Chapter Five: She

Approaching midnight, Stamos has descended into a malevolent shadow of decrepit neglect.  Whilst gently bustling by day, the streets have now submitted to that which reigns by cover of night.  Cowering under the shroud of darkness, local ‘businesses' begin their nocturnal office hours, whilst the echoes of ever-distant sirens struggle to extend this far into depravity.  The district by night is a burnt fuse on old circuitry, a testament to society's ability to sweep the undesirable under the rug. 

An old, generously bearded homeless man wakes abruptly in an alley adjacent to the local pawn shop, two blocks south of Peg's Diner.  Strewn around the area are piles of discarded trash, illuminated by the intermittent blink of the ‘Pawn Shop' neon sign. 

The vagrant rises from an improvised bed of rotten boxes and wet, faded newspaper, catching sight of a figure lying face-down on the floor several feet away as he does so.  The man, dressed in dull-coloured charity hand-outs and a jacket recently liberated from the body of an alley-mate, slowly shuffles towards it, stopping sporadically to cough violently and catch his breath.  Muttering quietly to himself about the nuisance caused by his uninvited guest, he reaches the figure of a woman dressed in a yellow dress, laddered tights and an apron.  Cautiously extending his arm to pull her hair back from her face, the woman comes to and murmurs gently to herself.  Still not fully conscious as she turns herself over to reveal a deep gash on her forehead, the old man jumps back afraid, shuffling away on his hands and knees and concealing himself within several cardboard boxes stacked against the wall behind him. 

As the woman opens her eyes slowly and begins to sit-up, she clasps her wound in reaction to the pain now rapidly shooting through her head.  Leaning against the wall, she finally regains her equilibrium, beginning to lightly sob as the realisation of what took place dawns on her.  Her bag, shoes and jacket are missing.  She's been mugged, again.  The neon sign persistently hums in time with her increasing tears, revealing her delicate, bruised features for the briefest of seconds.  Her subtle, ethereal beauty providing a sharp contrast with the cuts and bruises she has recently sustained.  "Oh god, pull yourself together" she orders herself defiantly, and using the wall for leverage she stands upright, exposing a further superficial cut on her right knee.  The unlucky woman wipes the tears from her eyes and their trails from her cheeks, before limping to the end of the alley to check that it's safe to make her way into the street.

"We...We've been waiting for someone to bleed here, there's n...n...never anyone around to close up afterwards" the homeless man offers suddenly whilst finding the courage to come out from his cardboard enclave, picking something up off the floor and walking towards the woman with an outstretched arm.  Shocked by the sudden company and the stranger's advances, she leaves the alley and flees into the night.  Left standing alone, the homeless man calls after her weakly "But, y...y...you've forgotten your name" Unable and unwilling to give chase, he drops the item in a puddle and retreats back to his makeshift bedding, grumpily muttering about people leaving blood-stains on the carpet as he settles peacefully once again. 

Sitting face-up in the puddle, left to join the discarded, forgotten refuse is a name-tag for staff at Peg's Diner.  Hastily scrawled in fading ink below the greeting of ‘Hi my name is:' is a woman's name.

Anne.

Chapter Six: The 3rd of Never and Always

"It's gonna be a dark and miserable day today, folks.  Rain storms are predicted across the entire..." The radio DJ is interrupted by a weary fist repeatedly striking the ‘alarm off' button.  "No, really?" Anne spits to herself sarcastically in response to the forecast.  Lying next to the alarm clock on a bedside stand are the spare set of keys she keeps hidden outside the room for emergencies, and a photo of Anne with a young boy.  They sit on a picnic rug in an empty park bathed in the warm, amber glow of the late-evening summer sun.  The boy sits on Anne's lap as they smile broadly and playfully towards the camera.       

A shard of light coming through a hole in the curtains catches her in the eyes as she rises out of bed, shared only with the occasional cockroach or soft toy.  The prior evening's events had taken their toll on her slight frame.  Standing upright with slow progress, her right knee immediately stiffens and her head pulses with routine bouts of stabbing pain.  Revealing a tiny run-down studio apartment granting little in the way of comfort, Anne hobbles the short distance to the window, squinting at the sun which briefly pierces through a gap in the clouds as she draws back the curtains. 

Proceeding to the bathroom, Anne locks the door and takes a long, trembling sigh as she stares at the head wound in the mirror of the wall cabinet beside her.  Biting her lip to curtail the onset of tears, she opens the cabinet door and takes three aspirin out of their box.  With renewed resolve, Anne steps into the bath and begins to shower.  The hot water proves difficult to endure as it pours over and into her wounds, feeling more like a sadistic, hydrochloric water torture.  Switching the shower off and stepping out of the bath gingerly, she dries herself off, slips on the same waitress dress as the night before and reaches for a hair-dryer.  Repeatedly flipping it on and off to no avail, she moves into the main room and sees the alarm clock with no display.  The lights won't flicker to life and trying the microwave doesn't yield any results.  "Oh no, no, no not again" Anne says to herself as she rushes to the door to go and beat the landlord's door down, only to be faced by him as she pulls it open.

