Destiny Gift (The Everlast Trilogy) - By Juliana Haygert Page 0,9
Manhattan. Now, the university was confined to the area around Washington Square Park, the entire site contained within a five-block radius, protected by thick sixteen-foot walls. Cameras and security guards kept watch. Only Langone Medical Center was outside, but also heavily protected and watched. At least my apartment wasn’t far.
When NYU moved to one location and closed itself in, many apartment buildings were built around it, and their owners hoped they would be used by the students who were not able to get a university dorm.
During my first semester at NYU, I was in a dorm inside the walls and that was where I met Raisa, my roommate. Raisa and I decided to move to one of the apartments close to NYU so we could have more privacy and larger rooms. We chose a building with a good security system, only one block from NYU’s south gate.
Even so, I hurried and glanced over my shoulder many times to make sure nobody or no bat followed me.
I stopped at the newsstand on my block, pulled in by the large picture of an exploding volcano. The headline read: Volcano deemed dormant erupts and sweeps surrounding cities.
The tragic news didn’t stop there. In Australia, a containment wall ruptured and the massive waves washed out several cities and ended hundreds of lives. Without the full strength of the sun, the agriculture crisis was rapidly scaling up, causing many farmers to become criminals—yesterday, the most feared gang robbed five banks in Chicago—and the tri-state area population of giant bats had grown by thirty percent in the last four months.
I shuddered, thinking about the bats. No one knew if they were a new kind of bat, or if the regular bats evolved and grew somehow.
“I wonder when we’ll find a good headline.” The owner of the newsstand grabbed a newspaper from the pile.
“Me too,” I whispered before running the thirty feet to my building’s door and quickly putting my index finger on the biometric lock. A second later, I was inside the foyer, inhaling the fresh lemony scent from recently applied floor wax.
“Good evening, Miss Sterling,” the concierge welcomed from behind his tall desk.
“Hi, John,” I greeted him and entered one of the elevators, noticing his attention had already returned to the screens under his desk, where he monitored our building.
As the doors of the elevator opened again, I glanced at the floor number printed on the wall before me. I always tried to avoid it, but the more I fought against it, the more the pull to glance at it grew stronger.
Number eight. Shining brightly, even though it was painted a dull gray on the white wall.
I sighed and stepped into the corridor, wondering if it was time to face a psychiatrist once and for all, but then I heard my neighbor Olivia’s voice—lilting and warm as she sang one of my favorite songs. I smiled. Singing with Olivia would be a perfect way to relax. I rushed toward the end of the corridor and knocked on her apartment door.
Her beautiful singing died. “Who is it?”
I could already see the small frown forming below her round brown eyes. She was always suspicious of everything and everyone. Who wouldn’t be living in this world?
“Your partner,” I answered.
The door flew open and Olivia stood before me, her face split by a huge grin. “Come in!” She pulled me inside her loft and disappeared into the kitchen. I followed, then stopped.
In the kitchen, she drained a soda, then put the can down on a pile of dirty dishes and draped a towel over the mess. I winced, and part of me wished I could drape a towel over all the messes in my life. But dutiful daughters always did the dishes.
“When was the last time you cleaned your apartment?” I asked, pushing a pile of shoes to the side, trying to make room so I could sit on the couch. I forced myself not to look at the rest of the apartment. If I did, I would start cleaning for her.
I moved a guitar to the side and pitied the many instruments she had. If they were mine, I would take good care of them, not dump them in a pile.
“Hmm,” Olivia said, putting a finger on her chin. “When I moved in, I think.”
I rolled my eyes and sat down on the little space I was able to create. “Almost two years ago.”
Olivia shrugged and flipped her wild chestnut curls. “It’s not bothering me.” She sat on