Gunshots fired behind us as we ran through the dark alleyway, panting heavy I held on tight to Damian's hand making sure not to let go.
"This way" He said as we turned a corner slipping into a near by abandoned warehouse and went up the stairs. "The locker over." I whispered as I motioned to large empty locker in the corner of the room.
"Good idea doll.".
I hated it when he called me that but now was not the time for me to complain about that. We entered the locker and closed the door, "Man I really did not think this through..." I thought to myself as Damian body pressed against mine, my head to his chest and his arms over my head.
Hearing the footsteps of our pursuers, we held our breaths as the sounds of the footsteps scanning the room got closer and closer to the locker, and then silence.
"No way, no way, were they reaching for the locker?" "They couldn't have left the room, we didn't hear them leave..." I thought to myself as my heart raced, and panic spread through my body, looking up at Damian, his gaze was focused on the door, his fist clenched and his heartbeat just as rapid as mine, however his expression was calm and calculated. In the event that the door did open, Damian was ready, with each passing second feeling like years, I couldn't help but wonder how I got into this situation.
.
.
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Earlier that day
I woke rather early that morning, crawling out of bed I walked to the bathroom and splashed my face with some water on my face to wake myself up, I brushed my teeth and got into the shower. Once I was done, I got dressed and styled my hair into a simple afro puff, did my edges and walked over to the door, checking my bag again just in case I forgot anything, like my keys or phone. Once I was comfortable that I had everything with me, I stepped out and locked my door, and checked my bag again for my phone, just in case.
As I stepped out of my apartment building, it seemed the town had already woken up before me. People smoking by the side of the road, cars honking and people hailing taxis and rushing to work. I didn't live in the bad parts of town however, the occasionally gang disputes weren't uncommon which made me very uneasy sometimes, sounds of distance gun shots was something I could never get use to. I looked at my watch for a moment, it was 8:30am, "Good I still have time." I said to myself, as I continued walking, I worked at a small cafe nearby, my shift started from 9:00am to 3:00pm, then for the rest of the day I would work on my graphics design portfolio so I could finally kickstart my freelance work.
The cafe was just across the road, as I waited for the pedestrian signal to turn green, a group of guys behind me were cat-calling me. "Hey pretty lady, where are you going to? Want us to give you directions?" One of them said as they slowly inched towards me. I tried my best to ignore them as I anxiously waiting for lights to go green, "Aww what's wrong princess? Don't worry we won't hurt ya." He continued as his other friends stood beside, having me surrounded, "I'm not interested, leave me alone." I said firmly as I tried to distance myself from them. "Oh would you look at that she speaks..." He said with a disgusting grin on his face. In that moment, the light had turned green and I immediately darted across the road towards the cafe, the sounds of them laughing hysterically made me wanna crawl into a hole and disappear. I entered the cafe panting heavily as sweat dripped for my brown skin onto the floor .
"Anna hey, wassup... Are you okay?" A voice from the other side of the cafe called out to me, it was Blair, she was my best friend from high school, she was tall with a slim frame, had the cutest round blue eyes black hair that stopped just above her shoulders and sparse freckles on her white skin, she was one of the few people that I confided in, when my parents couldn't afford to take me to college, she comforted me and help me find other alternatives to bring up to my parents, like taking an online course, that's how I got into graphics design and when my ex cheated on me with girl I thought I could trust, she was my shoulder to cry on, throughout that highs and lows, she was always there by my side.
I told her what had happened outside and as usual she wanted to give them a piece of her mind, "Urghh those bastards, I'm so sorry you had to go through that, I hope they didn't touch or anything" she said as she held my hands softly and looked at me with a concerned face, " I'm fine girl, they didn't do anything to me." I said trying to laugh it off "Okay, go get ready we'll be opening soon. Timothy isn't gonna make today so you'll have to take care of the bar today, I'll take care of the tables." "Gotcha..." I said as I went to change into my work clothes.
Blair turns the sign and I stepped out of the bathroom ready to start the day, everything goes relatively well, manning the bar wasn't difficult for me I had done a couple times before. The cafe was mainly popular amongst students and wanted to study so they'd usually order a coffee. As the day went by, someone walked into the cafe and to the counter. It was man with a snake tattoo around his arm, his dark skin glistened in the afternoon light, his soft full lips pressed into a charming smiles and long dreadlocks were tied into a messy bun, this man was absolutely gorgeous, "Like what you see?" He said with a playful smile, he sharp gaze scanning me, almost like he could see right through me and here every nasty thought that crawled into my head, however there was this feeling that I just couldn't shake off. My gaze trailed off to the side and I could she two men dressed in black standing outside, "Weird were they always there? Did they come with the man?" I wondered, my eyes then drifted off to the people in the cafe and the everyone's attention was on him and an unspoken tension lingered in the air. "Uhh W-What would you like to order sir?" I asked trying to force a smile but for some reason I couldn't shake off this feeling of unease, in that moment, I could tell, some was off about this guy, this was bad news for sure.