Alarms blared and the gunfire was deafening. Everything in the world seemed to be heading straight for hell all at the same time. Charlie was stuck in the middle of it all, helplessly staring the wreckage around her. Her life - as well as the lives of countless others - was falling apart. The feeling of helplessness added to her overwhelmed senses, making the world around her seem like little more than a terrible nightmare. Soon, the sounds started to fade and blur together into a confused chaos. Raising her shaky hand to look at it, she saw that it was soaked in fresh blood and shaking violently. She struggled to think clearly, but soon realized that she was quickly going into shock. Pushing her back up off the ground by her elbows, she weakly lifted her head to look down at her stomach. The sight would have made her sick if she had been in her right mind. Her body had already started to go numb from the shock, but she could feel the cold. The blood that was on her hands had drenched most of her chest and abdomen. The gashes across her lower stomach were jagged, wide, and bleeding out profusely, ensuring that standing would no longer be an option. Her breathing was heavy; it wasn't long for blood to make its way into her lungs from the highest stab wound. This was it. This was how it ended.
"Charlie?!" a voice called out, getting closer to her.
She tried to speak, but only caused herself to start choking.
"It's okay!" the woman's voice repeated, "It's okay! We're gonna get you out of here! Just stay with me!"
There was no way. No one could have escaped this kind of hell. Suddenly, the pain began to return. She felt the world moving suddenly around her as she was dragged away, seconds before a booming, bright flash consumed the ground where she had just been lying. Everything rang out in such a myriad of pain that the world quickly faded to black around her.
When the sudden influx of sounds and images died away, reality set in. The darkness of the small room replaced the bright flashes of the dream. The room was cold and silent, the only sound being Charlie's heavy, labored breaths. She sat up on the sad excuse for a mattress and threw the blankets off. Her hands immediately flew to cover her face. She screwed her eyes shut, trying to will the images away, but they wouldn't leave. All she could do was wait until she could muster the focus to push them back into the corner of her mind, where she kept them locked away the best she could.
Rubbing the sweat from her face, she took longer, deeper breaths than before, forcing her heart rate to slow back to normal. "Okay. Okay...8...6...5...5..7. 8-6-5-5-7." Repeating the numbers out loud gave her a solid point of focus, allowing the dream to fade as she got a firm grip on what was solid and real. Slowly standing, she looked around. The sight calmed her. The apartment was small, out of the way, manageable, and - other than herself - empty. Empty. That was her favorite part. There wasn't another soul for miles that knew or cared who she was. No one looked twice at her in this city and that was how she liked it.
After deciding that there wasn't a problem in the world caffeine couldn't solve, she made a straight line out of her bedroom and to the coffee pot in the humble so-called-kitchen, which was a few partially working old appliances tucked into a corner of the living room. In total, the whole apartment was only three rooms: the living room, the bedroom, and a bathroom. It was the perfect hole in the wall. Not so good for living, but perfect for staying alive.
Charlie let out a deep sigh as the black, hot coffee swirled down into her mug. She brought the mug up to her face, contently inhaling the strong bitter scent. She looked over the rim of her mug at the display on the back of the stove. The clock read, in half burned out red lights, 5:15 AM. "Well...shit."
Since she'd worked the late shift at her job last night, she didn't have to go in early. In fact, it took about a half hour of arguing with her boss Ernie to even let her come into work before the lunch rush. Finally, she had him talked into letting her come in at ten o'clock. The only problem with that was how to kill almost five hours. By the time Charlie had showered, dressed, styled her short, white-blonde hair, and gotten breakfast - which was mostly more coffee - it was only six. "Are you kidding me?" She silently cursed at the clock once more, deciding that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to go in early. After all, she wouldn't have to start work right away. Maybe she could just keep the other waitress, Angie, company. Grabbing her keys and her shoulder bag, she left, leaving the apartment looking as dark and bleak at always, people or no people.
Angie, the younger waitress at Ernie's Diner, was always there to work the early shift. Being a morning person herself, she'd worked out the schedule with Ernie and Charlie long ago. She'd been working here since before Charlie, so needless to say that she was delighted when Charlie agreed to take all of the late shifts. Charlie always managed to surprise her. Like now, when the bell above the door signalled a new arrival at the little diner. "Charlie? What are you doing here? You just closed up last night's shift."
Charlie shrugged, sitting on one of the stools by the counter. "I know. I'm not technically on the schedule to help until ten. I just thought I would come in early and-"
"Come on, Charlie," Angie sighed, "You gotta be the only person I know who wants to work all the time. Not to mention at a boring job like this. What gives?"
Charlie thought for a while, before answering. "I happen to like my job, Ange. Maybe I just wanna be here. Work keeps my mind busy."
Angie silently poured a cup of coffee and slid it over to Charlie. If there was one thing Angie knew for sure about Charlie, the woman was better with coffee. "You ever tried getting a hobby? Or maybe sleep more. Sleep is good for people who work crazy night shifts."
