Ceremonies Of Innocence

by Persephone

London, England.

He had the most compelling eyes.

They were soul-stealing, those dark orbs. Amidst the chatter and commotion, they mesmerized her, held her captivated. The words of her friends, though they sat mere inches from her, seemed as distant and nonsensical as the tide. Somehow, they seemed to draw her out of herself until there was nothing save him and her.

Cat had noticed him right away. Probably because she hadn't been blocking everything out as was her wont to do normally. While waiting for Ami and Jade to show up, she had been letting some of the "background noise", as Jade liked to call it, filter in. Almost like slipping in and out of radio frequencies, idly flipping through until you found that one right station. Almost by chance, she had stumbled upon him. There was something about him--an air, an aura. A feel, if you will, of power, of something other than normal. He felt strong to her but that strength was not that of a normal human. Another Tomorrow Person, she had thought at first. But the mental aura didn't feel right for that. It felt ... interesting. Strangely similar to that of a Tomorrow Person but more potent, more intense. She could almost see the ebb and flow of that aura, could practically hear his thoughts--his shields, no less, thrum each time she brushed them.

"Cat?" She heard Jade's voice as if it were coming through a hollow tube, the impatience there barely making a dint through the malaise affecting her.

"Hmm?" Her mind felt sluggish, unwilling to be drawn back to reality, to beyond this moment.

"Earth to Cat," Jade drawled, "So, Cat, tell us--how's it where ever you are?"

"I--" She blinked and managed to tear her gaze back to her friend's faces--Jade's slightly curious and Ami's concerned. "I'm sorry. Did ye say somethin'?"

"Oh, only for the last ten minutes," Jade shrugged nonchalantly, "But who's counting?"

"Jade!" Ami sounded reproving. Her almond-shaped eyes focused on Cat's. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm--I'm no' sure." Why had she said that? She didn't feel as if this guy were a threat though the alienness of his thoughts did rattle her. Her own reaction, however, was another thing entirely. Cat was unsettled by her unexplained absorption, by the way her mind was reacting to the feel of his. It was like a drug. It was incredible. It...

...didn't make sense. If he wasn't a Tomorrow Person, then what was he? A psychic? That wasn't quite right either. Cat had "run" into a few of those from time to time while scanning. Psychics still felt human when you brushed their mind. And this ... this did not. There was an strangeness to this mind that went beyond human ilk.

Moreover, she disliked the mild sense of disorientation she was experiencing--almost as if she had or were being drugged.

"Cat," Ami prodded. Her dark eyes were filled with worry and Cat pulled back internally as she felt the other girl gently probing her mental shielding.

"Sorry," she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "It's nothing. Really. I'm just feeling a little spaced today."

"I bet I know why," Jade sounded awed, "Oh, yum, I'll have some of that, please."

The other two girls followed her gaze across the mall's Food Court...

...right back to Mr. Fathomless Eyes. He was sitting several tables over, almost diagonal to their table. He didn't seem to notice their stares, instead his attention seemed to be focused inward, an air of distraction plain on his face. One slender hand was making lazy rotations with a coffee stirrer above a Styrofoam cup as he leaned back in his chair.

"What a hottie," Jade all but drooled over her plate.

"Down, Jade," Ami teased. "He's definitely too old for you."

"Says who?" Jade tossed her head in mock-outrage, "And I don't notice you looking elsewhere, dearie."

Ami actually appeared embarrassed. Her eyes dropped, one hand twisting and tearing a paper napkin. "That's not the point," she protested.

"Of course not," Jade patted her hand with a gleeful, triumphant smile. "So, Cat, should Adam be worried?"

To tell the truth, she hadn't really looked at him until now. And now that she was looking, Cat had to admit that he was really quite striking. Thick dark hair, the kind that made you itch to run your fingers through it. Prominent cheekbones and deep-set eyes... Very nice but not the warm brown eyes, and boyish smile she had grown so fond of.

"Dinna be daft," Cat rolled her eyes, voice dripping with absolute certainty.

Jade raised her eyebrows skeptically but let it pass. "Still, he is definitely a hottie," she sighed.

"So you've said," Ami gave her one of those knowing smiles that drove the younger girl up the wall. Which, Cat was fairly certain, was why she did it.

"And I don't hear you disagreeing," Jade purred.

Half-listening to Jade's comeback, Cat found her attention wandering back to the lone figure that had sparked such debate amongst them. There was something that teased and tantalized the edge of her thoughts, causing her to lower her shielding even more and focus on him. It bothered her, bewildered her. Experimentally, she reached out and brushed against the peripheries of his mind ever so lightly.

He jerked upright, stiffening.

So did she. 'He felt that,' Cat thought wildly as she noticed his eyes slitting and scanning the room almost like he was stalking prey. She suddenly had the very real feeling of panic wash over her. Some instinct screamed at her to run, to flee before she was caught and...

And what?

Turning her head so that her red hair fell forward, obscuring her face, she hissed at Ami and Jade, "Lower yer shielding."

They stopped arguing mid-sentence. "Say what?" Jade's voice was incredulous.

"Let. Yer. Shields. Down," Cat tried to make her voice sound as normal as possible.

"Why?" Jade demanded.

"Just do it," Cat snapped, "And dinna do anythin' besides that!"

Ami studied her through narrowed eyes which quickly widened. "What is that?" she gasped.

"Ye feel it, too?" Cat felt relieved. She had been half-afraid that her overactive imagination was finding needles in haystacks that didn't exist.

Not to be left out, Jade evidently had lowered her own shielding. Her nose wrinkled, brow knit in consternation, "Oh, whoa."

"That's putting it mildly," Ami muttered, rubbing her upper arms. Unease hovered over her, shoulders tight with sudden tension. It was evident she didn't care for what she was feeling. "What do you suppose it is?"

"I dinna ken," Cat replied truthfully, "but I ken where it's comin' from-- Jade's hottie."

"My hottie?" Jade's voice rose an octave, "Since when did he become my hottie? You saw him first!"

"Not so loud," Ami glared at her.

"Besides," Jade continued, undeterred. "Are you really sure it's coming from him? I mean, how could someone that cute feel ... ugh, like that."

Before Cat or Ami could stop her, the younger girl sent a mental probe of her own. Then paled when their handsome stranger looked straight at them. His dark eyes glittered dangerously.

"Um, guys," Ami's voice was quiet but for all its quietness, there was no mistaking the anxiety there, "I think now might be a good time to leave."

"Seconded." Jade said in a small voice, rising and grabbing her food tray.

Cat threw one last glance back as they hurried out. He was watching their departure, specifically staring at her as he noticed her gaze. She shivered. That feeling of being hunted, of the prey fleeing the predator, accosted her again.

She didn't feel safe until she was a country away, back home in Scotland.

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