When He Found Her (#1) (The Fire Journal) Read online

  Chapter 2

  Evelyn Garroway sensed her life passing her in the same, repetitious pattern every day. From the moment she woke up, her alarm never changing even during the weekends, until the time she went to sleep everything remained the same thing every day. This thought occurred to her as she stood outside the bathroom door of her apartment, waiting for her turn. This was one of the worse drawbacks about sharing a house with two other people. The absolute worse being when the bills needed to be paid and one person decided to skip out. Thankfully that scenario hadn’t happened in a while.

  “Can you hurry?” She knocked on the door, letting her roommate Kitty know someone waited. If she didn't, the girl might spend all day in there. She considered herself a self-proclaimed diva and everyone understood it.

  “In a few Evie,” Kitty said through the door, using her nickname, “Calm down.” The familiar sound of a blow dryer cranking up again started.

  Evie leaned against the wall and folded her arms, letting her entire upper body conform against it. In a few meant anything but that. She might be inside attempting to fix her hair into the perfect position for hours. There was no telling when she would get inside.

  She stared at the green numbered clock above the stove. Five minutes. If Kitty didn’t get out in the five minutes, she would have to leave if she wanted to arrive at class on time. This always happened on a Friday. She hated Fridays for that reason. Nothing good ever happened.

  Kitty opened the door and gave an exasperated sigh. Her blonde hair appeared perfectly dried, caught with a rhinestone clip. Or it might be a real gem clip. Her parents had enough money for the stones to be real. “I can never get my hair to look exactly how I want. No matter how many times I blow dry it, there's always still that one spot which never wants to cooperate. You're so lucky you don't worry about stuff like this, Evie. I envy you.”

  Anyone else would have taken her statement as an insult but unfortunately, Evie comprehended this was as close to a compliment as Kitty made. She became superficial at times, her blonde hair, blue eyes, and perfect complexion making her justified. In a perfect world, Evie wished she looked like her instead of raven haired and brown eyes. There existed only one way to get past this.

  “You're right. I'm so lucky,” Evie said pushing her way into the bathroom, “Let me work on looking better.” She closed the door before Kitty offered any more advice.

  Evie looked at herself in the mirror after closing the door. She didn't look too bad. Sure her hair needed a trim and she might afford to lose a few pounds. If she didn't rely on the snack machines near the library for dinner she might pull it off. She groaned, leaning her head back as her hands rested on the sink. She shouldn't let Kitty's comment get to her but something things remained hard to block out. Compared to her, she certainly was nothing worth looking at twice.

  After taking a shower and changing, she took one final glance at herself in the mirror. She pushed back her hair behind her ear. Tomorrow she’d ask Kitty for some advice. A good make over might help her feel more confident.

  Grabbing her backpack from the floor of her room, she tossed the strap over her shoulder and headed out the door. The good thing about her apartment was how close it existed to campus. At least she made it to her class most of the time on schedule.

  She heard a car honk at her while crossing the street and rushed across the pathway. She rolled her eyes. This happened at least once every morning. People really should pay attention to the signals. They had petitioned long enough to get them installed around here, the least drivers could do was look at them. Instead of flipping off the driver as she felt entitled to, she simply waved. She learned early that annoyed them even more.

  Her eyes remained lowered upon the ground as she walked across the quad. She didn't want to run into anyone she knew. A few minutes of conversation would cause her to be late and this professor was known for not being pleasant to anyone who showed up after the exact time.

  She opened the door to the history lecture hall and bumped into someone. Or rather she bumped into a wall. He must have been a football player or something. She lost her footing and landed on the cement walk in front of everyone. She felt everyone's eyes drifting over to her. This already shaped into a great day. “Watch where you're going,” she said rudely standing up. She mentally prepared for him to counter with some remark about her doing the same.

  Instead his eyes seemed to drift over her and onto the quad. He brushed past her, continuing on his way. He totally ignored her. She expected nothing less. This was her life.

