Chapter 1
Another late night surrounded by file boxes, paperwork and twelve different documents labeled with "Important!" sticky-notes. Lily sighed, sitting back in her chair to rub her tired, nearly watery eyes under her glasses. She knew she shouldn't be doing this. She was wearing herself out working late. Twenty-nine years old and she'd found a single gray hair in the mirror this morning. One single gray hair but it stared at her accusingly. She wasn't even really afraid of losing her job if she didn't stay so late - she just didn't want to leave anything at all to chance in this job market. She was a slightly dumpy nearly thirty-something with a fairly good understanding of family law and a nearly anal attentive to detail. And, in any case, she didn't mind the distraction of working late. It was something to take her mind off of an empty, cold apartment.
She could feel a headache coming on. Whether it was the glare from the LCD monitor in the dark office or trying to concentrate on so many cases at once or something else, she was done. After another sigh, she signed off the computer and shut it down. The street lights outside the office let her see well enough to find her purse and keys without having to turn on the overhead lights. Her coworkers never understood why she liked working in the dark and she never planned to admit the truth. In the dark, everything was hidden. All of her many imperfections. All of her faults. She ceased to exist to a small degree and she was fine with that. Plus, having the lights off helped keep the headaches to a minimum when she was up late.
The walk through the office was uneventful and typical as she worked through her internal checklist - doors locked, files put away and computers all turned off. She triple-checked the front door as usual. They'd had two attempted break-ins this year - angry soon-to-be-ex spouses trying to... do whatever angry people do. She tried to keep her thoughts purely to what was written in the files and leave her imagination out of it. No need to speculate on who was right or wrong since, more often than not, the people lied. It was an underfed thing, her imagination. She let others do it for her - reading her stories and watching the few shows she cared about. Going through her life trying to be as comfortable and invisible as possible.
A light drizzling of cold rain greeted her when she stepped from under the overhang. It would snow soon and she looked forward to that - it afforded a certain stillness to the air. Sometimes when it the snow fall was heavy enough, she would go out late at night and sit on the bus bench just listening to the world around her. Feeling the cold and the little pricks of wetness as tiny snowflakes landed on her cheeks. When she closed her eyes she could imagine she was the only one alive. But, for now the rain was here and she opened her small umbrella to cover herself on the walk to the bus stop six blocks away. She hated the way her slightly chunky thighs rubbed together in her skirt. She'd asked once if they were allowed to dress more casually but her normally jolly boss was adamant about their dress code. At least they allowed her the sweater. She wore it even when it was warm outside. Her excuse was that she ran cold more often than not but it would be more correct to say that she wore it as a security blanket and to cover herself more.
Her headache was getting worse - she could feel it in her sinus and behind her eyes. The bar near the bus stop didn't help with all the music and people laughing and yelling at each other. The light from their sign reflected on hundreds of beads of rain on the few round tables left outside. She felt hypnotized watching light dance among the droplets.
"...sed it." The voice said.
Lily turned, dazed. "What?" She asked the young man sitting on the wet bench.
The man had a patchy beard, a ragged pony tail and smelled like he'd bathed in sweat, vomit and alcohol. "I said. I said you missed it." Two of his teeth were gone and it looked like the rest would join them shortly. Teeth yellowed with nicotine and god knows what else. He was leaning back against the glass enclosure, head swaying slowly back and forth as he focused on her.
"Missed what?"
The man waved around him. "The. Bussss. The busssssss. You missed it. Jusss' here. Wouldn' let me on. Fucker. Says I's too drunk. 'onna freeze to death out here." Lily noted his chipped yellow fingernails as she stepped further out of his reach. She was glad of her caution when he broke out in a hacking fit, spitting a glob of green and yellow and black onto the sidewalk. "Jus' miss' it."
She frowned and turned to look at the schedule. She should still have five minutes before it arrived but the man sounded awfully sure. Specifically sure. She grimaced. It was an hourly schedule this late at night and there was no way she was going to sit at the bus stop with this man for a full hour. Her eyes darted to him and then quickly away when she saw his hands down his pants. He was moaning and she didn't know whether it was because he was drunk, sick or playing with himself.
The bar seemed a safer choice and THAT said something for how much the man unsettled her. Nobody even looked at her as she made her way inside. She wanted a booth but all were full of people and the only spots left were random holes at the bar. She almost went back to the bench outside but decided to sit and have a quick drink. It might, after all, help with her headache and she had brought her book to keep herself company. She found two empty spots under a pale yellow incandescent light and sat, folding her legs and withdrawing into herself. The bartender appeared as if by magic to set a coaster down in front of her.
"What can I get for you?" He asked. His face was empty; his mind a million miles away from the monotony of his job. Lily wondered briefly if he knew how to do anything other than fill a glass of beer but she tried anyway. Her eyes flicked up to his and then away again.
"A Virgin Mary, please. Waiting for the bus." She could feel the rusty gears turning in his head as he processed something other than Miller Lite. It took several seconds for him to unfreeze.
"Right. Got it. Be back with your drink." She wondered at that. If he'd be back. She bet he'd find an excuse to keep himself busy or spend an hour trying to find his books on mixed drinks and puzzle out what she wanted. It'd probably taste like...
"I've read that book."
Lily twitched, feeling her cheeks flare red as she looked over at the man that spoke to her. She hadn't noticed when he sat on the seat next to hers. The man nodded at the hard back she was reading. "It's a good series. The originals, not the new crap they put out." Now she felt like her cheeks were literally on fire. She glanced at him at the corner of her eyes, trying to be as subtle as she could. He was perhaps middle aged or late thirties with a developing beer gut and sagging bags under his eyes. There was a slight growth of a beard on a narrow face that made him look like a villain in some local stage play. The thinning widow's peak hairline didn't help the effect. He had the build of a man that did hard labor but ruined it with an aging metabolism, alcohol and fast food every day.
