Sample Sunday: Finding Fiona

Last week, I posted the first 500 words of my novella Finding Fiona, which will be released in September. Here's another excerpt, this time from the second chapter:

***

Fiona wanted to tell Hannah everything, but she knew how outlandish it all sounded. She thought she was Elizabeth Normans, even though the firefighters had pulled her body out of a fire. It couldn’t be possible. There was some mistake. There had to be. She was Elizabeth Normans, and some other girl had died in the fire.

“When’s the next time you’re going to New York?”

Hannah shrugged. “Not sure. Probably not long, it’s been two weeks.”

“I want to go whenever you go,” Fiona said, trying to sound casual.

“Yeah, that’d be fun.”

Troy watched them, but when Fiona looked at him, he averted his eyes. She didn’t want to say it in front of Hannah, but hopefully Troy wouldn’t come to New York. He’d nearly ruined the trip today. If James hadn’t shown up, the only good thing that would have happened was the article.

Fiona’s heart slammed against her chest. She’d completely forgot about the article. It would run in the Boston Herald this week. The reporter said it could even be tomorrow. Would the Alarias see it? She started to walk back to her room.

“Dinner’s ready!” Troy called after her.

“I’ll be out in a second,” Fiona said.

She shut the door to her room and called James. He answered on the second ring. “Hey,” he said.

“Hi. It’s me.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Fiona’s breath caught in her throat, and neither of them said anything. She closed her eyes, exhaling. “Which one do you think I am?”

“I think you’re Elizabeth,” he said quickly.

“Why? What makes you think that? I have no memories.”

“You have some,” he said, urgency in his voice. “You do remember things, Fiona, just not. . .just not everything.”

“I could be the replica, though – wait, no. No, this machine isn’t even possible. It’s not – I mean, it’s insane to think of a machine just duplicating living things. That goes against so many laws of physics it’s not even funny.”

“Well, you definitely know more than I do.”

“It’s not possible,” she whispered. It hurt her head, and she couldn’t think about it right now. “Look, today, I talked to a reporter. It was a follow-up piece on my amnesia. She said it could run this week. Do you think the Alarias will see it?”

“Oh, god,” James breathed. “What paper?”

“The Boston Herald.”

He swore. “They definitely could. Daniel works at NYU. They have all kinds of papers in the library. You should call them and ask them not to run it.”

“Are you sure? I mean. . .” Fiona trailed off. Her argument with Troy didn’t make sense anymore. She’d found someone from her past. She didn’t need the article anymore. “Okay, I’ll call them.”

“Okay. . .I wish I could see you again.”

Fiona smiled. She wished the same thing. She wanted to talk with him about the past until her throat hurt. “Hannah might come to New York soon.”

“Oh, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. The Alarias are here. They could be watching the house.”

“It’s a huge city.” She and Hannah had gotten lost there plenty of times, but Fiona usually got them out by instinctively knowing which roads to take.

“I just don’t know, okay? The last time I talked to the Alarias, they threatened to put a restraining order on me if I told anyone about the Remus project.”

“Really?” Fiona was starting to trust him, but maybe she shouldn’t. She kept bouncing between the two: trust him or don’t, trust him or don’t.

“Yeah.”

Pounding on the door made Fiona jump. Troy called that dinner was ready.

“I should go,” Fiona told James. “I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up before he could say much else. She didn’t want him to say something like, ‘I love you.’ She had no idea how she’d respond to that.

***

Finding Fiona will be available anywhere ebooks are sold in September. Come back next Sunday for more :)