Seven Years (#3 in Military Series)

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Two years later . . .

Julia glanced at her watch with panic; she had to get home within the next twenty minutes if she was going to be ready in time for her mother coming home from work.

And her father would never forgive her if she was late; well, it wasn't her fault he put every last thing possible on the list.

She'd even had to go to the old shopping complex to get some of these things which meant she had to walk through the park.

Which was alright when she made the trek at five, o, clock that evening but now it was nearing seven and the sun had long since fallen behind the horizon.

Julia wasn't scared of the dark and she wasn't one of those people that intentionally went out looking for trouble but that evening she had no choice but to walk through the poorly lit park.

The only other option was going around it which would take her at least half an hour and she didn't have the time.

Letting her bag hang diagonally across her chest, she wrapped her hands around the bags she were carrying so that if anybody did make a move she could hit them around the head with them before she legged it.

When it came to fight or flight, Julia would definitely run. She had done track in school so she could run for a fair few miles before she grew tired.

Keeping her eyes peeled to every shadow, she passed a few people hunched into little groups but she kept eye contact to a minimal and pushed on through.

She could spy the exit; the warm glow of a lamppost shining down over the opened gate, when a figure stepped out of the shadows and blocked her path.

Julia's heart beat was racing and her hands tightened around her bags, getting ready to swing when the man spoke and his voice felt like warm honey.

"You shouldn't be down here," The man spoke to her calmly, as if he knew her and yet as he stepped forward into the dim light of the lamppost she didn't recognise him.

"I- I was just trying to get home," Julia felt like she needed to give the man an explanation, "People are expecting me," She added on the end as her voice pitched.

The man was handsome from what she could tell in the lack of light; he was tall with her eyes reaching just below his nose and his eyes, although sharp like daggers, were the warmest of browns she had ever laid eyes upon.

"Jules," the man whispered and Julia froze at the use of her shortened name.

She had heard that name in her dreams but, unlike with this man, the person in her dreams had been screaming at her.

He was talking, as if to a lover.

"Do I know you?" Julia frowned, swallowing in nervousness as she tried to remember what to do in a situation like this.

The man's face suddenly grew darker and he took a step back, as if something she had said offended him, and he didn't want to hear it again.

"Give this to your mother," He reached out a gloved hand and gave her a card in a red envelope.

Julia took the card and inspected its regular square shape with her mother's name, Katherine, written in sharp capital letters on the front.

"Do you know my mother?" Julia looked up only to find that he had disappeared.

Turning in a full circle, Julia hadn't even heard him leave.

Taking it as a sign to leave, Julia quickly hurried out of the park and down the road to where she had parked her car.

The vague image of the man already slipping from her frightened mind and Julia would never know that he watched her leave, hidden in the shadows.

The End.