"Sid I have to get to work and..."

Anticipating her frustration, the portly, unkempt landlord dressed in a dirty tank top and worn brown pants gestures for Anne to calm down.

"Yeah, yeah, the fuse, I don't know - blew up again and I can't get anyone out to fix it today.  You know if you need help I could always..." He offers, looking past Anne into her apartment and moving towards the door.

Slamming the door in his face with a mix of mild trepidation, disgust and frustration, Anne quickly ties her hair back, leaving some to hang over the wound just below her hairline, picks up her keys and leaves the apartment. 

The hallway is dark, damp and rotten like a ship on its final voyage.  Affectionately named "Old Oak Apartments", it's an old building, and living up to its name with vigour.  The city would have torn it down years ago were it not for the stubborn protests of the landlord.  From the street the building appears derelict, adhering to the overall standard of living in Westview.  It is accommodation of the lowest order, attracting only the destitute and out-of-luck. 

Anne reaches the stop to be greeted by a young teenager pulling faces from the back seat of the bus as it speeds away without her.  Throwing her keys to the pavement in frustration, she sighs with resignation as she picks them up again, and sits on the bench to wait for the next bus. 

It begins to rain, in response to which Anne can only whisper "Typical" to herself.

Chapter Seven: Dues

"I can't believe I'm late again.  He's gonna fire me this time, for sure" I think to myself as I burst through the back door, and into the locker room of the diner.  Janelle's in there finishing her break, spraying the last remaining drop of perfume onto her neck and putting her apron back on. 

"Hey, girl, jeez what happened to you?" she asks as I fumble around with my locker combination, where I'm relieved to find a clean apron to cover the blood stains on my dress. 

"Oh I just um, I lost my keys and had to climb the fire escape to get into my apartment. You know how slippery those stairs are, anyone could take a fall" I reply, albeit unconvincingly.

"Well you better get ready, Barry's got it in for you, ya know" Janelle advises me as she exits the locker room to go back to work.

Before the door can swing shut, the manager Barry comes through it into the room with me, striding purposefully.  I guess I didn't see him for a second, fixated as I am on concealing my cuts and stains.  Barry would make me pay for a new dress out of my wages if he found out.  I shut my locker and turn round to be confronted with his face close to mine, screwed-up in anger.  I can almost taste his rotten breath.

"Annie, so glad you stopped by.  Whenever you're ready to join us out front princess, you just tinkle your little bell and come through when you're ready huh?" He spits with barely restrained sarcastic fury.

The desperation in my voice almost makes me feel as sick as his heaving breath on my face.  I don't care about his crappy job, or his crappy uniform, or that he's upset about me being late again.  I do care about the money though, and how it would look if I lost my job.  Like it or not, my future lies in the hands of this overweight, greasy, Neanderthal of a man "I'm really sorry, Barry.  The electric in my building went again and my clock wouldn't work so technically it wasn't my..."   

Barry's tone changes in an instant to a quiet, threatening whisper as he reaches to close the door and leans in to within an inch of my face. "I don't care one tiny bit about you or your pathetic little excuses you little b1tch.  You will be here on time all the time from now on, or you and I are gonna have major problems.  Do you understand what I'm saying to you princess, am I getting through to that tiny little brain of yours?  Now, get your little *CENSORED* to work without a word, you're pulling a double"

"Barry, it won't happen aga..."

"Not one single word, princess, and wear your name-tag" He interrupts.

He lingers in my face for another second or two, feeding on my fear, then leaves the room. 

A slight panic creeps over me as I realise I must have left my name-tag at the apartment.  After desperately searching for it in my locker and pockets, I resolve to rely on Barry's failing memory to get me out of jail.  Who knows what he'd do if he felt I wasn't wearing it on purpose.  There's nothing I can do, I'll just have to risk it. 

I won't cry because of that man, I'm done crying.  A double huh?  Well at least I'll be able to afford the rent this month, and won't have to leave early everyday to avoid Sid.  There's always the chance that ‘he' will come in at some point too.

With a last draw on my will, I take a deep breath and prepare to serve coffee to strangers for 16 hours straight. 

"Once more into the breach"

Chapter Eight: Where Parallels Converge

"More coffee, Hun?" I ask him after summoning the courage to go over again.  I didn't expect him to say anything this time, he never does.  All he does is sit near the window and sip at his coffee whilst staring at the people passing by.  I wonder what he spends all those hours thinking about.  Once in a while his phone rings and he runs off without a word.  He always leaves me a tip though, I like that.

