Chapter 1
Jen Farmar walked past the Old Navy in Westerfeld Mall. She glanced around at all the stores, Famous Footwear, Dillard's, Penny's…dull. She noticed a group of ten or eleven year olds staring at her, no doubt noticing her eyes. She sighed and let her long brown hair fall over her aquamarine eyes.
People always said she had beautiful eyes, no one had ever seen anything like them. Though most always starred… They matched perfectly with her unusually pale complexion and dark, middle-back length, straight hair. She wore jeans most of the time and usually some sort of t-shirt. Today though, she was wearing a black skirt and a purple turtleneck, topped off with black combat boots. She stepped onto the down escalator going to the lower level of the mall. Hopping off the escalator, she headed toward a small table in the food court by some sort of exotic plant. Jen sat down in the metal chair and glanced around the food court, observing. A small child eating chicken fingers, a Goth guy with spiked black hair talking with some friends, a mother feeding an infant French Fries.
Jen sighed and crossed her legs. She often wondered about people, she loved to just sit back and observe the world, take it all in. She glanced back at the mother feeding the infant. Jen longed to have a mother and father; her real parents had disappeared when she was fifteen, three long years ago. Ever since then she had been on her own. Now she was living at a cheap apartment downtown working at Loi's across the street from the mall.
Jen checked the time, twenty minutes till her shift. Luckily for her the restaurant was just across the street, within walking distance of the Mall.
Out of the blue Jen suddenly got the feeling of being watched, she looked up and saw a man looking at her from across the food court. Seeing her looking back at him, he looked away instantly.
Jen was puzzled, how strange. Slipping another quick look at the man she saw that he was about 19 or 20 and had messy brown hair that was covering his ears. He was wearing black jeans and a blue t-shirt with a black jacket. She tried to put it out of her mind but something about it just felt wrong to her. Maybe she was just being paranoid but it felt like she had seen him before, somewhere.
She sighed, pushing the restless thoughts out of her head and glanced at her watch, ten minutes till shift, she had better get going.
Jen grabbed her backpack and stood up, proceeding across the lobby, past the man and through the double doors. She was countered by a sharply bitter cold wind blasting her in the face. She pulled her jacket on and zipped it up, tucking her head in towards her chest.
No snow had fallen yet this year but it was still pretty nippy for November. But that was average weather for Westerfeld, cold early and late spring. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing though; Jen actually preferred the cold to the hot weather.
She stepped onto the sidewalk beside the intersection and pushed the crosswalk button. It lit up and she jogged across the road into Loi's parking lot. It wasn't really a big parking lot, well, neither was the diner for that matter.
The building was made of red brick and was about average size for small town diners. It had three big windows on the three sides of the building complete with nice booths and tables inside. Jen pulled open Loi's front door and the bell jingled, bidding her welcome. It was five' o'clock, the dinner rush hadn't arrived yet and only one customer was here, a man in a suit talking on a Blackberry in the corner booth.
Jen walked through the open arch door that led behind the counter, setting her bag and coat under the cash register.
"Hey Jen!" A voice behind her said excitedly.
Jen smiled, knowing exactly who it was and turned. A pixie like girl with wavy waist length silvery hair and violet eyes stood there grinning wildly at Jen.
"Hey Cara, what's going on?" Jen said smiling back at her.
"Not much, I have just five more minutes left in shift, then I'm planning to head home. Where have you been?" Cara asked.
"Well, I just decided to head over the Mall for a while…" Jen answered.
For some reason thoughts of the brown-headed guy went through her mind. Should she tell Cara? She could trust her with anything.
"You know, the weirdest thing happened…" Jen told her.
Cara's eyes were befuddled with confusion.
"What happened Jen? Was it something bad?"
Jen shrugged, she really wasn't sure what to make of it in the first place. For some reason she had second thoughts about telling Cara.
"Aw, never mind. It was nothing…" Jen replied, looking away.
She was feeling foolish for even mentioning it in the first place.
Cara studied her with her violet eyes, suspicious with concern. Cara didn't push her and looked at her phone.
"Well, my shift's over. I'll come by your apartment tomorrow since we both don't have to work, sound ok?" Cara asked, grabbing her stuff.
"Always," Jen said grinning, "we can rent a movie or something."
Cara smiled, "Ok, see you tomorrow then Jen."
Jen nodded and Cara threw her purse over her shoulder, walking out into the cold. Jen sighed and prepared herself for the shift, only an hour, it shouldn't be all that bad. Her thoughts aimlessly wandered back to the man looking at her. For some reason Jen couldn't get the insignificant incident out of her mind.
