Someone was watching me. I could feel the eyes roaming against my skin as I sat at the coffee table. I wrapped my delicate fingers around the cup and raised it to my lips, my taste buds savoring the caramel frappe. I glanced at the corner of my eyes to see two young gentlemen talking in hushed whispers while looking in my direction. I lowered my eyes to the now ringing cell phone and with confusion brought it up to my ear.
“Hello?” My voice came out shaky.
“Run…” the voice whispered quietly.
My heartbeat heightened and I felt a chunk of air breeze out from my lungs. The hairs on my head stood at attention and my palms became sweaty.
“Sorry wrong number…” I pulled the phone away from my ear to hang up the call when I heard the six words that stopped me.
“Danielle, I know who you are.”
The world started spinning and all noise from the coffee shop was now drowned out by the ringing in my ears, the sound of my heartbeat in my head.
“How do you know my name? Who ar-“
“I know you’re scared, but those two men you see over there…” he took a pause and I took a chance to glance at the two men dressed in business suits.
“Aren’t necessarily interested in what you’re wearing. I need you to get up, leave everything and head for the bus station on Ave 5th, take the 2 o clock train and stop at station number 5, someone will be waiting there for you.” The phone call was abruptly cut off and all I could hear was the buzzing on the other line, signaling the end of the call, but I couldn’t hang up, I couldn’t stop my hand from tightening around my cell phone as if it was my lifeline. The noise from the coffee shop returned and I could perfectly hear the sound of two chairs scarping against the tile floor, I didn’t even have to look to know that it was the two young gentlemen. I slowly lifted myself from the chair and placed my phone in my back jean pocket, and side stepped away from the table and headed for the exit. My mind was telling my legs to move faster but my legs didn’t respond, they moved at a robotic pace. I pushed the door open and stepped outside, letting the chilly evening air for a moment. I looked right to left, anxiety rising in my veins. I started left, forcing my legs to take large strides. I looked back to see the young gentlemen jogging behind me, trying to play it cool as we passed other pedestrians along the sidewalk. I turned the corner and ran right into a young woman jogging with her headphones in her ears.
“Hey watch it!” she called after me and the adrenaline coursing through me made my strides turn into sprints. The two gentlemen behind me started to catch on as they were now chasing me down the streets, the sound of my heels clicking on the sidewalk.
“What a bad day for heels” I scolded myself, out of breath.
I looked back and realized that the gentleman had stopped running due to the fact that they ran into a lady with a stroller who was now wailing for the police to come. I stopped in front of a alleyway and jogged next to the dumpster, hiding next to it. I dropped to my knees and began to catch my breath, the pain in my side stopping me from continuing from running to the train station. I heard two pairs of footsteps getting closer to the alleyway, the angry voice approaching my hiding spot.
“The boss is gonna kill us if we don’t bring her back.” One smooth voice said.
“We’ll find her, she couldn’t have gotten fa-“ his sentence was cut off by the ringing emitting from my back pocket. I grabbed my phone and hastily tried to stop the ringing.
“Hello!? Danielle? Where are you?! I’m at the coffee sh-“ I ended the call and held my breath, cursing Pamela for calling me at a time like this.
The footsteps got closer to the dumpster and I found myself pushing my back against the bricked wall, fear creeping up in my stomach ready to attack my heart. Before the footsteps could approach my hiding spot two loud gunshots echoed through the alleyway and the heavy sound of bodies hitting the ground shook in my mind. I took a peek around the dumpster and saw the two gentlemen lying on the ground, their bodies contorted at weird angles as the blood poured out from the bullet wounds in the middle of their foreheads. My eyes widened in surprise as I raised a shaky hand to my mouth to keep me from shouting. Tears welled up in my eyes but before I had a chance to let one spill for the two strangers a pair of hands grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled my backwards.
I let out a blood curling scream that was quickly quieted by the steel barrel held against my temple.
“Make another sound and I will kill you…” Every nerve in my body frozen, leaving me completely frozen. The mysterious man wrapped his free hand around my neck and started dragging me backwards, my heels stumbling against the gravel.
“Please…” I pled, my voice not sounding human to myself. Despite the warning I couldn’t help but beg for the chance to live, I felt the need to try to get out of this situation, to fight against all the odds.
The cold, clammy hand unwrapped from my neck but slid up around my shoulder to spin me around, my eyes wandered up to my captor and I knew that I had to try with everything in me not to let the scream that was calling out my throat to surpass. My eyebrows scrunched in confusion as I looked onto a familiar face, my eyes roaming over the similar features. The light brown eyes, the straight nose and flushed cheeks. Her hair cascaded down her back, the black long hair blowing slightly in the breeze.
“Please…Don’t freak out. I know I have a lot of explaining to do.” My voice came out from her mouth.
Standing before me was…me.
