Glowing eyes

      "You can never have me, not in this life"

  I spat out the losers blood out from my mouth and put back the little kitchen knife in my back pocket. I watched the almighty Derek Houston, the only son of the most powerful Mafia boss in Chrisville, holding his bleeding left arm were I gave him a slight cut with the kitchen knife and a cut on his lower lip. At first he was looking furious, then he let out a phycotic laugh.

     "You are dead! You are so fucking dead Melissa"!!

  I jolted up from the little dream I was having "Uhn!" My neck hurts, possibly from the way i positioned my head on the tree when I needed to rest a bit from the run. I rubbed my neck just to soothe the pain and when I felt better, I lifted myself up from the ground. I looked beyond the shades of trees and realized that it was almost dark.

     "Perfect Melissa! You could have just endured the little advances from that pervert but NO! Your stubborness wouldn't let you. You just slit the precious arm of a Mafia heir" I kept kicking the grasses as I continue to scold myself.

  I knew Derek Houston deserved what i did to him, at least that was payment for all the times him and his crazy friends bullied me, for all the times they made me miss classes, for all the those times they left bruises on me and definitely for the times that pervert stole kisses from me, but I could have still been patient.

   "My name is Melissa Ray, I'm a seventeen years old high school student who had perfect plans for her future. My mum died when I was fourteen years old, I don't even know my dad, Nope! He was never in the picture. My mum's younger sister aunt Becky who I didn't even know existed showed up on the day of my mum's funeral and just like that aunt Becky became my guardian".

  "I'm loosing strength" my stomach growled. That's right, i haven't eaten anything since morning. I actually left home early today so I can avoid morning troubles from those bullies and I was happy to have escaped them this morning. Who would have thought they were going to drag me out from the cafeteria today".

   I picked up my cell phone from my bag and wanted to put it on but remembered what aunt Becky told me "Put off your phone for the main time" that was her word when I ran home to tell her what happened in school. At first she didn't care but when I told her whose son I cut with a kitchen knife she became extremely frightened, she quickly took out some cash from her wallet and gave to me.

  "Run Mellisa! Don't you look back, stay away from roads, don't come back until everything is okay!” She pleaded with me.

 “When will everything be okay aunt Becky?” I asked as tears were threatening to fall out of my eyes.

  "I don't know, just go Lisa!”

  I can't imagine what aunt Becky would be going through in the hands of that monster. I cleaned the tear drops from my eyes with the back of my hands. I felt guilty making aunt Becky go through troubles.

  My stomach growled for the second time, thank God aunt Becky gave me some cash, I need to get cheap food for I don't know how long I will be staying away so i needed to be careful with my spendings. Another problem was I don't know how far I have ran deep into the woods, I just kept running without looking back and now I'm kind of lost.

   I checked every possible way out of this wood but the more i checked the more it gets confusing. It was almost dark and I needed to leave this place.

  I heard rustling noises from parts of the trees, there were many trees circling here so I couldn't tell were the noises were coming from exactly. I'm so sure there are wild animals in this forest which simply means I needed to find my way out of here quickly.

   I checked my watch and it was almost 7pm "Shit! It's fucking late.” I thought.

  I heard the rustling noise again and this time when I turned to observe the trees, I was stunned by the sights of different glowing eyes coming from each side of the trees and worst was, whatever they were, they were kind of surrounding me. So i did what was the most reasonable thing to do at that time. I ran through the only narrow path ahead of me and didn't care if it was the right path because obviously It was the only available one with no glowing eyes.

  I kept running without looking back, I almost fell when I heard howlings from different part of the woods.

  “Oh my God! I'm going to die" I thought. Those glowing eyes belonged to wolves? How come no body ever told me they exist in Chrisville? 

  Am I still in Chrisville? I kept running and asking questions no one was going to answer.

   Soon I saw lights ahead, I thought i was almost out of the woods. I ran more until I got to a clearer view, but I was amazed at what I saw"

  "This can't be right?”

  " Where the hell is this place?”

I don't understand, this place doesn't look familiar at all, this place looks like a small city but with no motorable roads, it looks a bit out of place, not too many houses but the few looks beautiful and it looks like home.

  "I must be crazy" It must be part of Chrisville I never knew existed but why will people live far from the city?

  I felt a bit relieved when I saw an eatery still opened close by, at least I can eat and also asked questions. I quickly looked back to the woods I just came out from but I didn't heard nor see anything, not even glowing eyes, maybe I imagined it but I could still feel my heart pounding from the run. I'm never again going through this forest.

  I strolled down to the eatery that still had the ‘open’ sign hanging on the door. Immediately I opened the the door I froze, over twenty eyes were all on me, some had shock on their faces, some adoration, some disgust, I just couldn't find the courage to move. If a needle was to be dropped right there, the sound would probably be heard as the hall was so quiet.

