Rekindled Sparks

Chapter 1-1

CHAPTER 1

Maya's skin prickled. There it was again, that feeling of being watched, of someone's eyes upon her. She had felt it for days now, an electricity in the air that sent shivers chasing across her flesh. She shoved her hands deep into her grey princess coat's pockets, her fingers wrapping around her key-chain, caressing the panic alarm as she quickened her pace.

It was only a five-minute walk from where she'd parked her car, but seeing the ambulance depot in the distance brought little comfort. Sinister occurrences had no distance gauge. She was grateful that, despite it being autumn, the dark nights had yet to fully encroach, at least with the twilight sky above, the shadows weren't as dark and menacing.

She was always more apprehensive this time of year. Three years ago today her best friend, Raiden, had vanished without a trace. Their parting had left her hollow, as if a piece of her had vanished along with him. The worst part was, as far as anyone else was concerned, he'd never even existed.

She still recalled the way he had kissed her that night, stealing her breath as his lips met hers in a flurry of desperation, l**t, and sadness. He had pulled away, his ice-blue eyes glistening with unshed tears as he studied her every contour with an oppressive weight that had terrified her. Something about how he had looked at her had seemed so final. He'd lingered at her door, weaving his hands within her long, dark brown hair, muttering an apology as he pressed his forehead to hers.

The next thing she knew she was waking in bed nursing a migraine, and Raiden was nowhere to be found. As the days rolled on, she began to worry. His device was disconnected—which happened more often than she'd like given his line of work—but more troubling was that no one but her seemed to remember him. Not her work friends, not her neighbours, not even her best friend, Carley.

He hadn't just vanished from her life; he'd faded from existence. Just weeks before he disappeared, she had completed her surgical residency and so, she used her increased access to search the hospital records, remembering how her father had treated him for multiple stab wounds not long after they had met. But it was as if he had never existed, as if their friendship, their relationship, had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination.

With Raiden's sudden disappearance and her father's death just the week before, it had all been too much. She had driven herself to the brink of madness trying to find him. At first, it gave her something else to think about rather than focusing on her father's death. She'd known in her heart the only reason he'd hung on as long as he had was so he could be there the day she qualified. Perhaps this loss was the reason finding Raiden had consumed her, why she had never been able to let him go. But she knew it was more than that, more than obsession. She had loved him so fiercely that, without him, she'd lost herself.

Her work friends had grown concerned, talking in hushed tones of a mental breakdown, using the fact her father had died as its cause. She had ignored their whispers for almost twelve months, twelve months of sidelong glances and veiled whispers, before taking the bridge course and changing professions, from surgeon to medic.

Her move had surprised them; while personally, she had been a mess, her skill as a surgeon never wavered. Her real motives were kept guarded. She knew better than to tell anyone that the reason for this move was to allow her access to chip location data, but she soon discovered it was impossible to find someone who didn't exist in any place but her memories.

For her, turning her back on a career she loved, hoping to find the person who had been her everything, had been the most natural thing in the world. But it had been three years now, and aside from the occasional phantom scent that caused her to scan the faces of those around, she'd found nothing to prove he had ever existed. Almost nothing.

Those at work, even her best friend, Carley, had thought her imaginary boyfriend was harmless, a coping mechanism, believing that her overwhelmed mind created a man in her life to replace the one she had lost.

She had been close to her father. Even with his busy schedule, he had always been present and attentive. He had been this hospital's lead trauma surgeon, and their shared passion had been one of the reasons she had chosen the medical profession. She had mourned his loss, even lost herself to grief for a short time, but no matter what anyone said, she knew Raiden was real. If she needed proof, if ever she faltered or thought she should give up and believe their lies, then she only had to dig a little deeper into her pocket for her fingers to touch the small graphite stone he'd given her on their third date.

He'd vowed to one day upgrade it to a diamond, but had said, like graphite, relationships first needed to survive heat and pressure to be forged into something magnificent. It had been the most romantic thing she had ever heard. After just three dates they had known they were it for each other, although she had only needed one. She had known the moment her almost black eyes had met his stark, contrasting ice-blue ones that he was the end. There could be no other.

She had paid to get the stone mounted onto a setting and fixed to the silver bracelet that used to belong to her mother, but between night shifts, studying, and wanting to drink in his presence every spare minute she could, it had taken her so long to get around to having it done that he'd never had the chance to see it.

The only time it ever came off was when she dressed for work or went out dancing, but still, she carried it, keeping it close, always in her possession. If not for this memento she may have agreed with Carley, with the catty whispers that had followed her outside the theatres, and consider that she had indeed lost herself indulging in flights of fancy.

Sometimes it was easier to believe a lie than fight for the truth.

Who was to say she hadn't just found a rock and invented the story? Digging her hands deeper into her pocket, she shook her head, knowing better than to flirt with insecurities. She had tried to move on with her life, but her heart would never let her forget. His every detail, from his hair coloured like storms and starlight to the way the crisp scent of fresh winter snow surrounded him, was forever burned in her mind and heart.

Even though the chip-tracking data had proven a dead end, she never considered returning to surgery. In an ambulance at least she could look for him on the streets during their patrol, instead of hoping he'd turn up in hospital. She glanced over her shoulder, the prickling sensation of being watched was still present even as the soft ambient light from outside the depot washed over her.

Placing the back of her wrist against the sensor, she waited for her chip credentials to register. It took barely a breath before the doors swept open and she was inside, away from the prickling heat of the unwanted watcher's stare. She glanced back over her shoulder as the door closed, wondering if she would catch sight of them. Within a moment, all she could see was her own intensely dark brown eyes staring back at her.