Creaking of the old door alerted her to the presence of the man standing behind her.
"I think we found her" his deep voice almost passed right through her as she took a few moments to grasp what he had just said.
She almost didn't believe it, the words that she had waited for so long, they felt unreal. He passed her a piece of paper that she stared at intensely, scared that if she blinked it would disappear from her hands.
The woman swept her long grey hair over her shoulder exposing the scar that ran across her neck, stretching almost from one side to the other.
"Thank you" she spoke without even lifting her eyes from the paper as she heard his footsteps leave the room.
The woman walked over to the handcrafted mahogany desk and sat in the chair adjacent, hand still clutching the paper. Picking up her phone, she seemed to be on autopilot. The phone was answered after only 2 dial tones.
"Its me, We found her" the woman listened to the voice on the other end of the line. She then responded, eyes still hovering over the piece of paper she had been handed.
"Yes, we need her here soon. Its already been too long and we don't have much time left."
***
Lana Taylor stared deeply into the assortment of colours that sat in front of her. Midnight blue hugged the canvas along the edges of the painting framing the weeping willow tree that centered the piece. The detail the tree to life as if each leaf had danced from her paintbrush onto the canvas with a soul of it's own.
She had been working on this painting for the last few months although it had felt like years as the picture hung in her head most nights in her dreams, the leaves of the willow swinging in her mind as she slept. This was how she found the inspiration for all her paintings, starting off as a beautiful dream that she felt the need to bring to life. It was the perfect distraction from her mundane life.
The loud ringtone of her phone pulled her from the thoughts. She put down her paintbrush as she reached for her phone, seeing her cousin's name appear beneath the cracks of the screen.
Despite only being cousins, Lana and Payton shared a lot of features: the same curly dark brown hair that matched the hue of their eyes and the same smile that littered the hallway in the house they shared. Lana had lived with her cousin and aunt for the last 7 years, ever since the untimely death of her father. Lana's aunt felt like more of a mother to Lana than the sister of her dad, but then again Lana had never really known her mother.
Lana picked up the phone, smearing the screen with the paint covering her hands.
"Hey Payton, what's u.."
"Lana." her cousin cut her off, with a low tone that Lana knew all too well. Payton was pissed. "Where the hell are you? You were supposed to start 20 minutes ago"
"Shit." Lana looked at the time, like always Payton was right.
"I stuck my neck out to get you this job and you can't even show up on time?"
Lana groaned not needing another lecture about how she needs to get her life together and pull her head back to reality.
"Ok, im sorry, i just lost track of time"
Payton was silent for a second, then let out a deep sigh, knowing she couldn't stay mad at Lana.
"Just get here. Now." her voice was strong and assertive.
Lana pulled up to the parking lot of the restaurant that she had worked at for the last year and a half. Sitting in the car for a couple of minutes Lana forced herself to go into work dreading to have to face her boss, Michael.
YOU ARE READING
Tempting Fate
Fantasia"I think we found her" his deep voice almost passed right through her as she took a few moments to grasp what he had just said. She almost didn't believe it, the words that she had waited for so long, they felt unreal. He passed her a piece of paper...
