Ella Awakened Read online

  Ella Awakened

  By S. E. Duncan

  Text copyright © 2012 S. E. Duncan

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, localities, and situations stem solely from the authors imagination, or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any similarities between characters in this book and persons living or dead are purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any way without written consent from the author.

  Special Thanks

  I would like to thank my friend and editor, Christy Ballew, for all of your help. Your expertise and suggestions were an important part of making this work something I could be proud of.

  For my husband, Morgan, who asked me once if I ever thought about writing a book.

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Overwhelmed

  Chapter 2: Some Questions Answered

  Chapter 3: Complications

  Chapter 4: A New Reality

  Chapter 5: Gifts

  Chapter 6: Come And Find Me

  Chapter 7: Moving

  Chapter 8: Just Another Day At Work

  Chapter 9: Everyone Needs A Little Break

  Chapter 10: A Night Gone Wrong

  Chapter 11: Vision

  Chapter 12: The Devil Is In The Details

  Chapter 1: Overwhelmed

  Groaning, Ella rolled over and hit the snooze button on her alarm clock. Ugh, finals! She only had a couple of hours to cram for her anatomy test. Visions of bones and muscles ran through her mind as Ella crawled out of bed. She stood looking around the room. What a mess. Everything used to be so organized, but lately she just felt like she couldn’t get it together. Spotting a pair of jeans thrown over the back of her chair, she tried to navigate through the clothes, books, and food containers on the floor as quietly as possible so as not to awaken her roommate, Sarah.

  “I don’t know why I’m even afraid she’ll wake up. Wild elephants could run through the room and Sarah would still be dead to the world,” Ella mumbled a little jealously as she listened to her friend snore.

  Sarah had invited Ella out last night to make the rounds to several end of the semester parties. A few months ago she would have been more than willing to go out partying, but not lately. Even staying awake to study was a challenge. Reaching the jeans, Ella pulled them on. The tank top she’d slept in would have to do. She ran her fingers through her hair and surveyed the room for her anatomy text. Ella scanned the floor – nothing. She crouched down and looked under the bed – bingo. Scurrying under the bed after the book, Ella banged her head. “Darn it,” she hissed. Could she be any more clumsy? By now she was completely frustrated. She’d been up and trying to get out of this room for almost twenty minutes. Grabbing her backpack, she crammed the hard won volume inside and stepped into Sarah’s discarded sandals. “Thanks,” Ella whispered, “I owe ya one.” Then she slipped out the door.

  Grumpily donning her shades to block the cheerful morning sun, Ella headed toward the library. She was not a morning person. So far Ella had a perfect GPA, and really couldn’t understand why this class was kicking her butt. School had pretty much always come easy for her. Sure she had to study, but she loved school and definitely had the drive. She was still toying with a couple of paths, but whether she decided on physical therapy, premed, or even dentistry, she needed an A in this anatomy class. Why had she been so doggone tired lately? All she wanted to do was sleep and her senses seemed to be on overdrive. Lights were brighter, everything seemed louder, and her headaches were coming more frequently. She just couldn’t seem to focus. She hoped she wasn’t coming down with something. Other than the occasional headache she wasn’t the sickly type, and really couldn’t recall the last time she had been to the doctor for anything other than a physical. It was probably just stress, but if she didn’t feel better soon she was going to have Aunt Rachel make her an appointment.

  Finally reaching the library, Ella took the elevator to the third floor and headed through the stacks toward one of her favorite secluded study cubicles. As she rounded the corner she smacked straight into some guy coming the other way. He’d been moving fast, and as they collided he dropped the books he’d been carrying. One of them landed directly at her feet. Ella smiled as she bent to pick it up; perhaps she wasn’t the only overwhelmed person on the planet.

  “Sorry, I guess I should watch…” she stopped mid-sentence as she stood to hand the book over. She found herself looking into glowing red eyes and a too wide grin with – Christ, if she’d retained one thing from anatomy it was that nobody should have that many teeth.

  Stumbling backward, Ella couldn’t catch her breath to let out the yelp that was stuck in her throat. She landed hard on her butt. She blinked, and suddenly the guy’s face was perfectly normal. He cocked his head to the side and took a step forward, reaching out his hand to help her up. Ella hurriedly scooted backward a few more feet. She flipped over and dug her sandals into the worn carpet, but still in a panic, she slipped and fell to her knees. This time Ella popped to her feet like a jack in the box and took off through the library back the way she’d come. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough and - Lord in Heaven! - if she wasn’t about to run right into someone else as she careened through the stacks. Ella dodged the guy and kept right on moving. “Wait!” he called after her. “Ella, what did you see?”

  Ella plopped down on a bench on the other side of campus. She didn’t even realize she’d gone just over half a mile in less than two minutes. She slumped on the bench with her head in her hands and her backpack at her feet. What the heck was going on? Was she losing her mind? Surely the face had been a figment of her imagination or a trick of the light. Something, but absolutely not the something she thought she saw. And who the heck was the second guy? He had called her name. At least she thought she’d heard him call her name; it had all happened so fast. She sat there running it over in her mind, trying to make sense of it, and dreading the feeling of a headache coming on. She felt ridiculous; it couldn’t have been real. She was overwhelmed, tired, distraught, and going to be late, she realized as she looked at her watch. Ella grudgingly got up and headed toward the anatomy final that she felt unprepared for.

