Called Read online

  Called

  EJ Pay

  Copyright © 2019 EJ Pay.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  ISBN: 978-1-7331202-1-0 (Paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-7331202-0-3 (ebook)

  Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.

  Cover design by Mindee Thyrring PostModernLaundry.com

  Printed by DiggyPOD, Inc., in the United States of America and Amazon.

  First printing edition 2019.

  www.ej-pay.com

  To My Evelyn,

  My Chelsea, My Ashleigh

  And My Steve.

  Look at what

  We did!

  I love you.

  Contents

  Prologue:

  The Nightmare

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Trapped, Book 2 in the “Called” Trilogy

  Trapped, Chapter 1

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Coming Soon

  Prologue:

  The Nightmare

  We all have that dream. The same one we dream over and over throughout our lives. Sometimes details are added. Sometimes details are taken away. I’m no different. I have that dream too. I am convinced that somebody, somewhere, is calling to me while I sleep. “Evelyn, save me,” I feel the voice crying. And no matter how hard I try, I can’t shake the feeling that there is something I MUST do.

  In the dream I am moving through water. I make my way down ruined stone corridors toward something I cannot see. I am in an ancient underwater ruin, but that isn’t out of the ordinary to me. I’ve dreamt about it so many times, it feels like I belong here. Maybe I should be cold or even afraid, but I feel at ease in these murky waters. I know I have to find whatever is calling to me. I’ll have no peace otherwise.

  I open a coral-covered door to my right, as I always do. A familiar warmth fills my body as I look into the overly-bright room. Stone tables, vases, and remains of furniture line the decayed walls. I enter. And there it is, exactly as I remember, the pearl of light hovering in the open space before me. I want to touch it and yet I am afraid to. I know the consequences if I reach my hand toward that ball.

  Suddenly, I hear voices behind me. I don’t know why it always surprises me. I have the dream often enough. Some of the voices I recognize, some I don’t. I panic. I know what I need to do, but I am afraid. As always, I am left with no time to think. I have to act. I reach my hand forward in a desperate attempt to capture the brilliant stone. As my fingers graze its surface, the ball grows, exploding outward to a hundred times its size. I see familiar faces screaming, but I can no longer hear their voices. Then, as quickly as it expanded, the glowing, burning orb contracts until it is nothing but darkness: a small, black pearl that can fit in the palm of my hand. I reach for it, grasp it, and the familiar dread spreads quickly into my body as I realize, once again – I cannot breathe.

  Chapter 1

  James brushes my bare arm with the back of his rough fingers and I pull my gaze away from the terminal window, my mind letting go of the remains of my dream. A shiver runs up my spine as I realize how cold it is in this airport. The heat of the Phoenix desert always leaves me unprepared for the frigid, air-conditioned indoors. I give James a small smile and sigh as I dig through my carry-on for my cardigan.

  “What were you thinking about, Eves?” James asks as I shrug into my longer sleeves. “I’ve been trying to get you to come sit with me. That last flight to Vegas finally took off. There are some seats over here.”

  I pick up my backpack and leave my view of the tarmac and busy freeway to follow my boyfriend to a seat near the check-in counter. I feel the buzz in my pocket of another text from my mom checking to make sure we are still early enough for our flight. My mom isn’t happy with my decision to leave Arizona for a college in Florida. Ever since my dad’s accident, the ocean has always freaked her out. It’s been just the two of us for so long that sometimes her anxiety gets the best of her.

  My dad was lost at sea when I was just a little girl. I don’t remember much of it. Most of what I know I learned from online articles and from overhearing whispered conversations between my mother’s friends when they thought I couldn’t hear. As the story goes, he was out looking for an old shipwreck with some rich guy who had a penchant for adventure and wasting money. A crazy summer storm whipped up out of nowhere, the ship’s engines busted, and the whole thing capsized. Pieces of the wreckage washed up on shore for weeks and a few of the crew were found – none of them alive. My dad’s body never washed up. For years, my mom slept in the same room as me, making sure that I was still there.

  I love my mom, but it’s time for me to move ahead with my life. I need to find my own answers and make my own peace with my dad’s disappearance. That’s why I chose a school so close to where my parents met and where my dad went missing. Since I graduated a year early, however, it isn’t doing anything to help my mom worry less. Instead, she has to send her 17-year-old daughter off to a school thousands of miles away. She is doing her best to support me, but I know it’s killing her to see me go. I pull out my phone so I can respond to her, making sure to not touch anything as I sit in the stain-covered chair by James.

  “Is that your mom?” he asks. “She’ll come around. She can’t stay mad at you forever.”

