Episode 1 : Irene

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.

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