Altered Bloodlines:Escape from Reality (Chapter 1)

No way could it have been her. There has to be some logical explanation for all this. My mind was juggling the idea of going after her, but knowing I would get questioned by Mal and not be able to properly explain to her as to why I chased after some random girl on the street. Ever since I saw her, my mind has been in overdrive, trying to find some reasons behind the whole encounter, and other parts of mind want to dismiss it in its entirety.

      It was only January, and she looks to be even older than I am, I could not understand why anyone would dress that way in this time of year. Of course, the thought that she was merely going to some party crossed my mind, but it was barely 7:00 AM when I saw her. I simply let my mind rest by saying she was probably leaving a party that lasted the whole night and she had to leave in her costume due to not bringing a change of clothes with her.

      My brain was cruel, however, and thrust me to investigate the neighbors, some of who I knew well. Reality immediately reared its grotesque head once again in the form of a fact. There was no party going on throughout the entire block, and they even told me some their friends had, yet none of them involved a Greek theme. From there, another thought hit me and confused me even further, why was she walking out on the street like that, instead of just driving a car to wherever she was?

      In the small town of Lincoln, the only people who I would ever see walking on the streets are random joggers running either early in the morning or late at night. Other than that, everyone else drives a car everywhere they go. So unless the town and my neighborhood changed overnight, I should not have seen that girl at all. I was pacing back and forth in my room, occasionally pausing to entertain a new thought.

      "Looks like someone is daydreaming," Mal said as she walked in.

I stop in my tracks and fell silent, I immediately chuckle after a few seconds, "Yeah, but don't you usually knock Mal?"

When I told Mal of my weird little habits, she was understanding and always made sure to knock whenever I have the door closed.

"I did, but there's not much I can do when your door is wide open," Mal suddenly paused, then raised her brow, "Unless, you weren't daydreaming and were thinking about something else."

      I bite my lip, she was right, my door was wide open, which is something I have never done while in the middle of my daydreams. Mallory was a cop, which meant now she has been able to pick up when I lie. I knew it would be a little hard to not tell her the truth, despite how bizarre it sounds. My brain knew that yet my mouth acted against it.

"Well, I started daydreaming before I entered my room, so it must have been so intense that I forgot the door was open," I said, scratching my head.

Mal stared at me with slightly squinted eyes and arms crossed. I tried my best not to let myself get nervous. She then turned her gaze towards the wall and clicked her tongue after a few seconds.

      "Aki, what aren't you telling me? You never daydream in silence; you're always talking when in the middle of a daydream. To be honest, I surprised I didn't realize that sooner."

I lowered my head and sighed, "I really can't hide anything from you, can I?" I then look up at her, "Promise me you won't think I'm crazy for it. I'm already having trouble believing in my sanity."

"Wait, does it have to do with that person you saw during breakfast?" Mal asked.

My eyes widened, "You mean you saw her too? You saw that?"

"You might have spaced out, but I don't know why you're so surprised. I mean since you did wave I had to see at least who you were waving at."

      I sighed and let my body relax, in a way I'm glad Mal is so observant, otherwise this whole situation would have been hard to explain if I told her how absurd that girl looked.

"I will admit, she did look weird, I've never seen anyone normally dress like that, but I'm sure there's some reason behind it."

"I have tried every possible explanation Mal; I asked the neighbors. However, it just proved she wasn't from around here. Besides, who would be walking in public early in the morning dressed like that?"

Mal went over all the things I had already thought, upon doing so she merely furrowed her brows, "As weird as it is, what I don't get is why that bothers you so much. Was that girl familiar to you in any way?"

"You'll call me crazy, but she looked exactly like one of the girls I saw in my dreams," I somewhat mumble the other half of my sentence, sulking against the wall.

      "Tell me all about it, Aki. I want to hear in detail this dream of yours before I have the right to say you're crazy."

Crossing my arms, I told her what happened in my dream. While I talked about it, I expected her to interject at any given moment and tell me to brush it off. She merely listened, and patiently waited until I finished to start speaking, she asked me to describe that girl in my dreams.

Mal put a hand on her waist and looked up for a few seconds, then spoke, "Her appearance is as you said, and it is strange how irrational it is to see someone like her walking like that at that time in front of everyone. If it eases your fears Aki, we'll try to see who else saw her, and keep a lookout for her."

      "Wait, there's no way you believed I what I said."

Mal scoffed which led her to chuckle, "Of course your dream is downright crazy," she then took a few steps closer to me, "Despite whether you told me or not, whoever that girl is, she was watching you before she left, so she knows you and where we live. So if she's going to become a problem, we might need to get some police involved."

      Since then, Mal has been doing nothing but watching through every window and checking every lock on our doors to block any more intruders. She also went out to ask if any of the neighbors if they have seen that girl using a sketch she made based on the description I gave of her. Some say they have, yet upon mentioning her hair color and attire, most of them either immediately denied seeing a girl like her or simply gave Mal a look before closing the door on her.

"Great, so we got nothing on this girl. I'm also starting to hate some of our neighbors," Mal slumped on the sofa, throwing the sketch onto another, smaller sofa.

Upon sitting next to her, and closing my eyes, I let my mind wander. I recreate the encounter in mind, which then brought forth two questions in my head.

      "How likely is it for someone of her hair color in our town? Why go through the alley behind our house?"

I felt Mal's body sit up straight, which turns my gaze towards her, "I have some contacts in LPD, and they can help us find how many natural redheads are in Lincoln," I then saw her forehead wrinkle, "Why in the world did she do that anyway? There's only a certain amount I've seen walk into alleys, although it wasn't night, there is no real reason to walk down an alley."

      She got up, erect as a statue, "Let's see what's in that alley Aki. Most people don't walk down alleys unless they know there's something there they're looking for."

My face brightened up seeing the passion she's putting into this, "Sure, let's begin the investigation detective!"

Mal tilted her head and raised one brow, "Come on Aki, I get that humor is your way of coping with this situation but I'm not playing detective, I'm trying to protect us."

"Alright fine, though this is exciting in a way, I could almost write a mystery story about this!"

Mal groaned as we walked outside and into the alley behind our house. It was just barren, black gravel, with barks of dogs as you walk down the alley. Right before we reached the back of a neighbor's house next to ours, we found a long, black trench coat. It was clean, not even a speck of dust was present. The pristine appearance of this coat only means that someone was just here a second ago.