I fill his cup without him so much as acknowledging my presence, and go back behind the counter to clean-up whilst it's quiet.  I'd take his lack of awareness personally with any old deadbeat who wanders in here, but with him it's different.  It's as if he's holding on to a single thought so he doesn't forget it, that what he has on his mind is so important that he can't let it go for a second.  When his thoughts are that meaningful, who am I to try to drag him out of them? 

I wonder what his life is like, where he lives...who he's with.  For a start I've never seen anything like the clothes he wears.  He stands out like a sore thumb round here, but always seems to just fade into the background at the same time.  He's been coming in here for months, and I don't even know his name.    

"I don't pay you to stand around, princess" Barry scornfully whispers in my ear, barrelling into my thoughts and ruining them like a dust-storm obliterating an oasis.  I take my cue and ask my regulars, an elderly couple Mr and Mrs Harris, if they'd like another drink.

"Oh please dear" the old woman replies. "We'd like the biggest chocolate milkshake you can muster, it's our anniversary after all" she adds, proudly. 

I notice the old couple holding hands under the table, and whilst I'm happy for them and this sunshine on an otherwise dreary day, my heart sinks with...jealousy I suppose.

"Congratulations to you both, I'll be right back with your drink.  It's on me"

After serving their milkshake I retreat back to behind the counter, happily letting my thoughts wander once again to distract me from my pettiness whilst I fill the sugar jars.

The vibrations of his ringing phone jolt me out of my thoughts instantly.

He answers the call seemingly agitated, and I find myself hoping that I've done nothing wrong.  He moves for the first time in hours and goes over to the window, looking up at the sky.  He seems anxious, tense.  I find myself walking over to him before even thinking of doing so.

"You ok, Hun?" I manage to ask under my breath like a complete moron with nothing better to say.  He doesn't respond and keeps his gaze fixed to the sky.  A moment later, the other customers join us at the window to see what we're both looking at.  Just as I begin to wonder if he's simply overly keen on rain storms, he begins to usher us all back away from the window.  I manage to sneak a glance at his eyes behind his ever-present glasses as I brush past him, following his gestures for everyone to get back.  They look exactly as I had imagined, but with added concern.  Something's wrong.

As everyone moves back whilst staring intently at the window, two people fall from the sky, followed by a man landing after looking as though he jumped from the roof.  He says something and runs away.  A frenzied rush of panic sweeps over the customers as they run away from the window upon witnessing the bodies fall, knocking Mrs Harris over in the process.  There have been so many lately I immediately think it's a mugging taking place right outside, and run to the counter to get the first-aid kit just in case it spills off the street, and into the diner.  I go to a screaming baby first and give it a hug to calm it down whilst the mother looks on, shocked by the sudden flurry of motion.  The sound of gunshots from down the street reaches the room, and the customers dive under the tables, terrified.  I hand the baby back to its mother and urge them both to do the same.  Shuffling over on my hands and knees to Mr and Mrs Harris to help them under their table, I notice him flying out through the door. 

I want to go with him.  I want to know what's going on.  The swelling urge to run after him is as strong as my desire to leave the diner and never come back.  Reality strikes me in the split-second he's still in sight, and all I can do is shout something stupid after him, perhaps hoping that he'll stop and...I don't know - take me away - silly really. 

After a few minutes of uncomfortable, anticipatory silence, the customers tentatively begin to come out from cover and I check around to see if anyone's hurt.  They all leave after I give everyone a hot drink to calm their nerves, still in shock but unscathed. 

I stand alone amongst the upturned chairs and scattered tables in the centre of the diner, confused over what had just taken place, and processing it all.  I swear I saw two people hitting the ground outside the window, but there's nothing there now. 

Perhaps he's a cop, that's why he runs off on a moments notice.

Perhaps I'm asleep after my double-shift and this is all a dream.

"What the he11 happened? I was gone for ten minutes and you turn this place into Beirut, get this cleaned up, NOW" Barry roars at me from the entrance.

Wishful thinking.

Glad to see the second portion so soon!

 It surprised me at first to see the other perspective, the other side of the looking glass if you would allow me the cliche.  It was interesting to see how similar her thoughts were to Ex's, seeming to me that some sort of convergence has to happen in the next section, unless there are going to be even more chapters doing the same sort of dual perspective insight.

 OR I imagine there will be a third perspective introduced, but personally, I hope that there is a progression in the story now.  I think these chapters definitely have increased the suspense, the desire of the reader to know what is going to happen next!

 (I wonder if Ex is going to save her after all.  But then again, I'm also wondering what's going to happen to those confounded EPN's at the hands of Ex and Esoterix!)

Over all, two thumbs up!

Ah the forum finally allowed me to finish this, great work Ex, looking forward to seeing more