The sun seeped through my window awakening me from another unpleasant dream. I rolled away from the rays of light and peered at the alarm clock that sat on my beside table almost mocking me.
8:00am
I slept four measly hours again. The nights seemed to make me restless, unable to fathom the last time I was able to have a good nights rest. Such was my life anymore.
The problem was I was young and didn't exactly live in the best part of the city. Recently there appeared to be a lot of active "gang" activity though the police never were able to actually pin point it exactly. The main concern of mine was the fact some of the activity involved missing young woman, I was 28 and lived alone and felt like I could be a target.
My mind always raced at night, laying in my dark room while I stared out the window at the moon. Why did I believe I could be a target? I honestly thought it was probably just nerves. There wasn't anything special about me. I was a tad curvy although I rarely wore anything that actually complimented my body. I lived in a pretty nice updated apartment although it wasn't in the best neighborhood, thus why they updated it to try and bring renters in. It worked obviously. I had a fairly average job, nothing excited or unique. I feel like I would be logically, the last person that would be on anyones radar.
Snapping back into reality I forced myself out of bed, tossing my blanket off to the side and sliding out of bed. I stretched and ran a few fingers through my hair before getting up to shower and begin my day.
Typical uneventful day. Usually the same schedule minus the days I was off from work. Start off with a hot shower, get dressed, eat something and go to work. Little odds and ends here and there I would squeeze in. Today was a work day. Throwing on my work attire which honestly was just a pair of black jeans and a burgundy company shirt. I straightened my hair brushing the dark red mess into my average hair style, long and layered like crazy, brushing off to the sided. After some light makeup I grabbed a bite to eat and decided to head out pretty quickly.
Locking up my apartment I tossed the keys in my purse and began my 20 minute walk to work. Despite not being the best part of the city, I got lucky to live fairly close to the better parts and have a somewhat decent job in walking distance. It's just the little things.
The average walk to work I usually would just keep my head down and walk down the busy side walk. Pittsburgh in the summer was usually just a shitty over populated waste. It was home though, I lived there my whole life. The sounds of busy people walking to and from, along with the constant sound of cars passing by kept me distracted by my thoughts.
After a while I looked up to see the sign of the small coffee shop I worked at flashing at me. Another day in the fine life of Valencia.
I sighed and straighten up my posture before getting to the door, mentally giving myself a bit of a pep talk. The front of the coffee shop, ironically that's what it was called, very unique, was a soft tan color with a small glass door and two large glass windows that peeked inside the shop. Inside were a few small tables with two chairs as well as a couple tables out front. Definitely a mom and pop sort of feel.
I reached my hand out to the cool metal door handle to help myself inside, when a Patron appearing to be leaving opened the door before me. He walked out and held the door with one arm, beckoning me to enter as he left. I didn't meet his eyes but couldn't help but notice the muscular heavily tattooed arm sprawled out before me. I shuffled my feel inside passing by the stranger.
Now the stories you read, sometimes the bring up feeling a dark presence of sorts. It's hard to explain but the moment I passed him I felt cold. I felt nervous as if my fight or flight response had activated. I could feel goose bumps rise all over and felt almost a pressure that forced my head down. Despite the mixture of torture my body seemed to put my through instantly I managed to mumble out a nervous thank you.
"T-thank y-you." I managed to stutter out.
The voice that replied to me almost made me gasp aloud.
"My pleasure." It was almost a purr.
I walked in without another word and almost sprinted to the back office to put my purse up.
As soon as I went through the office door, I shut it quick without a delay and gasped for air.
"What the actual fuck was that?" I whispered frantically.