I hope you’re enjoying the story so far. Poor Chryssie–things just keep getting worse.

CHRYSALIS–CHAPTER 5

Chryssie jerked as the pencil dropped out of her hand. She shook her head in an effort to stay awake. The words on the test blurred. It had been more than twenty-four hours since she’d slept.

Her body was rebelling.

Her mind couldn’t focus.

She looked around. All the other students’ heads were down concentrating on the test. It had been a bad idea to come. It would have been better to go to the police. The university would have understood and let her take the test later after she’d slept, even though they’d said no make-ups.

She would have known that if she hadn’t been so panicked and so tired. Now, it was too late.  If she failed, it would be her own fault.

Looking down at the paper, she squinted. The words came into focus.

After triple-checking her answers, Chryssie walked up and laid the paper on her professor’s desk. Dr. Lasky looked up with a smile. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you at graduation. You’ve been one of the best students I’ve had in years.”

“Thanks.” Chryssie smiled not bothering to explain that she wouldn’t be marching in the graduation. That took money—money that could be better spent to get her sister out of foster care.

As she made her way towards the door, a man and woman walked in. The woman held a piece of paper in her hand. As Chryssie passed them, her gaze dropped to the paper.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Her face decorated the paper—her driver’s license picture.

Lucky for her she had two different ID’s. Her college ID showed her as she looked right that moment. Her driver’s license picture showed the bartender Chryissie in full makeup and wig.

They didn’t give her a second glance. They weren’t looking for a mouse. Instead they walked up to the professor. “We’re from the police department….”

Chryssie wanted to hear what the next words were, but she knew that wasn’t a good idea. She had to get out of there. The police were looking for her—that wasn’t good. The police certainly had better things to do than hunt her down to return her purse or ID so why were they looking for her?

Once out of the classroom, she walked as fast as she could out of the building, not wanting to cause attention to herself. When she was out of the building, she didn’t dare look behind her.

She was sure the police were right behind her.

She had to get away from them. Not quite sure why since her plan was to go to the police station and tell them what she witnessed. But the fact they were looking for her scared Chryssie.

Too exhausted to think, she had to get some rest. Then she’d figure out what was going on. Her new plan was simple. To get her car and then find a quiet place to take a nap. After that, she’d come up with a strategy.

She hiked across the campus towards the Student Union. Not able to remember the last time she’d eaten, she was starving. After she got a bite to eat, then she’d find a cab.

After buying a hot and a soda, she walked out into the lounge. She plopped down on a sofa as she looked up at the big screen TV in the room. Chryssie the bartender’s picture was on the screen.

She almost dropped the soda, but managed not to. Nobody seemed to notice her picture was on the screen. She listened as the newswoman told the world that Chryssie was wanted for questioning in the murder of Marque Davis who was found dead in an alley last night.

Panic coursed through her veins. How did the police know she’d been there? Why did they want to talk to her about it? Her mind flashed to the man grabbing her hand and forcing it on the gun. In a moment of clarity she understood.

The police thought she’d shot that poor guy.

She had no idea what to do, but her boss would. Chuck was rich and smart. He wasn’t a simple bar owner. That was only one of many of his businesses. He would know what to do.

Keeping her head down, Chryssie walked out of the Student Union to the area where cabs waited for fares. She walked over to the first one and opened the door. “I need to go downtown.”

“Sure thing. Where downtown?”

“Down by the Maze.”

“Sounds good. Celebrating the end of the semester with a shopping trip, huh?”

Celebrating was the last thing on Chryssie’s mind. “Something like that.”

“Well, be careful. There was another murder not far from the Maze last night. Third one in less than two weeks. It’s a pity. I don’t know what this world’s coming to.”

“Yeah.” The last thing Chryssie wanted to do was to discuss the murder, but she didn’t want to be rude.

“Of course, I have a buddy that’s a cop. He says they have a good lead on this one.”

Her ears perked up. “Oh, really. What are they saying?”

“They’re looking for some woman bartender. According to my buddy, they’re pretty sure it’s her. Stupid woman left her purse at the scene.”

How could they think she’d killed that man? She hadn’t dropped her purse anywhere near the man at all. No wonder the guy had stopped chasing her. He had a better way to deal with the mess. Make them think she’d killed that poor guy. “Oh…well that’s good. I guess.”

He pulled up to the curb. “Here you go.”

After she paid him, she walked towards the Maze until she heard the cab pull away. Then she turned and retraced her steps from last night. Each step brought back the terror she’d felt when she was running for her life last night.

Breathing deeply, she fought back tears.

How was she going to get out of this mess? Chuck would know what to do. After she got her car, she’d go to the bar. She didn’t care if he got mad that she took a customer’s parking place or not.

She was pretty sure this counted as an emergency.

Until next time….GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!