Library

Chapter 2

2

Vega couldn't strip the look of shock from her face. Her mouth hung slightly ajar, all thoughts gone from her brain, and she had to remind herself to breathe.

The girl laughed lightly, radiating warmth into Vega from the sweet sound. Her curls had the volume she'd only ever dreamed of having, and her amber skin glowed despite the dim bar lighting. Vega got an ethereal feeling when looking at her.

God, she's beautiful.

The bartender slid the shots at them. "Fifteen-fifty." Without hesitation, the woman slid some cash across the bar top, only taking her eyes off Vega long enough to thank the bartender.

Vega finally realized she was gaping and clamped her mouth shut. The girl's eyes ticked down Vega's body, raking her eyes over her rumpled clothes. Vega threw her arms across her chest, suddenly self-conscious about her appearance.

"You look like shit," the other girl said, throwing her head back to take the shot.

"Excuse me?" Vega asked, the feeling of astonishment dissipating quickly. "Who are you? "

"I'm Arlet. You grew up calling me Arlie. Once, you just called me Lee, which I hated. I didn't like you much then, either. You were very mean in that life." She eyed the shot beside Vega. "You gonna take that, or can I? It's been a long week."

That life?

Vega reached down and pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, ignoring her question. Arlet must have taken her silence as an answer because she grabbed the shot and tipped it straight down the hatch.

"I've seen you before," Vega finally admitted, unsure of what else she could say.

"What?" Arlet asked, stunned.

"I've seen you in my dreams. I-I saw you today, just a little bit ago. In my head." Vega started to feel nauseous again—or maybe the nausea had never really left.

Arlet leaned back, her fingers tapping on her chin while her eyes clouded over in thought. "That's new." She raised her hand to signal another round of shots.

Vega didn't object.

"What do you mean, that's new ?" Vega watched Arlet's every move.

"In your other lives, that's never happened. You've never had dreams of me." Arlet's brows creased in the middle, and she bit her lip, still pondering as she reached for the new shots. She extended one in Vega's direction. She hesitated to grab it. "I'm not going to bite you, Vega."

Her name on the stranger's lips sent Vega flying out of her chair. The stool would have clattered to the floor if it weren't for Arlet's catlike reflexes.

"How do you know my name?" Vega's voice was shaky, warbling with shock.

Arlet shrugged, her eye contact unwavering. "Because I'm your best friend. "

Vega was paralyzed in shock, fear, disbelief, or a combination of all three. "You're crazy. Absolutely mad." She scoffed.

Arlet sighed, took both shots, and patted the cushion on the stool Vega had vacated. "According to your favorite book, we're all mad here." Arlet spread her grin as big as possible, mimicking the Cheshire Cat.

"How—?" Vega cut herself off, stepping back from the stool. Her boot scuffed against the sticky floor, gaining the attention of the other patrons again.

"Everything okay over here?" the bartender asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Arlet smiled sweetly. "Oh, she's fine! We haven't seen each other in a long time, and I surprised her." Arlet wiggled in excitement, momentarily turning her attention to the woman. "We've been best friends all our lives and haven't seen each other in fifteen years. " Her words oozed with elation. The bartender settled quickly as if under some kind of spell.

"How sweet." She smiled big despite missing a bottom tooth. "You two let me know if you need anything, okay?" The bartender padded away after Arlet nodded enthusiastically.

"Who are you?" Vega felt like a broken record. Had her little episode earlier fried her brain?

"I told you. I'm Arlet… and I'm your best friend. Maybe you are drunker than I thought. Should I walk you home?" Arlet stood up.

Vega kept some distance between herself and what she was beginning to believe was a stalker. "I am not letting you know where I live," she huffed.

"I already know where you live."

Vega yanked her coat off the rack by the door. Her throat constricted, fear making her skin tingle. "Stay away from me." She walked backward out of the bar, keeping her eyes on Arlet, who only rolled hers in reply.

Once back outside in the wet Chicago night, Vega turned on her heels and picked up her pace. Her feet were heavy against the sidewalk, water splashing up her legs.

She kept checking over her shoulder, scared she was being followed. The last thing she wanted to do was go home to her apartment, where Chase might be, but at the very least, it would feel like a safe space after whatever this mess was!

