Starlight, Starbright

Chapter 2

It began in a small town, as most things do. I’ve always found that you blend in easier in a small town, if that is to be believed. Now, to clear some things up, I do not look like an old woman. No, I’ve hardly aged at all. I barely look a day older than twenty. Not that I can seem to help it.

It began with a knock on my door. . .

I nimbly skipped the stairs altogether as the knocks became more aggravating. “Yeah, yeah, hold your horses, would you?” I said, dashing through a hallway and almost knocking over a vase. I set it down carefully on another table and answered the door without missing a beat.

I opened the door at last and found a stereotypical government agent, suit and sunglasses and everything, standing on my porch. “Would you be Miss Faith Abelard?”

“Yes, I would, who wants to know?” I answered. I was immediately suspicious, I mean, it was hardly even noon, and this time of the year the sky is always grey. He was hiding something.

“Ma’am, my name is Frank Birscoe, and I work for an agency interested in people like you.” He seemed to be pretty confidant, and he had a bulge in his waistline. A weapon. Of course he would carry a weapon.

“Your agency, whatever it’s called, is interested in a librarian? What for?” As a part of my alias, Faith Abelard, I was a librarian at the local library to pay for expenses like a human being.

“Come clean, Miss Abelard. We all know you’re lying.” He said, lowering his gaze to my bare feet.

“Oh, that’s interesting,” I said and backed away a step. “You could have said both, but it didn’t feel right to you, not with people listening in over your earcom. Maybe I did lie, but I’m not stupid!” I turned and sprinted toward the back end of the house, knocking over anything that might give me an advantage. I heard his yells and paused at the back door. They, whoever they were, probably had it covered. But I had chosen this spectacular Victorian style home for a reason. Right next to the back door, were the stairs leading to the second floor. And to windows.

So I dashed up the stairs, like any reasonable person. Now, you may think that I’m afraid, what with the threat of bullets and all, but I wasn’t. I just didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of me, again...