The Many Faces of Tully

I am twenty-two, and I work at a pet shop. I stay away from the snakes though. I shiver and remember turning into one whenever I’m near them. The shark tooth still hangs around my neck. The diamond earring still shines in my ear. The watch bumps against my wrist next to one of my ouroboros snakes, its twin on my other wrist. And my belly button piercing shows at the hem of my shirt. I remember each of their deaths clearly, and they haunt me at night. At least I’ve gone two years without killing anyone.

My shift is over now, so I decide to go out for dinner. I have no friends, so I go alone. I still drive my RX-7, but I’ve had it painted so it’s glossy black now. I haven’t had Chinese in a while so I think I’ll go to the place my co-workers say is good. They have invited me along with them before, but I keep my distance. I like them, but I don’t want to hurt them. People are too fragile.

I drive up to the Chinese restaurant and I park next to a beat up, rusty Volkswagen beetle. A small Chinese woman greets me at the door and leads me to a seat in the middle of the restaurant. She asks me if I’m expecting anyone else, and I tell her no.

I ordered pork fried rice and sweet and sour chicken. I sip my tea as I wait for my order and I pull out the book I’m reading. I find reading really helps pass the time when you’re not allowed to have friends.

I look up when my food is being served. A cute guy is my waiter. He smiles attractively at me, and I can’t help but smile back. He has short brown hair that is gelled stylishly to the side. His teeth are white and perfectly straight. I wonder if he’s had braces. His eyes are a penetrating gray. He has a sense about him that makes me feel safe.

“Pork fried rice and sweet and sour chicken?” he asks me. I just nod. He’s white, but tan. I wonder what a white person is doing working at a Chinese restaurant, but it’s not my place to wonder that. His name tag says “JACE”.

The sleeves on his black shirt are rolled up, and I can’t help but notice the muscles on his forearm as he reaches across me to place my food down on the table. He smells clean, sterile, fresh, sort of like a doctor’s office. I can’t really tell, since I’m sitting down, but he looks around six feet tall, and he is a medium build. He’s sturdy. He looks like he is in his early twenties. And once again I have an overwhelming feeling of safety. I wonder if he has this effect on other people too.

“Is there anything else I can get for you ma’am?” he asks me politely.

You’re number, I think to myself. I shake my head and smile at him. “Thank you,” I say.

“My pleasure,” he says, and walks away.

I eat my food quietly and look around the restaurant. I smile at the families there, missing my own. I wonder what I would be doing now if I didn’t have my powers. Would I have accidentally gotten pregnant with Jack’s baby? Could I be eating dinner in Maine with Jack and a six year old child? Or would I be going to college in New York like I had planned to? I will never know.

I catch eyes with an old Chinese man. He’s small and fragile looking, and has wiry white hair coming out of his head and his chin. He stares at me with weird, pale blue eyes. He looks like he might be blind, but I know he can see me. And he’s looking at me like he is seeing the real me, not my athletic blonde self, but my average, mousy brown haired, brown eyed self. I stare back at him, unable to look away.

It seems as if he can see right through me, right into my soul. I want to wrap my arms around myself to hide from him. He scares me, and I don’t know why. He stands up and walks right over to me. I feel my heart starting to pound in my chest, and I get even more scared. I don’t want to kill all of these people.

“You better slow down your heart, Tully,” he says to me in a low, clear voice. My heart skips a beat, but slows down. How does this man know my name? How did he know my heart rate was elevated? How did he know something bad would happen if it kept speeding up?

“I know you have a lot of questions, and I will answer them in turn,” he says, sitting down in the other chair at my table. “First off, my name is Calchas.” He reaches over the table to shake my hand. I grab his hand gingerly, still scared out of my mind. “Second off, why are you a girl?”

“Excuse me?” I ask him. What kind of question was that? I am a girl just like how he is a boy. Random chance.

“Everyone else is a boy. I couldn’t tell with you, since you changed appearances so often. I couldn’t see you clear enough, but I assumed you would be male like the rest of us,” he says, pouring himself some of my tea.

“The rest of who?” I ask him. He is confusing me. Was he watching me? How could he, when I change my appearance? Does he know what I did? What I do?

My waiter walks up then to check on me, or at least that’s what I assume he walked up to me for. Instead, he turns to the old man and says, “Calchas, what are you doing?” He looks at me quickly but then he continues to stare at the old man.

“Jace, meet our fifteenth member, Tully.” He gestures to me, smiling. He has a lot of teeth missing. Jace turns and looks at me, frowning. He looks back at the old man.

“Are you seeing correctly, Calchas?” he asks him. “She’s not a guy.”

I frown. “I know I’m not a guy, okay? I have no idea what you’re talking about. I would like my bill now, so I can leave,” I say heatedly.

“Calm down, Tully. You don’t want to do that here. We have a safe environment for you to do that in. And quite frankly I am not too keen on dying at the moment.” Calchas looks me evenly in the eye.

I shiver. “How do you know?” I whisper to him. I don’t want Jace here, listening in. He’s safe, and I’m destructive. He makes me feel even more ashamed of myself.

“I’m a seer,” he announces simply. Jace is standing by our table awkwardly, clearly thinking that Calchas is making a mistake.

I stare at him. Did he say seer, like he could see into the future? Did he have powers like me? Were there others like me? I open my mouth to ask him, but he beats me to it.

“Yes there are, Tully. And you can meet them if you come with me. You belong with us. We need you,” he tells me fiercely. I nod silently, too caught up in his words. There are others like me. I’m not alone. “Let’s take you to Kato,” he says, standing up and offering me his hand.

Jace puts a hand on Calchas’ shoulder. “This doesn’t feel right,” he says. “I thought you guys said the fifteenth member was a guy. A powerful man that would be the key to start our mission. Not this pretty little girl.”

I frown. Do I feel dangerous to him? Does he sense danger from me, like I sense safety from him? Why doesn’t he like me? What did I ever do to him?

“We were wrong on the male part, but don’t underestimate her power,” Calchas tells him, still reaching for my hand. I stay frozen in the seat, staring at the two men.

“Her power? What kind of power can she have? She’s just a girl! There is no way she is capable of the great power that the two of you talk about,” he whispers at him angrily.

I am starting to get angry. He has no idea what I’m capable of. I am probably more powerful than the guy he was expecting. I’ll show him.

“Tully, calm down. Jace, don’t rile her up. You can probably heal from her, but I can’t, and by the time you’d be able to heal me, it would be too late. I truly value my life, so will you please stop trying to make her end it!” He whispers back at him.

Jace looks down at me. Glared is more like it. “You better be what they were talking about. I’ve been waiting for too long to be disappointed by a girl.” And he walks away.

“Okay Tully, let’s go talk to Kato.” I grab his hand finally and he leads me into the back of the restaurant.