[ Laura ]

I turned my attention to Sebastian who was about to gulp down the rest of the bottle.

"Sebastian, it's getting late." I tried my best to speak in a controlled non-freaked out manner. But the panic in my vibrating voice was hard to go unnoticed.

"Can you please drive me home."

I would rather let a stranger give me a ride than wait here for the black eyes. Desperate times.

"Laura, it's not even 10!". Sebastian said surprised.

"I know. I...I just." I stuttered. I couldn't come up with any fake explanation and telling him what I saw would obviously destroy the slight chance of him helping me. Who'd want to give a ride to a lunatic?

Then, out of fear, I happened to check out the bartender again. And in spite of praying hard what I saw must've been an illusion, things just got confirmed further. I felt goosebumps rising up my spine when his dark black eyes continued watching me, studying me, measuring every move I made. His lips curled into a sinister smile.

"Laura, what's wrong? Are you alright?" Sebastian asked as my eyes bulged out with fear.

"Sebastian, we...we've to go. The barten-" I almost screamed.

"Laura, calm down!" Sebastian had to put his drink back on table and hold me still. I'd gone completely out of control.

"Now, tell me, what's the matter." Sebastian asked calmly.

I shook my head. There wasn't any time and what I'd have told him would've required quite some time to sink in. Otherwise it could get me trapped in an isolated facility for lunatics.

But instead of pulling up the burly stranger and forcing him to take me home, I decided to offer him a sneak peek into my insanity.

"Look. This might seem extremely crazy and I know you won't believe me but you have to listen"
The fact I hadn't lost my ability of comprehensible speech yet came quite as a surprise to me.

Sebastian now focused his curious blue eyes on me and listened carefully while playing with his half empty drink.

"I don't know why but every once in a while I have been able to spot certain men; men having black eyes. And today I spotted them twice! Something's going on and they have been chasing me." I explained and waited for his response. But he showed no sign of nothing. I'd presumed he'd definitely give me that you're-insane look.

And then when I was almost convinced this stranger was a weirdo, his eyes did widen in disbelief. But was this surprise arising as a reaction to my insane confession or from a thing expected by him coming into play a bit sooner, I didn't know.

But obviously that wasn't what I was thinking that time. I had to get away from there. And now that I'd made my unnatural claim, I felt the need of converting Sebastian's disbelief into belief. Otherwise he naturally was going to leave me alone. With the demon.

"You don't believe me, right?" I asked Sebastian who looked lost in thought. He might be recollecting some mental hospital number I wondered.

"Look at the bartender, his eyes. He's...he's a demon!" Controlling my fear, I pointed my finger at the bartender serving across a few tables. He still wore that sinister grin as his eyes gleamed with malice.

Sebastian turned around and looked at him. His expressions did turn grim for a short second but all he said was,

"It's Halloween, Laura. We can obviously stumble into vamps or demons for that matter." He said with a what's-wrong-with-you face.

What was I thinking ? That Sebastian would actually buy this?

"Maybe you're hallucinating. Did you drink too much?" He continued.

But I knew I wasn't hallucinating. I couldn't be mistaken twice. He was a demon but unfortunately Sebastian couldn't notice it. How could he if no one could?

"That guy's eyes, they are...". Sebastian paused for a second and stared at my brown eyes.

"They are clear brown eyes, Laura. Not a speck of black. But fine, if you want to go home, I'll drop you ". He agreed and took a large sip of beer.

Brown eyes. He was obviously lying. The bartender, who was one of my friend's brother, had clear green eyes. I would have pointed this out if the black-eyed bartender hadn't had left his place. He was making his way through the crowd and was just a few tables away from us.

"Sebastian he, he's coming". I sounded terrible.

Without a word, which was quite weird, Sebastian stood up, left few bucks on the table and we made our way out of Mandy's, pushing through the ever- growing crowd. I could see the bartender following us.

and then I realised the biggest cruelest mistake I'd made. Amanda! My heart fell. How could I be so ....? I couldn't even think of word. I disgusted myself.

"Hurry!" I whispered as I pulled out my phone and called her. She won't answer.

We hurried to the nearly extinct chevy which was parked at the other end of the parking. Great! Now the demon could easily catch us.

I looked over my shoulders and sighed with relief. The black eyes wasn't there. Not yet. I called her again but she still won't answer. Did the demons already got her? I was petrified.

But then I heard a familiar voice speaking on her phone. It wasn't Amanda. It was Charlie, her boyfriend.

