*A man desperate to find his biological mother discovers she belonged to a secret society of people infected with a bizarre virus whose disastrous side effects she struggles to overcome.*
In the year 2043, Beau Johan's only hope of surviving a termi...
In the gallery's quiet, she sat at the music stand and rearranged the papers of her composition. Playing it and hearing it anew was like being reunited with an old friend, but an old friend whose annoying habits she had forgotten with time. She rewrote some of the piece and, confident that her changes improved the melody, played it again and again. Her fingers soared through the piece and she lost herself in the music.
The fall broke her concentration. Forward and down, she careened toward the earth. Her bow scraped against the strings and fell to the floor. She gripped the neck of the violin in desperation and shrieked in surprise. Her eyes stared at the handwritten pages on the music stand in front of her, but she saw instead decorative rocks, concrete, and a mosaic pattern of green and blue tiles. A flash of green palmetto and her hands outstretched as she tried to save herself. Stinging pain in her hands and knees as she met the concrete sidewalk.
Casey.
The reel of images vanished almost as soon as they struck her, leaving Anna with a lingering pain and a wobbly sense of balance. She sat in her chair and shook her head.
"Anna?" Sabian stood a few feet from her. How long had he been there? She faced him, her eyes still wide with shock. "What's wrong?" His face mirrored her alarm. When she didn't answer him, he knelt before her and put his hands on her. "Anna! What's wrong? What happened?"
"I—I—" She looked around the room like she was searching for the right words, like she expected them to materialize in front of her. She cleared her throat. "I pulled a muscle in my neck." She put a hand to the side of her neck, rubbed it, and made a face of distress. "It was...painful."
He studied her face, either in disbelief or concern. She couldn't tell if he bought her story. He stood behind her and massaged her shoulders, his hands working to the sides of her neck.
She sucked in her breath like it hurt her and shrugged off the chair. "I have to go." She gathered her violin and bow along with the papers and zipped them into the violin case.
Sabian stood without a word and watched her go.
Casey. She knew it now. In her bones, she knew that she was near. She'd fallen on some California sidewalk. She felt it.
Anna sat on her bed, staring into space, her mind racing. A sense of impending doom filled her. She took a few deep breaths and paced the room to calm herself. She had to tell someone. Who would believe her, though? Toby. She winced as she thought of him. It was too much to ask. A pang of regret drained into her stomach and made her feel sick.
She had to find Casey before they did, and Toby was the only one could help her do it.
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The household resumed its normal schedule and pace the following day. Gone, however, was the usual banter over the morning meal. Vida ate in a hurry and left. Anna was too busy sneaking surreptitious glances at Toby to hear the excuse she gave. He didn't smile or look up from his plate. He knows. He saw. Why else was he so withdrawn? She scolded herself. Not everything is about you. Maybe something else happened. That thought gave her a little relief, but then guilt flared again as she realized that it was perhaps worse to hope something else happened, some other reason to upset him. She drooped and ate mechanically.
