Chapter 10

Twisted Shadows

Perhaps there was a chance that Alexa may get closer to finding the solution to find the men and bring back Bayley on this day.

Shortly after she and Sami parted ways at the entrance of St. John Hospital, the petite woman went to the center of the city and entered a small restaurant that wasn't too far away from the library; she planned to go there after lunch. Most people who were eating at the restaurant were business men who probably would rather pay for overpriced coffee and sandwiches than eat the lousy lunches their wives prepared for them. Alexa ordered a panini with salmon and lettuce along with a cup of tea. While eating her lunch, she constantly checked her cell phone, hoping that Sami would've found something by now. After she finished eating her lunch, she left the restaurant and headed to the library.

As in many libraries, it was dead silence, as if time stood still as soon as the petite woman set foot in the building. A woman in her sixties wearing glasses with black frames and her brown hair tied in a bun was sitting behind the circulation desk was practically glaring at the visitors of the library, keeping an eye on everybody as if she was a human security camera; turning a page of a book would probably make her hush you. Alexa walked over to the supernatural section, her eyes scanning the titles on the books. She quickly noticed most books were written for children, judging by the childish titles. For some reason, the petite woman could kind of understand that; the supernatural genre would appeal more to children than to adults. There were books about vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, but nothing about men with face paint and black leather shoulder pads. Alexa grabbed a few books from the shelves and sat down at the big reading table. There she spend the following hour, reading chapter after chapter of each book to find something about the men that tormented her friend. But much to her disappointment and frustration, she couldn't find anything. Damn it, none of the books contained something useful! Those two men weren't vampires, zombies, ghosts or any other kind of monster.

However, Alexa did find something useful when she read the book about ghosts.

Ghosts were often benign, entities that would only haunt the places where they died without any intentions of harming anyone. But a ghost that did have malicious tendencies would often be categorized with demons. Demons... the word stuck with the petite woman. The men who tormented Bayley definitely had evil intentions, so they had to be demons for sure. Demons were even worse than ghosts... just to think that they were in her apartment made goose bumps appear all over Alexa's arms. Were there any more books about these supernatural creatures? Alexa went back to the shelves to look for more books, but couldn't find anything that came close to demonology. Strange... maybe the lady behind the circulation desk would know more about this. Alexa left the supernatural section and walked over to the lady.

'Excuse me...' the petite woman said, making the lady look up with a slightly annoyed look in her eyes. 'Do you happen to have a book about demons?'

Without saying anything, the lady typed something on the computer and clicked a couple of times with the mouse. 'Sorry, it appears that all books with the subject of demons have all been loaned.' she said after a while.

'I see. Thanks, though.' Alexa walked away from the circulation desk and exited the library.

Where else could she find stuff about demons? The petite woman thought about it for a while, but she quickly got an idea. Whenever she would go to the gym to work out, she would drive by a store that would sell all kinds of stuff that had to do with the occult. (Most of the customers were goths in their teenage years, Alexa had seen them hanging around the store many times when she drove by) But that store was a bit far from the library... damn, Alexa wished she had gone to the hospital by car.

After half an hour of walking, she arrived at the shop; the store's name, 'The Pentagram', was written on the window which was decorated with fantasy themed posters and goth fashion. Alexa entered the store and looked around her. Some customers (a few teens and a slightly overweight woman wearing a corset and a long black skirt) looked at her like she was some alien. Alexa felt like a Disney princess amongst a group of vampires. Most of the shop's merchandise was fashion and accessories, but the petite woman did find something in the back. It was a bookshelf with books of the fantasy genre. And much to her luck, she found a book about demons and other residents of the ghost world. Bingo!

Alexa bought the book for twenty dollars. The book was a little bit heavy due to the many pages, but she was sure she was going to find information in it. The book was put in a plastic bag and Alexa left the shop. She got her cell phone out of the pocket of her skirt and checked the time; it was half past three. In one and a half hour the stores in the shopping mall would close, maybe she could have dinner over there as well. Alexa decided to stay there until five o'clock and leave after she had dinner.

One and half hour and a fresh salad at the mall's salad bar later, Alexa exited the mall. She loved going there, but today she just couldn't concentrate on the new clothes her favorite fashion stores had brought in. She actually kind of felt guilty about doing this... Bayley needed her help, she shouldn't be here! What kind of friend was she?

The sun had already started to go down, if she would hurry she could make it at her apartment in time before it would get dark. And she did have to hurry.

She still had to go through the city park to get to her home.

Going through a park at dusk was a challenge for every woman these days. God knows who or what was hiding behind the trees or in the bushes, you always had to be on your guards if you didn't want some sick bastard to grab you from behind and hurt you in the worst way possible. However, with a can of pepper spray in her purse, Alexa felt a bit safer. The first pervert who would try to harm could get half of the can in his face for all she cared, she wouldn't be afraid of hurting somebody who tried to hurt her in the first place. She was ready to go through the park.

Holding her purse against her, the petite woman headed towards the park; it took a bit longer than thirty minutes to get there, she had to walk back in the direction towards St. John Hospital to go to the city park. The entrance of the park already started to look like the entrance to a haunted forest in the twilight of the dying day, but Alexa pulled herself together. The walk through the park would possibly take less than ten minutes, she should be able to make that. Yes, she was going to do it. All she needed to be safe was the can of pepper spray. With a fearless attitude, Alexa stepped into the shady park.

