Prologue
I was drowning. The water was rising higher and I struggled to keep my head above it. I tugged myself upwards, my hands still chained.
It was above my head now. My vision was blurring, my chest closing up. Black. Nobody there. Regulus? I need you.
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Andromeda Claire Holloway
I slid into the vinyl seat of my favorite coffee shop, cradling my steaming cup of coffee as I pulled my novel out of my bag. I had lost my ever-loving mind over the month, straying thoughts in my mind as I waited for the day of the month when I would get to re-read my favorite book.
Getting through college was one thing but the premonition that one day I would be running a bookshop downtown soon, maybe in the coming weeks, was another. In my last year of college intending to get a teaching degree I knew I would never use, I had used the last of my savings to buy out the little store with its aisles and aisles of stories to hopefully run a successful company. It was too late during my choice of the degree to change paths after the idea of teaching had worn off. Instead, the investment in a profitable company sounded like the next best thing so I had taken the risk and made a bid on the auction for the business. 100,000 dollars worth of dreams went in, beating out the 80,000 dollars someone else made.
I pictured my name painted on a sign that hung above my hopefully-soon-to-be shop: Andromeda's Book Nook. Maybe I would need to work on the name but for now, that was the least of my worries as I opened the first page. Burntout, my favorite book of all time always held a place in my heart because something always felt oddly familiar about the names of the characters or the places in which they were. It might've just been the writing style but it always felt like I somehow played a role in the story. The name of the main character was Andromeda as well so that might've been it, the kinship that I seemingly shared with her.
I felt the familiar crease of the pages as I read the dedication- to a person named Sammy. I took a sip of my coffee as I flipped the page to reveal the first chapter, the one titled "Blood and Stars". The odd chapter names got me every time. No matter how many times I read this book, every month without missing a day, I couldn't help but love the story and it felt like a brand new tale every time- almost like the characters were evolving.
I stirred my coffee lazily, keeping my eyes on the page. I heard the sound of the bell hanging on the entrance door as someone pushed it open. The sounds of that person's footsteps echoed throughout the café, louder than the quiet, stereotypical "coffee establishment" music playing softly in the background. An aromatic scent lingered in the air, not exactly overwhelming, more of a spicy kind of smell; and it filled the space where I was sitting as the person sat down in the seat across the table.
"Excuse me?" a man's voice came from the figure in front of me. I glanced over my book to look at the person, an oddly familiar set of steel-gray eyes looking back at me.
I cleared my throat, "Do I know you and, excuse you?" He frowned slightly.
An awkward silence passed between us as I studied his face in an attempt to figure out where I had seen him before. Gray eyes, curly blonde hair, and an elfish kind of air around him made me think of a movie star that I couldn't quite place. The movie may have been a fantasy plot because his expressions resembled a look of carefully practiced royalty.
He fumbled for words, " Theodore Alexander Laurier but you used to call me just Theo."
Theo? The name sounded familiar to me, like a memory that had been washed away over time. It was also the name of the love interest in Burntout so I found it funny that he seemingly matched the description the author made. He also happened to be my favorite character. I was so sure now I had met him before, almost like he was from another life I had had.
"Theodore, where are you from? I haven't been outside of Delaware in the last 4 years and I don't remember where I lived before this or... who my parents are."
Theodore, my mind using his actual name instead of the nickname because something still felt off, smiled lightly, "We're in New Castle, Delaware are we not? I've never been here before."
I automatically decided something was off, not to mention he also seemed to know perfectly where I was without ever meeting me first or even being in New Castle before.
"How did you know where to find me, 'Theo'? You haven't been to this city before and I don't remember having met you so you may just owe me an explanation." I kept my voice formal but it was taking all my strength not to demand some answers from him. After all, for all I knew, he was some creepy-but handsome- stalker.
Theodore blanched, his cool expression falling from his face, "I er, knew you from college? Don't you remember asking me out last week for a coffee to ah, catch up?"
"I'm still in college and I don't even know a place I would have met you considering that I work at a WholeFoods down the street." I smiled fakely sweet at him, attempting to put on a dumb blonde act even though I was a brunette.
He struggled to find an answer as I also added, "Why don't you tell me where we may have actually met because I don't quite know if I believe you."
The maybe stranger cursed under his breath, "You really don't remember do you? 4 years of having all your memories wiped."
"Remember what? I'm only 24 and it feels like my whole childhood has been ripped from my mind with only the last two years of being in college intact. I don't even remember the first year of college!" All of this was true, no remembrance of what I had learned in my first year yet still top of my class. The police hadn't helped much since I had money in the bank and a nice dorm in the college complex so they hadn't bothered to help me. No family to go home to during the holidays, I usually rented a small lake house that didn't stretch out my budget too much.
Theodore ran his hand through his hair nervously, frown lines creasing his forehead, making him look older than he seemed to be. Maybe in his late 20's seeming a little older than me but not by much. I felt myself smile at the action because it reminded me strangely of what Theo in the book did whenever he was anxious.
He looked like he was having an internal battle with himself and I figured one side won when he said seriously, "What if I told you we met in another universe? Would you believe me?"
