Bump in the Night

Chapter One: Club 206

Eerie. Gloomy. Passionate and dark. The lovers are so bad for each other, but theyre soulmates. They hate each other, but their hearts beat only for them. And it's their ultimate demise.

I love Wuthering Heights.

"For the paper due next Friday, I want you all to really think about Heathcliff and Catherine's love for each other. Was their relationship truly the cause of their inevitable deaths? Were they true soulmates in every sense of the word that we know today? Or was it just a deep attraction they mistook for love instead? If you have any questions, you can email me or stop by my office up until Thursday. Class dismissed," Professor Yuens says, and everyone goes to pack up and leave.

I put away my over read copy of the book and get up to leave as well. Thank God this was the last class of the day, and its Friday too. Sitting in another lecture would melt my brain for real this time. As I'm walking to my car, I feel a buzz in my pocket, and see my cousin, Eliza, calling me.

"Hello?".

"Anya! Are you on your way home?" she asks, urgency in her clear and feminine voice that reminds me so much of bells.

"Yes, why?"

"This is our first week as roomies, and we need to celebrate! Lets go to that new club, Club 206, it opens tonight!"

"Which means we'd have to be there hours before it opens if we ever want to get in,".

"Please! For me? I can tell school is stressful for you, and this move has been a lot for me. We have to go out and let loose," she tries to reason with me, a hint of begging in her voice.

"Eliza, I don't have the money right now. Remember you moved in with a broke college student?" I remind her, and she groans loudly in my ear.

"Let me pay for you! I just want to dance with my favorite cousin and start the weekend off right!". I can almost hear the puppy dog look on her face. I contemplate for a second on how tired I am. Classes have been exhausting all week and Netflix in the comfort of my bed sounds great right now.

But it's been a minute since Ive gone out, and so I make my decision. I sigh and Eliza cheers on the other side of the phone. She knows that means a 'yes' from me.

"Yay! Get here soon and we can get ready!" she says in her sing-song voice before I hang up.

I finally pull away from the school, leaving behind the stress with it. I know this move has been stressful on Eliza too. We were really close when we were younger. Slumber parties every weekend, family vacations every summer and we were at each others house almost every day. But then she moved away suddenly and without warning. Her family was just gone one day. I lost my favorite cousin and my mom lost her only brother. I was only eight, and Eliza was ten at the time. We rarely talked over the years, mainly because my mom and my aunt Katherine have hated each other since they left, and because North Carolina is a little far from Seattle.

But Eliza found me on Facebook one day, and we started to grow close again. Last month, she told me her mom kicked her and she needed a place to live. The timing was right, as my old roommate had just moved out and I was looking for another one. I told her, and she was happy to fly out as soon as possible, as in last week. Shes been buying the hell out of decorations to decorate my plain apartment, but I dont even care. I was desperate for help with the rent, and I really missed her too.

I still have no idea why she had to leave all those years ago, and she doesnt even know either. Our moms refused to tell us, and apparently theyre going to take it to the grave with them. When I told my mom Eliza was moving in, she wasnt the happiest, but didnt really say much. All she said was That girl brings trouble everywhere she goes. Just like her mother. Be careful, and she hasnt spoken on it since. I honestly paid it no attention. My mom and her brothers wife can keep the beef between them and them alone. Eliza and I were best friends, and we lost out on so much time together because of them.