FIC: Unforgettable - 1/? - R - The Covenant
Title: Unforgettable
Author: Jinni (jinni.tth@gmail.com)
Rated: R
Disclaimer: All things “The Covenant” belong to Sony, et al.
Pairing: Kate/Pogue, Sarah/Caleb
Notes: I hate OFCs, ya know? But there might have to be a few in this fic just because of the lack of characters there were in the movie.
Spoilers: Obviously, there are spoilers for the movie "The Covenant"
Summary: Sometimes there are things that you can’t forget, no matter how far away you run. And sometimes those things that you’re trying to forget find you again.
Chapter One: Settling In, Getting On With It
Fall 2007 - Old Dominion University - Virginia
Well, it wasn’t Harvard, but it would do.
Sarah looked down over the campus. Less than a week until her first college classes started. She didn’t know whether to be excited or afraid; but either way, she was sure that she would do just fine. Her hopes of getting into Harvard had quickly disappeared when she transferred out of Spenser halfway through her senior year. With no good outward reason for having done so, the scholarship board for Harvard had assumed that she just hadn’t had what it took to make it at a school like Spenser.
If she couldn’t make it there, then she wasn’t the kind of student they wanted to offer a scholarship to, they had all but said. No scholarship meant that she couldn’t afford to go there. So, no Harvard for her.
Other schools hadn’t been as picky about where she graduated from. She received scholarship offers from a handful of schools in the New England area. But it was the offer further away, in Virginia, that she had finally accepted.
And now here she was.
Her attention returned back to the students milling about below. So far she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her roommate, though the other girl had obviously been by some time before Sarah arrived - just long enough to arrange her side of the room before she dashed off to parts unknown. Maybe she was a local and didn’t want to stay in the dorms until classes started. Sarah didn’t know or care, she just hoped she got along with the other girl. It would be a long year, otherwise.
Thoughts of roommates inevitably led to thinking about that last roommate that she’d had - Kate - and Sarah felt a twinge of guilt. Her friend from Spenser had tried calling her - three times - right after she left. Sarah hadn’t answered any of the calls and eventually Kate had stopped trying altogether. It was easier, she told herself, to move past the things that now frightened her if she didn’t maintain that relationship. How could she help but be reminded of it, if she talked to Kate on a regular basis.
Not to mention the questions that she knew Kate would have for her. Like what was wrong? Why had she moved? Why wasn’t she returning Caleb’s calls? What had any of them done to deserve this?
None of which were questions that she could have answered.
It was better this was. Easier. Safer.
That didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. Or that she didn’t expect to see, out of the corner of her eye, Kate getting ready to go on a date with Pogue. Or some of Kate’s things decorating the opposite side of the room. She turned her head and sighed. Just her roommate’s things. What had she honestly been expecting?
She pressed the heel of her hand to her head and shut her eyes tight for a moment, relegating the memories of what had happened very nearly a full year ago to the back of her mind. They had no place here and now, when she was getting on with the rest of her life. She wouldn’t let them take her over again. Wouldn’t let them fill her mind to the point that she was having nightmares again.
At least, that’s what Sarah hoped.
Opening her eyes, Sarah looked over at her own side of the room. Still bare and far from unpacked. Well, that was something that she could do to move past this little trip down memory lane, she supposed. She shuffled around her boxes until she found the one she was looking for, ripping through the packing tape with her fingers until she could get at the things within. Her radio was there, right on top, wrapped in a spare blanket to cushion it from the movers’ less-than-gentle attentions. She set it up on her nightstand and plugged it in, fiddling until she found a station with halfway decent music. With a sigh, she started to tackle the boxes of her belongings, wondering when her roommate would make an appearance.
~*~*~
Two days later and Sarah still hadn’t seen her mysterious roommate. For that matter, she was starting to wonder if she ever would. Then, her luck turned.
She’d just sat down to flip through her first semester books when a key jiggled in the door lock. Looking up expectantly, she waited for it to open. And waited. And waited. She was starting to think she needed to get up and help whoever it was with the door when it finally opened.
Her roommate was… tiny. That was all that Sarah could think on first glance. Petite and thin, with long light brown hair. She was muttering something unflattering about the door under her breath, trying to extricate her key from the lock.
“Ha! Got it,” she said, obviously to herself, as the key finally came free. She shut the door, only then noticing Sarah sitting there, watching her. “Guess you’re my roomie?”
“Yeah,” Sarah nodded, sliding off her bed to offer her hand. “I’m Sarah.”
“Crystal. Call me Crys, though,” her roommate said, flashing Sarah a smile before turning away to rummage through the small dresser the university provided to each student. “Anyway - I’m just here for a couple things. Gotta run. People waiting for me, you know.” She held up what looked like another couples changes of clothes. “See you in a couple days.”
