Welcome to the Wattpad Block Party - Winter Edition III!
Round FIVE of this popular event is coming your way the entire month of February 2017 and it's going to be epic! The invites have started to roll out and everyone from your all time favo...
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Chapter 6: No Fate
The wind had picked up by the time Annie finally reached 16th street. As welcoming as the twinkling Christmas lights wrapped around the trees were, the cold street was nearly empty, and she couldn't feel her hands under her gloves. She dove into her usual coffee shop as a gust of flurries swirled about her.
Everyone downtown seemed to have the same idea. Once Annie had her peppermint mocha, she considered herself lucky to even find a seat at all. There was an open chair across from a businessman in a thread-bare, off-the-rack suit. Annie tilted her head and looked him up and down. His fashion was off by years and his shoes were muddled with mismatched socks. He looked up to her, and drew back in surprise, but said nothing and returned to staring out the window. Annie sat across from him and slurped her coffee to give herself an excuse not to speak. The chill of the street seemed to have settled into her bones; the coffee did little to warm her from the inside out.
She grabbed a free copy of Westword off a nearby stand and a pen out of her purse and started to make a list of what she knew about Detective Park.
*Korean? Female? *Tall, just under 6ft? *Muscular build but thin, with a scar over her left eye *Private investigator, finds missing people *Gave me funeral flowers and this red bracelet. For a reason...? *Apparently tells homicide detectives what to do *Visited this coffee shop that one time = regular, or...?
Annie set her pen down and sighed.
This is going to be harder than I thought.
She searched through her purse for the card that the detective had given her, and instead found the red string bracelet. She fingered it, thought for a bit, then slipped it over her wrist for good luck.
It was then that the man across from her disappeared, and in one moment, all the puzzle pieces of the past three weeks snapped into place, while the rest of what was left of Annie's sanity shattered.
Annie recoiled in her seat. The feet of the chair squeaked and the coffee spilled over her hand. She didn't notice that all eyes were on her, once again. She was focused on where the man should have been. The crowd went back to their chatter and Annie, her hands shaking, wiped up the spilled drink that had soaked her. She couldn't feel him watching her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was.
It all makes sense now, Annie thought. This stupid thing's haunted in reverse.
She didn't know where she was going to go, but she didn't want to stay at the coffee shop anymore. She considered calling her mother to come pick her up.
Or Hannah. Maybe Hannah was downtown, and if she wasn't, she lived in Capitol Hill. She could...
Annie set the coffee mug down and gathered napkins to clean up her mess. She stared at the empty seat where the businessman sat and forced a tight smile,
