Chapter Forty: Dinner Date

I glare at the steel doors in front of me, knowing that the moment they open I will be entering the inferno of Hell's kitchen. I have never felt this much anxiety facing a Hexer armada, you'd have to wonder why I'm finding this much more unnerving. Lady forced herself onto the lift, staying nervously quiet as it ascended. I was guiltily happy that she wanted to come as well. At first I thought it would be completely unfair to force her to share this unpleasant experience and she looked like we would have to drain the pool before she'd ever climb out. But she heard the conversation and my mental torment and marched out of the pool and stared me down until I agreed to take her. 'Water fun but not important. Dreamer important. Dreamer will let Lady come or Lady will latch onto Dreamer and Dreamer will have to drag Lady on Dreamer's fake fur,' was her threat. She was ready to bite onto my clothing and make me drag her along, or worse, she'd pick me up and drag me along.

I exhale deeply through my nose, hoping that the lift somehow breaks down in the next two seconds....one second?

Instead the blasted thing dings and the doors open onto the dark hallway I hadn't seen since I first came here with Mist. And that went spectacularly well...

"Kae, you need to step off, mate," Oz pushes.

"No I damn well don't." I can live in here. There's enough room for me to curl up in the corner and mope for the rest of my pathetic and short life, curled up in a ball weeping and feeling sorry for myself. That sounds much better...

X physically pushes me out of the lift with a firm but gentle pressure in the middle of my shoulder blades, "Delaying what may happen will only intensify the experience."

Thank you Yoda X. My feet hit carpet and I wanted to put the brakes on, but X left his hand there to keeping me walking.

"Come on kid, we're with you. It's not like we asked you to sing and dance for 'em," Oz encourages.

That at least will draw some attention away from the 'What the fuck is that freak doing here instead of being destroyed or locked up somewhere where we never have to see of think about it ever again' issue that I'm quite sure has been put in the suggestion box very regularly. Or maybe it might cast a stronger vote towards getting me destroyed like some unwanted mutt.

...I just hit myself with my own words.

"Alrighty, since we didn't do any pre-ordering forms, you are just gonna have to go with what's on offer." He indicates to the serving area near the kitchen n the far right of the room. A small line had already formed in front of us and as I went between Oz at the front and X behind me, the few people in the room went into complete silence. Soon followed by the usual muttered whispers. Those that soon walked into the room to join the line at first would look startled when they notice the giant tiger then frowned when their eyes land on me. They then made a line that gave us a wide berth. I try my best to ignore it and focused on the food we were slowly getting closer to. It was a buffet unit filled to the brim with food. It went from light meals to the mains to salads and the last table was deserts. It composed of a huge pot of soup, bread, roasts, spring rolls, burgers...chips...custard...ice-cream...I think I'm drooling.

"Just grab a plate and get what you want. Simple as that." Oz moves over to a piles of dishes and grabs one for the top and immediately heads for anything meat and pizza related. I go for the fish and chips...it's been almost ten years since I've had properly battered deep sea fish. I also added some salad and fruit. I was surprised that they had star fruit...not something I've seen since I was about five.

I look back over to see X had grabbed mainly vegetables.

'Looks weird but smells good,' Lady contributes, sniffing at the random selection. 'Hunger feeling even though not hungry.'

What does Lady even eat?

She sends a mental image of some sort of deskinned carcass that was brought down on the elevator. She then goes through the motion of her muscles tensing, her teeth itching to sink into the raw muscle-

Ok stop there, Lady.

'Share?'

'No thank you, Lady. Even though it might taste nice to you, I don't eat raw meat.'

'Raw?'

'We cook it on the fire, look at the stove through the serving window. It creates heat and we,' What's the word I'm looking for? '-"burn" things on it.'

She pokes her head through the serving desk that was beside the last part of the self-serving buffet, starling the cooks. 'Strange, but smells good.'

I suppose it's one of the few redeeming qualities a human has.

'Dreamer 'cooks'?' She tasted the word with a strange fire-like texture.

'...Not very well...' Actually I suck. Cody learnt how to catch and skin almost anything from a pig to a horse. We mainly ate a lot of rabbit and venison from the latest area we were roaming through. I on the other hand frequently burnt myself. At best, I could fry an egg.

'Egg is good. Gooey...'

Urgh.... The mental imagery she was giving while liking her chops made my skin crawl.

"Kae, you're blocking the line," Oz's voice made me look up to see him near a fridge full of water, juice and softdrinks.

Oh whoops. I look back to see passed X that no one had entered the serving area. Some people were even leaving the area altogether.

I hold off a mental sigh and walk over to Oz, following him to a table over the back that looked out over the cityscape. Plonking myself down, I suddenly lose my appetite. How long am I going to be the 'Outsider'? Normally this didn't bother me. I was 'Oddball' after all. But I don't have Cody, Anne or even Markus to watch my back.

