Working the overnight
Ria drove quickly, doing her best to distract herself from what had just happened back at the library.
She didn’t have the time or the spoons to sit around thinking about being a victim.
She was going to be late at this rate.
Her anxiety only increased as she approached rush hour traffic, which now consisted more of bikes than cars.
She needed to get to work.
She could not afford to lose this job.
Things were tough all over.
Jobs were hard to come by, especially for women…
especially young women like her.
It had been a battle during the interviews just to convince someone to give her a chance.
If the patients and nurses who already knew her hadn’t vouched for her, she might not have gotten the job at all.
She wasn’t about to lose it.
Not now.
The drive behind bicyclists on dark roads with barely any streetlights was brutal.
Ria kept both hands firmly on the steering wheel, eyes moving constantly between the road ahead and the people riding their bikes alongside her.
She needed something else to think about.
Anything else.
Her thoughts drifted back to the dragon she’d seen flying recently.
That led her mind toward everything that had changed since the barrier broke two years ago and the beasts appeared in their world.
Most places didn’t have reliable power anymore…
if they had power at all.
Especially not in her little middle-of-nowhere village.
The beasts didn’t seem to have the same problem.
They had magic.
Magic.
The word still felt strange when she thought about it.
The laws of physics applied differently to beasts than they did to humans.
Things that should have been impossible were completely ordinary to them.
That thought made her sigh.
Wouldn’t it be cool if she had magic powers too?
She smiled faintly at the thought.
Maybe she could make food appear whenever she wanted.
Or conjure electricity.
Or teleport herself somewhere whenever she was running late.
That last one would be especially useful.
Her smile faded.
She really missed how things used to be.
She missed her Ba desperately.
Those days of sitting beneath the stars and listening to him talk about constellations were gone.
The nights they’d spent star-gazing were over.
She’d only ever have the memories now.
Not even photographs.
Only memories.
Ria swallowed hard and forced herself to focus on the road.
When she finally reached work, she parked her beat-up old car around the back of the hospital.
Every day, she thanked the Gods that she still had that car.
If the world had never developed an alternative fuel that worked the same way oil and gas once had, she wouldn’t have a car to drive…
Or a place to sleep.
Many people didn’t have stoves in their homes anymore.
Many villages didn’t have reliable power.
The world had changed so much in such a short amount of time.
Ria grabbed her things and headed inside.
Tonight, she’d be the housekeeper.
Her work would be repetitive, which was just fine with her.
She could use the mind-numbing routine.
Folding sheets.
Changing trash.
Cleaning rooms.
Wiping down surfaces.
Simple things.
Things that didn’t require her to think too much.
After the day she’d had, she needed that.
There were too many things running through her mind already.
The library.
Those men.
The application.
Her car.
School.
Her future.
Tomorrow night.
Tomorrow night they would announce who had been selected.
Tomorrow night, she would finally find out whether all of this had been worth it.
Tomorrow night…
She’d know whether salvation was finally within her grasp.
When she entered the office to sign in, the shift lead was already standing there waiting.
He hated the way his life had turned out.
He blamed the beasts for everything.
But he was too weak to punish the people actually responsible for his misery, so he punished the people beneath him instead.
And unfortunately for Ria, she was one of them.
“Cutting it close, aren’t you, girl?”
Ria stopped.
“Yes, I’m so sorry.
Traffic was rough.
There were lots of people on the road today.”
She tried to explain at least part of the reason.
The way he looked at her clearly told anyone with eyes…
I don’t want your excuses.
Just sign in and get to work.
There are rooms to clean.
“Yes, thank you.
Right away, sir.”
She quickly signed in and scurried away, not wanting to remain in his presence a moment longer than necessary.
As soon as she was out of earshot, she shuddered.
“Scary man.”
The man muttered something beneath his breath.
It was too low for her to hear.
Ria decided she didn’t want to know what he’d said anyway.
The night passed quietly.
The hospital settled into its usual nighttime rhythm.
Machines beeped softly in distant rooms.
Nurses walked through the halls with tired eyes.
Patients slept.
And Ria worked.
By the time she finally reached the lounge, she was exhausted.
