DAUNTLESS

Prologue

"A GAY LIKE YOU WILL NEVER HAVE THE GUTS TO TAKE PHOEBE AWAY FROM ME! STOP LIVING IN A CLOSET!" Screaming at the top of her lungs, Amelia gives a strong slap on Dave's left cheek. 

She turned away from Dave and rushed through the heavy rains on Tuesday midnight in the dark busy streets of the city. She collided with people while running and carrying a 5-kilo brown leather bag full of different apparel products.

Her tears flow bitterly along with the heavy strong drops of rain, so strong it almost pierced her face that even her mascara smudges leaving dark black streaks in her both cheeks. Her lipstick bleeds because of the pain inside her wounded heart.

She can still hear Dave shouting with full of pride, "GO AHEAD, LEAVE! THIS WILL BE THE MAJOR REGRET OF YOUR LIFE!"

Amelia did not bother to look back. With heavy steps, her clumsy feet walked through the dirty wet ground, and her heart races like a hungry wolf. She wipes her tears as she tastes the bitterness of the black mascara she wore from her night shift and the sweetness of her pink lipstick that she borrowed from her friend Raya.

Her eyes are burning and full of angst, "I will have my own house someday and my success will be your greatest failure!"

Soaking wet, she decides to stop by a traffic light post. Her mind is confused if she will take her chance to cross the street or just pinned her feet into the ground cursing the rain and letting her body numb from the freezing coldness of the wind.

She started to count while staring and waiting for the red traffic light to turn green, "One...two.. " 

"AAAAAHHH!" People loudly screech with despair as the whole city went blackout and terrifying lightning strikes.

Due to heavy rains and strong breeze, the city experienced a major electricity failure. Amelia begins to feel eerie and anxious.

"This is the worst day of my life.", she mumbles under her breath with desperation.

Her mind is in doubt while she hears her heart uttering, " Phoebe is waiting for me, I am coming home for you my baby."

Weeping in pain, Amelia firmly clasps her right hand into her brown leather bag's handle and looked up slowly, catching every raindrop on her face.

A huge manly hand slowly slides from her shoulder, grasp her left arm, and whispered, "Do you want to join me in my full-glass house?

Her lips tremble with fear, her head is stuck in the frigid air while her whole body shivers in the darkness.

" Who the hell gives you the right to hold me?!" These words are running through her mind but the truth is she is freaking scared and do not want to turn her head.

"WOOHOO!" People are yelling and clapping as the power is restored in the city.

Amelia turns her head to her left side, raises her left arm slowly and no one is holding it.

This gives her an unnerving feeling which tells her feet to cross the street quickly.

She is standing by the coffee shop door, hesitated to go inside.

Her heavy breath pulls down her body and she whispers, "How can I go inside when I am soaking wet?"

A vague vision of a man wearing a black collared shirt with a dark brown silk apron tied in his waist is approaching the front door of the coffee shop.

Amelia decides to take a closer look at the man as she steps closer to the glass door.

"Good evening ma'am, welcome to Tikaluna Coffee Shop.", said the man who is smiling while he slightly bows his head placing his right hand at his back and moving his left hand into the direction of the coffee shop's counter"

Standing firmly from his post the man's eyes squint slightly, " Definitely ma'am, you can just use the black restroom, use the towel and dry yourself."

"B...b...black restroom? So there is another restroom other than the common restroom?", Amelia widens her eyes and leans forward to the man.

" Y...yes! The black restroom is the special restroom for special guests like you."

"M...me?", pointing her right finger into her chest. " Huh! You must be kidding!" she stepped backward.

The man extends his left arm and slowly reaches for Amelia's left hand pulling her to enter the coffee shop.

Amelia unwillingly makes the eye to eye contact with the man is somewhat being hypnotized by his smile. She steps her cold feet inside the coffee shop.

The man moves his hand in the direction of the black restroom while Amelia roams her eyes inside as she feels her heart pounding. Amazed by the huge golden chandeliers and crystal jars displayed all over the coffee shop, she walked straight to the black restroom.

