Hello again, everyone. I am in the process of editing a few things but should be getting some new chapters up soon. There are some minor adjustmensts here but more to come later and then for the new stuff!

Chapter 1: Caution to the Wind

Her eyes shot open. That was the craziest dream she had ever had... not that she remembered much of it. All she remembered was that she didn't like it very much. Bad things... terrible things had happened. Things that she did not want to even imagine could happen. Some of it, as she remembered, had been true. Main events were actually happening, at least similarly, to what had happened in her dream. No one she actually recognized. Their voices, all of their voices, sounded familiar. She didn't recognize any of the faces. They hadn't been all that clear to her. They were somehow blurred, but the voices were crisp and distinct. Many blurred faces with many very different voices and demeanors. What had it all meant?

She stopped staring at the wall and rolled over on her bed to look at the clock. It was 7:32pm. She must have fallen asleep reading her book. She looked down at the bed and found her book lying semi-open under her arm. She took the bookmark from her nightstand and placed it inside the page, closed the book, and set it next to the clock back on the nightstand.

Buzz! Buzz!

Her cell phone was ringing. She picked it up and looked at the caller ID to see who it was. "Of course," she said with a sigh as she answered the phone. "Hey, what's up?"

"Jorden, what are you doing? Where are you?"

"I'm at home. Why?"

"Are you coming or not. I'm waiting."

"Yeah, I'm coming."

"Well, when will you be here?" the woman on the other end was getting impatient.

"Lena, I'll be there soon…within the hour. I'll call you when I get there, ok?" Jorden replied getting increasingly frustrated herself.

"Fine, I'll be waiting for you," and with that Lena hung up and left Jorden in dead silence.

Jorden got up and walked over to the window. Rain was pelting down from the darkened cloudy sky. She could hear the rain tinking off the metal fire escape just outside the window and the sloshing sound of cars driving through the puddle that always collected on the street corner during a rainstorm. She could see the few random pedestrians attempting to jump the puddle on the corner as they tried to scramble across the street dodging cars under their umbrellas of every different color.

She took another look at the clock. It was now 7:39. Wow, time was going to fly by tonight. She didn't have much time, Lena was right. She had to be down there by 8:00. Jorden wasn't sure if she was going to make it on time, now. It wouldn't be a big deal if she didn't. The only person who would be disappointed would be Lena. Jorden didn't really care about the stupid contest anyway. It wasn't even her idea to enter the contest. As a matter of fact, Lena had entered her in behind her back. Jorden had never been a huge fan of karaoke, especially in bars and clubs. At home or in her classroom at the community center was a completely different story. For some reason or another, Lena felt that everyone on the planet needed to know how talented Jorden was. Lena actually thought Jorden had talent. Where Lena had gotten that idea, Jorden wasn't really sure. She only knew that Lena was wrong and was kind of angry at Lena for entering her into this stupid contest.

Jorden finished getting herself together, found her jacket and keys, turned off the lights, and headed out into the downpour. Taking a quick glance at her phone before stepping out of the apartment building, she realized she had only 10 minutes to get all the way to the club. Jorden was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen since the club was several blocks away, but she bounded out into the rain anyway, very skillfully jumping the puddle on the corner and dodging between the cars with speed skater like movements. As she jumped the much smaller puddle on the other side of the street and onto the sidewalk, she found her very long stride quickly and made her way diligently to the club.

As much as she hoped the desire to get out of the rain would propel her, the weather had overcome and slowed her down. Jorden had just entered the club and was digging her phone out of her pocket. It was 8:21. Dang...too late. Lena was going to hate her. Oh, well. It wasn't that much of a deal to Jorden. She didn't much care. By the sound of it someone had just finished. Whoever it was must have done really well because there was all sorts of cheering and whistling coming from the crowd. Jorden dialed Lena's number hoping that Lena had not gotten distracted, which wasn't very hard for Lena. Lena was very friendly, especially when it came to guys. She never really thought things through and as a result, Lena had been heartbroken more times than Jorden could count. She knew this because she was the one who always helped Lena pick up the pieces and put them back together. Nowadays, however, Lena didn't really commit to anyone. She would just jump out as quickly as she jumped in and remained unscathed, showing as much judgment as she had before... minimal at best. Now she just complained that she was unlucky and found all the terrible guys who had one thing on their mind, which made Jorden believe that Lena wasn't actually happy with the way things were going and Lena actually wanted a connection with someone.

