Chapter 2

Coincidence and such

Sarah sighed contently as she opened the door to her apartment, a grin on her face. She quickly locked the door behind her, then plopped down on the couch, stretching out on the entire length of the couch, which caused her ankles to hang off the side.

After a few moments of staring up at the ceiling, Sarah sat up, rubbing her tired eyes. For a few seconds, she stared blankly at the wall opposite to her, but then got up with a tired sigh, heading towards the kitchen. She rewarded herself for surviving this horrible day with a glass of wine, and a book. Hours flew by as she devoured every word, every sentence of the book, loosing herself in the seductive words. Gone were her worries, her sorrows, her memories.

As she neared the end, Sarah sighed, slamming the book shut when it ended with the words, "Not exactly the end, but close to it." With a groan, she realized that she had sipped down half a bottle of wine, which left her head feeling dizzy.

"Great Sarah, just great," she muttered as she turned off the lights, heading towards her bedroom, "Don't do that again." As she turned on the lights in her bedroom, she realized with a start that something had changed.

The contents on her desk had been disheveled, and a picture frame that used to be lying down was now standing up. Sarah approached the picture, almost in a trance like state.

It was a picture of her, her step-mother and her father, smiling at the camera man, whom Sarah remembered to be her uncle. She gazed upon her face in the photo with shame. Such innocence, such trust filled the girl in the picture's eyes. And her face wasn't marred by an ugly scar.

Unconsciously, Sarah's hand flew to the scar on her left cheekbone, which began at the top of her ear to the corner of her eye. She gritted her teeth, picked up the photo, and threw it in the trash. Someone had obviously been in her apartment, gone through her things, and made that picture angled so that she would see it.

Bet it was Chris, she thought angrily as she pulled on her pajamas, he has a key to my apartment. I had better change the locks tomorrow. After brushing her teeth, and washing her face, Sarah settled down for the night. As her consciousness slipped away from her, she thought she saw a figure outside of her window, but sleep took her away before she could do anything about it.

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Sarah awoke to sunlight streaming through cracks that her thick curtains failed to cover. She groaned as she rolled over, trying to hide from the light, sleep still calling to her. After a few moments of being still, Sarah got out of her bed with an annoyed look, untangling her legs from her sheets.

Another day, she thought as she rose from her bed, shaking off a lingering sheet that still clung to her leg. Just as she was fixing herself a pot of coffee, her phone rang.

"Yes?" she answered, pushing a button on the coffee machine.

"Sarah?" a familiar voice asked, "This is Melody."

A slight smile broke out on Sarah's pale face. "Oh, hey Melody," she greeted cheerfully, "What's up?"

Melody paused on the other end of the line, causing Sarah's heart to sink. Her grin slipped off her face, and she felt the color drain from her face as well. Had she found out about her secret? The one that she so desperately needed to tell Melody, but couldn't?

"You know the owl you brought in yesterday?" Melody began, "Oh wait, duh you'd know about it, you brought it in! Well, anyways, it's gone! Disappeared! Isn't that weird?"

Sarah let out a sigh of relief, almost muttering phew under her breath. "That is weird," she agreed, "How'd he get away?" That owl's wing was almost ripped from its body! And so much blood had been lost! How on earth could that animal make an escape a few hours after being so close to death?

"I dunno," Melody replied, "He's just gone. No one knows where he is. Did you take him?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. Why would she want some half dead bird? "No way," she insisted, "Why would I want him? I brought him to you so that he could get better. He might have escaped through an open window or something." Sarah could see in her mind Melody shaking her head, her black hair moving along with the rest of her.

"No way," she said, sighing roughly. In the background, she heard another voice, a deeper voice. It was a low, musical voice that always sounded so relaxed and sleepy. Despite the soothing tone in the voice, Sarah froze.

"Oh, hey Jeremy!" Melody exclaimed, "I'm talking to Sarah. You wanna say hi?" Sarah could almost see him freeze up, his usually half lidded green eyes wide, bushy eye brows shooting up his forehead.

"No thanks," Jeremy replied, his voice muffled, "Not right now."

Sarah gripped the edge of her counter, tears welling up in her eyes. "Well," Sarah said after clearing her throat, "I've got work soon, so bye!" That was a lie, as her job started in a few hours, but Sarah wouldn't be able to talk to her friend without telling.

"Alright," Melody replied cheerfully, which broke Sarah's heart into pieces, "Talk to you later!"

With a loud clink, Sarah no longer could hear her friend's voice. Laying her forehead on the cool wall, she punched the wall as hard as she could, which she regretted immediately, as her knuckles had begun to throb.