And then, like a miniature whirlwind, she was gone. Sarah stared at the door Crys had just left through, not knowing whether to be offended by the definitely short and somewhat terse conversation. She shrugged after a moment and went back to her bed. There’d be plenty of time to get to know her roommate when the semester finally started. Sarah flipped open her history text and scanned through the chapter titles. Just another boring world history course. As if she hadn’t had enough of those before she made it to college! She shut the book with a sigh and wandered over to the window, opening it to let the cooling night air in. Leaning on the sill, she contented herself to watch the students out and about in the twilight. She could go down there, sit on the lawn and soak up the fresh air, but it would be by herself.
A pang of loneliness shot through Sarah, but she pushed it away. Once classes started she’d make new friends and, hey, maybe her roommate would turn out to be a nice enough person when she stood still long enough to get to know her.
Laughter rang up from the lawn and the corner of Sarah’s mouth twitched upward. A guy tickling his girl. Cute.
Something moved in the corner of her eye, off to one side of the activity, and Sarah turned in time to see someone disappear off around the corner of the building one over from the dorm. Her breath caught in her throat for the barest of seconds, just long enough to send her heart into a fast beat that made her feel a little dizzy. What the hell? There was no reason for her to get so worked up. So someone had been walking - it was just that and nothing more. A shadow in the darkness was no reason to freak out, when there were logical reasons for the shadow being there in the first place.
“Stupid fears,” Sarah muttered, anger coloring her voice. This wasn’t Spenser and she wasn’t that frightened seventeen-year-old anymore. There was no reason to be jumping at shadows.
The goosebumps on her arms were a silent contradiction to the fact that her thoughts were nothing more than a front of strength when really she was having a freak out moment.
She sucked in a breath and shut the window, drawing the curtains tight over them, until she couldn’t see out anymore. Better yet, no one could see in, a little part of her brain whispered. A stupid paranoia, given that she was on the fourth floor, but a fear nonetheless. This was just brought on by starting at a new school, so many things mirroring those first days she’d spent at Spenser.
It would all pass soon enough and then she’d get back to being good old, even-keel Sarah again.
Not jump at shadows, bolt the doors and windows, hide in the closet with a sharp object Sarah.
~*~END CHAPTER~*~
Author: Jinni (jinni.tth@gmail.com)
Rated: R
Disclaimer: All things “The Covenant” belong to Sony, et al.
Pairing: Kate/Pogue, Sarah/Caleb
Notes: I hate OFCs, ya know? But there might have to be a few in this fic just because of the lack of characters there were in the movie.
Spoilers: Obviously, there are spoilers for the movie "The Covenant"
Summary: Sometimes there are things that you can’t forget, no matter how far away you run. And sometimes those things that you’re trying to forget find you again.
Chapter One: Settling In, Getting On With It
Fall 2007 - Old Dominion University - Virginia
Well, it wasn’t Harvard, but it would do.
Sarah looked down over the campus. Less than a week until her first college classes started. She didn’t know whether to be excited or afraid; but either way, she was sure that she would do just fine. Her hopes of getting into Harvard had quickly disappeared when she transferred out of Spenser halfway through her senior year. With no good outward reason for having done so, the scholarship board for Harvard had assumed that she just hadn’t had what it took to make it at a school like Spenser.
If she couldn’t make it there, then she wasn’t the kind of student they wanted to offer a scholarship to, they had all but said. No scholarship meant that she couldn’t afford to go there. So, no Harvard for her.
Other schools hadn’t been as picky about where she graduated from. She received scholarship offers from a handful of schools in the New England area. But it was the offer further away, in Virginia, that she had finally accepted.
And now here she was.
Her attention returned back to the students milling about below. So far she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her roommate, though the other girl had obviously been by some time before Sarah arrived - just long enough to arrange her side of the room before she dashed off to parts unknown. Maybe she was a local and didn’t want to stay in the dorms until classes started. Sarah didn’t know or care, she just hoped she got along with the other girl. It would be a long year, otherwise.
Thoughts of roommates inevitably led to thinking about that last roommate that she’d had - Kate - and Sarah felt a twinge of guilt. Her friend from Spenser had tried calling her - three times - right after she left. Sarah hadn’t answered any of the calls and eventually Kate had stopped trying altogether. It was easier, she told herself, to move past the things that now frightened her if she didn’t maintain that relationship. How could she help but be reminded of it, if she talked to Kate on a regular basis.
Not to mention the questions that she knew Kate would have for her. Like what was wrong? Why had she moved? Why wasn’t she returning Caleb’s calls? What had any of them done to deserve this?
