Chapter Three: When Shadows Strike

Ian's POV

I was walking down the alley. Night had already claimed the sky, and the atmosphere was mercilessly cold and windy.

Tucking my hands deeper into the pockets of my woolly sweater, I exhaled. Smoke puffed out from my lips and dissolved into the air like ghosts fleeing the living. My ears stung from the biting chill, but that wasn’t what made me grit my teeth.

It was her.

“Sly bastard,” I muttered, heat bubbling beneath my skin despite the cold. Rage pumped through my veins like molten lead.

When she flashed that smirk inside the bakery’s mixing room, I knew something was off. Brenda always smirked before launching her venom. And this time? She went nuclear - accusing me of stealing a hundred thousand dollars. Me! A man who’s never taken so much as a donut without paying for it.

That girl… she wasn’t just toxic. She was a principality. A dark force sent to make my life hell.

She sabotaged equipment and blamed it on me. Spread rumors like wild disease. Two months ago, she whispered the lie that I had AIDS. I saw the way the other workers recoiled from me like I was a plague. Some even went to Mr. Barry, whispering behind closed doors, trying to get me fired.

They nearly succeeded.

But I fought back. I shoved a clean test result in their faces, and just like that, the whispers died. I stayed. But the damage never really left me.

“Stupid bitch!” I snapped, not caring if the wind carried my voice to some startled pedestrian.

When the truth finally surfaced, she tried to flee. But karma caught her red-handed. The police showed up just in time. We discovered the money stashed in a trash bag, hidden in the ceiling of the women’s restroom.

She got dragged away in cuffs.

Good riddance.

After the chaos, Mr. Barry begged for my forgiveness. Apologized until his face turned red. But my answer was final.

“It’s over. I’m resigning,” I told him. “I won’t keep working in a place where I have no peace.”

And just like that, I quit.

I should’ve felt empty, but what I felt was freedom.

I lifted my eyes to the dark sky, the stars blinking down like little gods watching from afar. “Good riddance to rubbish,” I muttered.

No more Brenda. No more Barry. No more pretending I was okay.

Then my stomach growled - long, loud, and furious.

“Ughh.” I groaned, pulling out my phone with stiff fingers. My thumb hovered over my banking app before opening it. My eyes locked on the screen.

$50.00.

That was all I had left.

My jaw tightened. No salary yet. No backup plan. Just this little whisper of cash between me and starvation.

“I’m not crawling back to beg,” I hissed. Not even if Mr. Barry offered to double my pay.

Still, I had to eat. A hungry man can’t chase dreams. A dead man definitely can’t.

Tomorrow I’ll start job hunting. But tonight, I needed to silence the claws of hunger gnawing at my insides.

I turned onto a narrow, dimly lit path, heading for the only place still open - Bernie’s Palace Chops.

That’s when my phone buzzed.

I paused, confused. I hadn’t called anyone. No one ever texted me this late.

It was an AirDrop.

From an “Unknown Sender.”

My thumb hovered, then tapped ‘Accept’.

A video.

My brows furrowed as I hit play.

The screen lit up and my blood ran cold.

It was a man. Tied to a chair. Gagged. He was screaming through the cloth.

The camera shook, but the images were clear enough - blades flashing, fists pounding. Blood splashing. The sickening crack of bone echoed. They were killing him. Slowly. Deliberately.

I yanked the phone away from my face like it burned.

“What the fuck,” I whispered.

Terror surged through me. My hands trembled as I stuffed the phone back into my pocket, heart pounding like a war drum.

Who sent this to me? And why?

Or was this some mistake?

I tried to breathe. Shrugged it off. Told myself it was fake. Just some twisted internet sicko trying to scare people.

But then I heard something - a rustle.

My heart skipped.

I turned.

Two cats. In the shadows. Mating.

“Fuck,” I exhaled, relief washing over me. “Mummy and daddy games again…”

I chuckled nervously, shook my head. This street wasn’t popular at night. That’s why I liked it. It was quiet. Peaceful. Solitary.

The main street? Too crowded. Too loud. Too full of… people.

But ten feet later, I heard another sound. This one - sharper.

I clenched my jaw. Kept walking. “Probably another cat sex-tival,” I muttered, trying to sound unfazed.

But I was wrong. I was fucking wrong.

What I saw, stole the breath out of my lungs.

Another shadow...

Not mine.

But someone or something else.

A grotesque shape looming behind mine, tall and massive, holding something… something blunt.

I didn’t even have time to turn or scream.

A hand grabbed my collar and slammed me against the wall.

CRACK!

Pain exploded in my back. My vision whited out.

“AAARGH!” I howled as I crumpled to the cold, damp pavement.

My body screamed with agony.

A figure stepped forward - dragging a bat that scraped against the concrete like the whisper of death.

I tried to scream again. Nothing came out but hoarse gasps.

“P-pl-ea-se… Pl-eas-se d-on-t k-ill me…” I begged, blood running from my scalp down my face like a red waterfall.

The figure didn’t speak. Just stood there, silent. Like death personified.

And then…

I heard heels. Clicking against the concrete like a ticking bomb, each steps a countdown to something horrific.

Next was a voice.

“Just where I wanted you to be."

I froze.

No. No way.

A shadow walked over to me.

Perfume I knew too well filled my lungs.

I blinked through the pain, my vision swimming.

The street lamp flickered above us like it too wanted to blink and look away.

It was her. It was really her.

Alive. Free. Smiling.

“B-br-brend-da?” I choked out her name, jaw trembling.

How? How the fuck was she here? I saw the cops take her away. I watched her get hauled into that van.

She crouched, her face too close, a smile carved with cruelty.

“Well, well, well,” she whispered, voice as sweet as cyanide. “Still think that slap made you a man?”

I tried to speak, but my throat had suddenly forgotten how to form words.

She ran a finger down my cheek, slow. Mocking. "You got the video I sent to you, huh?"

My eyes bulged.

So she was the one who sent that video to me?

"Darling, what you saw happen to that man in that video, will become your lot soon enough.”

My chest tightened with panic.

“I warned you, Ian… You should have stayed in your place.”

She leaned closer, her lips brushing my ear.

“But don’t worry… you’ll never make that mistake again.”

She locked eyes with the cloaked man. A silent exchange. A shared understanding.

Then her voice rang out like a gavel of doom.

“Take him.”

Everything happened in a blur.

The cloaked man moved.

I opened my mouth to scream.

The bat swung through the air with deadly grace.

And then-

WHAM!

It struck my head.

Darkness slammed into me like a falling building. My heartbeat slowed. My vision blurred. Numbness seeped into my limbs like venom.

My brain began shutting down.

And the last thing I felt…

Was oblivion.