Chapter Five
1119 Words
I stood there For a moment, I couldn’t hear anything.
Not the sound of customers talking or the sound of forks hitting plates, or the sound of Sal in the kitchen.
All I could hear was the blood rushing in my ears. Sal will die?No, they can't touch him.
Sal had given me a job when I had nothing. He had fed me when I was starving. He had yelled at me like an angry uncle and made me laugh on my worst days. He was one of the only humans who had ever been kind to me without wanting anything back.
I looked toward the kitchen and saw him through the small serving window. He was laughing to himself about something, wiping his hands on his apron, completely unaware that a monster was sitting only a few feet away, deciding whether he lived or died.
My chest tightened so hard that it hurt.
If I fought here, innocent people would die.
If I ran, they would chase me through the city and hurt anyone who got in their way.
If I surrendered… I already knew what waited for me.Pain, Humiliation, Maybe death.
My breathing became faster. My fingers dug into the handle of the coffee pot until I thought it might break. My wolf, the weak broken part of me I had tried so hard to bury, stirred deep inside my chest.
With rage, Hot, wild, violent rage.
The man must have seen it in my face because he smiled again, this time cruelly.
There she is, he whispered. “I was wondering when the little stray would stop pretending to be human.”
Something changed inside me.
Before I could think, I slammed the coffee pot down on the counter with all my strength.
Hot coffee splashed everywhere.The mug shattered on the floor.
Several customers gasped and jumped back.
Get out! I shouted.
The words shoot out of me like a growl.
The whole diner went silent.
Every head turned toward us.
Even I was shocked by the sound of my own voice. It didn’t sound like me. It sounded rougher. Deeper. Wilder. Like something inside me had finally stopped hiding.
The man in the black suit slowly stood up.
His face didn’t show fear.
Only annoyance.
Like I had awoken something and become troublesome.
He looked toward the diner door and gave the smallest nod.
A signal My blood ran cold.
Every light in the diner went out at once.
The room was swallowed by darkness.
People screamed.
A plate crashed to the floor.
Someone knocked over a chair.
For one second, the diner became pure chaos.
But in the darkness, I could see perfectly.
And what I saw made my stomach twist.
Shapes were moving near the entrance Large shapes
One had locked the front door from the inside.Another was pulling down the blinds over the windows.
They had planned this.
They weren’t just here to threaten me.
They were here to trap everyone inside.
Sal! I shouted.
Elisa? he yelled back from the kitchen, his voice full of fear now. What the hell is happening?
I turned around and jumped over the counter.
A woman screamed as I rushed past her. Someone grabbed my arm in panic, but I pulled free and ran straight into the kitchen.
Sal stood near the grill with wide eyes, still holding a spatula like it could save him.
The sight almost broke my heart.
He looked so confused and So helpless.
Listen to me, I said, grabbing his shirt. Get under the grill. Now.
“What? Why? Elisa, who are those men? Why is the power out?”
Sal! I snapped.
He flinched.
I had never shouted at him like that before.
I said Get under the grill and do not come out unless I tell you. Do you understand me?
He stared at me, breathing very heavily. You’re scaring me.
I softened for half a second, because I hated the fear in his eyes.
“I know,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. But if you trust me at all, do it now.”
From the diner, I heard heavy footsteps.
They were coming closer.
One of the customers screamed again, and then the scream suddenly cut off.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
No time.
I shoved Sal toward the grill. Go!
This time, he obeyed. He dropped to his knees and crawled under the metal grill station, his breathing loud and uneven.
Elisa… he whispered.
I crouched and looked at him one last time.
No matter what happened next, I had to keep him alive.
Don’t move, I said. Don’t make a sound.
Then I stood up.
The kitchen suddenly felt too small.
My fear was still there, but it had changed shape. It wasn’t the kind of fear that made me want to cry anymore.
It was the kind that sharpened everything.
The kind that turned your body into a weapon.
A loud crash came from the diner.
They were overturning tables now.
Searching.
Hunting.
I slowly reached for the kitchen prep table and grabbed the biggest knife I could find.
The metal handle was cold against my palm.
And that was when I realized something.
My hands had stopped shaking.
Completely.
The panic was gone.
In its place was something far more dangerous.
A calm so deep it scared me.
I tightened my grip on the knife and stepped toward the kitchen door.
The man in the black suit appeared in the doorway, his face half-hidden in shadow.
“Well,” he said softly, almost amused. “There you are.”
He tilted his head, studying me. “You should have come quietly. Now people will bleed because of you.”
He wanted me to surrender.
But when I looked past him and saw the diner tables overturned, broken plates everywhere, customers crying and packed together I understood something with painful clarity.
They were going to hurt people no matter what.
This was never about taking me peacefully.
This was punishment.
A reminder that no matter how far I ran, they believed they still owned me.
The thought filled me with so much anger I almost couldn’t breathe.
I took one step forward, knife in hand.
Then another.
The man’s eyes narrowed.
I could feel it now my wolf, weak and wounded, but awake. It moved under my skin like fire, answering the danger with its own hunger.
I lifted the knife.
I said, I whispered, my voice shaking with fury, “get out.”
The man smiled slowly.
Or what?
For one second, the whole world seemed to stop.
The customers in the diner were crying.
Sal was hiding under the grill.
- Writer
