The Shadows

Chapter one

"Grandma," I sigh hanging my head, "I have no idea what to do," I  sit in one of the chairs with a cup of tea, I'd rather have coffee, but Gran says that it is terrible for me. I mean tea is okay, but it doesn't taste like anything except hot water. "I don't think they saw me run out of that alleyway. They were too engrossed with the fight and all. I am just not so sure if there wasn't anyone else looking. It was dark, and I was slightly intoxicated. "

I get up from my chair to stretch my legs, putting the tea down on the table, I walk towards the window. Just to look at the city before me. Gran was on the 4th floor of the building so you could see a lot from where we were. You could even see the alleyway that has haunted my dreams for the last two nights; I couldn't sleep because of it.

"Do you think someone has called the police already?"I turn around to face her, even in this day and age she is still a beautiful woman, she is the sweetest, most loving grandmother anyone could ever wish for. Always seeing the good in people. "I don't want to report it if someone already did, but it might give me peace of mind if I did know if someone reported it."

I was getting nowhere with the worrying, and even though I tell her everything I doubt gran knew how to handle this situation any better, she grew up in a wealthy family; protected from the outside world for most of her life. Maybe if I grew up in her time things would have been different, and I wouldn't be thinking about this right now, but it wasn't the 1930's it is 2020, and everything is different.

There is a knock on the door, and the doctor walks in. I give him a small smile as he checks up on her. Gran is in a coma, and she isn't waking up. "Any news on her condition?" I sound hopeful even though I know the answer already. She hasn't shown any sights of improvement. My heart breaks a little further every day that she doesn't wake up. 

"Not much," He sighs shaking his head while looking at her chart, "the occasional heart spike and she can squeeze her hand a little but other than those no significant changes."

"How long until," I swallow not being able to get the words out, "until you know, you take her off of life support?"

"Three more days," he gives me a sympathetic look as he leaves through the papers on the chart,  my heart drops, "have you thought of a funeral yet? It might not even come to that, but just in case she doesn't wake up."

"I have consulted someone who I can contact when the time comes," I say, my eyes wander towards my grandmother again, she had raised me from when I was a baby to the woman I am today. She is the only parent figure I have ever known. I don't know my parents or remember them, they abandoned me with my grandmother 27 years ago. I have asked many times who they were and what happened to them, but even Gran didn't know what happened so around my 6th birthday I stopped asking and stopped caring about them.

The doctor leaves for his rounds, but not before giving me one more look of sympathy, and maybe even some pity. I have spent most of my free time in the hospital since Gran was admitted so I have gotten to know the staff very well, and they have gotten to know me. "I have to go as well gran," I pat hand and throw away the tea that I didn't finish, "I have to get to work." I kiss her forehead, grab my bag, and leave her room. People are walking in and out of the rooms, down the hall I could hear people crying about losing a loved one. I know that that is going to be me soon. I don't want to think about when she dies, I am going to be all alone then and I hate being alone. 

I decide to walk to the coffee shop from the hospital. It's a 10-minute walk, but it will give me time to clear my head. With the alleyway and Gran, I need to clear my head otherwise I'm going to be spacing out too much during the shift.

I am a barista in a 24/7 coffee house, and we get a lot of party goers who want to sober up a little before going home or businessmen and women who need their morning shot of caffeine before work. We aren't as big as the Starbucks that is two blocks down, but we get enough customers and a lot of regulars. That is one of the reasons my boss likes me because even if I am not always happy, I do remember when people come in regularly what their usuals are, and that is why they keep coming back because that is something you do not get at Starbucks.

As I enter the coffee shop I already start dreading my shift. Luke Breilles, bully numero uno, is taking over from the others. I hate working with Luke, we always fight. I don't even know why, he just hates me. "You're late," he snaps as he sees me approaching the counter. I just roll my eyes at him.

"By 2 minutes give me a break Luke," I sigh. I turned to Jay and gave him a sad look, "3 days Jay, I don't think I am ready for it if it happened." from the corner of my eyes I see Luke raising an eyebrow. 