In the dingy hospital cafeteria, a group of nurses were sitting around a round table, gossiping between bites of food and sips of coffee.
“Oh!
Ria!” Nurse Junie called when she spotted her.
“Come sit with us.
Take a break.
You’ve been working so hard all night.”
Ria glanced toward the clock.
“I have so much work to do before the night is over.”
“You’ll get it done.
You work way too hard for what you get paid.
Take a seat or I’ll yell at you.”
Ria’s eyes widened.
She knew Junie well enough to know she probably would.
“Okay,” she muttered quietly, barely loud enough for them to hear.
She pulled out a chair and sat down.
Immediately, the gossip resumed.
“I heard Dr.
James has been hooking up with Casey behind his wife’s back.”
“I know!
I heard that too.
Poor Shelly.”
“I can’t believe she’d do that with him knowing he’s married.”
“I can’t believe Dr.
James would risk getting caught.”
They continued talking, and Ria nodded her head at all the appropriate moments.
She looked like she was present for the conversation.
Like she was enjoying their little girl time.
But as usual, her mind drifted.
What happened that afternoon shoved its way back into her thoughts.
The darkness.
The hands.
The knife.
The fear.
Ria looked down at her lap.
Her fingers fidgeted nervously.
She took a slow breath and pushed the memory back down.
Not now.
She didn’t have time to fall apart.
She needed this job.
When her shift was finally over, she had three hours before she needed to leave for school.
She would sleep for two of those hours in her car and use the remaining time to get ready for school.
There was only one school in the small, poor country village.
Her friends didn’t know she was living in her car.
She was scared to burden them.
Still, deep down, she knew that if she asked, her friends would find some way to make room for her.
They would probably argue over who got to let her sleep at their house.
But Ria couldn’t bring herself to ask.
As such, she kept her misfortunes a secret from her world.
She didn’t want their pity.
She didn’t want to become a burden.
She just wanted to make it through.
By the time school started, the exhaustion was already sitting heavily behind her eyes.
Still, she smiled.
She always smiled.
“Penelope, are you going to enter the Selection this year?” Julie asked.
“I turned in my application already.
My sister was accepted last year, so maybe I’ll get in because I already have a sibling there.”
“What about you, Ria?
Did you apply?” a boy asked.
Ria nodded.
“I did.
Thank you for asking.”
“We could be classmates!” Georgia, a blonde girl sitting nearby, clapped excitedly.
Ria’s face brightened.
“I would absolutely love that!”
She tilted her head to the side and smiled.
It was radiant.
Those around her felt a sense of peace wash over them whenever she smiled.
People gravitated toward her.
There was just something about Ria that made people feel comfortable.
Like they could breathe a little easier around her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beast person up close in the flesh,” Penelope said dreamily.
“Maybe at a distance.
I wonder if they’re as beautiful as they are on the posters and in the papers?”
She sighed dreamily.
“Imagine falling in love with an alpha wolf.”
Julie laughed.
“You’ve been reading too many romance novels.”
“Maybe.
But tell me I’m wrong!”
Ria smiled quietly at them.
Most of her classmates were outgoing and open about their thoughts and feelings.
Which was the exact opposite of Ria.
She was quiet.
She kept her feelings to herself.
An observer by nature, she mostly only spoke when spoken to.
People often mistook her quietness for naivety.
They thought she didn’t notice things.
They thought she didn’t understand what was happening around her.
They were wrong.
Quiet was not naïve.
Observant was not clueless.
Ria noticed everything.
She just didn’t always say what she noticed.
Her classmates desperately wanted to get into Yueying.
Every student seemed to have a similar agenda.
Some wanted status.
Some wanted fortune.
Some wanted adventure.
And some…
Well, some wanted love.
They dreamed about beautiful beast men and women, powerful families, magical abilities, lavish lives, and finding their place among a world that had once seemed like nothing more than mythology.
Ria wanted none of those things.
She just wanted a place to sleep.
Food to eat.
A place to call home.
A place where she could belong.
Even if it was only for a little while.
She had always felt like she didn’t belong anywhere.
Not in her own home.
Not after losing her Ba.
Not in the world that had been left behind after the barrier broke.
Maybe…
Maybe at Yueying University, it would be different.