The Immortals

Chapter 1

    Vanessa Gibbons was going to be late. During her 22 years on this Earth, Vanessa could not think of one time that she was late to anything. Ever. In fact, Vanessa was almost always the first person to arrive at her internship with Pharma Tech, the largest pharmaceutical company in the U.S. She was usually through security, logged into the lab and working on her latest research before her internship advisor even arrived. But today, she was late.

    Vanessa quickly brushed her teeth while standing in front of the coffee maker willing it to go faster. She ran back to the bathroom and sighed while glancing at the mirror. She had no time for makeup and wasn’t even going to attempt to tame her hair. She quickly grabbed one of her roommate’s clips and threw her long wild hair into a messy bun. She grabbed her coffee mug and a banana, and while still putting her shoes on, Vanessa ran out the door. Of course the one day she slept late was the only day of the week both her roommates left before her. Kelsey and Tiffany were her two best friends, and they all knew each other’s schedules (the white board calendar hanging up in their kitchen was meticulous and detailed upon Vanessa’s insistence), so they would never have let her sleep past her alarm.

    Sprinting down the busy city streets, Vanessa sent a silent thanks that the brand new state of the art research building she interned at was only about 6 blocks away from the small apartment she shared with her roommates. She wouldn’t have to wait for the subway or an Uber and could head straight there. “I really need to work on my cardio,” she muttered to herself as she dodged pedestrians.

    Vanessa made her way into the building, waved frantically at the guards at the front door, threw her bag and cell phone onto the security scanner and quickly walked through the metal detector. Another quick smile and wave to the secretary at the front desk as she ran to the elevator, scanned her badge, and waited for the doors to open to take her to the 15th floor. Once inside the elevator, Vanessa took a deep breath and gave herself a minute to collect her thoughts. It was the first time since she woke in a panic that Vanessa took the time to think about the reason she overslept.

    It was the dreams. She’d been getting them every night for a week now and it was making her restless. They just felt so real. For the first few days she just saw a castle. A large and foreboding structure isolated on top of a cliff side. It looked like it came straight out of the Medieval Times. Ivy wrapped around the towers and a tall and sturdy stone wall protected the tower from intruders. It looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds of years, but for some reason Vanessa knew this wasn’t the case. And even more disturbing, despite its unwelcoming nature, Vanessa felt drawn to it. In her dreams she kept trying to walk to it, desperate to get closer, but no matter how far she walked the castle never got closer. Then, last night she saw a man. It was just his face really, but every detail of his face was so clear, it felt as if he was really there. It was his face that she couldn’t get out of her head this morning. He had dark hair that was kept short on the sides, but on top was grown out just enough to see his thick curls. He had pale skin that was in contrast to his dark hair and a defined bone structure. His lips were large and plump, and even in her dreams Vanessa had to resist the urge to reach out and touch them. The most striking feature on this strange man was his eyes. His eyes were a deep grey, with specks of blue. Vanessa had never seen anything quite like them before. She was mesmerized by them and drawn to the man just like the castle. She had never put too much stock into dreams before, but she could just not shake these. Deep down, Vanessa knew these meant more than just a typical dream.

    The sound of the elevator dinging and then coming to a stop on her floor took Vanessa out of her trance. Shaking her head to get any last thoughts of those piercing grey eyes out of her head, she stepped out of the elevator and hurried to the pharmaceutical research lab she was currently interning at.

     “Sorry I’m late! I can’t believe I slept through my alarm, I never do that!” She called out to her internship supervisor, Dr. Mark Sellers who was staring intently at his computer with a slight frown on his face. Dr. Sellers looked up at his intern as she flew past him, desperate to get started on her most recent project. He smiled fondly at the girl, young lady, he reminded himself with a chuckle. Mark Sellers almost thought of his young intern as another daughter. It was so exciting to him to see someone as young as her that enthusiastic about his research in Alzheimer’s and early detection and treatment. It had been years since he felt that way and in a way she renewed his own passion in the subject.

   “Don’t even worry about it Nessa. You are the most reliable colleague in this entire building, myself included, everybody has an off morning every once in a while.”

