Drew
It was late at night, some time past midnight. I was speeding down the road, for the first time I was impatient tonight. I was searching, seething, shouldn’t I have seen someone by now?
I checked the clock on my radio, 2:03 Am, that’s really late. I hate nights that last so long, sometimes, on nights like these I wonder if I’ll see anyone at all.
I tried to remember the last time I had a job so late, but hardly ever, sometimes I was done by eight or nine. But most of my work was in a clean town, just inhabited by crime.
Tonight was like my first few nights, the first few days of my life I guess you could say.
I ran a red light and in a instant, like a stabbing knife made its way inside me from the steering wheel when I saw her.
Fiona
I was only seventeen, but I don’t think the bar tender knew that. He handed me my drink with a smile and a wink. My stomach lurched, it had been like that all night long.
I wasn’t used to doing bad, exciting things. Usually when my friends planned a night at the club I just backed out. Stayed home, did some studying, some binging…
I winced, the drink was so strong, maybe I should have had a Virgin. That would have been the smart thing to do. That’s what the Good Girl in me is saying, although she’s frustrated and scared to death to be here.
But the Bad Girl, she’s laughing like she has a fever, she loves the thrill, she wants to dance all night long. She wants to meet the man over there staring her down.
The Good Girl, she likes the man, thinks he’s cute, but she knows he could be dangerous. She doesn’t want to take the risk, she wants to track down her friends and head out of the door.
It’s like the two of them are sitting on either side of my shoulder coaxing and fretting over me. I don’t know who to listen to….But at the same time I do. I look away from the man, and I look for Sadie.
She was short, not exactly easy to find, but her twin cousins shouldn’t have been hard to spot. The both of them towered over her, like two older siblings.
I didn’t have the best eyes, but I could swear they were hard to find. Not on the dance floor, not on the couches…
I took a gulp from my drink, and headed for the bathrooms. They were no where to be found, so I stopped and looked in the mirror.
I expected not to look like myself, but rather a poser. But somehow in the dim restroom lights, I still looked liked her, Fiona the Dork.
The Good Girl smiles, ‘Is that a bad thing?’
The Bad Girl snorts, ‘Horrendous, I told you not to wear this outfit. All you got working for you now is that pretty face.’
“Shut up!” I wanted to shoot, I don’t think it was normal to talk to myself.
I walked out the bathroom as the other women stared, speculating me when I came into the dance room again I bumped into someone.
“S-sorry.”
“That’s ok.”
I looked up shocked to see the Glaring Man from before. Up close, he was beautiful, or maybe it was that shot of alcohol that made him look so good now.
“Do you want to dance?”
I could barely say yes, before he lead me onto the dance floor. Just my luck it was a slow song, so all I had to do was embrace him, and move my feet a little.
“What’s you’re name baby?” He whispered in my ear roughly.
“I’m Fiona.”
He lifted his head a little to look at me, giving me a crooked smile, “I’m Ben, nice to meet you Fiona.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
The music speed up, and the floor felt like it was moving around me. I held on to Ben tightly, and before I knew it I was sitting at a table. He his arm was wrapped around me.
“Um, I think I have to go now. I need to find my friends.”
“Hey, wait a minute, you don’t look so good.”
It was true I felt like I was going to faint, “I do feel a little sick…”
“Let’s get some fresh air.”
I could hardly object, I felt suffocated, next thing I knew I was in the alley.
“Hunter, over here.”
Ben leaned me against alley wall, I couldn’t stand by myself anymore.
“Whose Hunter?”
Another man rounded the corner a smile on his face, “She almost out?”
“Soon.” Ben smiled.
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll see beautiful.” He said giving me that crooked smile again.
Drew
I could see her in the alley, barely able to stand, two men standing beside her.
Why couldn’t I stop looking? Usually I can look for an instant, and I’m gone. But it’s like I’m paralyzed, I see her face and I can’t look away.
It takes me minutes to move again to slam my foot on the pedal. I’m speeding down the street, I can hear the cops near by.
But in my car no one’s going to catch me tonight.
At the speed of light I’m pulling into the alley, I step out the car. I can hear her crying now, one man is leaned against her, his pants down.
“I thought we were going to wait till she was passed out?” The other guy seemed like he wasn’t liking this very much. He turned to me, having heard my quick footsteps. “Who are you?”
I reached in my pocket for my gun, “Hunter I think you should run away before I shoot you.”
“Wh-what?”
