I don’t know where to start. I have these fragments of memories that feels like it’s a part of movie. A past life story maybe? I don’t know. Sometimes they appear in my dreams and sometimes on my mind when I am wide awake. Most of the stories that I write are just improvisations of my dreams with my real life experiences. I mean, that is what a writer usually does, right? But this particular story that I am going to tell you feels so real to me that I end up wondering whether it is something that I have experienced for real; except that the part of my life was deleted. So, here you go.

It was late night. Irene had just finished her work at the “Let’s Roll” bar and was walking back home. She was a guitarist and performed at the bar every weekend. The pay wasn’t much but she did it anyway because of her love for music.

Irene is a twenty one years old final year student. She studies business management at St. Benedict’s, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. She got admitted through a scholarship. Even though the scholarship covers most of the fees, there were certain expenses that she had to bare herself. Upon that, living expenses in The States are quiet high. She managed to get a part time job that actually paid her well. The café was few blocks from her university.

 She met Cairo at Let’s Roll when she was in the junior year. He was a vocalist there. He also happened to be her senior pursuing a Masters Degree. She moved in with Cairo and two others from the same college. It was an apartment owned by Cairo’s family.

 “It sucks to stay alone here” he always told. Lucas and Liam were from the same university but of different majors. The four got along very well and became more like a family. She was treated like a sister with three handsome brothers. Amidst their busy college and work hours, they always managed to spend time with each other.

That Saturday night, Cairo went home to visit his family and the others were out of town on research work for their semester projects. The apartment was a 20 minute walk from the bar. Her watch ticked half past eleven and it would take another 10 minutes to get home. She was tired standing for two continuous hours at the bar and wanted to get home and rest as soon as possible. She turned to a small ally that leads to her apartment. Cairo always warned her that the ally was not safe and was always surrounded by gangsters. It was quiet dark, so she turned on the flashlight on her phone. She took a peek and saw that there was no one and took longer steps.

She was almost half way through it when she heard heavy breaths of someone in front of her. She felt a chill down her spine.

“Who's there?” she called out, gathering all her courage.

She got no response. She took smaller steps and slowly moved forward. Just after a few steps ahead, she heard someone huffing next to her. She turned her flash light towards her right and was taken aback from what she saw.

A man stained with blood all over his body stood across the wall. He firmly held onto his stomach which seemed to be a gunshot wound. He could barely manage to stand on his own.

“Are you okay?” she asked with fear thriving from behind her throat.

As soon as he saw her, he pulled out a gun and pointed at her.

“Who are you? Who sent you? I will give you three seconds or else you are dead”. Even though he was so badly wounded, one could sense the aura in his voice which was no less than that of a ferocious wolf.

“Don’t hurt me. I am just passing by. I don’t know anything. I swear” she panicked.

His pain intensified as the blood flowed out of his wound. He fell down losing balance. Even though she was scared to death at the other end of the gun, she slowly approached him. He had a cut on his left arm and his cheek scarred.

“I will call an ambulance for you”. He grabbed her hand,

“Don’t call them”

“You will die if I don’t” she argued.

“I will die if I go to the hospital”, he yelled at her.

She couldn’t understand why. She could just leave him there and go home. She didn’t even know him. But something made her stay. Maybe that something is what we call as humanity.

“Is there anyone I can call for help?” she asked.

“My phone must be fallen around here somewhere”.

She looked around eagerly and found his phone. Fortunately the phone didn’t suffer much damaged and was working just fine. She quickly dialed the number he told and put it on speaker phone.

“Hello? Master what happened? Is something wrong?” the person on the other side asked anxiously.

“Come find me quick J. I am shot”, he responded, calmly.

“On our way sir. We will track you down. Just stay safe for few more minutes”. The call ended.

“My men will find me soon. Do you know any place to hide right now? I need to bandage my wounds to stop them from bleeding.”

Of all the places she knew, her apartment was the one closest. With his current physical condition, he could just manage to reach there.

“We can go to my place if that’s ok with you” she asked.

He nodded. She held his hand and slowly helped him to stand up. He put his arm around her shoulder and leaned on her. He wobbled with each step.  She wondered how he still has the consciousness to stay put with such pain.

She fumbled for her keys and opened the door as he stood there, leaning against the way. She took him in and made him lay down on the couch. She quickly searched for the first aid kit and brought it to him.

“Help me remove my shirt”.

She moved closer to him and helped him undo his buttons. She

removed the shirt from over his shoulder. Blood stains on the shirt was as

though he played a paint war with someone. Underneath his shirt was his

well-built body with multiple scars. If you had seen him a century ago, you

would believe them to be battle scars.

“What kind of battle did he live through?” she thought. She

took a couple of cotton pads and pressed it firmly on his wound to stop further

loss of blood. In next to no time, she heard footsteps from outside, followed

by a loud bang on her door. She shuddered due to the sudden sound.

“Wait a minute!” he shouted.

“Go open the door if you don’t want it to be broken”. She

ran to the door, opened it and ran back to him. Seeing her run around like a

puppy, he chuckled.

Around six men, each armed with guns, rushed inside and

surrounded him. After seeing him inflicted with those wounds, “You never listen

to me, do you?” a man yelled at him. He was at least 6 feet tall with a dusky

skin tone.

“Please don’t start that again J”.

“Just shut up now, will you?”

The doctor came forward and inspected his wounds.

“Fortunately, it is just a flesh wound. It has damaged the

muscle but no vital organ is damaged” the doctor concluded. “I will stitch it

up for now.” The doctor cleaned the wound and checked for bullet pieces and

removed them. He then injected him with local anesthesia and stitched the

wound. Almost within a moment, he lost consciousness.

“He should be taken to the hospital quickly. He has lost a

lot of blood and has to be given a blood transfusion immediately” the doctor

exclaimed.

“Didn’t you hear him? Quick. Carry him to the car” J shouted

at his men.

Without a moment’s gap, they carried him to the car and lay

him carefully inside. Before getting into the car, “Bring her with you. She is

the only one who knows what happened” J ordered his men and left.

“Me? I don’t know anything. I just found him in the ally”

she tried to justify herself. They didn’t give an ear to what she was telling

and dragged her by her arm and took her with them to the hospital.

She tried to free herself from their hold but they were so

strong that it left bruises on her wrist. By the time they arrived at the

hospital, he was already undergoing a blood transfusion. He was in a private

ward with two men guarding the door and other three on standby. J was glaring

at her with full of rage. The doctor came out of the room.

“His vitals are stable. He will wake up soon. We should run

a few tests just to make sure everything is ok” said the doctor.

“Thank you doctor” J replied