I is for Impostor

[parallax23]

IMPOSTOR

 

Simon had been watching her from afar, the mysterious dark haired girl who came to the coffee shop every day at this hour. Seeing her was one of the highlights of the time he had spent in Seattle. He tried not to think of himself as being some creepy stalker, eyeing his next victim as she scowled at the cup of coffee in front of her. This week’s brew tasted like sewer run-off. But she drank it anyway.

She was pretty. Prettier than most girls he’d encountered. Her exotic features intrigued him. And she had this fierce vibrancy about her. He couldn’t help but notice her.

His imagination filled in the gaps for him. Her casual dress style and the fact that she came to this dump meant that she was working some minimum wage gig. Still, that didn’t mean that she didn’t know how to have a good time. But there was more to her than that. There was something familiar that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, like a forgotten dream or smudged memory. Or maybe he was just looking for an excuse to chat her up because she was seriously hot.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t good-looking too. So many women had told him in his life what a gorgeous specimen he was that he’d lost count. Going up to her and starting a conversation shouldn’t have been a problem for him. Except doing that would be opening up a can of worms and he was in no mood for someone fishing into his personal life.

His past was a dark one, filled with death and loss and more fake names than he could count. When he got to Seattle, he was hoping to start a life that didn’t involve looking over his shoulder or very far down the road he’d come from. None of the women he dated seemed to want to let that go. They wanted to know about the parents he didn’t have, the childhood he’d been robbed of, and numerous places he told them he grew up because he had to keep on the move.

Running a hand through his dark blond hair, he let out a sigh. She had finished her coffee and walked out of the coffee shop like she had done every day this week. Through the glass front windows, he could see her crossing the street like he always did when he saw another opportunity with her go out with the door. What he didn’t see coming was the car that hit her.

The vehicle had made a sharp turn and collided with her. She rolled on top of the car, hitting the windshield. That wasn’t enough to slow down the driver, who kept going until she rolled all the way off the car, then gunned it even more to get away.

Simon didn’t know what he was thinking. All he knew was that one moment he was sitting and drinking his coffee, and the next he was outside of the coffee shop. He had to get to her. He had to make sure that she was all right. A crowd had started to gather around her, but he managed to push his way through.

“I’m fine, really,” she insisted in an annoyed tone.

“At least wait for an ambulance,” someone said.

He saw her face blanch at the thought. He was all too familiar with that look, the one that said that you had something to hide. An EMT would need personal information for the report and he remembered when he’d been in a similar incident. He didn’t like anything that required giving out his life story and he wasn’t even going to contemplate what made her so hesitant.

Everyone had their secrets these days, why should she have been any different? Suddenly, that made her even more appealing to him.

“Okay people, back up,” he said. “I’ll just take my girlfriend to the hospital myself.”

She looked at him like he was crazy then realized what he was up to. She had seen him around the coffee shop. He was probably trying to help her. But why? Then she remembered how many guys loved to play the knight in shining armor for pretty girls. Well, she’d just get rid of him later since his statement had gotten the bystanders off her case.

He stretched out a hand to help her up. She brushed it aside and stood on her own.

“You just got hit by a car and you can get up on your own?” he asked her, half-impressed, half-incredulous.

“What can I say? A well-balanced diet and good DNA go a long way,” was her response before she turned to walk away from him.

But he grabbed her by the arm. “Wait a minute. Aren’t you at least going to tell me your name? I’m Simon, by the way. Seeing as how I got you off the hook, I figure you owe me something.”

Her scowl had no effect on him as he grinned, and she didn’t want to beat him up after he’d just helped her out. At least not while they were on a crowded street. “Excuse me? I don’t owe you anything. I could’ve handled that all by myself. Now let go before I give you what you deserve – a smack upside the head.”

“Fine,” Simon said, forcefully dropping her arm. Evidently the girl had major personality issues that he could live without.