"No! We clearly have never met and you seem to also have some... mental issues to put it best." I started reaching into my leather satchel to pull out my phone to call the police. He grabbed my hand, squeezing it as I tried to pull it out of his grasp.
"Please Andromeda, please believe me." I froze, my breath hitching in my throat. He called me Andromeda. That couldn't be a coincidence because I hadn't told him my name and Andromeda was a rare name so it couldn't possibly be a random guess.
I stopped trying to break free from his grasp as I put the puzzle pieces together. Theodore and Andromeda, the names of the two main characters in Burntout. Burntout was set in another universe, he said we met in another universe. He looked exactly the way Theodore in the book was described and I realized that his last name was also exactly the same- Laurier. He acted as if he met me before like we were possibly friends in that other world. I had those missing memories but something about him was so familiar.
"Do you believe me now?" Theodore asked, concern laced in his voice.
I still felt like something was not there, still lost in the abyss of time. I looked into his eyes and I had the sense that I had done that action many times before. Something in my brain seemed to click and I pulled away, pressing my fingers to my temple. I closed my eyes and felt everything rushing back, a tidal wave of emotions. Every adventure and every laugh, and every emotion of love and hate wrapped around me. I remembered. I nearly cried as I pictured my childhood, the smell of my mother's perfume floating in the air as she kissed my father in the courtyard in front of the castle. I remembered the day I met Theodore when I had just been the daughter of the queen's lady-in-waiting. Laurier was the surname of the royal family making Theodore in front of me, royalty.
"This other universe wouldn't happen to be the setting of a book would it?" I immediately regretted asking because I realized how stupid I sounded. How would he know the world he lived in was fictional? I pushed the book towards him, flipping it open to the dust jacket to show him the book's description.
The murder of both the queen and the queen's lady-in-waiting has led to the collision of different social statuses. An unlikely friendship forms when they set out to catch the killers of these two powerful women. Rival kingdoms and war, all hell will break loose as Theodore Laurier and Andromeda Holloway race against the timer of their deaths that this killer has also placed on them.
A fast-paced fantasy novel with friendship and romance ringing throughout the book, Burnout will provide a beautifully painted image to the reader.
"Theodore Laurier... and Andromeda Hollaway." he looked at me with a confused
expression, "That's us?"
I shook my head, just as confused as him. It was every day your favorite character and love interest happened to be a real person, "How did you even get here?"
Theodore ran his hand through his hair anxiously, "Some kind of portal. All I remember was appearing in an aisle of books somewhere near here. Something was telling me to go in this direction and I saw you sitting here. I just remembered you even though it's been 4 years since I last saw you."
"Why is that every portal happens to be in a bookshop?" I thought out loud, my mind easily wandering.
He looked at me like I was a crazy person, "You're seriously thinking about that right now? We need to figure out how to get home."
"Are we even sure that's even me? My last name isn't Hollaway, at least I'm pretty sure it isn't."
"What do you mean?"
I took a sip of my now-cold coffee, "For some reason, I'll tell someone my full name and then I'll forget what I said. Certain parts of my identity will just vanish but if I'm asked to say it I remember. After that, it'll just disappear."
"What's your full name?"
" Andromeda Claire Hollaway."
"What did you just say?"
I felt the answer on the tip of my tongue but I knit my eyebrows together when I couldn't remember, "I don't know. What did I just say, Theodore?"
He said something but I didn't hear it. I saw his mouth moving but no sound came out. His voice had the underwater quality to it when he spoke again, "Anything?"
"No, it's odd isn't it?" I shrugged my shoulders as a puzzled expression appeared on his face. I drummed my fingers on the cover of my book, silence passing between us.
"Theodore, we need to get back to the portal or whatever you used to get here. Something isn't right and I have a feeling the answer is back in that other realm."
"What happens at the end of the book?"
"Why does that matter?"
He ran his hand through his hair again, "I just want to know because it may match up to what happened before you vanished.
"Well," I flipped to the end of the book, "Andromeda and Theodore, us but it sounds weird to say that, defeat the villain. It's the classic fairytale ending- they live happily ever after and whatnot."
He glanced down at the table, "Oh. Oh."
Things got uncomfortable real fast and I nervously started picking at my fingernails, "They, ah, get married or are at least planning to when the book ends."
Theodore visibly swallowed, "When you disappeared, we were already planning a wedding. The decorations stayed up for 5 months after. I didn't want to tell you because of how weird it would be since we just reunited."
He wasn't lying because I could recall a very faint memory of him proposing somewhere in a forest. Strangely enough, you would think those moments would've been one of the happiest in my life but no, I couldn't recall any sort of acute emotion. A fake smile and a yes is what I had probably done, knowing myself.
Something felt like it was still missing, though. I tried to rack my mind for memories as he looked at me but I couldn't figure out what had happened after he proposed. All my memories were seemingly back but it still felt like a part of me was missing.
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A/N:
Hey! This is the first chapter of my attempt at writing here on Wattpad and honestly, it sucks but whatever. Thanks for reading it if you did!
Remember to vote (it really helps if you do), comment, and read the next chapters I post! #VOCOR
-Rae