None of which were questions that she could have answered.
It was better this was. Easier. Safer.
That didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. Or that she didn’t expect to see, out of the corner of her eye, Kate getting ready to go on a date with Pogue. Or some of Kate’s things decorating the opposite side of the room. She turned her head and sighed. Just her roommate’s things. What had she honestly been expecting?
She pressed the heel of her hand to her head and shut her eyes tight for a moment, relegating the memories of what had happened very nearly a full year ago to the back of her mind. They had no place here and now, when she was getting on with the rest of her life. She wouldn’t let them take her over again. Wouldn’t let them fill her mind to the point that she was having nightmares again.
At least, that’s what Sarah hoped.
Opening her eyes, Sarah looked over at her own side of the room. Still bare and far from unpacked. Well, that was something that she could do to move past this little trip down memory lane, she supposed. She shuffled around her boxes until she found the one she was looking for, ripping through the packing tape with her fingers until she could get at the things within. Her radio was there, right on top, wrapped in a spare blanket to cushion it from the movers’ less-than-gentle attentions. She set it up on her nightstand and plugged it in, fiddling until she found a station with halfway decent music. With a sigh, she started to tackle the boxes of her belongings, wondering when her roommate would make an appearance.
~*~*~
Two days later and Sarah still hadn’t seen her mysterious roommate. For that matter, she was starting to wonder if she ever would. Then, her luck turned.
She’d just sat down to flip through her first semester books when a key jiggled in the door lock. Looking up expectantly, she waited for it to open. And waited. And waited. She was starting to think she needed to get up and help whoever it was with the door when it finally opened.
Her roommate was… tiny. That was all that Sarah could think on first glance. Petite and thin, with long light brown hair. She was muttering something unflattering about the door under her breath, trying to extricate her key from the lock.
“Ha! Got it,” she said, obviously to herself, as the key finally came free. She shut the door, only then noticing Sarah sitting there, watching her. “Guess you’re my roomie?”
“Yeah,” Sarah nodded, sliding off her bed to offer her hand. “I’m Sarah.”
“Crystal. Call me Crys, though,” her roommate said, flashing Sarah a smile before turning away to rummage through the small dresser the university provided to each student. “Anyway - I’m just here for a couple things. Gotta run. People waiting for me, you know.” She held up what looked like another couples changes of clothes. “See you in a couple days.”
And then, like a miniature whirlwind, she was gone. Sarah stared at the door Crys had just left through, not knowing whether to be offended by the definitely short and somewhat terse conversation. She shrugged after a moment and went back to her bed. There’d be plenty of time to get to know her roommate when the semester finally started. Sarah flipped open her history text and scanned through the chapter titles. Just another boring world history course. As if she hadn’t had enough of those before she made it to college! She shut the book with a sigh and wandered over to the window, opening it to let the cooling night air in. Leaning on the sill, she contented herself to watch the students out and about in the twilight. She could go down there, sit on the lawn and soak up the fresh air, but it would be by herself.
A pang of loneliness shot through Sarah, but she pushed it away. Once classes started she’d make new friends and, hey, maybe her roommate would turn out to be a nice enough person when she stood still long enough to get to know her.
Laughter rang up from the lawn and the corner of Sarah’s mouth twitched upward. A guy tickling his girl. Cute.
Something moved in the corner of her eye, off to one side of the activity, and Sarah turned in time to see someone disappear off around the corner of the building one over from the dorm. Her breath caught in her throat for the barest of seconds, just long enough to send her heart into a fast beat that made her feel a little dizzy. What the hell? There was no reason for her to get so worked up. So someone had been walking - it was just that and nothing more. A shadow in the darkness was no reason to freak out, when there were logical reasons for the shadow being there in the first place.
“Stupid fears,” Sarah muttered, anger coloring her voice. This wasn’t Spenser and she wasn’t that frightened seventeen-year-old anymore. There was no reason to be jumping at shadows.
The goosebumps on her arms were a silent contradiction to the fact that her thoughts were nothing more than a front of strength when really she was having a freak out moment.
She sucked in a breath and shut the window, drawing the curtains tight over them, until she couldn’t see out anymore. Better yet, no one could see in, a little part of her brain whispered. A stupid paranoia, given that she was on the fourth floor, but a fear nonetheless. This was just brought on by starting at a new school, so many things mirroring those first days she’d spent at Spenser.
It would all pass soon enough and then she’d get back to being good old, even-keel Sarah again.
Not jump at shadows, bolt the doors and windows, hide in the closet with a sharp object Sarah.
~*~END CHAPTER~*~