I pulled my eyes away from him and saw Sierra, Mike, Taylor, and Rick strung up to the ceiling with vines. I barely stifled my gasp. The vines secured them tightly to the beams of the ceiling tile. They appeared to be passed out for the moment.
“They’re near,” Mr. Obnoxious tattoo guy grinned.
I looked over at him and watched as his tongue snaked out like a reptile, three times as long as the normal tongue and forked. I nearly stumbled back. I had to remind myself that I had jumped and technically I wasn’t myself.
“Mmm,” he moaned out creepily. “I smell the sweetness of a young, nubile girl. She wears vanilla and…uses coconut shampoo. She with a man, he’s sweaty and bloody.” He cackled gleefully. “You got him, Spike. You got him.”
“I always do,” a young black guy said smugly.
I looked over at him, and porcupine-like appendages began to emerge on every surface of his skin.
Creepy snake-tongue man stuck his tongue out once more. “Let’s go get them.”
I followed the man knowing I needed to save Victoria and Ben.
I felt a small hand link through mine. I went to pull away but noticed the look in the eyes of the glowing girls. Something in her eyes told me that it was Lincoln. He had found the closest person in the vicinity and had jumped them.
“How do you resist the urge not to grope your own boobs?” I blurted out.
I heard him chuckle in my head. “The same way you aren’t fondling the extra appendages between your legs,” he replied back.
Note to self: I still had the ability to use my other gifts while I was jumping. Out of curiosity, I held out my hand and imagined a little mouse in my hand. I then envisioned him eating a chunk of cheese. My mouse was more cartoonish looking with his big ears, but he was definitely real. I nearly giggled as his small little claws tickled my palm.
“Blake,” Lincoln hastily reminded me.
“What was that?” a man asked me suspiciously to my right.
I turned and looked at him. He looked like he belonged on a hippy commune. He had long dirty blonde dreadlocks and wore a brown handmade woven poncho with a pair of Birkenstocks. Who wore Birkenstocks in this kind of weather?!
The hodgepodge looks in this group was interesting, to say the least.
“No-” I began to speak but was momentarily shocked by the deepness and very maleness of my voice. “Nothing.” I continued hastily.
“They’re here,” Snake Tongue stated as he went to open the door to the room Victoria and Ben were in.
“You see nothing,” I compelled them silently.
“I still smell her! They’re here somewhere,” Snake tongue barked as he began to kick over chairs and turn over tables.
The rest of the animals joined into his search before I could even react. I watched as a chair nearly hit Victoria in the head.
“Stop, no more!” I silently screamed.
The hostiles stopped their search and stood stoically still.
“Jace you can come in,” I silently called him. “Noah, I need you in the old school room,” I called out in concern as I ran over to Ben. A significant amount of blood was pooled beneath him. Victoria had his head cradled in her lap, and she was ineffectively trying to remove the spike-like barbs from his skin.
I ran over to Victoria, and she shirked back from me.
“Vicki, it’s me,” I murmured to her. “I just called for help.”
“No!” Victoria screamed. “Stay away,” she tried to valiantly disappear once more, but she was too weak to.
“Vicki,” Lincoln who was still the glowing girl insisted. “It’s Lincoln and Blake. It’s us. We promise.” He went silent for a moment as he thought quickly. “Tonight, Nadia lost her glow in dark ball, so you spent twenty dollars w
inning her a new one. By the way, it would have been cheaper to just buy one at the counter,” Lincoln teased.
She laughed sniffing back the tears. “But what fun would that have been? Um, can you change back? This is kind of creepy. I mean, Lincoln, you’re a girl! And, Blake… you’re a man.”