  I sigh as I settle into the seat. I tap James on the arm so he’ll hold me. He finishes his text and puts his arm on the back of my chair. I nestle my head onto his cotton t-shirt that covers his muscular shoulder, breathing in the scent of his cologne, trying to hold onto the smell as long as I can. We are going to two different schools. Him to Baylor in Texas, me to Florida International. I tried to convince him to come with me and he almost did, but he decided to give Baylor a try. Maybe next year he will change his mind. It will be rough to have a long-distance relationship.

  “I hope so,” I say in answer to his question. “She’s been so freaked out about me going to Florida. I think she’s afraid I’ll disappear like my dad.” James lets out a low sigh that blows through the top of my hair, the familiar smell of cinnamon gum reaches my nose.

  “Evelyn,” he says, “I know that’s how she feels about it, but you know that isn’t going to happen, right?” He sits up straight and pulls his arm away from me. I turn to look into his hazel eyes and feel the warm
familiarity of his gaze while he talks. “Your dad was in a terrible boating accident. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen on a daily basis. You aren’t going to do anything to put yourself in that kind of danger.”

  I smile and nod. “I know,” I say, and I stretch my arms high in the air, letting out a very satisfying yawn. “I’ll be fine.”

  “Your mom will be fine, too,” James says as he looks at his phone again. I nod and take in the smell of his cinnamon gum and play with the hairs on his arm. I think of all the things I will miss about James. From his reddish-brown hair to his tanned freckles and broad smile, he has me – hook, line, and sinker. I’ve almost said, “I love you,” so many times. But I don’t want to be the one to say it first. The next few months until winter break will drag on without him. If I didn’t feel that dream pulling me to the Atlantic Ocean, I would go to Baylor in a heartbeat so we could be together. I think of what our lives could be after graduation: marriage, kids, jobs we love. But we’ve never talked about those things out loud. I keep them locked inside, wishing and hoping that they will happen.

  As I settle back into my seat, I let my thoughts drift again to the where they were before – the dream and the forbidden stone. James is scrolling through his phone, listening to music and messaging friends. We sit in silence together, my arms wrapped around me to keep warm, the smell of cinnamon lacing its way into my mind.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  We finally arrive in Dallas. This is our parting point – just a two-hour layover for me, but the start of a 90-minute drive for James. I don’t want to look weak or needy as I tell him goodbye for months, but I’m not convinced that I can act that well. I’m excited for my new life and answers in Florida. I just wish James was going with me. I take a deep breath as I hold his hand at the car rental counter.

  “Well, this is it,” I manage to whisper. I squeeze his hand, my thumb stroking the back of his knuckles as he picks up the car keys. “I’ll see you in December.”

  James is silent as we walk toward the airport exit. He will be leaving the terminal, I’ll be heading back to my gate. I can feel his palms, cold and sweaty. What is he thinking about? Will he miss me as much as I am going to miss him? Will messaging be enough for us? Surely we don’t have to wait until December to see each other. We can fly out for visits. I’m ready to tell him this idea when a single tear escapes my eye. He stops and turns to face me. I feel a rush of longing as I look into his eyes. Longing for things to remain the same. Longing for safety. Longing for the answers I’ve never had my entire life. Longing for home. Longing for everything, really.

  Those eyes. Why do they have to be so gorgeous? A second tear escapes as James reaches up to wipe away the first.

  “Evelyn,” he says. I can hear the pain in his voice. He is going to miss me. A warmth presses through my heart and I take a moment to feel completely loved. I give him a little smile, but the pain doesn’t leave his eyes. “Evelyn,” he says again. “I think we should let this be it for a while.”

  What?

  What does he mean by that? I feel the corners of my smile falter as I search his face for an explanation.

  “Look, we’ve been together for 18 months,” he says. “It’s been awesome and I’ve loved the time we’ve spent together,” my mind is swimming. I’m still not able to process what he is saying to me. “But we are both moving in different directions now. I’ll be studying at Baylor and you’ll be in Florida. It would suck to try to keep up a long-distance relationship.”

  Is he really trying to break up with me? I feel my own hands go cold in his grasp, my smile falling completely from my face.

  “Evelyn,” he says as he squeezes my frozen hand. “This is the best thing for both of us.”

  “James,” I begin. I’m trying to figure out how to respond to him, “I don’t understand. We have this all worked out. We can text and call and we’ll see each other at breaks.” He lets go of my hand, adjusts the backpack on his shoulder and shifts his gaze to the floor. He is breaking up with me. He is honestly breaking up with me. I am getting lightheaded as the blood drains from my face, understanding dawning in my sinking heart.

  “I know what our plans were,” he says, “but honestly, Evelyn, just think about it. We’re both going to be drowning in schoolwork. You’ll have a job and we’ll both be studying. We’ll both be meeting new people. It just doesn’t make sense to add the strain of a long-distance relationship to all of that.”

