Chapter Four

Light bled golden on the polished oak floor of the office when Sarah groaned and rolled over. She put her hand to her eyes to shut out the glare. “Oh, God.” Pulling herself up onto her knees, she raised herself slowly looking around. Still groggy, she grabbed her purse to pull out her keys. In the early morning light, she raced home.

Once inside her house, she shuffled to the bathroom, opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out her toothbrush. “What did I eat last night? My mouth tastes like dried…” she stopped mid-brush stroke staring at her reflection in the mirror. She viewed a pale complexion, dark circles under her eyes, dried blood on the side of her collar. “Dear God.” She threw down her toothbrush and jumped into the shower turning the water on hot and sank to the shower floor crying.

She sat there with the water streaming down until there was only cool water coming from the tap. “What do I know about—I can’t even say the word. It sounds too, I don’t know, strange.”

Sarah stood up in the shower finally and shucked her wet clothes. Wrapping herself in a terry cloth bathrobe, she examined the small marks on her neck. She wondered, “does this mean? No. It’s daylight. And frankly, I’m hungry, for food, real food.” I’ll get a meal at the Portland airport before I take the first flight I can afford that takes me far away from here.”

Sarah grabbed a suitcase shoving clothes into it. She called her phone to leave a new message to clients to let them know the special orders for the month would be filled once she sourced some rare herbs that she needed. Tucking her hair into a wet French twist, she located her carry-on suitcase throwing clothes inside. Finally, she placed her passport in her purse and headed out the door. She had a flight to catch.

Racing up Interstate 205 wearing the darkest sunglasses she could find, Sarah arrived at the terminal around 9:00 AM. The sun was cresting in the east shining reddish purple like a new bruise. Sarah moaned. “Why is this happening to me? The supernatural.” Yet, in her heart, she knew it made sense. After all, there were “more things in heaven and earth…”

She parked her car in the economy lot where she took a shuttle to the terminal. Alaska Airlines, she thought, vampires couldn’t possible like the cold. Too much like death. Or could they really like it because it is like death.

She hustled to the ticket counter. “When is your next flight out of here and where does it go?”

The man behind the counter laughed. “You’re kidding. I’ve always wanted to have somebody say that to me.”

“Okay, great. Now you have. I’m kind of in a hurry here.” Sarah drummed her fingers on the counter.

The attendant lowered his sandy blonde hair as he focused on the computer. “Lady, you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

The attendant’s brows furrowed and he glanced sideways at her.

“Really, I’m fine.” Sarah tapped her fingers on the counter while scanning the area. The terminal appeared relatively empty, but then it was a Wednesday morning. She stopped drumming her fingers when she could feel his gaze on her.  “What?”

“Well, I don’t mean to pry,” he said

Sarah noticed the intention of his gaze. “Really, I appreciate your concern but it’s not what you think.”

The young man sucked in his breath quickly and focused on his computer. “The next flight goes to Cleveland.”

“Really, Alaska Airlines goes to Cleveland…Ohio?”

“That’s right ma’am. Leaves in thirty minutes. They’re in pre-boarding now.”

“Hunh.” Sarah turned her head away thinking for a moment. Vampires in Cleveland. How likely was that?  If a supernatural can go anywhere, would it choose Cleveland. Turning back, Sarah reached into her purse for a credit card. “I’ll take a first-class ticket.”

“To Cleveland, ma’am?”

Sarah stared at him briefly. “Yeah, you’re right. Coach, one way.”

Within minutes, Sarah was racing down Concourse C to catch the morning flight to Ohio. Seat belt fastened and bag safely stowed under the front of her chair, her shoulders relaxed. Finally, she inhaled a deep breath. The 757 taxied to the runway then, engines screaming, lifted off.

Sarah winced at the sun’s rays stabbing sharp shafts of light into the cabin. She put her face closer to the light until it radiated off her skin. The process relaxed her. She breathed deeply finally relaxing into the four-and-a-half-hour flight.

