Ty rose from their food court table and shot a nervous glance back to Narissa, who trailed behind him. “What are we doing?”
She placed a hand on his shoulder in reassurance and offered an encouraging grin. “How about a little challenge? See if you can make Dustin go away and leave us alone with his girlfriend.
“Why?” Ty whispered.
“You’ll see.” Narissa said cryptically.
Ty raised an eyebrow, but given how the day had gone so far, he didn’t even bother.
It was Dustin who saw Ty first, followed by a friendly wave from Krissy, his fine and shapely brunette girlfriend. Both of them saw Narissa close by, but only Dustin seemed to care, as his face contorted into screwed up anxiousness.
“Mind if we sit?” Ty approached their table and stared at Dustin with a smirk.
“N-no.” Dustin gulped. “Of course not, little bro.” His uncharacteristic stammering and obvious fear caught his girlfriend off guard, and while she glanced at Ty with apparent confusion, Krissy was a very open and pleasant girl who wouldn’t dare be impolite.
Ty and Narissa sat down, to Dustin’s obvious discomfort, and Narissa stared dead into his eyes with a glare so frosty he should have frozen solid.
“Ty, was it?” Krissy said sweetly. “Nice to finally meet you!” She extended a hand, which Ty shook.
Narissa, having sufficiently unnerved Dustin, turned to regard Krissy and smiled warmly.
“And... who’s this?” Krissy asked, ignoring Dustin’s attempt to leave the table.
“Oh, I’m Narissa.” The disguised lizard said sweetly. “I’m sort of Ty’s mentor.”
“Oh!” Krissy nodded. “That’s pretty cool! Dustin never mentioned that.”
“He’s mentioned me?” Ty said innocently.
“Oh, of course!” Krissy said with a smile. “He’s mentioned how close the two of you are!”
“Yes.” Ty nodded, not missing a beat at the blatant lie. “I guess that’s what you call constant abuse and humiliation.”
“I think Ty’s case worker would disagree, Dustin.” Narissa added, driving Dustin red with embarrassment at the lie.
At that, Krissy visibly prickled and lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. “You said things were better!” She spat at Dustin.
“No, it’s not like that!” Dustin said defensively. “He-he’s...” Dustin broke into a warm sweat as he saw Ty smirking. The smaller step brother raised his fingers and and approximated crushing a bug between them, which made Dustin cringe.
Well, Ty thought, now or never. He thought about all the things he could do with his power, and suddenly he came up with something that would be sure to make Dustin go away and humiliate him in public at the same time. Narissa’s eyes went wide as she picked up Ty’s thought, but she stayed perfectly calm as Krissy fumed next to Dustin.
It was already done. Dustin looked away in shame from Krissy and right in front of him he saw a seven foot two inch tall monstrous reptile creature sitting next to Ty. Knowing what he was seeing, Narissa smiled the most shocking and creepy lizard smile she could, baring her front canines and pulling her lips back into an unsettling open mouthed grin.
Dustin responded the only way his unimaginative and dull human mind could. He began screaming the most gut wrenching blood curdling scream of his life. The shock of seeing Narissa for what she was broke his mind. Scrambling off his seat and for all appearances staring two feet above the nearest set of eyes into the ceiling, the entire food court stopped and stared as Dustin screeched and pointed in abject terror.
“What the fuck is that thing?!” Dustin cried, Krissy backing away from the table and simply staring, before turning beat angry red. “What the fuck is it!!?”
“You stupid son of a bitch!” She screamed. “You’re back on shrooms again, aren’t you?”
At this, Dustin screamed louder than before and wet in his pants, kicking and flailing as Narissa stood with Ty and they walked over to comfort a sobbing Krissy. Narissa threw Dustin a sinister glance as she passed feet in front of him, her huge reptilian feet clicking on the tile of the food court floor.
“How can you not see it?!?!” He screamed, before flying into a full fledged panic and running for his life, spilling human urine his pant legs and earning a disgusted moan from several people watching the unfurling madess.
As Dustin fled the mall he was grabbed by two mall cops who tried to calm him down to no avail, ignoring his crying ramblings about a demon.
***
Krissy sobbed into her hands and shook as she sat on a bench near the mall fountain. The mall cops had detained Dustin and eventually sought them out for their side of the events.
Krissy told them that Dustin was back on drugs. The police had been called. Mark and June had been called. Dustin’s life, as he knew it, was over. As was his relationship with Krissy.
And human Narissa was close by, gently comforting Krissy as she wept. “It’s all right, darling.” She kept repeating, gently, again demonstrating a softer side. “It’s going to be all right.”
Ty did only one thing. He wished Krissy would stop hurting.
Suddenly, sniffling, Krissy dried her eyes and sighed heavily. “Thanks guys, I guess this has been coming for a while.”
“Why don’t we go do something to cheer up?” Narissa suggested, eyeing Ty with a ‘do you understand’ glance.