2 The Hidden

The day felt like it was never going to end. The heat bearing down from the sun on James's back as he pushed on the rear of his friends Mustang. Sweat rolled from his forehead, matting his dark brown hair to his head.

"How could you run out of gas!?" He pestered his friend Michael. "Your parents give you enough money to buy this thing and you can't even keep the tank filled?" He teased further.

"Just keep pushing, pack mule. The gas station is only a block away. It won't kill you. I swear." Mike spouted from the open driver's door. His attempt to steer the vehicle and push at the same time was making little difference. "I told you before I can't let my folks know I lost my job. You want them to take my car from me? Then we will both be out walking everywhere."

"Well then genius, how are we going to get the gas when we get to the station? I don't see you magically pulling money from thin air." James huffed as they strained to get the car into the lot.

Mike stretched his back as he noticed the female clerk inside and smiled. "Watch and learn buddy, watch and learn." He grinned as he pulled his blond hair back and opened the top two buttons of his shirt. Mike kept himself in fit condition. James was constantly pushing himself to keep up physically with Mike's workout schedule and even though they were both eighteen he could barely keep up.

James watched as Mike sauntered inside with that lady killer walk he put on to flirt. "That guy really is full of himself" James thought to himself before turning to grab the gas lever. It wasn't a question of if Mike could get the gas. it was how much she would spot them to get by. Mike always had this flair for getting out of his own stupidity's consequences relatively unscathed.

James looked back as Mike came out of the store. "I scored us ten bucks man. That should hold us til I can find more work." Mike sat in the car and gave James a look. "Though I think we might wanna leave quick. She wasn't quite all there in the head. She was talking to herself."

James finished pumping the gas and turned back to see the attendant. Noticing him looking, she seemed to scowl and move away from the window, looking for something below the counter. A reddish hue seemed to fill the area next to where she was standing as James noticed a figure with black eyes come I to focus. "Oh shit. We need to go, NOW!" He jumped in the passengers seat and grabbed Mike's arm. "Now!"

Mike shook James grip off his arm. " Dude, I said she was talking to herself. Not that she was dangerous." He gave James a nasty look. "Why are you all worked up?"

James wasn't even paying attention to Mike's question as he looked back at the window. He saw the figure watching him and whispering something towards the young woman at the counter. She finally emerged from the other side holding a sawn off shotgun! "That's why!" He shouted as Mike saw the firearm. A string of explicatives escaping him as he started the car and threw it into drive. He stomped on it as the first shot rang out and a spread of pellets hit the trunk and shattered the rear glass.

He hit the sharp turn out of the lot, almost striking another vehicle as a second shot peppered the side of the car. "What the hell was that!?!?" Mike roared as he pressed the gas pedal hard.

James had to brace his arms against the dash to keep from being thrown sideways while Mike spun the car around another few blocks and into an alley. "I saw her reaching below the counter. Someone else was back there with her." He debated telling Mike how he saw the man appear. How he knew what the man really was. But that would have to wait for another time. He doubted Mike would believe him, much less listen to him. "It's kind of like a sixth sense."

The blond man stepped out of the car and started inspecting the damage. "How am I even going to explain this to my folks man? This car is still being paid for! Not to mention the police report." He was already dialing 911 to report the incident while James went to the corner of the building and eyed their surroundings.

James had been able to see these kinds of things since he could remember. He vividly remembered when his mother died in a car wreck. A drunk driver had been flying down the road too fast. Too inebriated to drive along with speeding caused the accident. James stared at the individual that whispered in the drunk's ear had white feathery wings and a dark colored suit on. He was young enough that when he tried to tell people that there was another person they attributed it to PTSD from the seeing the wreck. It was his first taste of the hidden world that no one else could see.

He had seen others in instances of anger, grief, and sadness. some with white wings, others with dark burnt orange skin that smelt of leather. Only once did he ever see that one, shortly before a man went into a bank and shot people as he robbed it. Nothing ever good came of seeing any of them.

"Mike, I see the Police coming. Three cars to us and two headed the other way to the gas station." James nodded towards them.

Mike was looking like he had seen a ghost after looked over his car. "My parents are gonna kill me for this."