8:57 p.m. - Outside a Convenience Store
The automatic doors of the small mart slid open with a quiet chime as Jay Carson stepped out, a plastic bag in one hand and his car keys in the other. The night air was cool, the streetlights flickering overhead with a dim orange hue. He walked toward his car, parked just a short distance away from the entrance. But something felt off.
His steps slowed.
A figure dressed entirely in black, head down beneath a low slung cap was crouched beside his car. Glass shimmered on the ground like scattered ice. The driver's side window had been smashed.
Jay's eyes narrowed. A robber?
Without thinking twice, he approached quickly, calling out.
"Hey!"
The man flinched, but didn't run. Instead, he turned his head slightly as if he'd known Jay would come. His masked face lifted.
"I found you," the man said, voice muffled behind a dark cloth mask.
Jay didn't have time to process the words before the man lunged.
He was fast. Too fast. Jay staggered backward as the stranger shoved him hard against the side of the car, pinning him there with startling strength.
In one motion, the man pulled out a knife, its silver edge gleaming under the streetlight. He brought it toward Jay's neck but Jay caught his wrist just in time.
They struggled, locked in a tense, breathless moment. Jay's hand trembled under the pressure as the blade inched closer to his skin.
The attacker's voice was a venomous whisper yet at the same time sound so desperate.
"You must die... so that I can live peacefully!"
Jay's jaw tightened, heart pounding in his ears. The night seemed to hold its breath. Jay gritted his teeth, muscles straining as he held back the knife inching closer to his throat. The man's strength was wild, erratic driven by something deeper than rage.
In that split second, their eyes locked.
And Jay saw it.
Not hatred. Not madness.
But desperation. A silent storm behind the mask. Eyes trembling with something raw and fractured.
Jay's breath caught, not from fear, but confusion.
Who was this man?
"You must....die!" the attacker growled again, his voice cracking now, like he was trying to convince himself as much as Jay.
"Who sent you?" Jay hissed through clenched teeth, trying to push back, forcing the knife slightly off center.
The man didn't answer. He only pressed harder. Muscles burning as he fought against the blade edging closer to his throat. The cold metal kissed his skin now. A warning. But his focus wasn't on the pain. It was on the eyes behind the mask. Wide. Trembling. Desperate. This wasn't just violence. This was a man unraveling. Jay could see it in the way his grip trembled even as he pressed the knife harder. The knife shook in his hand.
And then-
A voice pierced the tension.
"Hey! You! What are you doing?!"
A woman's shout rang out from across the parking lot. Sharp. Urgent.
The attacker's entire body flinched. His head whipped around.
Jay, stunned, didn't take his eyes off him.
From across the dimly lit distance, Serena stood frozen beneath a flickering streetlamp, a grocery bag in one hand, her phone in the other. Her voice echoed again.
"Stop right there!"
The man hissed under his breath, fury and frustration boiling in a breath.
Then, without another word, he turned and bolted into the shadows.
Jay staggered back against the car, breath catching in his chest as the sound of retreating footsteps faded into the dark.
Serena hesitated, gripping her phone tightly as she stepped closer, still unaware that the man she had just saved...was the one who she saw back in the hospital five days ago. And Jay, eyes narrowing, still didn't know the woman who had just interrupted the blade meant for his throat...was the name he'd been drawn to only hours before.
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