Chapter Text
Another day, another shift at the store. While the routine was kind of mind-numbing, the many different faces of strangers was somewhat refreshing.
I absently played with my necklace as I waited for any new customers to arrive. I had literally nothing else to do to kill time while I did – I had organized the shelves, counted the money on the cash register and braided my long hair several times now out of boredom.
Just as I thought about this, the door opened and the sound of the welcoming bell ringing filled the establishment. I turned to see a short man walking in, and he dedicated me an extroverted grin that I reciprocated as best as I could.
“Good evening, sir!”
“Hi there”
I observed him as he walked around the store, his green eyes wandering around the shelves without interest. Then he made a beeline for the chocolate bars as soon as he saw them and began piling them up on his arms. I smiled a little at the sight. Then he walked over to me and dropped all the sweets on the glass counter. That was fast!
Noticing I was staring in amusement, he brushed his slightly long brown hair back and held my glance.
“You do know that Halloween just passed, don’t you, sir?” I grinned as I picked up a plastic bag and began putting the bars inside, counting them.
“I have a bit of a sweet tooth” He simply replied, already opening one of them.
“I can see that” I chuckled, shoving the last one inside the bag and mentally counting the one he was now eating as well. “It’ll be ten thirty, please”
“Nice weather, huh?” The man casually asked, getting his wallet out and sifting through the bills. “A little cold, but still nice”
“Yeah!” I gladly contributed to the small talk. “The clouds are fading, it looks like the sky will be clear in a few hours”
“I don’t think so” He wrinkled his nose in disagreement, picking out a twenty dollar bill and handing it to me. “I think there’s a big storm coming”
I curiously watched him as I took the money and saved it in the cash register. Then I briefly looked over my shoulder to the window behind me, noticing the blue sky, almost rid of any clouds. When I turned back to him, he was grinning.
“Keep the change, sweetheart” Winking an eye at me, he held out his hand, so I gave him his bag full of chocolate bars.
I opened my mouth and tried to reply with something, even if a bit taken aback by his familiarity. But he was already saving his wallet and moving on.
“T-Thank you for your purchase!” I finally said, forgetting about the odd weather chat. “Please come again!”
“Bye, Brooke” He said as he walked out the door, triggering the bell once more.
I frowned at the mention of my name, wondering how he knew. I never told him.
But I chuckled, feeling a little silly, when I remembered about my name tag. Not that I remembered him actually looking at it, but he must have without me realizing. Otherwise, how would he know?
Trying to forget about that strange interaction, I got back to playing with my necklace while waiting for someone else to come. The store was usually really calm, and except for random people coming to satisfy their cravings or buying a necessary item last minute, my shifts were pretty uneventful.
I honestly preferred having a breather in this small convenience store than working at the busy supermarket, which was usually way too frantic for my liking. I was kinda relieved any day they didn’t call me to ask me to fill an absence there, I was surely glad that it was something unusual.
The welcoming bell announced another client, so I stood up straight and prepared my friendly smile to greet the customer, but it wasn’t an ordinary customer. I nervously aligned all items in the counter as the man in the suit walked in like he owned the place, not really looking at me. Well, the joke is that he actually owned the place.
“Uh… Mr. Collins?” I timidly spoke up, noticing he held a cellphone to his ear. My boss finally turned to me, not even bothering to move his phone away. “Could I please talk to you for a moment, sir?”
“Not now” He just said, continuing on his way to his office. Or well, the storage room that happened to double as his office.
I watched him in silence until he walked in and closed the door behind him, his voice sounding muffled when he responded to the person on the phone.
Indecisive, I bit my bottom lip and drummed my nails against the glass counter. After a few seconds in which I thought twice several times, I convinced myself to do it and left my position behind the counter, walking with determination to his office and knocking on his door as I mentally went over what I wanted to say.
A sigh come from inside and the talking stopped until his voice was heard again.
“Hang on, the orphan wants to talk to me” He said in exasperation.
I frowned when that word uttered aloud always brought a stabbing pain to my heart. He could have easily said something different, like ‘girl’ or ‘employee’ or… I don’t know, anything else. But he had to use that word, almost with contempt.
“Come on in…” As he reluctantly invited me in, I forced a smile and obliged.
I stared at him for a moment, watching his expensive suit and his brand new phone. Even if he was just the owner of a small convenience store in a suburbs neighbor, he had to do things like those or buy his workers unnecessary name tags. I didn’t want to… judge him, despite being rude sometimes, but I just…
“What is it?” He rushed me, tapping the watch on his wrist.
