Dating Death

Chapter 2

16 Years Later

     Zavanna was giddy with excitement as she carried boxes from her room to her car. Today was the day she was finally moving to her dorm at the university. She worked so hard the past 2 years working on her associates and earning scholarships to be able to finally move out and get the full university experience for practically free make her wanna burst with happiness. She was getting everything she worked for. The only thing that could make this better would be finally Azariel again.

     After leaving the hospital that night, young Zavannah couldn't stop talking none stop about her soon-would-be friend Azariel. He mother had started a new job and worked less in those weeks following her 'miraculous recovery' so she was there to witness a lot of the Azariel talk. At first Tanya had been concerned. She'd taken Zavannah to see a child psychologist, but the psychologist could not find any explanation as for why Zavannah imagined some boy in her room who saved her life. Tanya had also had Dr. Ross pull the security footage and they had found nothing their either. A year later when the mentions of Azariel would not stop, and the psychologist suggested they put Zavannah on medications for delusions, Tanya politely nodded.    The doctor left to get the prescription paper and Tanya and Zavannah were gone by the time he returned.

     Tanya had decided to believe her daughter. If she said a pale boy snuck into her room saved her life, and promised to be her best friend, well then, she couldn't wait to meet him. She owed that boy a debt of gratitude.

     It wasn't until Zavannah got older that she realized what an impossible task he'd given her. How was she supposed to find him on just a name and a crude crayon drawing from the mind of a 4-year old?

     But she never gave up. In fact, the realization only made her more obsessed. Now it was like a challenge. She had to find him - to prove to him she could do what he clearly thought she couldn't - and force him to make good on his promise.

     In her later years of high school, and early years of college, she tried finding him in boys she crossed paths with. She knew they weren't really him, she worked tirelessly to find the real him from her laptop in the darkness of her room. But they were nice distractions.

     But in the end, she had to break it off with all of them. They weren't him. She needed the real him.

     Was she obsessing? Oh, yeah. 100%.

      But it paid off in the end. Because she found him.

      Azariel Dantes.
      Student at Florida International University currently attending the south canpus.

     She even had his class schedule for Fall semester on her phone. No ID photo, though. Still, she'd paid a lot of money to a guy on the dark web for that information. So guess where she was headed...

     That's right. Florida.

"Come on, guys. Put your backs into it." Zavanna teased to her mom and her mom's best friend, Nicholas Ross, who were both winded from carrying the large boxes from her room down the stairs.

"You say that because you're not carrying the box of bricks." Nicholas replied as he set my box in the truck of the rented moving truck.

     "Well, I did suggest we buy new kitchenware at the new house." Zavannah shrugged. "Plus, you wanted to bring all your medical books."

     "You know, you don't have to come with us." Her mother told Nicholas, not unkindly. "Your life is here. You've been such a great help the past few years, and I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you for all you've done for Zavannah and I, but the last thing I'd ever as of you is to leave your life here behind to go to a whole other state."

     Zavannah and Nicholas immediate gave each other the look. The look they found themselves giving each other many times over the years, the look that said, She so dense.

     Dr. Nicholas Ross had been in love with Tanya the moment he'd laid eyes on her back in the hospital 16 years ago, and everyone knew it except Tanya. Nicholas had tried to drop subtle hints about his feels and even once managed to ask Tanya out on a date, but somehow in the end, Tanya had somehow misconstrued it as an act of friendship. Then Nick had tried to show her he was husband and father material by basically assimilating into their little family with Zavannah's help. While that also did not seem to work, it did strengthen his relationship with Zavannah. She recognized him as her father, and no one could change that in her heart.

     Nick had come to accept that Tanya may never be with hi the way he wanted her to, but he was content just spending each day with her. But Zavannah was far from giving up on matchmaking her mom with Nick. She knew her mom had feelings for Nick, they had discussed as much, even if one could not tell from the blatantly obvious lovelorn looks, she gave him when his back was turned. Especially, when he was playing the father role in Zavannah's life. But her mother maintained that she could not possibly think of dating anyone while Zavannah still needed her full parental assistance.

     So Zavannah had a plan. They didn't know that Zavannah actually had a dorm on campus she planned to stay in, leaving the two lovebirds alone for the majority of the week. Not only that, but finally the footage from those mini spy cameras she'd bought online would be useful.

     By the end of this semester, Zavannah would be dating Azariel and her mom would be marrying Nick.

     It was a win-win for everyone.