Everything was so vivid. It was just like that day, a day she could never forget no matter how much she tried to bury it away in the deepest part of her mind. The hot rubble that stabbed her legs as she ran. The dense air that burned her lungs as she tried to gasp for air, and the boy whose small hands clung to hers as they made their way out of the fiery building that threatened to collapse any moment and bury them within. She felt herself getting weaker and weaker and her legs began to feel as heavy as bricks.
She ignored the feeling and pressed on, not because she was desperate to live, but because of the young life that she dragged with her. She wanted him to survive no matter what, but that feeling was short lived as she felt her eyes getting heavier by the moment. She couldn’t keep her eyes open again and they fellshut involuntarily, clouding her vision in darkness.
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Melissa’s eyes shut open as her breathing became laboured. She turned to her side and fumbled for her bedside lamp. Once she found the switched, she flicked it on and her dark room became illuminated with light. Melissa sat up on her small bed and rubbed her eyes as she let out a sigh.
“Its the same dream again.” She muttered.
The reoccurring dreams that had plagued her like a pest in the past were back again. It was a dream of what had occurred in the past when she was much younger and every dream she had, felt like she was reliving the experience. The dreams were more of a nightmare to her when she was much younger, but now it only reminded her of why she needed to strive and be alive.
Melissa looked at her hand and closed it slowly. The warmth of his hand was still spread across her palm. She put her fist to her chest and sighed. It was a relief that she never let go of his hand. Melissa turned to her small digital clock on the beside table and peeked at the time. It was 2am in the morning, too early for her to be up, but Melissa knew it was going to be a task falling asleep again.
Throwing her legs out of the bed, Melissa made her way to the small narrow bathroom in the corner of her room and stood in front of her sink. She turned it on and splashed water on her face. She looked in the mirror in front of her and brushed her golden brown hair away from her sweat stained face.
Melisa sighed and ran her fingers over the dark circles forming under her eyes. This wouldn’t do. She needed to get some sleep, but her heart was still pounding furiously from the dream she had. Gripping the sink tightly, Melissa exhaled to calm her unsteady heart. This was going to take the whole night.
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The alarm was noisy and it resonated within Melissa’s head. She groaned and lazily picked up her phone from the bedside table. Rubbing her eyes to clear her blurry vision, Melissa glanced at the time and a gasp escaped her lips. It was 8am. Too late for her to be asleep. She threw herself out of bed and breezed out of her room like she was being chased.
Melissa hurrily walked into the kitchen and saw her younger brother, Brandon, scavenging the freezer that looked completely desolated. Her footsteps seemed to alert him as he turned to the door.
“Brandon, I am so sorry. I slept in and forgot to make breakfast.” Melissa apologized as she rubbed her forehead.
Brandon stared at her blankly and shut the refrigerator. Feeling disheartened by his silence she decided to walk into the kitchen.
“I'll make breakfast now. How much time do you have left? Will you be late for school? I’ll quickly whip so-“
“Don’t bother.” Brandon cut in.
He jabbed his finger over her shoulder as he signalled to the refrigerator. “Its empty.”
Melissa grimaced and let out a tired sigh. How could she have forgotten to go grocery shopping this week? She quickly tried to redeem herself.
“I'll quickly go to the grocery store and get something and then I’ll-“
“It's fine. I know we’re low on cash and I’ll be late for school anyways.” He cut in coldly.
Melissa’s shoulder’s drooped. Brandon’s attitude towards her was nothing out of the ordinary and nothing new to her. His coldness and indifference was a daily occurrence. It made Melissa wonder where she had gone wrong in raising him. Since they were both orphans and grew up without parents, Melissa tried her best as the older one to stand in as a parental figure and give him all the love and care any child deserved. Where had it all gone wrong? Brandon, who used to cling to her and was very dependent on her had changed drastically. As he grew older, he slowly detached himself from her and became frigid. His behaviour tore Melissa’s heart into pieces. It made her ponder on whether she had failed as an older sister. Maybe she didn’t love him enough, the way he ought to be loved.
Brandon walked out of the kitchen and Melissa followed him, not sure why, but she felt like she needed to. She came to pause at the front door and watched him take his coat off the hanger and throw it on. She fiddled with her fingers as she racked her brain, looking for what to say to him.
“What time will you be back home? It’s been a while since we had dinner together.” Melissa finally said.
Brandon adjusted his coat and crouched down to fix up his shoe lace.
“I have extra lessons since it’s almost time for the college exams, so I’ll be back late.” He replied without as much as glancing up at her.
College. Melissa cursed in her mind as she bit her inner lip. It had slipped her mind that Brandon was finally a senior in high school and college expenses were knocking on the door. Now she had one more thing to worry about. The soft click of the door drew Melissa’s attention away from her thoughts and she looked up. The door way was empty. Brandon had gone without saying goodbye.