"Fuck," she growled, shaking her hand, biting her lip as she did so. How much longer can I go, she thought sorrowfully, Without telling Melody the truth about who her husband really is?

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"Hey, Sarah," Hannah said, smacking the brunette on the shoulder, "Why so down?"

Sarah smiled at the college student in front of her, rolling her eyes. "I'm just lost in thought," Sarah replied, "I'm not like you, ya know."

Hannah grinned, laughter that sounded like bells spilling from her mouth. "Yeah, I noticed," she said, "Whatcha thinking about? Is it a guy?"

Sarah nearly choked on the apple she had been taking a bite out of. What is with this girl, she thought as she coughed, and boys? "So it is a guy!" Hannah announced with triumph, fist pumping the air. Sarah coughed some more, pounding her chest to get the air in.

"Wha-no way!" Sarah replied, coughing some more, "What's with you and guys? Geez." Hannah simply grinned, and got up, humming softly to herself. This was usually how the girl acted when she got into a conversation about boys. Sarah made an annoyed sound in her throat, muttering, "Curse you Universe!"

She exhaled slowly, looking around the library. The scene caused her scowl to disappear from her face, and a soft smile to appear. Sarah had always loved books, from the moment she could read, which lead to being labeled a book worm or nerd, despite the fact that she got average grades in school.

The slight smile that crossed her face grew larger as she took in the scene before her. Two teenage girls sat at a table, giggling to each other as they read magazines, while an old man sitting across from them glared at the two as he tried to read his long novel. A young mother and her son wandered the children's section, his small hand clasped in her callused one as they both pulled out thin books with colorful pictures.

One girl, who Sarah saw all the time, wandered the aisles with a serious, sad look on her round face as she grabbed many books. One table close by was that one she always chose, a mountain of books in the middle. No one ever sat there, as it had long ago been claimed as hers. The girl, whose name was, Anna, gently placed her pile of books into a black bag, and approached the desk, a small shy smile on her face.

"Hey, Anna!" Sarah greeted, "Haven't seen you in a while!" Anna smile turned nervous, and she quickly nodded. "Yeah," she answered, her voice meek, "School work and stuff. Really annoying. How're you?" Sarah smiled sadly at the girl as she stamped the books.

Anna ran her fingers through her blonde hair, a habit that she seemed to do a lot of. Sarah saw the healed and occasional new scars up and down the girl's arms despite the long sleeves she often wore peek through as she lifted her arm. Anna's eyes were scared and jumpy, and she looked at everyone as if they were a threat. Sarah glimpsed up at the jumpy girl, sorrow in her brown eyes.

"Alright, thanks," she said, "All done, here you go!" She handed the many books over towards the shy girl, who quickly thanked her and walked quickly out. "Next in line please," she called, straightening up her desk.

The man who approached her desk made her eyes widen. He smirked at her expression, and quickly set down three books on her desk. Sarah quickly averted her eyes towards the books, stamping them. He was the man who she had seen in the reflection, who ended not actually being there!

His face was angular, and long as well, but did not hold as much sorrow as before. Instead, his expressions were laced with arrogance and sarcasm, though his eyes did hold a sliver of sorrow.

His eyes… Sarah quickly peeked up at him, then looked down when he smirked. His eyes were the same as the owl's! One eye was an icy blue, whilst the other was a warm hazel color.

Coincidence! Her mind shouted, that's all it is! But something in her said otherwise, causing her to bury that feeling deep down. She slid the books towards the man, looking up, a fake smile plastered on her pale face. The appearance of this man had shaken her for some reason.

"Here you go," Sarah said politely, "Have a nice day." The man stood there for a moment, smirking, then turned on his heel.

"You have a nice day as well, Sarah," he replied softly, disappearing out the glass doors. Sarah's brown eyes widened. How had he known her name? They wore no name tags; there was nothing around with her name on it. Lucky guess? Sarah was a rather common name.

"Hey," Hannah said, poking Sarah in the shoulder, "It's the end of your shift, ya know." Sarah jumped, and laughed slightly at her jumpiness, but mostly because of Hannah's surprised expression.

"Yeah, ok," Sarah replied with a nod, standing up abruptly. She gathered her things, and scurried out of the building, her thoughts scrambled and jumbled.

Eclipse: Thanks for the reviews! Also, I'm very sorry that the format in the previous chapter was hard to read, it published that chapter at 3 in the morning soooo….

SHOUT OUT!

FashionAvenue – Thanks so much! I fixed the format, so I hope it works out. Sorry about that!

ScarlettBlue – Thanks so much! You made me blush! O/O

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