Slip Risk

The Rules of Decay

The smell of stale beer and cheap gin was stripped away the second Andrea stepped through the heavy metal doors of The Rim. The night air hit her face, cold and crisp, pulling her back into reality after an eight hour shift of balancing sticky trays and dodging hands on the crowded bar floor.

She leaned against the brick wall of the alleyway, letting her head drop back. Her feet throbbed inside her worn-out sneakers.
Pulling her phone from her back pocket, the screen illuminated her face in the dark alley.
> Jacson (01:42 AM): gonna stay in with the boys tonight babe, playing resident evil VII, u good to get a ride home?>

Andrea stared at the text. No "How was your shift?" No "Be safe getting to your car." Just an offhanded notification that she was on her own at two in the morning.

When she was seventeen, Jacson used to wait outside her house just to walk her to class. He used to leave handwritten notes on her desk and show up with her favorite iced coffee unannounced. When her life had imploded in high school—when the wild nights, the dark habits, and the terrifying near-misses almost pulled her under completely—Jacson had been the anchor. He was steady. He was predictable. He was safe. Her parents had practically worshipped him for keeping their troubled teenage daughter grounded.
Now? Now he was a ghost she shared a routine with. The 2011 silver Mercedes E-Class he was so proud of in high school sat in his driveway most nights while he played video games, and their conversations had turned into a series of dull logistics.

At twenty, stuck in her second year of university, Andrea felt like she was living in a room with all the air sucked out.

The sudden, sharp buzz of her phone tore through the dark. A group call.
She swiped the screen. "Hey."

"Tell me you're not going straight home to sleep," Dany's voice blasted through the speaker, accompanied by the muffled thud of heavy bass in the background.

"I literally just locked up the bar, Dany. It's two in the morning," Andrea said, pulling her jacket tighter around her shoulders as she started walking toward the street.

"I don't care! It's Friday!" Zara chimed in, her voice shrill over the line. "Jacson is probably passed out on his couch anyway. Andrea, we haven't seen you out on a weekend in weeks. You're twenty, not eighty."

A faint smile cracked through Andrea's exhaustion. Daniella and Zara had been her rock since their very first day of high school at fourteen. They had survived every single phase of each other's lives—the awkward teenage years, the chaotic parties, and the terrifying dark stretch when Andrea had almost lost herself completely.
When Andrea had pulled back from the party scene to clean up her act and get straight A's, Dany and Zara never judged her. But they also never let her forget who she used to be underneath the quiet, guarded front she put up for the world.

"I'm dead on my feet, guys," Andrea sighed, checking her watch. 2:08 AM.

"Just come to the loft for twenty minutes," Dany pleaded, her tone softening into something more genuine. "One drink, Andy. You look so stressed lately. We miss our best friend."

Andrea stopped under the amber glow of a streetlamp. She looked back at the dark, quiet alley of the bar, then down the long, empty stretch of the avenue.

Her life was neat. It was clean. It was safe. She had worked so hard to bury the girl who used to crave chaos, the girl whose blood ran hot with reckless decisions and late night rushes that almost destroyed her.

Just one drink, she told herself. What's the worst that could happen at two in the morning?
"Fine," Andrea said into the receiver. "Give me ten minutes to change."

"YES!" Zara shrieked. "Dany, pour the shots!"

Andrea hung up the phone and tucked it away. As she reached her car, a low, mechanical purr echoed from three blocks down—a modified exhaust note, deep and guttural, tearing through the dead-quiet 2:00 AM, air like a blade.
Andrea froze, her hand hovering over her door handle. Her pulse gave a sudden, sharp spike, a spark of pure electric heat shooting up her spine before she could stop it.

She swallowed hard, forced her gaze away from the distant street, and unlocked her car.

Editors note:

Hi guys! I am so happy to present you my story! Please give your feedbacks in the comments as its my first time writing something like this and english is my second language (i know it's turned to a meme by now but i am telling the truth i promise) i still don't really know which direction i will be heading with this. Most of the story is inspired by real events in my life (of course there are fictional ones dw!), every name of a person and a place has been changed for privacy reasons. Hope you enjoy! Byeeee!