Chapter 8

“Siana please help us with this.” In no time, Siana had a heavy plate of food orders in her hands. “Give it to table 6.” Ann told her with a smile on her face. 

Siana smiled back but sighed as she turned around. It was currently 5.30 pm and she had gotten done with college about half an hour ago and now she was at her part-time job. She was supposed to work there for 6 hours but she was tired already from everything that had happened during the day. 

There was a bright smile on her face the whole time she was working there cause she didn’t want things in her personal life to affect her work or the other people around her. Siana felt uncomfortable if anyone asked her how she was or if something was wrong. 

Ignoring everything going on in her life, Siana just focused on her work as she served customers in that restaurant. It was a pretty famous one so they were really busy in the evening. Her already tired body was tired out even more by working constantly for the rest of the day. However, she didn’t want to take any breaks in between. Verona’s reappearance suspicion had messed up her mind again and she didn’t want to be free enough to think about her again as it just brought back all the pain. 

Keeping a positive attitude for the rest of the day did help Siana feel better, she was starting to forget about the occurrences of the day. 

“Siana…? Why are you looking so pale?” Ann, her coworker asked as she patted Siana’s shoulder lightly. 

“Oh! Nothing I just zoned out for a bit..” Siana replied with her usual smile as she continued to stare in the same direction that she had been for some time. Her fists clenched tightly as she looked as if waiting for something to happen. 

Ann didn’t quite believe her and looked in the same direction. There seemed to be nothing there, Siana was just blankly staring toward the street which was getting emptier as the clock got closer to 12. Giving Siana a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, Ann continued with her work while Siana on the other hand didn’t budge for a few more seconds. 

“I’m pretty sure I saw someone there….” Siana thought to herself as she continued with her work again. “But as soon as I saw them, it was as if they disappeared into thin air.”

Even though she saw nothing, she still had a strong feeling that someone was watching her, keeping an eye on her from a distance. The paranoid feeling didn’t go away no matter how much time passed and before she knew it, Siana was walking towards her home. 

She clenched her bag tightly as she keep a look for anything strange around her. Her heart was too scared but her brain didn’t want to back out the cause of some creepy stalker she had just met that day so she kept going no matter how much her paranoia increased. 

*Present time-2 am*

Siana was sleeping soundly in her bed, Kai had covered her up with blankets and was sitting at the end of the bed, he was in human form like any other night. Everything was normal but he could sense that something bad was about to happen at any minute. Seeing Siana’s condition, how she had closed all doors and windows and kept a knife under her pillow. He knew something really bad had happened that day. 

Usually, ferals had the power to enter anyone’s memories but somehow, he was unable to do that to Siana completely. He had seen her memories of the day, he only saw certain things like the hallway incident with Chloe, that guy threatening her, and Chloe apologizing. Even in those memories, certain words or faces were blurred out completely. 

Kai was also unable to read her thoughts which were very easy to do with others. It was as if something was stopping him from entering the deeper. There were certain things and memories that she had suppressed deep inside her subconscious. It seemed as if she was even stopping herself from looking at those fragments of her past. 

Kai was lost in his thoughts as he heard footsteps. He flinched as he heard them and was ready to attack whoever was about to come inside. He was still in human form and was planning to stay the same as he was stronger that way. He lifted his hand in front of him and his cat nails came out with just one thought of wanting to do so. 

However, before he could attack the person who was coming closer, the doorbell rang and Kai took back his cat nails as soon as he heard that sound. He turned around immediately to see if Siana was awake, fortunately enough for him, she was still asleep but the bell sound had made her move a little bit. 

Kai’s ears moved and he could tell that this wasn’t going to be the only bell that he was going to hear for the time being. He didn’t want to take any chances in front of Siana and turned into cat form immediately. He was ready to change forms and attack whoever was at the door if they turned out to be suspicious. 

Just as expected, the doorbell rang again, twice this time. The visitor seemed eager and impatient and that just rose Kai’s suspicions cause they never had any visitors so late at night. 

The second bell snapped Siana out of her sleep and she jumped up in shock. It took her a minute to realize where she was and what exactly was happening around her. Kai walked closer to her and meowed in a comforting tone. Siana managed to give him a faint smile but all her focus was on the doorbell. 

Who could it be? It couldn’t be any of her friends, they all knew about her part-time jobs and never visited so late at night. 

Her guess was that it was the stalker who had followed her home and was trying to threaten her again. She didn’t even know what he wanted from her or why he was following her for so long. She couldn’t get so scared of someone she didn’t even know and thus she chose not to hide there. She had to face him and she was able to face him and he couldn’t hurt her.

Siana moved her hand under the pillow and took out the knife that she had hidden earlier. She didn’t want to take a chance, if it was someone dangerous, she’d at least try to fight them. She didn’t want to run away from her fears anymore. 

Still, it took her some time to gather the courage to get up and face whoever was waiting to maybe even kill her. 

The longer Siana took, the more the doorbell started to ring. She mustered up the courage to walk to the door and the only thing that was left was turning the handle. She tried even to silence her breaths in order to listen to what was happening outside. But all in vain as the outside seemed just as quiet as her instead of the pressing of the doorbell button. 

At last, Siana gave up. She gripped the knife properly and hit it behind her back. With the other hand, she slowly opened the door, for now, just enough to see who was outside. 

As the door started to open, light entered the living area and it took Siana some time to get used to the brightness but she tried her best as she wanted to know who was at the door. 

But did she really want to know…?

As her eyes finally gained focus on the figure that stood outside, she was a little taken aback. 

That figure didn’t match the stalker at all. Instead, it was a girl. 

She wore a beige skirt with cream thigh-highs and black boots. A knitted sweater over a plain white shirt and blonde hair tied into a ponytail with a blue ribbon at the top.

That style…

Siana was way too familiar with it. Finally, her eyes focused on the face of that person…the one part, her heart was the most scared to identify. 

The knife dropped from her hand as she finally recognized her. 

“V…Verona…”