Lucas ✔️

Four

It had been a week and I still couldn't get him out of my mind.

His laugh, his hair, his goddamn eyes. Everything about him was calling me back to him as though he had bewitched me. It's why, after a week of dreaming about him at home, I was getting dressed and planning to leave the house. Voluntarily. I just had to see him again. I needed to know who he was, at the very least. I was convinced that if I saw him again I would be able to forget about him.

Seeing him in daylight proved to be a much more difficult task than I first imagined, however. Firstly, there was only so many times I could walk past the bar without looking like a stalking weirdo. Secondly, I didn't want to actually enter the bar. And, thirdly, I wasn't even sure if he was in the bar. Or anywhere, for that matter. 

I had walked back and forth on the street across from the bar a total of four times, very slowly each time, before I decided to head to the cafe and wait for nightfall. Maybe, just maybe, he would be there at night, just like last time.

So, I sat there, in the cafe, with a small drink for almost five hours. I was lucky the cafe had free books to read or I would have probably gone insane. I wouldn't have gone home, though. Not after all this effort. I even tried to dress semi-nice, just in case I saw him and needed to make a good impression. 

I had worn my tightest pair of black jeans and a form-fitting black jacket, zipped up nicely. Maybe I was trying to match his bad-boy look or maybe I was just trying to copy the black clothing uniform of the two good-looking people I had seen outside the bar. Well, plus I knew that black clothing made my long, red hair stand out. When the sun dipped past the horizon I headed off, facing both the cold and the ghouls all in my effort to see him.

"Dad, if you're watching, I know I'm being stupid," I muttered lowly. "Keep me safe, please." 

I hadn't made the mistake of wearing a scarf tonight, so the ghouls had nothing to choke me with, but this also meant they clung to the rest of my clothing more. I guess I couldn't complain too much, seeing at least I wasn't getting choked. I walked briskly until I could see the bar at which point I slowed my pace to an almost crawl.

The lights were still out, no surprise there, but the neon sign from the bar had lit up the path brightly, as usual. Unfortunately, there was no gorgeous man leaning out the front. There were a few ugly ones, though, which made me sigh and pick up my pace again. 

I guess it wasn't meant to be - or maybe Dad was really protecting me by not letting me see him? I shook my head, wondering what in the hell it was that made me leave the house and sit in a cafe for five hours just for the possibility to see this one guy. I didn't even know his name, for goodness sake.

The men from the bar yelled out at me, trying to catch my attention. I pretended I couldn't hear them and kept a steady pace, not wanting to speed up quickly and spur them into a chase. I had been in this situation before, way more often than I would like to admit, and if I had learned anything it's that if you move quickly they will chase until you feel like a mouse being hunted by a cat. It's like some instinct, they call, you run, and they react by chasing - even if they only want to chase to ask why you thought they were bad guys which, by then, they usually ended up being anyway.

I always chalked it up to the ghouls - they were the ones that brought the bad energy to me. There was just something about me that seemed to call out to men and made them want to touch me. Nothing serious had ever happened, thank god, but I had been in a few close calls. 

Even so, I wasn't scared to walk home alone as I had my phone and pepper spray. Dad had bought it for me after the third incident and I had used it every time since. A quick spray and I was on my way, phone in hand. Plus, I couldn't go through life being scared of every male, suspecting every good person, and Dad had ensured I didn't.

"Oi!" The man called again, his friends egging him on. "We're talking to you!" His voice was not as deep, and nowhere near as melodic as the voice of the long-haired man I had left the house to see.

I was disappointed, to say the least, that I hadn't managed to see him. I wondered if he was the type of guy to save a damsel in distress, such as myself. Seeing as he wasn't here, however, I picked up my pace ever so slightly, just enough to put the tiniest bit of extra distance between me and those low lives.

Their footsteps picked up as they followed me, and I grabbed my phone out, typing in the emergency number and having it ready to call. I placed my phone in one hand and grabbed the pepper spray in the other, holding it loosely. I didn't get too stressed, as I knew how to use it and I also knew how to fight, a little bit anyway. 

After the first attack you take a self-defence class and after the fifth attack, you start to take the self-defence classes more seriously. I was well-versed in using my opponent's weight against them along with evading multiple attackers. However, I wasn't well-versed in dodging rocks thrown from blind spots.

The rock hit my shoulder roughly, making me tumble and nearly drop my phone. I clenched it tightly, along with my teeth, and hissed in pain. We were just past the small row of shops near the bar, meaning I still had three blocks until I was home. I wasn't sure I would be able to outrun them, plus I didn't really want to lead them right to my front door. So, I chose the next best course of action. I turned slowly and confronted them, nicely, by hiding both my phone and the pepper spray behind my back.

"Ouch, that hurt guys! Why did you throw a rock at me?" I pouted, trying to act dumb. 

The men glanced at each other and chuckled, thinking they had lucked out. The ghouls that had been clung to my hair and coat all perked up and floated away, heading over to the group of men and clinging to them instead. It seems they had nice dark energy. Fucking assholes, I thought to the ghouls. They hang around me, act all damn clingy and bring all this bad attention onto me, only to ditch when something better comes around. It's probably their fault I was in this situation so often anyway.

"You were ignoring us, little lady," the shortest man spoke, stepping forward acting as though he was a macho man. 

I ignored the need to roll my eyes, instead, I let a small smile spread across my face innocently. I was debating clicking the call, but there was only three of them and none of them were particularly big or muscular. I was, like, eighty-five percent sure I could take them. 

As I was doing the math, figuring out if it was worth risking my life on the fifteen percent I wasn't sure on, the tallest of the three made the decision for me, his hand lunging out to grab me.