“Oh! I, uh… wanted to ask for a raise, if that would be possible” I gulped as I made a pause, trying to control my nerves and trying not to think about the possible no. “I have been working here for a while now and I could use the money. Please, sir, I would really appreciate it”
Mr. Collins rolled his eyes and stared at me for a moment before finally speaking up.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, young lady” With a petulant gesture, he waved his hand in the air and asked me to leave.
“I see, okay…” I gave him a polite nod and smile. “Thank you for your time, have a nice day”
And with that I exited the office, walking back to my usual place behind the counter. I sighed as I picked up my necklace and carried on fiddling with it, inevitably waiting for any new customers that might come.
Closing time meant that I got to return home, have some delicious dinner and huddle under a warm and cozy blanket. I was looking forward to that, leaving another monotonous day at work behind, especially since it was still tiring.
I walked into the dark streets and looked up to the starry sky, buttoning my jean jacket to shelter myself from the night breeze. Huh, who would have known, that man was right – it seemed like there would be a storm, the clouds seemed to have gathered again.
Wanting to arrive home as soon as possible, I made haste, walking a bit fast. I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets, trying to decide what I could have for dinner.
I suddenly yelped when the loud sound of thunder echoed around me, surprisingly close. I kept walking, hurrying myself even more to get home before the storm worsened and it started raining. I didn’t like thunderstorms that much either, they made me nervous.
I continued walking, picking up my pace and getting startled every time a thunder echoed in the sky. It sounded so close, oddly enough almost like it was at ground level.
Wanting to get away from it as soon as possible, I started actually running. I jogged around the mostly empty streets as they were brightly illuminated by the light of the thunderstorm.
I stopped dead in my tracks, however, when a big lightning and thunder fell, so close by that I yelped very loudly. My whole body got overwhelmed with goosebumps and I was suddenly breathing heavily and shuddering. It had fell so close! Almost like it was surrounding me, like it could actually reach me.
“Okay, that was weird…” I nervously chuckled, trying to calm down. “But it’s okay, I’m okay, it’s just a storm…“
I told myself that several times as I made my way back home, briskly jogging when it started pouring with rain. Truth was, I had never been more scared about a thunderstorm before.
After that strange day, the next one wasn’t any better. It rained again, which ruined my mood a bit, and I was exhausted after spending the entire night having nightmares. There was no activity in the convenience store at all, and the monotony brought the apathy. I told myself that I was going through a rough patch, that things would get better and tomorrow would be a better day after those bad couple of days.
On my way back home, I was hoping nothing strange happened like the other night. Ever since then, I had felt restless and I couldn’t quite explain why. Maybe a combination of that strange man who against all odds predicted the weather and the actual frightening thunderstorm that nearly reached me with one of its lightning. But it would pass, it was just temporary.
I continued walking around the dim-lit streets as I did every day, only the far light of the tall lamp posts illuminating my way. Yet my heart raced at the sudden noise of voices in the alley I was passing by the entrance of. By the sound of it, someone was struggling. Could they be in trouble?
I looked around, noticing no one else was paying attention to it. I wondered if I should call the police. I thought about leaving too, but I just couldn’t keep walking! What if they needed help?!
I suddenly jolted up when a nerve-wrecking screech diverted my attention back to the alley. They were definitely in trouble, I couldn’t just stand there! Even if I called the police, they would never make it on time to help. I had to do something!
Before I could consciously send the order to my brain to move, I was already on the way. I ran at full speed, shakily sinking my hands in my pockets in search for any kind of weapon in case I needed it. The closest thing I could find was my keys, which I tightly held on to, blindly trying to find the sharpest end.
As I immersed myself in the dark alleyway, I froze at the scene before me. Two men were cornering a blond girl against the wall while she struggled to escape. The sight made the blood boil in my veins.
“Hey!!” I said, much louder than I intended, gathering their attention.
I gulped, taking a step back, when the men’s dark black eyes settled on me. My bottom lip was trembling, but I clenched my jaw and tried to appear brave.
My hand was clutching on to the keys inside my pockets so tightly that they were painfully digging in my skin. With my free hand, I subtly motioned for the girl to run while I distracted them.
Her light green eyes widened with realization and she began running at top speed, whispering a thank you as she passed me by. I was about to follow, but I found myself being mesmerized by their strange eyes. I couldn’t stop staring at them… They were of an unnatural deep shade of black that stirred something within me.
When I finally snapped out of it, and before I could try and escape, they were next to me. I yelped, walking back as my mind frantically tried to process it. How did they move so fast?! They were suddenly right next to me when a few meters separated us before. How was that possible?!
“What do we have here?” One of them said, eyeing me up and down in a way that made me deeply uncomfortable.
