Rebecca stuffed her key into the lock and flung open the 12A door to her apartment. She slammed the door behind her and put her glasses onto a small round table by the door. She shuffled over to the light pink couch and threw herself face first onto it. She felt extremely exhausted after climbing 12 flights of stairs because the elevator had broken again for the third time this month. She rolled over to face the small TV in the corner of the room. Rebecca sat up and grabbed the remote control from the oak coffee table between her and the TV and pressed the 'on' button. She sat there for a moment mindlessly flicking through channels until she found an appealing news channel to disrupt the silence.

She looked at the flower-shaped, purple clock on the wall and gasped because it was 10:15pm. Rebecca didn't realise how long her and Jonathan had been in the coffee shop and now understood why the waitress had been so annoyed with them.

She bit her lip feeling guilty and felt her stomach rumble. Rebecca hadn't had anything to eat since around 5:00pm but she didn't feel hungry since she was so distracted by Jonathan. She walked over to the small kitchen (which was in the same room as the living room) and searched the cupboards for some food. There was nothing but tinned soup and beans. Rebecca puffed loudly, knowing she'd have to break into her university savings to pay for food. She really did want to go to university and get some grades but she had to eat, too.

Rebecca looked at the clock again. It was 10:28pm exactly. She raised an eyebrow. Where was he? He's never late. She shook her head and began pouring a tin of beans into a saucepan. She placed it on the hob and turned it on a low simmer.

Then she heard it. A light scratching on her balcony door. He was here. A smile spread across her face and she ran to the door. She pulled the handle but almost fell because she hadn't opened it yet.

"Sorry! I'll be just a minute!" she rushed over to the kitchen counter and grabbed her spare set of keys out of the top drawer (she had left her purse at the Asylum, including her keys) and hurried to the balcony door.

Rebecca pulled open the door and pointed at him. "You are late, mister!" She laughed and bent down to pick up the small ginger cat circling round her legs. "Honestly, I was thinking the worst of things! I thought you'd gotten lost!" She laughed again and put him down on the kitchen counter where he sat down patiently.

Rebecca reached at the back of the cupboard and pulled out two sachets of cat food.

"We don't have much in tonight, Tom, but I've got beef and chicken. What d'ya fancy?"

Tom touched his nose on the chicken packet and jumped off the counter and walked out to the balcony again.

"Hm, good choice!" She grabbed a small plastic dish from the drying rack, tore open the packet and put the food into the bowl. She quickly checked her beans and placed a piece of bread in the toaster. She walked over to a waiting Tom and placed down the bowl. "I still don't understand why you eat out here, you know. You could eat inside if you wanted to."

"He won't, though." Pierced a sly voice to the left of Rebecca.

Rebecca jumped and looked into the dark trying the find the owner of the voice.

"And who are you?" said Rebecca, calmly, although she felt very frightened.

"Calm down, sweety, I won't hurt you." The figure stalked slowly toward her.

"How do I know that?" stammered Rebecca.

"Because if you didn't trust me, you would've run inside and called your precious doctor by now." The woman sat on the next balcony, letting the light hit her body. She was wearing an entire latex suit with high-heeled boots and a black mask just covering her eyes. "Or you would if you didn't leave your purse at that lunatic place."

"Who are you? And how do you know that-"

"Babe, if you lived in the dark for as long as I have then you kinda become the eyes and ears of this place. I know everything about your little crush on your boss at that nut-job asylum."

"Who are you?" Demanded Rebecca, her voice more firm now.

"Who do you think I am?" Rebecca could see a smirk appear on her face.

"I think you're just a weirdo trying to scare me into believing your rubbish. I don't care how you found all that stuff out! I don't care! I just do not care! Go away!"

"Oh... You're in denial. That's cute, kid, but I gotta tell ya, that doctor of yours, he ain't right for ya and you need to get away from him or you'll get hurt. Most people involved with that man go crazy or end up six feet under, and trust me, darling, you don't want that. You may think he's worth it but he's not. Just think about it, really think about it, you've been working for him, what is it, 8 months? And apart from tonight in that coffee shop, has he shown you any kind of interest? Any at all? No. You know what that means? It means he don't like ya and you're better off getting out of this situation before he breaks your little heart. And heart break is a bitch to get rid of, I know this more than most people."

"How do you know all this? How do you know about the coffee shop? Who are you?"

"Listen, flower, I like you, I really do, and I don't want you getting involved with people like him. He's bad news and I know the bad guys are always more... fun, but it always ends with you in the gutter."

Rebecca stared at the woman. Why was she saying these things? Jonathan isn't bad! He's not a bad person... Or is he?

Rebecca jumped when she heard a cry for help by a woman far away.

"That's my queue, kiddo. See ya."

"Wait! Will I ever see you again?" Rebecca ran the edge of the balcony and reached out to her.

The woman pulled out a piece of paper and wrote something, pressed her lips to it then flicked it toward Rebecca. "I guarantee it, honey." She winked at Rebecca just before jumping down the next few floors and free running down into the street before disappearing into an alley.

Rebecca looked down at the up-turned piece of paper. She picked it up, flipped it over and read:

I think he wants the beef this time

- C

with a big red lipstick print on the lower right corner. She looked down at Tom who was no longer on the balcony, he had walked back into her apartment and sat on the kitchen counter staring at her. He was definitely still hungry.