A Night To Remember

Chapter 1

Zemblanity (n.)

    – the inevitable discovery of what we would rather not know; the opposite of serendipity.

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If you didn't look hard enough you'd miss her, curled into a tiny shell of herself was Evelina Jade. It was cold in the dark room and she lay shivering, her knees drawn to her chest on the white-stained, battered mattress that lay on the floor. 

She felt naked and exposed in the thin shorts and singlet as she battled the fatigue in an attempt to keep her eyes open and she bit her bleeding lips to keep her teeth from chattering. Her tightly curled hair was matted, her usually soft skin was cracked and peeling, shedding away as the hours from comfort grew, her face was gaunt and her eyes sullen.

It must have been two weeks now.

Two weeks since she had been there if her calculations of the hours between when she was fed were correct. The styrofoam trays left with half-touched food littered the stone floor, she gently pressed the side of her rumbling stomach, feeling the deep gash there-she was bleeding again. 

"Time to wake up cucciola!" The dark voice mocked from just behind the door sending a seizure of shivers down her spine and she whimpered squeezing her sullen eyes shut.

The fist on the door was heavy and it rattled her with every thump, she felt her body detach from reality as it faded away. 

What was the point in fighting back when nothing would stop him from hurting her again?

The heavy metal door slid open and there he stood. His blonde hair tousled expertly as if he'd just come back from work. He walked around and she watched his polished shoes move around her before he bent down to make eye contact with her.

"Evelina-"

Evelina sat up in a cold sweat, her breathing uneven as she clutched at the arms of her chair trying to remember where exactly she was.

"Evelina, hey are you alright?" the voice was different this time, deep and feminine, she shut her eyes tightly in embarrassment. She'd let it happen again, and she was sure it was the weather that triggered it.

Evelina Jade, twenty-four, Oakland California.

"Can someone get me some water please?" the voice said again, this time accompanied by a hand on her shoulder that made her jerk away from it.

Evelina Jade, twenty-four, Oakland California.

"Evelina, it's me. It's Bea." the voice said.

 Bea said. It was alright, it was Bea she tried to tell herself.

 Her soft hands brushed the hair from Evelina's face as she sat straighter taking in deep breaths. "Everything is alright, you're here with me. We sat down to wait for the Uber remember? Can you open your eyes for me? See for yourself?"

Evelina took another deep breath, releasing her fists from their death grip on her chair and opened her eyes allowing them to flutter for a moment taking in the light. 

The airport was busy, but a small group of people had huddled to watch as she had her panic attack. Bea gripped her hand smiling at her assuring her that she wasn't alone and that all that she saw was in her past.

"Maybe this isn't a good idea, maybe we should go back home," Evelina whispered leaning back into her seat after she accepted the bottle of water from the airport security. She sheepishly smiled in appreciation before turning to place her head on Bea's shoulder.

"What makes you say that?" Bea asked in the way that she always did, never pushing always intrigued, always so ready to listen.

"What happens if we don't find anything?" Evelina answered uncapping the bottle and sipping on the water "Or worse, what if we do and it's too much for me?"

"Then we'll go home." Bea said smiling, giving her hand an encouraging squeeze, "We'll go home and nobody will think twice about it. But you have to try, this was your home once too."

"Fine." Evelina sighed, her eyes flickering to the different people in the airport. New York was a big City there was no way she'd find whatever she was looking for, but if there was some miracle out there that meant that she'd finally get answers to what happened to her then she'd promised herself that she'd seek them out. "But where do we even start?"

"You mentioned leaving home after graduation, maybe we can go to your house and see what we find?" 

Home.

Evelina thought about the home she had left behind six years ago. 

Her home had never been home, that was why she was so eager to leave. She had been living with her stepmother and stepbrother since she was a young girl, her mother Saray Jade had died giving birth to her and her father Tyrese had remarried two years after.

She had been ashamed to say that when she lost him to his heart attack she had barely shed a tear. Over the years their closeness had eroded and he became a man she just happened to know, his funeral was a whirlwind of people she had never met plus family he had never introduced her to because he claimed they were only around him for his money. 

Her stepmother was kind enough, but Evelina knew she was nothing but a burden to her a reminder that her father had once loved a woman so much more than he loved her. So when the time came instead of pretending that her goodbye would be a sad occasion, she left a note and disappeared at eighteen. 

Where she had left for she couldn't remember, but she had a feeling that having to return to her old home was probably the easiest obstacle she'd have to overcome.

Home.

The word carried with it such an intense weight. She was supposed to feel safe at home, feel loved at home. But the only place she could remotely relate the feeling to had been the home she shared with Bea. She had a home and she felt that looking for whatever had led her to the dark place in her mind had once been a home to her.

She didn't need a home, but she nodded grabbing Bea's hand as they made their way to their Uber.

The New York winter wind bristled against her skin, causing her to reminisce of a similar cold touch that made her shudder.

"Time to wake up cucciola!"

Evelina Jade, twenty-four, Oakland California.