The Second Heart
Authors: K. K. Eaton
Tags: #romance, #urban fantasy, #suspense, #adventure, #mystery, #fantasy, #magic, #fantasy contemporary, #strong female characters
The Second Heart
K. K. Eaton
Copyright 2014 K. K. Eaton.
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Chapter 1
Meredith
Carpenter’s eyes snapped open as if she had been electrocuted.
Rolling over in bed, she looked at the clock. 5:22 AM. Not usually
an early riser, she was surprised to find that she was fully
awake.
She lay in bed for several minutes to see if
she would fall back asleep before giving up and heading to the
bathroom. As she was washing her hands, Meredith started as she
caught her own reflection in the mirror.
“Holy crap, I look like I’ve been hit by a
truck,” she muttered, peering at herself more closely. Her
strawberry blonde hair was disheveled and she had dark smudges
under her clear blue eyes. Though she’d had seven hours of sleep,
it appeared as if she hadn’t rested in days. Chalking it up to an
impending chest cold, Meredith sighed and left the bathroom.
As she padded toward the kitchen, she spotted
her roommate, Violet, asleep on the couch. Vi still wore the
clothes from the night before: a lacy black bustier and torn jeans.
Tall black leather Doc Martin boots lay on the floor next to the
couch, along with Vi’s cell phone and purse.
Meredith chuckled. She and Vi couldn’t have
been more different from each other, but they still maintained the
close friendship that they had begun with each other in the seventh
grade. Meredith had always been outgoing and athletic, whereas Vi
preferred to present herself as a moody artist. Of course, Meredith
knew that Vi had a goofy side and was a sucker for puns, but she
was one of the few people who did.
Meredith wondered what Vi had been up to the
night before, assuming it likely had something to do with an
underground metal band and their grungy drummer. Her own evening
had been relatively uneventful. Meredith was in her first semester
of veterinary school, and her social life consisted mostly of
studying and tending to the sick animals at the veterinary clinic
where she worked part time. Occasionally, she would go out on a
date with one of her classmates, Miguel. The fact that he was in
vet school with her was very likely the only reason why they were
still dating. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have much time for him.
Meredith had just finished pouring milk on
her cereal when a groan emanated from the couch. Vi slowly sat up
and stared blankly at the empty television screen, not noticing
that she had company. Her face was imprinted with the diamond
pattern from the sofa cushion, and her glossy black hair was still
in last evening’s updo, which now hung limply to one side. To
complete the look, red lipstick stained her lips and part of her
chin.
Meredith took in the sight of her roommate
and laughed out loud, causing Vi to jump up in alarm. Meredith
laughed even louder.
“Geez, Meredith! You scared the shit out of
me!” Vi took in Meredith’s mirthful countenance with disgust.
“Yeah, yeah, yuck it up. You know, you don’t exactly look like a
shining princess this morning, either.”
Meredith quipped, “Ooh, a sparkling
personality to go with her looks, folks!” More seriously she asked,
“Late night last night?”
“You could say that.” Vi’s face turned
serious as she paused for a moment, as if trying to decide whether
to elaborate. She shook her head and said, “I’m going to go shower.
I feel like I’m growing mold.”
As Vi shuffled out of the room, Meredith
continued eating her cereal thoughtfully. Vi was usually pretty
forthcoming about her adventurous sex life, so it was odd that she
hadn’t shared any details about the night before. She shrugged it
off. Knowing Vi, she wouldn’t be able to keep it to herself for
long.
Meredith stood and rinsed out her cereal
bowl, putting it in the dishwasher. She looked at the clock and
realized she had several hours before she needed to be in class.
Unaccustomed to so much extra time, Meredith cast about in her mind
for something to do.
Listlessly, she wandered back to her bedroom
and looked around. She remembered how carefully she had decorated
her personal space. It was done up in shades of soft teal, white,
yellow, and gray, with bold geometric patterns interspersed with
softer florals. The unmade bed took up one of the walls and was
flanked by small antique dressers; on the opposite wall, Meredith
had set up an office area with an antique brass lamp and a few
potted plants. She gave the plants a chagrined smile, as they were
looking pretty sad and neglected next to several piles of paper and
textbooks that crowded around the laptop computer and the lamp. She
tried to remember the last time she had watered them.
Figuring there was no time like the present,
she went to the bathroom and filled the water glass that was at the
edge of the sink. She glanced at herself again in the mirror,
noticing that she still looked haggard. Glass in hand, she returned
to the bedroom and poured water onto the plants. One of the leaves
crumbled under the onslaught of liquid. Meredith giggled. “Geez, it
has been a while. Sorry, plant!”
The potting soil drank up the water greedily
as Meredith sat down at the desk in front of her laptop to check
her email. The most recent one was an emergency alert notice from
the university. Meredith opened it.
