Chapter Eight
Fated to Meet
Walking alone didn’t scare her as much as walking along with a stranger. The street was quiet and not hint of danger could be felt in the atmosphere. Anna didn’t usually walk home from work. Her car broke down yesterday so she was forced to catch a bus. She’d been on duty for three days straight and had not come home since then. She missed Samantha though sometimes she was a pain in the ass. Her mom was on a mission trip for old people initiated by their local church.
As soon as she pushed the gate open and stepped into the front yard, she sensed something wasn’t right. The lights were off and the silence felt weird. Usually, Samantha would throw a party whenever Anna was away for a few days, but tonight was a different scenario. Immediately, she rushed to the entrance door and pushed it open. The door hanged in an angle; the upper hinge was broken off, causing it to slant forward.
She turned on the lights. Her eyes grew wide open and her mouth hung loosely at what she’d seen. She covered her mouth with both of her hands as her knees gave way, causing her to drop down on the floor. The interior of the house was in complete ruin. The windows were shattered, the furniture was torn into pieces and the walls were bombarded with holes.
She took a deep breath and pulled herself up. She couldn’t afford to be weak. What was the point of her training if she would let her emotion cloud her thinking? She needed to stay strong. She had to. As she had come to accept the situation, she hurried to Samantha’s bedroom. Her stomach churned. It was worse than the living room. Almost everything in the room was annihilated, except for the mattress. But the walls and windows, oh dear, they were powdered down.
Anna felt as though her head was going to explode, her face looked so distressed to the extent that she didn’t know whether to cry out or yell her frustration out. Tears began oozing out of her eyes. She felt hopeless, but more so useless because she had failed to protect the most important people in her life. She thrived to be good at her profession and help those who needed justice, but how come she had failed to protect her own family?
Just as when she felt herself dozing off, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She ignored it but soon realized that she could use it to call her sister. Samantha must have escaped and gone somewhere safe. She stood up and called out her sister’s name, but her voice only echoed across the house without response. She pulled her phone from her pocket and the screen lit up.
Garth texted her. “Hey, are you home yet?”
She ignored it and dialed Samantha’s contact number. “Come on, pick it up…” she muttered, her hands were shaking. Samantha’s phone was ringing, but she wasn’t picking it up until the call ended. Anna redialed it again and prayed that this time her sister would pick it up.
After a couple of trials, she had lost hope. Samantha wasn’t answering her calls.
“Where are you, Sam?” she said, tears flowing down her cheeks. Down to nothing, she thought of some ways to find her location and one of them was this tracking app on her phone that was connected to Samantha’s iPhone. Quickly, she clicked on the app and connected it to her sister’s phone to track down her location. Thank goodness Samantha’s phone’s mobile data was turned on. Anna’s hope sprung up, brightening her mood. Clicking the red tear-drop symbol that pointed the location, she was surprised to find out Samantha was in Louisville. It was like six to seven-hour drive from here.
“Shit!” she mumbled, biting her lips. “How am I supposed to get there with my car broken?” She clenched her phone, edging to throw it against the wall. “Calm down, Anna, and think straight.” She closed her eyes and inhaled and exhaled, a great way to clear her mind and devise a plan to get to Louisville in this time of the night.
Half an hour had passed by, but she still had no idea of what to do. She had a mental block. She grabbed the telephone and dialed 911 for help. She should have thought of that a while ago. The phone started ringing. And then someone picked it up, but when she was about to speak an unfamiliar voice interrupted her from behind.
“Who are you?” she asked demandingly, raising her voice.
“I’m Detective Lucas.” He showed her his fake badge and quickly put it back into his leather coat. “Put the phone down. Help is on the way.”
Anna glared at him, not trusting him. Not even a bit. She didn’t recognize him among the detectives around the district. She heard the police receptionist on the line demanding her to speak up. “This is Chief Anna Johnson and I need a back-up,” she said, and then recited the physical address before dropping the phone down.
Looking at the damage done to the property, he couldn’t imagine how Vincent had managed to escape. It took him the whole day to track his scent down and it led him to this place. Had he arrived earlier than she had he would have had the time to look through things and search for something that could help him find Vincent. So now he had to pretend to be someone he was not. But would it work though?
Anna was smarter than he thought.
“Who are you again?” she asked, scrutinizing him with a doubtful look on her face.
“Detective Lucas Stanford.” He reached out his hand, “And you are?”
A sharp look was enough to decline his offer of a handshake. “Who sent you here?”
He took quite some time to reply. To tell the truth, he didn’t know what to say, but he suddenly remembered the guy she was with earlier. He recalled his name tag. “Constable Garth sent me here and I believe he’s an acquaintance of yours.”
“You’re lying,” she accused without caution. “Who are you?!” She pulled her gun and pointed it at him. “You were the guy I bumped into this morning so it’s impossible that you know Garth,” she yelled, threatening to pull the trigger.
A look of great irritation had registered across his face. “You know what? You should be thankful that I’m helping you guys out. I hate humans, but because I hate dark shadows, even more, I’ve chosen to take your side,” he said, losing his patience because he knew he only had limited time before the police arrived; he could hear their sirens from kilometers away.
“You’re sick! Get out of my house or else I’ll shoot you dead.”
“Pull the trigger and see if I care,” he said, daring her to step out of her comfort zone and taste the beauty of killing. He saw so much potential in her and he thought she could be of so much help for the mission; not only she was pretty but more so she was bold and courageous – someone he was looking for.
She took a step back as he advanced toward her. “I’m warning you, don’t move!”
But Lucas kept on walking, completely disregarding her words.
Her hands trembled. Left with no choice, she pulled the trigger and shot him on the shoulder. Her eyes clenched shut. She couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t take to look at a person bleeding to death.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
Anna gasped for air as her eyes bulged out in disbelief. He was standing right in front of her as if nothing happened. There was a hole in his coat’s shoulder where the bullet pierced through, but not a drop of blood oozed out of him. “Who… Who are you?” she dared to ask.
“It’s not important who I am or what I am. What matters is that we’re on the same side, fighting the same battle–”
“I-I don’t understand.”
Lucas heard the siren approaching closer than he’d expected. And to his disadvantage, some of the police officers were not real humans. They must have sensed his presence. This wasn’t good. They had to run if they wanted the sun to rise on them the next day. “I’ll explain everything later, but we have to go now. You’re not safe here. They’ll kill you.”
Fear overshadowed her. “But–”
“Thank me later.” He grabbed her by the hand as they ran outside. He jumped on the driver seat and ordered Anna to hop onto the front passenger seat to lead the way. What surprised was that she took command from someone she barely knew. As they took off, the police cars stopped at her house.