prologue
she sat waiting, milking her wine glass as she watched the sun go down behind the skyscrapers from the patio. canned music wafted out across the balmy breeze that smelled of planted trees, cooling asphalt, and people. she made a sweeping survey of the entrances, absentmindedly tucking a stray hair behind her ear and then returned to her book.
1231 madison street, patio. tomorrow at sunset.
that’s what the note had said, stuck under her apartment door when she came home late the night before. she had no idea what it was about, but the handwriting was so strangly familiar she couldn’t not come. so she sat, and waited.
minutes ticked by as she tried to keep her mind on the book, but thoughts kept running through her mind. “who is this? why is the hand writing so familiar? are they going to show up? male or female?” she was pretty certain it was male, because the handwriting lacked a certain femininity. really, she thought, it looked like the handwriting of someone more used to typing.
“Tara?” she jumped at the sound of her name and spun around to look behind her and froze.
“oh my god,” she said after a space of several heartbeats. “what, where, why, HOW? i …but you’re…”
“suppose to be dead, yes, i know. at the risk of sounding cliche’, the rumors of my death were greatly exagerated.”
“i believe i need another drink. several, in fact.”