Ben turned away from the girl looking at me in shock, “Who the fuck is this?”
“Hunter,” I said taking off the safety, “If you promise you’ll be good I’ll let you live. But only if you run away.”
Hunter looked back at Ben and the girl, and then back at me. Within a moment he disappeared kicking up glass down the alley.
The girl looked at me with her pure blue eyes, the ones I could easily remember from before. She looked at me in confusion slowly losing consciousness.
“Look dude this isn’t what it looks like--”
I took that moment to send the bullet through his skull.
-----------------
Fiona
When I opened my eyes I could feel the wind swept around me, I was laying down freezing in a the back of a car.
Was I dreaming? Was I on my way home with Sadie?
Yeah, sure except Sadie didn’t have white leather seats. What happened tonight anyway…I feel so exhausted I can barely move. I still manage to sit up though.
My heart speeds up, blood feels like it’s rushing to my brain as a flood of memories come back to me.
Like the fact that Sadie and her cousins must have ditched me, and….Ben…and Hunter….[They gave me a DA, Ben was about to rape me. And then someone came into the alley. This boy, this man, he was in white, I remembered the way he looked at me…]
Whose car was I in? Where was I?
I couldn’t make out the driver in the front seat, it was dark, and passing streets looked like a blur around us.
“Where are you taking me?”
The stranger parked the car sharply, everything came into view for me. We were by a bridge over looking the water and the city.
He turned to look at me, and instantly I knew he was the man in white from the alley. He had black hair like my own, and dark blue eyes that bore into mine.
“I had to take you out of there.” He said simply, he an enchanted, mystical voice. I never heard anyone with a voice like his before. “I just took you to the hospital, the doctors said you would be fine…I could take you home now.”
I didn’t say anything, I just looked at him. Then it occurred to me, he didn’t know where I lived, “I live in Hover, down on Franklin and Ashton.”
He gave a look of confirmation and started up the car heading down the road again.
I felt something soft weighing down on my shoulders and then I realized he had given me his jacket.
It was warm as well as soft, and I could smell him. I couldn’t identify the smell, but sniffing it made me feel calm and serene. I wrapped it tightly around myself sitting back and staring ahead at the stranger in front of me.
Drew
“Why don’t you come inside?”
“I, I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“Please I don’t want to be alone tonight.” The look in her eyes were pleading and I couldn’t say no.
She let me in and we sat on the couch for a moment, silent listening to the water drip in the kitchen.
“What is your name?”
I looked at her again, she looked exhausted, but she was still utterly gorgeous, “I’ll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone?”
She looked at me confused, but then she nodded, “Okay I promise.”
“I’m Drew, Drew Darrell. And you are?”
“I’m Fiona Foster, hey our last names have the same letter of our first names…”She laughed a little bit.
I smiled at her, “Yes, Fiona they do.”
I had to look away from her, I knew that I was angry at myself, but I didn’t think I would feel it as strongly as I would. My self loathing seemed to overwhelm me when I looked at her for to long.
“Um, would you excuse me for a little bit? I’d like to take a shower.”
“Yes, yes of course.” I covered my eyes, why was I being so hard on myself?
Fiona
I couldn’t keep the imagines from coming in my head again, I don’t think Drew really noticed. He was to busy looking at me with disgust, like he wanted to hate me or something. Almost as much as I was hating my self at the moment.
I would never listen to the Bad Girl again, she was dead to me….This was all my fault, I almost deserved this didn’t I?
I stepped into my room, the lamp by my desk was still left on. I looked over to the open window by the terrace. I walked over and closed it quickly and harshly. And I turned on more lights, and then I locked my door heading into my bathroom for a shower.
Why was I being like this? Why was I feeling this way? It wasn’t like anything that bad happened. I wasn’t going to die….was I? Never mind what would have happened if Drew hadn’t saved me. But he did save me, and now I basically owed him my life.
Even in the shower I could feel the tears stinging my eyes, the fear still inside me.
----------------
Drew
Why didn’t I move faster? I was so close to being to late….Why did I sit and stare? Why?
I never hesitated, before, if someone needed me I’d be there in a blink. Why was tonight different? Was I loosing my gift?
Would I fail someone the next time? Why was this given to me in the first place? Just out of the blue no memory, just a suit and a car…
All I knew about myself was the very one thing I loved the most about me; racing. I could see my self speeding down the course on the third lap, taking first place each and every time.
