Chapter 2 | Shadow in the Dark

"Are you sure you don't want me to take you home?" asked Tristan to Kiara once they got into the parking lot outside the hospital.

That was the second time he offered Kiara a free ride home and just like the first offer, all he got was a rejection. But this time, Kiara used Beth as an excuse.

"I really appreciate that Tristan, but it would be better if I went home with Beth. Our house is just two blocks away."

"That's not a problem, I can drive all night for you."

"No, I…" A sudden gentle and cold wind blew. It was uncanny cold, it made Kiara shiver when the cold air touched her skin. She got goosebumps. Her brunette chest-long hair waved like leaves in the spring. She hugged herself and looked at the sky. The day was getting darker as the sun sets.

"Here," Tristan said as he stripped off his dark blue denim jacket. He placed his jacket on Kiara's shoulder, "Take this."

"Thanks." Kiara looked at Tristan and Beth confusedly, "You guys don't feel that?"

"Feel what? It was just a wind?" Beth answered, she looked just as dazed as Kiara. "You may feel colder because you're sick."

It probably wasn't the only case. For Kiara, it was a peculiar moment. She never felt so scared just because of the wind. As if the wind was just a warning that there was a hungry wolf ready to bite her neck.

"Come on, nothing to worry about," Tristan added.

At first, Kiara thought that it was true. Maybe it was just her head that playing tricks on her. She then grabbed her phone from her navy and white-stripped backpack, the one that she always used both for work and study. She checked her phone.

There were three messages from her Mom, two from her sister, Primrose, one from Sawyer, one from her classmate group chat, and three e-mails from her professor. Yes, as a college student who was about graduate and also a part of the part-time worker, she was that 'busy'.

Regardless of all those e-mails and messages, Kiara put her phone back in its place. After that, it was time she saw something in the dark alley across the road, where she just unintentionally moved her gaze there.

It was a tall man's shadow. His face was drowned in the darkness but not his eyes. His pair of golden eyes looked just like something straight from the savannah. Like a lion that hunts at night.

"Oh my God, who's that?!" screamed Kiara nervously. She was ready to take out her pepper spray.

Tristan looked around the quiet street, "Where?!"

"I saw someone standing there! I swear!" Kiara said while pointing at the dark alley.

Beth frowned, "I don't see anything?"

Tristan bravely checked the dark alley with his little knowledge about martial arts as his safety belt. He walked until the end of that dead-end alley, only to find nothing and hurt his nose with a pile of garbage smell.

He came back while covering his ski-slope-like nose with his right hand, "There's no one there. Just rats, roaches, and garbage."

Kiara can't believe that. Was the doctor give her a hallucinogen shot? "Impossible. I saw it. He was standing here, looking at us."

"How do you know that it was a man?"

"I…I'm just guessing from his figure. There's no way that it was a woman. I didn't see his face. But he just… gone. And his eyes…it was glowing gold. Just like fireflies."

Beth put her hands on Kiara's shoulder, "You started imagining things, Girl, it's time to get you back to your Mama."

Kiara took a deep breath. She then thanked Tristan, "Thank you so much for helping me pay the hospital bills. I'll ask Sawyer to reduce fifty percent of my next month's salary and give it to you instead."

"Maybe you can pay back my generosity with a simple dinner at a pizzeria?" teased Tristan. But because he didn't see any movement from Kiara, he continued and shook his head while smiling awkwardly, "Just kidding." He turned to Beth, "Take her home safely, will you?"

"Aye-aye, Captain. You can trust your crew."

"I will launder your jacket. See you tomorrow, Tristan."

Some good jazz music accompanied Kiara dan Beth's journey home.

"The thing that you saw on the alley, is that true?" asked Beth with eyes kept looking straight at the street.

Kiara opened a can of soda that Tristan brought her earlier, "You know I'm not a good liar, do you?"

"You should try to look for another doctor, Kiara."

"For what? The only thing they would do to me is just run an MRI checkup for a ridiculous amount of bucks and then says 'Sorry, we can't find your problem, Miss Grimoire. If you want, we can recommend you to another doctor. Hell no, I'd rather spend my dollar on another thing."

Beth smiled widely, "Like what? Buying new 'toys' to pleasure yourself? How about that eight-inches vibrator thing?"

"Oh, God, stop it, Beth," said Kiara with disgust.

"Why do I have to stop? For God's sake, you're twenty-four and you have no experience in man at all?! We're all social beings, Hun, you can't keep isolating yourself like that."

"I do have experience." Kiara's cheeks turned slightly red, "But… just not in real life. I have it almost all the time in my head."