EMERGENCY ALERT
Due to a fire on the Tempe campus this morning, all
classes are cancelled until further notice.
All commuter students are advised to avoid coming to
campus until we receive the all clear from the fire department. We
will send out another alert when it is safe to return.
Students who live on campus should have received a
separate email from their resident advisers with specific
instructions. If you did not receive an email, please contact
Emergency Services.
Surprised and curious, Meredith quickly
opened a news website to see if there was any coverage of the
campus fire. She wondered how bad a fire would have to be to shut
down the entire campus. With over seventy thousand students,
closing campus down would be no small matter.
The first headline on the news site read,
“Fire Departments overwhelmed as fires erupt in cities across the
nation.” She clicked on the link to bring up the full article, and
scanned it quickly.
A large fire has consumed several buildings
at Arizona State University early this morning … at present the
fire is sixty percent contained … this was only one of several
large conflagrations around the city … other major U.S. cities
suffering from out of control fires … terrorism is suspected but
cannot be confirmed until after all the fires are put out and
investigated.
“Damn!” Meredith exclaimed. Her remaining
emails forgotten, she stood up to go share the news with Vi. Just
as she did, the smoke alarm went off. Striding out of the room,
Meredith’s eyes darted around the apartment looking for the source
of the smoke.
Vi came out of her room wearing jeans and a
t-shirt, toweling off her hair. “I don’t think it’s our apartment,”
she said.
“Our neighbors!” They rushed outside without
bothering to put on shoes. Their second story apartment shared a
small porch with the one next door. From there they could see smoke
seeping out from under the door.
“Call 911!” Meredith snapped at Vi. She began
to pound on the neighbor’s door, and the hot wood seared the back
of her fist. She wrapped her hand in her sleeve and pounded harder.
Tears sprang into her eyes as the smoke and pain got to her. After
a few moments she realized that her neighbor’s apartment was a
mirror image of her own, which meant that the master bedroom likely
shared a wall with her own.
Meredith turned on her heel and ran back
inside and down the hall to her bedroom. She leapt onto the bed on
her knees and started pounding the wall with all her might. “Wake
up!” she yelled. “Fire! Wake up!”
After she hammered the wall with her fist a
few more times, the neighbor thumped back. A voice called through
the wall, “I’m trapped!”
“Go to the window,” she yelled back,
scrambling off the bed. She ran back down the hall and through the
front door, which was still wide open. With her cell phone glued to
her ear, Vi followed.
Thundering down the stairs, Meredith pounded
on both of the downstairs neighbors’ doors before running around
the side of the building and to the back, Vi close behind. They
could see their neighbor standing in the window. He was in his late
twenties, with close-cropped medium brown hair and a goatee. He
wore square, black-rimmed glasses and small silver stud earrings in
both ears.
Meredith called up, “You have to jump!”
“I’ll break both my legs,” he protested.
“Better two broken legs than burning to
death,” Meredith reasoned.
The neighbor looked unconvinced.
Vi stepped next to Meredith and asked,
“What’s your name?”
“Josh.”
“Nice to meet you, Josh,” Vi said. “You’re
gonna be really well taken care of when you jump, okay? My friend
Meredith here is a doctor.”
Meredith looked sharply at Vi as she
continued, “But you gotta jump, man.”
To Meredith, Josh said, “You look too young
to be a doctor.”
Before Meredith could respond, Vi said, “She
just graduated. But she’s the top of her class. You’re in really
good hands. Just do it on three, okay?”
Josh swallowed hard and swung a leg through
the window. “Count fast before I lose my nerve.”
Vi obliged him. As he landed on the ground,
they heard a sickening crunch. Immediately, both Vi and Meredith
ran over to where Josh lay sprawled on the ground.
“Are you okay?” Meredith looked him over to
see if any bones were obviously broken. She thought maybe one of
his ankles looked weird.
Josh blinked up at them as they knelt over
him. “Got the wind knocked out of me. And my left ankle hurts like
a bitch.”
Meredith glanced at Vi. “Are you still on the
phone with 911?”
Vi looked at the phone as if she had
forgotten that it was plastered to her ear. “Oh yeah, I am.” Then
to the dispatcher on the other end she said, “Our neighbor just
jumped out his window and is lying on the ground. He thinks maybe
his ankle is broken.”
As Vi continued to talk with the 911
operator, Meredith turned back to Josh. “You need to just stay here
and not move, okay? I need to make sure everyone else is out of the
building.”
Josh scrutinized her. “You look way too young
to be a doctor.”
Meredith looked away sheepishly. “Well I’m
still in school… That, and we’d probably be in much better shape if
you had fur.”
Josh laughed. “You’re a veterinarian?”
“Someday, hopefully. There isn’t anyone else
in your apartment, is there?”
“Nope. Go wake everyone else up. But leave
your friend here. She’s cute.” He smiled and glanced over at Vi,
who looked almost bored.