Chapter 2: Enchanted

Varali Stevens dribbled the basketball in circles around her father, Joe. Her long, brown hair was pinned up off her neck which was drenched in sweat.

"Come on, dad. Give it up already," Varali said as she made yet another basket over her dad's head.

"Oh no, not until I win," Joe replied.

"Dad, if I don't leave now and go take a shower, I'm going to be late for my afternoon class." She stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. Joe watched his daughter stand in front of him in the manner her mother used to. He looked into her bright green eyes, her mother's eyes. Varali looked just like her. Every time he looked at her, Joe was reminded of the heartache he experienced when her mother left, saying it was too dangerous to stay. He also remembered the night when she showed up 4 years later with a sleeping child in her arms. She told him that it wasn't safe for her anymore and begged him to protect her and love her. Of course he agreed but she also asked him to tell her that her mother died. After much argument, Joe finally agreed to her request. Now, looking at his 19 year old daughter, he wished he could tell her just how similar she is to her mother.

"Dad? Hello? I have to go," Varali said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Come on. One more basket for the win." Joe waited for her reply.

Varali was silent for a moment, thinking about his offer. "Alright, fine. Just one!" she said, holding up her index finger.

Joe clapped his hands together, grabbed the ball from the ground, and checked it to her. To his dismay, Varali scored yet again over his head.

"Bye dad!" she said as she turned away.

"Come on, that's not fair. One more," her dad yelled.

"NO! I have to go," she said, turning to face him.

"Alright. Well, stop by later for dinner"

"And what? Have TV dinners?"

"No," he said, "pizza."

Varali laughed. "Okay. I'll see you then. Bye." She kissed her father on the cheek.

"Hey, do you want a ride?"

"No, I think I'll run." And with that, Varali took off for her resident hall. She was a sophomore at the University of San Francisco and she absolutely loved it. College life really suited her. As she reached her resident hall, she made her way to her dorm room on the second floor.

After taking a quick shower and throwing on jeans and a fitted t-shirt, she headed back out the door for her final class of the day. She glanced at her watch. She was already running behind schedule. She would have to take the only shortcut she knew. She rounded a corner and began walking.

"I hate alleyways," she said as she walked through. "Thanks dad."

As she walked, she thought she heard footsteps behind her. That's odd, not many people work up the nerve to walk through alleys. She turned around, but there was no one there. She shrugged and continued walking. She heard it again. Someone was definitely following her. This time when she turned, her scream echoed in the alleyway.

"Urgh," Veronica Wilson grunted in frustration at her experiment. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" She didn't realize that her shouts of anguish towards her chemistry lab were attracting attention.

"Are you alright?" the girl sitting next to her asked.

Veronica looked over. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just hate chemistry with a passion."

The girl leaned over and lowered her voice. "Then, why are you in this lab?"

"Because I needed some sort of lab to complete my schedule. I thought chemistry would be okay because I did pretty well with it in high school." She looked back at her test tubs. "But I guess I was wrong."

The girl laughed. "Looks that way. But wait, I don't get it. Aren't you like an art major?"

"Close, music. I told you, I thought this would be easy," Veronica replied.

"Yeah, we all did." With that, the girl turned back to her work and began cleaning up her vials. Veronica went back to hers. Everyone else seemed to be cleaning up and she couldn't figure out how to get started.

She poured two chemicals into a test tub and watched as the mixture turned a dark shade of blue.

"That's going to explode, you know," a guy said from behind her. She turned around.

"Look, do you want to do this for me?" she snapped. The guy put his hands at surrender and walked away. She quickly poured the liquid into the nearby sink. She sat back and stared at her experiment.

"Hey Ronnie, do you want to go get food with us?" the same guy asked.

"No, thanks Tyler," she replied without looking away. "I really need to finish this."

"Okay. I'll catch up with you later." With that, Tyler and the others left.

When Veronica looked around, she noticed how empty and quiet it was. She didn't realize EVERYONE had left. Call her paranoid, but she always felt a bit uneasy when left in a place alone.

She turned back to her lab and continued to stare. Finally, giving up for the day, she gathered her supplies and started to clean and put them away. Maybe I'll catch up with Tyler and the gang, she thought as she hurried her cleaning. She was so frazzled with cleaning that she didn't hear the classroom door creak open and shut. She jumped at the hand placed on her shoulder. She thought it was Tyler.

"Oh hey, I'm glad you came back. I'll go with you now." But when she turned around, she saw that it wasn't Tyler at all. It was someone else…or something else.

"I know you will," the thing said.

Veronica screamed as the large, beastly of a man threw her across the lab table with one hand.

"Excuse me," Violet Peters said as she made her way through tables with a tray of dirty glasses in her hand. "Excuse me, sir. Could you please just moved aside so I can get through and-" The man backed up instead, sending Violet and her glasses to the ground. Instead of helping, the man looked and walked away. "Gee, thanks," Violet said as she started to collect the shards of glass from the floor.

"I got it, I got it," another waitor said.

"Thanks, Jimmy," she said. She heard the restaurant phone ringing and went to answer it. "Quake," she said into the phone. She listened for a beat. "Alright, can you hold on? Thanks." She placed the phone down. "Julie!" she called as she walked around the bar.

A woman of about thirty came walking over. "Someone's on the phone asking for the manager," Violet informed her.

"Thanks," Julie said.

Violet walked away as Julie took that call. She grabbed a new order pad off the counter as she went. She was so busy shoving the pad into her pocket that she didn't see Jimmy walking backwards with a tray of spaghetti. She slammed right into him as he turned around. Bad move. The spaghetti went flying and landed all over Violet. She let out a shriek.

"Violet," Julie called.

"Yes," she answered in a scared voice.

"Go take a break." Julie said.

"Thanks." Violet was happy for the time to relax a bit. She'd been on her feet since she'd come in after school. All she wanted to do was find a seat the put her feet up.

She walked into the break room in the back. The room also acting as a storage room for varies types of wine glasses.

She sat down on a nearby stool, unable to walk any farther into the room, and rested her head on the shelf of glasses.

"Uh, I don't think I can move another inch," she said as she closed her eyes.

"Good," someone said from behind her.

Her eyes shot open. She turned to see an enormous man standing over her. She screamed when she looked down and saw a very unique knife in his calloused hand.