Bound By Desire

Chapter 1: Strange Dreams

Two and a Half Years Ago

Rosalia’s POV:

“So are you coming, Rose?” The question snaps me out of my daze and I look up from where I have my sketchbook balanced on my lap. Looking towards the direction of the sound, I find myself looking in the excited green eyes of my best friend Magen Hargrove.

“Coming where?” I ask, looking at her hoping she'll repeat her question, as I honestly haven't been paying attention. Truth was, I was caught up sketching the face from my strange dream last night. Mae shoots me a mock wounded face and I smile apologetically. “Sorry Mae,” I say. She smiles before her eyes light up as she notices the sketchbook open on my lap. She immediately dives for it, her earlier question forgotten.

Smiling, I close the cover and hold it away from her so she has to reach for it. “Please let me see, Rosa! It’s cruel to keep it from me!” I laugh at her melodramatics and hold the book higher away from her head. She pouts and unsuccessfully tries to reach the book. “ROSALIA MALLORY!” she screams dramatically, the use of my full name making me laugh instead of handing the book over, as she’d hoped it would.

“ROSALIA!” she cries, loud enough to disturb a group of crows perched on the trees we were sheltered under. We had specifically chosen this small, secluded area of trees near the edge of the field as it was mostly shaded from the sun and far enough away from the noise of the college that we could have a conversation without being interrupted. Currently, I was sitting with my back against a large mature oak tree whilst Mae sat across from me near a younger-looking birch. Both of which grew over where we were sat creating light contrasts that were great for sketching with. I smiled more broadly when she huffed and moved to reach again.

I laugh hysterically as she tries again to reach the sketchbook I held aloft in the air. “Yes, Magen Hargrove?” I replied in a mocking voice, causing her to glare at me and huff. My giggling subsides and smiling, I lower the book when she doesn't make another attempt to reach it from me. “What was your earlier question?” I ask, trying to lighten the mood. It works because within a minute she’s bouncing on her knees and looking at me with the pleading expression that I know all too well spells the promise of trouble. “Uh oh,” I mutter, but she just looks at me excitedly.

“As I was saying before you spaced out–”

“Ouch.” I interrupt with a hurt expression and a hand over my heart, showing where her comment stung. She smiles devilishly and I feel the excitement building inside me, despite my earlier worry. She looks expectantly at me and I blush slightly. “Sorry,” I mumble when it clicks why she’s staring at me like that. “Continue.”

Mae huffs dramatically before launching back into what she was saying. “As I was saying before you spaced out, I was asking if you're coming to that party Friday?” She looks at me with the same pleading expression and I pull a face to make out that I’m considering her proposal for the party. Honestly, I would welcome the chaos that inevitably comes with these parties as a chance to escape reality. I was still considering her question when our other best friends, Ciara and Willow Heartley and my boyfriend, Jackson Cassidy, arrived.

“I’m in,” I reply to Mae as the others sit down. She squeals with joy and launches into a tirade about the party in question, but I tune her out again, knowing that she'll just repeat it in our class later when she thinks she won't be caught.

Instead, I moved from where I had been resting against the tree and nestled against Jack’s side and discretely opened my sketchbook to the page I had been working on when Mae attempted to look. The face in question was one I’d drawn multiple times but never quite got right in my mind. I rest my head against Jack’s shoulder as he puts an arm around me and I continue to sketch the face of a stranger I couldn't banish from my mind and keep tabs on the conversation.

“So,” Mae’s voice snaps me out of my quiet thoughts and back to the present. I look over to her and she looks at me judgmentally. “Have you decided what to wear to the party yet?” she asks, and I shrug. “Aww, come on! Surely you must have some idea!” Mae pouts again and I smother a giggle by reaching for my water bottle out of my bag. “The party’s in two days, Rosa!”

“What party’s this?” Jack asks from over my head and I laugh softly, casting a glance at Mae, waiting for her to explain. “Rose?” I pull a confused face and sneak a look in Mae’s direction.

“I don’t know. Mae told me about it, so ask her.” I reply and wait.

She sighs before answering Jack’s question. “Just a local party on Friday. Down at the posh houses by the warehouses near the east side of town. I think one of the Fairport kids organised it as it's near their side of town.” As she speaks, Mae’s phone pings in her bag and she delves around for it. Finding it, she opens it and laughs once before a frown crosses her face. “Sorry I appear to have been misinformed. The party’s over in Moonwoods. Near the–” she stops when she glances at Jack and he frowns at her.