"Sorry, she can't talk now. We are at my place, well, fooling around." He said as relief washed over me. Under normal circumstances I'd give Amanda a half an hour speech to convince her why sleeping with someone before marriage should be strictly prohibited. But today, I was actually grateful that she was with Charlie and no longer at Mandy's.

Sebastian unlocked the car and started the engine. I quickly sat in the front seat of the dusty chevy as the engine roared to life. I could see the bartender standing by the entrance of the club, making a phone call, perhaps alerting the other freaks about me.

"Max speed please". I said.

Surprisingly he obeyed me again. He first told me that bartender had brown eyes when he had green and answered rightly to my every worry. Sebastian did see the black eyed man, didn't he? Otherwise, like all those people I'd sought help from whenever I saw a black eyed man, he would have taken me for crazy and would have insisted nothing's wrong, instead of hurrying me from the place.

Though how much I wanted to ask him about these weird things, I didn't. Silence was better than crazy frightening talk. And you could say fear had sealed away my mouth. I was being pursued by a demon for the first time and the man who's helping me was a complete stranger. Besides, though my adrenaline was breaking the spell of alcohol, I still felt dizzy. How worse could my situation get?

Right, much worse.

We drove for like next 15 minutes totally silent. I spent the time looking out of the window, checking out if no one was following us and trying to calm down my brain. Finally I was able to bring my heart beat back to normal frequency.

"Shats! The petrol's low." Sebastian sighed after a while.

Fortunately the gas station was just 2 minutes ahead. Sebastian drove there and told the worker to fill petrol.

Meanwhile, Sebastian stretched out his hand to get a water bottle in the back seat and something shiny fell off his overcoat - a silver dagger. I happened to look at Sebastian and my heart stopped as horror grabbed me. His eyes, his eyes were... black, just like the bartender's. Was he really one of them, the mad men chasing me? Or was I hallucinating because of the alcohol?

The latter was true. When you are afraid of something, you tend to notice it around you even if it's not present. But my confused, dizzy and terrified mind was naturally in no shape to consider realistic possibilities. It only screamed -

Black eyes and a weapon, he really is one of them.

A tear rolled down my cheeks. It was now I understood the significance of rules dad imposed on me. I went to a bar and drank until my senses got knocked off and I even let a stranger drive me. All my preset rules broken. I should have known when he was avoiding to tell me anything about him. Another tear emerged from my wet eyes. So this was it. I was going to die.

Calm down! I commanded myself. It didn't work obviously but I managed to get a hold of myself. If demons were after me since so long, it wouldn't make sense if they killed me now. I mustered some courage. He might do anything to me but he wouldn't certainly kill me.

Sebastian, after drinking water, noticed the dagger and bent down to pick it up.

But when death was near, all my courage went down being replaced by a strengthening fear. I'd seen many horror and supernatural movies and a number of scenes of horrible things that demons did without killing their prey flowed in my mind.

"No, No, please don't hurt me." I sounded terrible.

"What?" While his face twitched into a surprised expression, all I could focus on was how to get away from him. I also decided not to look at his eyes. It would only strengthen my fear and make things worse. Later did I realise how bad this decision was. Otherwise, things would have gone pretty smoothly that night.

"Laura, calm down . This isn't for you." He laughed. I wondered what was more terrifying - the silver dagger in his hand or the black eyes. Was this all a plan to lure me here? Why were they chasing me?

I tried to pull back my tears. I didn't want to die and I certainly didn't want to be a demon's toy. There was just one choice left for me - either to close my eyes and hope the demon kills me quickly and doesn't make me his toy, or to put on a losing fight. I chose the latter.

Right when the worker was filling in petrol, I punched Sebastian hard at face. He looked confused as I grabbed the dagger and stabbed him at his shoulder and bolted out of the car.

When someone points a dagger at you, your sense and ability to reason are killed immediately by fear. And you act like your wild instinct dictates. I did the same. Were my instincts really this wild? I don't know. But they certainly went wilder.

I heard him whimper and call out my name as I bolted from the chevy and ran the fastest I could, ignoring his calls.

At situations like this, you do unbelievable things without realizing it - the adrenaline effect. I ran in and out of lanes as I hurried away from the gas station. My heart started beating faster and faster and then faster than the fastest when I spotted pedestrians and homeless people, all having black eyes. I even spotted a black eyed teenage couple french kissing or a scary baby peeping out of a passing by car. Scary because his cute chubby face was adorned with big black eyes. Now what I didn't notice was that apart from the black eyes all this people seemed pretty normal. They, like Sebastian, were indeed normal but my brain, polluted by fear and alcohol, believed the opposite.