The building loomed in the distance. Vega beelined for it, stumbling her way up to the entrance. Her fear did nothing to sober her up.

Vega's breathing was ragged after climbing the stairs to her floor. Drunk or not, she would always avoid the death trap this place considered an elevator. She'd lost track of how many times the fire department had come to pry someone out.

Vega fumbled with the keys in her chilled hands, the metal jingling against each other. They slipped through her damp fingers and hit the floor with a rattle. "You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Vega stood in place, looking down at her keys—defeated by the day, by her life. Don't tempt the universe, she noted. It was in the mood to show her how lousy things could feel in a single day.

Without attracting any more unwanted inconveniences, Vega stepped inside her apartment and put her back against the door. Her heart rate still sputtered in her chest. What the fuck was that girl talking about tonight? If she hadn't pinched herself at the bar, Vega could have chalked this up to a silly dream she'd laugh about in the morning.

The apartment was dark, the only light coming from the glow of the streetlights outside the kitchen window. It was quiet—too quiet. She was alone.

Vega finally let herself break down. When the first tear fell, so did Vega. She slid down the door and let out a sob she was sure her neighbors heard. Her shoulders heaved while the tears continued to fall. She cried for all she had already lost and what was unavoidably going to happen next .

Who was she supposed to be now? Chase was her everything—but she wasn't his. There was no coming back from what he'd done.

Vega's hand slid across her face, wiping away tears and snot. She laid her head back against the door with a thud as her mind began to see all the red flags she'd been blind to over the last several months.

Chase staying late at work, leaving on business trips that came out of nowhere—his excuse being the new position he'd taken leaving no room for proper planning sometimes.

Her heartache turned to rage in the blink of an eye.

Vega let out a guttural screech, the echo vibrating off her eardrums. How could she have been so stupid, so gullible?

There were plates laid out on the table, presumably for the dinner Chase was making for his fucking mistress. Vega stomped over to the table and swept the ceramic to the floor. They hit the tile, shattering into a million tiny pieces around the kitchen.

Once the first piece shattered, there was no stopping the destructive path Vega went on. Pictures were ripped off of the walls, their glass frames mixing with the smashed plates on the floor. Anything around the apartment that was Chase's wasn't safe—his clothes were ripped to shreds, in ribbons around the apartment.

Vega continued to scream, letting the hurt and confusion from tonight's events pour out of her. She didn't care if she woke her neighbors, if the cops were called, or if someone broke down the door to make sure she wasn't being murdered.

She didn't stop until the rust stained porcelain bathtub was full of water and Chase's laptop sat at the bottom with little bubbles floating to the surface.

Vega's eyes fluttered open, and the light from her open blinds made her squint. She groaned, throwing the blanket over her head. If it weren't for the smell wafting into the bedroom, she might have fallen back asleep.

Bacon.

She sat upright, her hair wild from a fitful sleep. Clothes from last night, a towel, and the pajamas she'd meant to wear littered her bedroom floor. How drunk was I? Vega rubbed her temples, racking through her fuzzy memories from the night before.

Vega dressed in clothes strewn on the carpet, avoiding Chase's shredded clothing like they'd grown eyes and were staring directly at her.

The smell of breakfast hinted that Chase had come home to talk. Vega didn't bother brushing her teeth—there would be no kisses. She crossed her arms across her chest defiantly, ready to ask him if he thought making food would solve their problems.

Except the person in the kitchen wasn't Chase.

"Do you still like your eggs scrambled with cheese and hot sauce?" The angelic voice brought Vega's blurry memories back. When Vega didn't answer, Arlet peeked over her shoulder.

Vega fought to find her words. "How. The fuck. Did you get into my house?"

Arlet looked back at the food in the frying pan. "This is an apartment," she deadpanned.

"I'm calling the cops." Vega spun towards her bedroom, hoping she remembered to plug her phone in to charge. Fuck, what did I do with my phone? She didn't make it three steps before Arlet was blocking her path.

"You can't do that," she warned.

"I most certainly can, and I am! This is fucking ridiculous! You followed me home from the bar and broke into my apartment !" Vega sneered, but her voice raised in fear.

"You left the door unlocked. I didn't break in," Arlet admitted with an air of innocence.