  “Then why were you so willing to get this far with me, James?” My voice has found its way into my throat and I am borderline yelling as I talk to him. How could he let me get my hopes up? Why did he even bother to fly out with me? Anger mixes with shock and disbelief. I have never felt such a confusing set of emotions before.

  “Look, we’ve had a great time together,” he says. “You made the last bit of high school awesome for me. We’ve had a great time. Let’s just remember the good stuff and move on.”

  I cannot believe what I am hearing. A host of counter-arguments and words that would make my mom SO mad are filling my mind. I am ready to pelt him with all of it when we hear my flight being called over the airport speaker. This is it. I have to go, or I run the risk of missing my flight. He knows this. It’s why he waited for this moment – he gets to say his bit and take off without time for any real dialogue between us. No arguments. No staying to apologize to the old girlfriend. I am sick at the thought that I am about to be cast off by the guy I thought I loved.

  “That’s your flight, Evelyn. You’ve got to go. I’m sorry. I really am, but you’ll see – this is the best thing for both of us.” He plants a firm kiss on my cold, hard lips. My lips warm to his touch and I feel the familiar sensation of melting when he kisses me. But the kiss is brief, a fun sendoff for our futures apart. It is over in a moment and James is grabbing the rest of his bags to head to his rental car.

  The sliding doors let him out and close me in. I stand in silence as I watch my dreams walk away from me. Another stupid tear escapes from my eyes, then another and another. I have no choice. I have to go or be stuck in Dallas. The thought is tempting. The chance to chase after him and tell him all the reasons why he is wrong.

  “This is the second call for United Airlines flight F627. All passengers, please report to the ticketing area for check-in.”

  I am not sure how I am able to shoulder my backpack and turn around. Everything is numb, and I feel like I am watching someone else turning and moving away. I make my way to the gate, hand over my ticket to a tired-looking woman, and board the plane. I find my seat, store my backpack in the overhead bin, and sit down to stare out of the window. I feel sick and the plane hasn’t even moved yet. I lean my head back, closing my eyes, giving into the pain of realizing I’m not as loved as I thought I was.

  Chapter 2

  After a restless flight and stuffy Uber ride with a splitting headache, I finally arrive at the Biscayne Bay campus of FIU. It is early evening and the sun is beginning to set. I have been traveling all day and have been holding back tears through most of it. Reliving my breakup makes everything that much harder to figure out.

  The Biscayne campus is a branch from the main FIU campus and is located directly on the Bay. I can see the water in the bay as my driver drops me off at the Bayview Student Housing, my new home for the next few months. It is all I can do to keep from heading straight to the calm bay. I stand and stare for a while with my carry-on dangling from my shoulder. The early August air is warm and humid. I have only been out of the car for a few minutes and I can already feel the sweat rolling down my spine. My hair is sticking to my neck and my clothes are damp. It is a stifling feeling, but all I want to do is breathe it in. I want this fiery ocean air to be a part of me. I can feel it working its way into my lungs and I welcome it.

  I reach for my phone to call James and tell him about the view and the heat, but I stop myself. I can’t call James and tell him about anything because James is no longer my boyfrien
d. My vision goes blurry from more tears trying to make their way out of my eyes. I blink quickly, wipe my eyes, and take a deep breath to calm down. I don’t need a breakup to ruin my first day in Florida. I’m finally where I belong, with or without James. I can do this.

  I pull out my phone and call my mom instead. She laughs at my reaction to the suffocating heat and humidity and asks how my day of travel went. I keep things very general, especially where James is concerned. I’m not ready to have that conversation without crying. Before ending the call, my mom makes me promise to be careful and stay out of the water when it’s dark. I won’t be going to the water. At least not tonight, anyway.

  I also promise to check in with Uncle Russ – the main reason Mom is letting me go to FIU at all. Russell Salvesen is the University president and a longtime friend of my parents. He has promised to keep an eye on me while I’m so far from home and so close to the ocean. His daughter, Celia, is my age and will be one of my roommates. I finish my list of promises to be safe and put her mind at ease.

  As I hang up from the call, I hear one last, “Evelyn.” I check to see if I missed something, but the phone is off. A few students are lounging on the grass outside the housing complex. I must have misheard, my homesickness playing with my ears. My heart feels heavy as I head to the front entrance of Bayview.

  “Evelyn!”

  This time there is no mistaking it. I know I heard my name. I take another look around. How many Evelyns can there be? I see no one looking at me, so I hurry inside.

  When I finally get to the front desk, security gives me my room key and I head up to my apartment. When I get there, the lock is already undone. I open the door slowly, not sure if someone else is there. I get the door halfway open when it suddenly jerks open and out of my hand. The person standing in front of me has a huge smile spread across her golden-brown skin and dark eyes that carry her smile to the top of her face. I smile back as she opens the door wide for me to come in.