"She is a fighter, and so are you, you'll get through this," Jay tries to cheer me up, but it is not working, especially not with Luke standing there behind him. "Now go get changed." Jay pulls up the counter, and I open the little door and walk through, "oh before I forget. I have mentioned it to the boss already, but there was a strange man in here earlier today, well not in, he opened the door looked at the counter, stared for a few seconds then left again. He has done that three times since I started working today, keep an eye out, we printed out a picture of him from the security cameras, it is in the back on the notice board."

Suddenly my chest feels constricted. My mind starts to go crazy. It can't be the men from the alleyway, can it? No that's not possible. I'm just making things up, they are not out to get me, I think. I walk into the back and make a beeline for the notice board. There, three pictures of this short guy, all at different times of the day, never at a consistent time in between. I look extra hard at the pictures but he doesn't look familiar. Not that I know what the men in the alley looked like.

I change into my uniform and join Luke at the front; he has manned the counter which means I get to be making the coffee all day, I'm grateful for this, it means I don't have to do tables either. And I am in no mood right now to deal with customers. Luke hands me a to-go cup, the name of my favorite regular is on the container, my shift actually starts out great. Mr. Derek Jones, or CEO Derek Jones of DJ inc. Mr. Jones and I bonded over the fact that I got his laptop working and shut down three significant viruses before they could do more harm to him and his company.

I finish the coffee with a dollar sign on the foam and turn around to smile at Mr. Jones as I hand him his coffee, he looks at the design and laughs, "you always know how to make me put more money in the tip jar," he puts a couple more bills in the jar, I smile sweetly at him before looking around and noticing it was quiet.

"How is business?" I asked feigning interest, I might have a little crush on him, he is good looking, but happily married, he has a son equally good-looking, but he is just an ass when it comes to anyone who earns less than him. I once asked him where it went wrong with raising his son after Mr. Jones took the whole family to get coffee here, we got a good laugh out of that one, but he was sad to say he didn't know.

"Oh you know so and so, I am getting ready to retire and spend more time with the love of my life," he said, the thought of not seeing him as often saddened me, but I am happy that he can relax and do what he loves.

"And how is the wife taking it that you are going to be spending more time on the boat?" I ask sweetly; we looked at each other for a second before bursting out laughing, also one of the reasons why people kept coming back, we put the time into getting to know the regulars.

"And how are you?" He asked after we were done laughing, I knew it was coming, but I became sad again thinking about gran.

"We will know in three days," I show him a sad smile,  "either I will be happy and on top of the world because she pulled through, or you will receive an invitation to the funeral a day or two later," my eyes widen as I sounded really depressed when I said that "I am so sorry Mr. Jones that was a downer move of me, and I shouldn't have done that."

Yes, Mr. Jones knew about gran, the bastard had me followed last week when I accidentally mixed up his order. He didn't believe me when I said it was because of lack of sleep, so his bodyguard followed me and I didn't notice until I was in the elevator at the hospital and he tried to slip inside without me noticing.

"You need company when it happens?" he such a sweet man, always concerned about my well-being, "I can send the wife, and she wouldn't mind staying with you." Mrs. Jones is a lovely woman, whenever she was in the neighborhood, which came to whenever she came to town, she visited, even if she was nowhere close to being near the coffee shop.

"I think I rather am alone that day," I gave him another sad-looking smile, it wasn't that I was lying, but I knew whenever I gave that look there would always be someone following me after, so maybe when it came to it, someone would be close by. He just nodded, and I knew he got the message.

We had been talking for a while and I hadn't noticed that someone walked in until Luke tapped me on the shoulder. I wave at Mr. Jones before turning to look at Luke. "He's asking for you," Luke points to the register where a man is waiting. 

I nod and walk up to the counter, "hi how can I help you?" I ask in my friendliest voice, I try to keep the curiosity and hostility out of my voice, but this guy screams mafia. I'm not one to judge people, but I don't trust how he knows my name.

"Yes, you are one hard girl to find," he says not even being bothered to be quiet about it, I stare at him with eyes wide, my heart racing and my palms start to sweat "you see, you think you are alone but the shadows have eyes."

