"Dinah Jane Hansen, a dangerous serial killer, has escaped from a maximum security prison in upstate New York. She has been missing for approximately 3 hours and is considered highly dangerous. She is Polynesian with dark brown wavy hair and brown eyes. She's about 5-foot-9 and 135 pounds. If you happen to see her, it is imperative that you do not engage her. Call the police immediately. This is Kristine Johnson with WNBC 4. Stay safe, New York."
I continued sipping my coffee, casually watching the commercials that followed the news report.
"Pretty scary to think a serial killer is loose on the town, isn't it?" a woman asked, her eyes on the TV as well. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, probably about the same age as me. She had on sunglasses, which looked good on her.
"Yeah, I guess." I said absentmindedly.
"Why do you only guess?" she asked looking at me finally.
"I'm not really big on judging people that I don't know, or commenting on situations that I don't know much about." I said quietly.
The woman chuckled, "So you're one of those, huh?"
"Pardon? One of those?" I repeated, trying to get clarification on what exactly it meant to be 'one of those'.
"One of those, 'I see the good in everybody and there's no such thing as a bad person, just someone who makes bad choices' people." she said in an annoyed tone.
"I'm just saying I don't like to judge people that I don't know." I said, rolling my eyes before taking a sip of my coffee.
"Whatever." the woman said, turning her attention back to the news which now was showing dogs jumping through hoops.
"Hey, Normani! Ready to pay?" the waitress asked me.
I smiled widely at her and nodded, before giving her my card.
"Who drinks coffee this late, anyways?" the woman next to me asked.
I rolled my eyes, "Obviously, I do." I said pointing to the coffee mug in my hand. Dana, the waitress, brought back my card and I signed the check before grabbing my bag and standing up.
"Anyways, I would say it was nice talking to you, whatever your name is, but it really wasn't that pleasant. So goodbye and have a wonderful night." I said to the lady with a fake smile.
"My name is DJ, and, trust me, it wasn't pleasant for me either." she said with a smile of her own.
"I've never met a girl named DJ." I commented.
"I've never met a girl named Normani. What's your point?" she asked.
"How do you know my name?" I asked, becoming slightly scared.
"The waitress said it, genius." she said with a small smile.
I rolled my eyes, "I'm leaving." I turned around and opened the door.
"Have a wonderful night, Normani. Take care." DJ called after me. I gave her a thumbs up without turning around and then walked out of Denny's.
I walked to my car, being careful to check my surroundings. I quickly got into my car and started it. I tried to buckle my seatbelt and failed several times before finally succeeding. I looked back up and saw DJ standing at my window. I gasped, slightly startled. I put my hand over my chest and felt my heart beating out of control. She had her hand up like she was about to knock on the window. I rolled down the window slightly.
"Yes?" I asked, shakily, still trying to recover from the scare.
She chuckled and smiled, "You left this in Denny's." She held up my debit card and slipped it through my cracked window. I took it gratefully and flashed her a friendly smile.
"Thanks."
She nodded and gave me a small smile before putting the hood of her jacket over her head, sticking her hands in her pockets, and walking to her car. I stayed behind for a while to make sure she got in her car before driving off.
When I finally made it home it was about midnight. I unlocked my apartment door and stepped into my home, an overwhelming feeling of fatigue taking over. I tossed my keys in the bowl by my door and kicked my shoes off. I walked to my bathroom and flipped the light on before looking myself over in the mirror. My hair had expanded quite a bit because of the humidity. I sighed and decided that I would have to straighten my hair again tomorrow. I left the bathroom making sure to turn off the light and made my way to my bedroom. I slipped out of my clothes and into bed, closing my eyes and letting sleep take over.
I woke up to lights pouring into my room through the blinds. I yawned and stretched and looked around for a bit before actually getting out of bed. Shuffling to the kitchen, I ate a quick breakfast before getting in the shower to wash my hair. I quickly shampooed and conditioned my curls before getting out of the shower. After blow drying and flat ironing my hair, I looked myself over. Feeling satisfied with the results, I left the bathroom and got dressed. It was Saturday so I didn't have work or anything to do. I had recently moved to New York for a new job and I didn't really have any friends out here yet. It'd been a while since I'd seen my family and friends so I decided to take a trip back home to Boston. Maybe things would be different this time.
