Page 78 of Hunting Pretty

With a sigh, the woman pushed herself back away from her desk. “Wait here.”

Her heels clicked all the way into the bowels of the restricted section of the public library.

I drummed my fingers on the counter, my mind whirring.

What might I find in my own adoption records? I’d finally learn my mother’s name. My father’s.

I’d find out where I’d lived. Where I grew up.

I’d be able to fit some pieces in about who I was, even if they were just faded ink names on a stained certificate.

God, what was taking so long?

I began to pace across the wooden floor.

Not knowing my past for so long had made me feel brittle, like there was nothing real holding the pieces of me together. I yearned to feel whole, sturdy,strong. Perhaps these answers were at last my salvation.

Without warning the flickering light above me went out. Instead of being able to see only my own reflection in the windows, I could see out into the night.

There he was.

My shadowy stalker.

A streetlight cast his hooded features into shadows, disappearing and then reappearing behind a delivery truck accelerating as the intersection light turned green.

My breath caught in my throat, fear tightening its grip around me, but he seemed unperturbed by me seeing him.

Almost like he’d expected the lights to go out. Almost like he’d planned it all himself.

I was vaguely aware as I stood paralyzed, eyes unblinking on him, that he was growing more and more powerful in my mind.

That was stupid, Ava.

He couldn’t control the lights. I was turning him into a god. And I feared him like one.

Just as quickly as the lights had gone out, the light turned back on. His image was gone and in its place was me in the reflection of the glass, white-faced and clutching my coat tight around my neck.

But he was still out there.

He was out there and I would confront him.

I strode toward the door, accelerating with purpose.

“Got them here,” the receptionist called out before I could run out.

I hesitated, my hand on the door handle, peering through the glass as if I could somehow see him. My heart pounded and I ached to race after him.

“Do you still want it?” the woman said, waggling a file folder at me.

Dammit. I should take the answers while I had them. I’d get another chance to confront my shadowy figure.

I let go of the handle, feeling slightly disappointed.

“The light went out,” I told her, as if that was some sort of explanation.

“We’re a city building,” the woman said, handing me the file and my ID over the counter. “I’m more surprised the lights are on.”

I glanced up at the flickering bulb overhead, still not sure that my shadowy figure hadn’t had a hand in the lights going out.

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