The Fate Of Cassandra

Chapter 2

Cassandra locked the double brown oak doors to the library, wishing she had remembered to bring an umbrella with her before leaving home this morning. Pouring down with heaving rain, Cass looked up at the sky, it was pitch black. Cursing, she sighed and ran down the stairs as fast as she could and down the road to the bus shelter. Thunder and lightning could be heard and seen above her.

As Cass stood under the bus shelter, a long tree branch that stood just above her head to her right started swinging rapidly which brought her attention. Suddenly thunder boomed so loudly, that she had cupped her ears with both hands tight with desperation as she tried to block the sound. The lightning was so bright that she had to cover her eyes with both hands that she missed the lightning hitting the branch above her which broke and would have fallen onto her where she stood standing. Instead she was pushed aside by some unseen force falling onto her back yards away from the bus shelter which took her breath away. Her vision blurred, but once cleared she saw two men kneeling by her side. Alarmed at who they might be, she tried to get up.

"What the hell! Who are you?" She tried to see what they looked like but their faces were blurred.

"Stay still, I need to check if you are hurt."

"I'm not hurt. Just had the wind not out of me. Now answer me, who the hell are you guys?" Both men looked at each other, held their hands up and backed away, blurring their faces just a little bit more, and slowly stood up as they saw Cass holding a small knife in her right hand without them knowing she had one. All three of them were completely soaked to the bone with heavy rain still pouring down. Thunder and lightning could still be heard above them. Cass stood up slowly pointing the knife in their direction with a steady hand. Cass could hear her bus coming now, and was happy that this was her one chance to get away from these two men whoever they might be. She wasn't about to stick around and find who they were or what they wanted, she needed to get away from them fast. The bus stopped right next to Cass. She smiled at them both and saluted goodbye at them with the knife still in her hand as she walked into the bus.

Cass didn't dare put the knife away or look away from the two men until the doors to the bus closed and the bus started driving away. She slowly made her way towards the middle of the bus all aware of her appearance that she was soaking wet. Once seated she put the knife in her jacket and looked at her hand shaking. Adrenaline was running through her body. She had to admit to herself, those men had saved her life. If they hadn't pushed her out of the way that branch would have fallen on top of her and would have probably killed her right there.

Drenched completely from the rain, Cassandra looked around the bus, she started feeling paranoid. Worried that someone might have seen what happened back there and that someone was still watching her.

She kept looking at time on her phone as she desperately wanted to get home quickly and safely. Home was only five stops away. Cass had the strangest urge to look behind her, she had a strange feeling that someone was watching her. Finally giving in, she quickly turned around and noticed only two men were right at the back of the bus sleeping. She felt relieved when she glanced at her phone again and the app said the next stop was hers. Why did she have a feeling of doom, that something bad was going to happen.

Glancing back at the two sleeping men she had a feeling something wasn't right with them. Cass got up and made her way to the front of the bus and waited for the bus to come to a stop. She couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom. The door opened, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. She walked off the bus and hurried home as quickly as she could.

Once inside her house and a quick check throughout the house, happy that no one had been inside she locked the front door and ordered pizza. She knew there was nothing in her fridge to eat as she hadn't had the time to go grocery shopping until the weekend. Checking her watch she had thirty minutes before the pizza would arrive, she had time for a quick shower and change of clothing. Running up the stairs, Cass grabbed her favourite baggy jogging bottoms and a grey baggy sweatshirt that she loved wearing whenever she had a crappy day at work. All she needed was comfort now, and right now oversized clothing and pizza was her kind of heaven.