Running away from a psycho with a sword was not exactly what
Kendra wanted to do for her Friday morning. Still, as she ducked around a
corner in the bustling food court that sat a mere five blocks away from school
and was easily reachable for anyone who didn’t want to scarf down school
lunches, she had to admit: It was slightly more interesting than marching band!
She
giggled to herself, her hand going to her coat as she looked over her shoulder.
No bad guy. No good girl. No swords. She bit her lip as she looked back in
front of her, seeing all the shops that were just starting to wake up: There
was a mom and pop burger joint called 1984 for reasons that she had never been
able to nail down, a corporate pizza chain that tasted like utter ass, three
different bread shops that all catered to a slightly different kind of breadish
goodness – a donut shop, a Parisian styled café, and a shop that specialized in
sandwiches.
And all
of them were closed, the doors locked despite the people within moving about
and setting up their seats and starting their cooking.
So,
Kendra sat down on one of the metal seats that ringed around the metal tables
that peppered the space between all the food stores. She reached into her
pocket and scowled.
“Where
the hell is my phone?!” She drew her hand out of her pocket and then groaned.
It had fallen out of her pocket, she was sure. “Great, first my thermos, now my
phone. What next, universe? What are you going to steal from me next? My
Firefly ringchain? Oh! Oh! I know! Take my-“
She trailed
off, noticing that one of the people who was cleaning the corporate pizza
joint’s windows had come outside and then stopped his squirting and rubbing of
windex to gape at her.
She
glared at him.
“Don’t
you need to be in school?” He asked.
Kendra
scowled at him, drumming her fingers on the tabletop.
And
then, with a squeal of metal on concrete, her head was jerked back to the
table: The tall, dark skinned woman from before had arrived without so much as
a noise to announce her save for the sound you get when you drag a metal chair
along a cold, concrete floor. She plopped herself down, panting softly.
“Crichton
won’t bother you for a while now, don’t worry.” The woman smiled.
“From
Farscape?”
“What?”
She looked nonplussed.
“Nevermind,”
Kendra put her mitten covered hands over her face, breathing steam through
them. “What is going on?”
“Do…you
want the long version or the short?” The black woman was smiling calmly – her
teeth shockingly white against the dark oval of her face. The sun had started
to peek around clouds and shone directly in Kendra’s face, turning the woman
into a pure silhouette. Kendra winced.
“Name,
first, then short. Then, when I don’t believe you, you can explain the long
version…”
The
woman nodded, then smiled: “I am Nefertari.”
“Odd
name.”
“It is
Egyptian.”
“Ah.”
Kendra nodded, her eyes still scrunched up.
“I am
Immortal.” Nef – as Kendra started thinking of her almost immediately – said.
“Ahh.”
Kendra nodded again.
“And so
are you.”
“OKAY!”
Kendra put her hands on the table. “I’m just going to leave, uh, now!” She
turned around. This was too weird. This was too weird and she was late for
school and…and the sun was in her eyes and there were so many many MANY reasons
to just turn around and leave and never ever come back.
Nef
sighed. “Kendra…first, I believe you should check your pockets.”
Kendra
stopped.
She
slid her hand into her pocket.
And she
pulled out her cellphone. Then, sliding her hand into her other pocket, she
felt that it bulged – quite suddenly – with the thermos, straining against the
pocket. She pulled it out with a bit of grunting, squirming and shifting her
hips to get the thermos to slide free.
She
held both objects, then turned around to face Nef. From this angle, she could
actually see the details of the other woman’s face without the sun blazing
everything out.
Nef
smiled.
“Neat
trick…” Kendra gulped. “If I stay…will more psychos come after me with a sword
and try to hack my head off?”
Nef
nodded.
“And
if…I leave…will more psychos come after me with a sword and try to hack my head
off?”
Nef
nodded again.
Kendra
fogged the air before her face and sat down. The thermos sat before her – the
unicorn horn gleamed in the sunlight, looking remarkably…swordlike. She looked
at the thermos, then at the woman – at the ancient Egyptian.
“I am
Immortal,” She said. “And so are you. Immortals have existed since the dawn of
human history, but we have always been drawn, one to the other, by the ripples
we make in the world. That rippling effect, that…change that we can create,
that is what brings us immortality and what keeps us at eachother’s throats.
For if there is ever only one Immortal…he or she will be a god.”
Kendra
nodded, slowly.
“Those
of us who wish to be a god, The God, seek to slay every other immortal for this
prize. Those of us who believe humanity deserves its own fate, they seek to
foster peace among immortals. I will take you under my wing, and teach you the
ways of our kind…but if you wish to pursue the prize, I will not stop you,
though I cannot promise that I will always stay my hand.”
Kendra
thought, for a long moment, her brow furrowed.
“So, my
choices are…kill a bunch of people to become god, or not kill people and stay my old, boring self?”
“No,”
Nef smiled. “Either way, you will be extraordinary.”
Kendra
bit her lip.
“And
you will have to kill a lot of people.”
###
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