by Quinn Loftis
~
“So why exactly were you hiding in that conference room?” Cassie’s father asked as they walked out to the parking lot after having locked up his office.
Cassie had been trying to figure out what to tell her father. She didn’t want to freak him out, nor did she want to sound like she was off her rocker, but she didn’t want to lie to him either.
“Are there any unusual people who work in your building?” She asked carefully.
“What do you mean by unusual?” He asked as they arrived at her car.
“Like long, shiny hair, unusual colored eyes, and pointy ears unusual?” Cassie cringed as she said the last part. She knew how it sounded, and the look on her father’s face just confirmed the sanity, or lack thereof, in her statement.
He thought for a moment before he replied. “The owners of our company are a little odd looking.”
Cassie jumped on that statement. “Odd, how?”
Her dad scrunched up his face as he tried to describe them. Of course, a man trying to describe anyone in any amount of useful detail was a little bit of a stretch.
“Well, they don’t have long hair, or pointy ears, but they are…” he scratched his forehead and searched for the words, “well, for lack of a better term, beautiful.”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open and her mind jumped to the tall, incredibly handsome, and yes, beautiful, guy who called himself Trik. She remembered how his appearance had seemed to shift before her very eyes, though both forms were unbelievably beautiful.
“They don’t have long shiny hair?” She asked.
Once again her father looked at her as if she had grown a second head.
“No. No long shiny hair. Are you sure you’re alright?” He asked her cautiously.
Cassie thought for a moment before she answered her father. “I’m alright,” she nodded, “maybe they were just dressed in their Halloween costumes or something.” The tone of her voice made it very clear that she didn’t believe her own words.
“Maybe you need to get more sleep,” her dad offered.
Cassie nodded in agreement, though she knew that what she had seen had nothing to do with sleep. She climbed into her car telling her dad that she would meet him at home.
“Be careful,” he told her as he always did when she was getting in her car.