Red Eyes

Lunabella's P.O.V.

"The government advises everyone to never wander alone at night due to the rising casualties caused by a gamma who ran amok-"

"The world is really scary." Said the old regular customer while giving me what she bought.

I scan it and put it in a bag. 

"That'll be two dollars."

She gave me the bill and put her phone in her pocket. Then, her wrinkled eyes looked at me. 

"You should be careful when you go home," she said.

I smiled at her and said, "I will." 

She is Flora, a regular customer of this store who lives a couple of houses from here. She knows that I work here until dawn so whenever she buys something, she'll never forget to tell me that phrase.

After getting her bag, she left the store. 

But it looks like luck isn't on my side tonight. Gardo's group entered the store with their side chicks clinging to their arms.

"Go get what you want!" He shouted.

His underlings went to the racks and excitedly snatched everything their eyes landed on.

These groups of gangsters who kept on making a ruckus now and then would come into this store to steal. But because the manager can't stop them, as well as the police, they've become comfortable coming here and stealing food.

"Hi, Luna." A man with only two front teeth winks at me. His name is Josh, he looks like a thug. Josh would always wink at me and I always want to punch his face whenever he does that. 

How dare he winked at me when he punched my face before? Yeah, he punched me before, and that's only because I didn't know his name. 

But that's because I'm a new hire at that time. He just couldn't get what I'm trying to say so he punched me. I almost threw the monitor at him but his gang's on his side so I didn't do it. I still love my life. 

"Hi," I replied, snubbing them wouldn't do me any good. I've done that before and I will never do that again.

"You're pretty tonight." Argh. His breath stinks.

"Well, thank you." I scan the foods that he gave me.

 I find them crazy every time they do that. I mean, why do they insist on getting the food they steal scanned when they won't pay for it anyway?  

Crazy.

Josh kept on bugging me even when his co-gang told him to stop. He just wouldn't bulge. 

After getting what his co-gang wanted, they gave it to me to have it scanned and to the tables to eat it.

Aside from Josh, thankfully, the others aren't causing any trouble. Looks like tonight will be a peaceful night…

"Hey spider gang!" Oh, sh*t.

"What the f*ck you want?" Gardo stands up and goes outside to face the evil gang.

That's what they call themselves. Those two are mortal enemies, and based on the other gang boss' tone, they'll skin each other alive tonight.

One by one, Gardo's underlings went outside. Josh follows them.

As for me, I started to fix myself and called the manager.

Only a few rings and he answers the phone.

"Boss, they're at it again," I said.

"On my god…" I can feel his stress. 

As this happens most of the time, he allows me to go home even before my duty ends. He doesn't want to spend some of his fortune on my hospital bill.

I ended the call. I wasn't gonna talk to him about dealing with the gang anyway, I just informed him that there's a ruckus so I'll be going home early.

"Okay, I'm out." As I lock the store's front door. Gardo and his enemy are already throwing punches at one another. 

I turn off the light and snatch a couple of pieces of bread before walking towards the back door.

Gardo's presence allows me to snatch some food for my mother. CCTV cameras here aren't working so the manager won't suspect me of anything. My daily wage isn't even on the minimum so I would compensate myself with a couple of snacks from here.

Upon locking the back door, I took a deep breath. I can hear Gardo's voice here. He's so angry. 

I better go, I don't want to witness someone getting killed. 

I put my hands in my pockets. The night's particularly cold tonight.

"Ha…" I can even see my breath. I wonder what my mother's doing?

I hope she's sleeping already. I'm tired today, I've done four part-time jobs and my body's exhausted already. I don't want to exhaust myself more. 

I walk past the alley to go to our house. Our home was located in a remote area within this old city, so I had to pass through different alleys before I reached our home. 

As I turn left, my gut tells me that there's someone following me. 

My gut is always right. I have to trust it. 

I walk faster. 

At times like this, even though some of the places here are dark, I need to avoid going there as much as possible, I can't risk it.  

