- Chapter One - Today (i.e. Monday, February 16)
- Chapter Two - Wednesday, February 18
- Chapter Three - Monday, February 2
So without further ado, here's the first installment. Hope you enjoy!
CHAPTER 1
S
|
abrina Johnson
was sitting across from a sociopath who was out for her blood. Or at least he belonged
to a sociopathic organization with that particular goal.
Not
that she had any clue about his evil intentions. She just thought it was a bad
date.
A
really, really bad date.
It
had been a mere hour since she first said hello to her internet-matched suitor,
but Sabrina’s smile already felt chafed and she was more than ready to go home
despite the picturesque setting she found herself in. The tablecloth beneath
her folded hands was a crisp white, the chandelier dangling from the center of
the room was romantically dim, and she herself looked “beautiful.” Eugene had
told her as much no less than half a dozen times already.
It
wasn’t that she didn’t like compliments. She did. It was just the way they came
pouring out of his mouth in a nervous rush that she objected to. She really
wished she hadn’t taken so much time planning out the perfect outfit for the
evening when it was proving to be such a waste. Sabrina felt like she could
have worn a burlap bag and Eugene would still be awestruck.
That
meant the dress she was wearing was overkill: an absolute waste from its black
and white checks to its printed green flowers and accommodating skirt that
flared out just above her knees. She also shouldn’t have splurged on the
pearl-shaped earrings, or the matching necklace that flattered both the green
in her dress and of her eyes. The same went for the strappy black heels on her
feet.
That
last purchase had been at Deanda’s insistence. Her roommate had basically bullied
her into buying the pair, though Sabrina hadn’t minded at the time when they
were so perfect.
Nearly
fairytale perfect. That’s what she had thought when she signed her name on the
electronic line.
Seventy-two
hours later, she was beginning to regret it all.
“So
tell me what your parents are like?” Eugene asked the question out of the blue
in a nervous rush, his eyes oddly bright, his smile even stranger.
With
his short brown hair and trim figure, he wasn’t a bad looking guy per se. He
was just a weirdo. And he was making Sabrina uncomfortable.
Then
again, she told herself, she wouldn’t have appreciated the question regardless.
She never did. That part wasn’t his fault, so she answered as reasonably as she
always did when the subject came up.
“I
never knew my parents. I’m an orphan.”
“Oh,
I’m sorry,” he said, sounding more curious than sympathetic. There was even a
twinge of something like excitement in his voice. “Have you ever done any
searches for them?”
“Of
course I did.” Sabrina tried hard to keep any bite out of the response. “I just
never got any leads worth pursuing. Actually, I never got any leads at all. All
I know is that I was literally left on a doorstep as a baby.”
After
spending her entire adolescence obsessing over her origins, it had taken her
until the last few years to come to terms with reality. Growing up was
difficult enough without the additional identity crisis of living in one foster
home after another, but she had somehow managed.
Anyway,
it hadn’t all been dreadful. Confusing and lonesome, yes. But not dreadful.
Somehow, Sabrina had always ended up in decent areas under the care of good
people. That might have been why she’d never gotten into the kind of trouble so
many other orphans did. Drugs, sex, crazy party scenes: She hadn’t experimented
with any of them as an adolescent. Not when she had one set after another of
nurturing and old-fashioned foster parents.
As
a preteen and teenager with a lifetime supply of instability, Sabrina had been
particularly susceptible to their honest affection. So when they gave parental
lectures about proper behavior, Sabrina listened more often than not. And after
a while, avoiding certain kinds of troubles had become something of a habit,
she supposed.
That
admittedly unusual upbringing had helped her stay safe, and safe is how she
still stayed.
Safe
and boring: two words that never lasted long in a fairytale.
Despite
the occasional weak moment, like the one she’d had three days ago, Sabrina
didn’t often buy into stories of slippers and magical mice. She did, however,
believe in bad dates. Especially when Eugene didn’t let the subject of her
parentage go like a polite person should. He kept pushing for details she quite
simply didn’t have.
It
made her regret her shoe choice that much more, not because the slingbacks
themselves were at fault. She knew she was the one who had screwed up. Her and
her stupid imagination, making ridiculous analogies about Cinderella.
The
shoes were black, for heaven’s sake. Not
glass.
Nor
was that the only detail off about the scene in front of her versus the scene
she’d prefer. Like it or not, she was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, one of the
least romantic place on earth. Out in the more rural areas, it was still home
to the Amish, cornfields and courting. In the city, it was all knife fights and
gang violence. Hardly the place to find a happily-ever-after.
Then
there was the fact that she was twenty-four, not sixteen. And fairytales always
centered around a girl’s sixteenth birthday. Maybe her eighteenth if the writer
had a less creepy fascination with underage hotties.
Sabrina
tried to console herself with the reminder that fairytales were overrated
anyway. Yes, they involved long-lost relatives showing up at her door, bearing
titles and tiaras. And she couldn’t find much to fault with the idea of a
knight in shining armor riding in to rescue her from unwanted suitors. Like
Eugene.
But
with that privilege came a whole list of negatives: evil witches, fire-breathing
dragons and angry sorcerers determined to lock her away somewhere. That kind of
drama Sabrina could do without, even if it did come part and parcel with true
love’s kiss. So really, she shouldn’t be complaining about her safe and boring existence.
She
shouldn’t. But right about then, she was.
Sabrina
snuck a covert glance at her phone, which she had slipped out of her handbag
and into her lap some time ago. If she hadn’t, she might have lost her cool in
the first fifteen minutes of fending off his over-the-top compliments and
intrusive inquiries.
If
someone had just bothered to tell her why he was so eager to know everything
about her, she wouldn’t have stuck around for any length of time, much less the
polite two hours that she did.
But
no one breathed a word to Sabrina about fairytales being true. And without that
vital piece of information, she couldn’t be blamed for believing she was merely
having a bad date.
It
would have been nice, however, to get some kind of a heads-up as to just how
bad it was going to get.
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