"Sleep doesn't really agree with me much anymore," Charlie answered vaguely, talking mostly into her coffee. She left the details out of the answer, but knew that it was a decent enough reply.
Angie chuckled. "Hey, if you're as bad an insomniac as my aunt, you should try something for it. They make pills for that kinda stuff now." Before Charlie replied, Angie walked to go and refill the coffees for a couple at one of the window booths. Her bright smile received similar expressions from the older couple, yet another reason Angie was good at the morning shift; she was a ray of sunshine for the morning customers.
Charlie, on the other hand, was polite enough to be civil, but tough enough to handle the night shift in this city. Hell's Kitchen was no paradise when the sun was up and even less so when it went down.
"Charlie Ross!" Charlie heard angrily shouted from the kitchen window, "I thought we agreed you weren't comin' in for hours!"
"No, Earnie," she laughed back toward the window, "We agreed I wasn't working until ten. Do you see an apron on me?"
"Good! I'm only paying those hours!"
"Hey, Ernie," Charlie wondered, "What if I work the first few hours for free. You're cookin' up a storm and Angie's swamped. I can help."
"If it's for free, then grab an apron, Ross!"
Charlie smiled to herself and gulped down the rest of her coffee, before sliding off the stood and walking around to the other side of the counter. Once she'd tied an apron around her waist and pinned her nametag to her black and white diner uniform, she got right to work.
"I thought you said-" Angie started to protest.
"I know," Charlie smirked, "But sometimes I just can't help myself."
The day passed quickly, just like every day at Ernie's did. Charlie was just thankful that the number of rude patrons at the diner was at an all time low for the evening rush. No one threatened to sue the owner and no one tried to rob the place, so it was all-in-all a pretty good day. Charlie was ready to clean up and close up for the night, as she did just about every night.
"Go home, Ern," she offered, "It's closing time. I'll stick around and clean up."
"That's nice of you, Charlie," Ernie answered, walking out of the kitchen and drying his hands on his apron before hanging it up, "But I don't feel right leaving you here all alone at this time'a night. Now, it's not that I don't trust ya. It's just rough out there."
Charlie smiled at the older man's concern. In truth, he was in far more danger than she was. After all, she could handle herself just fine. "You sure? It's no trouble. I live close."
Ernie thought for a minute before shaking his head. "I'll wait it out with you and walk you home. After all, Emily and I are only a block or two past you."
"That's sweet of you to offer, but I can take care of myself just fine," she assured him, "Go home to your wife. Things don't get too rough for another hour or so. I'll be outta here by then. Deal?"
The man hesitantly grabbed his coat and slipped it on. He turned back to Charlie and tossed her a set of keys. "You're outta here by the hour! You be careful!"
"You got it, boss," Charlie answered with a mock salute and a smile.
When Ernie left, she went back to her nightly routine to get everything cleaned up for the next morning. She always went the extra mile to make Angie's early morning life easier. She took another look out the window, thinking about what Ernie said. Sure, it wasn't the safest place in the world, but it was only one hour. Even in Hell's Kitchen, what could possibly go wrong in one hour?
In about fifteen minutes, Charlie was really pissed that she asked herself that question. She was sweeping the floor in front of the counter, when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a car speeding by - or rather toward the diner. In a quick reaction, she'd dropped the broom and jumped up over the counter, sliding down behind the other side, just as she heard a loud crash and a rain of glass. The diner was harshly lit by the headlights of the car, allowing Charlie to see the shadow of a man approaching in the light. She grabbed the gun from under counter and crept closer to the side of the counter, peering around just slightly to get a better look. The car had stopped prior to hitting the diner, but had collided with something...or someone. When her eyes adjusted to the harsh light, she could tell that the car had hit a man so hard that he had been thrown through the window. That would mean that the man entering the diner was likely the driver.
She ducked back behind the counter for another second as the shadow grew closer. When she dared another look, she could see the man who'd flown through the window - or at least the twisted, bloody mess that was left of him. The driver grabbed the man by the leg and drug the unmoving form out the door.
"Shit!" Charlie exclaimed quietly to herself. She immediately regretted the sound when the driver's shadow on the wall stopped moving. Had he heard her? Waiting with her back to the counter wasn't doing a thing to make her feel at all safe right now, so she gripped the gun tighter and slowly rose to look above the counter, her head barely visible, since she was hidden from the headlights by the driver's large shadow.
The driver was a tall, dark figure facing away from her. The long black coat he wore obscured any details from view. It wasn't until he turned partially back toward her that she could see any defining feature. When she saw it, part of her wished that she hadn't. Under the coat, she caught a glimpse of the image on his chest: a long, white skull.
Charlie lowered herself back down quickly, cursing to herself. If the man had seen her, he didn't make any moves to do something about it. Honestly, she just prayed that he hadn't seen her at all. Soon, she saw the shadow disappear and the lights move away as the car backed up. After that, she counted her breaths until the car was completely gone.
Shit.