  She walked into the room of her next lecture and sat down. Her professor cast a hard look towards her. She understood she was late by two minutes. If she hadn't ran into football guy, she would have been on time. Of course, she couldn't explain it to him. She would have to deal with being ostracized for today.

  “I do plan on reading your assignments about the ancient Egyptians. Please refrain from using only one source. You can refer to the guidelines handed to you at the beginning of the semester,” her professor droned, continuing on with his lecture. The rest of his words drowned out in her mind.

  She groaned to herself as her head leaned back in the chair. She completely forgot about having her paper ready. She thought it was due in a month from now but it seemed she got her dates confused. Instead of relaxing tonight, she would be in the library, going over her notes and finding out everything about this long lost civilization. It served her right for forgetting to write everything. She needed to remind herself to start doing that more often.

  Towards the end of her day, Evie wearily dragged herself into the library. The coffee she drank earlier already left her system. The familiar crash was about to happen. It would be okay though. She planned on taking a nap on the fourth floor. No one ever went up there and then she planned on doing her work once she woke up. At least the library stayed open twenty four hours a day. And on a Friday night, no one would be here.

  As she expected, the library was devoid of people except for a few student helpers categorizing books. She doubted they wanted to be here anymore than her. She pressed the button on the elevator and waited. The light seemed to take forever coming down the first floor. When the doors opened, she stepped inside and hit four. She was ready for her nap.

  She moved into one of the quiet cubicle set up for students to do private studying. She placed her bag on the desk and curled up her feet underneath herself. “Just a few minutes,” she said to no one in particular, lowering her head onto her hands. She fell asleep in no time, her mind drifting off into blankness.

  Hours later, she gave a slight yawn, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. Looking at her watch, the outline etched on her cheek, she saw her short power nap turned into a two hour one. “Ugh,” she said looking around at the blank walls. More time she would be stuck here going through the dusty books. She stood up and opened the door heading out into the central area. Her muscles felt stiff from remaining in their camped position for long.

  The fourth floor was, as she rightly suspected earlier, quiet. No one ever came up here. She strongly suspected the students only used the first floor for the computers. It didn't matter. She had work she needed to do.

  Not wanting to be stuck studying late, she pressed the button for the carriage to come up. She sighed, leaning slightly more on one leg than the other. Her thoughts drifted back to her real reason for being here. She needed to go down and find something about the Egyptians her teacher would be interested in. Hopefully something about their culture she planned on spreading into a ten page report. She really hoped she didn't need to rely on tweaking the font and page properties to reach the goal. It was an option though.

  Her eyes went to the numbers above the elevator. She didn’t understand why it was taking this long for it to come up. By now, she was usually already on, waiting for the ride down. She took a few steps away from it, wanting to see if anyone else was nearby she could talk to. Someone might know if they were in need of main
tenance. If she needed to take the stairs, she wanted to know before wasting her time.

  The familiar ding sounded, letting her know the elevator reached her destination. “Finally,” she said aloud walking towards the closed door as they began opening. A flash of green shot out at her. Her first instinct was to duck, pulling herself into as compact a position as possible. Her back faced towards the intruder. The creature released another blast, this one making contact with her backpack. In an instant, she sensed the weight leaving her. She looked at her shoulder where the strap should be yet nothing existed. The blast eradicated it.

  She turned around, not sure what to expect. Part of her imagined some alien took control over the elevator, an implausible theory. What she saw was worse. The same one she saw earlier outside the history building was wrestling with what she could only describe as being a fish headed man. The rest of his body appeared normal albeit in competition with the other man's body. She froze, unsure what to do. This was something she never prepared for.

  The man connected eyes with her, his expression one of surprise at seeing anyone nearby. “Go,” he said as he continued wrestling with the creature. Another bolt of strange green headed out from the elevator, hitting a stack of books and disintegrating them as easily as it did her backpack. If she didn't watch out, that would be her disappearing.

  Without the need to hear another word, she turned and ran into the stacks. She had no idea what was going on. Her heart started beating faster than before, knowing she needed to find a place to hide herself from these men. She hoped the stacks of books would protect her. No one else could.