“Moonwoods? Mae, are you sure?” His voice is tight and Mae looks confused before a realisation flits across her face. She nods and gives him a strange look.

“Jack, it'll be fine. I won’t lose your girlfriend out in the middle of the woods or anywhere else for that matter, okay? Don't worry about it.” Mae’s face is closed off for some reason as something unspoken passes between her and my boyfriend. I frown and look over in her direction as she relaxes. I shrug and turn back to my sketchbook to find it missing and in Mae’s hands.

“MAE!” I cry as she looks down at the drawing I had been working on. She frowns and a look of shock passes over her face so fast that I have to focus to see it. It's so instantaneous that I almost miss it before she releases some unseen tension and a look of awe lights up her eyes. “Please don’t look, it's not done.” I moan, burying my face in my arms as she flips through more pages. Her eyes shift over each page and she studies each sketch intensely. “Mae..” I start to speak to her when the surroundings seem to lose clarity and spin away from me.

“Rosa?” Both Mae and Jack both look at me worriedly as they try to understand why I suddenly stopped talking. I blink twice in quick succession, our signal for when this happened, and they both understand, shielding me away from the other students out on the field enjoying the last of the September sunshine during lunch.

I, however, was far away from the happy, relaxed atmosphere as the world seemed to darken as whatever vision was coming hit me from all sides. Moaning quietly, I try to focus on whatever image is coming in an attempt to hurry the vision. However, rather than the string of images I had become accustomed to over the years, all I saw was a shadowed face and a few more hazy images that I couldn't decipher. As the colour returns to my surroundings, I can see that it somehow ended up that my head was on Jack’s lap and he was watching me with concern.

“You okay, Rosa?” He uses a hand to smooth my hair away from my face and I nod, sitting up slowly and reaching for my water, blinking against the harsh sunlight that shone down through the trees. Mae’s concerned voice sounds from my right and I turn to console my worried friends.

“Yeah, just a little tired,” I say, closing my eyes against the sun and seeing the same mystery face flash across my mind, the features still indistinct and elusive. I scream mentally in frustration at the inaccuracy of my vision but sigh quietly when I sense that more will come when I go to sleep that night, hopefully clearing a few things up about the strange mystery vision. I sigh and take my sketchbook from where Mae left it on the ground when my vision came. Opening it to the page I had been sketching, I was surprised to find the page blank and my brow furrows in confusion.

“Mae, did you rub out my drawing?” I ask, showing her the now clean page that I had been sketching on all lunch.

“No, I didn't even get a chance to look at that page.” She replies, looking warily in my direction, a feeling I couldn't put my finger on lurking at the back of them as she looks over in Jackson’s direction. Jack shrugs and looks down at my empty page, a frown on his face.

I move to stand as the bell sounds over the laughter surrounding us. Sighing with resignation, Mae and the others stand and begin to walk in the direction of our last class. Being last to pack up, I motion for the others to carry on without me, sensing something between them. Packing up slowly, I wait until they are almost out of sight before following slowly, snatches of their conversation floating back to me.

“She can’t go with you. Not without me at least. You know what they’re like there.” Jack’s voice was hard with conviction. I could hear Mae sigh.

“So, why don’t you come then?” Mae snaps in frustration. “And, anyway, I already told you I can keep her safe in Moonwoods, Jack, don't you trust me?” she sounded put out by his tone. Angry. Defensive even. Why?

Jack sighs. “I know you can keep her safe here, Mae, but what about over there? It's not you that I don't trust. I just need her to be safe. And being in my position, I can do that. Without any compromises.” He adds meaningfully.

Keep who safe and where? I think. Puzzled, I carry on walking as close behind them as I dared, the conversation continuing without my presence.

I hear Mae snarl and snap back in an angry tone. “Don’t pull the Alpha bullshit on me, Jack. I can protect her just as well as you if not better, in fact, as I have more than just one set of talents.” She falls silent for a moment before hissing when she catches Jack’s expression. “Which is more than I can say for you.” She bites back with an acidic tone and moves to stalk off when Jack takes her arm and makes her slow down. He sighs and seems to think carefully about what to say before he answers her.

