A Menace In Disguise

Repercussions

There was a man lying on the ground, bathed in blood, who wanted me to protect a piece of information before taking his last breath.

I stood there trembling, not because of the cold winter air burning my skin but because I literally saw a human go the way of all flesh with my own eyes.

But why me? What could possibly be in the flash drive? Who killed him? All such questions started running through my mind.
But I had to make a decision. To run away and go back to my normal life or get involved in this quagmire.

"Dad!" I heard a scream which made me turn back instantaneously.

I saw a brunette, with bruises all over her face, run toward the dead man.

"Oh my god!" She broke down as she held him.

"Please come back. I need you" She cried after seeing the dagger stabbed in his stomach.

I stood there, feeling rueful for that girl.

She released him and wiped her tears,  looking at me.

"I don't ...... know...... anything, I ..... came here" I stammered as words couldn't come out of my mouth.

"I know you didn't do anything. It's them. But you shouldn't be here. Just get the hell out of here before they come back searching for me" She said, gasping.

The girl seemed to be somewhat of my age. She was badly hurt, physically as well as emotionally.

I went near to her and held her shoulders.

"What are you gonna do now?" I didn't want to leave her alone as she was in agonizing pain.

"Don't worry about me. Just go" She pushed me.

Then I remembered about the flash drive.

"Your dad mentioned about a flash drive kept in that box" I said pointing toward the box.

She quickly took the box in her hand and gave it to me.

"I can't keep this" I tried returning the box but she refused to take it back.

"Please. I can't keep it to myself. They're searching for me all over the town. Catherine you're the only person I can trust right now. Please just keep it and don't mention a single word about this to anyone. I can't let this flash drive go in wrong hands. The world needs to know about this. Only you can stop this now. Go run" she pushed me and turned back to her father.

"What is she talking about? What does she want me to stop? Why is she being so vague?"  I wanted to ask her all that.

"You can come with me" I said instead.

"No. I wanna stay with me father." She got down on her knees and started crying again.

I ran toward my car as fast as I could and started off the engine. I gave the girl one last glance and drove away.

Two weeks later

I got a feeling of being followed by someone. I looked back and there was no one to be seen. I started walking fast because I needed to get back home safe with the flash drive. I heard the footsteps and just then someone pushed me forward which made me fall on the ground, on my head. They snatched the flash drive away from me and I noticed one of the men pull out the same dagger which was used to kill the girl's father, as I turned back. I slowly started moving backwards when I saw the same guy who was stabbed earlier. He stood behind the men, with a poker face, looking straight at me. He had the same clothes on, the same dagger stabbed, that the guy had pulled out. "Run, or they'll kill you too" He said. I saw the men surround me and one of them came forward and was about to kill me...

"No!" I sprung out of my bed. There were sweat drops formed on my forehead and I started panting.
I checked for the time on the clock kept on the nightstand and it displayed 7 am.

I had been dreaming about such things since the night I got back with that box. It had been two weeks since that incident but I still couldn't sleep at nights.
The dead man kept showing up in my dreams and those dreams always ended with someone trying to kill me and me waking up at odd hours at night.

But nothing uncanny happened since then. I got home safe with the box and there were no signs of danger.

But there were some unanswered questions. Why did he want me to protect the flash drive? How did the girl know my name? Who were they? And why was the flash drive so important to them?

I still didn't know what was in it. I couldn't pluck up the courage to check it out. So I kept it in one of the  drawers on the nightstand.

                            #######

"So you got up on the wrong side of the bed, again? Cause you kinda looked lost at college today" Bridget asked me as she completed her math Hw.

Kyle, Reece and I had gathered at Bridget's house for group study. I was always crabby because I never slept well at nights. I couldn't concentrate in class and I stopped talking to people around me. But Bridget somehow managed to bring me here at her place.

"I'm fine and how come you finished before me? I tried to act avid.

"This group study was just an excuse to bring you here Catherine. We really needed to pull an intervention" Bridget said, looking concerned.

I took a deep breath.

"You've been acting really weird since a couple of days. We're worried about you" Reece said.

I nervously twirled a strand of hair around my finger and spoke.

"Guys, trust me. There's nothing to worry about. There's no need to make a big deal out of it." I let out a laugh while my stomach clenched into knots.

"You know you don't sound convincing right?" Kyle added.

"Okay just stop it. Why are you guys breathing down my neck? I said everything's fine. I'm fine. Just mind your own businesses" I snapped at them. I got up to leave when Bridget tried to stop me.

"Catherine please."

"I wanna be alone. I'm going home." I said rudely and left.

I parked my car in the driveway and started moving toward my apartment.

I came in and locked the door.

I stripped out of my clothes and entered the bathroom to take a cold shower.

After a while, the bell rang. I panicked as I wasn't expecting anyone at this time.

I came out of the bathroom, and slipped into my bathrobe.

I gathered all my courage and answered the door. But there was no one. I scanned in both the directions but I couldn't feel anyone's presence.

I was about to shut the door when I found a piece of paper lying on the floor.

I picked it up and almost collapsed after reading what was written.

"I know you have it" read the paper.
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Are you excited about what's gonna happen next? And how did the girl know her name?
Next update coming soon.