Be Brave

Chapter 2

Kiara

"Truth." I answer, doubtingly.

"Okay, let me think...which guy would you go out with?"

I rolled my eyes. It was about the tenth time that Becky had asked this question, always with the same response.

"I don't know OK, I am not the kind of person who goes around with guys."

"So are you suggesting that you're gay?"

"Maybe, Doctor Phil."

Becky gives it up and slumps back down in her beanbag.

"This is hopeless, I can't read your mind. You seem so, confused."

I snort. "Isn't everybody sometimes."

"Yeah, mostly when people are inlove. But the weird thing about you is that, well, you don't seem inlove. I mean, you're lucky, you have plenty of guys falling for you."

I shudder, remembering the pile of romantic letters stacking up in my mailbox all signed with kisses from Aaron. This had been going on for over a month now. Since I hadn't known how to react, I'd brought them to Becky and she had acted like my phsycologist again, but I never left her house with secure feelings.

I sit up from her bed and check the One Direction clock hanging from the wall. The hands clearly marked 16:40.

"Okay Doctor Phil, our phsycological session is over for today, and I need to go to the restaurant now."

"Bye" Becky answered, laughing her same old usual tingly laugh.

"By the way you should call me Doctor Phil more often, I think it suits me" Becky adds before I walk out of the room.

Its a good fifteen minutes cycle from Becky's to the restaurant. twenty if the wind is coming from the front. I do enjoy the bike ride though. The fresh air helps me take my mind off my troubles, lets me sink into my own daydreams.

A car honks at me, plunging me back into the world around me. I didn't realize that I was standing infront of a rusty old traffic light, glowing green. I hop on the saddle and start paddling hard uphill. I check my watch, 16:55. I swear in my head. I'll have to cycle fast to get there on time, my boss will never forgive me if I turn up late. I shouldn't let my mind drift away from its senses so easily. I should learn to keep my mind down to the real things.

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I walk into the kitchen briskly as soon as the clock strikes 5. My boss raises his eyebrows.

"Just on time, get to work. Kiara you'll be in charge of tables 7 - 11, Ann, you've got tables 1 - 6 and Alex you've got tables 12 - 16. Okay, off you go."

The hustle and bustle of the kitchen slowly comes back to life again with the clanking of saucepans, the hissing of the taps running hot steaming water, the sizzling of food being fried and the the cooks yelling for their orders.

I grab my pencil and notebook and walk out of the kitchen door into the guest room where there is some jazz music playing quietly. The volume difference between the kitchen and the guest room is tremending. A good thing that they installed sound-proof walls all around the kitchen just a week ago. There are hardly any customers at this time of the evening. Alex is incharge of two couples at tables 14 and 16 and I'm incharge of five friends sitting at table 8. Ann, a woman well in her fourties, will just have to sit down and wait. I walk straight over to them, collecting the big black menu cards on the way.

"Goodevening" I say, and I hand out the menus.

More people arrive towards 18:00. Table eight is free, but all of Alex's tables are occupied, although Ann still has two more tables left. I see family of four step inside. I immediately recognize him. Lori. The guy from the scouts. I don't meet his eyes. As I had expected, they sat down at table 8. I took a deep breath, gathered all the menus, and headed towards them, fiddling slightly with my blond hair which had been tied back in a bun.

''Goodevening'' I say, as usual. My mind was racing. My heart was beating faster. What should I do? Just ignore him? No, that would be mean.

''Hi'' replied Lori, his sky-blue eyes looking into my brown ones.

''Herrooo!!!!'' cried what I suppose is his little sister. I smile at her and Lori. They smile back. Crap, what do I do now?

I clear my throat, looking away. ''Uhm... what would you guys like to drink?''

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Its 23:50 now and the kitchen staff is busy cleaning up the kitchen. There are only a group of friends and a couple left in the dining room. Both occupying Ann's tables.

''Hey Kiara, could you go and get me some steak from the storage room?'' Ally asks, we're running out.

''Yeah, sure.''

I swallow and close my eyes, I hated the meat storage room, with the dead animals and the knives, oh God those knives.

I go down the stairs. Its chilly down here, and dark. Silence all around, although I can sense the dead carcasses hanging from the ceiling. I can hear my the blood pounding in my ears, and I hear my own exhale, appreviated and gasping.

I fight my thoughts, trying to keep the bad ones out. I reach for the light switch, but I stumble and fall.

Suddenly my whole past lies infront of me. The picture of me, lying sprawled out on the floor, panting hard. The sickingly sweat stench of blood fills my nose, I am covered in it, with the knife in my hand. I get up, and run, run, run anywhere but that wretched place, blinded by the murky crimson colours. Get out of there.

I wake up, pushing the thoughts away with great effort, I realize that I am panting noisily, beads of sweat run down my face. I look around. Something has changed. The smell, its here too... blood. I hear a constant drip-drip-drip all around me. I want to run, but my feet are nailed to the cold concrete below the soles of my shoes. my blood runs cold, the sweet smell of blood is making my stomach churn, threatening to throw up the small meal I had had in the kitchen. I hear the breathing of somebody else in the room, then all of a sudden, comes the scraping of a knife against the concrete floor. I freeze. I hear it getting louder, it is coming closer. My heart is beating at a swift pace, I am gulping for air, as if my lungs had just shut down. My brain is a turmoil, I can't think straight anymore.

Suddenly I hear someone hurry down the steps. I hear the knife clatter to the ground and the lights switch on.

''There you are! Does it really take that long to get a...'' Ally stopped dead. She sees what I see. Right infront of us. A pig, hanging from its hind legs with thousands of cuts engraved in its pink bloody flesh. Ally gasps. The cuts engrave a message. I know that Ally couldn't decifer it. But I could. It was greek.

Ένα μάτι για ένα μάτι,

Μια πληγή για μια βαθειά πληγή

I turn around to head back up the stairs and there's another message, this time in english written with blood on the wall.

Kiara, my little girl,you can't escape me, I know you're here.

I close my eyes. I know what I have to do.