Melissa slumped back on the couch and ran her hands through her messy hair. The weight she was carrying was weighing heavily not only on her mind, but she could feel it on her back, like a huge load resting on top of it and that load kept increasing as time went by.As much as Melissa tried to push it to the farthest corner in her mind, she was in debt, a huge debt as a matter of fact. Borrowing money was the only way she and Brandon could survive. Melissa had borrowed a huge sum of money to pay off Brandon’s tuition fees and find a decent place for the both of them to live.Melissa looked up at the white ceiling and her expression turned grim. She had no clue on how she was going to pay off her debt, but she had to because the loan sharks weren’t merciful. Melissa blinked, detaching herself from her thoughts. Overthinking wasn’t going to solve her problems.A soft knock came from the door and Melissa turned her eyes to it. She paused for a second as deep fear ran through her mind. Wh
U-mart was located at the north side of town, where Melissa lived. It was a five minute walk from her apartment, so working there was very convenient for her. The mart was relatively small, with just a few merchandise on sale. The mart was quite popular in the area, so it was buzzing with customers during the day and night. This night was quite different however. The store only had a few customers today, walking up the asile, viewing products, not entirely sure on what to buy.Melissa was Manning the counter as she always did during every night shift. Her curly hair was tied up in a tight pony tail today and she let a few stands fall just above her eyes. She was clad in a red t-shirt with a black collar and tight blue jeans. Her name was written in small letters on a badge and was stuck to the left side of her shirt. Even though it was a small mart, the owner tried to make things as professional as possible, hence the name tag.Melissa peered at her phone for the time and she sighed n
CHAPTER FOUR“Is everything okay over here?” A voice called out from behind the counter.Mark appeared from the door that was a few feet away from Melissa. He was a tall dark skinned man with a fade. He was a bit bulky and gave off a very intimidating atmosphere. Mark approached the counter and stood close to Melissa. The weird man let go of Melissa’s arm and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.“Is there a problem sir?” Mark asked as he flashed the most polite smile Melissa had ever seen him muster.The man opened his mouth to say something, but closed it immediately when his eyes trailed over Mark’s taut muscles. The fear in his eyes were prominent. The man, without hesitation retreated away and dashed out of the store. The tension had finally lifted and Melissa let out a sigh of relief.“You okay Mel?”Melissa turned to Mark and have him in reassuring nod.“I’m fine thanks to you.” Melissa said.Mark gave her a warm smile. Despite his intimidating
Melissa’s eyes were on the menu, but her mind was anywhere but there. She noticed that the menu she held was jittering and looked at her hands. They were trembling like she was suffering from a stroke attack. Just how nervous was she?Curious, Melissa peered over the menu and got a view of the man sitting in front of her. Gabriel Marshall. He was focused on the menu in his hand and didn’t pay much attention to her. She had been so focused on his face that she didn’t notice the Rolex latched onto his wrist. It had diamonds on it and sparkled under the light. Just from looking at the watch on his wrist, Melissa could tell how expensive it was.Her anxiety was slowly intensifying. The reality began to dawn on her slowly. She wasn’t just sitting with a normal person. The man in front of her was wealthy, and her Instincts were screaming it. Melissa began to curse internally. Tory had given her little to no background information on Gabriel Marshall. Her grip on the menu tightened as she th
A slap. An ear piercing, pain throbbing slap. Yes, that was the perfect way to describe the words that Gabriel Marshall had been throwing at Melissa. His words felt like arrows and he kept shooting them at her without stopping, without remorse, yes, Melissa was convinced that the man, sitting in front of her, looking down on her, didn’t have a shred of remorse in his conscience.She clenched her hand into a fist, it was the only way Melissa could control her burning rage. Just who was this man? Why was he acting so sniffy in front of her? Was he some kind of celebrity?Melissa exhaled harshly, trying to quell her rage as she spoke.“And who are you, to say all these things to me, right to my face?” she entreated, Her ire was heard in the way she spoke, despite trying to calm herself.Gabriel rested his back on the chair and crossed his legs, his hands folded on his thigh like he was sitting in a meeting room. A small smirk seemed to appear on his lips, it was the closest emotion Melis
"So, you wanted to talk to me? It sounded urgent, and you also sounded...angry?”Melissa just stared at Tory as she sipped from her cup of lemonade. She wasn’t particularly mad, well she was but it had subsided compared to how much she was seething with rage yesterday. All she wanted was answers from her. She didn’t want to bombard Tory with a lot of questions on the phone and thought it’ll be better to talk it out in person.“Mm, it’s not like I’m angry, well, not anymore.” Melissa finally said.Tory winced and groaned.“Let me guess, The date didn’t go well?”“The date not going well is an understatement, a really huge one.”Tory gaped at Melissa, her face full of curiosity and a slight hint of worry.“What happened? Please tell me it wasn’t that bad.”Melissa sighed and placed her cup of lemonade on the table as she tried not to relive the memories of last night’s date, but she had to, Tory needed to know what she had set her up with.“First off, Who is that man... Gabriel Marshall
Melissa looked at herself in the mirror again. A date. She had replayed the words over in her head a thousand times, so much that she lost count. Was she really going on a date again? After her last fail? She couldn’t believe she was doing this.Sighing, Melissa looked at the clothes she had on. It was nothing as extravagant as the dress she had worn for her first blind date. She wore a simple pastel blue shirt with a scoop neck and wore a cargo pants. Her hair was tight up in a tight, neat bun, with a few stands hanging out.Melissa hadn’t put to much effort into this date, because it was just Mark, her co-worker. It was strange to her that he’d come all the way to her work place and ask her out on a date. Melissa was about to refuse his request, but quickly remembered that she had promised to treat him to a meal.She grimaced, cursing herself for making promises she has no plans of fulfilling. ‘its just a casual outing with a coworker. It can’t be that bad. It’s going to be fine.’ M
Melissa moved back a little as the men approached her. The man with black long hair stood in front of three men. He was smirking at her, a smirk that felt like mockery to Melissa. He moved closer to her, while the other men stood in the same spot.“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Mel.”Melissa grimaced and moved back again until she felt her back, touching the door.“What do you want?” Melissa asked, trying as much as possible not to let her anxiety slip through her voice.“What a very stupid question to ask me don’t you think? The man said in a harsh tone.The small fox shaped pendant dangled from his chain as he bent over to look at her in the eye.“Your payment for this month is due, isn’t Mel?”Melissa felt her body tremble and small beads of sweat form at the top of her head as he stared at her dead in the eye. The man from a company she had burrowed money from, the loan shark that demanded money from her each month.Jack Torez, a tall attractive man in his thirties and the owner o