Chapter 5:

Deceit in Plain Sight

(Outdated) Simular Beings


The boy ran. As fast as his legs could take him. The bakery was in sight. The cake was there, waiting for someone to snatch it away. All he had to do was grab it and bite. Savor the taste of grain for the first time in his life.

He was getting closer. The people around him started backing away. He could hear the woman’s footsteps getting louder. But the cake… It was so close. The frosting, the strawberries… He could name all the ingredients because of his inner records. He could only imagine the flavor, the sugary sweetness of the pastries. He could even taste the thoughts of chomping down already satiating his growling stomach. And when he was finally in range, he swiped—

His hands went straight through the dessert.

There was a short momentary dread where his face was drained of color. He swiped at the other sweets—the apple pies, the macarons, the beautifully powdered mille-feuilles… His hands went through all of them. As if they didn’t exist. They simply flickered like illusory lights. And then he realized—

It was a lie. The cake, the bread… Everything was a lie. They were just hyper realistic holograms all along…

A hand suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder. It was iron tight. Unbreakable. The boy jumped in panic. It was her—the woman from before. He struggled, moving in every which way possible. He pulled at his arm, and for a second, he thought her grip weakened, but that was also a lie, imagined up in his mind.

Her blank eyes stared into him like the void. A creeping fear crawled up his mind—a fear that it wouldn’t end well for him if he didn’t escape her grasp. He needed to break free. No, he had to. So with all his might, he pulled. Then again. And again… Until finally…

He was freed once more.

The boy ran. Again. Faster this time. With more haste and speed. Where was he going? He didn’t know. His only goal was to get as far away from that woman as possible. He couldn’t let her catch him.

He ran towards the inner city, pushing past all the people who hadn’t yet noticed him. He was bumped around and jostled, but he kept his balance steady. He kept running.

There! A dark alleyway! He immediately changed directions and tripped through the ominous corridor. Common sense told him to do it. It told him it would be less populated and quieter. He’d be more unseen, out of sight from all the dangers of the world. He could hide here. Somewhere…

He looked around.

A dumpster, a few trash cans, pipes, and an old air conditioning system… A dead end. But he had to hide. Where? There was nowhere else to go.

Dumpster!

It was common sense! Common sense was telling him to do it! So he jumped into the dumpster and closed the lid. There were bags of smelly, disposed garbage—fish bones and puddles of condiments. Metal rods poked out through punctured holes. But he dug deeper; he wasn’t hidden enough! He swam underneath all the gunk and held his breath. He waited, listening to all the noise outside.

There were sounds of people shuffling through the sidewalks, the occasional yelling and shouting of kids, and the roaring of construction equipment and mechanical engines. It was quiet. Other than all that background noise, it was silent…

Then the ground started to rumble; the dumpster started to move. One by one, the bags of trash disappeared. Popped like soap bubbles. Gone without a trace. And in seconds, he was exposed in all his grimy splendor.

He was sprawled out on the asphalt surface half-naked with only a bed sheet in hand. The dumpster was gone; the bags of trash had all poofed out of existence.

Standing in front of him was the woman again. Her hand was outstretched and glowing ever so slightly. Then the glow disappeared and she stared. Again, motionless. As if time had simply stopped.

Did I… stop time?

But he already knew the answer to that. There were still people moving in the distance, engines roaring in rough vigor… Of course time hadn’t stopped.

For what seemed like an hour, both of them stared in silence. Common sense had already dictated that running wasn’t an option. There was no other answer; he had to give up. He was starving, tired, and out of breath. There was nothing more he could do to better the odds of escape.

And then, without a single word, she suddenly left—walked out the alley as if he weren’t there.

Just like that? He was confused. Why had she walked away? After having cornered him. But then, as if to answer his thoughts, a new figure approached him right as she had turned the corner. Sharp, narrow eyes suddenly speared him down.

An odd man dressed in all-black stood before him. Unlike the woman’s unusual construction attire, he looked more kempt. Well suited, well dressed. Like some sort of businessman? That was what his records stated. But his entire get-up was oddly unfitting for the environment. And his face. It was more… animated?

“Well,” the man spoke. “You’re quite a difficult catch, you know?” He held out his hand. “Come with me.”

The boy hesitated. Common sense told him not to trust strangers. It was obvious that he wouldn’t just grab the hand of somebody he had never seen before. Especially not somebody who had unfitting attire to his surroundings. This man looked so out of place. Especially the sharp eyebrows.

“Alright. Let’s try this again,” the man said. “Food. Would you like some food?”

Food?

Taylor Victoria
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Cora
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