HeartBeat

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ava

7 years later...

"Charlotte Bowe? Hm, pretty." I give the starchy lady a practiced smile. My eyes follow the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Her short grey hair falls choppily onto her forehead. After swiping at the stray hair, the librarian hands over my school Identification card, along with the books I needed.

"Thank you." I nod, my smile wobbling, as my cheeks began to pinch with pain. Who knew smiling would be such a chore? I scoop up the books, along with my new identification card. The face that stares up from the white square, is the perfect picture of innocence. Bangs and long, lightly curled hair, complete with the practiced smile I used on the librarian, made me look like a completely different person. Charlotte Bowe to be exact.

Twenty-five-year-old college undergrad. Born and raised in Russia, before moving to the United States at fourteen, with single mother Marsha Bowe. Marsha got a quaint job opportunity, and lives a 14-hour drive away from her daughter, Charlotte, who currently resides in the bright and sunny city of Springville. Attending a top school under a scholarship at Springfield's University, Springville's finest. Very original with the names this place.

I never imagined that I would be using a cover story, one that was impossibly generic, and suspiciously too close to home. But it was those very telling facts that made me aware that none of my clan would be able to find me as easily as before. My siblings hunt for me was ongoing as was Father's blatant attempt at reining me in. Chills crawl up my spine at the thought of being found by Father. Memories of tight chains coming forward before being ignored. I walk towards a vacant table that was hidden behind a large enough shelf, giving me anonymity, and a great view of the entrance.

My practiced smile had long since fallen, my jaw working out the kinks in my cheeks. Annoyed that this was already as unenjoyable as anything I've ever done in my life-that including spending days in a muddy, cold, water pit- I sit with an audible sigh.

It's already been five days since I've reached the small city of Springville. A city small enough to not catch any unwanted attention, and large enough to hide away in if anyone came looking.

My pretend mother had enough to afford me a one-bedroom apartment off campus, just a ten-minute walk away from the University itself. An apartment that I desperately wanted to be in, and would have been if it wasn't for the man who had just walked in.

He strides in with a height of 5'll, his greying hair, flopping about his head, in what the older woman would call charming. The thirty-eight-year-old, pushes up his glasses on his pointed nose, as he greets the librarian warmly, and she answers with a blush and a shy smile. She greets him, propping her saggy tits up on folded arms. I slide an elbow onto the table, using my hand to rest my chin, and covering the growing sneer on my mouth. With the other hand I open a random textbook. I don't bother looking at it, only focusing on the man who made the stern looking librarian blush.

My target, Conner Scott, just smiles and pretends like the older woman wasn't trying to desperately flash him her, "fun bags." Amusement zings through me. I had learned the meaning of that phrase from a passing student today. Another word for breasts it seemed, only it was probably inappropriate to use, because the female student he spoke about had slapped his cheek pink.

Conner Scott didn't notice my eyes on him, since most of the females in the room were staring at him with glazed eyes. I could smell the scent of hormones hanging heavy in the air. I didn't see the appeal. Then again, I never had when it came to anyone. The only lustful feeling I got, was of the bloody, limb losing variety. I was always the odd one among my siblings. With bloodlust came the need for other passions, one of my siblings had explained once. I was almost positive, that my older sister, Louise, was secretly a succubus. The men and women she took to bed never seem quite right afterwards, mostly because a good majority of them were dead.