Young Writers Society

Chapter 5 – Just Another Day in Paradise
Morning came quickly just like any other. Outside it was beautiful, the birds were singing, the sun was shining, people were leaving their homes to go to work. But inside, clothes were still scattered across the floor, the dirty dishes were still in the sink, and my bed was now empty. Yeah, EMPTY!

“That bastard!” I growled in my mind.

How the hell had he done it? The only way to get out of my apartment was through the front door, and seeing as I was sleeping on the couch, and me being a light sleeper, it is damn near impossible to get out with waking me. Yet he had done it, leaving nothing behind but an empty bed and a bloodstained pile of gauze. I growled again, kicking the mattress angrily as I stormed into the kitchen to make my morning cup of coffee.

I had just replaced the old filter, and was scooping a spoonful of Folgers into the new one, when the phone rang. I dumped the beans into the machine, before removing the phone from it's cradle on the counter and answering it.

“Hello,” I said turning the coffee maker on and leaning against the wood counter-top.

“Hey Sam it's me” said the deep tell-tale voice of my roommate Johnny Hunter.

I could feel my already sour mood grow ever more bitter. “I'm not sure if I should hang up or growl angrily into the phone."

Johnny chuckled on the other side of the line. “Well, it looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Make some coffee it'll help you be less cranky”.

“I'm making it right now” I said with a frown. “And on my way to the kitchen I took notice on how bad the apartment looks.”

“Oh come on Sam,” replied Johnny nonchalantly. “It can't be that bad”.

I sighed and turned off the coffee maker. “There are piles of clothes all over the place, it smells in here, and I'm pretty sure I heard something scamper across the floor last night”.

“Well take that up with Briana,” he said as I pour myself a cup of coffee. “I'm at work so I can't really stop by and pick up my dirty laundry. Oh and speaking of work, the boss called me and said she wants you to cover the 9 o'clock shift for today”.

I glanced over at the clock on the wall and nearly spewed coffee out my mouth.

“Damn it Johnny it's 8:35!” I yelled slamming the cup down in the counter and sprinting into my room. “Why the hell didn't you call me sooner?”

“Don't blame me,” he groaned. “I didn't know until a little while ago. I called your phone but no one answered”.

“My phone” I thought scanning my room and spotted the case on the floor next to the bandages.

“That bastard stole my phone!” I growled snatching the rubber case from off the ground and squeezed it in my hand. “I swear to God that if I see him again I'm going to kill him”.

“What are you talking about?” asked Johnny, reminding me that I was still on the phone.

“Nothing,” I huffed tossing angrily on my bed. “Tell the boss I'll be there in 25 minutes”.

“Roger that” said Johnny before I hung up and tossed the phone on the bed and headed for the shower.

I took a quick five minute shower and strangely enough I actually started feeling better after I stepped out the hot stream and into a soft towel. Aside from the the fact that I was now down a phone, I had to go to work, and I hadn't slept well last night I was doing really well. And unlike most girls my age I don't spend countless hours in front of the mirror so it only took me a few minutes to get ready. Soon enough I dressed, in my favorite jeans and a red t-shirt, and was downing the cup of coffee I had made earlier, before snatching my keys from off the coffee table and running out the door.

I took the stairs three at a time and was down in the parking garage in 5 minutes and in my Kia in 7. I jammed the keys in the ignition and all put peeled out of my parking space, praying to every god in the sky that the roads would be clear.

. . .

I pulled into the employee parking lot behind Firestone Books going from sixty to zero in three seconds as I pulled my Kia into a spot by the door and pretty much threw myself out of the car. I sprinted into the store, grabbing my apron from the hook by the back door, and slid into place behind the counter with only seconds to spare.

“Safe,” I thought cracking a big smile.

“Is Samantha here” said the high pitched tone of my boss Judy Watson as she descended the staircase clipboard in hand...as usual.

Judy was by far the worst manager who I have ever worked for. She's cold, nasty, evil, and a straight up bitch. Think Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter, drop the weight, add some height, and give her more pink attire and you have Judy. She was a woman you would love to feed to a pack of rabid zombies if you had the chance. But she is my boss so I put up with her.

“I'm right here boss,” I said waving at her with a smirk.

“Oh,” she said trying and failing to hide her surprise. “Thank you for coming in on such short notice”.

