Page 14 of Defeated

The light changes while I’m still absorbed in my thoughts, and I start crossing the road when I spot the three men with their back to me at the door of my apartment building.

They’re pressing buttons, seemingly at random.

Their scent drifts across the road. Shifters. I don’t know their names since they never cared to tell me theirs or even ask mine before they chased me through town.

Someone in the building must get sick of them pressing buttons because they buzz them in.

The men walk inside, letting the door slam shut behind them.

I stand frozen in the middle of the road, with no idea what to do next.

They found my apartment.

All they need to do is sniff their way to my front door. One twist will break my lock and they can walk right in. I’m not there, but everything I own, and need, is.

I curse myself for not planning for this exact eventuality. I should have taken my go bag with me that I kept beside the front door.

But I’d been tired from working a night shift and dragged myself out of bed after a couple hours of sleep, thinking I wouldn’t be gone long. I’d wanted to check if Colton had come back. Now it’s cost me everything. All my clothes are in that bag. Worst of all, the precious few dollars I was saving for my bus ticket out of town.

A car horn blares.

I jump, realize the lights have changed, and count my lucky stars someone didn’t hit me with their car.

I immediately swing around, put my head down, and walk back the way I came.

There’s no way I can go to my cleaning job tonight. There’s no way I can go back to my apartment. Unless I want to sleep in an alley somewhere, there’s really only one place I can go now.

At no point do I stop berating myself for being so stupid as to leave the most valuable things I have instead of always carrying them with me.

I stay alert.

But I keep expecting someone to crash into my back or for a car to pull up, someone to stuff me in a car and drag me to their house and force me to be mates with one of them. Or all of them. I don’t know.

I’m painfully aware of my surroundings, of every tiny sound and smell, until I’m back within sight of Colton’s apartment.

Only then do I slow to peer over my shoulder.

I’m the only one walking down this street.

I’m safe.

For now.

I have no money, no clothes, no… anything. My entire life was back in my apartment, and I can’t risk going back there. Everything I’d worked so hard to buy, gone.

Can I eventually return to my apartment? I don’t know. But it doesn’t seem wise to. Not now. Not tomorrow. Maybe not ever.

So, I keep walking, and after a pause, I jog up the townhouse stairs.

This time, I don’t push the door open and step inside; I knock on the dark wood and I wait.

6

CHRIS

Ipause midway through packing up the bookcase.

Colton said Zoe would be back, and he wasn’t wrong. I just hadn’t expected for her to be back today. After placing an armful of books into my nearly full box, I hurry toward the front door before she can change her mind and take off.

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