Title: The Forbidden Game IV: A Roll of the Dice

Rating: M

Note: I own none of the characters they all belong to L.J Smith. I only own the ones I create.

Keep in mind this story was started A LONG time ago on fanfiction. I have started the revising process. It is currently under HEAVY EDITING.

Much more dialogue in future chapters.

This chapter was helped to be created by...

Artist: Within Temptation
Song: Pale

Chapter One: New Beginnings

  Dry.

  The first word that sprang to mind for nineteen-year-old Jenny Elizabeth Thornton. A massive heatwave had encapsulated the city of San Francisco, two forest fires reported just north. From campfires to grilling, the city ordinance had placed a temporary ban. So their back-to-school summer barbeque was officially out.

  Two weeks had passed since the last downpour. Every drop had been sapped like a sponge. Just three months ago a deadly earthquake had shaken the state to its core. It had broken 1906's, "The Great Quake", becoming a staple down in history as "The Deadliest Fault of 1996".

  Every Californian knew how such earthquakes occurred living close to the San Andreas fault. Relentless drills were practiced for such an occurrence from the time of pre-kinder and on.

  It was supposed to have been a normal day. The last day of senior year. The throwing of papers and cheers of graduates ready to branch out into the adult world.

  Jenny had been granted early leave. Scheduled for an appointment with appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Straus, curious to see how her anxiety medication thus fared. A necessity after a panic attack rendered Jenny a hyperventilating mess. It started with a filmy white box presented by her mother Marjorie for achieving a high GPA. Usually, Jenny would've been thrilled to receive free clothes from her favorite store. Hadn't it been for the manufactured design; a new concept marketed much to her chagrin.

  Her mind had been sent into a tailspin, later diagnosed with a form of PTSD by her psychiatrist.

  She'd just pulled her white Beamer up to the quaint, nondescript building—when the erratic shift occurred. The earth would crack like a fragile eggshell, the world sent into a chaotic maelstrom. Catastrophe struck news outlets like a livewire. Reporters had been scrambling over each other for breaking live footage, the police having to use brute force as an entire squadron of firefighters extinguished the towering flames from a leaked gas fuse. Helicopters left in a swarm, hospitals overrun, the skies painted an apocalyptic shroud while a team searched through fallen rubble of collapsed in buildings.

  Hundreds of homes were condemned or placed under new construction. Constructions
workers became in high demand and thousands volunteered their aid. Jenny and Summer had taken shifts at the shelters that housed those who had lost their entire livelihoods, in the blink of an eye.

  Their own graduation ceremony had had to be relocated after Vista Grandes school gym suffered a massive cave-in. An expansive memorial was later erected in the same park commemorating the thousands that lost their lives.

As millions of the city's tax dollars went into restoring the city, life in the city—evidentially—resumed.

  A silver 1996 Mercedes-Benz remained visible through the eyelet curtains of her bedroom. In the driver's seat, under the boiling sun, sat a very bronzed Thomas Jay Locke from those long summer days working under his Uncle Vern's: Lockes construction.

  C'mon, Jenny, buck up.

  Jenny shifted her focus back to the full body-length mirror. Sunlight transformed the ironed curls a liquid gold. Smoothing her hands over the neckline cowl of the mint velvet dress Summer insisted she purchase, Jenny once again surveyed the daring slit that ran up one thigh. Paired with the heavier eye makeup she'd donned, it certainly made her feel less like a fresh-faced teenager and more of a young woman.

  Eyes like that of a cypress refracted an uncertainty that mirrored her thoughts. Panic squeezed her gut. Truly, she yearned to hear Dees reassuring rhetoric, even willing to endure Audrey's quizzical inspections before her said date.

  They had yet to regroup that summer.

  Audrey Myers was half way across the world yet. After the ceiling collapse in the high school gym Audrey was air-lifted to the hospital. Later diagnosed with extensive nerve damage that left her with a permanent limp through physical therapy. After graduation Audrey's aunt and uncle had gifted her a ticket to Paris, France for the summer, her parents unable to cancel their business trips. She'd been intercepted by a Michael Cohen with a bouquet of flowers and a promise ring. He'd flown out and had stayed at her family's chateau after. Audreys love for French culture was no secret, with several familial connections in the fashion industry. She'd told Jenny if Michael proposed, her dress designer was on speed dial.