  ~~

  Burke stood outside the library looking around. He was faster than most, but there was no way he could keep up with Ella Fitzgerald. By the time he had made it out of the library, she had lost him. He’d been watching her for ten long years, and it seemed that what he had half hoped for and half dreaded was finally happening. Ella was awakening. He knew as sure as he knew his own name that she’d seen something from the look of pure horror on her face as she’d run past him. She was coming into her speed; strength was sure to follow. He thought strength would follow anyway. This was a whole new cup of tea, so to speak. It was time for them to meet.

  ~~

  Ella’s headache had actually improved some. The test wasn’t nearly as bad as she had feared. That was her last final; the semester was over. Hallelujah! It sure hadn’t been an easy one. She was feeling even better about her decision to take the summer off now that she was done. What she really needed was a break, a little R&R so she could come back strong in the fall. At this point she didn’t want to think about anything more strenuous than taking a nap. She knew Sarah would be in class, effortlessly slam-dunking her test. Ella headed towards their dorm room to crash. When she opened her door, there sat the guy from the library waiting for her. Not creepy teeth guy, but call after her guy - who just happened to be getting creepier by the second. She had no idea who he was or how the heck he’d gotten in here for that matter. Before she could say anything, he was on his feet talking a mile a minute.

  “Don’t screa
m,” Burke urged. “I just need to talk to you; I know you saw something in the library.”

  “I don’t know that I saw anything,” Ella replied. “But more importantly, who are you and how did you get in here?”

  “My name is Burke,” he answered, ignoring the second part of her question. “I knew your father. You and I have a lot to talk about.” Burke handed Ella a photograph of himself with her parents.

  Ella gasped, and then snatched the picture from Burke’s hand. She studied it closely. She recognized the backyard of the house she had lived in as a little girl. Her father stood next to her mother with his arm around her waist. Burke was standing next to the grill with a spatula in his hand. They were laughing. Her parents were happy, but then again they always had been. God, she missed them. The picture had been taken ten years ago. She knew it had been taken shortly before the car accident that took her parents from her, because in the picture her mother was wearing a necklace set with a large single black stone. Her father had given her mother that necklace for their anniversary, just a month before the horrific event that had changed Ella’s life forever. She reached up and held the same stone that now hung around her own neck.

  “It’s a carbonado, also known as a black diamond,” Burke told her.

  “I never really knew what it was,” Ella whispered. She bit her lip trying not to get emotional in front of this stranger who claimed to have known her mom and dad.

  She was ten years old when her parents died. It had been a horrible car wreck. They’d gone over a cliff crashing to the rocks below, and the car had erupted in flames, killing them instantly. There had barely been enough of them left to bury. Ella would be twenty years old next week. The accident was half her life ago, but she still got choked up when she thought about it.

  Ella’s father had been an only child, and his parents had passed away before Ella was born. Her mother’s parents had both died before Ella was out of her toddler years, and she had very few memories of them. Her mother’s only sibling, Aunt Rachel, had taken Ella in after the death of her parents. Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ben had one child, Jeremy, who was only six months older than Ella. Despite everything that had happened, Ella had a happy childhood. Her Aunt and Uncle treated her like she was their own, and at this point she considered Jeremy more her brother than her cousin.

  “Black diamonds aren’t found naturally on this planet,” Burke broke into Ella’s thoughts. “Geoscientists are only recently coming to realize that the source of black diamonds on Earth was a meteor rock.”

  “I think I may have read that once somewhere,” Ella said.

  “They’re found naturally where your dad grew up though,” Burke continued. “That necklace belonged to your grandmother. Actually, it’s been in your family for generations.”

  “Wait, I thought you just said black diamonds aren’t found on Earth.”

  “That’s exactly what I said. Your dad wasn’t from around here.”

  “Are you trying to tell me my father was from another planet?” Ella was getting upset. She’d already had one hell of a day and this ridiculous conversation was pushing her past her limit. “Know what, dude? I think I’m gonna have to ask you to leave. I don’t know what your game is, but I’m pretty busy right now.”

  Burke stood up, but before he could say another word Ella was on her feet too. She put her hand on Burke’s chest, and with what she thought was barely a push he was out the door. She threw the picture at him and slammed the door before he even picked himself up off the floor.

  Getting her strength – check. Burke stood at the closed door rubbing the sore hip he’d landed on when Ella sent him flying.

  “Ella,” he said, “you’re tired all the time. Lights are too bright, and you can hear your roommate’s iPod like the ear buds are in your ears instead of hers. You’re getting headaches; they’re frequent and bad. Have you noticed lately how fast you can run or how high you can jump? How about the way you just shoved me into next week? Ella, the headaches are going to get worse over the next few days until your birthday.” Burke banged on the door. “I can help you, Ella!” When she didn’t respond, he slid his phone number under her door. “Call me when you come to your senses, or when you can’t stand the pain in your head.” Then Burke walked away.