"What in the world?" I am confused, I want to get away from this guy, to my luck Luke steps in.

"Sir if you are not going to order any coffee then we ask you to step out of line," he says while standing close behind me, "other people want to order coffee." The guy steps out of line but not before glaring at Luke, his attention focused on me for a second, his eyes held me threateningly for a second, before turning around and leaving. Luke and I go back to work quietly, only talking to each other when absolutely necessary, he didn't bring up the incident until we were both on break. There was only one hour in which no one ever came in, and if we worked the night, it was when we would take a break.

"Sam, what was that guy talking about?" Luke asks as I gave him one of the sandwiches I made. I always share my food with the person I'm scheduled with, no matter if I like them or not, I make too much anyway. 

"Luke if I knew I wouldn't be as freaked out as I was right now," I sigh putting down the sandwich without taking a bite out of it. I am suddenly not so hungry anymore, and that is saying something because I usually am hungry all the time, "thank you for having my back in there, I had no idea what to do."

"Look Samantha I know we don't like each other very much but when push comes to shove I will have your back no matter what," his face all serious, "besides who is going to make me sandwiches? " he held a straight face for a few seconds before we both started laughing. I never thought I could have this much fun with Luke.

"You are okay Breilles," I said smiling at him, for a jock he was pretty cute, "and I am glad it was you who was there with me, god knows Jay wouldn't help me like that and Nick would have probably fainted." Luke smiles and nods his head in agreement. The bell chimes signaling a customer "I'll take this one, enjoy your break."

I leave before he could even protest. I straighten out my apron before looking up at the counter. My customer service smile drops immediately. I take a step back to get Luke, but the guy pulls something from his waistband and points it at me. I freeze as I recognize it. A gun. "Unless you want the pretty boy to get shot I wouldn't do that if I were you," the man says, his eyes narrowing at me, "we still need to talk."

I swallow hard, and slowly step up to the counter, "What do you want from me?" I whisper, my voice sounding weak as fear courses through my body, I have never stared down the barrel of a gun before, it freaked me out.

"Who have you told?"

"Who have I told what? About you being here? No one I mean Luke was here the first time you walked up to the counter and Jay and Rick have printed out-" I start rambling, a word vomit comes out as I keep staring at that gun that he has pointed at me.

"Not that sweetheart," he growls, interrupting me, his eyes flash dangerously and he puts his finger on the trigger, my hands shoot up in surrender, "about what you saw?"

"Saw? Saw? I didn't see anything," I rattle, when I get nervous I start rattling, "I mean yes I saw the cutest puppy today while walking to work and I saw some pretty funny videos on f*******:, especially the one where the little dog got a bath, and his voice was dubbed over he was outraged about the bath, and it was cute and funny, and I couldn't stop laughing for the longest time, but other than that I don't think I saw anything no."

"Princess you are testing me here, I know you saw something in that alleyway now tell me what you saw and who you told," he growled out, and I was petrified, how did he know that, who is this guy?

"I promise I didn't see anything and if I did, I didn't tell anyone about what I saw," I was terrified he would shoot me and kill me, I am not ready to die just yet, I haven't even finished college. This guy is crazy, maybe that is what he means by the shadows have eyes and someone in the shadows saw me witnessing the crime.

"I know you told someone, now you either tell me or I will just shoot you."

"Okay fine I told my grandma, but she is in a coma and her waking up is as less of a probability as me coming out of this without a traumatic experience, " I snap, my eyes widen as I realize what I have done, "please leave before Luke comes checking in on me. I swear I only told my grandmother and she is in a coma that she won't wake up from.."

"For your sake, I hope she doesn't wake up sweetheart, " he snaps at me as he puts away the gun, he walks out, and I stay rooted to the spot for a second. I should call the cops, yes, I should report him. He turned back around and looked at me, "and I wouldn't call the cops if I were you."

I had my answer; no one is going to hear anything about this ever, I will take it with me to the grave. I turn around, ready to enjoy the last 10 minutes of my break with Luke and not think about any of this ever again.