“I know you do and I'm sorry if it feels like I'm working against you. I'm not Mae, I promise, but I have to know she’s safe. Once she passes the border into Moonwoods, technically, she’s beyond your help where one set of talents are concerned and that's what I'm worried about. You can protect her better here as you can use both, but what about there? I know you're my partner in this, and that means I trust you wholeheartedly, but I can't chance anything happening to Rosalia when we don't fully know who or what she is.” Jack’s words seem to placate Mae slightly and she loses her aggressive stance.

Me? Why are they talking about me? What do they mean? What am I? My mind chases my questions in circles silently as I continue to listen intently.

“I know, Jack.” Mae’s response is so quiet that I have to strain to hear it over the other noise. “And that’s what I’m afraid of. We don't know, but what if other people do? Or they guess and they're right?” Mae’s voice sounds tense with a coiled tension and I wonder again what she’s talking about.

Jack sighs and shrugs gently. “I don't know. I guess that's what makes her so different from anyone else. And why she’s in so much danger if anyone else found out that she...” He looks away from her and I can see the same coiled tension in Mae mirrored in the way he walked. Perplexed, I waited to see if either one would continue.

After a moment, Mae sighs and frowns into the distance. “I’m just afraid for her, Jack. Rosa’s in over her head with something she doesn't even know exists, let alone that she’s a huge part of it. I know what I've told you before and those facts haven't changed. She’s the key. Rosa is the key to…” Mae trails off and I catch a look of understanding flash between the pair. Curious, I wait to hear more, but it seems that the pair have finished whatever they were discussing. Mae looks forlornly in the distance and Jack takes her hand in a friendly way, trying to reassure her.

Taking that as my cue to appear, I walk up behind the two and tap Mae on the shoulder, trying to pull her back from wherever she disappeared to inside her head. “Hey, you okay, Mae?”

She blinks and then focuses on me, smiling slightly as she did so though the day’s earlier humour has vanished from her expression and mood. I step between the two and feel Jack’s arm around my shoulders, warming me and helping to push the thoughts of their mysterious conversation to the back of my mind.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just worried about.. stuff.” Her shoulders drop and I take her hand in mine, squeezing it once to try to reassure her.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I reply softly, envious for a second that she has a family to worry about. Though I can easily banish that thought, and her lie, by focusing on something that made her happier earlier.

“How about you come over today and help me find an outfit for Friday’s party?” I ask and feel Jack smile slightly at my tactical change of topic. Mae’s smile immediately brightens and she launches into a discussion with Willow and Ciara about what to wear. I smiled to myself and let her pull me into a discussion about dresses and Friday’s party as we arrived at our next class, the thoughts about my vanishing sketch, weird vision and curiosity about hers and Jack’s conversation all but vanished from my mind.

As we arrive at our last class of the day, I move with Mae and Jack to our usual seats towards the back of the room. Religion and Mythology is usually my favourite class but today all my mind could focus on was the strange conversation between Mae and Jack that I had eavesdropped on the way to class.

What did they mean? I knew who I was, didn’t I? I am Rosalia Mallory, a girl left on the doorstep of our town's foster agency to find a new home. From there, I went through three homes before, at the age of 16, instead of having to live in a group home, I secured enough money to buy an apartment. Alongside a job bartending and waitressing, I had enough money to attend college and am currently studying Religion and Mythology, Creative writing and Art. Just a normal teenage girl with a normal life.

But at the same time, I'm not.

Who am I? Seems like the most cliché question a teenager can ask, right? Except when you're missing months, if not years, of your life, suddenly that seemingly simple question takes on a whole new meaning. After all, if you don’t know your whole past, how can you answer that for yourself?

The class moved quickly despite my absent mind and before long the final bell had gone and we were packing up. Numbly, I wrote down the assignment and put my stuff back in my bag, trying to move past my irrational obsession with the two’s earlier conversation. Walking out with Mae, she turns to look at me closely.

“Hey, you okay?” She asks softly as we set off through the gates and down the sidewalk towards my apartment near the centre of town. I smile encouragingly, but I know the gesture looks forced.

“Yeah, just tired and preoccupied with my bizarre vision.” I lie smoothly, feeling a twinge of guilt when she looks worriedly at me. “I’ll be fine once I've had some sleep tonight. Mae, don’t worry about it,” I say to reassure her as much as me. “Are you coming to mine today?” I ask when she misses the turnoff that leads further down to her neighbourhood.

