Page 1 of House of Ydril

Chapter one

WheneverIlookoutthe window onto the darkening street outside, I shudder because I imagine seeing the man from last night. Ifmanis the right word. Probably not.

So even though I’m supposed to finish my report, I just keep glancing at the clock above my desk, waiting. I have the office to myself and that’s something I usually enjoy. But today, it just makes me feel… exposed. Vulnerable.

For fuck’s sake, Quinn, I tell myself as I let out a sigh, lean back in my chair and put my boots on the desk. Just push through it. You’ve had creeps trying to stalk you like this for as long as you can remember.

But this is different. “Tomorrow. Eight thirty PM,” it says, in elegant cursive, on the note I found on my doorstep last night. I don’t have to take it out again to check. The words have been seared into my brain.

I use one of my old tricks. Being a social worker’s right hand is never particularly joyous, but it usually gives me such focus. Working on helping kids avoid the suffering that I myself had to go through, bouncing from one foster home to another and feeling like there’s no place in this world for me at all? What could be more important than that?

So I grab the folder with the case I’m supposed to write a report on and force myself to look at the photos inside.

The bruises on the little girl’s arms and back, the listlessness of her eyes, the way she huddles so as to make herself invisible. Things like that make for very good reasons to keep pushing. To make nice with the parents even when I want to rip their throats out. To write yet another support plan and watch it never be carried out.

But right now, there seems to be nothing I can do to take my mind away from the man.

Goddamn it. I let out a sigh and throw the folder back onto the desk. I turn to look out the window, trying to retrace my steps, again, to figure out who he could be and what he could want from me.

But right up until it happened, yesterday was as uneventful a day as any other. After work, I met up with Lisa and we went straight to Noxus. She’d just gotten a promotion and I wasn’t going to let hernotmake a big deal out of it. The night was pretty warm considering it’s almost September, and the bar was as deliciously loud and dark as ever, packed to the brim with struggling start-up owners and tattooed outcasts. Just my type of company and just my type of place.

Of course, like any smart, dirt-poor twenty-one-year-old, I immediately got to work on wasting all my money on… well, getting wasted.

That definitely wasn’t such a good idea. At one point, the alcohol in my blood made the stuffy bar air nearly impossible to bear. I just had to go outside so I elbowed my way to the backdoor, the one that says Private on it. What can I say? I’m a regular.

When I finally threw the door open and barged onto the poorly lit back alley, all I could feel was relief.

That’s when I saw the man. He was standing only a few yards from me, so still he could have been a cutout. I couldn’t see his face because the streetlight was illuminating his back, but I could tell he was looking straight at me.

For a second, despite his ankle-length black cloak, I thought it was the self-important dude that had been trying to get me to talk to him all night. But this man’s vibe was something else.

It made me suck in a breath. I’ve tasted enough danger in my life to know it when I see it. Add to it the fact that lately, there have been reports of the Originals breaking the Treaty…

Not taking my eyes off the man, I took a step back towards the bar. It was a small one, but it didn’t escape him.

Like a shadow being sucked in my direction, he appeared only a few feet in front of me. For a second, I felt unable to move, my heart breaking into a painful gallop. I could finally see her face.

Yes, it was a her, not a him. Sharp, her features were so fucking sharp, but her eyes were even more terrifying.

They were the eyes of a predator. And as her lips curled into a smile, she reached for something in her pocket.

That’s when I finally snapped out of it. Keeping my eyes on her, I mustered all my courage, jerked the door open and darted back into the bar.

She didn’t follow me. I had the weirdest feeling that I was being toyed with. By the time I found Lisa, I was panting, eyes rounded with fear. I chalked it up to being drunk and told her I wanted to go straight home.

And I did. Only to find the note waiting for me on my doorstep.

So here I am, trying not to lose my mind after a long, sleepless night and almost an entire day spent glancing at the clock, waiting.

It’s so close to striking eight. Eight PM is when I usually leave the office, go straight to my apartment and binge my favorite shows until it’s time for my midnight run. It’s the only thing that can put me to sleep.

But today doesn’t seem like a good day to do what I normally do. It’s that woman from last night, she’s the one who left me the note. I just know it in my bones. And she obviously knows where to find me. So who can say she doesn’t have a notebook with my comings and goings scribbled in it?

The clock finally strikes eight. It’s time to go home. I breathe a sigh of relief and start panicking at the very same time. If that’s even possible. I try to force out a laugh, but it’s really not funny.

So I just throw on my jacket, get all my shit from the office and leave the building. It’s practically falling apart, that’s how little funding we get to keep it going. Usually I don’t give a flying fuck, but today it just gives me the creeps.

Of course, it doesn't help that it's already dark outside and that there's barely anyone on the street.

---