The Stalker (Missing Valley Series)

Preface

SO here is the preface. I am so sorry Kajee for doing what I did with you in this chapter. But it was unavoidable! :O

And its dedicated to the 'cute bartender'. Hope this cheers your work up Joe! :D

Preface

Kajol shuts the locker in the manager’s room and sighs loudly. It has been a busy day at Cercula, what is with this being the last day of the summer vacation for students of Annaconie Cove. Kajol personally can’t wait to go back to AC.  She misses her friends, the ones who are not from this town. After 7 years, the dorm in AC is like a second home to her. And to be honest she sleeps better in her dorm bed than the bed at her father’s.

Well at least it was a better summer than the last one when she has to spend her whole vacation at her cousin Charlie’s place. She is not really fond of her cousins. That is the reason she decided to continue her job at the town’s popular diner and bar Cercula this summer.

She splashes water on her tired face and walks out patting it dry, putting the lights out as she goes.

“Here are your keys Joe!”  hollers her, tossing the keys to the guy behind the bar, who completely fits the criteria of ‘cute bartender’. At twenty-three, he is quite a hot talk among the honours girls at AC.

 “Thanks kiddo! You ready for tomorrow?”

Much to Kajol’s displeasure, he has continued on calling her ‘kiddo’ from her very first day of AC.

“Yes I am. I can’t wait and you know why Joe?”

She continues animatedly answering her own question, “Because I am fifteen and fifteen years olds are high sec, but do you know what they are not?”

Joe shots her an amused look, knowing very well that she doesn’t need him to response that sentence to continue her rant.

“They are NOT A KIDDO! I am a grown up now, you Grandpa.  I swear Joe, if you called me kid in front of the boys of my year, I’ll bury you alive.” She finished glaring at the poor bartender.

And to her horror, Joe bursts out laughing.

“Little spitfire, aren’t you? I still remember when your mother walked in through those doors with a chubby kid with red ribbons on her hair. You are still that kid to me.” He smiles solemnly at her.

Ah! Her first day in AC. Her mother came to drop her off at school and to get her settled. They came to Cercula to get a hot chocolate for her, as a reward for not crying the whole ride. Joe’s father owned the place at the time and young Joe was High Sec student at Ac. She misses her mother a lot.

“I hate when you go all emo on my arse.” She replies scrunching her nose up.

Joe laughs whole heartedly shaking his head. Kajol has been always like his little sister and he loves to bug her much to her displeasure.

“Run along now kiddo. You need a proper rest before shifting to the dorm tomorrow.”

“You sound like my father, old man. Well I should get going now nonetheless. Night Joe!” She waves and proceeds to walk out of the glass door, which have ‘Closed’ sign hanging on it now.

"Night kid!" She hears Joe calling from inside, his voice muffled by the, now closing glass doors. 

She steps into the alley next to the diner to take a shortcut to the bus stop. She just has 20 minutes before the last bus for the night passes. She hurries her steps a little.

She lives with her father in the outskirts of the city. And she hates getting rides from her dad and she doesn’t have her license to use the Mobile Potion. To be honest, she is shit scared of getting her license as she always thought that her fickle mind would screw her over and half her body will land at some place leaving the other half at some other place. And also, she is scared of taking the test where she has to show them that she can travel through the potion just fine, which in fact seems incredibly stupid to her. How could they expect a person to get it right the first time, when they have never done it before?

‘Because it’s not rocket science and there is criteria called ‘FAIL’ for nubs like you’ Her conscience bites back at her.

She pouts at herself and starts walking faster bringing her thin sweater closer to herself and burying her fists deep in the crook as she crosses her arms. Nights are always chilly in Mapleton Valley. May be, because the vampire population is dominating in this town.

She realised she has reached the bus stop at a record time. She takes a deep breath as sits herself at a seat at the almost empty bench on the stop.

A loud blaring horn wakes her from her reverie. She hurries to the line, which has just started forming. The black shiny bus appears in front of them.

She gets on it at last, punches her destination in, on the digital pad near the door, and pushes three silver balls in through the slot below it. Satisfied by the transaction she walks to the back of the bus and takes a seat.

Within seconds the blaring noise pierce through the air again.

“Kajol Patel, 23rd Main, Mapleton Valley!” A voice of a lady calls through the speakers.

She gets up, makes her way to the door and steps out. She turns her head to see the bus disappearing into thin air. Oh, she is definitely using the bus to travel for the rest of her life. She doesn’t really care if her friends make fun of her because of it.

She started walking through the narrow dirt road leading up to her neighbourhood. She can hear a very familiar wolf howling at distance.

“Hmm...Sebastian must have sneaked out of the house again” She wonders out loud smirking to herself. Sebastian has been her bestfriend since childhood and he sneaks out often to run in the woods with his girlfr-

Her thoughts are stopped in the middle, as a strangled croak leaves her mouth and her body falls to the ground in a heap making a ‘thump’ sound.

A dark shadow falls over her un-moving body. The figure raises his right hand and speaks into a handset, “One shifter down”.

The light from the nearby lamp shows him smirking.

“Silver Bullet. Works every time sweetheart!”