Fortunately I realized where I was and a two minute run could make me reach the bus stop.
I ran and ran moving in and out of lanes so no one from street could see me and made my way to the bus stop. Then I stumbled on something and fell on the road scraping my hand, the pain causing to erase my numbness. A stream of crimson coloured the injured part and dripped down my hand. But I had no time to treat or clean the wound in any way. Ignoring the pain, I continued with the sprint and finally saw the bus stop arriving.

I cupped my knees and bent low to catch breath. And when I rose up again, fortunately I saw the only bus I was looking for zooming in towards the bus stop.

As I was kind of in the middle of life-death situation, I didn't notice the strange thing - the bus I usually took, which ran quite rarely, was today right before me.

The wheels of the heavy vehicle came to a sudden noisy halt when I waved my hand frantically at the driver. I quickly got on the bus and checked if any of the passengers or the driver had black eyes. Fortunately, no one did this time. The adrenaline and pain had somewhat erased the effect of drinking. So I no longer was under any illusions of mind.

The bus wasn't crowded at all. How would it be at this time at night? I took the seat nearest to me and slammed my eyes shut.

A tear did manage to escape my clenched eye lids however. What the hell was going in my life? Why were they chasing me? Why me?

Another tear ran down my cheek when I realised Amanda wasn't with me. She was still partying at the Mandy's with the rest of my friends, unaware of the demons pursuing me. Was she and others safe? More tears emerged through my wet eyes.

My heart sank further into the limitless ocean of worries and fear.

They are okay. They have to be. I imposed the statement on my mind, without thinking of any logic, supporting or heart-shattering.

I looked out of the window half expecting to see the dusty chevy closing in. But I was relieved to see a local landmark instead. I hurried towards the door as someone grabbed my hand from behind.

Scared and confused, I turned around and all the air from my lungs made a quick escape as my relief was suddenly changed into an equally strong fear.

"Madame, mind showing me your ticket?" A bald fat conductor dressed in complete black said in a French dialect.

But obviously that wasn't what scared me to my roots.

The man infront of me, who gave me a scary smile, had pure black eyes. And the worse thing was he wasn't alone. All the passengers on board, who I thought were normal humans at first, walked towards me, their once normal eyes now turning pitch black. My heart did a somersault as the demons surrounded me.

"Ticket please." The conductor repeated.

Horrified, I stayed silent, both by words and action.

"Well, no ticket means you've to pay the fine, Laura dear."

His voice brought, rather, sharpened the goosebumps I already had.

The conductor stepped closer to me and I realised, unlike other men, he however had normal eyes put on. He had a short stature, well trimmed hair and an ugly face, his body shaped like a potato. He looked like he was in his mid fifties. He, like the other black eyes, wore clean black suits and leather boots. But unlike the others, a pink tie adorned his suit.

"Wh..Who are you?" I managed to say, fighting back my fear.

"Come on! Don't you remember me? Don't be so rude, Laura dear, I've witnessed all your growth. From how you begged your dad for toffees to how you helped the local clinic by playing doctor doctor. Oh, I know. Perhaps you might remember this--".

For a moment, his eyes were normal and the next moment, they were red, complete red. As soon as I saw those red eyes staring at me, my mind flushed with memories, memories of my past.

I recalled him watching me when I was a small baby in my nursery, when I learned how to walk, he giving me candies, my first day at school, when I went to my first prom, at my first date ... . I realised these were not mine but his memories. Somehow he was able to play mind games. I became stiff.

"So, Laura dear, you do realise how much I care about you. I was present at all your important moments, some of which even your dad couldn't be at." He smiled.

"Why, why are you chasing me?" I managed another question. Somehow, because of extreme fear perhaps, my puffed eyes could no longer form more tears.

"Is this how you greet your second, better father, Laura?" He mocked my father who always believed in inculcating good manners in me which quite angered me. He had no right of calling himself my father.

"Can't a father visit his lovely daughter?" He said sarcastically.

He approached me and a strong rotten smell hit my nose. He closed his eyes and sniffed me.

"I can smell her." He said excitedly as if he were smelling a delicious cake. The thought made my stomach clench.

"I can smell her. It's you. She's in you!" He said gleefully and with such excitement.

Standing before half a dozen of demons had frozen all my thinking capability so I didn't bother thinking who he was talking about.

"Why are you after me?" I mustered courage to ask once again.