After I packed my bags, it was already about 6 pm. I left my apartment and locked up. I quickly walked to my car and put my suitcase in the trunk then quickly got in, started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. I stopped by a corner store to go to the bathroom an hour into the car ride. I was in a shady part of town and I was apprehensive to stop but I really had to go. I got out of my car and made sure to lock it. Walking into the store I smiled at the cashier, "Where is your bathroom?" I asked politely.
She smiled back at me, "Outside and around the back." I thanked her and turned to walk outside, sighing to myself. I quickly walked around the back and used the bathroom. As I was washing my hands, I heard yelling outside. I turned the water off and listened carefully. I could only hear muffled sounds now so I opened the door and walked outside. I wasn't going to be that one girl to go investigate so I quickly started making my way back to my car.
"Aye! Who's that? You said you were alone!" I heard a man with a thick accent say.
"I am alone! I don't know who that is!" A woman said. I assumed it was the person closest to me. She had on a hoodie and sweatpants so I couldn't really tell before. I froze in my spot, my eyes wide.
"Kill them!" the man said angrily. He gave me a mean look and I noticed the scar above his eyebrow. The two other men with him began to reach in their jackets. Before I could do anything, the woman pulled two guns out of her waistband and fired at the men, hitting them both. The man looked shocked. Before he could react, the woman turned around and bolted towards me.
"Come on!" she said running and pulling me along. I ran as fast as I could to keep up.
"You'll pay for this, Dinah! You and that girl!" I heard the man yell after us. The woman, Dinah, cursed under her breath but kept running. Finally we emerged into the parking lot. I ran towards my car and Dinah followed.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?!" I asked frantically.
"Just give me the keys and get inside the car. Our lives are in danger, just come on!" she ordered. I handed her the keys and got in the passenger seat. She peeled out of the parking lot. She used one hand to pull her hood off her head and I instantly recognized her hair.
"DJ?" I asked in confusion.
"Normani?" she asked looking just as confused as I did. She chuckled and shook her head, "What luck."
She sped down backroads and alleyways. My heart was beating out of my chest and I shook slightly the whole ride from adrenaline.
DJ glanced at me quickly before focusing back on the road, "You'll be alright, Mani. Try not to worry too much." she tried to reassure me.
"I just saw you kill two people." I said quietly.
She sighed and was quiet for a while, "It was them or us. I'll explain when we get where we're going."
We were quiet for the rest of the ride. We arrived at a nice hotel. DJ parked and we got out the car and walked inside the hotel. She reserved a room and I stood there silently, still in shock from the previous altercation. Finally, DJ grabbed my hand and led me to a room on the 3rd floor. She opened the door and we walked inside. I sat down on the bed and buried my head in my hands.
"I just witnessed not one, but two people die." I said quietly. I looked up quickly, "Please don't kill me." I begged. I felt tears starting to well up in my eyes and it wasn't long before I was crying and pleading for her not to kill me.
"Stop crying. If I was going to kill you, I would've done it a long time ago." she said sitting on the couch. I stopped crying and wiped my tears. I guess she had a point.
"So, when are you going to explain what just happened?" I asked impatiently.
"I mean, long story short, he's super important. A mob boss. And I just killed two of his best men. And he thinks you were in on it so we're both screwed."
"Anything else I should know?" I asked.
"We're leaving New York early tomorrow morning." she said nonchalantly.
"What?! I was going to visit my family. I have work, when are we coming back?" I asked, a million questions racing through my mind.
"Calm down. Look, if you want to LIVE long enough to do all that stuff, you're going to have to trust me. I know this might not be too comforting to hear, but I'm a criminal. I'm not just some random girl who doesn't know what she's doing. I've been through things like this before and look at me. I'm still here." she smiled gently at me and I sighed.
"Fine. Only because I don't really have any other choice." I said looking at the floor. "I need to go to the store though and get stuff for tonight." I said quietly.
"Like what?"
"I need to get something so I can wrap my hair." I said pointing at my straightened hair which was a little wild now from the night's events. She looked me over for a while, quietly.
"Maybe they have something downstairs." she said.
