Painful Reminders

Chapter Two: Mace & Memories

I swear that I'm being watched. For the past week, I have felt the hairs standing up on the back of my neck but every time I've tried to look around for someone to blame, I've come up empty. I feel like I'm going crazy. Even as I sit in the most isolated part of the campus library, my earbuds pumping out music to help me focus as I go over all of my class materials in preparation for my finals, I find myself looking up every few minutes and eyeing the surrounding shelves uneasily.

It would be so much easier to be studying in my own space, locked up tight in my room with easy access to food, drinks, and a non-public bathroom, but Becca was hosting a group study session for education majors and her study sessions were just another excuse for a party. She'd eventually end up busting into my room to drag me out.

As if the thought alone had conjured her into existence, my phone begins to buzz on the table and her face lights up my screen. Biting back a sigh, I leave my things, and grab my phone as I hurry out the side door to the library, answering her call on the way. "I thought you were studying."

"I miss you!"

I laughed and rolled my eyes, pocketing my phone as I spoke to her through my Bluetooth. "Becca, it's eleven in the morning; how are you drunk already?"

"I'm not drunk!" she cries into her phone, offended. "I'm tipsy and I miss my best friend, and I wanna go out tonight!"

"I work today. I took Christy's shift for her and I'm there from one to nine-thirty."

"Perfect!" she sang, "We're not going out until after eleven, so you'll have just enough time to get home, get showered and get ready."

"I'm going to be exhausted afterward, Becca," I complained.

"Shane's in town and he wants to see you!"

I sighed. I could say no and hide myself in my room if it were just Becca and a bunch of her friends, but her brother would physically drag me out if I tried the same with him. Maybe I'd get lucky and I could just leave early, once the two of them were distracted enough. "Alright, fine, but he's paying for the first three rounds. He can consider it his late birthday gift to me."

"Sweetheart, I'll pay for the entire night if it means you'll come willingly," I heard Shane yell from somewhere in the background.

"I'm going to get a bit more studying in before I have to head over to the restaurant," I told them both with a laugh. "Try to sober up a bit before I get off, or I'll just end up being the bored out of her mind DD, yeah?"

"No promises!" they chorus back before the call ends and I'm left to my own devices. With a shake of my head, I turn and head back into the building.

***

I had taken over the task of following the girl, sending Zeke off to charm some of the smaller covens to take temporary haven with us until the growing danger of the wolves had been properly handled. So far, she hadn't seemed to be involved in anything suspicious, but time would eventually tell, and I still wasn't sure what we were going to do about her yet. He'd been right to label her a recluse as the tracking device we'd placed on her phone indicated she really didn't go anywhere, except work, school, or the library. I stepped into the restaurant right after nine, just in time to find her coming out of the back with her purse over one shoulder and her phone in hand, staring down at the screen as she typed.

Given the growing wariness she'd been showing toward Zeke, we'd decided to keep our distance as we evaluated the situation, so I remained just out of her line of sight; as close to the shadows as possible. She was stopped by the boy from the first night who asked her for some help clearing tables before she left. With a nod, she took a tray from him and began to make quick, efficient work of clearing a handful of tables when the sound of a shriek caught the attention of the entire place.