Short Stories

Just hold on

It was a rainy day and Alisha was just getting up from bed, she was in an amazing mood since she woke up to breakfast in bed made by her roommate. She knew he was trying to woo her but he just didn't seem to get the point across that she looked at him just as her brother. Nonetheless, a little favor here or there was extremely appreciated so she simply smiled at him and got out to get ready to work. 

It was a completely normal day at work. The days were pretty repetitive in Alisha's life but she liked it like that. As she was walking down the alley, taking the usual route to their shared apartment, she noticed something out of the ordinary in her boring life. She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw a group of people talking and mumbling softly at one side of the opening of the alley. She didn't know if she should just walk past quietly, turn around or just stand there till they left but in the end she decided to go with the latter.

Hiding behind a trash bin, scared to make a noise, she crouched to cover her body and waited for the people to leave. She didn't want to eavesdrop, yet standing so close, she could hear everything even when she did not want to.

Alisha couldn't quite understand the topic of the conversation yet she knew something illegal was happening near her home. It wasn't completely shocking, living in the middle of such a densely populated and famous city but she still did not want to indulge in what was going on at the scene. She was about to tiptoe out of the situation when she heard something she could not ignore. 

"The spare parts of the bomb were found, everything is going as planned. You'll have it by tomorrow evening."

'Bomb?', Alisha thought as she quickly hid behind the bins again. 

"This city would be in ashes in the next 48 hours. And all thanks to us too.", Some guy said as he handed the other party a briefcase and shook hands  right before going their separate ways.

'The city would be in ashes in the next 48 hours.', these words echoed in Alisha's head as she sunk to the ground, hand on her mouth as she attempted to muffle her sobs in case any of the guys were still hanging around. After waiting for what felt like an eternity but was actually only 5 minutes, she stood up to walk back home when she felt a sharp pain in her head and fell down to the floor.

.

Alisha opened her eyes, blinking them profusely to adjust them to the brightness of the room. She felt around for her glasses and put them on before noticing she was in her own room. 

'Was that all a dream? How did I get here?', Alisha thought as she stretched her limbs when she suddenly remembered everything that happened and fear ran down her spine. She quickly threw on her slippers and tried to look around for anything different on her body. 

'I feel okay... what did they do to me then and why am I home?', Alisha thought as she ran out the door to find her roommate talking to one of the guys whom she saw at the alley and she felt like her heart stopped.

"OMG Alisha! You almost gave me a heart-attack. It's such a blessing that this gentlemen here found you and brought you back!", her roomie exclaimed not knowing the consequences of letting a terrorist into their apartment. The guy just smirked at Alisha knowing very well she couldn't out him right now.

"How long was I out?", Alisha asked shakily and almost fainted when she found out that she'd been out for almost a day and a half. 'That means they plan to bomb us today.'

"I'll be taking my leave then.", the guy broke the silence, getting up and buttoning up his jacket. 

"Wait why won't you stay for a while? You saved her..", Her roomie exclaimed, earning a death glare from Alisha and a chuckle from the mysterious guy.

"Don't worry, I'll have my eyes on her.", he said, looking you straight in the eye and dropping the intimidating look to wink at your roommate. 

As soon as the guy left Alisha got to her feet. "Julian we HAVE to get out of here. That guy isn't who you think he is."

"Wait what?", Julian replied as he stopped his task of cleaning the coffee table and stared at her.

"Lemme rephrase that... Would you run away with me?"

"What are you talking about Alisha, we already live together?", Julian asked as he smiled at her silliness.

"Please Jules, for me?", She said, knowing that name was his weakness. He stared at her for a while before sighing and giving in. "Fine let's go see our parents now that we are going ahead and leaving the city."

"Yeah sure, I'd like that.", she exclaimed, dragging him out of the room and jumping into their car and turning up the engine.

Running away seemed harder than Alisha thought it would be, she had already called the police up and was hoping to see some evacuation in progress yet she was frustrated to see this Thursday morning be like another regular day of work. 

"Come on almost there.", she mumbled as she reached the end of the city but had to brake with a screech when she realized that the bridge was closed. "What the-", Alisha started as she got out of the car and motioned for Julian to get out as well.

"Shit shit SHIT SHIT!", Alisha screamed as she took a hold of a confused Julian's hand and started running towards the bridge.

'It's too late', was the only thought Alisha could subconsciously think of before getting blasted away by a huge explosion coming from the center of the city. She looked at Julian with eyes full of moisture and mumbled a sorry.

"I love you. Just hold on, okay?", Alisha said, crying when she saw him reciprocate it back and everything faded to black.

THE END