CHAPTER ONE

The sky was starless as Beverly Bowens took the short risky run to her car as the thunder rumbled loudly. She was just returning from a visit with her best friend since high school, Cameron. They'd been virtually inseparable since then, even through the university years. She was beyond grateful for the presence of Cameron in her life, not willing to trade that friendship for anything in the world.

Cameron had just given birth, and she had been discharged from the hospital, but it didn't matter since Beverly had been there since the first day, murmuring words of encouragement, words filled with love. The love she had towards her best friend could not be overestimated; it went beyond what people regarded as love. Hurting Cameron was synonymous with hurting Beverly. It was just the way it was, the way both of them lived. They weren't just friends; they had a bond that couldn't be explained or deciphered by merely looking, it went far deeper than that.

Beverly gave a wry smile as she remembered the way the baby wrapped her finger with his tiny hands, the burst of love that she felt. It was truly beautiful, and she loved it. But she wasn't one to live in a fairytale, and she knew love was a given for her best friend but not for her. Cameron had always been the lovey-dovey one, the one who believed that people deserved second chances. She wasn't like Cameron; she was more realistic. She saw everything that Cameron never saw, and she saw that humans never really change. They acted it, they sometimes even convinced themselves. But no matter what happened, they reverted to their baser instincts.

Beverly had only had one boyfriend in all her life, and he was the type of person that most girls would want. Smart, suave, savvy, with an innate charm that spoke of his gentlemanly attributes. She believed he was the best for her, the fact that every other girl wanted him buttressed it. He was her everything, all she'd ever think about. She felt dreamy, like a character in a fairytale. He was beyond perfect; he was the poster boy of what all boys should be—perfect hair, sensitive, romantic, respectful, and above all, clean to the toenails. The only problem she had was, he wasn't loyal at all. He loved her or tried to. But since all the girls wanted him, he gave himself to them. He wasn't hers; he’d never been. It was just her turn in the roller-coaster called love, or was it heartbreak? She broke it off and was a mess for weeks. The good thing was her best friend never knew about it. She hid it so well, nobody else knew. After then, she steeled her heart and promised to let nobody else in.

Even though it'd be a long time since then, Beverly wasn't one to forget easily. The pain remained afresh for a few years after then and tried as she did to forget, the memories haunted her.

"To love is to surrender, to choose to be defeated. To love is to lose the battle, the battle of wits and wills. To love is to die while being alive."

Those words governed the way she saw life, how she approached it. She saw love as a weakness for those who could afford to be weak, those who could afford to give up on everything. She saw love as a battle and giving in to it was the same as handing her freedom and sanity away. Other people could choose to fall in love but not her, not in the least.

Seeing the baby take ahold of her hands, it was so cute and innocent, so real. She felt the love from the child, as though he knew her. She could at least admit the fact that she loved the child even before she met him.

The rain had started to fall in a drizzle, as she tried to open the door of the car in order to avoid the incoming downpour. She hated being wet as it made her easily irritated and snappy. She wasn't ready to go into any sort of mood swings, and with the issue of the rain, she was bound to be soaking wet, and a wet Beverly was not a happy one. She opened the door in time before the rain poured mercilessly. It was as though it had a vendetta to annoy her. She took a deep breath and tried to bring her emotions under control, schooling her expression into one of indifference or nonchalance. It was her weapon, her way of defending herself in a world fraught with pain and deceit. She harbored no illusions that the world would one day change for the better; it just wasn't how stuff worked. She had seen humanity in its most primal form, the animalistic one. The main rule in humanity is to survive, no matter what. Love gives no room for survival, at least in her opinion. It made people weak, people broken, people lost. There was no room for debate; the greatest show of love, as shown by Williams Shakespeare, was Romeo and Juliet dying, illustrated by Titanic was Jack dying and leaving Rose alone. There was no middle ground with love, and it was a fate worse than death, in her opinion. There would always be a loss, always.

If love was so messed up, why was it glorified? The thoughts kept coming to her head as it rained heavily, as though the sky was punishing the world for the wrongs they'd done. She didn't blame it, though; everything was messed up. She revved her engine and pulled out of the driveway, going straight to her house to get some sleep or at least rest a little. She was tired from moving around all day and needed to at least rest her head. The strain was getting to her, and she knew that it was only a good night's rest that'd keep her in good spirits for the next day. Being drained was a drag as it made her prone to mood swings, and she was often not a pleasure to be with. Ever since Cameron moved out to live with her new family, Beverly had been alone in the house, except for the occasional visits Cameron squeezed into her busy schedule. Redecorating and redesigning was a fun thing to do, especially when you had people willing to help. Although Beverly missed her best friend, she was glad Cameron found happiness in the end. She'd never been a fan of the Ryan she kept pining over, and she told her so, in so many ways, it just felt repetitive. She tried to talk Cameron out of it, but it was to no avail. She was beyond glad when her best friend decided to stop pining after Ryan and face reality square on. It was her first step into maturity, into happiness. There was nobody else happier than Beverly when she saw her best friend getting married and all the works. It was a dream come true, a fantasy that Cameron had always wanted ever since she knew her.

As she drove, she found out the rain had done a number on her surroundings; branches broke off trees as the wind howled and raged in defiance. She tried to navigate her way around it, but she knew that the probability of getting home safely with the excessive wind was lower than the likelihood of her not getting home at all. She didn't want to take the risk, but she knew that she had to so as to not be caught stranded on the road. She'd been stranded on the road a few times in her life, and it wasn't pretty, at all. In fact, it ranked as her worst experience to date. She hated being stranded, hated it with a passion. Add a torrential downpour with that, and she had the worst day of her entire life. She tried to calm her raging nerves and to put her anger under control. For one, she couldn't do anything about the rain, short of waiting for it to let up. Since it was already 10 pm in the dead of night, it wasn't advisable for her to be outside, rain or no rain. The only thing the rain didn't change was that she needed a place to sleep, at least until it let up. She wasn't so stupid as to think she'd be able to brave the rainstorm on her own, she'd need the help of someone else at least.

She drove on and on, gone feeling farther than it ever had. Her cell phone lost its reception, and no matter what she did, it didn't come back on. She was steadily getting frustrated, but she tried to calm the anxiety that was creeping stealthily on her. It wouldn't do well to lose her head in such a situation. She needed to keep a level head and think her way out of the situation she found herself in.

The more she drove, the farther her location felt. It was as though she was purposely being pushed back by the wind as it blurred her vision, and she had to use her headlights and the wipers to see where she was heading to. She decided to take a shortcut home since the rain didn't look like it was stopping anytime from then. She started the day well enough, but it was quickly becoming her worst day ever.

She bypassed trees and didn't look around at the carnage all around her. The wind really did a number on the trees, and it was evident in the branches strewn all over. She drove with intent and appeared on the highway, the opposite direction of where the road that led to her house was. As she lamented over her misfortune, she heard the engine splutter once or twice before it decided to go to sleep. The worst day of her entire life and she was stranded in a place she had no idea of while it rained cats and dogs. There were no two ways about it; it ranked as worse than anything she'd ever experienced, the absolute worst day ever. She was used to being stranded on most days, but Cameron was usually by her side, and they found a solution before it got out of hand. But where she stood, her cell phone was down, the reception too. Her car was pretty much done for, and she had nowhere to go to since it was late at night.

She saw a figure heading towards her as soon as she stepped out of the car, a hulking mass of a figure. She felt the breath hitch in her throat as she tried to bring her nerves under control. Whatever happened, happened. She felt for the pepper spray in her mini bag and was grateful it was there.

Now she had to prepare for what was to come.