I felt my hand shaking in my pocket as I hesitated, trying to think whether I should use my ‘weapon’ or not. I didn’t really want to hurt anyone, but I could be the one getting hurt if I didn’t.
“A kid playing hero, huh?” The other followed along, extremely close to me.
My breath hitched in my throat when they held me by the arms, making it impossible to use my hands now. I struggled, trying to get them off me, but they were incredibly strong. Surprisingly strong, even for two grown men, as their hands felt like iron claws on my forearms.
I hadn’t thought this through. I was very glad that the girl was safe now, and maybe she would bring some help. But I hadn’t stopped to think how I would get myself out of that mess.
“Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping someone could hear me.
My heart was beating even faster than before, so loudly that it echoed in my ears. That frantic feeling only made me panic even more. Their unexpected amused laughter caused a lump in my throat.
I screamed when I took a good look at them. Their teeth… those… Those weren’t teeth, they were like fangs! An entire row of sharp teeth like… like sharks. Equally sharp and intimidating.
A new scream tore from my throat when he reached forward, getting his mouth dangerously close to my neck. I crazily fought against them, trying to break free from their grasp on me as their sharp teeth got closer to my skin, but it was all in vail. They were much stronger than me.
The teeth painfully graced my neck as I struggled like crazy. Everything felt like chaos – my breathing came in pants, my heart was beating so fast that it pulsated in my temple and a complete panic had taken over me. And then it all suddenly stopped.
The pain in my neck disappeared, and I felt them releasing me. I opened my eyes, just then realizing I had closed them tight, and saw something that made me cover my mouth with my hands in horror and scream against them, for the third time within a minute.
The man’s head fell off his neck and into the ground. His limp body followed soon after. Something shone under the moonlight, which I realized was a machete. The head had been chopped off with a clean cut.
The other one ran away, freeing me completely. More footsteps followed, and a voice broke the silence of the night.
“I’ll get the other, stay with her!” Yelled a raspy voice as the footsteps grew further from me.
I was shaking from head to toe, lost in my thoughts and my terror as I tried to make sense of what was happening. My body and mind felt numb and my stomach became queasy.
“Hey” A deep voice startled me just as two hands gently fell over my arms. “Hey, are you okay?”
“H-Huh?” I replied groggily, trying to focus on the green eyes that stared at me.
“Are you okay?” He insisted, this time slower, carefully helping me to my feet. I hadn’t even realized I had fallen, but my knees did find it difficult to hold my weight.
“I… I-I think so…” I breathed out, trying to even out my breaths.
“It’s okay, you’re safe now” His hands kindly rubbed my arms in an up and down motion.
“W-What happened?”
“Don’t worry, they’re gone now, it’s alright”
I took a few deep breaths to calm my speeding heart and looked at the man before me, trying to focus on something that wasn’t my state of panic. He was very tall, with broad shoulders. His hair was brown, long up to his shoulders and combed so it fell over the sides of his face. I took notice of his green eyes again, they held great kindness that brought me some sort of comfort.
I gulped, closing my eyes for a moment to keep breathing before I could hyperventilate. His hands never left my arms, and he shook me softly.
“Hey, look at me” I opened my eyes and did my best to hold his stare. “What’s your name?”
“Br-Brooke…”
“Okay, Brooke, you need to tell me… Did you drink his blood?”
“W-What? I don’t understand…”
“I know it’s weird, but can you answer the question?”
“N-No… I don’t think I did… No, I… I didn’t”
“Good” He let out an awkward chuckle that felt out of place.
The stranger gently patted my arm and straightened up, taking a quick look around him. The alleyway was now calm and quiet, almost like I hadn’t just been attacked.
“You…” I gulped when my eyes fell over the ground, watching the lifeless head there, sitting in a puddle of crimson blood, with wide-open eyes. “You cut that man’s head off…”
My stomach painfully turned at the sight, so I looked away with a grimace. I… I couldn’t even believe what was happening! I felt like I was watching a movie, like that wasn’t really happening to me. It… It couldn’t be…
“It… I know but… It’s not what it looks like” The man answered awkwardly.
I shook my head, losing focus again. I wasn’t feeling so good. My head was spinning.
My hand weakly fell over my neck once the adrenaline slightly wore off and I felt a mild pain there. Just in the spot that connects to the shoulder, my skin had been violently scratched and blood was gushing from it. I didn’t want to look at it, but feeling the crimson liquid made me sick enough already. Even more than I was before.
“H-Help me…” I only managed to whisper, as my voice was too quiet. I felt myself falling as the world turned dark.