Endlessly // h.s.

I

Sixteen years later

Evie jumped up as the last bell rang throughout her school, signaling the end of the day. She blinked, still a bit disoriented from her daydreaming... daydreaming of green eyes that seemed to hold all the secrets to the world. Evie shook those thoughts from her head, quickly forgetting about the haunting eyes, and grabbed her backpack, sighing as she exited school and began the trek home.

But was it really home? It was just another stop in an endless stream of places she was expected to call 'home.' She and her mother had lived in 4 separate 'homes' in 4 separate cities in the past 5 years. The current stop was a tiny shack in the miniscule town of Dunsmuir, California. Evie never had the time to settle down, to make a place truly feel like a 'home,' and each place was shittier than the last. Evie and her mother weren't the wealthiest of people, and their houses reflected that. Evie wasn't even sure why they had to move so often, and when she asked her mother about it she always became extremely secretive, vaguely stating that 'it's just what we have to do.'

Caught up in her self-pitying thoughts, Evie didn't notice the black SUV parked across from her school, or the two suspicious men that were in it. But these men noticed Evie. Of course they noticed Evie. She was the one they were looking for, after all. She was the one whom their boss orchestrated a worldwide search for. She was the one that would get them in the boss' good graces. So they followed her.

Evie had never been one to look on the bright side of things. No, she would never claim to be optimistic or a 'glass half full' kind of person. But days like these, days when the sun is fully shining, when spring has freshly sprung. Days like these could make anybody look on the bright side. She took a deep inhale of the spring air, and she could almost feel it purifying her mind and soul.

While Evie was taking in the sunshine, a feeling began to culminate within her stomach. It was anxiety. It was unease. It was a plethora of uncomfortable feelings which caused her to take a concerned look around. She felt like she was being watched.

And she was.

Evie spotted the mysterious black SUV slowly following her and the nervous butterflies in her stomach started flapping harder and harder. She saw the two men in the car who seemed to be staring straight at her. She gripped her backpack a little closer, beginning to walk faster towards her house, which was a good 100 feet away.

She almost ran the last steps to the house, sighing in relief when she reached the front door. She looked back at the SUV, which was parked a few houses down. The men were still staring at her creepily. Evie shuddered and entered the house after unlocking the door. She closed the door tightly and made sure to lock it behind her.

Evie squeezed her eyes shut and took a moment to clear her thoughts. Those men were probably just visiting somebody in the neighborhood. Yeah, that was it. She shook her head and called out to her mother.

"Mom? I'm home!"

"In the kitchen, Genevieve!" her mother yelled. Evie had never liked being called by her full name. It was too... Middle Ages. Honestly, she could be sitting at the round table with King Arthur with a name like Genevieve. So she'd always request to be called Evie. It was the nickname that she thought fit her the best, for whatever reason. But her mother nearly always called her by her full name, to Evie's utter dismay.

Evie walked from the entryway into the tiny kitchen. Her mother was sitting at the two-person table, sipping on some tea and reading a magazine. She worked nights as a graveyard shift nurse, so she spent her afternoons relaxing. Evie had always thought her mother was beautiful, with sleek blonde hair and warm brown eyes. Evie had inherited the hair, but her eyes were a haunting gray color. She guessed she had gotten that from her mysterious father, the one that she was forbidden to talk about. Evie sat down across from the woman.

"How was school, bunny girl?" her mother asked.

Evie smiled at the pet name. Her mother had always called her that, for as long as she could remember. "It was okay. Same old stuff, different day." Her mother smiled at her, taking another sip of her tea. "But something... weird happened when I was walking home."

The woman's face paled immediately and she set her chipped mug of tea on the table. "Weird? What do you mean?" she asked nervously.

"Well, I'm probably making a big deal out of nothing, but there was this big black car that I was pretty sure was following me. The guys in it were pretty creepy, too."

"Somebody was following you?" her mother was breathless, eyes wide open.

"I'm not sure. They were probably just visiting somebody in the neighborhood. It was just scary."

"Are you sure?" her mother asked cautiously.

"Yeah. It was nothing, I'm sure of it." Evie shook her head, trying to get rid of the thoughts of somebody following her. Why would they follow her, anyway? She was nobody important.

"Okay... but if anything like this ever happens again, you tell me immediately," the woman looked stern now, staring into her daughter's eyes.

"Yeah, of course." Evie smiled, trying to reassure her mother. "I'm gonna go to my room and do some homework."

"Sure, darling. Oh, and Evie?" her mother called after her as she headed to her room.

"Yeah?" Evie turned around, pausing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"I love you." The older woman smiled lovingly and Evie couldn't help but to smile too, rolling her eyes playfully at her mom's affection.

"Love you too, Mom."

+++++

Just outside of the house and a few feet down the street, the men in the SUV were almost in shock because of the enormity of their accomplishment. They had done it. They had found what their boss had wanted for sixteen years. One of the men picked up his phone and made the call.

"Yes?" the man on the other line said curtly when he picked up.

"We found her, sir."

"What?" the man was shocked. "Are you sure?"

"Positive, sir. It's her."

"Where?"

"Dunsmuir, California."

There was a short pause from the man on the other end. "I can be there by tomorrow. Until then, do not let her out of your sight. If I find out that you did, even for one moment, I won't hesitate to snap your necks."

The man in the SUV gulped. "Yes, sir."

"I'm coming to get her. My dimidium," the man said to himself before he hung up the phone.

The men in the SUV shared an anxious glance, then focused completely on Genevieve's house.