When Darkness Calls

Chapter 2: The betrayal

POV: ELENA

My feet ached before my shift even started, and that alone told me how far I'd come from the girl who used to ride a bicycle to school every morning.

Five years of standing on my feet, five years since I traded a backpack for an apron, and some mornings I still couldn't believe how fast it all went.

My manager called me into the back before I could even clock in. "Elena, we need to talk." Something in his voice made my stomach drop before he said another word.

"We're cutting hours," he said. "Corporate wants us to trim staff. I'm sorry, but we have to let you go."

"Let me go? You mean I'm fired?"

"Laid off. I wish I had better news."

I stood there for a second, my apron still in my hand, unable to find the words. At twenty-three, I was unemployed by nine in the morning, and that wasn't how I pictured this year going.

"Can I at least finish out the week?"

"Today's your last day."

I nodded slowly, because what else was there to do, and walked out of his office feeling like the floor had shifted under me.

I texted Danielle on my way out. Just got laid off. This day is already terrible.

WHAT!!! Come by after, we'll figure it out.

I walked the six blocks to Marcus's apartment instead, because I needed him; two years with him had taught me he was the one person who could make a bad day feel smaller.

I let myself in with the spare key he'd given me last year. "Marcus?" There was no answer.

I heard something from the bedroom, a laugh, and my stomach dropped a second time that day.

I pushed the door open.

He was there, and Danielle was there. My best friend since middle school, the one I'd just texted twenty minutes ago, was sitting up in his bed with the sheet barely covering her.

Neither of them heard me until it was too late for either of us to pretend I hadn't seen everything.

"Elena." Marcus shot up so fast he nearly fell off the bed. "This isn't what it looks like."

I looked at Danielle. She didn't even have the decency to look away. "Danielle."

"Elena, I can explain."

“Explain what exactly? That you've been sleeping with my boyfriend while telling me to come over after I just lost my job?”

"It just happened."

"It just happened. For how long?"

Neither of them answered.

"How long? Marcus."

"A few months," he said quietly.

“A few months. Longer than I'd even suspected.”

I felt my throat tighten, felt the tears building right behind my eyes, but I refused, I absolutely refused to let either of them see me break.

"Okay," I said, my voice steadier than I felt.

"Okay?" Marcus blinked.

"Okay. I'm leaving now."

"Elena, wait. Can we just talk?"

"There's nothing to talk about." I looked at Danielle one more time. "I hope you two are very happy together."

I turned and walked out. Then I heard him calling my name behind me, but I didn't stop, I didn't slow down, I just kept walking until I was three blocks away, and my whole body finally gave out.

The tears came then, hot and furious, the kind that made it hard to see the sidewalk in front of me.

Why did this always happen to me? My life had been hell since I was little, and now I'd lost my job, my boyfriend, and my best friend all in the same afternoon. It felt like none of it had ever meant anything.

I wiped my face with the back of my sleeve and kept walking, because crying on a street corner wasn't going to fix anything; it never had before.

***

By the time I reached my parents' building, I'd stopped crying, at least on the outside, but my eyes were still red, and my mother saw it the second I walked through the door. "Elena." She set down the spoon she was holding. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Elena, my daughter."

"Mom, please, not right now."

She crossed the kitchen and pulled me into a hug before I could stop her, and that was worse somehow, because I broke down again right there against her shoulder, everything I'd been holding back finally spilling out.

"I lost my job today," I said into her sweater. "And Marcus was cheating on me with Danielle."

"With Danielle." My mother pulled back, her face twisting in disbelief. "Your Danielle?"

"My Danielle."

"Oh, baby."

"I don't understand why everything happened on the same day. Why does it always have to be everything at once?"

My father came in from the living room, took one look at my face, and didn't ask questions, just squeezed my shoulder on his way to the stove. "Sit down," he said. "Food's almost ready."

"I'm not hungry."

"Sit down anyway."

Then I sat.

My little brother came stomping in from his room, phone in hand, oblivious. "Why does Elena look like she's been crying?"

"Marcus is an i***t," my mother said flatly, "and so is Danielle."

"Danielle? What did she do?"

"Don't worry about it," I said.

"Wait, did they-" His eyes went wide. "No way. Together?"

“Yes, together. Now, can we please talk about literally anything else?”

"That's so messed up. I never liked either of them, honestly."

"You've never even met Marcus properly."

"I've heard enough. Sounds like a clown convention over there."

That got a real laugh out of me, small and cracked, but real.

My mother set a plate in front of me, full of rice and stew. The same meal she'd made a hundred times before, and somehow it still smelled like home. "Eat," she said. "You'll feel better."

"Mom, food doesn't fix a day like today."

"No, but it helps you survive it long enough to fix yourself."

My father raised his glass of juice like it was something fancier. "To Elena, who's too good for people who don't know what they have."

"Dad."

"I mean it."

My brother raised his glass too, grinning. "To get rid of two clowns instead of one."

I laughed again, and it felt less cracked this time, and for a little while, sitting there with the three of them, the ache in my chest quieted down enough that I could breathe.

By the time dinner was over, I'd made up my mind about one thing.

I wasn't going to sit around waiting for Marcus, Danielle, or anyone else to decide what happened to my life. I needed a real job, something that paid well enough to help my family, and I needed it fast.

I picked up my phone that night before bed and opened the job listings app.

One posting caught my eye before I even finished scrolling. It was for a position at a big company called Vale Enterprises.

The salary was more than I'd expected to see in one place. It was enough to change things for my family.

I stared at the screen for a few seconds before pressing Apply.

I had no idea that one application was about to change my entire life.