the soul thief ↬ b. barnes

part one || snatched

Tessa Smith sighed, and walked on to the bus like she had done every day for the past 3 years. Taking a seat, she pulled out her earphones, ignoring the foreboding feeling of someone watching her. The bus was crowded, so when Tessa looked around at the passengers, she saw nothing out of place. The bus pulled up at a bus stop, and only a few people managed to get onto the over-flowing vehicle.

———

The bus slowly emptied, until only a few passengers remained, including Tessa. Wishing she had taken the train, as it would have arrived quicker at her school which was over thirty minutes away, Tessa watched as a man wearing all black stepped through the bus doorway. As he walked past her into the backseats, she caught sight of what looked like a small red octopus on the back of his neck. Intrigued, the brunette turned to get a better look at the strange man. However, before she had the chance to turn her head, a hand had clamped over her mouth, muffling her yelp of shock, and another had grabbed her hair. The bus screeched to a stop, and Tessa was dragged down the aisle. A gunshot rung out, followed by the sound of the rest of the passengers screaming. Tessa could see the man holding a gun, and as she was pulled out of the bus, she caught a glimpse of the slumped-over body that used to be the bus driver.

Kicking and punching, Tessa tried to free herself from the grasp of the man with the tattoo, but to no avail. He was strong, stronger than her, and no matter what she did, he remained having an iron tight grip on her. With no other choice, Tessa did what she had to; kicked him where it hurt the most. With a gasp of pain, the stranger's grip weakened, and Tess took her chance. Wrenching her self out of his grasp, she made a break for it, and took off running, silently thanking her dad for taking her to those self defence lessons.

Before she could get far, Tessa heard thundering footsteps chasing behind her, and felt the sharp pain of the butt of a gun hitting the back of her head. Dazed, she fell to the ground, and the last thing she saw before everything went black was manic grin of a psychopath.