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The whole encounter stuck with me. I kept it on replay for the next fifteen minutes, before I told Tiana it was time for us to leave. As usual, she didn’t argue. She was the kind of person who knew better than to challenge me, especially once I’d made up my mind about something.
I felt the hair on my neck rise at the thought of sleeping alone in my apartment, so instead, I took Tiana’s couch for the evening.
But in the end, it didn’t matter where I went—sleep wouldn’t come. All I could see when I closed my eyes was his mask, his gloves, and that taunting smirk. The entire night I tossed and turned, shivers wracking my body, but when I opened my eyes, all that greeted me was a deathly silent apartment, a lone lamp the only source of light, yet I had a feeling, deeply inside me, that there was someone else there.
It was the first time in years I’d had a nightmare.
A nightmare I didn’t want to wake up from.
T W O
TIANA tried her best at making a delicious breakfast. And it was a great meal—the best I’d had in a while. Cooking was one of the basic survival skills, but one I didn’t possess. I’d lived alone for the past two years and mainly had takeout food, or I sneaked into my brother’s house to eat the food his chef made for him.
I was raised by a woman named Nadia, and mainly, she was my nanny. She was the nanny of my siblings as well, and although she tried desperately to teach me how to cook, I was never interested, because we always had chefs when I was growing up. That was, until I started living alone and realized it would’ve been beneficial to pay attention.
I looked away from the plate and focused on Tiana, who was sitting across from me, with the same meal in front of her. Her eyes glinted with excitement while she waited for me to try her food.
It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was tasty. Pancakes stacked together, toasted bread with some scrambled eggs. I tasted it, and the warmth filled my mouth as my stomach made an ugly sound. Embarrassed, I swallowed quickly and hoped she wouldn’t comment on my blushing cheeks.
“Do you like it?” she asked, doubt lacing her tongue as the smile slowly faltered from her face.
“It’s good. Thank you,” I replied.
A look of relief washed over her soft features, and another smile appeared. Tiana was the only person outside of my family who’d stuck with me. Although her cheeky, bubbly personality had made me want to cut ties with her multiple times, I hadn’t, simply because she wasn’t trying to change me and accepted me for who I was.
“It’s a good thing we left that place when we did,” she mumbled, her mouth full of food.
Wincing at the sight, I couldn’t help but be curious. “Why?”
She swallowed. “Because the cops busted it twenty minutes later. Apparently, a couple was going into the alley outside—to fuck probably—and they found two dead bodies there. The bodies were still warm.” The last part was whispered.
“Why would anyone touch a dead body willingly?”
Tiana shrugged. “Beats me.”
We were both quiet for a few minutes, but as time passed, I noticed her squirming in her seat. She’d hold eye contact for a few moments before her eyes returned to her plate. At this point, she was no longer eating, just playing with the leftover food.
“What is it?” I asked, getting annoyed by the way her fork was scratching the plate. It gave me goosebumps, and I didn’t like that feeling.
“You know,” she said quietly, “sometimes I wonder why I’m even your friend. You’re always so… cold.”
I blinked. “No one’s forcing you. And that wasn’t what you wanted to ask, was it?”
Tiana rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. You went to grab a smoke last night and you were gone for quite some time…”
I tilted my head to the side, and my stare made her uncomfortable. “I didn’t kill anyone last night, Tiana.”
Her eyes went wide, mouth agape. She stuttered for a few seconds before she managed to get the sentence out. “Dear Lord, that’s not what I’m asking! Jesus Christ. I wanted to know if you saw anything?”
“Like what?”
“Anything about those two men getting killed, jeez.”
“Oh,” I said. “No.”
“Seriously?” Tiana sighed, and I was unable to understand the reason behind her disappointment. Not only was being a witness to a crime scene tiring, it would’ve meant I could’ve ended up just like the two victims.
And I was beyond confused as to why I hadn’t ended up like them.
