Chapter 1. I See You

PROLOGUE

5 years earlier.

Lola: 16 years old.

The ground was painted red. The blood ran in a stream down the cracks and into the river. Little red clouds formed under the water, and she stared with tear-filled eyes at the bodies from which the blood was escaping. Her hands held the lives she had just taken, and her mind held the sounds of their screams. Their eyes were still wide open as they stared at their faith, she who had ended them all, she who nobody could escape.

With shaky hands, she pulled their bodies to the river and placed them down. The last one was particularly difficult to let go of, her hands refusing to open as she held him under the water. The life had drained from his eyes, his heart had stopped beating, and his body hadn’t moved for minutes. Yet, she couldn’t part from him.

Closing her eyes and filling her lungs with air, her fingers slowly spread. She watched as her father went with the stream.

*Chapter 1.

“Lola!”

Lola turned her heavy head to look at Melissa, finally seeing another face apart from all those that haunted her in the university hallways. She put away her books and swung her bag over her shoulder. Lola walked to the dining hall, where all the students had already been seated. The smell of food and judgmental gazes filled the air like they did every day. 

“She’s so weird, look at her- she barely talks.” The whispers and comments were as normal as the breaths she took. It didn’t bother her, she barely noticed them anymore. 

“Come on.” Melissa pulled her arm.

They went to sit at the table in the corner, which had become their little spot away from the masses ever since they started at Lilac University.

“Don’t mind them,” Melissa said and scowled at everyone around them who was staring. She removed her reading glasses and put them in the pink bejeweled case she had in her bag.

“You know I never do,” Lola said and looked down into her pasta.

“Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

Lola shook her head and smiled—a smile she had perfected but that would occasionally betray her.

“I’m fine, just a little tired. I haven’t slept well lately,” Lola said.

Melissa pulled her bag and started running her hands on the bottom of it. Eventually, she grabbed a rustling bottle and pulled it out with a proud smile.

“Here, try these. They help me when I can’t sleep or I’m too stressed out.”

Lola grabbed the bottle and looked at the label. Sleeping pills, perhaps she should try them.

“Thank you.”

“But just take one. Seeing as you’re not used to them, there’s probably no need to take more than that.”Melissa winced and wrapped the clip around her thick brown curls. They sat quietly and ate but out of nowhere, it was like Melissa had a fit and arched her back as she leaned in to whisper.

"By the way, did you hear about the new guy?" 

Lola looked up with a shake of her head. 

"They won't say his name but according to the whisper vine- he comes from one of those families that they write about in history books." 

"I can only imagine the attack on the pore bastard tomorrow," Lola grinned as she placed the bottle in her bag and closed it up. The idea of a full night’s sleep seemed like fiction by now. Those sleepless nights and shadows that lurked in the corners of her home had all become so familiar that she wondered how it would be if it stopped. The feeling of being watched every time she was awake- that particular feeling had gotten stronger over the last few months.

* * *

She walked with her head held down to her locker after class and quickly grabbed her things. Melissa came running up beside her, and they walked together to the coffee shop where Lola worked.

“Are you closing again tonight?” Melissa asked.

Lola nodded with a sigh.

“You know you don’t have to work every night, right? If you need money, I’ll give it to you,” Melissa said and opened the door for them.

“You know I don’t want you to give me money,” Lola said and grabbed her apron from the locker room. She went behind the counter and started making a latte for Melissa who jumped up on the high chair.

“I’m just saying that I can—”

Lola gave her friend a stern gaze and raised her eyebrows, “I like working here- it’s calm and fun, and it pays the bills. Bills that need to be paid or else I’m homeless,” Lola said and put the cup on the counter.

“You’d never be homeless,” Melissa said and hunched her brows.

Lola knew that Melissa would help her. Her family owned estates in LA, New York, and some in the English countryside as well. Her father owned a tech company, and her mother worked in fashion- having created her own brand fifteen years ago. When her parents moved to the small town of Wild Cliff to wind down, they offered to buy Melissa her own apartment. Regardless of this, Lola didn’t want any charity, and she knew that she needed to be able to take care of herself.

The job helped keep her mind off things, things she didn’t want to remember but that kept showing up wherever she looked. She couldn’t escape it, but she could try to live with it. She had to.

The bell rang over the door, and three men stepped inside. Everyone turned their heads, the air shifted noticeably and they gawked at the three strangers who causally strode in. In a small town like Wild Cliff, new people stood out like snow in July- especially when they looked like that, rugged and big with a confidence that sat around them like an aura.

Two of them were dressed in jeans and white button-downs. One of them had a black T-shirt with a gold necklace. Lola was wiping the counter and putting away some cups in the sink, so she didn’t get a good look at the customers.

“Hi, what can I get you?” she asked and took a shaky breath when she turned to face them.

The men stared at Lola. Their gazes seemingly scanned her, searching her eyes and looking around the coffee shop for something.

“Three black coffees, please.”

She turned around and held her breath. Looking over her shoulder, she could see the men looking focused and tense. Three black coffees was a great order, in Lola’s opinion. It meant they could take their cups and go sit down, and she could take a proper breath.

“Here you go.”

The men turned and walked down the café before they took a seat in one of the booths. One of the men in white was facing Lola, his bushy brows pinching tighter as he drank from his coffee. His fingers wrapped around the mug, exposing a flashy gold ring and his arm covered in tattoos.

"Do you know them?”

Lola shook her head to Melissa’s question and continued taking orders and making coffees.

Darkness started to settle over the buildings, and the street lamps turned on when the little remembrance of sunlight disappeared down the horizon.

Lola had just made the last cup of coffee for the evening and cleaned the machines.

She wiped down the counter with a heavy sigh and looked at Melissa yawning.

“You should go home. There’s no reason for you to be tired tomorrow.”

Melissa nodded and sleepily jumped off the high chair and waved Lola off as she walked outside. The only people left now were the men who had been sitting in the booth for four hours. It wasn’t odd that people spent a lot of time in here, but they usually refilled their cups a few times, which neither had done. The three men all got up and placed their cups on the counter. The one with the gold ring and dark eyes locked his gaze on hers and kept it there until he was by the door.

“Thank you for the coffee,” he said under his breath when the other two had left the café.

They walked out, and Lola stood still staring at the glass door- who were those men? This was a small town, and having three people like that here would surely be talked about tomorrow.

Tired and groggy from having been up since six o’clock, Lola locked the doors and went out the back. She walked down the alley with her bag hanging over her shoulder, it was dark and quiet, and a rotten smell from the dumpsters filled the narrow path. A gust of wind blew past her, the hairs on the back of her neck rose and her body shivered. She turned her head, the feeling that she wasn't alone was hard to shake. She looked over her shoulder into the corner where she saw nothing but darkness. Lola continued walking, a metal can fell from the dumpster and rolled in front of her feet. Her heart was beating out of her chest and she turned around to cast one more look; only now she saw a shadow, the shadow of a man in the back of the dark alley. She heard his feet pressing against the ground, dragging as he slowly approached her. Lola turned back and ran without giving it a second thought and she didn't stop until she was out on the street under the lights.

Panting and shaking she turned around and looked if he was behind her but he stopped, just before stepping into the light he instead backed up and disappeared back into the alley. There was no time to stand and wonder who that was, lurking in the shadows, so Lola took off and ran all that she could down the empty street.

He stepped out from the alley and watched her run- a part of him torn with guilt over causing her fear but another happy that she wasn't stupid enough to stay and find out what she was running from.