A/N: For those who read and loved/hated BCD, this is a completely different story. Yes, yes, yes it is. This is an idea I've been messing around with for over a year and a half, almost two years now. Only now I wrote a good first chapter. In this chapter, I own most everything. Unless you want to say I don't know own Chicago, becaue I don't. Thanks to Just Jaclyn for pushing me to write it. Dar's influenced by Just Jaclyn. Not a lot of detail in this, but you'll understand in the next chapter. Anyway, this story will be LONGGGG. D
Chapter 1: These Nightmares
Chicago, Illinois
August 2008
"I've got this feeling there's someone's following us," Evie said under her breath. She'd been saying the same words all her life, and her friends had coincidentally found them rather irritating. Evie was by default a paranoid person, but something about bike paths past curfew seemed to make the girl even more jittery. It was a wonder that Evie and Dar even got along, since they were such complete opposites at times. For example, Evie was extremely indecisive-- unless, of course, it came to being paranoid. If she heard a noise, it was immediately to be considered a serial killer clown who wanted to cut her into little pieces and put her into a pie that it would later throw into another clown's face. Dar, on the other hand, was extremely stubborn and determined, and she usually stood by her first impression. Evie had this idea that she was going to lead this big exciting life, which probably led to her constant idea that she just had to look behind her shoulder at every possible moment. She didn't want anything sneaking up behind her and catching her by surprise, if it could interfere with her possible big exciting future life. On the other hand, Dar was much more conventional and understood that not everyone was going to live their life as exciting as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, or however Evie imagined her life to be. So Dar had no worries, or at least pretended like she didn't. She did exactly what she wanted, and no one could change that for her. If opportunity lingered in the air, Dar would obligingly be the first one to approach it. Evie would have to study it and make sure that it couldn't ruin her reputation for whatever the future may hold for her.
"You always think something's following us, Evelia," Dar said, a twinge of irritation ornamenting her short phrase. Evie lost no time in pushing Dar to the side. If the girls had anything in common, it was most definitely their dislike towards their names. Evelia Maegan Roderick and Luanna Helen Darrell were not particularly the best names a girl could ask for. While their parents' obsession with unique names was both respectable and paved with good intentions, they must have not thought about how it would make their daughter's miserable in the future. And it did make them miserable, but at least it was better than saying that their name was on the most popular baby name list when they were born.
While the girls were never prepared to acquiesce into their names that they were so convinced did not suit them, they had to find nicknames. 'Evelia', a name easier to drag a nickname out of when placed next to 'Luanna', was soon changed to Evie. However, Evie's mother still believed that calling the girl 'Evelia' was requisite. No matter how much Evie loved her mother, her 'requisite name-calling' was not among her favorite things about the woman, and she thus had to be careful as to dodge the impulse to slap her mom upon these instances of 'requisite name-calling'. On the other hand, a certain Kimberly Darrell, mother of Luanna, was much more understanding of Dar's dislike towards her name. Seeing as the only nicknames anyone could get out of Luanna were Lu and Anna (neither of which were highly appreciated), they searched for a nickname in Dar's surname. Darrell was out of the picture, seeing as Darrell was actually a boy's name. After long debating and both distressful and sleepless nights (honestly, Dar really did feel strongly about her name), Dar was settled upon.
"And you're undoubtedly a bitch, Luanna Helen," Evie laughed, thinking she had gotten the girl back. Of course, disputes (if they could even be considered that) between Evie and Dar were not settled just like that. Dar, who had pretended as if she had really been hurt by Evie, had fallen behind about five feet before she scrambled forward, pulling on Evie's dark hair. Unfortunately, sensitive scalps were a bitch to have, as Evie did, and said 'dispute' soon turned into a short laughing fest, after a few heated 'Fuck you!'s had been thrown back and forth.
The wind was still and the trees rustled. Stopping dead in her tracks, Dar failed to even notice that Evie had stopped walking. After beginning to tell a story about some rumour she had heard recently about some people who had apparently been found fucking behind the movie theater, she finally noticed Evie had stopped walking. Dar had turned, presumably, to gesture or demonstrate something (wouldn't that have been fun to have seen?), and noticed that Evie had stopped walking. Turning her head farther behind her until she finally saw Evie frozen in fear, staring at a nearby tree. "For such a big dreamer about when it comes to your 'big exciting future', you sure do turn into a fucking pussy when you hear an unwanted sound," Dar mumbled to herself, turning on her heel to walk back to her friend. "What is it, dead body in the river?"
"You're just morbid enough to be excited by that sort of thing," Evie said, rolling her eyes. One just had to mention the word 'dead' or 'corpse' with the name of an animal or a person following it to get Dar investigating. "Anyway, there is no river over here."
"My point exactly, Evie," Dar muttered, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, you'd be the kind of person I'd expect to just imagine one there-- both the river and the dead body. But anyway, if it's the trees, it's probably just the wind. I know you'd love to believe it was some sort sort of epic breakthrough in... apparitions, or whatever that ghost-shit it is you believe in, but seriously. It's not."
"You believe in it too, numbnuts," Evie pointed out. Evie just apparently believed in it a little more than Dar did. "Anyway, there is no wind. It's pretty wind-less here in the windy city, if you haven't noticed. At least over here, at this time of night it is. Or at least it is right now. Point is, there is no wind, so it wasn't the wind."
"Then it was an animal," Dar said, looking at her friend. Evie finally took her eyes off of the tree and stared at her friend, obviously not believing that it was an animal. "Fuck! You know, I don't understand why you-- we-- you--"
"'No animal." Evie looked convinced that there was something more to it.
"Fine! What-- do you want me to go look?" Dar asked, obviously just wanting to get this over with. Evie, being her indirect self, much to the opposing rather bold and down-to-the-point Dar, Evie cocked her head to the right and tried to look as if she was thinking. Rolling her eyes once again, Dar gave up. She walked over to the tree, violently pulled away the branches in order so she could see the nonexistent thing that had caused the tree to move. "See--"
Dar's voice had more or less died, rather than asked a question, and even faded was pushing it. Evie was standing at an angle from which she couldn't see past Dar, to see whatever the girl was staring at. Cautiously, Evie shuffled towards her friend and stood behind the girl, prepared for the worst of things to be there. Dar wasn't exactly the easiest person to scare in the world. Evie could see just enough so she could recognize what it was, that had made the noise. Or rather, whoever or whatever had dragged it there had made the noise.
"It's--" Dar began.
"Yea, I see that."
