Chapter 1
Lena Furlong pressed her back to a tall, dying tree that seemed horribly out of place in the desert town of Yermo, so dead and brown, she could hardly identify it. She had to admit that in all her years of urbexing, nothing like this had ever happened!
Lena had come back to her first abandoned building she had explored years ago, the building still stood, it was a comfort urbex session for her. The moment she stepped into the backyard, the house was gone!
Lena’s eyes grew even bigger as the man drew closer to her, she was not a fighter, so she did the only thing she knew what to do in a situation such as this, she shut her eyes, and let out a deafening scream, one she hoped could be heard over the roar of traffic, one she hoped could be heard all the way up in the Calico hills.
She wasn’t going to allow him to harm her, not if she had any say about it! She braced herself for an attack. Lena was going to get out of this, she’d do everything in her power to stay alive. The man closed in on Lena and she tensed.
She opened her eyes, he had wrapped her in a hug.
She did not understand what was happening, she thought that there would be fight, maybe some weapons drawn. But not a hug. She expected to maybe get cut. Stabbed, maybe even shot at, but being hugged?
She decided to do something. Lena hugged him back, and that made him happy. Why did it make him happy? Lena wasn’t sure if she’d ever find out the reason. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the reason, maybe this guy was getting off from her hug.
Lena wanted to cut the hug short, but she was also scared of making the man mad.
She didn’t say anything to him, what was there to say to him?
The man ended the hug, and held her out at arm’s length, and she studied the man. He had long blonde hair, with two chunks of green in the front. His earlobes were stretched. He was covered in tattoos.
And he studied her with his dark eyes that were as dark as smoke. She was a young woman, with short black hair, no tattoos. His long, blonde hair stirred in the wind. “Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t know, I’m sorry!” Lena backed away from the man. She wanted to run, but she was curious, who was he?
The man suddenly seemed shy. It left Lena confused, how could he hug a stranger then grow shy? But there stood the blonde man, not looking at Lena. Had he mistaken her for someone else, had he made an ass of himself?
The man took a few steps back, making her even more confused, and he tore his eyes away from her, giving her a weak and sickly looking smile. What was going on? She had to know. “Is everything okay?” Lena asked the man, unsure of why she suddenly cared.
She should have run, this whole thing was weird, Lena knew this — and still, she stayed. “I just need you to listen to me!” Cried the man. He finally looked at her, his dark brown eyes pleaded with her to stay. “Though you may not believe me.”
Lena rolled her eyes. What was he going to attempt to sell her? He was coming off as some scammy sales person. Did she owe him money for that hug? It sounded silly, but that’s how scammers were. “I’m not interested in buying anything,” she said. “Sorry.”
“Lena!” Cried the man, grabbing her hand, stopping Lena from leaving. “That building that disappeared! Yellow!”
She looked at the man as if he had two heads. What on Earth did that abandoned building have anything to do with what was happening right now? Was this man on drugs, was this man drunk, was this man both high and drunk? Knowing Yermo, it could easily be both. A sad fact. How did Lena feel safe in a town like Yermo?
“How do you know what I named that abandoned building?!”
The man’s deep brown eyes tore away from her, he sucked in his lips. He wanted to let go of her, and run! But he had to do it! “I’m that building! I’m Yellow! That’s why it disappeared and I appeared!”
Without so much as a word, Lena slid out from his hands. She backed away from the man, wanting to flee. She watched as the man did a back flip and landed as that abandoned building. “What the fu—“