As she turned to walk away from him, she froze in her tracks and let out a sigh. How did he find her? Honestly, she must have had some creepy guy pheromone that seemed to draw them to her. “Great. Just when my day couldn’t get any worse.”

Needing a quick exit, she turned took off in the opposite direction. Simon noticed right away that her running speed wasn’t human, and he would know from being a little more than human himself. He wasn’t sure what she was running from because it certainly couldn’t be him. The girl probably had trouble follow her around like a lovesick puppy. That was why he ran after her. He had to know if she was like him.

Hearing several shots fired in his direction was confirmation for being a magnet for trouble, and upped the odds that she was the same kind as him. Just great, he had to pick a hot girl with even more people on her tail than he did to chase.

Then she did something even more unusual. They were approaching an eight foot high chain-linked fence. She didn’t stop running though. She just used her momentum to jump over it. If Simon couldn’t do it himself, he would’ve stopped. But he could, so he just jumped over. The gunshots kept coming because they really needed to remember the armed gunman chasing them.

Simon landed less gracefully than she had, tumbling into a couple of garbage cans she had kicked over to stop her pursuer. When she turned to see how effective she had been in escaping, she was surprised to see Simon on her tail and not the usual suspect.

“What are you?” she demanded, no longer running but facing Simon.

“I could ask you the same question,” he replied. “But let’s get away from the guy shooting at you first, okay?”

He spoke too soon. One moment he heard the gunshot, the next all he could see was white from the pain. He would have fallen to the ground if she hadn’t blurred over to catch him. Someone had gotten shot for her. Again. Too many bad memories came flooding back. She had to help him.

“Well, well, well. Looks like I got two for the price of one,” said a coldly malicious voice.

Simon groaned. He knew that voice. It haunted so many of his childhood memories. But it couldn’t be —

“Back off, White,” she snapped, applying pressure to find out where her companion had been shot. It was in the shoulder and it was bleeding profusely.

“Nice to see you too, Mel McDowell. Aren’t you happy to see me? We’ve been enemies for so long, I feel we’ve got some kind of kinship,” he laughed. “Who’s your friend? Since I take a special joy in wiping out you trannie scum, I like to keep a mental scorecard in my head. What is he? X7? X8?”

Apparently Ames White was having way too much fun with this as he trained his gun on both of them. She mentally cursed her luck. She would’ve cursed Simon too, but he was bleeding so he was suffering enough. As she cradled Simon in her arms, she wasn’t sure what to do.

“Dad?” Simon choked out. He wasn’t sure which was impairing his speech more, the pain or the blood loss.

“What the—You trannies have hit a new low,” White said as he aimed his gun to shoot again. The smile he wore had transformed into a sneer. “Just for that, I’m going to shoot your girlfriend in front of you.”

Simon knew that he couldn’t hesitate. He needed proof. The mark that had been the burden of his existence would now have to save him. And her. Fighting against the pain, he managed to roll up his sleeve after two failed tries. There it was. His rite of passage. His curse.

Mel stared at him in horror, then pushed his body away from hers like he was a diseased creature. It was in the same moment that White’s gun hit the pavement. Time seemed to come to a grinding halt. Her feet took that as the opportunity to get as far away from White and Simon or whoever he was, and leave him to his fate. Damn Familiars. He was White’s son! It was official, she had beaten her mother’s record for bad luck with men. Her father would never let her hear the end of it. Who knew White had a son?

“Oh my god. Ray, is that you?” White asked at he kneeled beside the young man lying on the ground, still bleeding. He studied the boy, trying to see the child he had lost so long ago. He called 911 quickly, stating that he would wait with him while the ambulance.

“Get away from me. I know what you did to Mom. I go by Simon now,” he said in a strained voice.

White’s face hardened. “So this is what you want to be? A trannie filth impostor?”

“Well, I figured since whole breeding cult thing was a cop-out that I’d go with Plan B. Hotter girls.”

His father glared at him. “Sandeman would’ve loved having you around. Same damn sense of humor.”