Chapter Two
I'm awoken by Max's lips on my cheek, giving me a soft kiss. "I have to go," he whispered, like he wanted me to hear it but also wanted me to be able to fall back to sleep quickly when he left.
"What time is it?" I asked, stretching my arms out as I opened my eyes. I was groggy, but the room was still pitch black, so it had to be at night.
"Around four. I'll come back in a few hours, but I gotta head to the store."
I rolled onto my back so I could see him. He was kneeling beside the bed, staring down at me. He looked so cozy and cute in his warm flannel jacket with his long, brown hair.
"So you do this with all your girls? Have a great night and then tell them you have some shopping to do?"
He smirked, but there was coyness to it. I think he liked that I referred to our night as great. It made me swoon. "It's not for shopping, trust me. The alarm went off and I gotta go check and make sure nothing has been broken into or stolen."
"You want me to come with you?"
"No. It's maybe twenty degrees outside, and I'm sure it's a false alarm anyway. Stay where it's warm, and I'll be back in the morning."
He was about to leave when I grabbed him by the sleeve, holding him in place. "Hey," I said. "I love you."
The room was dark, but I could tell he was smiling. Not the overexcited, tooth-filled kind of smile, but the kind where it all came through his eyes. He radiated happiness from within. Max moved his hand up to my cheek and said, "I know."
I scoffed and tossed a pillow at him. "Okay, Han. You better come back, or I'll freeze you in carbonite myself."
"With how cold it is, I don't think you're gonna need to," he said, practically jogging to the door, running from the numerous pillows I was flinging at his head.
I pressed my head back down on the pillow, smiling as I fell back to sleep.
I wasn't sure how long my house phone had been ringing while I slept, but when I awoke, it was still in the middle of the night—or should I say the early hours of the morning—and I could hear the click of the answering machine picking up the call. My mind was half-awake, but my eyes were shut and my body was slumped across the bed, too tired to plug my ears and too tired to crawl my way to the phone to answer it. And then I heard something.
Cora?
The voice playing through the machine was a woman, and she sounded like she was speaking through a tunnel, her voice distant yet loud enough for me to hear.
Cora...are you...are…
My heart jumped into my throat. That voice. It sounded so familiar.
Help me...I'm so tired...I'm so hungry. Why did you leave me here?
Any exhaustion I once had was now long gone, replaced by an overwhelming state of fear. Who the hell was this person on my phone? Why did I swear I knew their voice? Were they in danger? Why were they calling?
I worked up the courage to jump out of my bed and to the phone in the living room. The answering machine was still recording when I lifted the receiver and placed it to my ear. "Who is this?" I asked, my voice trembling. My eyes darted toward the front door, expecting that at any minute someone would break it down and come after me.
"Cora?" the voice spoke. They sounded weak, quiet, a little on edge. But that voice...why did my heart know it, but my head didn't? It was like there was a block in my brain, not allowing me to recognize who was on the other end of the line.
"Who is this? How did you get this number?" I was almost yelling.
"It's me. Melanie."
I stopped breathing, and the chunks rose in my throat. "I don't know who you think you are, but this isn't funny. How the hell did you get this number?" This time I was yelling. Who would pull such a cruel joke, and in the middle of the night to top it off? It was even sicker because this woman sounded almost identical to Melanie.
"Why did you leave Lunar City? You left me behind." She wept, but it wasn't aggressive or loud, but soft and with a quiet ongoing moaning. Whoever this was seemed to be in an awful physical state. "I'm all alone. I don’t know what to do," she trembled.
How did this person know about Lunar City? That wasn't in Melanie's obituary.
A tear rolled down my cheek. I didn't even realize I was crying at first. It was like my body was registering what was happening but my brain was still a step behind, unable to process. "Why do you sound like that?" I whispered. This couldn't be real. I had to be dreaming. Any second now I was going to be woken up by Max, and this was all some ridiculous dream. It had to be the case.
"Please help me," this woman said. "I'm at an abandoned building. I think it's an old church. I'm so cold.
