises?" A question that definitely took the older woman by surprise seeing as she couldn't think of why the younger woman would be interested in such things because she knew that even if their situation or rather perception of each other might change some day in the distant future, they would never go as far as to arrange surprises for each other, unless of course it was an unpleasant one. That made her a bit unsettled, all things considered.
"Did your old brain suddenly turn dead then?" Which gave her just enough reaction from the woman.
''Why do you ask?"
This had Dana hear a sound she hadn't heard in a while which surprised even her own ears . . . the sound of her own giggle, her genuine good old amused voice. That set something off in her, almost like a switch that had been dead for some time had suddenly come back to life. She exploded in a fit of giggles that eventually turned into full blown laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha . . . oh my god that felt so good . . . a ha ha ha" she felt so good she couldn't help but laugh at the pun the old woman had just thrown in without even her realizing it. She just asked a question that made Dana think, like really think which led to her overthinking and blowing the simplicity out of the question.
"It seems to me you also suspected something to be dead in your brain too but that's not what I truly cared about finding out"
Another giggle
"So, you are here with another message of impending doom in my life, aren't you? A catastrophic event that threatens humanity that you won't do anything about and yet expect me to stop, am I right?" She took a moment, thinking the old woman might say something to even slightly contradict what she just said but to her not-so-surprising surprise, the old woman maintained a stoic expression that gave nothing away but Dana knew better. This was not a case of no news is good news . . . or at least in this case, no answer. She had hit the bull's eye.
The older woman suddenly turned around and sniffed the air in a certain direction before her eyes slightly widened.
"What have you done!" She exclaimed loudly.
Dana saw the frantic look in her eyes but dismissed it to her fatigue. She didn't want to believe it but the more she looked was the more she saw the truth, something she hadn't felt nor seen had gotten the older woman in a state of panic. What does she mean by that question? Was she even talking to her. . . What did she even do?
"What do you mean by what have I done? I've been here all alone so nothing disastrous I suppose" she said, trying to see if she had misunderstood something along their conversation . . . was she missing something? She also tried to take a whiff to see if she could smell anything strange in the air but she just couldn't so she turned back to look at the old woman for any sort of explanation.
"It shouldn't have been here so soon. Think Princess, think!" Now she was almost shouting but Dana still had no idea what she was talking about. "Where did you find the forbidden spell?" She was now livid.
She wanted to raise her voice too, she wanted her frustration to be solved too but something the older woman had said just diffused her worries and troubles for she was now aware of that sickly feeling from earlier returning again.
A witch . . .
She could only think of one individual who gave off a somewhat cryptic aura and knew the use of spells but that still didn't explain the look on the older woman's face. She had been given assurance that the children will be fine and she had personally checked on them so she knew they were perfectly fine. What went wrong?
"What is here? How is any of something I don't even know of, my fault? None of what you're saying actually makes sense to me right now" Dana was also getting frantic at this point.
"That damn witch tricked you, now we have to deal with the Bulldozer and here you are feigning innocence! We must hurry before it masquerades with human flesh. You will help me deal with this mess so you learn that all actions have consequences Princess . . . that's if we even survive to tell the tale"
Hearing and yet not fully comprehending the full context of what was really happening didn't lessen her frustration but what she did get was the part where the older woman said something about masquerading with human flesh! Now that . . . that just got both her skin and blood crawling.
What has she done!