  Over their last phone call, Dee sounded enthusiastic the couple were still going strong. When emergency services had been delayed, Dee and Michael together risked their lives to save Audrey from the gyms rubble. Their heroism was later broadcast across news outlets and opened up a summer pre-internship for Dee by their health teacher, Mr. Barns at Los Angeles, Children's Hospital. After a job shadowing of her mother Claire Elias for a career assignment, Dee discovered a newfound passion in the medical field. A surprise for all who considered the Nefertiti look-alike to devoting her craft to karate. Bearing witness to newborn babies in the maternity ward budded a new love for post-natal care specialists.

  Dee met a med student she'd recently become profoundly interested in. Dee the fiery tigress who'd scared guys away due to her tenacious nature. A burgeoning maturity had since blossomed that seemingly softened her hard edges.

  Jenny truly missed them both.

  High school had left her with select friends to trust apart from their group. None she'd been particularly close to once graduation ended, so it was no surprise those acquaintances faded into the background of summer jobs and preparations for life ahead.

  Which left her with Zach.

  The former photographer had shacked up with a distant cousin. Upon starting up a surfboard shop, the surfer enthusiast resided in a studio apartment in Los Angeles.
Zach the progressive artist, had set goals that paved the way to a studio eventually showcasing his photographic pieces in LA.

  Because of the 400-mile distance between the two cities, Jenny saw her cousin every third weekend of the month, the gas managed as a barista in a hipster's joint. This had sharpened him socially, which Summer had certainly been proud of.

  For as polar opposite as they were, they'd lasted beyond high school. The earthquake had only brought them closer, Jenny the first to admit she'd underestimated Zach's depth of care for the sunflower. He'd taken a minor gash to the forehead, left with several stitches now partially obscured by his long hair. But Summer had been left in a coma that lasted two weeks, the staff evidentially granting Zach allowance in that time, since no one succeeded in tearing him from Summers side. Eventually she'd woken with Zach later bringing their senior prom to her. With Jenny's help he'd even dressed the part and bestowed her with a sunflower corsage that seemed only fitting. In that same night their friendship shifted, making their debut as a couple official, after Summers release.

  They made the distance up by talking for hours, a visible testament upon viewing their latest phone bill. This Summer managed by teaching Yoga classes she'd started at the YMCA. The mornings left Jenny to detox from all the details she'd relay before her first cup of coffee.

  If Tom was around his face would flush as red as a tomato. He'd merely suffered a sprained ankle the day of the quake. Eventually news traveled far of the football stars' athletic abilities, sports agents sitting between games leaving the head coach to brag about their lead quarterback. Jenny familiar with her boyfriend's variety of sports over the years, counted his sheer passion for football a significant highlight to his abilities. Recently he's been offered a large sum of money from the NFL (National Football League) 49ers. After he finished three years of college football, they wished to recruit him for spring tryouts. Because the network had an extensive list opting for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he'd been given a set timeframe to accept.

  Hardly did Jenny think such an offer would arise again. She secretly hoped he was not holding back because of her. Especially with her own dilemmas; her high school diploma still propped in a corner collecting dust. Symbolic as to how she felt in this period of her life and the imminent future she'd prepped herself ahead for. Extracurriculars taken during high school from track, swimming, to a regular volunteer of Habitat for Humanity, had looked impeccable on her high school transcripts for strict colleges such as: Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Pepperdine, Dartmouth, etc.

Yet since, she'd grown adept at staying closer to home. At the behest of her parents, had Jenny enrolled herself at San Francisco University, her tuition as an undergrad covered for the next four years. It would've been selfish to decline, well aware not everyone was fortunate to have such a gift from their parents. Even though half of her classes had been selected at random.

  I've seriously got issues.

  She found her fingers absently trace over words gilded within the gold band strung around her neck on a delicate chain. Despite the arid climate, the metal felt always cool against her sun-kissed skin.

I am my only Master, she traced the words with the crescent of her nail. "I am my only Master."

  The words fell in a soft whisper as a small breath of wind brushed through her curls, as if in answer. If she concentrated, she could remember the exact shade of those eyes. The hues she could compare to the dawn on a cool winter's morning. Or subtle notes of early twilight...

Beeeeeeep.

Jenny's eyes snapped open, broken from her reverie as the sound of a car horn pierced the silence. Her eyes wavered to the mirror once more with a strained curl of her lip.

Well, happy nineteenth birthday, Jenny.

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