Terror in the Night

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

She only managed another three streets when she was forced to find a bench to rest her ankle. She probably had an hour at best of sunlight, but she didn't think her ankle would cope; it would probably get worse if she wasn't careful.

She was wondering if she could give Abby or Thea a call and beg for a ride when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

“Young lady, shouldn't you be in bed?” Colin teased.

Faye smiled tiredly and looked over at him, “Shouldn't you be working?” she teased back.

“Nope, I've just clocked off. I was about to go inside when I noticed you sitting here,” he explained and took a seat next to her. “So, what are you doing in my neighbourhood?”

Faye sighed and crossed her ankle over her knee and tenderly rubbed it. “I walked out of dad's thinking I had a lift to work,” she admitted, “He could have told me he was moving on,” she sighed.

“Is that why you walked out?”

She sighed again and nodded, she quickly checked her phone for the time before sighing again. “I've got to go,” she muttered, “I've already told them I'm going in.” She tried to stand when her ankle couldn't hold her up and almost gave out.

Colin quickly grabbed her upper arm before she collapsed. “You're in no state to work,” he snapped and pulled them back onto the bench. He pulled her leg onto his lap, pulled her trouser leg up to see the swelling that use to be her ankle and shot her a disapproving look.

“I need to work, I don't have anywhere to go and I was won't be standing much anyway,” she complained and tried to snatch her leg away when he firmly held her in place.

“What are you going to do after work?”

Faye shrugged helplessly, “I don't know, I was going to figure that out after work.” She closed her eyes when a wave of loss rolled over her. Her home was gone, her mission for her mum had failed, her dad didn't want her anymore and everyone didn't want her at work. “Please, I just want today to end normally at work.”

Colin rolled his eyes and sighed as he stood up, pulling her up with him. He didn't like her idea and her attitude to what happened to her worried him. “Put your weight on me,” he muttered, “I don't like the idea but I'll give you a lift.”

Faye bit her lip as he led her away towards a beaten up old Ford car and tried not to smile at him. She was not going to fall for him no matter what, something would go badly wrong; she could almost see it coming.

The inside of Colin's car was almost as bad as outside, the floor was covered in fast food wrappers and plastic coffee cups.

“You really like your coffee,” she muttered as he turned the engine on.

“It's not just me,” he said as he pulled off, “And I was going to clean up when I got in.”

When they stopped at the first traffic light, Colin frowned and looked over at Faye. “Where am I taking you anyway?” he asked.

“Visualise, the club,” she answered.

“You work there,” he said and drove off when the lights changed, “That's the place where someone hacked our computers.”

Faye bit the inside of her cheek and looked out of the window. “Yeah, we have free Wi-Fi at our club, we don't monitor who goes on what,” she said feeling guilty; “We had all our computers taken away and returned when nothing was found.”

“So how did you start working at Visualise?”

She sighed at the memory, “Seven years ago Elaine and I met at the end of the school year. She was just leaving her job and was worried that she would never find a job that she was qualified to do, I had finished my job at the college bar so I knew I could carry that on in any bar.