Hours later, when she finally awakened, this sun was beginning its late afternoon descent, leaving the sky bleeding a hazy red orange. Suddenly, she sat up straighter. Dumb, dumb, dumb.  Why didn’t I wait until night to make this flight. I’m okay during the day. Now I’ll have to walk around in the evening light and maybe even the dark to find a place to stay. She started breathing in short shallow gulps repeating under her breath, “I’m okay. It’s okay.”

“Something wrong?” Sarah shot a glance to the left where the voice emanated. The flight attendant was bending over her seat.

“What?” Sarah had trouble concentrating.

“Are you feeling all right?  I see your hands have a death grip on your seat arms.”

Sarah glared at her hands. “Wow. I’m uh, well, I‘m just nervous about the landings or the take offs for that matter.”

“Just take some deep breathes and you’ll calm down.”

Sarah nodded at her trying to smile and follow her advice as she watched the plane land at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.’

Once off the plane, she hailed a taxi. Opening the door and sliding inside, she glanced at the driver, “can you recommend a decent hotel downtown?”

He had a world-weary expression on his aging face, in his brown eyes. “A lot of folks like the Hilton.”

“Sounds fine.” As they headed out of the airport, they passed a billboard claiming Cleveland is the greatest location in the nation. Remains to be seen, Sarah thought.

Taking Riverside Drive, they viewed two-story up and down duplexes build in the early 1900’s, some needing paint, bicycles left in the weather in the front yards and tall oak trees in straight rows planted decades earlier in once manicured tree lawns. When they turned onto I70, the freeway became cavernous, stretching alongside towering buildings housing businesses, condominiums and assorted shops. “Never been here before?” the taxi driver interrupted her thoughts.

“No.”

He checked her out in the rear-view mirror noting the dark circles under her eyes and the sad expression on her face. “If you’re hungry, you should try the Flats. Great food. Right on the shores of the beautiful Cuyahoga River. You know years ago, the river was so polluted it actually starting to burn from time to time. Great clean up by the city.”  He turned his head toward her still keeping half a look on the road. “You know, my brother has a great eating place there. I could take you, pick you up after.”

She barely acknowledged him. “Thanks, but I don’t have much time.”

“Business, huh?”

“Something like that.” Thwarted, the cabbie dropped her off on East Lakeside Avenue at the front entrance to the Downtown Hilton where she took a room on the seventh floor. Wandering to the window, she viewed Lake Erie. Even through the closed window, she sniffed its slightly fishy smell. Reaching for the brochure on the desk, she began pacing the room absently reading it learning that Erie is the shallowest of the great lakes yet deceptively treacherous. She could hear the horns of ships as they docked in the harbor to unload coal and iron ore, the raw products that would become steel and to load salt. At least according to the brochure. The brochure also explained the geological conditions that resulted in this freshwater lake having miles of salt caverns once owned by Diamond Salt far beneath the lake bottom. Kind of creepy, she thought. One never knows what lies beneath a thing.

Still feeling groggy from the flight, Sarah set down the brochure to watch the sunset over the water. Once done, she shut the curtains tightly and laid down across her bed falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Exhausted. Stressed.

When she awakened, it was evening. Sitting up, she stretched feeling lighter and refreshed, like she could face the next steps to being safe. After refreshing herself in the bathroom, she grabbed the keys to her room and her purse, Sarah headed down the elevator, through the revolving door of the Hilton winding her way to Superior Avenue and the downtown library. As she walked, she surveyed all around her. People hustled to work, to restaurants, shops, appointments. As innocuous as they all looked in the morning, she felt chilled. Though she should be hungry, she wasn’t. Instead, the longer she walked the street, the more the hairs on the back of her neck tingled like someone was watching her. Needing to shake it off, she hustled to the library. She had research to do. Immersing herself in that would settle her. She hoped. Still the tingling persisted.

TO BE CONTINUED