Kingdom Come

Chapter 6: Interviewed

The blonde had been skimming the Internet for any useful information on Jack Frost when her cell phone blared to life. Flinching back from the computer screen, Sophie grabbed for her phone and answered. Still running on an excited high from possibly seeing a legend less than an hour ago, Sophie greeted the caller without checking to see who it was first.

"Hi, this is the Burgess Petroleum gas station calling to tell you that we got your job application. We would like to set you up with an interview tonight if that's possible."

Sophie froze before she managed to choke out an appropriate answer. "Yeah, that sounds great. I can be there in half an hour."

"Cool, see you then." The once professional voice answered back hastily before hanging up.

Blinking in surprise, Sophie ended the call and set the phone back down on her desk. "Wow… I think I'm getting a job. Holy crap, I have an interview for my first job tonight." The blonde spoke out loud in disbelief before the panic truly hit her full force. Emerald eyes widened in fear as she snatched up her phone again to check the time. Why did she say a half an hour? She needed a week before she was going to be ready for this interview! "Oh my God, I'm so screwed! I'm going to die! I-I need to get dressed and practice and-"

The next few minutes were a blur as the blonde tried on several different combinations of outfits. Finally she decided that a plain white top with stylish khaki's would do as she turned to look in the mirror again. Her wavy blonde hair seemed to stare back mockingly at her, but, after recalling past events of trying to tame it, she decided to let it slide this time. Instead, she bolted out the door and down the street to make it on time.

A nauseous feeling, that came with the fresh panic, rolled through her stomach a couple times as she neared the heart of the town. In hindsight this whole ordeal probably meant nothing in the long run; however, at that moment it felt like her whole life hung on whether or not this next hour went well. She rehearsed a few common interview questions to herself while ignoring the strange looks people passing by threw her way. She was beyond caring about what anonymous street people thought of her.

The gas station came into view, and after taking a small moment to steel herself she opened the door and stepped inside.

A surprisingly familiar redhead glanced up and smiled at the sight of Sophie stiffly entering the small business. The blonde opened her mouth to voice a greeting when her usual clumsiness decided to take the reins again. She took a step forward and accidently fell over a knee-high stack of two-liter sodas. Sharp temporary pain sizzled through her banged up knees and elbows as she scrambled back to her feet. The pain was bearable, but the embarrassment was a whole other story.

"Uh, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. I'm kind of used to doing this sort of thing now." Sophie explained a little bitterly as she brushed off her pants and arms. "But it's nice to see another familiar face, Pippa."

The older girl cocked her head to the side in confusion as she visibly struggled to recall who the blonde was. "You wouldn't happen to be Jamie's little sister, would you?"

"Yep, that me."

The redhead grinned in victory at her accurate guess as she leaned forward to rest her upper body against the front counter. "I can't believe that I get to interview you tonight."

"And I can't believe that you stayed in Burgess. Cupcake I can understand, but I thought you were off at college with Jamie."

The older girl nodded and looked down before she explained her situation. "Well I did go along with Jamie to start college, but after I finished my first year of classes I didn't know where to go. I'm still not entirely sure, so I decided to move back home to save some money in the meantime while I decide on a career."

"If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea what I want to do with my life either." Sophie said with a shrug as she moved closer to the front counter.

"I hate trying to make difficult life decisions," Pippa grumbled before she looked back up at Sophie and grinned once again. "However, something I love to do is interview an old acquaintance. Shall we get started with the fun?"

"For some reason I don't think this is going to be fun for me." Sophie mumbled as she followed Pippa into the employee backroom. She didn't miss the playfully evil look that the redhead gave her as they took their respective seats on opposite ends of a wide circular table.

The insistent scratch of pencil against paper made Sophie want to melt down in her seat. After every answer she gave to Pippa's endless questions the girl would nod and write some things down. It was maddening in the minutes of silence where Sophie could do nothing but wait for the redhead to finish writing on her paper attached to a clipboard.

"And last question. Why do you want to work for this company?" Pippa asked in a forced professional tone. Sophie frowned as she struggled to come up with a satisfying answer. She settled on Pippa's face and almost rolled her eyes as she noticed how the girl tried to hold a straight face. The corners of her mouth twitched upward every few seconds as she began writing on the paper in her lap once more.

"Well I wanted a chance to work with the public and get some work experience…" Sophie fished her unhelpful brain for a few more things to say but came up blank. She tried to figure out something to show her supportiveness of the business, but it was impossible. The rancid smell that resembled sweaty feet assaulted her nose while the unpleasant sight of dirty smudges ran along the floors and walls. She almost forgot her reason for wanting the job to begin with as she continued to find even more disgusting details about the place.

"Eh… Good enough," Pippa said dismissively as she wrote down a few more notes.

"O-okay," Sophie replied awkwardly as she waited another long minute to hear her results.

"Well that settles it," The redhead dropped her clipboard on the table and at last met Sophie's apprehensive gaze. "You're definitively hired, now let me get you set up."

The redhead tugged a blank sheet of paper from underneath the top one that she had apparently been doodling on the entire time. There was nothing even remotely similar to interview notes as Sophie made out a drawing of a dinosaur destroying a messily sketched out town.

"I'll inform the head manager tonight of my decision and get your hours settled with him. Now as I understand it from your job application, you want to avoid working any late hours, so I'll just schedule you an extra day to compensate." Pippa explained as she began jotting down some legit information on her new sheet of paper.

