Otherly Natural

Chapter 2

(updating Sundays)

“Hi Cassie,” A voice said brightly as the fog cleared out a bit, Cassy saw that it was a mote of sunlight about three feet in diameter that rushed into the room.

In the center of what was essentially a massive sunburst, was the figure of a woman with glowing blonde hair that faded into just pure light at the center of the burst. You could see her hands and legs, but the light in the middle was so bright that nothing could be made out at all.

“Sorry about that! It was kind of a humid day and I had to draw on a lot more heat from the room than I thought in order to manifest and so all the water vapor in the air condensed into fog since I'm kind of hot, and then I brought a little more mass then I intended to, which made a vacuum, so the sound of air rushing back in-”

“It's alright,” Cassie said mildly, adjusting her lemon to get more of it through the straw, “you know how to make an entrance! Always fun.” Cassy brushed some of the condensed water from her brow, brushing back her brown hair where it collected with the rest that fell just short of her shoulders. The coolness from the fog was actually a relief since they had terrible air conditioning. Still better than none, she thought, smiling a bit,

“So, I didn't do anything bad, like last time?” Sunny asked, looking sheepish.

“You didn't do create sunlight at night in front of a vampire bad, no,” Cassy said with a smirk. Then her expression softened. “It was fine, Sunny. Really. I liked the fog. Neat trick.”

“Oh. Okay!” Sunny said, looking mollified.

After a beat, Sunny started looking around the room, hovering over towards the door.

“Did Shelly get out OK?” Her voice was a bit strange, but not unpleasant. It had a kind of celestial warbling to it. Definitely not created through a throat, that was for sure. Ghosts didn't really have those.

“A woman of few words,” Cassie said. “But then again, some would say that it's better if Necromancers don't speak too much.”

“Well that's not very nice,” Sunny said in a petulant voice, though her expression still looked so radiant it was kind of hard to be sure. “I'd probably never make it here without her ever since I had to leave home. Temporarily.”

“Doesn't it feel weird in there? In her head or whatever?”Cassy asked.

“Oh no, Hollow Necromancers are very nice with their spirits,” She said. “It's very relaxing, and I can do lots of stuff I did before”

“And what does she get out of it again?” Cassie asked, trying to keep her voice from sounding too hard but mostly failing. It'd been a rough week.

“You'd have to ask her,” Sunny said with a wink. Or maybe it was more like her light turn off and on again. That was at least the best way that Cassy could interpret it.

“Seriously though, I think it makes her more powerful or something? She always tells me that she learns a lot,” Sunny said.

Cassie nodded. There was quiet for a bit where no one said anything.

Then Cassie remembered something that Minerva had been talking about and she blurted it out before thinking about it enough. She was in that kind of mood.

“Sonny, have you been- Our first electric bill already looks three times above the average-”

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The edges of Sonny's sunburst grew pink, much like the real sunset just passing outside.

“Oh no! I'm sorry! Sometimes I get sleepy and just take energy from the walls. I'm sorry!”

She looked super distressed and was like vibrating in the air and dancing around in slow circles like a guilty dog.

“I'll stop with that, I promise! There are lots of other energy sources I can use!”

“Oh right, I totally didn't think about the situation. I keep thinking of you as human. It's OK, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't miscalculated somehow.” She shook her head. This whole situation had her out of it.

She held up her hand as Sunny started looking more and more distressed.

“It's really not that much, come to think of it,” Cassy said awkwardly.

Sunny started spinning around even more furiously. Cassandra was starting to view this as her “thinking mode.” Maybe it meant she was turning her embarrassment into ideas? Cassy was still trying to understand how Sunny worked.

She stopped after a moment and said, “I'm no good at human money yet. I completely forget about it. But- I can help some other way? Yes? Fix a problem?”

“Hey now, remember, you were a human at one point.”

“That was a boring time,” she said with emphasis. Then laughed. “Just kidding. I like humans! Well, certain humans. Ooh!”

And with that, she vanished for approximately half a second. Then she popped back into the room with a smallish snap this time.

“Those humans outside in the van. You don't like them right?”

“I do wish they would go away on their own,” She admitted, grumbling.

“I've got an idea!” She said and popped out of existence again before Cassandra could get a word in edgewise.

She was only on her second sip of iced tea when Sunny popped back in again. It couldn't have been more than 10 seconds.

“Sunny!” Cassy said, concerned. “Where did you just go? What's going on? It's fine, you don't have to do anything! I was just being grumpy! You should tell me before you do anything drastic

Sunny looked distracted. She didn't really respond to anything Cassy had just said.

“OK, wait for it. We have to see if he's actually online right now. He is! Ooh, he's so annoyed! He's going to do it, yay! Go to the window. The window, quick!”

Not knowing what any of this meant, Cassandra walked back into her room and pulled the blinds back again.

Nothing happened for a good 20 seconds, but Sunny had floated over her shoulder, following her, and was still vibrating with enthusiasm, so Cassy kept watching.

What could this be about? Cassie wondered. She looked over at the van with the guy who had tried to kidnap her last week where it was still positioned in a lot across the street. This time she was a bit calmer, so she was able to note some more details about it. She realized that those jerks' van was actually parked in someone's parking space. It wasn't a public parking lot like she had thought at first, though it did look like one.

No, it was someone's driveway. Did the kidnappers know the people from where they parked?

There was a light commotion coming from the porch, making it easier to see now that the sun was almost fully down, otherwise, it would've been quite dark.

Suddenly the door opened and a man in his fifties walked out. He had a light beige shirt on and glasses. He moved slowly but with purpose, and the man in the driver's seat of the kidnappers' Fly van put his window down as house-guy approached.

The man from the house said some choice words to him, looking angry, and pointing at something Cassie couldn't see. The kidnapper in the driver's seat held up his hands and said something that sounded like he was trying to talk the house-man down.

It didn't work.

Finally, the kidnappers started driving off.

When Cassandra realized what was happening, she cried into her hand a little, taking a deep, shuddering breath as the van drove away. The man in the driver's seat she didn't recognize, though he glared daggers at her as he turned past their building, turning right so they could see then see the back of the van.

But, the man shifting around in the back with binoculars on his neck, Cassandra recognized him. She forced herself to stare him down while she scratched her shoulder. She still remembered what his breath smelled like. Like old fish. She remembered as he brought the knife down on her back.

The agonizing shock of pain. she could somehow still feel his hand brush past her shoulder even as the dagger was in her back. She had shivered almost as much from being disturbed by the touch of his hand

“Oh god,” she said, shuddering and shaking her head, brown hair whipping around everywhere. She watched as the kidnapper she recognized receded from view utterly, gritting his teeth. Cassandra grinned despite the memory as the van left.

“Thank you so much Sunny,” She said. “That murderous psychopath has been staring at this house for like a week I don't think I even realized how much it was bothering me.”

“No problem!” Sunny said, whirring in circles across the room, shards of sunlight spattering across the whole room. “I'll try to get more energy from the sidewalk outside, it's just so easy to get it from the walls! She protested, the yellow sunlight turning a bit pink with embarrassment.

“How on Earth did you do that though, Sunny?”