"Last call for the bar."

It's almost 11:30. Today had been a good day. There was a fiat amount of tips in the jar, and not many people left in the place as the clock inched towards midnight. My eyes roamed over the regulars left in the place. These last guys don't normally tip much, but whatever they do should hopefully be worth it.

I turned my eyes back to the stack of bills in front of me as I continued to tally them up. Another amazingly, boring night.

"Yo Ry, we're heading out." My head to the source of the voice. The two girls working as waiters were walking out of the kitchen.

"Sure. See you tomorrow, Sienna. See you tomorrow, Maya."

The two girls waved at me, one of them hiding a yawn with the other hand as they strode to the door. "Yay. Weekend." Maya mumbled to herself.

I chuckled to myself, turning back to the day's receipts. The date caught my eye. It rang a bell in the back of my head.

It's been 6 months to the day since I started working here. However, it was actually eight months to the day I'd left my job and my old life behind.

My eyes roamed over the place. The building was much more modern than where I used to work. The inside had however been dressed down to seem intentionally aged. The wood-panelled walls and floors were given an aged look, and vintage posters had been framed along to give a real nostalgic vibe. It was not a style I preferred, but the owners paid well. And let me stay here for free while they were gone.

It did mean I had to handle everything from finances to inventory, but I liked being busy. With all the time on my hand now, tasks like that were the only thing keeping me from going insane.

It did confuse me in the beginning as to why they trusted me- a stranger from out of town- with their establishment. I could only chalk it up to the grace or glory thing Lou and Mike once vaguely mentioned. I didn't know what it was, but if it kept people trusting me and not asking questions, I'm totally fine with it.

The kitchen door swung open again. "See you tomorrow, Ryleigh."

"Later, Henry." I looked up again, giving the brown-eyed, dark-skinned chef a smile.

He nodded, throwing a wave over his shoulder as he headed for the exit. Nice man. He'd started working here around the same time I had along with those two girls. Those two were quite close, best friends from what they'd told me. Sienna even came to me for high school advice a few days back. Ah, kids.

I waited till the last customer had left before closing up. The tables were wiped down, chairs flipped and placed on top, stools shoved in and register checked. Typing out my daily earnings report for the owners, I did a quick stretch and headed upstairs. Inventory was sorted for now when it came to the bar. Henry handled the kitchen supplies, but I need to do a grocery run for myself. Maybe I'll stop in for a haircut as well.

I paused by a mirror in the stairwell. My hair was blonde now, but most of the colour had faded and given me more of a platinum blonde colour. I missed the honey look, but this wasn't bad. I could keep it. Get a trim.

When the sun started rising I left the place to head to the gym, passing Henry on the way in. He yawned, waving at me as he unlocked the front door. I waved back at him, having stepped out the back door and walked around the building. I enjoyed the morning air here. Small towns had crisp morning air. Fresh breath, fresh feels, fresh air. It felt so good to be outside.

The gym was just opening up. The lady at the reception gave me a smile as I signed in. I smiled back, heading in. It was empty. Perfect. The grocery story being almost empty? Perfect.

"Having a good day, Ryleigh?"

I looked up from the packet of chips I was about to slide over. The manager of this place. "Oh. Hey, Ryland."

He grinned at as I straightened up. "Bueno diás."

"Morning, Ryland." I repeated in English. "What's up?" The self-checkout resumed beeping as I slid the packet over.

"That's what I asked you." He cocked his head, stepping forward. "Let me do this."

"Uh, okay." My hands went to my side as he took over the checkout.

"It's been a while since had a meet-up, didn't we?"

Ryland was Carla's boyfriend. The manager of the gym I went to. The definition of a power couple in a place like this. "Yeah, it has." These two... I could call them friends. "You guys free anytime soon?"

"Carla and I were planning to go on a hike this Friday." His smile turned into a grimace. "Want to join us?"

I chuckled to myself, seeing the reluctance in his aura. "Let me guess- Carla's plan?"

"Yes." He mumbled, pausing to swipe my last few items across. I moved with him over to the bagging area. "Yes. The two of you are real morning people. I figured she'd like having along someone who won't grumble the entire track."

A smile crossed my face. "Sounds good. I haven't gone hiking in years."

"You don't enjoy it either?"

"Haven't been since a trip in high school. I can mostly chalk it up to not being very active, or having a lot of active friends." Antonio crossed my mind. He'd suggested it once, but shot it down when he realised neither of us had matching day-offs.

"Yikes, and you're 26 now?" He asked without even glancing down at the products he was bagging.