"That doesn't make this okay!" Vega's palms were sweating. "I need an explanation… and not the ‘I'm your best friend' one you gave me last night because I'm not sure anyone would believe that shit." Her memories of last night started to trickle back in.

"Gods, okay, okay. Are you going to be mean in this life too?" Arlet stalked back to the small kitchen, grumbling about ruining her breakfast surprise while she turned the stove off.

"What do you mean by that?" Vega needed answers. Now.

Arlet sat on the arm of the couch and took a deep breath. "Your name is Vega Caelum. You're from a realm called Tolevarre. Fifty-five years ago, your sister betrayed our realm and some of our ruling families, overthrowing your parents and the others who held seats in the Curia at the time." Before Vega had time to ask, Arlet explained, "The Curia was our form of government. There were twelve seats, all held by the twelve original bloodlines."

Vega stood as still as stone, plotting how to inch closer to her front door without this beautifully deranged woman noticing. She took one step to the left.

"The ones who didn't side with her were killed. Slaughtered, technically." Arlet told stories with her whole body. Her hands moved as she spoke, making grand gestures as she explained big points. "You, me, and some of our best pals tried to defeat her, but there's one thing about your sister that I need you to understand." She paused, meeting Vega's gaze intently. "Your sister is always one step ahead. She's not stupid. She's one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. I swear once we're on the way home, I'll explain this in more detail, but for now, you'll just have to trust me."

Vega opened her mouth to say something, but Arlet held her finger up. Vega scoffed.

"Long story short, your sister cursed you to forget everything and banished you to this realm, to Earth. If and when you get killed, your life starts over again—always as someone new, somewhere new, but always on Earth. You're always alone, with nothing."

"I'm not alone," Vega lied .

Arlet looked around, her eyebrow raising in a look that said, really? She moved on without saying anything. "You've died twenty times, and I've been the one to find you every life."

The room seemed to grow smaller as the minutes ticked on. How can this girl do this with a straight face? Vega felt like she was on Punk'd , her mind working in overdrive to understand what Arlet was talking about.

"This is the longest you've been gone, and it took me way too long to track you down this time. I couldn't even feel you for ten years. We thought maybe…" Arlet's sentence trailed off.

"That I died?" Vega asked, reading her expression easily.

"Maybe, but you can't die."

"We all die one day." Vega took another step to the left.

"If you die, your sister wins. Marlena can't win." Arlet's voice strained with fear.

The name hit her like a ton of bricks, and an itch in her brain stirred. She had to say the name out loud. "Marlena." The familiarity of it felt weird on her lips.

Arlet shot up. Her eyes were void of the fear that had once been there—it was replaced by something close to hope. "Yes. Marlena. Blonde hair, ice-blue eyes, devastatingly beautiful. We hate her. You haven't also forgotten the cardinal rule of hating the same person your best friend hates, right? You brought that back from here." Arlet motioned around the room but meant the world outside of it. "About thirty years ago, and it's always stuck."

Vega nervously gripped her right wrist. A scar went all the way around her delicate skin and connected at the other end. It was slightly raised and faded enough to be mostly unnoticeable. Vega had no idea where it'd come from but couldn't remember a time when she didn't have it. Sometimes it would tingle, making her rub the skin to distract herself from the sensation.

When Arlet's eyes landed on the brand, Vega hid her hands behind her back. It felt like Arlet was seeing her, really seeing her and who she was on the inside.

"Where did you get that?" Arlet asked.

Vega kept her hands hidden, still attempting to scoot herself closer to the door without being too obvious.

"Vega, stop moving towards the door. I'm not going to kill you."

Vega halted. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Arlet sighed, rubbing at her temples. "Where did you get the brand?" she asked again.

"I don't think that's any of your business," Vega finally responded.

Arlet moved towards her. Her tight black pants, long-sleeved black shirt, and black boots made it easy for her to blend into shadows. It was the same outfit she'd worn last night.

Arlet pulled her shirt sleeve up. A matching scar spread around the length of her wrist. "You're not answering me because you don't know where it came from, but I do. I remember it like it was yesterday and not fifty-five years ago."

Vega's breath caught in her throat. What were the chances two strangers had the same scar in the same place?

"What the fuck!" Vega's eyes shot up from Arlet's wrist. "Who are you?" Vega wanted answers now. Real answers, not this wild tale that she was from a different realm with magic and an evil sister.

