Some are Monsters

Tristan frowned. "Monsters?"

Jared shrugged. "I know it sounds crazy, but that's what I see."

"What kind of monsters?"

"Things you'd expect from fairy tales. Occasionally from nightmares. They show up everywhere, but no one else can see them. I thought I was crazy, except--"

"Except someone who thinks they're crazy, isn't."

"Yeah. So I shut my mouth and tried to ignore them."

Tristan nodded. "I understand. I can see a kind of aura around people. Only some people, though. You and me, for example. I think the aura means we're different."

Jared glanced around. "Who else is...different?"

"Destiny and Blair. A few others. I'm not good with names."

"But not many?"

"Not many that I've seen." He slung his bag over his shoulder again. "Let's go to lunch. Maybe I'll see some more."

Jared nodded and started walking with him. "So we can see things."

"Different things, but yeah."

"You think the others see things too?"

"I'm not sure. Yesterday, when Destiny and Blair were talking, Blair said she was different. I think she would have said she could see things if she did."

"You could be wrong."

"Yeah. I could." Something occurred to him. "Destiny's starting up a study group."

"I know, she's already talked to me about it."

"Did you accept?"

"I said I'd think about it, why?"

"I only started seeing auras after I saw her. I think she might have triggered it."

"Intentionally?"

Tristan sighed. "I don't know. There are over a thousand puzzle pieces, and I've only got a handful."

Jared shrugged again. "Don't let it bother you. I started seeing monsters after almost getting killed by one, so it's probably just a general trigger."

Tristan looked at him, startled. "You almost got killed?"

"Yeah. It looked like some sort of dragon-squid hybrid. With rabies. Maybe later I'll show you the scars."

"I'm good, thanks. So these things are dangerous?"

"Some of them. Some are actually pretty nice. Still, you don't know until you've seen them a few times. I mean, I thought these big wingless dragons were violent and somewhat evil because they kept killing these small, monkey-like things without any sort of provocation. As it turned out, the monkey-things' favorite food is young wingless dragon, hatched or not, and they reproduce at lightspeed. The dragons killed as many monkeys as they could to protect their kids."

"So they're also intelligent."

"Again, some of them. Some are dumber than rocks. A few even look like rocks."

"I think we're getting off-topic."

"I'm serious. There are three living in the geology classroom. I picked one up by mistake last year and it bit me. Miss Charleston still doesn't know why I suddenly started bleeding in the middle of rock classification."

"Ouch."

"Yeah."

"So you see monsters, and I see--" He did a double take. "More than I thought. What's that?"