A golden door with a black doorknob beside the counter has a sign, "BLACK RESTROOM, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK".

With hesitation and unpleasant feeling,  Amelia approaches the lady staff with blonde short hair from the counter, " Uuhm... Excuse me, Miss? Is this the black restroom where I can dry my clothes?"

The lady staff answered with a grin, "Yes ma'am, there is an available towel inside, all towels are clean and sanitized after every use." 

Amelia's eyes are burning with tiredness but her body is cold she mumbles, "Oh! Okay...thank you"

The lady staff stopped her and smiled,  "By the way ma'am, welcome to Tikaluna Cofee Shop."

Amelia displays a fake smile at the staff and glances at the wall clock, which reads midnight, and continued to walk through to the direction of the black restroom and grabbed the black doorknob as she leans her body in the golden door.

She opens the door and..."WOW! WHAAAAT?! THIS RESTROOM IS BIGGER THAN MY ENTIRE HOUSE!" Amelia amazingly tells herself with excitement.

Golden huge towels are arranged and hanged properly in the black metal towel rack. Behind it is a huge body dryer fit for 2 to 3 persons. A golden normal-sized toilet bowl is in front of the towel rack. A golden magazine rack is beside the toilet bowl. Its fully mirrored walls make the room larger than the usual restroom.

Amelia looks up to the glass ceiling and she can brightly see the dark velvet sky with millions of tiny diamond-shaped stars arranged in beautiful constellations. Her pupils dilate with excitement, "The rain has stopped, stars are starting to show up."

She bows her head slightly and looks down at the crystal granite tiles that she is stepping in. Her chin trembled and her grin broadens, "I want to have this kind of tiles in my dream house someday."

She grabs the first soft golden towel from the black metal rack and slowly dries her hair down to her shoulders and her whole body. She puts it back and moves to the body dryer. She turned on the white metal switch and the dryer begins to blow warm air from the top. The right mixture of heat and cold that blows from the huge body dryer can dry ten pieces of clothes in five minutes.

She spreads her big brown leather bag and all the wet apparels one by one in the crystal granite tiles facing the dryer. She takes out her red journal and a purple pouch containing all her pens and keys.

She sets her body straight and lifts her both arms while she continues to dry herself. Her mind murmurs, "I hope this warmth will heal my cold heart from all the miseries happening to me."

The dryer stopped and signaled that the time limit has ended. "A 5-minute dry is not enough", she yawns and lowered her shoulders.

She picks her things and takes a second look at herself in the mirror, she smirks, "All dried up, ready to go!" and turned around to take an exit.

She opens the door and notices the wall clock. 4:30 a.m. 

"I thought I was just there for 10 minutes, Oh well I'm dead tired and hungry." she extends her neck and her eyes roam from side to side looking for a vacant chair.

Her furrowed forehead shows as she notices that a few hundred are missing from her profit. She taps her yellow furry pen into her journal thinking that she has lots of receivables from her co-employees which she neglects to charge because of their different work shifts. 

She took a few sips from her strawberry milkshake and smiles, " Few months to go and I can finally pay the downpayment for my property." 

As she takes a tiny bite of the fresh strawberry topped in her milkshake, her face turned sour while looking up at the ceiling she winks, " I can envision my dream house and my dream restaurant right now."

"HAHAHAHHAHAH! WOOOOH!" Hard laughter from a group of men from the other table makes her eyes crinkled and her teeth grind.

Annoyed Amelia finishes her last sip and gives a strong stare to a laughing guy who is wearing a plain yellow round-neck shirt and blue faded jeans. His red villainous eyes beamed brightly causing her heart to pound and her hands to shake in fear.

Terrified by what she saw, she takes her eyes away from the guy immediately. She bends her head and a minute has passed when a huge manly veined hand wraps her eyes.

She gradually removes the hands from her eyes and saw a huge black-furred hand covered with blood.