Chapter 5: The Kidnap I

The bar was crowded that day as it had been for the last two weeks.

Arya found herself attending to more people than she was usually capable of handling. They were short on hands despite the fact that all staff were complete.

"I wonder why it has been like this lately," she told Hernandez as he handed her a tray of drinks. She delivered them to a table of men who winked at her. She heard one of them say, "Dominic was right. She is hella beautiful."

Shrugging it off, she walked towards the counter again. "We don't usually have a crowd as much as this. It's crazy! I wonder what the occasion is."

"I am surprised as well," Hernandez muttered. Arya noticed that he constantly glanced at the men she had just served drinks and then several others who were new faces in the bar.

"Do you know them?" She asked. "You stare at them with familiarity. No, actually you stare at most of the new guests that have been frequenting this place weirdly."

"No," Hernandez shrugged. He was being honest but he could not help but feel like the new faces at the bar were suspicious. For some reason, several of them kept staring at Arya which made him annoyed and they kept coming back. He was very protective of her, not because he had any romantic feelings towards her but because of the friendship bond they had formed during work. "They seem creepy. Be careful."

"I will."

She passed by another waitress and the lady gave her a stink eye. Most of her coworkers had been doing that since the day Juan had made her sit with him.

By the time she came back to the bar, she saw Juan sitting at the counter having a semi-friendly chat with Hernandez.

"Take some time off to sit with me, angel."

"I'm sorry I can't. We have too many customers today. I'm too busy for that." Arya avoided his eyes as she said this. She had not been comfortable around him initially, and since the appearance of his girlfriend, she felt even more uncomfortable.

However, this had been the daily routine for the past few days.

"Take some time off," Juan insisted.

Hernandez shot Arya a look as usual and with a sigh, she took off her apron and sat beside him. She wondered what Juan's relationship was with the owner of the bar so that he could just waltz in and demand that she take some time off.

"How was your day?" He asked, smiling at her. Behind that confident smile was a nervous Juan. He began to worry about himself; when had he last felt jittery around a woman?

"It was alright," she mumbled politely. "How was yours?"

Juan shrugged. "You can be free around me. I mean no harm."

Arya shrugged. "Why do you always tell me to get off work."

"An angel shouldn't go through much stress with little pay."

"I think the pay is fair," Arya shrugged. "I mean it's low but it's higher than the pay of others around here."

"Even though," Juan shrugged. He picked up his glass of whiskey and swirled the content.

"What are your intentions? And can I ask what your relationship with my boss is?"

"Intentions?" Juan chuckled. "And your boss?"

"Yes," Arya responded. "I get off work, yet I'm still paid the same amount."

"Maybe your boss and I are alike," Juan shrugged. "I really want to get to know you, but you keep putting me at a distance."

"You have a girlfriend," Arya said pointedly.

"Is that what's stopping you from being free around me?" Juan took a sip of his whiskey.

Arya shrugged and said nothing. She was hoping their routine would be the same. After a very stiff conversation, they would relapse into silence until it got too awkward and he said his goodbye.

"You didn't answer me."

"Girlfriend or no girlfriend, I am not interested in this," replied Arya with a tight smile standing up. "Your intentions are clearly the same as the other scumbags here. You want to take me to your bed when you have wives and girlfriends. So no, I am not interested in this conversation. You asking me to sit with you every day is a burden on me. My co-workers hate me for it and to be fair, they have every right to!"

"Hey," Juan began to speak but she cut him off.

"And to be fair, I'd hate them if I were in their shoes. Someone lazes about talking to some random guy and gets paid the same amount as I who did the hard work? No, that's bullshit."

"So you consider me a scumbag?" Juan was offended. How dare she compare him to those greedy married middle-aged men. "What if I told you she's not my girlfriend."

"Proves you're a scumbag," Arya smirked. "That's the lie the unmarried ones always tell... And the married? A while different story!"

*+*+*+*+*+*

The cold was biting.

The night's air nipped against Arya's skin, activating goosebumps all over her body and sending chills. Her hair danced in the breeze as she walked through the deserted pathway that served as her shortcut home.

Cabs were expensive so she usually opted to walk home at night. It was not safe but the journey seemed too short for much harm to come to her during that time frame.

However, today proved to be different for Arya. As she walked, slightly swaying her head to the music from her AirPods, she could feel as though someone was following her. She turned off the music and listened intently as she continued her journey. Just when she thought she was being paranoid, like the other nights she heard the crunch of footsteps on the grass by the other side.

Instinctively, she placed her hand in her purse, tightly gripping the pen knife she had secured. Arya kept on walking, with the hope of getting to the main road before her follower would be able to cause harm but it was too late.

A car without headlights was at the end of the path, and he appeared from the shadows stuffing her mouth with a cloth and muffling her scream.