[1.4] - (Paracelsus) - Go Your Own Way
Anne had wanted to get back to the city early to get some extra reading in, but everything had conspired against her. Dinner had been late when the oven burners wouldn't light, her brother had shown up late when his car broke down, and there had been a major accident on the drive back. Now she was somewhere in the warehouse wilds of Chicago. She might not get home until midnight.
It had been nice to take a break and visit everyone, but the long-standing argument between her mother and herself had come up again: "Are you sure you can make a living with a History degree?" Her mother was proud of Anne for graduating from college, but was very practical when it came to a graduate degree. "What kind of job can you get with a PhD in History? Wouldn't you be better off with an MBA so you could get a good job in business? Or something in computers? There are lots of jobs in computers..."
Anne was confident about her path, though. She had mapped it all out- undergrad, grad school, post-doc, tenure-track and onto a permanent job in academia. At some point in there, she'd get a house and probably get married- although she didn't have anyone in mind at the moment. And a cat- she'd get another cat. Sammy, her childhood feline companion had died two years ago and Anne really missed having someone around to talk to. Grad school could be very lonely.
Speaking of lonely, this was not the best place to get lost in. The weather had driven in the few people who would be hanging around here at night.
Anne pulled out her GPS, but it wouldn't pick up a signal- too much cloud cover or too many tall buildings, or something. And of course, she had cleaned out the car before heading to her mother's house and had forgotten to put her city map back in. Oh well, she'd have to randomly drive around until she could find a gas station or a sign for a major highway.
Another couple of blocks of the same empty buildings and deserted streets passed by, then Anne spotted someone across the street. Thinking her luck had changed, Anne rolled down her window to wave at the person. With the window halfway down, Anne froze. There was something about the person that made a chill run down her back. She couldn't make out much about them- a tallish person wearing maybe a suit jacket; she wasn't even sure if it was a man or a woman. The person must have seen Anne; he or she looked up, then surprisingly, darted into a dark doorway.
That was enough for Anne. Something was wrong. She didn't know what, and although she'd question it later, right now she didn't care. She had to get out of there. Quickly rolling up her window, Anne stomped on the gas pedal and sped down the road. She spared a look in her rear-view mirror, but saw only a dark, empty street.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:01, Fri 18 Nov 2016.