    Vanessa smiled, finally seeming to relax some. Dr. Sellers noticed the tension in her eyes the last few days, but figured it was just the stress of senior year and applying for grad schools and didn’t want to push. Mark gave one more concerned glance at his intern before going back to his emails he was reading. Despite her name, Vanessa was mostly Armenian and Portuguese, and she looked it. She was a slight woman, at barely 5’2, though her curvy hips and thighs proved she was not a young girl. She had caramel colored skin and brown eyes that were slightly slanted and the color of hazelnuts. Her brown hair was thick and wild and not easily tamed just like her personality. Freckles covered her cheek bones, her only physical nod to her English and Irish ancestry. She had full lips that she unconsciously pouted whenever she was in deep thought. She was very organized and focused, which made her a great intern for Mark Sellers as he tended to get very messy and scatter brained when deep in a project.

     “So, Dr. Sellers, what are you frowning about over there? You’ve had that look on your face since I walked in.”

    “Hm?” Mark responded only half paying attention, he pushed his glasses up on his nose, “Oh sorry, I’m a bit distracted this morning. I received an email from the head of our department. They’re most likely cutting our budget.”

  “Again?!”

Mark sighed, “Yes, apparently our research isn’t going fast enough and they need to prioritize the money to other projects.”

 “What? How can they do that? Don’t they realize how important this is?”

     Dr. Sellers shrugged and forced a smile, “Unfortunately this kind of thing happens. Money and profit speak. If the bureaucrats don’t see profit quick enough, there goes your budget,” he sighed again, “well there’s no reason to worry about it right now. Let’s continue our research while we are still funded and hope we make progress soon enough for them to change their minds.”

    Vanessa wanted to say more on the subject but realized the Dr. Sellers was no longer paying attention. Trying to push that conversation, and her dreams out of her mind, Vanessa went to work.

     After a while, Vanessa was able to dive into her research and forgot all about the budget issues and her dreams. Whenever she was working, she was able to solely focus on that. It was the only time she truly stopped over thinking and over analyzing. It was her peaceful time. The five hour shift flew by like usual, and before she knew it, Vanessa was saying goodbye and headed to the bar to meet her friends for happy hour.

    She swung by her apartment to get changed and freshened up since she never even had a chance to put on makeup this morning. Kelsey and Tiffany had both texted her to let her know they would just meet her at the bar, so still no one was home.  Vanessa threw her backpack onto her bed and hopped into the bathroom for a quick shower. Half an hour later she was showered, dressed and ready to go. She checked her phone. The girls were both going to be late. Tiffany stopped at her boyfriend’s first and was waiting for him to get out of shower to come with them, and Kelsey got stuck working on a project for her class. That was perfect, rather than taking the Subway Vanessa would walk to the bar. It was a long walk, but it was a gorgeous day outside, and she could cut right through the park. After being stuck in a lab all morning she could really use to stretch her legs.

     Vanessa popped her headphones in and began heading through the park. Between the music, checking her text messages, and enjoying the sights of the park, Vanessa was so distracted she didn’t even notice the dark haired man with piercing grey eyes following her at a distance. He was careful to never get too close or get in her line of vision, but he never lost sight of her. She also didn’t notice the softball headed straight for her face until it was almost too late.

     “Watch out!” 

    Vanessa heard the words a young boy screamed at her and instinctively threw her hands in front of her face to protect herself, without even knowing what she was watching out for.  She saw the softball about a second before it slammed into her face, with no time to duck, and just thought oh s**t and braced for it to smack her.

    It never hit. After a few seconds, Vanessa lowered her hands just enough to see what was happening. The ball was still in the air, floating, just a few centimeters from her face. It was floating. Like someone was controlling it. “What the f**k?” Vanessa thought, and then just like that the softball went crashing to the ground.

    Vanessa barely had a chance to register what was going on, before a young boy of about 11 came running up to her, “Sorry about that!” He called as he grabbed the ball, acting like nothing strange just happened, “I got a little crazy with my throw.”

                “Did you see that,” Vanessa asked the kid, still in a daze.

                “See what?” The boy responded, confused.

                “The ball. It was floating.”

     He looked at her like she was insane, which she probably was, “Uh no…um…anyway, glad it didn’t hit you, have a good day lady.” The kid grabbed the ball and ran back to his friends, probably trying to get away from the crazy lady as quickly as possible.

 “I’m going insane. I really need to get some sleep.” 

    Trying to push the whole strange event to the back of her head, Vanessa put her headphones back in, just one ear this time, and kept walking to the bar. “I really do need that drink,” she muttered and continued on her way.

     Behind her the man with the grey eyes couldn’t hide his smile. It was beginning.