"I already told you that. A couple times now." Arlet raised her eyebrow. "Are you still drunk or do you have memory issues in this life? Oh no." She gasped, her eyes growing wide.

Vega took another step away from her. The fear she felt last night after leaving the bar began to fill her chest, tightening the muscles around her heart. The panic set in at the same time she felt an electric shock zing through her body, and everything went black.

Rain pelted Vega's face, the sound of the ocean churning behind her. Her reflection caught her eye in the puddle below her feet—she was so young, an age she'd never seen herself as .

Vega's hands shook, curling into fists as she inhaled sharply. "I can't stop it!" Her young voice sounded defeated, a hint of frustration lingering while little blue traces of electricity bounced in the center of her palms.

"Yes, you can! Don't focus on the lightning. Let that go. It's distracting you!" a blonde, only years older, yelled, keeping her distance. "I watched you do it before! I know you can do it again, Vega!"

Little Vega stomped her foot, threw her hands to her side, and tossed her head back to let out a scream so mighty, so unnerving, that thunder rolled in the distance.

The rain let up, the clouds moving faster overhead. "Oh my gods, you're doing it! Ha-ha! Vega, you're doing it! You can really control the weather!"

The giddy blonde tackled her, and when Vega's breath was stolen from her lungs, she gasped back to life. She lay on the floor of her Chicago apartment, staring up into Arlet's hazel eyes.

"Vega, gods, are you okay?" Arlet gently dabbed a moist cloth on Vega's clammy skin.

"What is happening to me?" Was this the beginning of a mental breakdown?

"I'm not sure. Can you tell me what you saw?"

Vega sat up, fighting the spots in her vision. "It was me. A young me. I-I've never seen. I can't rememb—" She couldn't find the words she was looking for. She stared at the wall on the other side of the room. "I can't remember anything before fifteen. I've never seen myself as a kid." Vega paused, grabbing the cloth from Arlet and using it to wipe her brow. "There was a blonde girl there. Our eyes—they were the same color." A headache began to bloom around her temples. "I had lightning coming out of my hands." She rotated her hands over to stare into her palms. "And I stopped a storm."

Arlet was still crouched down next to her, her eyes glazing over like they had in the bar last night. Her curls bounced when she shook her head, and her eyes refocused. "I don't understand how you're remembering." Her voice was a whisper. "That was Marlena. You saw your sister. The curse is doing something. It's—gods." Arlet stared at the floor, thinking out loud. "The power is exerting itself because it's coming to an end…"

Vega pushed herself off the floor when she felt stable enough to stand, Arlet following suit. "This is batshit. I don't know who you are or what kind of game you're playing, but I need you to leave." Vega's voice was firm.

"What?" Arlet asked, her eyes wide.

"I didn't stutter. I need you to leave." Vega nodded towards the door.

"Vega," Arlet said in protest.

"No. Please, get out of my home." Vega walked to the front door. "My whole life was turned upside down last night when I found out that my husband has been cheating on me. I went to the bar to wallow, and for some reason, you decided to take advantage of a woman down on her luck." Vega bit her lip, forcing the sadness away. Do not show this woman any weakness.

"That's not what this is," Arlet pleaded, yet to move from the middle of the room. "Do you really think someone could make all of this up?"

The question rang in Vega's ears. "Ya know, I don't know what to believe right now."

Arlet took a breath and nodded. "Fine."

The tension in the room rose the closer Arlet got to the door. Vega stood tall in her beat-up pajamas, shoulders square when Arlet stopped in front of her and met her stare. Her stomach was tied in knots, queasy with fear, but she refused to show it.

"I know this is a lot to take in."

"Unbelievable, actually," Vega scoffed.

"Time is running out. Tolevarre is falling to a darkness far worse than anything any of us have ever seen. I can get you your memories back. Your life isn't this dark cloud you think it is. There's been a lot of heartbreak, but there's been so much good too."

Vega opened the door. "Get. Out."

Arlet stepped over the threshold. "I've never given up on you, Vega. I'm not going to start today. You'll be able to find me if you want."

Vega slammed the door shut, not giving her another moment to speak. She flipped both locks and pinched herself for the second time in twenty-four hours—the pain was subtle.

She still wasn't dreaming.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.