Sophie nodded and waited for the girl to finish writing out a tentative first week schedule before she passed it over. She was to work Monday through Thursday the following week for a few hours everyday.

"Is that okay?"

"Yeah that's fine. Thank you so much."

"No problem, just remember to call around noon next week Monday to make sure your hours are correct. You also might want to come in early for your uniform and other things before your first shift starts. And I think that's it."

Sophie thanked Pippa multiple times before she finally headed out the door. She contemplated on whether or not to call her mother and then decided against it. She would hear about it sooner or later anyway, Sophie reasoned with herself. There was no need for any unnecessary conversations between them with their relationship barely hanging by a thread.

Picking up her pace as the sunlight faded and an ominous fiery crimson covered the sky above, Sophie could almost feel invisible eyes on her as she headed out of town. It was a ten minute walk at most, but it felt like an eternity as she navigated her way back to her neighborhood.

She startled suddenly as a distant wail filled the silence of the early night, and without another thought she was running. Shadows crept around the edges of her tunnel vision as she set her sights on her house. For being so small, the blonde was surprisingly fast as she bolted across the lawn and leapt over the stupid fern blocking her escape path from the outside world. Slamming the door shut behind her, Sophie glanced out the peek hole and flinched back in surprise.

A large shadowy figure crept back around a street corner from where it had obviously followed her, and the blonde was nearly choked up with horror. What the hell was going on with this messed up town?

After school on Tuesday, Sophie took a quick detour to the woods and dropped her backpack on her usually grassy spot before sitting down with a groan. Her ears were still ringing from two hours ago when she had finally confessed to Cupcake that she had seen the 'ghost'. Now she was supposed to take a picture of him with her phone to show her friend what the 'ghost' looked like.

It was a beautiful day, even though it was a little chilly, but not enough to be uncomfortable. Scanning the lake, she saw nothing out of the ordinary until a speck of blue caught her eye. Squinting at the color from across the lake, Sophie nearly leapt off the ground to move towards it. The boy was fast asleep, nestled in a curled up position in one of the trees. One of his arms dangled off the side of the thick tree branch and swayed slightly in the wind that rustled occasionally through the leaves.

She was too far away to get a good view of him for her sketch, but that didn't mean she couldn't attempt to take a few pictures in the meantime. Picking up her cell phone, Sophie turned on her camera app and tried to position the lens to where the ghost boy was. She frowned as her gaze flickered between the screen and the clear as day sleeping teen when she couldn't locate him in the pixelated blur of green, brown, and silvery blue from the lake.

"What the?"

Zooming back as far as the camera would go then carefully tracing up from the lake to the exact tree the snowy-haired teen was in Sophie was completely stumped. The tree branch was completely bare. It was like the person didn't even exist. Her emerald eyes flickered up to see the winter spirit in the tree before going back to her phone screen just to be sure.

"Sorry Cupcake, I'm afraid he's a bit camera shy." The blonde chuckled as she tossed her phone into her bag before fishing out her sketchbook and a pencil.

She turned back to steal another glance at the boy only to do a double take. He was gone. In the few seconds when her attention had been diverted, he had woken up and left. Scowling in disappointment, she huffed out a breath and contemplated whether or not to stay. Now that her object of interest had up and left, she felt deflated after living in a wave of fresh anticipation for the afternoon. If he had left then she might as well go home and find another way to spend her afternoon.

Gathering her things as the harsh feeling of disappointment settled uneasily in her gut, Sophie heard something then stilled. Reminding herself to act natural, she pretended to only re-organize her backpack before settling back into her seated position with her pencil at the ready above the untouched paper. At this close of a distance, Sophie could feel the unnatural chill that radiated away from his lean form as he hunched over in seated position only three feet to her right. He was looking at the dirt in front of him, and his entire form seemed tense even in his seemingly relaxed position. It almost reminded her of a skittish animal that was ready to leap away at a moments notice.

Deciding to do her best to ignore him for now even though every instinct screamed to acknowledge the strange boy, Sophie began to trace the beginnings of a new sketch. She wouldn't finish it with him sitting there, able to look over at a moments notice. However, she did start on the general outline and main features of the boy. The entire moment only lasted for a mere few minutes, but it was thrilling to be so close to such an unearthly being. The whole time the spirit beside her remained as motionless as a rock until without warning he jumped to his feet and warily scanned the other side of the lake.

Chastising herself inwardly for flinching at the abrupt movement, Sophie let out a discrete sigh of relief when he didn't appear to have noticed. Her thoughts were torn from her work as she too began to worry about what had him so anxious all of a sudden. She could practically feel the tension that thickened over the next few seconds before he seemed to sense something and took off running before leaping into the air and flying off into the dense forest.

Watching him go, Sophie shivered at the blast of wintery wind that had breezed through the area. Now that he was gone, she felt exposed to the darkening forest and she quickly gathered up her things and left. For some reason, the forest had taken on a more sinister edge to it, and her only instinct was to run. After what happened to her a few days ago, she refused to take any chances. Something was going to happen, and she didn't want to be there when it did.

A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long to get this uploaded. Over half of this story is written out already, but the editing process is taking awhile... This chapter was almost twice as long as the other ones though, so I hope you guys enjoyed the extra stuff. I had to rewrite it twice, once because it was meh the first time and then my second attempt got deleted. So here's the final product and I refuse to write it a fourth time... But anyways, I hope you guys are all enjoying your summer, and the next chapter should be up soon! Chapter 7 is where the fun really begins :)