Voicemail. Lena had gotten distracted. Jorden quickly snapped her phone closed, returned it to her pocket, and walked toward the bar just in time to her the M.C. announce the winner of the contest. There must not have been many contestants. Jorden didn't much care as a roar of approval came from the crowd as the winner approached the stage to claim his prize. Jorden found an abandoned stool at the bar as the music began to blare once more, the house lights went down and the floor lights came on. The dance floor was rushed by practically everyone in the place. Jorden knew that Lena was out there with some guy she had just met and would come out of there eventually, either bored with him and wanting to find another or to come up for air with every intention of finding him again.

Jorden had just gotten a bottle of water from the bartender when Lena came stumbling out of the crowd and collapsed into the vacant bar stool next to her, flinging her arms tirelessly onto the bar her head falling onto her arms immediately.

"Bad choice?" Jorden asked with a bit of a teasing tone in her voice, fully knowing the answer she was going to get.

"Terrible. How do I get so lucky?" Jorden sensed the sarcasm. She just smiled back knowing perfectly well that Lena knew exactly what her problem was.

"You know what, Lena?" Jorden directed at her slumped over friend. "If you can go out there and meet random people and act ridiculous, then so am I. We'll both throw caution to the wind. What do you say?"

Lena looked very quizzically at her friend. This was a very strange attitude for Jorden. Jorden was always the safe and rational one. "...throw caution to the wind..."? What was that about? "You must be joking," said Lena who was now looking more confused than ever.

"Actually, I am totally serious," replied Jorden with reassurance written all over her face. It had been a rough day, and Jorden was bound and determined to have fun tonight.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. Let's go."

The two made their way toward the dance floor. Since the song change, the crowd had dispersed a little. There was much more room to move around and made it easier for Jorden and Lena to find a spot they could both occupy comfortably. After a few songs, Lena took off toward the bar for some water and left Jorden out by herself for a little while. A few minutes later, Lena returned but she was not alone.

"Hey, Jorden," she could her Lena trying to pinpoint her location.

"Over here, Lena," Jorden moved to her tip-toes, waving her hands above her head to try and catch Lena's attention.

"Oh, there you are."

"Didn't really move. Who's this?"

Lena had found a friend. The woman had brown hair and looked like she'd been through a rough time recently. She did not look together at all and Jorden could tell that something was very wrong. She looked worried and Jorden wasn't sure why this woman would want to be in a place like this at such a time. Jorden brushed it aside assuming her radar was off a little. "Hi. I'm Jorden," she said offering a hand.

"Sara."

"Nice to meet you, Sara," and as their hands started to come apart Jorden noticed something in Sara's hand. It felt like a folded up piece of paper. Jorden looked at Sara who had a 'take the paper' look in her eyes. This made Jorden's radar go berserk. What was going on? Who was this woman? She looked a little familiar to Jorden, but she couldn't quite peg where she knew this woman from. Jorden could tell that this paper was rather important to whoever this woman was, so she took the paper from Sara and quickly put her hands in her pockets and began a conversation.

"So do you live here in the city or are you just visiting?"

"Oh, I live here. I've been away for a while and just got back."

"Really, where'd you go?"

"All over."

"I bet you met someone," Jorden took note of Sara's short, distracted answers.

"You could say that, but a girl doesn't kiss and tell." Jorden could tell that this conversation was getting incredibly awkward for Sara. She was getting very fidgety at the mentioning this guy and wasn't really sure how to answer their questions. Jorden immediately thought this woman was hiding something but she didn't really want to know what it was. She was sure that the paper in her pocket was going to tell her, though.

"I hate to cut this short but I really do have to get going," Sara said with a little hint of relief in her voice. "It was very nice meeting you both."

"And you," Jorden said giving her a reassured look.

"Where exactly is the door? This place is so huge," Sara asked whipping her head left to right.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll show you the way," Lena offered. She turned to Jorden and said, "Be right back."

Good. Jorden wanted to take a look at that paper alone anyway. She still couldn't shake the feeling that she knew Sara from someplace. If only she could remember. It must have only been a passing glance or something. Jorden turned away from the spot the Lena and Sara had disappeared into the sea of people and delved into her pocket for the paper Sara had given her. She pulled it out and held it in a fist as she took one more, quick glance behind her shoulder checking for Lena and anyone else who may have been watching. Seeing that the coast was clear, she turned her attention to her hand and the paper inside. With her free hand, she took the paper from her fist and held brought it up toward her eyes. It was difficult to see in the dark so she tried to maneuver around to catch it one of the lights…there.

"Oh my God!" between her fingers Jorden held a paper crane.