“Just for a few hours if that’s okay? It’s just until my mom gets back, so I don’t have to deal with my dad on my own. You know now that Luca’s gone and Adam works after college.” She looks at me as if for permission and I have to mentally sigh.

“Of course.” Is all I respond. “You know my door is always open for you. It's as much your home as it is mine.” I reply and it's true, at least in part. Over the years I've known her, she’s come to treat my apartment as a second home when things at home got too challenging for her and she needed somewhere to escape the drama.

She smiles in my direction as we walk up the stairs to my second-floor apartment. I catch her watching me sideways as we come to the door but I pretend not to notice, hoping she’ll stop or explain to me why she was looking at me in such a peculiar way. As we come through the entryway, I stop, dropping my bag and keys on the table in the hall.

“Are you hungry?” I call when she stops in the lounge, her eyes wandering vacantly around the room. “I can call for a take out. Chinese? Thai? Pizza? Your shout.” I pause, expecting her to shout through a request instantly, but am instead greeted with uncharacteristic silence. I frown and call out to her again. “Mae?” I pop my head around the doorframe to see her sitting on the couch nearest me, blankly staring into space in front of her. Sighing, I tap her shoulder and she snaps out of her daze.

“Yeah, sorry Pizza sounds great.”

“Order the usual, yeah? I’m gonna go shower and get some drinks.” I watch her expression nervously, seeing the lurking emotion from our walk home in the back of her eyes. “Then what do you say about a movie night until your mom or Adam gets back?” I catch a small smile from her and it makes me smile in response.

“Yeah, sounds perfect, thanks, Rosa.” She returns as I move in the direction of the bathroom.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur of fun. The more the night progressed, the more of Mae’s earlier humour seemed to return. We had a great time watching our favourite movies and laughing about the party on Friday. The only thing that soured the mood was that I kept catching her looking at me with the same peculiar expression from our walk home. Shrugging it off, I ignore her weird mood and act as if nothing happened.

When I next look out of the window, I can see that sunset has been and gone, shrouding the world in a thick inky black that obscures even the most powerful streetlight. Checking my phone, I open it and gasp when I see how late it is. Simultaneously, I hear Mae’s phone ping with a message and she sits up.

“You need to go?” I ask, looking over in her direction with a small smile. She’s engrossed in texting back whoever it is, an angry frown written on her face. Her phone pings again and she loses the angry look and instead looks up to me with an expression of puzzlement before looking back down at her phone. “Hey, if Adam’s not gonna be back you know you can crash here, right? You don't have to go home if you don't want to,” I suggest as her phone pings a third time. This time a look of relief crosses her face.

“That’s Adam now, he said he’ll be finished in about 20 minutes so I’m gonna go meet him.” She replies, looking between me and her phone with a strange expression in her eyes. “Thanks for the offer anyway, Rose, I appreciate it.” She smiles again but this time it doesn't quite reach her eyes and I frown in her direction. If she notices, she chooses to ignore it as she helps me tidy up and collect her stuff from across my apartment.

“Thanks again, that was fun,” Mae says as I say goodbye at the door, the crisp night air carrying with it the autumnal scents of falling leaves and the beginning of a sharp frost. I smile and look at where she’s focused on something in the distance.

“Yeah, it was.” My smile broadens as I hug her goodbye. Although she hugs me a little too long and hard for me to just ignore it. “You okay, Mae? You've been acting odd all evening.” I pull away and look at her curiously.

She shakes my concern off but looks me in the eyes with a sincerity I didn't know my friend possessed. “Yeah, I'm fine. Just be safe, okay?” She searches my face and I have to bite back a laugh. “What’s so funny?” She asks.

I stifle my next laugh to answer her. “I should be the one telling you to be safe considering you’re the one about to wander the streets alone in the middle of the night. Alone.” I laugh again and she smiles. We stand in the doorway for another moment before she hugs me again and turns to leave. “Mae,” I call out, seeing her turn back in the streetlight at the end of the road.

“Yeah, Rosa?” She calls back.

“Call me when you and Adam get home, okay? Just so I know you’re safe and that your mom got back. So I know you’re all okay.” I give her a look and she seems to understand my urgency.

“Okay, I will. I promise.” She smiles again before stepping out of the light and into the shapeless mass of the night. Smiling to myself, I go back inside and close the door, hearing the lock click shut behind me. Shutting off the lights, I crawl into bed and try to sleep.