BloodLust

Ch. 1.🩸Ms. Black🩸

I walked the streets of the village square, empty shopping bag in hand as I made my way towards the little coffee shop on the far end of the town. It was a small, privately owned shop that not too many people frequented, making it a bit less expensive than the bigger franchise in the middle of the town square. Plus, the shop owner liked me and often gave me the previous day's leftover baked goods and occasionally even a defective bag of tea or coffee that they would have just thrown out anyways.

I had lost my job nearly a month ago now and had begun to struggle as I searched desperately for a new one, the village small and densely populated making it nearly impossible to find work at any given time of the year. At this point I was barely making ends meet and Mr. Steward's kindness was one of the few ways I still had any money left at all.

The public library had let me go simply due to budget cuts and me being the youngest member on the team at 25 and unfortunately there was just no one I could turn to after spontaneously becoming unemployed as I had left home at 16 without a word, running as far away as I could manage at such a young age. It also didn't help that I had only lived in this particular village for less than a year and didn't often leave my apartment, making me a recluse that no one really talked to other than when I was checking out their books.

Woe is me.

I had been on my own for quite some time now but it never got any easier. This was the first time I had been completely without a job since I was 15 years old and it scared me not knowing what to do. People lost their jobs all the time and still made it work. I just had to do the same.. somehow.

My depressing train of thought came to an end as I stepped through the door of Mr. Steward's coffee shop, the little bell chiming overhead and alerting the older gentleman to my presence. The shop smelled sweetly of fresh brewed coffee and pastries, one of my favorite smells in the whole wide world alongside the old library books of course.

"Ah y/n. Lovely to see you on this fine morning." Mr. Steward stepped out of the back, wiping his wrinkled hands on a dish rag as he greeted me with an overly cheerful grin on his kind old face.

"Hey Mr. Steward. How are you today?" I greeted back, plastering on a fake smile of my own that didn't quite meet my eyes.

"Doing well, doing well my dear. And you? Any luck with the job hunt?" My smile faltered at the question, a sigh escaping my lips.

"Nope. Afraid not. Still begging for scraps." I chuckled darkly, awkwardly running a hand through my hair as I tried to avoid Mr. Steward's sympathetic gaze.

"Now that's not true. You know I would do anything in my power to help you out. If I could afford it I would offer you a job here in the coffee shop in a heartbeat."

"I know Mr. Steward. You've always been too kind to me and I have always appreciated it more than you know."

"It's no trouble at all y/n. You remind me so much of my granddaughter." He paused, a sad expression passing over his face. "Let me see what I can scrounge up for you from yesterday."

The old man toddled back off into the back room, leaving me perusing today's goodie options at the front counter. As usual the shop was very nearly completely empty, only one lone man sitting in the back corner booth furiously typing away on a computer, his head buried in his work.

I was honestly kind of surprised the shop made enough to support itself at all with how few customers I saw come and go. Perhaps there were more when I wasn't in town but I very seriously doubted it. Mr. Steward was a loner much like myself. His wife, Mary Anne, had passed just over two years ago now and his children hardly visited anymore, their own lives taking priority over their aging father's.