Something about it just triggered a disturbance inside her. Sure boys had looked at her when she was in school, she wasn't exactly bad looking. But this, this was different, for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Jen snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of the bell jingling. She looked up and saw that it wasn't a customer, just Alec the other guy working that evening. He wore dark jeans and a black t-shirt.
His messy, sandy blonde hair almost covered his emerald green eyes. Jen had never really talked to him, and he had always tried to avoid her, which Jen found kind of strange. For some reason when she first saw him she thought she had seen him from before, met him somewhere. Of course that wasn't the case, still the thought was kind of strange.
Alec came through the arch and looked up at her briefly, nodding as he sat his stuff under the register and went back in the back since he was one of the food preps. It was now about time for the dinner rush and Jen smiled to herself as the first of the customers came flooding in.
The rest of the shift passed quickly for Jen. Families came and went and the shift was an easy one, though she was glad when nine 'o' clock came around.
Jen grabbed her bag and coat and proceeded out into the cold night towards home. The air was bitter and stung her face as the wind came in waves. She tucked her jacket tighter, grateful she had brought it and started down the sidewalk. The streetlights brightly illuminated the sidewalk, allowing Jen to see all around her. One might wonder if it would be dangerous to walk alone in Westerfeld at night. Jen didn't have much to worry about; it was over all a safe little town. Most people knew each other and kept an eye out for everyone, which was typical of small towns. Jen still could never be too careful. If a situation did arise and she needed to defend herself from an attacker, she was a black belt in karate, she could take care of herself.
It really was a beautiful night, the moon shone brightly against the frozen sky and the stars danced space. Jen passed Main Street and took a right, crossing the street, coming up on the right side of the road. She was alone in the night, she could see her breath it was so cold, not that she minded of course.
Jen was used to being alone, she had been for three years now, since her parents had mysteriously disappeared. She often thought of them, with each thought coming painful memories.
Jen was whisked out of her busy thoughts by yet another feeling, a feeling just like the one in Westerfeld Mall. She whipped around, nothing. Jen continued on trying to get a grip on the fear consuming her. Normally she wasn't a scardy cat and most things didn't affect her, tonight was different. She had the strong feeling to flee, run as far away as she could and never look back.
Getting the feeling of someone watching her again she turned around for the second time. She saw a shadow jump out of the way of the streetlight. Now she was really freaking out. She knew how to defend herself, that wasn't the problem. The problem was she had never done it before…never had to use her training. Her fear was getting the best of her, and she turned around a three-sixty.
It was desolate, no one, absolutely nothing was around her. The road was deserted and no one was out walking. This part of town at night was deserted.
Don't panic, don't panic, she told herself, trying to get a grip on the growing panic. It could just be an animal or something, keep your head.
Jen turned around and started to walk again, this time quicker. She continued in silence and security for about the next minute, and then she heard it, footsteps behind her following really close.
Jen put up her fists and threw her bag around her shoulders and turned around. Standing there in the streetlight was the man from Westerfeld Mall, looking at her. This time he was wearing a black trench coat and heavy boots. Jen kept her fists raised, and was ready to fight in a seconds notice.
"Hello Jen, lovely, do you remember me?"
The man asked in an English accent. Jen was confused, though she didn't show it.
What was this nut job talking about?
"What are you talking about?" Jen spat back, her voice spitting daggers.
She saw something like amusement cross through the man's eyes.
"Well, of course you don't, after all that was a while ago. One could almost say ages ago." He said with an emphasis on the word ages.
Jen was still helplessly and utterly confused. What in the world could he be talking about? She didn't even know this cat; she had never seen him in her life. What did he mean by ages ago? This was way to weird.
"Look, I don't have the slightest clue what you are talking about. What do you want?" Jen said irritably, she was getting really impatient with this weirdo.
The man laughed, this seemed to be greatly amusing to him for some reason. If he was going to try and attack her he better do it soon before she decides to kick him into next week.
"Jen, Jen, Jen, you haven't changed much. So, how is Westerfeld treating you? Like it better than England? You know, it took me a while to find you, you shouldn't have gone as far," the man smirked.
Ok, this was getting really weird. First of all Jen had never been to England, she had lived in Westerfeld her whole life.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I've never been to England," She clarified, clearly annoyed at the stranger's ramblings.
Could this man be drunk or something? He seemed pretty weird; wait a minute…how did he know my name…?
The man laughed again, clearly this was amusing him, good for him, it was only making Jen more confused.
"Wow, you really do remember nothing," He laughed again.
"I guess you need to be informed then. Where to start? Where to start? Oh, I know, how about at the beginning?"
The beginning? The beginning of what…
Jen was honestly confused beyond belief.
"Ok, here goes… It was England in the eighteenth century-"
He was cut off by a voice.
"What are you doing?"
A/N: Review! :D