"Oh, straight to the business, are we? I like that."
He smiled as his eyes danced maliciously over me.

"Sixty years, Laura, I've waited for sixty long years. After having all those troubles to find your mother, she didn't say a word. Not a damn word." He said.

"I broke her every limb and cracked every bone, but she died silently. What a bitch!" Suddenly the calmness in his voice was now replaced by anger so intense I actually felt it radiating through him. But more prominent was his darkness.

"But now, I've you, I've got her child, the prize she kept hidden from me for all these years." He said as he touched my face with his icy hands and moved a strand of hair off my cheeks. His ugly face flushed with such pleasure.

But that was the least of my worries. When someone says something about the unnatural death of thier loved ones, which otherwise would've remained a mystery forever, you simply can't focus on a demon alone. The moment I heard him, more than my body trembling with fear, my mind was now shaking as violently as a tremor as a million questions erupted like a volcano in there. He, he killed my mother? But didn't she die during my birth? I'd no time to wonder as the demon opened his mouth again.

"Here's why I'm here, Laura dear. I have come to take you with us. And since you were so nice to me and saved me the trouble of getting in Mandy's and do a meaningless massacre, I propose an offer. It would be better if you just comply or--"

He held a metal bar in the bus and bent it like it was nothing.

"We could use force." he said as if the idea cheered him.

If I had been one more second on bus, I would definitely have peed. But the bus halted and having been able to see my house so close, hope of escaping certain death, or worse, my mind reminded, flared up. I started feeling my legs and leapt out of the bus, racing towards my house. My blonde hair danced with the wind as I ran towards my home the fastest I could.

I was so stupid. Sebastian knew. He knew everything. He was just trying to protect me. Those black eyes, they weren't real, it was just how much afraid I was that I saw it everywhere. But I ran from him. And now I shall die. A tear rolled down my cheeks.

Calm down! I commanded myself. It didn't work of course. They say images of people who are very dear to you come streaming in your mind when you are about to die. I didn't believe it until now.

I'd wondered why would you remember pleasant memories when you were about to die horribly, when all your mind could think of was death and despair. But now I realised our thinking was a strange thing. Fear and pleasant remembrance simultaneously filled one's mind during such situations. Maybe it was God's way to convince you that the life you lived wasn't that terrible.

I remembered my dad, brother Mike who was currently at London. I remembered my friends and teachers and my dreams. But what will happen when I'm gone. After the untimely death of my mom, my dad barely held up. I was his last hope. When I'm gone, not only he but my brother and Amanda, all would be devastated. It would probably kill my father.

No, I won't die. I can't die. I'd a perfect life planned and I won't let these mythical creatures destroy it for some reason I was not even aware of.

At least, if they are destined to catch me, let it be the hard way. That's some weird thing about me. I go Katniss Everdeen at hopeless situations.

I turned back and saw the half dozen black eyed, men all dressed in dandy suits, already closing in on me. I couldn't outrun them. Still I ran the fastest I could, ignoring the pain in my muscles. Perhaps if I got into the church which was just opposite to my house, these demons wouldn't follow me.

I ran and ran and was this close to get on the holy grounds but someone rather something outran me.

The man who had made me his 'offer' stood right before me and I had to halt.

"I ask you to reconsider. It's a generous offer, you know." he said, still a smile on his face. Perhaps chasing after beautiful blondes amused him.

"No, no." I shouted and turned back. I ran until I came across another demon. I changed direction again and found another demon waiting for me yet again. This was it. I was cornered by half a dozen demons and now I was going to be killed. A demon tried to grab me but I, somehow, managed to punch him, a sloppy karate move. I hadn't lost courage but I wasn't strong enough to beat a human, let alone a demon.

"So it's violence you choose. So be it. Delark, Grimm, fetch her." He commanded.

As my courage almost died, two giant men came towards me. I was so terrified that I froze.

The giant demons held both of my hands pretty strongly.

"I believe I told you. Running won't mean a thing to us, well, unless you run like your mother." He said wonderingly.

"See, how much time you have already wasted. Once we get to Master's I'll plan a nice punishment for you". He gave a sinister smile.

This wasn't happening. This wasn't happening. It's just a bad dream. I tried to calm myself, but soothing lies don't work when you already know the bitter truth.

I felt tears dripping down my face as my legs started shaking.

The moment I gave up the last bit of hope, I heard a familiar voice shout over a roaring engine.

"Why so hurry, Delroy." Sebastian said with clenched teeth as he drove straight towards us in his dusty chevy.