Innocent Desires

CHAPTER 2

The jingling sound filled Anna's ears which indicated the arrival of a customer but when she looked up , her eyes widened.

"Oh My-  Eva. OMG, when did you come back?" Anna jumped into her best friend's arms as they hugged each other tightly.

Eva, Anna's best friend since high school. Anna was the nerd type whereas Eva was the always-getting-into-fights one. Eva never allowed anyone to bully Anna. Once a boy who tried his luck, ended up with a bleeding nose with the hard blow from Eva. And Anna always helped her in studies, and Eva was thankful to her for passing every exam without failing. That's one of the reasons why they are still best friends, they loved each other.

Eva was on a vacation to Cuba with her family for the past three weeks. Before going home she decided to drop by her best friend to surprise her. And well, she did surprise her.

"I just arrived and before heading home, I came here. I missed you Annie. I have so much to tell you" Eva's eyes were sparkling with excitement and Anna could not help but giggle at how adorable her friend was.

They sat there talking for a while, as Eva was describing all the beautiful places that she visited. Soon there were customers arriving so Eva stood up and hugged Anna before heading out. Smiling brightly and happy at the arrival of her best friend, Anna made her way back to the cash counter and sat down. Eva was the only true and genuine friend she had, why wouldn't she be happy?

Customers were coming and going, as Anna was busy with them, taking payment and smiling to each and every customer. It was a regular routine for her now. Soon it was lunch break and there were only few people inside so she decided to go have a stroll around as her back was numb from sitting at the same place since morning. Anna requested Hope to have a check on the shop while she went out which she gladly accepted.

Soon Anna was out on the streets, hands stuffed in her jeans pocket and looking around like a small kid. This was something she loved to do. Simply walking around places, watching people and doing nothing. Not that she was lazy but being the quiet self that she was, she always found peace in it. But today she wasn't feeling peace at all. Somehow she felt restless.

Even after Eva dropped by, she was happy for a while but that happiness was short lived and soon disappeared. She felt something weird, very weird. Whenever she felt that, something happens. Not something superstitious but an intuition. And today she felt that something was gonna happen. Good or bad, she didn't know but the feeling wouldn't leave her.

After 15 minutes of walking around she returned to the shop and found Hope sitting at the counter filling the register. She smiled at her as she stood up and let Anna take her seat and then left to attend the customers. Anna decided to distract herself from whatever weird things that she was feeling and focused on the computer screen, going through the monthly records and stuffs.

It was quite dark outside as compared to the time which somehow indicated it would rain. Black clouds were hovering above everywhere with light sounds of thundering at a distance. And soon there were strong wind blowing outside. It was definitely going to rain! Anna looked out of the window slightly frowning when she saw how unexpectedly the whether changed.

"Oh No! I did not get my umbrella." Anna sighed as she stood at the window, looking outside as small droplets of rain began to fall, cascading down the glass. There were very few people on the street when it began raining more heavily, and they were rushing back to the comfort of their homes for some warmth. Cool, strong winds blew across the streets as the rattling of leaves grew louder and the heavy downpour continued steadily.

All the staff had left early as Anna  asked them to, for the weather was unpredictable, but Hope stayed back for cleaning stuffs and even after Anna offered to help clean for one day, she did not give in. Hope cleaned the last table and changed her work attire into her casual clothes and handed over the keys to Anna.

"How are you going home my dear? Should I drop you home? It's raining quite heavily." Hope said taking out her car keys from her purse.

"Oh No, Thanks Hope but your house is in the opposite direction to mine and I don't think going back and forth in this weather would be a good idea" Anna looked outside at the heavens pouring their hearts out. This weather was making the weird feeling grow in her and somehow she just wanted to get home and curl into her bed.

"I think you should leave before the weather gets any worse" she spoke as Hope was staring outside too. Hope nodded softly and was about to leave but stopped and turned around and took out an umbrella from her big carry bag and handed it over to Anna and she smiled

"Take care Anna. I'll see you"

"Goodnight, Hope" and with that she left.

Anna stood there for another 10 minutes and the rain seemed to be pouring steadily outside, 'the heavens are not stopping anytime soon' she thought. She looked at the wall clock which said 8:15 pm. Letting out a huge sigh she decided to just head back home before it's too late or else Grannu would be worried for her.

Shutting down the computer, she swung the bag around her shoulders, picked up the umbrella and after putting off all the lights, she locked the doors and made her way through the heavy rain back home.

The walk back home was harder than she thought. She was walking slowly because of the strong wind blowing, fearing it might take away the umbrella, the only thing shielding her from the heavy downpour. Anna clutched the handle tight between her trembling fingers as the cold wind sent chills running through her body. She was already drenched from knee down as the continue strong blowing made it more difficult for her to walk.

She was half way through when she saw some lights flickering at a distance. Anna tried to ignore it but it didn't seem like a moving vehicle since it was standing immobile. She tensed as her subconscious told her to ignore it and make it home, safely but the curiosity got the best out of her. She turned away from the main road and onto the small junction as she tried to figure what the lights were through the heavily pouring rain. As she came closer she could see the flickering lights getting brighter, she clutched the umbrella, water drops hitting her face with the wind. She rubbed her blurry eyes, focusing her vision ahead, when she almost reached close to the light she let out gasp. Anna saw the blinking headlights of black a car, and to her horror, it was wrecked laying upside down.