Cryptids - Chapter Five Revised

                                                                Chapter Five



“You have no say in this, Marozi.” The man said as he glared at Hugh. She could practically feel the anger ripple through the air around him. It had an animalistic weight to it that she couldn’t define.

         “What the hell is going on Hugh? Do you know this guy?”, she had thought she had filled her quota for weird shit, but apparently not. Hugh stepped towards her as if to wrap his arm around her, but she backed away from him before he got the chance. Whatever was going on she didn’t like it. It was like Hugh had been lying to her this whole time. Someone else could argue all they wanted about omissions not being lies and they were welcome to their opinions. However, you know what they say about opinions.

         Hugh took a step back from her, giving her the space she needed, but he didn’t look happy about it with the strange guy was still so close. “It’s kind of a long story, Kyleigh. Don’t you think it would be better discussed in private instead of a crowded bar? And without certain unwelcome people involved?”, he left no doubt as to whom he was speaking of as he glared at him as he said it.

         The person in question glared back in return. Then he turned his dark eyes to Kyleigh. “Those close to me call me Xavier. Something tells me we will get close.”, he said in his deep gravelly voice. “I’ve been looking for you since I heard you had returned. Your father will be very happy. I was told to give you this as a kind of peace token.”, as he said this he reached into his back pocket and withdrew something.

         Hugh immediately jumped forward again as if to protect Kyleigh. She in return pushed him back where he had been standing. This got some attention from the other bar’s patrons. She was amazed they had managed this long to go unnoticed. Apparently, everyone must have assumed that they were just chatting it up like friends who had just bumped into each other and were catching up.  Having so many eyes on her made her nervous. “Hugh, I can take care of myself. Cool it.” After gazing at the men continuing to glare defiantly at each other for a few seconds she announced, “Let’s take this outside. I’m not here to entertain the whole bar.” She turned on her heel and started for the door assuming they would follow her lead.

         The night warm breeze swept her hair into dancing waves as Kyleigh stepped out of the entrance of the bar. It was the perfect night for a midnight swim. Just imagining diving into the cool depths of water and leaving behind the stress of the day made her eager to return to the hotel.

         With a sigh, she pushed away such pleasant thoughts and crossed the parking lot to stand near her car. This conversation would probably be one best kept away from the entrance to the bar and its patrons. Hugh and Xavier had followed her out, but she was surprised to see that so had Erica. “Erica, this isn’t something that you need to be tangled up in.”

         “Yeah, Kyleigh, it’s a little late for that. I never got why it had to be a secret just from you. What is so different about you? They all said that you must be protected. I have known my whole life what I am.” Erica said this very calmly, but her face betrayed her. Gone was the easy smile she had displayed throughout the evening and now she wore the expression of a sullen teenager.

         Kyleigh watched her cousin’s face, waiting for that pouty look to change into a grin and for Erica to say just kidding. When she didn’t Kyleigh said, “You can’t mean…” She couldn’t finish.

         “Yes, I’m a weres rekhyt. How can you be surprised? I’m part of your family. Didn’t Khepera tell you that we are what we are because we are descended from the first pharaoh? All of the descendants of King Narmer have a second life as a beast. That is why when you look at the Egyptian artifacts the pharaohs are depicted with animal heads. We have been made in the image of our gods. As the gods have an animal, so we also have an animal.”

         With a feeling skirting shock, Kyleigh turned to Hugh. “He called you Marozi, as in spotted lion. You… you mean you are a shape shifter too?” She couldn’t help looking at him incredulously. Was everyone she had come to know and trust going to come forward and claim to be some part of this new supernatural world.

         Hugh became very still, as if bracing himself for a verbal attack. “Khepera sent me to watch after you. I was supposed to keep a distance, but you intrigued me. It kept getting harder and harder to stay away from you. You must have felt something. Some part of you must have felt that we are the same.”

         His apprehension was well conceived. Kyleigh glared at him as her hands became tight fists at her sides. “You had no right! How long? And to think that I trusted you. When I came to you and told you what I learned you could have told me then. Why didn’t you?”, as she said these last words she backed away from them both.

Unfortunately, this brought her close enough to Xavier that he reached out and grasped her arms to bring her back against him. Her back was pressed against his warm chest. Xavier leaned down until his lips brushed her ear as he whispered to her, “It seems as if I have come at a bad time. Perhaps you should deal with these nuisances and I will come to you again later. We have so much to discuss.”, after he said this she felt the press of thick paper in her hand and he was gone.

Her skin tingled where he had touched her like tiny insects dancing along her skin. She attempted to shake the feeling as she turned back to her cousin and Hugh. “I need time to digest this. I don’t even know what to say to either of you.” Kyleigh backed away from them and got into her car, keeping her eyes on them the whole time. Hugh stepped forward as if to stop her leaving, but Erica placed her hand on his shoulder and he stopped.

She drove with the radio blasting and tried to quiet the rambling of her thoughts as her mind bounced from one conversation to the next that had taken place over the past few years. Each seemed like a lie, because each time it had been Erica keeping secrets or Hugh straight out lying to her.

The drive went by too quickly and the next thing Kyleigh knew she was pulling into the hotel parking lot. Thankfully, they informed her that her room was straight and she could move back into her room immediately. Her first thought as she had her things in place was to pack everything and leave. There would be no recapturing the thylacine now. Instead she went to the mini-bar and poured a double shot of tequila.

         Confusion swept over Kyleigh with as much force as she had used to hold everything together in the past week. One outrageous situation after another had been thrust into her life and her world turned upside down. Maybe it was time to stop trying to understand everything and just start taking it at face value and moving on. The basics were what she would need to focus on now. Those basics were: Who to trust? Who to side with in this impossible war? And was there a possibility she had lost it?

If she had lost it, there was nothing she could do about it now but roll with the punches and hope soon she would receive medication to escape her own delusions and return to the real world. The other two questions were a little harder to answer. Erica was her family, but it was as if she had been morphed into a stranger in the past day.  Hugh was fairly new; though he was right she had felt a connection. Though, to be completely honest she had felt from the beginning that there was something different and possibly untrustworthy about him as well.

There was also the situation with the Lamias. Were they friend or foe? How could these weres rekhyt expect her to believe that not only did they exist but that she was one of them? She would know if there was something different about her. And the woman Khepera said that Kyleigh had some power inherited from her mother, but if she did: what was it and how could she possess this special power and be unaware of it?

And she was at it again – trying to understand instead of choosing her course of action. Things were far simpler when she had Hugh standing beside her as just another human trying to sort this craziness out.

A knock at the door ripped her from her thoughts of self-preservation. Kyleigh grabbed her gun from her bedside drawer and crept quietly to the side of the door. “Who is it?” she asked loudly once situated.

“Open the door, Kyleigh. The war has started.”





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