“More like no notice at all”, I thought. But what came out my mouth was “It was no trouble at all”.

“Well I'm gonna to go and let you get back to work,” she said sashaying her way down the aisles. “Make sure you open those boxes on the second floor and shelve the books accordingly”.

“Yes ma'am,” I replied with a sloppy salute, as she disappeared into her office at the back of the store.

“Sometimes I think she intentionally does that to have a reason to fire you” said a cool deep voice behind me causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.

“I would not be surprised if that was the case” I said with a smile as I turned to face my Johnny.

Johnny was your average beach boy, everything from his blond hair to his tan muscly skin to his forest green eyes screamed California. He was the type of boy everyone wanted to be and at 20 who won't want to be him. A skater, surfer, poet, and photographer all reflected perfectly in his designer shirt and faded jeans. Perfect guy, not so perfect roommate but I dealt with him and his moodiness. Oh and did I mention that he's single.

“I suspect that you broke a few laws to get here,” he said smugly.

“Only a few” I replied jokingly as I opened the drawer near the cash register and pulled out the box cutter. “Gotta do it to keep Umbridge happy”.

Johnny and I snickered as the door opened and a couple of customers walked in.

“Welcome to Firestone Books” said Johnny as the customers nodded and went to their browsing.

“Well I better get to work,” I said walking around counter and towards the steps “before I'm forced to fan her with swan feathers and feed her grapes”.

Johnny snickered and motioned me to get upstairs before we both got in trouble. And so I climbed the metal spiral staircase to the second floor. But all joking aside, the store Judy ran was a beautiful peaceful place. It was built in the late 1920s and was originally going to be a firehouse but after 1940 Judy's great grandfather bought it and turned it into a bookstore. The atmosphere was so peaceful that as I walked up the stairs I couldn't help but feel like I was at home. That was until I saw the set of boxes sitting just to the right of the stairs on the second floor landing, reminding me that I was on the job.

So with a sigh I went to work unpacking the boxes. It only took me a 15 minutes to open and unpack the first two sets of boxes and shelve them. I was opening up the third box, which contained enough spell books to keep my mother occupied for months, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I'm usually cool in situations like this but now, I couldn't help but jump and spin around, brandishing the box cutters like a makeshift dagger. Only to come face to face with the surprised face of my second roommate Briana .

“Wow Sam,” she giggled glancing at the box cutters and then back to me. “I think that we've been watching a little too much Xena hmm?”

“And who was it again who turned me on to said Warrior Princess again?” I said with a smile.

“Touche” she replied.

Briana is someone that most guys would consider to be “very cute”. She looks about 19 when in fact she's the same age as Johnny. Her black hair fell to her shoulders and is streaked with strands of blond, making her baby blue eyes and light brown skin stick out more. She wore her signature outfit, a gray shirt and gray skinny jeans. But unlike her flashy attire she is funny, sweet,and caring . And to be honest, she is the type of girl that, if I was a lesbian, I would totally sleep with. She, like Johnny, is not the neatest roommate but she is someone who I could come to when I felt like crap, so I keep her around.

“So,” she said glancing around and then leaning in close. “Did you do it?”

I sighed and nodded, causing Briana to squeal and jump up and down happily. This caused the couple on the far side of the landing to stop talking and stare at the two of us.

“Chill out,” I hissed as I turned and smiled apologetically at the couple, who thankfully went back to their business. “I did it, but then again you and Johnny would have known that if you would have been home last night.”

“Sorry about that,” she said leaning against the bookshelf as I grabbed the box cutters and went back to work. “We went to that party down at the Dominguez Hills dorms and it lasted way longer than I thought”.

“Which in Brianese meant that she met a hot guy and they hooked up. Typical,” I thought.

“That's fine,” I said coolly. “So long as you and Johnny clean up the mess at the apartment I have no problem with that”.

“No problem,” she said with a bright smile. “So what did you do last night?”

My mind flashed back to the guy who I found in The Studio. The guy who I let into my apartment and took care of. The guy with the beautiful amber eyes and midnight black hair. The guy who snuck out of my apartment with my phone.

I frowned and cut through the tape of another box and ripped it open angrily. “Absolutely nothing”.