"Twenty-seven." "My birthday was in March."

"Oh right." He tsked to himself, hand moving to shift some items in the bag around. "We met you like a month later."

"Yeah." Carla had approached me while I'd been on a run outside. "I hadn't even planned on staying here that long."

"Yeah. Your arrival had really stirred up this place." He whistled lowly. "Hot, single girl. No visible baggage. Seemed nice. But wow- the stories that were flying around were..." He trailed off, shaking his head to himself as he decided not to talk about it further.

"Scandalous." I completed for him anywau. "I heard a few." Some customers had shown up to the bar just to ask around about them. "Small town." I mumbled.

"Small town." He repeated. He understood me. He and Carla were from a city not far from the one I'd left. "Here you go." He patted the bags he'd finished packing, satisfaction crossing his brown eyes.

"Thanks." I wrapped both hands around the straps, lifting easily. "I'll head out th-"

"I can walk you to the exit." He replied easily, tugging out one of the bags from my grasp. "You have to head back to the bar. These will be heavy."

I rolled my eyes. "You do this every week, dude. I can carry these myself."

"Not doubting that." His free hand reached up to poke my bicep as we fell in step. "Carla keeps you ready to lift a truck if needed."

Laughing easily, I shook my head. "No, she doesn't! I work out on my own. I haven't applied for a trainer."

"Oh, really?" Surprised crossed through his face. The automatic door slid open in front of us. "The way she talks about you I figured you were training with her."

"Nope. I ask her or one of the others to spot me, but that's about it. She's usually too busy in the morning to be able to talk to me."

"Oh." He sighed, the wind stirred his black hair as we stepped outside. "I just assumed... never mind."

"Carla is just a nice person."

"Yes, she is. She made me a better one too." He smiled to himself, eyes slightly glazed over. "Though, I have no idea how she was ever attracted to my asthmatic ass."

I snickered at that, reaching up to pat his back with my free hand as we both stopped to let a car drive by. "Shut up. I've seen you hold a handstand till you almost passed out."

"Carla was the one who put me onto yoga and pilates, you know." We resumed walking. "But I was a literal mess before I met her."

"Maybe you were her pet project."

"A pet project? I'll be anything for her as long as she never leaves me."

"Ooh." I nudged him before stepping onto the sidewalk. "When are you popping the question?"

Ryland turned understandably red. "Uh, who said I am?"

"It's obvious." His aura was filled with love and infatuation. "Now, especially."

He turned redder, holding out my bags. "Uh, it was nice chatting with yo-"

"Uh-uh." My fingers wrapped around his wrist to keep him from leaving. "You're not running. Give me a date, lover boy." He mumbled something, looking away from me. "Huh?" My hand tightened around his wrist. "Didn't quite catch that."

"I... need to save up till the new year." He mumbled, flushing some more.

"Ooh." I let go of his wrist, grabbing the bags instead. "When will the wedding be?"

Ryland still wasn't meeting my eyes, but I could see some relief in his aura. That was probably from getting it off his chest. "She's always wanted a summer wedding."

"Cute." I cocked my head. "Send me an invite."

"An invite?" He looked up from the ground. "You're leaving?"

I shrugged, starting to turn away. "I never even planned to stay this long. Just waiting for the owners to come back now."

"That's sad." He crossed his arms across his chest. "You can stay. You're welcome here."

I gave an undecided grunt. "Maybe till the wedding." The answer relieved some of the worry in his aura. "I'll see."

Ryland scoffed. "If I've learnt anything from staying with two women, it's that 'I'll see' practically means no."

"I don't mean 'no'. I mean that I'll think about it." I tried to shrug, but the bags were weighing me down. "I don't mind coming back for the wedding."

"That means you're thinking about leaving." He pouted. "Stay, Ryleigh. You're a good friend. We'd be sad to see you go."

I smirked. "What if I don't tell you guys before leaving?"

Ryland rolled his eyes. "Please. You even mentioning resignation will make it the hottest gossip in town." He reached out to lightly punch my forearm. "You can't run."

"I'm not running." I rolled my eyes at that word, turning to the side. "I'm moving on. I left the city to travel on my own anyway."

"You have nothing holding you down." He sighed as he turned away. "It's not the best life. You need to settle some time."

"Not any time soon, Ryland. See you."

"Bye." He threw a wave over his shoulder as I started walking down the sidewalk in the direction of my place. These two were nice, but it's best to keep them at a distance. My promise of attending their wedding wasn't something I could ensure I'd uphold. Getting close to people is dangerous. It's hard to trust people after what the Hunter's did to me. I'd never forget it.

