Born To Die | Vanessa Afton

3

Another late shift came around and you were able to prepare for this one since you were told in advance this time. You and Vanessa were on decent terms as usual, you tried to become friends with her, learn a little more about her, but she almost shut those conversations down immediatly, or gave vague answeres. You couldn't tell if she was just trying to stay professional or was actually being mean. It hardly matter, for the last few weeks, there had been nothing wrong with your behaviour so you knew you'd be back alone soon enough.

"They hired a new security guard at the pizzeria, fancy going to meet him?" She had asked, peering at you for a second, she had noticed your zoning out recently, it wasn't really affecting your job because you weren't the one driving the majority of the time. Sure, you drove for the first few hours of the longer shifts and nothing went wrong. She was a bit concerned.

"Oh- Yeah. That sounds nice." You replied, rubbing your eyes and your eyes landed on the road in front of you. It was pitch black and half the streetlights weren't working as usual. The budget for this town was significantly lower than other places so it was no surprise that some parts weren't lit up.

You were bored and mentally, you were in a small crisis. What you were doing now, patrolling, when you wanted to do more advanced levels of policing, was not something you were going to do. You knew that it was probably too late to get a promotion any time soon, it was making you question if this was worth it. The hours are bad and the pay is worse. On top of that, you felt like you were dying with these hours.

The car ride was awkward for the first time, with Vanessa looking for something to say but never getting the words out and you just sitting there. You usually started the conversations so to have a silent ten minute drive to the pizzeria was odd. When Vanessa parked, she looked towards you.

"Come with if you want." She asked as if she thought you wouldn't want to come with her. She reached into the back seat and grabbed her raincoat, chucked it on and left the car. You were considering staying, but you decided on following, hating sitting in the dark on your own. She rung the door bell and no one answered for a few seconds before a man finally entered both of yours view and opened the door.

He looked like he had a rough night and it wasn't even that late yet. His hair was messed up, his hand was trembling, holding onto the door, his breathing was extremely heavy. Then, your eyes looked down to his arm, it was bleeding, quite nastily.

"About time. Starting to think maybe you fell asleep on the job." Vanessa, said as his expression turned quite confused.

"Uhm- can I uh... help you officers." He questioned, seemingly quite nervous. I looked back at his arm, how was he not even wincing? It looked pretty painful.

"Please, my name's Vanessa. This is my partner, Y/n." She said, speaking for you to him. You pushed a small smile on your face as he peered past Vanessa to see you. "And you must be?"

"Um.." He stuttered, seeming to be lost for words. You would be confused if two officers came to your new job so you couldn't blame him for being a bit skeptical.

"The new security guard?" Vanessa asked, wanting to shelter from the rain more than anything. She pulled the hood of her coat down.

"Yeah." He said in quite a hushed tone.

"You're arms bleeding by the way." You said, seeing that he probably didn't notice the cut that was on his arm, the blood was dripping down his fingers, and only now, he looks down and notices the bleed.

"Looks nasty." Vanessa added. She walked in and walked straight past the new security guard, who seemed very confused. You followed her, wanting to feel a little warmer. "Come on. I know where they keep the first aid kit."