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WILLOW PHOENIX
Willow Phoenix has just turned 24 as Incursion begins. She is employed as chief artistic director at Lake Bed Music from Chapter 1. She is of slighty taller than average height, slim and more attractive than she could ever bring herself to admit.
All that know her see her kindness and charity. Up until her 20th birthday gave each and every person the benefit of the doubt; and assumed all where that... and almost every time was let down. Only three people have never done that to her... Lauren, Nathan and Darren.
To relax she watches TV, goes to the cinema or reads. Lately, books have become her main form of relaxation; the works of Stephen King and Terry Pratchett cover one wall of her apartment. There is always a well-thumbed book in the bathroom. The subject of alien life crops up in half of the reference books she keeps. She shares an interest in ancient cultures with Nathan and Darren, though has kept away from researching it.
She has known Lauren the longest of the group--a full decade. She met Darren and Nathan eight years ago, at the age of sixteen.
Her apartment is tucked away near the National College of Art and Design and Saint Stephen's Green, half-an-hour from Darren and an hour and fifteen minutes away from Nathan.
Willow Phoenix appears in Incursion
QUOTES
Willow looked out of the window, as the rain ran down it. A thunder cloud issued a loud clap that invaded the silence of the night. She sat down upon the large window sill, her arms over her knees; and just stared out into the dark. Darren was due over in just over an hour, and she couldn't trust her thoughts not to wander when she was alone. At least with someone there, you could focus on whatever they were saying, because they were alive and a being; but when you were on your own, you could only focus on the inanimate, the non-living, the never alive. So now she stared out the window, drilling her eyes into the rain, looking at it weave its way down the window. You could almost persuade yourself that it was alive.
She tucked her head between her arms, and sighed. She couldn't afford to let her mind wander, not after what was happening lately. She sighed again, this time when she lifted her head up. What had happened last week, and last year, the night that turned to day in an instant—what was going on? And why did they both wake up in the middle of nowhere? How? She blinked, and when she opened her eyes it was bright. It bothered her. Darren; did Darren know anything more? Drink didn't seem to be capable of that.
The desire to know burned bright within her; and tonight she knew she was going to find out what was happening. Maybe when he got here; maybe in the taxi up to the airport, to collect Lauren and Nathan; maybe while they waited for it to arrive. She needed to know. Why did they both wake up there?
She clawed at the ends of her sleeves, and looked out into the cold night. If she strained her hearing, she could hear things in the echoes of the traffic jams, the late nights out, the pushers on the streets and the drunken parties were anything goes. That kind of laughter. She hid herself between her arms again, cast her mind back to the first time she heard that laughter, right after Darren jumped in front of her. He saw something that day. He knew more than she did. Why didn't he tell her?
Her eyes darted towards the window. Something moved, and then when she looked again it was gone. What was happening? Perhaps she was just going mad! A drip of water landed on her hand, and then she realised that she was crying. She continued, her eyes welling up, and she released it all like a dam had burst.
She heard a noise, like bare feet walking on tiles, and stopped. She lifted her head off of her hands, turned around, and then there was nothing.
--from Chapter 3
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