"I'll be back." I said getting up and starting to walk towards the door.
She quickly stood up and walked to the door with me, "I'll go too."
"I'm a big girl. I can handle going downstairs by myself."
"I'm sure you can but I'm not sure if i trust you enough yet. Anything could happen and in this situation we're better safe than sorry."
I rolled my eyes before sighing. She had a point. I didn't trust her that much either, "Whatever."
We walked downstairs and asked the front desk if they had anything. They gave us satin pillowcases, which weren't what I wanted exactly but they would do. We also bought some new undergarments.
"Um, excuse me. You've both...there's-um...blood on your shirts," a lady said as we walked back to the elevator.
My mouth fell open but no words came out.
"Yeah, it's that time of the month. My girl and I," she grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers, "were trying to...you know. Things got a little messy. That's why we came down. To clean things up and change out our pillowcases and sheets." she lied, holding up the pillowcases to make her lie more believable.
The lady looked disgusted. I'm not sure if it was because of the period sex part or the lesbian sex part or both, but I didn't really care either way. I gave her a small fake embarrassed smile and then dragged DJ to the elevator before the lady could say another word.
We stood in the elevator quietly until the doors closed.
"I'm so out of it. How did I not notice that we...?" DJ said quietly to herself.
"That we have bloo-" I said loudly, scared.
"Shhhh!" She said, tilting her head towards the ceiling, pointing out a security camera to me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and fixed my eyes on the door, trying not to cry. I had somebody else's blood on me and they were dead. I could easily be charged with the murders. My hands started to tremble and Dinah noticed since she was still holding my hand.
"Calm down. We'll be fine." she said calmly. Finally, the elevator buzzed to let us know we were on our floor. We quickly made our way to the room and shut the door. I sat on the bed and looked at the floor in shock. This was the first time I realized how deep in this I was. I witnessed two murders, have their blood on me, and ran away with the murder. This was bad. Very bad.
Dinah paced back and forth in the room with her arms folded across her chest. Finally she stopped. "Take your clothes off."
"What?" I asked quietly still staring at the floor.
"Take your clothes off!" she said loudly. "I'm going to fix this."
I looked at her and sighed before taking all my clothes off, leaving me in my bra and panties. She did the same and we threw the clothes in a pile on the floor.
"Get in the shower and wash every inch of your body. Including your hair." she said.
"I don't have my flat iron with me." I said to myself.
"Leave it natural. Let your hair breathe." she answered.
"I always have my hair straight."
"Change is good." She said tossing me a towel. I caught it and stood up.
"How do I know you won't just leave me here and tell that man where I am?" I asked, scared.
"You don't. You'll just have to decide whether or not you trust me." She said shrugging.
I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly, "I don't, but whatever." I turned around and closed and locked the bathroom door before getting in the shower.
"I'll be back in a few. I'm going to do something with these clothes." Dinah yelled from the other side of the door.
I finished showering and I got out the shower with the towel wrapped around my body. I opened the bathroom door and saw my suitcase laying on the bed. Dinah was sitting on the couch watching tv in one of my sweatsuits.
"I got rid of the clothes. Don't worry about them anymore." she said nonchalantly.
"Okay." I said softly, grabbing some pajamas out of my suitcase. I figured it was better I didn't ask about the details. I went back into the bathroom and put on my shorts and tank top before walking back out and sitting next to Sinah on the couch.
"I hope you don't mind me borrowing your sweatsuit." she said shyly.
I shook my head, "I don't mind."
She looked at me and studied me for a while. I began to feel nervous under her intense gaze. "I like it." she said finally.
"What?" I asked confused.
"Your hair." she said as if it were obvious.
I gave her a small smile, "Thanks." I looked down at my feet.
"I'm going to shower now, " she stood up and walked into the bathroom. I pulled some shorts and a shirt out of my suitcase and laid it on the bed for her. I put the suitcase by the door and suddenly began to feel exhausted. I laid out on the couch, deciding to give Dinah the bed. Within minutes, I was asleep.
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a/n: this was part of a book I was going to write completely unrelated to 5H but I decided to change it to norminah at the last minute so sorry if it has any typos or wrong info. let me know if you like it! I've though
about making it into it's own story.