Deadly and Dangerous

Chapter 1: Meeting the 'Mystery Man'

It was eerily silent in the diner tonight, with no customers in view. My shift ends at 12 am so luckily I have an hour to go. I just finished up sweeping the hardwood floors when all of a sudden I heard a gunshot sound from about a block away.

I instinctively ran behind the counter and switched all of the lights off. All I could hear was the sound of my heavy breathing and the patter of footsteps nearing the shop. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, hoping that the footsteps would pass. To my luck, the shop door opened and I heard a man grunting.

I peeked out from behind the counter and saw the most handsome man- with a body over 6ft tall with dark brown locks and an an olive skin, but the thing that captured my attention was not only his piercing brown eyes, but the huge hole in his right shoulder with blood pouring out of it.

I sprung up to my feet and immediately ran towards him, securing my arms around his waist. He fell into me and his weight was too much for me to bear. We both collapsed onto the floor- me underneath him- with all of his blood staining my waitress uniform. I quickly slid out from underneath him and applied pressure to the wound.

"Are you alright? Just hang on okay, I'm going to call 911!" I said, barely holding my fear inside. He startled me by screaming,

"Do not call 911, for your safety as well as mine, I advise you not to call anybody!"

"You're bleeding out! How am I not supposed to call 911?" I panicked.

"Just listen to me," he said gently, "I need you to get me paper towels alright. A lot of it, and then I'm going to need you to look away okay?"

"What, no! I'm not going to watch you die!" I cried out in fear.

"Listen to me, what's your name?" He whispered, barely audible.

"This is not the time for formal introductions. You're -"

"What is your name?" He asked harshly.

"S-Serena, my name is Serena"

"Serena, I need you to get me paper towels or else I will die okay." He commanded.

I processed this information and got up on my feet and rushed to get him paper towels. I grabbed the whole roll and rushed back to him. He took the paper towels out of my hand and commanded me to look away.

"No, I'm not going to sit idly by while you do God knows what to yourself!" I shouted.

"Turn around now!" He commanded.

"No!" I reiterated

"Fine, just don't pass out." He mumbled to himself. I was anxious to see what he was going to do, but immediately felt my dinner come up as I saw what he was doing.

He plunged his fingers into the gunshot wound and removed the bullet- while releasing a grunt of pain. I sat to the side of him, too scared to even let out a breath. He immediately applied the paper towel to his shoulder and his contorted face soon became relaxed.

I saw the silver bullet lying on the ground covered in blood and I suddenly felt nauseous and began to get light-headed. Recovering from my haze, I reached out and helped apply pressure to his shoulder wound. He stared intently at me, as if memorizing my entire appearance. I looked at him and felt myself captivated my his dark eyes.

"Why didn't you let me call 911?" I asked softly, still staring directly into his eyes.

"It's not safe." He replied in a frank tone.

"The emergency call-unit is not safe?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

"Not in this case." He shot back.

"Well then, do you have someone who you can call?"

"Yeah, he'll be here shortly." He breathed out.

I raised my eyebrows suspiciously, "How does he know where you are?"

"It's his job." He replied rashly.

"What? I don't under -"

"Never mind, okay! I need you to promise me something." He looked directly at me.

"O-Okay," I stuttered.

"You mustn't tell anybody what happened tonight okay! No gunshots, no bullet, no nothing alright!" He chided.

"What, why?" I asked being confused.

"It's for your safety. Serena, you were great tonight with helping me, but you shouldn't tell anybody alright. Not even your family or friends." He said seriously.

"Serena can I trust you?" He asked gently.

"Yes." I whispered, avoiding his piercing gaze.

"Look at me." I reluctantly lifted me head and looked at him. "You mustn't tell anybody okay, please." He pleaded, sounding desperate.

"Okay," I whispered, "Can I atleast know your name?"

"It would be better if you didn't."

"Why?" I asked doubtfully.

As soon as he was about to reply, there was a large noise coming from the front door. I craned my head to look at the tall, dark stranger at the door and saw that he was very angry. He rushed over to where I was sitting and shoved me off of the mystery man, whilst attempting to pick him up. The stranger gave me a curt nod with a 'Thank you' and then left the shop.

I felt so drained that I didn't even clean the blood up off the floor. I just layed back against the cool floor surface and before I knew it, I was out like a log.