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Chapter 1

The morning sky was promising to break bright and clear as the sun’s early light bathed the frosted ground with its pale pink-peach tint. It almost resembled a hand clumsily reaching out after night’s dark, stretching along the horizon in slow degrees of revolution. Renee took her hand away from the window with a small sigh and took on last look at the ribbons of colour streaking across the sky wishing desperately to will some of that tranquility from her window-scape to her spinning head. It was like someone decided to test the concept of fission on the thoughts in her head, causing her mind to shoot off it 12 thousand directions at once.

Who has dreams of talking chickens while walking to a bus stop? No one rational would, nor would someone with at least a passably normal subconscious. She, Renee deducted, obviously didn’t fit too well in that category. Pushing herself up off her bed corner Renee gave her head a mental shake, and a physical one for good measure. After a silent pledge to ban all cheese and like dairy products from late night snacks, she started off down the hall with the vague intention of finding breakfast.

Renee meandered down the stair well and into the kitchen, swung open one of the cupboard and rooted around for a mug that tickled her morning’s fancy. She settled for an odd green coloured one that though very esthetically unappealing, had surprising practical functionality about it. She mused on this as the dark coffee mixed and swirled with the white milk, it struck her very funny how practicality didn’t seem to think it was necessary to run in hand with attractiveness.  

“Renee! Have you seen my green sweater?” A frantic voice screamed from the top of the stair well.

There seemed to be a green trend with her morning.

“Which green sweater” Renee called back with a comparatively severe calm.
“The one with the sequins and paisley patches” The voice shot back like it was supposed to have been obvious.
“Did you check the closet?”
“Well of course I have…” The voice seemed to fade in intensity, suspiciously like it was being projected into small dark room full of hanging garments.
“…there it is! Who hung it up in here?” the voice finished, rather miffed that anyone would fathom putting a sweater on a hanger in a closet. Now where was the sense in that?

“Is the coffee ready yet?” Called the voice over the thundering of a feet down a flight of stairs.
“Yes Sophie.” Renee sing-songed
“Pour me a cup?”

Renee quietly nodded, smirking slightly as Sophie rushed into the kitchen. She seemed like a disgruntled model off the front page of Vogue. Hair, though immaculately styled, puffed out in various directions forming a reddy halo around a painted pale face set with piercing green eyes, both smoked to the tee. Sophie was an interesting character. Biological chemists tended to be, in the least, quirky. Sophie was no exception.

“Where’d the sugar go?” she asked fetching a spoon from a drawer.
“Nowhere, its in the cupboard still” Renee said wincing a bit as her nose was assaulted by a very sharp fruit and spice perfume that radiated off her roommate in a good 2 foot radius. 

Renee retracted to the table in the corner of the room, trying to stay out of Sophie’s way and scent aura.

“So Phil told me he’s got a surprise for me tonight, I’ve been dying to know what he’s been planning but he’s not telling. Is that all the juice? I’ve got to leave in 5 minutes and since when did the jam live in the fridge?”
“Since I opened it yesterday” Renee deadpanned. “I’ll leave the hall light on.” The likeliness of Sophie coming home when Phil had a surprise was pretty nil, but it earned a thank-you smile in between a bite of toast and gulp of coffee.

Renee had lived with Sophie for the past three years and they’d come to a pretty good understanding of each other. Nothing sparked bonding like slime mold cultivation sessions and en-mass bean plant hot housing, and conflicts were often battled out in red ink over inch high stacks of essay compositions and thesis edits. Sophie and Renee were students of the typical fashion: happily broke caffeine addicts, right down to brewing ‘coffee’ with espresso beans.

“I’ll see you later then Ren” Sophie set down her coffee mug and with a glance to her watch uttered a string of curses but managed to holler as hasty ‘bye’ just before slamming the door behind her.

Renee chuckled to herself as she finished the dregs of her coffee and collected the errant mugs and plates from around the kitchen. After placing them in the sink for a wash that might or might not occur in the near future, Renee checked the microwave clock, 8.17.

“Time to get going.” Renee thought with some resignation. Her heavy mood didn’t last long. Today was Tuesday. Great things happened on Tuesdays, especially with certain special psychology majors named Julian around. With revived pep, Renee sauntered off to the shower, forgetting about all about chickens and picturesque skies. It was hard not to with that boy’s smile on the brain. Nothing more was done with those thoughts and they sat, quietly and patiently, stewing on the back burning until triggered by a small, obscure, acutely disconcerting detail that wouldn’t arrive until a few days later.


To The Sighting Chapter 2

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