This part of this city isn't occupied by many people so if someone attacks me here, I'll be killed even before anyone sees me.

I checked my surroundings, luckily, I found a long metal. I pick it up and continue walking. 

It's getting closer. 

You picked the wrong person, I don't have any money, you'll just waste your time. But of course, I'll never let you get away unscathed. 

As time went by, my walk became faster, and so did the person behind me. 

When I was near the second to the last alley, I was ready to do the first move and attack whoever was behind me, but my eyes widened when I saw what it was. 

Long and sharp claws, and eyes that have the color of a sunflower shine under the light of the moon. Werewolf. And a gamma who looks like he's not in his right mind! 

F*cking sh*t. Just how lucky I could be tonight to see a werewolf that's not in their right mind?

I didn't think twice. 

Run! 

I grip the metal tighter as I run as fast as I can. 

I can't face that person, never in my entire life could I do that. 

Cold sweats are running through my body. My heart started beating faster as I heard him run towards me. 

I turned to the alley, hoping to lose him, but he uses his strong arms to grab a pole and jumps over me.

I gritted my teeth as he landed in front of me.

Sh*t. He's not in his right mind, he's drooling all over his chest, and his smell… It f*cking hurts my nose! I want to vomit! 

"H-hey." Trying to negotiate with him was the only thing I could think of right now. 

He tilted his head and his eyes became darker. 

I readied my stance, this is no joke. 

"Get back to your senses," I said. 

But I receive no response. 

As I took a step back, he took a step closer, slowly, while showing his claws.

"Ack!" 

I block his claws using the metal. He suddenly jumps on me! 

He's too strong! 

I held my breath when the tip of his claws ass inches away from my eye.

Gathering all my strength, I kick his stomach. 

But it didn't do much for him. 

I need to pierce him with this metal! 

I didn't wait for him to recover, Iran towards him. I point to the metal in his chest. 

But before I could even reach him, he jumped in my direction. 

My survival instinct tells me to strike the metal in him, so I did. He was distracted, but he caught my arm.  

"Klahh!" 

Sh*t!

I hardened my fist and hit him in the face. 

I was about to launch another punch but he stopped. Then, his body collapses. 

What's happening?! 

Just as I roamed my eyes around, I saw a man standing in front of me. 

He has a tall and slim figure. I couldn't see his face as the moon's brightness didn't reach his side. But my eyes were locked on his burning red eyes. An alpha.  

"W-who are you?" 

I grabbed the metal that slipped my hand earlier. I don't know, but there's this menacing aura around him that is stopping me from looking elsewhere. 

This isn't good. I would be dead if he attacked me, I lost a lot of strength earlier. 

The gamma's still lying on the floor. Is he dead?

"I asked you, who are you?" 

But again, he didn't answer me. He just stood there, staring intensely at me. 

I slowly pulled myself up, our eyes never left each other. 

What is he up to? 

"Mathias." 

A voice so deep gives shivers down my spine. I couldn't take my eyes off his eyes. I feel like his gaze is pulling me toward him. 

Then, a deafening silence filled the place, it took me a few seconds before I realized what he meant. 

"Uh-" Sh*t. Why can't I talk? 

I flinch when he hands me a handkerchief and says, "Cover your wound." Wound?

Before I could even talk, he jumped to the nearest building. As he reaches the top, he looks at me one more time before he finally disappears. 

What was that? Who was that man? 

My eyes landed on the gamma on the floor, he's dead. But how? I didn't see anything pierced in his chest, and his head was still intact. 

How did that alpha- what was his name again? Ah, "Mathias…" That's right, that's his name.  

"Ouch!" A sudden pain got my attention.  

I saw a large cut on my arm. This must be when that gamma jumps to me. 

I held the handkerchief that Mathias gave me. It's soft. The fabric must be of high quality. 

I can't help but smell it, "Wow…" It smells like flowers…  

It's a waste to just cover my wound with this handkerchief… 

"Let me use mine instead." 

I started to get the things that I dropped while running and went to our home. I need to treat myself.