Chapter Text
It was never my intention to get wrapped up in any of this, but I needed the money. Rent had just gone up, again, and if not for this job, I wasn't going to be able to make it this month.
I clutched my coat tighter around me. It was cold tonight, autumn becoming winter, and I needed all the warmth I could get.
It was an easy drop off, brown paper bag crinkling between my fingers. I was tempted to see what it held. Drugs? A gun?
But that wasn't what I was getting paid for. My job was to deliver the package, not to wonder what it was. Besides, my roommate had already warned me that these were very dangerous men.
She had bitten her lip, gauging my reaction carefully as she told me. "So. . . my boss needs a package delivered."
"So?" I asked, cracking open a can of soda. "You've made plenty of deliveries before. What's the problem?" Her hesitation had given me pause, and I looked up at her incredulously.
"You're fucking kidding me."
"Please don't be mad!" She flinched as I reminded myself to calm down. "He said that he needed someone else to do it. Fresh blood, or something. And I know you could use the money. . ."
She trailed off as I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "Fine." It wasn't the first time I had dropped something off for her. At least it paid well. "Date and time?"
"Ah. . . that's the thing." She looked down at her hands, fidgeting wildly. "It's tonight."
So I'd ended up in a back alley at eleven at night, paper bag in hand and specific instructions in mind.
I checked my watch again. It was almost time. I was supposed to knock on the door twice at exactly 11:02 pm.
I took a deep breath, watching the seconds tick down. I was unusually anxious. It was just another delivery, and it wasn't like I'd never done this before. Give them the bag, take the money, and leave.
I forced myself to take a step forward, followed by another and then another. The rusted metal door loomed over me like a threat, and I felt a laugh bubble up in my throat. What was I so afraid of?
I knocked, twice, just as the instructions said. For a moment, there was nothing, a radio station playing only static. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered if I'd gotten the address wrong.
Then, the door creaked open. Inside, it was pitch black. The darkness beckoned for me, reaching out spindly arms to grasp at my mind and pull me under.
I followed it. The hallways were dark, barely lit, and I found myself stumbling throughout them, my eyes refusing to adjust to the near lack of light. "Hello?" I called into the quiet darkness. "I have your package."
There was some kind of swift movement behind me, disturbing the air, and I whirled around to face whoever it was. The space was empty. I turned around again, feeling another rush of air from the opposite direction.
For the first time since I had taken this job, I felt true, cold fear. It was like being dunked in a bucket of ice water in the middle of winter, freezing my veins and slowing my reactions.
Yes, I had been warned of the dangers. Yes, I had heard the stories of the couriers that had never come back. But I had needed the money and, in my desperation, forgotten to calculate the risks.
"H-hello?" My breath hitched slightly. Whoever it was already knew I was here. There was no point in trying to hide. The best I could hope for was to deliver the package and get paid. The worst that could happen. . . well, I didn't even want to think about that.
I closed my eyes in the dim, dingy hallway, taking in the scent of must, water, and old cardboard. I memorized the scent, calming myself and steeling my nerves. I opened my eyes to a pair of green ones boring into them.
"Boo." Their owner said, and even in the darkness, I could tell he wore a cheshire grin on his face. He laughed as I jumped, a high, staticy, sound, which only unnerved me more.
I felt a cold hand on my shoulder. "Don't scare her too much, Anti. After all, she is our guest." I flinched at the contact and the impossibly cold fingers that gripped my shoulder. What a strange name, I thought idly. My mind was running away from me again, and I forced it back to the task at hand.
"I. . . I brought your package." I held it out to the green-eyed man, and his eyes sparkled. He seemed to be watching my every reaction to him, currently fixated on the way my mouth moved.
"We heard." He replied, not making a move, as far as I could tell, to take the paper bag from me.
Cold fingers brushed against my hand as the man behind me leaned around to take the paper bag from me. His skin was pale, almost ashen, as though he had never seen the sun before.
"Ah. Perfect." He said. His voice was calm, even, a sharp contrast to Anti's high pitched, broken voice.
"What did they give us?" Anti asked, far too excited. He was almost like a small child about to receive candy.
"See for yourself." The icy male said smoothly, tossing the paper bag to him. Anti caught it easily, peering inside. He inhaled deeply, sniffing whatever was inside like a dog. His face lit up in childlike glee, but as he looked up, I could see that his eyes were hungry.
He pulled out two bags of dark liquid, a little too thick to be water, which sloshed around the inside of the bags. His fingers twitched, denting the plastic as though he could barely restrain himself.
"Run away, little girl." Anti whispered, flashing me a grin. "You'd do well to forget what you saw here tonight."
"We will leave the money with your employer." The other man said. "It would be wise for you to leave now, before you learn something you'll regret."
Something was inexplicably off about the whole situation, but I wasn't sure that I wanted to stick around to figure it out. I brushed the cold hand off my shoulder and left.
As I reached the door, my blood ran cold. A high pitched shriek, almost human, rang through my ears, and the man's words ran through my mind. "It would be wise for you to leave now, before you learn something you'll regret."
What secrets could they possibly be hiding? What sort of clandestine things could be hiding in the dark of the seemingly abandoned warehouse?
I wrapped my arms around myself, once more clutching my jacket to my body. Sure, maybe the chill I felt was simply from the plummeting temperature, and the shivers from the crisp night.
Either way, whatever was going on here simply wasn't my business, and I wasn't going to stay to figure it out.