A/N: hi, just a quick authors note before you start reading. Fist of all thank you so much for giving my story a chance! This the first fanfic I've ever written and I have put a lot of work into it, so I hope it's good ;). If you enjoy it, please leave a vote on this chapter, and have fun reading. <3
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It was early in the morning, around eight am. I quickly grabbed my keys from the counter, threw my bag around my shoulder, put my shoes on and, -oh shit, my phone was still in the other room! I ran to get it of the charger, which had only increased my battery up to 22 percent. I had forgotten to charge it in the night, so now I had to take it with me in the hopes that I would find an outlet somewhere to charge during my day.
I closed the door behind me stepping out into the hallway of my apartment building and locked it. Walking down the stairs, I got out my earphones out of my back pocket and untangled them so I could listen to Revolver. It was my favourite album of the late Beatle years. I did like the earlier style they had better, but you couldn't argue with the fact that the later songwriting was just incredibly outstanding.
"One, two, three, four..." I said in George Harrison's voice, and started to drum along with the rhythm of taxman on the side of my leg with my hand.
It was a nice sunny day in august as I walked through the city of Liverpool. There were little to no clouds in the sky and a soft breeze rustled through the trees. I felt amazing, summer was my favourite time of year, so it felt like everything was perfect, not just because of the weather. this was the last week of summer before I'd start at Liverpool university to study history. I was extremely excited, but of course also nervous, maybe even scared.
Today I was going to meet with my two friends Eleanor and John, at a cafe in the center called Clints' coffee, it was tucked away on a little street, near the cavern club. Easy to miss, but hard to forget. the food was quite good if you knew what to order, and the coffee was amazing. John lived very close to it and so did Eleanor, I was the one who lived nearby the university and with that, the furthest away out of all three of us from the coffee place.
I went al the way to the nearest tube station and walked down the stairs. It smelled dusty and a little mechanical or metallic as always, and was considerably more chilly than outside seeing as it was underground. After buying a ticket and waiting for about three or four minutes, it finally arrived and I got in. It wasn't very busy today seeing as it was a Sunday morning, so I could easily get a seat. Sitting opposite me was a mother with her young son on her lap. he smiled at me, I waved back at him and he gave me a cute little wink, so sweet I thought, and chuckled.
I saw she was about to say something to me so I took out my earphones for a second. "I know he is going to a real ladies man when he grows up" the lady told me. I smiled at her, "he certainly will be."
They got off at the next stop, I waved the little boy goodbye and he waved back at me with his tiny little hand. So cute! I only had to wait for two more stops.
About ten minutes later, I got off, threw my ticket in a bin next to the vending machine and walked up the stairs back into the warmth of the city. I knew this temperature would never last, certainly not here in the north of England, so I was going to enjoy it as much as I could so long as the sun was still shining.
It was a little more busy, here close to the center but still quieter than normal. I reached into my bag for my phone, and messaged John that I was almost there. Just in case they were already waiting for me. Although it was probably only Eleanor, because John was always late. The only issue was Texting her almost never worked, seeing as most of the time her phone was dead. Both me and John always tell her how annoying it is but still she never charges it properly. Although I couldn't really complain at that moment as my phone was only about 20 percent itself.
I checked the time as I approached the cafe; 08:34
I pushed against the heavy door and heard the little bells on the ceiling ring out. 'Say you won't let go' by James Arthur, was playing very softly on the speakers, and the girl behind the counter was humming along with it.
"Brie! Over here." I heard John call out to me. They were both there already. They were drinking coffee and Eleanor was eating some lemon meringue pie. "Hi guys, let me just order real quick I'll be right there." I went up to the counter and asked for a simple latte. There wasn't really anyone else there except for one older lady sitting at a table at the window by herself reading a book. Usually the people start to come in at around nine o'clock on Saturday.
When I sat down John started talking about how later today he was going to meet up with some guy he found on a dating app.
"Show us a picture." I told him, if it was a dating app he must at least have his profile picture. John did some fast taps on his phone and then shoved it in my hand. The guy on the photo, although he seemed a little older than John, was good looking I had to admit, but you never know if it's fake or not.
"Looks nice, how old is he?"
"Like 27, i think. So only about 8 year's difference."
"Only 8 years?!" Eleanor spat out.
"That's not that bad." He jumped in defensively.
Eleanor pointed towards her pie and looked at me suggestively, as to say I should try some. I shook my head.
"No thanks, I'm good. I don't know..." I continued. "i think eight years is still quite a big age gap especially when you're still 19."
"Well you're one to talk, you're only 18 and in love with Paul McCartney, and he is like almost 80!" John said.
