Chapter 1
It was a Monday morning, and you were woken up as usual by the beeping of your alarm clock. Annoyed by the loud noise, you looked for the alarm clock to turn it off. After groping for what felt like an eternity, you finally managed to reach it and stop the annoying noise.
Still a little tired, you got up and headed to the bathroom to do your morning routine.
After you got yourself ready, you went to the kitchen to get yourself something to eat. As usual, it was just a slice of toast and some cereal (or whatever you like to eat for breakfast).
After you had finished, you took a quick look at your watch. It was 7:30 a.m., so you had finished right on time. You quickly packed up your things and left the house.
Because you didn't live far from the bar, you didn't have to leave so early or hurry up to not be late. It usually took you about 30 minutes to arrive there, and you had the privilege that work didn't start until 8:30. You could have spent some time at home, but you preferred not to be late, so you left a little earlier rather than being pressed for time.
When you finally arrived at the bar, it was eight o'clock sharp, as expected, so you still had time to prepare everything before the first guests and the other staff arrived.
After you had prepared everything, only a quarter of an hour had passed, so you still had time left.
While you were thinking about what you could do now, you received a message from one of your colleagues, Y/K/N, saying that he couldn't come today because he was sick and if you could handle everything behind the counters by yourself.
Of course, you had no problem with this because you were used to working independently and taking responsibility.
Besides, you were not completely alone; there were some other employees who served the customers. The only thing that might be a bit stressful was taking all the orders and preparing them on your own, because normally there are two of you.
So you texted him back to say that it was no problem and that he should take time to recover.
The rest of the day passed largely normally. After the rest of the workers had arrived, it didn't take long for the first customers to show up. As usual, you took the orders, prepared them, and put them on the counter until the waiters delivered them to their seats.
However, you were very exhausted after work, but because your colleague was not there, you had to clean up everything on your own, which meant that it took you twice as long. By the time you had cleaned and straightened all the furniture and washed the dirty dishes, it was 11 p.m.
Normally you would have finished hours earlier, in the afternoon, if you had had help, but your colleague was sick and the waiters were all gone. A few of them had asked if you needed help, but you had said no because you knew how annoying it was to have to work overtime.
It also annoyed you a bit that you had to finish later, but on the other hand, your colleague couldn't help it that he was ill.
After you had made sure that no one was in the building, you locked it and went home.
On the way home, it was already dark and a bit cold. Even though you knew you only had a short way home, you were a bit scared because you had already seen in many films what can happen at night apart from any robberies or worse.
Although it gave you some security knowing that you were walking most of the way along a road that was lit with lanterns and had cars on it, you still felt a little uneasy. Nevertheless, you had a very uneasy feeling.
After about a quarter of an hour of walking, you had made it halfway, and everything seemed to be going well. You blocked out the feeling and concentrated a little on the screen of your mobile phone, on which you were texting with your friend and telling her how the day had been.
Suddenly, you hit a solid chest. You heard a slight gasp from the speaker. but it doesn't seem to have an effect on it. But because you had not expected the sudden impact, you fell backward. You had already prepared yourself for the collision with the ground, but to your surprise, you were grabbed by the wrist by a strong hand.
When you looked up, you saw a serious face that you couldn't see much of because of the darkness, but it appeared to be a man with black shoulder-length hair, but you couldn't really see the color of his eyes. He was wearing a black suit with matching black shoes, but that was all you could make out.
After a few seconds of shock, you uttered a quiet "sorry sir" and wanted to move on quickly, as his presence gave you an uncomfortable feeling.
But to your horror, you realized that the man was still holding you by the wrist. So you tried to get free but without success. You panicked and wanted to scream, but it was as if you had no voice; you couldn't make a sound. You thought about what you should do now.
Your thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a deep, almost threatening voice.
"Now, let's see what we have here," the man darkly chuckled.
You wanted to answer, but you were too frightened.
"What is such a young little girl doing alone in the street at night?"
It annoyed you a bit, as he called you, but right now you were not in the mood to argue; you just wanted to get out of here and go home as soon as possible.
You weren't sure how to respond to that, so you looked up at him and could see that he raised an eyebrow when you didn't answer.
"Too scared to talk now, are we?"
The last thing you wanted to do was upset him with your actions, so you replied quietly.
"I just want to go home, please."
The man looked down at you, and when you made contact with his eyes, you quickly changed your gaze in fear of what would happen next.
"Oh, I see you can speak after all; I thought you had lost your voice," the man mocked.
Unfortunately for you, his next answer was not really reassuring either.
"I see, but what would happen if you met the wrong people who wouldn't let you get home?"
These words triggered panic in you; you started to shake and your hands started to sweat.
,,Do I scare you?" The man asked again.
You were not sure if the question was serious because the answer was already clear.
After a moment of silence, the man raised his hand, and you flinched when he grabbed your chin and raised it, so that you had to look at him.
"Ah, I see you are," the man laughed, obviously amused by your reaction.
"Anyways, it's proper to answer when you're asked, or do I still have to teach you that?"
"Shit, shit, shit," wasn't what you wanted; just end the conversation and leave, you thought.
"N—no, I'm just not used to being approached by strangers at night," you managed to get out with your last ounce of strength.
The man was about to say something back when you suddenly heard a ringing. The man took a mobile phone out of his pocket and picked it up without looking at you, but he still wouldn't let go of you.
"Yes?"
"Good, I'm on my way."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be there; hold the fort."
"See you later."
With these words, he hung up and looked at you again.
"You'd better be careful who you meet and talk to at night; it can sometimes end badly, little one," he said in an almost threatening tone.
With these words, he let go of your wrist and walked past you with quick steps, as if nothing had happened.
These words sent a shiver down your spine. Was that a threat or just advice? What was that about, and why did he let you go all of a sudden?
These thoughts ran through your head. But you had no time or strength to think about it and find answers. You just wanted to go home, so you ran the rest of the way home as fast as you could for fear that something like this could happen again.
When you arrived at your front door, you were totally out of breath. You saw your front door key but couldn't find it. No, no, no. It can't be! How much bad luck can you have?
It must have fallen out when you collided with the man.
But you were too scared to go back that way in the dark.
Luckily, you had some money with you and decided to spend the night in a hotel room not far from here.