  Ella leaned her back against her door, slid down to the cold tile and put her head in her hands. What is happening to me?

  ~~

  Ella slept the rest of that day and through the night. She woke up around eight o’clock the next morning. Not surprisingly, she was starving. Grabbing a bowl and the box of Cheerios, she headed downstairs to buy a carton of milk out of the vending machine. The common room was unusually crowded for this time of morning. There was a lot of excited chatter.

  “What’s going on?” Ella asked the girl closest to her.

  “A body was found early this morning in the pool here on campus. Can you believe it?”

  “Oh my God,” Ella said, “do they know who it was?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” the girl replied.

  “Yes they do,” someone interrupted. “It was Jill Stevens. She was a freshman who lived in Stanford hall.”

  “Jill Stevens?”

  “Wasn’t she on the swim team?”

  “Did she drown?” The voices were getting louder as they overran each other.

  Ella bought her milk and headed back up to her room. It was a terrible thing, but she hadn’t known the girl and accidents did happen sometimes. She just couldn’t allow herself to become wrapped up in it right now with everything else she had going on. She needed to get her things packed to head home for the summer. Thank goodness she didn’t have a long trip like some of her friends. Her hometown was only about an hour away, but she was anxious to get going and put the past few weeks behind her.

  As soon as Ella got back to her room she sat at her desk and ate her cereal. She was still a little hungry when she finished, so she just stayed where she was and absent mindedly munched the little honey O’s straight from the box. She scanned the room and thought of the job ahead of her. She and Sarah had been roommates for the past two years here at school, and they had already filed a request to stay together come fall. They had become fast friends, and they knew it didn’t always pan out that way. They were lucky to have each other. Enrollment always dropped for the summer, but Sarah was staying and taking a few classes to finish her minor so she’d keep this room. The chances of someone getting thrown in here with her were miniscule. Officially, Ella was supposed to clear all her stuff out since she wasn’t enrolled for the summer semester, but with Sarah staying and Ella coming back, they had decided between the two of them that Ella could leave some of her things here.

  Ella got up and started returning the scattered books to her shelf. She’d make time to sell them back to the school bookstore later. She grabbed a garbage bag and collected the various take-out containers, soda cans, and empty water bottles. These things always seemed to multiply during finals when time got away, and cleaning up was the last thing on anyone’s mind. She found the scrap of paper Burke had written his number on and started to throw it away, then reconsidered and pinned it to the cork board over her desk. Was he really a friend of her parents or some weirdo stalker? She didn’t recall seeing him around campus, and she was usually aware of her surroundings. She thought about the picture he had shown her. She wished she hadn’t thrown it at him; she should have kept it. How easy was it to fake something like that in this day and age? Relatively easy. Now that she thought about it, he didn’t look any different now than he had in the picture. That picture was supposed to be ten years old. Either it was a fake, or she wanted to know what kind of moisturizer he was smearing on his face at night.

  It was still a weird situation. Weird multiplied by about a hundred when she started thinking about everything else she was going through lately, and the fact that he seemed to have read all the memos on her recent wacko life events. She tried to recall what exactly he’d said through th
e door after she had tossed him out. He was pretty hot though, she mused, not that she had time for a guy.

  She pulled a large duffle bag out from under her bed and took it over to her dresser. Opening a drawer, she started pulling out shorts and t-shirts and stuffing them into the bag. Slamming one drawer and opening the next, she pulled out bras, panties, and pajamas in a variety of colors. She smiled as she wondered what his favorite color was. She’d always thought she looked best in blue. It matched her eyes and almost made them glow. Grabbing one of the elastics off her dresser, she pulled her long honey blond hair into a messy bun, then scraped the rest of the hair things into the duffle bag before zipping it shut. She plopped down on her bed and looked around. That was good enough for now. She’d leave her bedding here; she didn’t need it at home. If she was forgetting anything she’d just pick it up when she made the trip back to visit Sarah, which she was sure to do within a week or so. The bed felt soft and inviting under her. Just a few minutes, she thought as she straightened out and stretched. She lay her head on the pillow and was fast asleep within seconds.

  “Hellooooo,” Sarah cooed as she bounced into the room. She’d been out tying up some loose ends to ensure her schedule was good to go for summer and that she had everything she needed. She wasn’t too thrilled that Ella wasn’t going to be staying, but she understood that her friend needed a break. That chick was stressed! It seemed like all Ella did was sleep or hold her head. Sarah thought maybe Ella had mono or something, but when she’d suggested it, Ella had just kind of waved her off. Whatever it was, Sarah hoped two things: first, that Ella felt better soon and second, that it wasn’t contagious. Sarah was excited about today though; she had been rushing back here to make sure she caught Ella before she left for home. She wanted to treat her to lunch at their favorite little bistro. Sarah stopped short just inside the dorm room door and stood staring at Ella who was sound asleep.