A New Beginning

The morning light filtered through the thin motel curtains, casting a dull glow across the small room. Lily stretched, her muscles aching from the tension of the past few days. She had made it to Chicago, but now came the harder part—figuring out where she was going to stay.

She sat up and rubbed her face before grabbing her phone from the bedside table. Taking a deep breath, she powered it on. The screen blinked to life, notifications flooding in almost instantly. Missed calls, messages—mostly from Nadia and Ema, but also from numbers she didn’t recognize. Her heart clenched when she saw Alex’s name among them. She hesitated, fingers hovering over the screen, before locking the phone and setting it aside. She couldn’t deal with that yet.

Instead, she focused on her immediate problem: finding a place to live.

She pulled out her laptop and started browsing listings for apartments. She needed something small, affordable, and preferably in a quiet area. Somewhere she could disappear, blend into the crowd, and rebuild her life on her own terms. Working online as a web designer gave her flexibility, but she still needed a stable place to stay.

After about an hour of searching, she found a few possibilities. Some were too expensive, others seemed questionable, but one studio apartment caught her eye. It wasn’t anything special—just a small space in an older building—but it was within her budget and close to everything she might need. She sent a message to the landlord, hoping for a quick response.

With that settled for now, she turned back to her phone, finally opening the messages.

Nadia: Lily, where the hell are you?

Ema: Please just let us know you’re safe.

Nadia: Your mom called me. She’s worried. I told her I haven’t seen you. What’s going on?

Ema: Alex is asking about you…

Lily exhaled sharply, gripping the phone tighter. She hadn’t expected anything less. Of course, her mom was worried. Of course, Alex was looking for her. But she wasn’t ready for those conversations yet.

Still, she couldn’t leave Nadia and Ema hanging. They didn’t deserve that.

She tapped the call button and put the phone to her ear. Nadia picked up on the first ring.

“Lily?”

“Hey.”

“Oh my god, where are you? What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Lily said quickly. “I just… I had to leave.”

“Leave? What do you mean leave? Where are you?”

Lily hesitated. “I can’t tell you that.”

“What? Why?” Nadia’s voice rose with frustration. “Lily, your mom is freaking out. She called me, she called Ema—hell, she even tried calling my sister. She thinks something happened to you.”

“I’ll talk to her soon, I promise. But please, if she calls again, just tell her I left Seattle. Don’t tell her anything else.”

Nadia was silent for a moment. “Lily…”

“Please, Nads.”

A sigh came through the line. “Fine. But only if you swear you’re okay.”

“I swear.”

“And you’ll talk to her soon?”

“Yeah.”

Another pause. “And Alex?”

Lily closed her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“You know he’s not just going to let this go, right?”

“I know,” she whispered. That was exactly what she was afraid of.

Nadia sighed again. “Ema’s here. We’ll put you on speaker.”

A moment later, Ema’s voice came through. “Lily, what the hell?”

Lily let out a weak chuckle. “Hey, Em.”

“Don’t ‘hey, Em’ me. You vanished! We were worried sick!”

“I just needed to get away.”

“From what?”

“Everything.”

Ema was quiet for a second. “Does this have to do with… you know?”

Lily swallowed. “Yeah.”

Ema and Nadia didn’t know the full truth. They had no idea about vampires and werewolves and the chaos Lily had found herself in. But they knew something had happened, something that had shaken her to her core.

“Okay,” Ema said finally. “We won’t push. But we miss you. And we’re here, whenever you’re ready.”

Lily blinked back tears. “Thank you.”

“And your mom?” Nadia pressed. “When will you talk to her?”

“Soon,” Lily promised. “Just… don’t tell her anything, okay? Not yet.”

“Fine,” Nadia relented. “But you owe us a real explanation when you’re ready.”

Lily managed a small smile. “Deal.”

They talked a little longer—about college, about stupid things Nadia’s roommate had done, about anything except what had driven Lily to leave. It felt normal, for just a moment.

When they finally hung up, Lily set her phone down and exhaled.

Step one was done.

Now, she just had to figure out where she was going to build this new life of hers.