"I guess you've got a point." I laughed. "Look if he is a nice guy then it's fine." I told him, Eleanor nodded
"let's just hope he's not some creep." She said, "we're your friends, we don't want you dating some thirty year old thug!"
"Thug?! He's a nurse at an old people's home!" For god sakes guys, calm down!" His comment made Eleanor and I laugh.
A minute later my coffee was done and I went to pick it up from the counter. when I suddenly heard the little bell on the ceiling ring, I turned around and saw a man walk in. He was wearing an old fashioned sort of suit and perfectly polished shoes. His face was old and wrinkly and he was hunched over a bit. He smiled sweetly at me and I felt a sense of familiarity. At first I thought he was maybe here to meet that old lady who was sitting by the window, but he didn't seem to notice her at all. he went and ordered one black coffee. while I grabbed my drink off of the counter, before turning away again I saw something slip out of his pocket while getting out his wallet. It was small, round, and made of metal. He didn't seem realise that is fell down even though it made a clear ringing sound when hitting the floor. I bent over to pick it up.
"here sir, you dropped this." It was a pin back button, round with an image on the front and a needle on the back so you can pin it onto a jacket or other piece of clothing, he didn't respond to me.
"Sir?" I tapped his arm lightly in case he didn't hear me, he was old so maybe his hearing was a little bad? Still, nothing. I leaned my head to the side a bit so I could try and see his face, I'm sure he looked familiar, maybe he was famous or something and didn't want anyone to notice him. He turned the other way, and started walking to the exit. I looked at the pin, it said 'the cavern club' on it with black and blue Letters and imagery, I thought it was cute. When I looked up again, he was out the door.
Suddenly the barista behind the counter started saying something, "Sir, wait! You forgot your wallet!!!" I looked over to the counter once more and saw an old looking wallet lying on it, he must be a confused old man, maybe he had dementia or something?
The barista looked at me with a pleading look. "I can't go after him The morning rush is starting in a minute, it's going to be mad busy!" Her voice sounded stressed and I felt bad for her, and for the old man.
I quickly set my coffee back down, grabbed the wallet from the counter and ran towards the exit. "Don't worry, I'll do it" I shouted half way out the door. "tell my friends I'll be right back!" I swung out onto the road with the wallet in my hand. for some random reason I suddenly had al of this newfound energy this morning, and I hadn't even had my coffee yet. I turned my head from left to right and I saw him walking off faster down the road than you would expect an old man to do, and turn a corner into what looked like an alley way. I ran after him trying to keep up, but once I got the the alley, it was empty, it didn't lead anywhere and he was just gone.
What, the actual fuck?! 'That's not possible!' I thought. I took a few steps into the alley but it wasn't very long, there were no doors or places to go or even things to hide behind. All there was, were two trash bags in the corner and some empty beer bottles, lying around on the ground.
I stepped back onto the road and looked around, he was nowhere, nowhere at all. He was a god damn nowhere man!
I looked at the wallet I had in my hands, and opened it up, I flipped through it and was surprised at how much money there seemed to be in it, there must have been a few hundred pounds at least.
But no debit or credit cards. He was certainly leaving behind a lot of cash.
I looked back into the alley and just stood there for about a minute, thinking about where he could have gone.
I slowly walked back to the cafe, hoping my drink was still a little warm. I pushed against the heavy door, coming inside and heard the little bells on the ceiling again, I hadn't even noticed them when I was running after the man. The cafe already had some more people standing in line.
"Couldn't get to him on time." I told the barista, showing her the wallet. I grabbed my coffee from the counter and walked back over to Eleanor and John.
"What the hell was that?!" John belted out hysterically. "We just heard the door ring and then suddenly you were bolting off like it was 50% off all shoes or some shit!"
"Calm down John!" I sat back down at the little round table. "There was a guy who left his wallet on the counter after paying, so I tried to catch him to give it back but he, um..." I decided in that moment that if I told the truth there is no way they would believe me. I was surprised to how fast I came up with something. "He stepped into someone's car and drove off before I could get to him. So now I'm left with some strangers stupid wallet."
"Well is there a phone number or the name of a bank you could call?" Eleanor asked.
I shook my head. "Nope, just a lot of cash though, I feel sorry for him but there are no debit cards, nothing" As I said that, I realised that there really wasn't anything I could do. Maybe i would ask the barista if I could leave it here at the cafe in case the man comes back in search of it, although he didn't seem very bothered about any of his possessions, so decided against it.
Eleanor patted my shoulder weirdly. "Well al least you tried, nothing else you can do." Agreeing with her I put the wallet in my bag for now and tried to forget about the strange happening of disappearing persons, and finally, sit down and drink my coffee.