Free Eternity and a Year by Ranae Rose

more.
    “Yeah, it’s me,” she said. “I’m coming to see you.” Brendan began to protest, but she cut him off. “I know you can’t travel by day, so I’m coming to you. Don’t worry—I have that stun gun I bought yesterday. I’ll be careful.”
    “Carrie, you can’t.” This time it was he who interrupted her protest. “I’m not at the warehouse. I’m spending the day somewhere else, to throw her off my trail.”
      There was no need to explain ‘her’. Carrie’s stomach contracted at the sound of the simple pronoun.
    “I’m going to try to sleep somewhere different every day,” he continued.
    A sudden suspicion crept over Carrie. “Brendan, you’re not just saying that to keep me from coming to you, are you?”
    “No.”
    “Really?”
    “Really.” He sounded annoyed now.
    “Okay, then tell me where you’re staying now.”
    She could almost hear him frown over the phone line.
    “No,” he said after several moments’ pause. “Stay home. I won’t endanger you unnecessarily by telling you where I am. I don’t know whether I’ve thrown her off my trail or not. She might have spotted me while I was out hunting or travelling—she could know where I am.”
    This idea did nothing to deter Carrie but rather sent her heart racing, as if it were urging her to run to him, to claim him before she could find him. “Brendan, I have to see you. I just have to.”
    “Sorry, Carrie. I’ll come to the apartment tonight, if I can.”
    “If you can? What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “If I don’t see her…if there’s no sign of her…I’ll come visit you.”
    Carrie gripped the phone so tightly she was afraid she might snap it in half. “No, Brendan! That’s not good enough! I don’t want… I don’t want to have to go skulking around just to be with you because of her .”
    His reply was just as stubborn as the last. She punched a button angrily, ending the conversation. Reluctantly, she dialled, beginning a different call.
    “Hello, Anne? It’s me, Carrie. I’m really sorry, but I can’t come in to work today. I fell last night and had to get quite a few stitches. I’m really not feeling well.” That much was true, she thought, although her ill mood had more to do with Brendan’s stubbornness than her back. “Yeah, I’m sorry, Anne. Okay. See you then.”
    With her cell phone shoved deep into her pocket, she seized her jacket from her closet, shoved her arms hastily through the sleeves, stuffed a few items into the pockets and stormed for the door. Brendan might have lied to her in one of his bull-headed attempts to protect her. He might be spending the day at the warehouse. Or not. Either way, she was going to find out for herself.
    She made her way towards Brendan’s seedy building on foot, as usual, keeping her hand tucked into the pocket where she carried her stun gun just in case. She didn’t see anyone else for a couple of blocks, until she rounded the corner and stepped into the alley between Brendan’s building and the equally sad structure that stood beside it.
    The person she found there wasn’t another thug, as she’d feared when she first caught a glimpse of a human figure. It was a woman, strangely attired. She wore a white dress that reached the ground, simply cut, long-sleeved and high-necked. The garment covered everything save for her face and her hands, on which she wore matching white gloves, but it clung to her every generous curve to the point of being rendered immodest despite its coverage. Blonde, spiral curls peeked out from beneath a wide-brimmed hat, and she carried an umbrella, holding it so it shaded her face from the morning sunlight. The woman turned to face her just as Carrie stepped into the alleyway, staring at her from behind the lenses of oversized sunglasses.
    Carrie froze. She had not expected to meet anyone there, let alone a woman who was dressed as if she had a sun allergy. Her skin was porcelain and extremely pale…
    “You!” Carrie