Anne and Cody...

I look out the window to watch the rain mixing with the busy metropolitan streets down below...I frown at the dream...was this what Anne knew? How much of the future did she see? Why did she say anything? Did she know we would be separated? Why did I have this dream now? Over and over...what will happen once I get that SD card? Will she taunt me with something else?

I bite my lip, trying to surpass the next wave of emotion. She knew I would listen...why didn't she say anything?

Markus is now gone. Can I reverse it somehow? I was tempted to tell Hanna...she knew a lot but...Something deep inside is screaming at me to leave him be. But how can I?

"I didn't realise that fish and chips made one so bloody broody," Oz nudges me with an elbow. I look up so see a lop-sided grin before he takes a swig of whatever softdrink they have here.

"Hello Kae," Seth grins as he sits opposite me. "I saw a dark cloud and immediately knew it was you. Well that and the tiger."

"You fucking brat have been in my stash again," Oz snaps while stabbing a fork into Seth's steak and plonks it onto his.

"That's rude" Seth mutters but doesn't move to take his food back. Instead he begins munching on the chips that were practically swimming in gravy.

"...Kae?"

I look up to see Mist coming over from a group of what I could imagine to be her friends (that were watching from a distance with such blank stares I swear I could clap ad they wouldn't blink) with a wide-eyed look on her face.

Alright, be polite, "Good evening, Mist." Politeness succeeded.

"You've got a haircut."

"Blame Oz."

She smiles shyly at me. "Well it looks good."

Aaaand now it's awkward as fuck.

"Where's Grumps?" Oz asks while reaching for the garlic bread on Seth's plate.

"Rain's on a mission tonight."

I am holding onto that sigh of relief and the tension in my butt cheeks almost-

And in marches Mike- Never mind. Butt cheeks tension level 'Granite' acquired.

He manages hostile eye contact with me before looking away and I'm feeling so much on guard that Lady's ears suddenly flatten as she looks in his general direction.

'Danger?'

I was tempted to say 'yes'. But luckily he didn't have a giant gun anywhere visible. Up his ass more like it.

'...No...it's nothing. I'm just feeling uncomfortable.' I poke a fork into a leaf and munch on it. I could taste that this was grown in controlled conditions. But it was edible. I next go for a chip and it tastes even better than I remembered. Deep fried potato...its making my mouth water even though I'm eating it. And the fish...perfectly flaky and wrapped in batter...I control myself from inhaling it.

I was disrupted from my focus on the food when I felt Mist sitting at the table. But her friends didn't follow, instead I found them sitting near Mike. Who for the most part was pretending to ignore me.

"What?" She mutters as she notices both Oz and Seth staring at her.

"Nothin'," Seth grins and goes back to eating.

And awkwardly silence resumes.

I look over to see X had finished his meal and was looking out into the distance once again.

I have to wonder what he hears when he's like this. Is it so loud that he can't focus on what's right in front of him? It's sort of like what Anne had trouble with in a crowd...I can't imagine what it would be like with an entire city...but...I frown down at my plate. I could 'hear' it as well? I can't hear anything now, except Seth and Oz getting into a strange war of snatching each other's' food from their plates and Mist...I look over at her, seeing that she was torn between being here and sitting with her obviously usual company. Why did she think she needed to be over here? She was transparently uncomfortable.

"How have you been Mist?" I finally ask, wanting some distraction.

"Oh Um...fine. I could ask you the same." She was startled and looks up at me like I caught her at something.

I shrug, putting down my fork, "On the mend I guess." I look over at Lady who went back to lying down on the ground, keenly watching anyone come near us.

"That's good. Your complexion looks better."

I couldn't help wanting to pull up my hood but resisted the urge, I know that action would cause attention on me and I already got enough looks from the tattoo thing on the side of my face. No need to make it more obvious that I was conscious of it. "Thank you..." as something I could at least muster.

X seemed to come back to reality as I feel his gaze switching back into this room. "Have you finished, Kae?"

I nod at him, "I think so."

He takes both my plate and his without a word and walks over to the serving area, putting them down on the serving counter with other stacked dirty dishes. He then walks over and stands in front of me. "Siem should be in his office for the moment."

I didn't need any more inclination to move. The room had acquired a quiet murmur since I sat down and melded into the background but it went back to an immediate dead silence when I stood again.

"Good luck," Oz salutes at me without moving from his seat.

I grunt at him before following X out of the room. Once we were out in the hallway, I couldn't hold off the urge to hide my face any longer and the hood went back up.

I let out a breath the moment we were on the elevator with the big cat finally in and the doors shut and the blasted contraption finally starts moving towards that bastard Viking's office.

Finally.