  "Luna? A middle aged woman quickly rushed toward me. With her dressing, I guessed she was the chef here.

  “Hi!” I said to her as she approached me with a full smile plastered on her face.

 "You look so beautiful Luna" she low shrieked.

 I couldn't help but smile at her, "but what is Luna"? I asked her because I certainly knew that wasn't my name.

The vibrant, bubbling lady began to fidget and I observed it wasn't only the lady. Everyone who were looking at me a moment ago also turned their back to me. I could feel they were nervous, which made me wonder what was going on here.

"I me..meant guest" the older woman stuttered. “Please what can I get you?” She continued after comporting herself.

  As much as I thought about how weired this place was, I still needed to eat something, besides, the beef stir fry spaghetti I was perceiving right now was totally clouding my judgement.

  "I need a plate of that stir fry beef spaghetti" I announced.

  She widely opened her eyes in shock when I announced what I wanted.

   “Are you okay?” I asked in concern

She smiled at me and said “yeah. Please have a seat and I will be right back” quickly, she showed me  a seat closed to the window view that I kind of preferred since I needed to see through the view.

I settled down on the seat closed to the view, dropped my bag on the table and opened it to take some cash from it so I can settle the bill for my food. I also took out my phone, almost tempted to put it on so I can call my aunt, to at least know she was safe.

  I'm so worried right now, aunt Becky may not totally know much about taking care of a teenager but she did her best. She's been there for me all these years so I will not be able to forgive myself if anything bad happens to her all because of my wreckless behaviour.

  I have been walking around with a kitchen knife for self defense from my bullies and I never had the courage to use it but today. I couldn't hold myself anymore so I used it on that pervert who was digging his fingers in through my blouse to my bras. He could had just continued with his kiss assault!

  Although I didn't plan for everything to go like this but I kind of felt good using that knife on him.

 "Here is your order Luna" I lifted my head up to see the older woman holding a train with my food on it, smiling as she set the food on the table 

 “Melissa!”

  “What?”

 “My name is Melissa ma'am” I smiled as I told her my name. This was just to make her stop calling me Luna.

  “That's a very beautiful name” she smiled “And my name is Juliana and make sure to tell me anything you want” she said.

  “Thanks Juliana". she nodded her head still smiling and I could tell she was surprised but proud which confused me. The aroma from the stir fry spaghetti got me more hungry, so I quickly cleaned my fork and dug in. I didn't even noticed when Juliana left.

  I was almost done with my food when the thought of my aunt suffering almost choked me. I quickly put down the fork and drank some water from the bottle. When I was settled enough, I couldn't continue the food as I was totally no longer interested in it.

 “Should I call Lexi so I can at least feel a bit settled that my aunt was going to be fine?" I thought but immediately rejected the thought. Lexi was my best friend and I didn't even let her know that I was running away.

“Are you alright Melissa?”

I heard Juliana ask as she took a seat at the other side of the table, facing me.

"I'm fine" I lied  “Just have some thoughts running through my mind” I told her. I wasn't going to let strangers know of my predicaments. For all I know they might be working for the notorious Mafia boss and I don't plan on being dragged back to that criminal.

  “You know you can trust me right?” She asked as if she could hear my thoughts.

 Trust? She got to kidding me! 

“I'm fine ma'am...Juliana.” 

“Thanks for the meal. If it's okay with you, can you to please direct me to any cheap hotel where I can sleep for the night?.”

  “Hotel?!” She asked loudly and others turned their heads to our direction with the same shock on their faces just like the one on Juliana's face.

  "What is going on here"? I asked myself,

  Is it that there are no hotels here or was it a taboo for a young girl like me to lodge in a hotel? I understood that I'm seventeen years old but I will be eighteen in a month time.

  Immediately the others quickly turned their backs to me like the first time and acted as if they were not just interested in my discussion with Juliana a minute ago.

  “My dear Melissa, there are no hotels here in our community...and since you are a visitor here, why not stay with me for the maintime?” She asked with a smile on her face as she was also patiently waiting for my answers with so much hope in her eyes.

“Juliana, thanks very much but I don't want to be a burden on you.”

 “Nonsense! You can never be a burden to me besides the house is big enough to fit in five persons.” she argued.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely!” 

“Okay, thanks”

“You're welcome darling. I can't wait to introduce you to my daughter Keira" she shrieked with excitement.

“Alright!" I smiled "This place might be weird but it has nice people” I thought to myself.

“Give me some minutes, let me hand over to that man there” she pointed at a huge handsome man, who was also in his middle age. He smiled at me which I also reciprocated. She walked away.

 "Alright, that went well!” I thought.