Alice placed her phone back into her jeans pocket and approached the table hastily.
The bustle grabbed both the guys' attention. Back then, she heard them discuss the bike issue, but could pay no heed to it. She was all ears on the phone.
She heard the screams in the background and the alert.
Gloria's voice was barely audible enough. But it was easy to pick her panicking. Her friend was stuttering while she spoke.
A rogue had broke in through their cafe. Alice felt riddled. She ended the call immediately. Sweat formed all over her body at the thought of the rogue vampire. She didn't know who was safe and who was not. The cafe was in chaos. She rubbed her clammy hands over her cheeks and let out a loud sigh.
"Guys, thank you for the food, but I gotta leave as soon as possible," Gulping down the water filled in the glass she wiped it with her hands and headed to the door.
Zavior caught hold of her shoulder. She saw the worried and confused look in both the guys' eyes.
"Is everything alright?" he questioned.
"Yeah. Just an urgent matter. Ring me if you get any information about the bike."
Zavior nodded his head in a downward smile and walked her toward the door. Chris followed them.
Alicia rode the bike to the cafe as fast as she could. She didn't give a damn about the police. Right now, all that mattered was the people's safety at the cafe. She had to know the condition.
Alicia parked the bike and dashed to the cafe. The entrance glass door was broken, and the cafe was crowded with too many people whispering and chatting about what had conspired. It was way more than she had expected. The chairs and the tables were scattered, and some were in a state of no more usable.
Melissa came running in a miserable state. Her once neatly gathered black high ponytail was in a state of coming off anytime. Her hands were blood-stained. Sobbing with tears, she tried to make words,
"E-Edga-gar... Vam..." she cried not being able to say what she wanted to say. Alicia was in no state of calm either but she patted her back and gave her a tight hug. She didn't know what had happened to Edgar, the girl's lover, and a waiter working at their cafe. But whatever had happened didn't seem so good.
She left the girl and ran toward the crowd with a loudly drumming heart. Pushing through the crowd, she snuck to the spot, not knowing why hasn't the people dashed to a safer place. But the sight stopped her on her track. Her eyes turned horror at the gory sight. She felt her stomach sling and toss.
Bile rose in her throat, but she held it back. Her hands flew up, covering her nose.
A bloody sight of the body. Nerves had bulged out of the body. It was uglily visible enough from the exposed skin, smeared with blood. Eyes were lifelessly black bringing shivers to one. She was sure those eyes would disturb her for ages. But she could not take her eyes off its eyes. She felt like they were gazing at her.
"Oh, thank goodness, you're here!" The familiar voice of Gloria snapped her out of the bloodshed sight. Alicia shook her head and looked at her friend.
"Gloria!" she hugged her trembling body, "How did this happen?" She questioned. Words came out light as a feather next to Gloria's ears.
Gloria was the first to break their hug. "I... d-don't k-know... But that's not the matter. E-Edgar," she burst out in tears as she glanced past, Alicia. Alicia turned about immediately.
Her whole body froze. A loud whimper left her lips.
Edgar Robles...
He was lying there. On the floor. All bloodily. Fleshes of his stomach pulled out, making it hard to see. The blood was still flowing from all the visible gruesome injuries. Malissa held her lifeless lover, all dear to her. Even though he was no more, she held him like a baby in her arms as she cried and begged for his life. It was so hard to see her in such a state.
Tears escaped her eyes. She fisted her palms tight, biting her lower lip. The nurse beside Edgar's lifeless body treated his wound with much effort.
Melissa was giving her a hard time. Bryan, one of their cafe colleagues tried to take her away, but she was so adamant to stay put with her lover. Having no choice, they let her be as long as she let the nurses do their job.
"Diego's injured too," said Gloria between her sobs and she dragged Alicia.
Gloria's brown eyes glistened, but tears never left her eyes. She was trying hard to hold back her tears.
"Where is he?"
"At the dressing room."
Both the girls hurried to the dressing room with heavy hearts. Alicia didn't know what kind of an injury did she mean when she dragged her with the word 'injured.' She prayed it to be something lighter or not so deep, all the way to the dressing room.
Pushing the door open, she saw all four of them except for Bryan, Melissa, and Edgar in the room.
Another shocking whimper left Alicia's lips. Her hands flew to her mouth, covering it rightly as she gazed ahead.
Diego, the red-haired guy was lying on the sick bed, being treated by their village doctor, Mr. Samuel, with a nurse assisting him. He was no one but Diego's uncle. Diego was his nephew.
"Get me another ice pack. We must stop him from bleeding as soon as possible, or he might run out of blood," yelled the doctor, dabbing the melting ice pack as he cleaned Diego's injured shoulder. He was bleeding profusely. Every time the cotton came in contact with his ripped skin he'd grunt shutting his eyes tight. It was quite visible that he was so in pain. The boys held him steady on the sick bed present in the room.
