Drowning

Chapter One - This Place Is a Prison

Yanna sipped her wine self-consciously and surveyed the room. It was her first party in Vancouver, her first party at all, to wit, since college. Her friends back home hadn't been the partying sort, tending more towards small, friendly gatherings over food and drink without too much serious conversation. Family-like, not at all like this.

They were at her cousin Denise's ex-boyfriend's apartment, an upscale penthouse condo on the north side of the city; open-concept, swank, overlooking the water. There were, easily, sixty people in view, lingering at one of two wet bars, shmoozing with the DJ, forming pools of beautiful people all laughter and booze. It was an orgy of what her mother might have referred to as "new money", upper-middle class educated twenty-and-thirty-somethings, drunk on their own cleverness as much as the crantinis.

Yanna was not intimidated, but most certainly not happily situated. The music was loud and the conversation was shallow, even when emanating from interesting people. She had met a number of them over the last few weeks and knew them to be good, interesting people, but parties were always about something else. They were a parade, a show. It was not Yanna's scene.

Denise approached Yanna from behind, playfully tickling her and pecking her on the cheek. Yanna stifled her urge to grimace and produced a grim smile instead, licking wine off her fingers where it had spilled.

"Where are we going to start, coz? Pick a hot guy and we'll start there for you. You've been in this city a month already and you're still single. It's a travesty, it really is." Denise gave Yanna an encouraging smile. She was trying to be cute or funny, but she just reminded Yanna where they were: at a nice, sophisticated meat-market.

Yanna sighed. She had wanted to meet people. Could she be picky about how? She scanned the party, her gaze hesitating on one or two likely candidates. She'd almost made a choice when her scan caught sight of a small door at the back of the room, wide open and revealing a small, cozy and empty study stuffed to the rafters with books. Yanna's eyes widened.

"I'll be right back." She excused herself and made her way unobtrusively across the room. This was more her speed. Maybe she could just... sit out for a while. Look at some books and have a moment's peace while the wine worked its magic. Maybe she'd be ready to dive into the dating pool - or whatever it was they were doing out there - once she'd recomposed herself. Yanna poked her head in the study and found it human-free.

She let out a breath of relief and calmly walked over to the nearest bookshelf. The collection, like everything else in the condo, was refined, tasteful and expensive. To her great delight, it was also a collection after her own heart. Adventure stories, myths and romances from every corner of history were found there, in cloth and leather-bound glory. Yanna's heart leapt. It didn't even occur to her to wonder who had collected these and why. It was enough to see them, to touch them. She could see their value without removing them from the shelf, and so carefully scanned the titles while running one finger over the spines. If she could gather the nerve to pull one down, open it and see the treasures within, it would have to be the right volume. So she considered each carefully.

"They're really something, huh?" The voice behind her should have startled her, but she barely registered it. A few seconds passed before her brain realized someone had joined her in the room, and she slowly turned her head to see who it was, loath to look away from the beauties on the shelf. Denise's ex, Chuck, stood in the doorway, grinning friendlily as he always did. He had a bottle of the Riesling she was drinking in one hand.

"Are these yours?" Yanna asked, awed. She was already looking at them again, continuing from where she'd been interrupted.

"No, actually. They're my roommate's." Chuck approached and refilled her wine glass for her. "Denise sent me to check on you - she's afraid you're hiding in here." Yanna turned and started to protest, but Chuck disarmed her with a renewal of his smile. "But I know better. You have that look on your face that book people get. You're not hiding - they've got you trapped."