Tina Chan - imperfect

“Okay. What do you want to show me?”

“Come here. Stevey has a secret to show you.”

Her sixth sense tugged at her gut, warning her to run away from this place as fast as possible. On the other hand, Kristi was curious about what Stevey wanted to show her. She squashed her fears down deep inside and walked over to Stevey.

His back was turned to her when she inched over to him.

“What is it that you wanted to show me?” Kristi asked.

Stevey spun around and lunged at her. His eyes glowed red and razor-sharp claws erupted from his fingers. Kristi ducked to the right and felt the air hiss where Stevey attempted to swipe at her.

“What are you?” she gasped.

Stevey let loose a string of cackles and swiped his claws at her shoulders again. She dodged half a second too late and his ragged nails raked down her left shoulder. Blood welled out from the three gashes. At the sight of her blood, Stevey seemed to be hyped into a feverous state.

“Help!” Kristi yelled into the emptiness.

“No one can hear you,” Stevey grinned a malevolent grin.

He tackled her to the ground. His breath stunk of stale liquor. Flames danced in his eyes.

“Die,” he growled into Kristi’s ear and lazily dragged a single talon across her throat.

She screamed.

Thud!

Kristi bolted upright in bed, banging her head against the headboard. She checked herself for any injuries and then threw a glance at the clock on the bed stand.

“That was just a nightmare,” she reassured herself.

She patted the bed to make sure it was solid and not an illusion while her heart hammered uncontrollably against her chest. There was no point in trying to fall back asleep; she was too disturbed by the nightmare, so she decided to make some French toast for breakfast. Kristi snatched some clothes and tiptoed into the bathroom. Once she had tidied up, she flicked on the kitchen lights and got to work.

Let’s see, she thought, I need milk, eggs, bread and butter. She hummed the theme song of The Phantom of the Opera while gathering all the ingredients and started whisking the milk and eggs together. Then she heated up the pan and greased it with a stick of butter. When she dipped the bread into the egg-milk mixture, she accidently knocked over the bowl of pretzels that had been sitting on the counter, leftover from the night before.

“I’ll clean that up after I make this piece of French toast,” she said to herself.

The pan sizzled and hissed as breakfast cooked on the stove. After she was satisfied that particular piece of French toast was done, she flipped it onto a plate and turned around to clean up the pretzels.

The pretzels were already swept from the floor. She stopped humming and frowned.

Then Kristi looked up and saw Troop observing her from the far side of the kitchen. She knew at once that it was he who had cleaned up the spilt pretzels.

“Thanks,” she said curtly and returned to making breakfast.

“I see you still haven’t forgiven me.”

Kristi dropped another piece of bread into the egg-milk mixture, watching it soak up the liquid. “You best better believe that.”

“Why up so early?” Troop asked. “From what Jaiden told me last night, you’re not a morning person.”

“That is none of your business,” she said, feeling displeased that Jaiden was talking to Troop about her when she wasn’t around.

“Is there any chance that you’ll forgive me? I really don’t want to be traveling with someone who’s going to be giving me the death-eye every five minutes for the next few weeks.” Troop ran his fingers through his hair.

Kristi pretended to think about his question with exaggerated gestures then said, “Let’s see…No.”

The smell of burning French toast brought her attention back to making breakfast. She flipped the burnt piece into the trash and started on the next slice.

Troop said no more and just watched. Kristi pretended she didn’t feel bothered by his presence. Her pretending didn’t last long.

“That’s kind of creepy,” she commented a few minutes later.

“What?”

“You just standing there and watching.” Kristi picked up the dirty whisks, bowls and the pan she had used to make breakfast and rinsed them off. “Don’t you have something better to do?”

“Not really.”

A bleary-eyed Chelsa stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes and giving the impression that she had just woken up. She stopped walking and looked from Kristi to Troop then from Troop back to Kristi.

“Were you two actually having a conversation ?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” Troop said.

At the same time Kristi said, “Only something resembling a conversation.”

“We need new ID cards,” Kristi said.

They were packing up their belongings and preparing to leave the Rex Hotel. She was going to miss this plush lodging.

“Already thought of that,” Chelsa replied. “I ordered new cards for you and Jaiden last night. They should have already arrived. We’ll pick them up when we head out.”

They hoisted up their backpacks and took the elevator down to the lobby. Chelsa spoke with the receptionist and returned clutching a slim package. After making sure there weren’t any prying eyes around, Chelsa discreetly handed Jaiden and Kristi their new ID cards.

Kristi’s card name was still Kelly Harrison, but the girl’s picture resembled her this time. They shared the same red-brown hair color, at any rate.

“Let’s go get the droid-horses,” Jaiden said.

The stable, like the rest of the hotel, was grand and extravagant. The stable walls were made out of marble bricks and livery dressed stable-hands patrolled the grounds. They entered through the stable doors, which could’ve fit twenty horses abreast with no problem. Rows upon rows of droid-horses peered at them over their stall doors.

Kristi scanned the horses until she found the one she was looking for. White fur gleaming and intelligent eyes gazing back at her stood Flurry. A little bubble of happiness rose inside her. Tiffany had kept her word and tracked down Flurry.

Kristi walked as fast as she could without looking conspicuous to Flurry’s stall. Flurry nickered affectionately at Kristi and she buried her face into Flurry’s mane, stroking her powerful shoulders.

“I missed you so much.”

Flurry’s warm, chocolate-brown eyes appraised Kristi as if to say, “And I you.”

Tiffany was even nice enough to purchase quality tack for Flurry.

“Troop, you can ride Mist,” said Jaiden. “Mist is the gray droid-horse beside the appaloosa.”

Kristi felt bad for Mist for having to be ridden by a jerk. Troop seemed like the type of person who yanked on the reins too hard or dug his heels into the horse too sharply. She finished tacking up Flurry and waited for Jaiden, Troop and Chelsa to meet her outside.

Oppidum, the town that Finn should be in, was roughly four hundred miles from Charleston if they took Route 56. However, they couldn’t take Route 56 due to landslides. They had to detour around the stretch of Route 56 buried underneath tons of earth and rock. As a result, traveling on South Lane—which added a good fifty miles—was the fastest route to Oppidum.

Jaiden and Chelsa rode in the front, side by side. Troop and Kristi trailed behind them, an awkward wall of silence between them.

Kristi concealed her astonishment; Troop was actually a good rider. He had a gentle but firm hand—not that it would’ve mattered since Mist was a droid and didn’t have feelings. Nevertheless, Kristi always acted as if droid-horses were real horses.

Despite the fact that three days had passed by uneventfully, there was still tangible tension taut between Troop and Kristi. Not that Troop didn’t attempt to relieve some of the tension. Several times. All in vain.