Chapter Four: Annika
Icould hear the sound of my heart beating in my ears, staring down at the dead body on my kitchen floor, wondering how this could’ve even happened. It felt like just a few moments ago that everyone was having a wonderful time, like we were all just enjoying the evening the way it was meant to go.
I felt terrified to be at home alone, knowing that my parents weren’t going to be back for a few days, but I didn’t know what to do. I’d never been met with a situation like this, and my first instinct was to call the police, but my father had always warned me about that. I knew enough about his criminal activity to know that calling the police was out of the question no matter what the circumstances were, and our only other option was to get rid of the body.
I held onto Natalia, feeling her tears soak into the fabric of my dress, while I listened to the boys bicker about how they were going to get their friend out of my house.
“We have to take him back home, and decide what we’re going to do once we’ve all calmed down, Stephan,” one of them said, turning his attention to the handsome stranger I barely knew, finally able to hear his name.
“I suppose so,” said Stephan, turning to look at me again, inching closer to me, but I leaped back out of fear. I didn’t understand why, but it was just the way his entire expression had changed the moment he pulled out his gun, ready to dive headfirst into whatever the threat might’ve been. I didn’t hear much of anything while I was hiding under the bar, but it seemed that Stephan was able to get rid of the men that had broken into my home. That was enough for me to want to trust him, even if I was making a terrible mistake.
For him to pull something like that off, there has to be more about this man than he’s letting on. If seeing my father’s business practices have taught me anything, he probably knows his way around the crime world himself.
Going to bed tonight like nothing happened was not going to be possible, because even if we were left alone, I don’t think Natalia and I would be able to sleep at all after what we’d seen. Stephan rose from hovering over his dead friend to corner me for a moment, and something about his gentle mannerisms made me want him to stick around. I couldn’t explain it, but he was the reason that we were safe now, and I had to thank him properly for that.
I don’t know what I would’ve done if those intruders had hurt anyone I loved. I don’t know how I would’ve lived knowing I didn’t do anything to stop them.
“Annika, I know this all must be quite a shock to you, but it’s possible that they might come back once they know that most of the people have cleared out. I know you barely know me, and offering this may be too far fetched for you to entertain, but I’d like you to come with us,” he said. Even though I was afraid after what had happened, I was far more scared of the men that had broken in than him.
“O-okay. Okay, but just until we can figure out what’s going on. Oh my God, I don’t know how I’m going to tell my parents what happened here. They’re going to lose their minds,” I said, realizing that I had no experience dealing with these kinds of situations, but I had an inkling that Stephan had an idea of what to do.
“Don’t worry, Annika. I promise that we can have everything fixed before your parents return. Uh, when exactly are they returning?” he asked.
“In four days,” I replied, and he nodded his head.
“We’ll get it taken care of, I promise you. You and Natalia are welcome to stay with us for the evening and go about your lives the way you normally would, but we’ll offer you any protection you may need,” said Stephan.
“How do we know you’re not going to kill us the minute we walk out the front door?” Natalia asked, and I glared at her, even though she certainly had a point.
“You don’t, but you probably won’t want to sit around here waiting for that pack of neanderthals to come back, do you?”
“Point taken,” she said, and just like that Stephan began to instruct us to get any cleaning supplies we had around the house. It took me a while to find them because I’d never had to lift a finger under my parents’ roof, which was just the way they liked it.
Stephan and his friends managed to move Adrian’s body, cleaning him up the best they could before returning to help me restore my home to the way it was before everything happened. Stephan let me know that it was going to take at least a day to replace the broken glass and anything else that might have been caught in the crossfire, but I was just grateful that there’d be a possibility my family wouldn’t find out about what happened here tonight.
I still had no idea why someone would want to break in, what they would even want with me. It was then that I realized that I was living in a bubble, that my father had been conducting criminal activities right under my nose, and by turning a blind eye to it all these years, I wasn’t prepared to take care of myself when I needed to the most.
I don’t know how I would’ve been able to survive if Stephan hadn’t been here. After all he’s done, and even losing his friend, he’s still stuck around to help me. That’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me, and I’ve never been more grateful.
It was certainly a wakeup call for me, because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go back to living my normal life if there was a chance I was still in danger. It was quite possible that the intruders had something to do with my father, a business deal gone bad or an enemy that got a bit too cocky, but for them to make it past our security and get into the house, they had to have much more information than any of us realized.
My parents allowed me to stay here alone because they thought that it was safe, but what if they were wrong? What if they don’t even know about this threat at all?
I debated whether it would be a good idea to tell them or not. I decided to leave it until they were back home, because at least by then I would’ve hopefully figured out a bit more. I felt like a scared child, unable to shake how startled I was by the entire ordeal. I started to worry about what leaving with Stephan tonight would mean, because while it seemed like the only sensible option right now, it was quite possible that we were walking into a trap. There was nothing in the house that I was aware of that I could’ve used to protect myself, and I knew that if I was ever caught in a situation like this again, I’d want to be able to stand on my own two feet and defend myself.
If all goes well, and we are safe with them, I’m going to ask Stephan to teach me a few of his tricks. Hopefully they’ll put me at a better advantage next time we’re caught in the middle of a fight like that.
I never liked to be the kind to run and hide, to listen and be disciplined like a small child because I got enough of that when I was younger. My parents didn’t even want to acknowledge the fact that I was getting older, that I needed to start my life on my own, and I knew they had a plan for me. They were going to tell me whatever I wanted to hear until they deemed me ready to start paying more attention to the family business, and even then I was scared I wouldn’t be able to make them proud the way they wanted me to.
I spent the next few hours scrubbing blood off of the floor with a sponge, wringing it out into the mop bucket, watching it turn a light shade of pink. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, looking around to see the kitchen fully restored to its former glory before everything happened. For a moment, I sat there on the tiles, imagining how good I’d felt just a few hours prior. Now, everything was such a mess, and I was struggling to keep it together.
Natalia must be even more of a mess than I am because this was the guy she’d been going crazy about for quite a while, and I didn’t even get the chance to exchange two words with him before he was killed. I should go check on her to make sure she’s alright because if there’s one thing we needed to do, it was to stick together right now.
Reaching into my dress’ pockets I pulled out my cell phone and I clicked through a few of my text messages. There was one from my friend Lara telling me that she wasn’t able to make it tonight, but I was glad she hadn’t come. Natalia and I both were so traumatized by what happened, I didn’t even know if sharing that information with Lara was a good idea.
My head was starting to hurt with all of the stressful decisions I was going to have to make soon, and when I reached the very top of my text messages, I noticed there had been one from my mother letting me know that they were doing alright.
If only you knew what happened here in your kitchen tonight, mother.
