Fallen (The Transformed Prequel)

My phone rang as I was sitting in the corner of the deli, pretending to eat and study. It was Adam.

Rolling my eyes, I asked, "What do you want?"

"What's going on? Why haven't you checked in yet?"

"Oh relax," I said. "I found her but haven't had the chance to talk with her yet. I'm where she works, waiting for her to go on break."

"Have you found out anything at all? Vince wants to know these things."

"She's a boring bookworm with no sense of style. That's all I've got for now."

He laughed. "Are you serious?"

"About what? That I haven't gotten much yet or that she's boring?"

"That she's a bookworm. That's hilarious. Is she dangerous in any way?"

"Only if you want to get a better grade than her in class."

"Well, maybe this will be easier than Vince thought. Call me back after you talk to her."

"I can't wait," I said and ended the call. I grabbed a book from my backpack. I had snuck the book when I was in the library trying to talk to Alexis before she went to work. I had sat next to her, planning on starting up a conversation when she looked up at me, but she never did. What was with her? How could anyone be so obsessed with studying? She probably dreamed about math equations.

As I read through the story, I couldn't help laughing at it. It was ridiculous.

"What's so funny?" asked a voice to my left.

I looked up, surprised to see Alexis sitting at the next table over. How could I have let myself get so distracted by the story that I hadn't even noticed she'd taken her break? At least it had led to her to initiating conversation with me, I hadn't thought that was a possibility.

"This book," I said, showing her the cover.

"I hear it's better than the movies," she said.

"They made a movie about it?"

"Five of them," she said with a laugh. "My friends dragged me to all of them."

"That's hard to believe. Do people take this seriously? Vampires don't sparkle."

She raised an eyebrow. "Vampires don't exist."

"You don't think so?"

"You do?"

"Well if they did, they wouldn't sparkle. You really don't believe in vampires?"

She looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. I was trying to provoke any kind of memory. I was looking to see if her heart rate would increase, even in the slightest, or if her eyes would dilate. There wasn't any clue indicating that she was even hiding a memory of being a vampire.