“Oh,” she said a look of concern on her face. “You really have to get out Sam. You have been awfully glum since the funeral.”

I felt the anger rise up in me and I snapped.

“And I don't have reason to be Briana!” I spat bitterly, “All the spells in her Book of Shadows couldn't save her when it came down to it and now she's gone. How the hell do you expect me to feel?”

“I'm sorry I didn't mean to...” my roommate, started but the damage had already been done.

“Don't bother!” I growled as I stabbed the box cutters into a nearby box and stormed down the spiral staircase. “I'm taking my break!”

I passed by Johnny but he didn't stop me as I ripped off my apron and stormed out the back door. Smart boy. I climbed into the back of my car car in time for the anger to subside and the tears to take over. They came streaming down my face before I could stop them and now here I was, blubbering alone in the backseat of my car.

But as the images of the car accident that took my mom whirled through my mind, I felt a hand on the back of my head as I was pulled into this stranger's warm embrace.

I don't know how long I was crying, but after what felt like an eternity I slowly pulled away.

“I'm sorry” I said as I turned away and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “I didn't mean to cry on you like that.”

“Don't be,” said the stranger. “We all have our bad days, isn't that right Sam”.

I stopped dead, as he spoke.

“It couldn't be” I thought as slowly turned around.

But sure enough it was. Caleb, the guy whose life I had saved just last night, standing not two feet from me. His once disheveled hair was now combed and brushed back into a short ponytail. He wore a pair of black basketball shorts and a sleeveless gray shirt with a slightly darkened patch where I had been crying. He looked like a completely different person in the morning sunlight, but I could still see something in his amber eyes.

Something feral and untamed. Something dark.

“Happy to see me?” he asked.

“I'm not going to comment on that til you give me my phone back,” I said coldly, ignoring the fact that I had just cried on his shirt.

“Oh right” he said digging into his pocket and pulling out my phone before tossing it to me. “I had a call to make and I forgot to return it”.

“Uh-huh,” I said wearing a clear 'yeah right' expression. “ You know I could have you arrested for theft.”

“But you won't,” he replied with a cocky grin.

I scoffed. “What makes you so sure about that?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side. “You find me intriguing”.

“And you're kidding yourself,” I said turning slightly trying to hide my face.

He dropped his hands to his sides and took a step forward until I was looking up into those deep amber eyes again.

“That may be true,” he replied. “But I do find you intriguing. I mean what girl takes a guy, she barely knows, home to take care of him.”

“A naïve one,” I said trying to avoid his eyes.

Caleb chuckled and slowly reached out to brush a stray strand of hair out of my face. Something that felt both wrong and right at the same time.

“No,” he said. “There's something else. Something that makes you special. Something different.”

That is when I couldn't stop myself and I had to look into his eyes. Those feral eyes.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

Caleb opened his mouth but then stopped. Then I swear I saw his nostrils flare before his eyes widened.

“Shit!” he cursed.

I was about to ask him what was going on when the sound of squealing tires echoed through the air. Seconds later three black SUVs pulled into the parking lot and came to a screeching halt. I shrieked as a half dozen men in black SWAT body armor jumped out of SUVs and drew their weapons. Half were armed with handguns and the other half with rifles, all of which were pointed dead at Caleb and me.

“You guys sure took your time,” said Caleb coolly, as if he had stared down an entire SWAT team before. Hell maybe he had, I honestly didn't know.

“Step away from the car!” yelled one of the SWAT guys.

The tension was mounting as I stepped away from my Kia, moving closer to Caleb. All the while trying not to pee my pants. What the hell had I done? I had taken in a fugitive and helped him. That made me an accomplice.

“Now get down on the ground!” yelled the SWAT guy again. “Now!”

My body was screaming at me to run, maybe I could make it inside the store before they started firing. But before I could even try make a run for it,I felt a hand grab me from behind and a cloth was shoved over my mouth and nose. I tried to fight but the guy who had me was strong and all my fighting did nothing. The world around me began to slowly get fuzzy as whatever was in the cloth took effect.

“Sam!” screamed Caleb as he lunged for my attacker.

But before he could another guy came up from behind my attacker and hit Caleb upside the head with the blunt end of his rifle, knocking him to the ground.

“Caleb,” I cried.

And that is when my legs gave out from under me, the world around me went pitch black, and I passed out.