CHAPTER 4

Chapter Four.

Eva stepped out through the large entrance doors, reciprocating the wave and friendly smile from the security guard, probably the only smile anyone had spared her all day. She sighed and resumed the busy commute of pedestrians all walking in a dozen different locations, on their way back from work. She wondered if any of them had had as much of a terrible day as she had.

She held her handbag close to herself as she walked under streetlights, looking into slowly closing shopfronts and imagining that she was a tourist doing some window shopping. She’d seen a lot for her age, and she was only twenty-three. But they had been twenty-three long and hard years of servitude, abuse, and rejection. Her parents didn’t want her enough to keep her, a soddy little detail about her past that plastered a sense of stigma right on her forehead.

She turned around a corner along a busy street. Everyone seemed to be talking with someone or enjoying their evening at least. The eateries were filled with people, eating and conversing as though nothing else mattered in the world. Eva let out a sad sigh as she embraced the bitter truth of her reality - she had no friends and was probably going to die alone.

She smiled sadly. I’ve come a long way though. Memories wafted through her subconscious mind as she walked on, mostly unpleasant memories. But she’d managed to survive somehow.

The cool evening breeze tickled her neck as she walked on in the night. She hadn’t realized how late it had gotten. Suddenly, the old wary feeling of being watched wrapped itself around her mind, holding her tight in a menacing grip. She gulped in fear and doubled her pace. She couldn’t help but think someone was behind her, and in several instances, she turned around in instinct, hoping to catch a glimpse of them. Could it be the man from her dreams, come into the real world to haunt her as well? The thought only brought back eerie memories and set her heartbeat a few paces faster than it had been.

The entrance of The Velvet Lounge was not far away, and she figured that if she walked just fast enough, she could make it safely into the bar without being nabbed by her stalker. She quickened her pace, taking in deep breaths as she willed herself to keep moving and not faint from sheer anxiety.

By the time she made it into the safe shelter of the bar, Eva was sure she’d lost a million gallons of water from sweating. She paused briefly to catch her breath, daring to look out through the doors for a glimpse of her stalker. Nothing. I think I might be going crazy.

Eva quickly walked over to the bar table across the room and settled into a high stool. The place was already brimming with people, and she couldn’t help but wonder why so many people were in there at the same time. Did they have as many sorrows to get drunk over as she did?

“French Martini, please,” she nodded weakly to the bartender and looked around her slowly. She was in the midst of a lot of people now, so he couldn’t get to her. Right? What if he’d followed her into the bar?

A wave of unease washed over her afresh and she was afraid for her life.

“Ma’am?”

She turned around with a jump. “Sorry,” she managed with a weak smile and placed some money on the table. She planned to get drunk tonight, very drunk.

She was sipping on the third glass of her French Martini, the liquid slowly starting to swirl her senses this way and that, when a man walked up beside her with the leeriest grin she’d ever seen. She pretended not to notice him. Maybe he’d just sod off.

She’d grown wary of his type from her days as a street worker. It was common for a lady to go home with someone like him and appear missing on the news a couple of days later. He looked just the part with his missing teeth and roughly stubbled chin. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with a crazed hunger that filled Eva with fright. She could hear her heart beating violently against the walls of her rib cage.

“Well, hello sweetheart. What’s a beautiful lady like you doing all by yourself, huh?” he spoke with an alcohol-induced slur. He’d obviously spent a great deal of his day in the bar, probably longer than everyone else in the room. Eva willed him to just disappear into the ground, go anywhere else, somewhere very far from where she was seated. Why’s he giving me trouble?

“Hey, sugar? I’m talking to you, baby. I can show you a good time. How about we go back to my apartment huh,” he added with an irritating wink. Everything about him repulsed Eva. Her heart was still beating wildly when she felt his hand snake slowly across her thighs, sending heatwaves down her spine and filling her with nausea at every contact his greasy palm made with her skin.

Her patience was running thin by the minute and just when she couldn’t take it anymore, more out of reflex than an actual intent to harm the man, she lifted her drink from the table and hurled its content in his face.

He screamed like a cat thrown out in the rain, scratching violently at his eyes as the sticky liquid slid down his face.

“Bitch! I’ll get you for this!” he cursed as he slowly retreated, bumping into bodies that were quick to shove him violently off of them as he walked out.

“Could get seedy with these lot down here,” the bartender spoke after a while with a sad shake of the head, before he went back to arranging some drinks on the shelf.

Eva let out a sigh of relief and was just about settling back to her drink when she spotted movement from the corner of her eye. She couldn’t believe it. The man was back, and this time he’d brought two more fellows like himself. Eva’s heart dropped to the floor of her stomach and she jumped into full-on panic mode. Her eyes darted both ways, plotting a route for the nearest possible exit.