One of the good things that had come out of not sleeping was that I didn't dream of Will. I hadn't thought about him in a while, but this interaction has brought it up. The fact that it had been half a year since I stopped here had also stirred up some memorie-

A chill crossed down my back, strong enough to make me stop walking. My head whipped around, looking at the people walking on the sidewalk across the road, the cars, the businesses opening up. Nothing. There's nothing there. Then what was that?

The chill started at my neck again. I wanted to raise my hand to rub the back of my neck but they were full. Turning around where I was standing, I looked up and down my own sidewalk. All auras were visible. There was nothing suspicious on either side.

What was that?

I stood there for another minute, looking up and down the street, across the sidewalks, into the windows of opening businesses. Nothing. The chill didn't return.

I rolled my neck, eyes still on the part of the pavement I'd already walked over. Was someone following me? Or was I just being paranoid? A chill doesn't have to mean anything... but...

There was hesitation in my step as I turned my back to it. My pace was a little faster as I headed back home. This didn't bode well for me. I didn't enjoy that. I might have to leave much earlier than I thought.

Maya was already working the tables when I walked in. She nodded at me, her red ponytail bobbing with it.

"Where's Sienna?" I called out, pausing by stairs up to my place as I looked around .

"She's got a group project she's finishing up today." Maya turned away from the table. "She'll be here by ten."

"Ah." I rolled my shoulders. My fingers were numb because of how long the straps of the grocery bags had been cutting into them. "Need help?"

"Yes, please." She threw me a quick smile before hurrying over to another table.

"Be down in ten." I threw over my shoulder before jogging upstairs. Placing my groceries on the ground, I pulled the keys out of the small bag I was carrying and unlocked the door. It swung open onto a loft lit up by the morning sun. The groceries went on the kitchen counter where I fished out frozen goods to shove in the fridge before hopping in the shower. The place had filled up even more by the time I returned downstairs. Picking up, Sienna's notepad, I got to work taking orders.

Sienna turned up in another few hours, apologising profusely, and with her schoolbag on her shoulder. I waved off the apology. The fact that they both were in school and yet worked here so much was honestly impressive. I could afford to give them a few days off for exams where I waited and managed the bar. It usually got quite hectic then, but I was used to it by now. They usually worked on homework during their breaks too. It made me kind of sad sometimes that working here might get in the way of their social lives, but they'd refused when I'd suggested hiring two more people.

Sienna showing up allowed me to finally get off my feet. I managed to grab a bite since I hadn't eaten anything since the morning. Instead of opening at noon like I used to, the bar now opened in the evening because there was almost no crowd during lunch here. I spent the free time in between working on finances and organising the groceries I'd bought.

Sienna and Maya left by six so I took over waiting and bartending. The small crowd didn't bother me, especially when I placed the 'SELF-SERVICE' sign on the counter.

The work helped me feel much more at ease by the time the evening came around. The chill I'd felt in the morning was almost forgotten. Mainly because I felt stupid for getting paranoid about something so small. The work here was good. My life here was good for now. There was no rush to leave at the moment. The owners weren't coming back anytime soon

I watched the crowd dwindle down, starting to tally up the receipts as it struck half past eleven.

"Last call." I yelled out, distracted by Sienna's scribbles.

I bent over the counter, tongueOnly to pause as I felt the same chill crawl down my back. But stronger.

My gut curled, and almost expectantly, my eyes rose to the door. I was holding my breath, waiting. I recognised the chill now. I'd felt it once before.

A dark figure walked up to the door, pushing it open and raised his head to meet my eyes. It's him.

Black eyes, black hair, black outfit, no aura... and a familiar smile.

A smile that morphed into a knowing smirk as the demon walked up the bar. He sat down on a barstool the same distance away from the register as he did when I worked in the city.

His fingers drummed the wood as he looked me over. "Good evening, Ryleigh." The words were slow, almost  lazy drawl. "Nice night out there."

The line was familiar, calming the unease in my gut and letting a smile cross my face. I cocked my head, dropping the receipts and reaching for the bottle of whiskey. "Hey. It's been a while, Lou."

******************

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So... Part 2 begins 👀

I'm excited for this one too. It should have a bit more action than the first part especially since this is going to be much shorter.

What do you think will happen here? Will she resume her old life? Or will she leave once again?

Vote and comment!

Do give me your thoughts on some of the previous chapters as well! I'd like to hear what you thought about the POVs!