Available Darkness Season 2

John?
    Maybe Greg is talking with my doctor. Or maybe he’s consulting with a friend, unsure of what to do. Maybe he was planning to ask me to marry him this week, and now he’s not sure since he overheard me talking about some John guy in my sleep. Maybe I’m just blowing this all out of proportion.
    “No, you are not. Greg is not who he says he is. You know it, so stop denying it.”
    Hannah looked up from her glass and found Greg’s eyes on her again, still staring. If he wasn’t who he claimed to be, who was he? The whole thing seemed almost on the verge of paranoia.
    “What are you thinking?” he asked.
    “That you’re going to kill me and dump me in the woods, you psycho.”
    “Nothing,” she said. “Just tired. Getting a migraine, I think.”
    “Too much wine?”
    “Maybe,” she tried to laugh but shrugged instead, this time reaching for the glass of water, its ice long ago melted. She swallowed two large gulps as the waiter returned with their bill.
    “Need to use the restroom before we go,” Hannah said, grabbing her purse from the table as she stood.
    “OK,” Greg said, downing his wine
    Hannah went to the restroom, relieved to find it empty. It was a tiny bathroom with dark walls, a stone floor, and only two stalls. White Phalaenopsis Orchids with blush-colored centers sat in potted planters on the sink, draping low between the bowls. Hannah hoped to find a window in the restroom, something she could crawl out of and run, though she had no idea where she could go once she did. Her heart pounded, and her breath went shallow with a sudden, urgent need to escape. She wasn’t sure if it was irrational fear, or some instinct for self-preservation kicking in, but she wanted to run: fast, far, and without looking back.
    But what do I do after I run? Where do I go?
    “Don’t worry about what; just go.”
    First, she had to pee, especially with her nerves so swollen. Hannah sat, and fished her phone from her pocket. Before she knew what she was doing, she dialed a number from an unfamiliar area code as if her fingers were on autopilot. She didn’t dare stop to think about what she was doing, watching as her fingers dialed and the numbers displayed on her screen.
    The number seemed familiar, though she didn’t know why, and was dialed so automatically, Hannah knew she had dialed it many times before.
    What the hell am I doing?
    She brought the phone to her ear. After a long moment, a man answered with a slight accent she couldn’t place.
    “Hello?” Hannah said.
    “Hello,” the man said and let a moment of silence stretch as he waited for Hannah to say something else. When she didn’t, he asked, “Who is this?”
    “I was hoping you could tell me,” Hannah said.
    After a long pause, the man said, “Hope? Is that you?”

    * * * *

CHAPTER 5 — John

    John showered and changed into jeans and a T-shirt, then stepped out of the bathroom to find Abigail waiting in the hall, pushing her striped toe sock into the carpet, making circles. Then she saw him, and the girl who would never be a woman ran up to her angel and threw her arms around him.
    “John!!” she yelled, her voice muffled in his chest.
    He hugged Abigail tight, as tears welled inside him and a sudden warmth spread through his heart. While John had not forgotten how much he missed her, he tried to bury the thoughts when they came, lest they weigh too heavily on his soul.
    “Oh, God,” she cried, “I missed you soooo much!”
    “I missed you, too,” John said, inhaling the scent of strawberry shampoo. While the shampoo was different, Abigail’s scent was still there beneath it, permanently imprinted on him.
    “Come on,” she said, “I wanna show you my room!”
    Abigail took John’s hand and led him to her bedroom, then opened the door to a flamboyant clash of purple, black, and pink that somehow matched her perfectly. The first thing Abigail showed him was the teddy bear he had given her more than a year before. “Look, it’s Mr. Bear!” she said, excited. “One of the cops Larry knows found it in the car I got taken away in. Can you believe it?”
    She hugged the bear to her chest, squeezing almost as hard as she’d hugged him.
    “Wow, that’s cool,” John said, wondering if it was in fact the bear he bought her, or if Larry had gone to the gas station they’d gotten it from and got her another. Either way, Abigail was happy, and that’s what mattered.
    “And look at these,” she said, pointing to