Dax the Friendly Stalker: Don’t worry, Princess… I’ll always find you. I have to run a quick errand, then I’ll pick you up.
I began wandering, not sure where exactly, since I can’t go home and I wasn’t on the schedule. About three blocks from the mail store, I stop walking. Right in the middle of a crosswalk, people part trying to avoid running into me; I realized I forgot to get my credit card back.
“Fuck. Me.” I turn on my heel to high tail it back to the store, before I’m forced to report the card as lost or stolen. Ugh! Can the cosmos please cut me some slack?!
I arrive back at Mail Haven, rather quickly. Out of breath, I push the shop door open, causing the little bell to ring overhead. The once well-lit store now has its front blinds drawn and half the lights out. Do they close for lunch?
“Hello?” I move toward the counter, finding no sign of the shop owner who helped me earlier. “I left my card here, by accident!” I call out, just in case he is in the back.
In a flash, the back door swings open, and the man comes out. He looks different... Wide eyes that bounce everywhere, damp under arms, and paler skin than earlier. “We closed!” he proclaims.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I just left my card here by mistake.”
He shakes his head feverishly, “No. No card here! You leave.” The once adept shop owner seemed dismissive, even aggravated that I am in the store again.
“Please, I was just here. Could you take a look?” I insist, with a service smile that has been perfected after many jobs in the industry.
The same door swings open from behind the counter, the man recoils just as a gum popping Jada walks into the room withus. “Is this what you’re looking for?!” she asks, holding up the microSD card I just dropped into the pitch-black box, not ten minutes ago.
I couldn’t form words nor coherent thoughts. What is she doing here and why the hell does she have that in her possession?! Too shocked by her sheer presence, I don’t even notice the gun in her hand, pointing haphazardly at the shop owner. Now that he’s turned, I spot his bound hands.
“Jada…?”
Her gum crackles between her teeth. “The one and only.”
I’m confident that’s not true, but her ego never could handle reality.
Removing the gum from her mouth, she saunters over to the shorter man, pressing the pink wad into his neatly styled hair. She then proceeds to drape an arm around his neck, positioning the weapon just under his chin. She looks too casual, as if she does this all the time.
“What are you doing here?!” I rush out. Too lost as to why this crazy bitch has a weapon; when I know for a fact, she mixes up whiskey versus rum, stating,“Well, they're both brown.”
Jada tilts her head, in sync with pouting lips. “I was sent here. For this.” She waves the tiny drive in her hand.
How… who? I final speak, “who sent you?”
She begins to laugh maniacally. Like, way too long.
The poor store owner looks terrified. I’m unsure if it’s the gun or the gum, lodged within his thinning hair, that has him more upset.
Stepping back from her hostage, she gives me a wink right before she places the microSD card into her wide-open mouth. Positioned just between her molars, she crunches down like it's another stick of gum.
“NOOOO!!!”
The gun pivots from the man to directly at me.
I freeze.
The sound of cracking plastic between her teeth fills the space. Puffing out her cheeks, she spits the pieces to the ground.
More than wanting to cry out, I want to bash her face into the countertop.
A smirk blooms on Jada’s face, in parallel with her eyes fluttering in triumph. It’s more obvious than ever, the disdain she has for me. The way her misplaced feelings have grown into something equal to loathing.
“I think you know who sent me,” she says, each word clipped.
Do I? At this point I believe anyone could have some kind of hand in this.
The once subdued man moves swiftly, like someone half his age, he moves toward Jada, drawing back his leg and kicking her hard enough to make her fall back onto a display of assorted boxes.