"This doesn't seem ok. We must drug him unconscious and take him to the hospital after the first aid," the nurse nodded in agreement, "It isn't wiser to keep him any longer in this exposed place. His wound might get infected."
Gloria came running into the room, holding three ice packs in her hand. The nurse took hold of it.
"I-It was all because of me. I brought all of these troubles. I'm the reason why the cafe's in chaos," Gloria blamed herself, audible enough for everyone present in the room. She was barely holding back her tears.
"I-It's... Uff... Alright, miss- Durgh!!" Diego grunted enduring the pain as he gave her a weak smile between his painful grunts. His assurance did nothing but add more to her guilt. Gloria was now all tears. Alicia hugged and consoled her.
"Don't speak, Di," warned the doctor, "Just bear this for a while," he said and inserted the syringe.
Diego hissed as he shut his eyes tight. Though it did hurt, the syringe was nothing compared to the injury caused by the rogue vampire.
"Miss..." Alicia felt the light tap on her shoulder. She snapped her head to her side, breaking the comfort she was giving to her sobbing friend.
It was Naomi. One of the girls who joined the cafe lately. She was a docile girl compared to the others. The girls loved her a lot. Not to say, Gloria. She'd always be around her, teaching one or two things when the girl was finding it hard in understanding.
She'd say the girl reminded her of her deceased sister. Gloria's sister was weak since birth. The baby was one of the twins. Even the doctor had no hope that the baby would survive any longer. But still, her sister survived for two whole years and died at the age of two, leaving their whole family devastated. The doctors stated that the baby girl's survival was a miracle, given the fact that they had expected the baby to survive only a few days after the baby's birth. But to their relief, her other twin sister was safe and sound, overly pampered by everyone. Still, there were times when the girl would fall ill. And it was too often. Given this reason, she and her family feared she might fall into the same fate as her other twin.
"What is it, Naomi?"
"The cops are waiting out. They'd want to have a word with the cafe owner," she said nervously, fluttering her wet eyelashes.
Alicia glanced at Gloria, who had her support to the wall in a sobbing mess. She nodded her head at Naomi.
"Stay close to her," she eyed Gloria.
"Sure, I will, Miss," Naomi headed toward Gloria and stood right beside her as she held her hand.
Giving one last glance at her friend, Alicia walked out of the room and closed the door quietly.
The cafe was no longer crowded. Must be the cops doing, thought Alicia. She buried her trembling hands into her skirt pocket and marched toward the counter. She could see three armed blue and black-uniformed cops waiting for her, conversing seriously. Probably about the incident that had transpired a few hours before. And another cop kneeling on the floor, inspecting the lifeless rogue.
She wondered where the man who managed to kill the vampire was. Gloria had only mentioned a man who came out of nowhere, gauged the vampire's hollowed heart and stabbed a wooden plank.
'So where was he?' she thought as she walked toward the cop.
She came to stand in front of a tall, white face with the ubiquitous square shoulders and squarer chin man.
"Good afternoon, Miss. I'm Agwin Trevorrow," he introduced himself and his fellow members as the crime investigators.
Obviously, they were here due to the bloodshed. Alicia prayed they would not put an end to their cafe because of this very thing.
"So... Ms. Anderson, seems like, this was the first time such a thing had happened, am I right?"
"Yes, sir," she accepted, nodding her head in agreement.
"If you would explain what exactly happened here..." Enquired Mr. Trevorrow twirling his fingers over the walkie-talkie.
"Fortunately or unfortunately, I wasn't at the cafe, sir," she said straight forward, and her eyes caught sight of the armored vehicles parked right in front of her cafe.
The cop hummed thoughtfully. A man in plain clothes came running toward the cop and whispered something into his ears.
Mr. Trevorrow nodded his head for some reason and ordered, "Investigate the nearby shops and if possible the houses too. Who knows, we might get a clue. There's no way a rogue can come out of nowhere," he said while his eyes observing all around the cafe, taking everything in detail.
"How about the person who managed to kill him?"Asked another cop and she had all three cops' attention on her. Especially, Mr. Trevorrow's eyes snapped to her and narrowed.
Alicia shrugged her shoulders as she replied, "My cafe partner had seen him come after the vampire. But I don't think she's in a state to speak, sir," she answered worriedly.
"Isn't that him?!" exclaimed Mr. Claud, the man next to Mr. Trevorrow, catching every one of their attention. Everyone followed his gaze out.
"If you'll excuse me, Ms. Anderson.."
"Please, Mr. Trevorrow," she waved her hands. He nodded his head and walked out, passing the broken glass door. She saw him greet the newcomer with a warm hug. She could only get a glimpse of the newcomer's back, dressed in a black polar t-shirt and greyish blue jeans. Even the rest of the cops ran out to greet the man.
'Who is he? And why are they showing a lotta respect to him?'