I was a favorite, a rookie at first, I hadn’t yet to make my name big yet. But everyone knew me as the White Knight racer. There was another racer, only one other man just like me, Kenn, the Black Knight.
He said he saved people just like me, he told me that we used to be different people. Whether we were good or bad, he didn’t seem to know. Only that whoever we were we raced. Like now, racing was our life.
Kenn was like a mentor, he taught me everything gave me everything I needed. I saw him rarely though, most times I saw him at the tournaments. This time I was sure I’d be in the finals.
For the past three years I’ve had to command the course again, racing was in my blood but those first few years on the course, I was like an amateur.
I didn’t like being an amateur, I felt like racing was something I should have been perfect at. And maybe I was, a long time ago when I used to be someone else.
I don’t know who I was , only who I am now. I’m the wind whipping by and the tires screeching on the course. But most of all I am the fastest, I’m the first place, I have to be.--
“Drew?”
I looked over at her, Fiona was hesitant at the bottom of the stairs. I could see the fear and evident shock in her eyes. I had to wonder what was wrong with her, hadn’t she just been raped and killed? And yet she invites me, a stranger, a weirdo in a white suit into her home. But just looking into her eyes, I felt almost as if she trust me, had all confidence in me.
“Yeah?”
“Are you hungry? I mean a little dinner is the least I could do.”
She was still wet, her hair was damp and wavy wetting her back. Her dark brown skin glowed in from the bright lights in the house. I had a hard time concentrating, had I ever met anyone this striking?
“Actually I would like that.”
The situation was strange, I didn’t talk and have dinner with the people I saved. I knew it was strange, but somehow it felt perfectly natural to follow her into the kitchen.
Fiona
Drew was the most handsome man I had ever met, and he made me nervous in the most wonderful way. I couldn’t place the presence that was there while we made dinner together, it felt like we had always talked together. That I had known him always, and there had never been a time when I didn’t know a Drew Darrell.
It was like his name was familiar always itched into my heart.
“Do you cook often?” Drew asked as we sat at the at table, the clock facing away from us.
“No, not really our cook Helen, she usually prepares the food.”
“Why isn’t she here tonight?” Drew asked curious, maybe he did like my cooking? He already ate all my pasta.
“It’ her night off….” That was the reason I was dumb enough to go tonight. The Bad Girl knew she could get away with it, while the Good Girl had always known the risk of breaking the rules. Why did I listen to the wrong one?
“Has she worked for your family very long?”
“Ten years,” I smiled at him, “ My parents appreciate her a lot, she’ been working less because of her arthritis.”
“That’s nice of them.”
“Yes, they work a lot also.” I looked over at the clock, it’s back still turned to me, how long has it been? It felt we had been talking together for a while now.
“Fiona?” Drew reached over to me grabbing my hand.
“Yes?” I gasped trapped in his eyes.
“You’re shaking.” He pointed out, he was concerned about me, a stranger. A dangerous adolescence that he saved without a thought.
He was right though, my hands, my whole body was shaking. I don’t think I felt cold though.
“Maybe you should get some rest?” Drew said, my heart sank, and I wish that he wouldn’t try to leave just yet.
“I’m not really tired just yet.” I said, although I felt like I was begging him to stay just five minutes longer.
“Okay.”
He wasn’t fighting me, maybe he enjoyed my company just as much?
“Drew, I was wondering….” He gave me a patient look, taking his hand back slowly. “ How is that you, that you found me tonight.”
“Honestly Fiona…if this doesn’t sound to weird, I think fate let me find you tonight.”
Such a weird thing to say, but it’s meaning vibrated into my soul. I knew he was right, it was fate that brought me someone like Drew.
And the scary part for me tonight was my dilemma. Would I ever see him again? Where would he go after this? Did he live close by?
“What’s wrong?” Drew asked, from his expression I could tell he thought is statement was a strange one to me.
“Nothing, I was just thinking you’re completely right.”
There was a shine in his face, “You know I really like talking to you. Most people find me kind of odd.”
“I don’t think your odd.” Who would think that? He was like an angel, my angel.
“Thank you, I guess I should be going.”
“Umm, okay.”
We stood from the table and we walked over to the door together.
Drew reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, “Here take this.”
My heart sped up as I looked it over, it was a phone number. “Just case you ever need help, all you have to do is call.”
“Alright, I’ll definitely do that!” I was happy, this would not be our last night, “ Drew, thank you for everything. I owe you my life.”