That had to be the worst mistake she had ever made in her entire life.

The leaf-adorned branches of the trees clouded the sky, making her surroundings look more darker, but Alexa wasn't planning to cringe in fear because of that.

The temperature had dropped quite a bit, a cold breeze made goose bumps appear all over her arms. Damn it, she should've brought a jacket along with her. But despite the cold and the dusk, the petite woman bravely walked on, walking with quick steps. A few lampposts illuminated the path in front of her, which made her feel a bit more secure. She heard one of the park's little lakes making sloshing noises in the distance, along with the quaking of ducks which were still searching for pieces of old bread, even by this time of the day. There was nobody else in the park, the petite woman was the only one who had the guts to walk here. Her arm was a little bit sore of carrying the heavy book, with a bit of bad luck the plastic of the bag would rip at any time. Alexa planned to read the book as soon as she got home, in the safety of her living room. She hoped the book would have some useful information; she still had the receipt, if it turned out to be useless she could always return it. Maybe she could call Sami later on to ask him if he got anything, he hadn't texted her all day long.

Was it because something happened to him?

The petite woman shook her head. 'Don't get paranoid, he's probably still searching.' she mumbled to herself.

The park almost looked peaceful, but Alexa didn't allow herself to let her guards down. She had the zipper of her purse already clenched between her fingertips, ready to zip it open and grab the pepper spray if someone would jump out of the bushes. As she walked on, she looked around her, making sure she was indeed safe. Surprisingly, everything seemed... normal. Was she perhaps a bit too paranoid? That was a good question, after everything that had happened. Bayley being stalked by possible demons, Sami being attacked and Bayley put in a coma... these last days had been crazy, to say the least. Alexa still had to walk a bit further, she was almost halfway this part of the park.

The sound of a snapping branch made her stop dead in her tracks.

Alexa looked behind her. It sounded like it was coming from behind her. She could feel her heartbeat slightly rising as the paranoia kicked in. 'Who's there?' she called out. A gentle gust of wind made the leafs of the trees rustle, but otherwise it was completely silent. Maybe it was not a person who made a branch snap, it could be something else, perhaps a squirrel or some other small animal that could often be spotted here in the city park. Alexa listened for a little while more, but she heard nothing else. 'I shouldn't be so paranoid...' she mumbled and walked on.

But less than ten seconds later, she could swear she heard footsteps behind her.

Two pairs of footsteps, to be exact.

Now Alexa knew this wasn't another small fit of paranoia of a woman walking through a dark city park. She zipped open her purse and wrapped her fingers around the can of pepper spray. Turning around, she was ready to spray a whiff of the stinging content in somebody's face. Her jaw almost dropped with surprise.

Nobody was standing behind her, not even in the distance.

But... how? How was this possible? There was somebody walking her, she had heard it! Her heartbeat increased as her mouth started to become dry. This shit was getting too freaky, she had to get out of here.

Alexa increased her pace, almost running by this point. Her hand was still in her purse, holding the pepper spray. This is what she had feared for so much, this was the nightmare of every woman who was walking alone in the park. Someone was following her, she was convinced of it. The dreaded feeling of being watched by somebody crept up inside her, she could a pair of eyes burning on her back, making the hair on the back of her neck stand straight up. There was nobody in sight, the petite woman couldn't ask anybody to help her. All she wanted right now was to get to the exit of the park; once she would reach it, she would be safe. But the question was... was she actually going to reach the exit?

Just then, Alexa heard two male voices chuckling behind her in the most sinister way possible. It sounded so mockingly and so dark... it was almost inhuman.

The petite woman's blue eyes widened in horror as a trickle of sweat ran down her temple. She tried to resist the temptation to look behind, but it was too strong; she had to know it. While her breath became shaky with fear, Alexa peeked over her shoulder.

It felt like her heart ceased beating.

In the faint light of a lamppost, she clearly saw two large shapeless shadows gliding towards her, slithering over the ground like snakes. It were the same shadows that had haunted Bayley and drove her into the coma, the same shadows that had somehow turned into men and attacked Sami, Alexa was convinced of that. And now she had become their next target.

'No!' she screamed.

Alexa started running for her dear life, running as fast as she could. The two male voices chuckled once more, making her emit a scream of horror. She hoped from the bottom of her heart somebody would hear her scream; but it didn't look like anybody was going to help her. The park was empty, her knight in shining armor wasn't going to rescue her anytime soon. Her heart pounded in her head and her lungs were practically burning at this point. Sweat of fear ran down her forehead, mixed with the tears that started to pour over her lower eyelid. She could feel that the two shadows were still following her, she felt it in her bones. Oh God, what were they going to do to her if they caught her? Were they going to put her in a coma just like they did with Bayley or even worse?! She convinced that if she reached the exit of the park she would be safe, she had to run just a little bit more! The petite woman was too scared to look behind her, as if once glance over her shoulder would immediately kill her.

Her heart nearly exploded with relief when she saw the exit of the park in the distance. Just a few more meters and she would be safe!

A hand grabbed into her hair, making Alexa let out a shriek of pain. The petite woman let go of the plastic bag with the book in it, dropping it. She was roughly thrown to the ground, scraping her jaw line to the rough ground. Oh God, they got her, she was convinced of it. It was all over, they were going to do something horrible to her, she was convinced of it. With her body trembling all over, the petite woman looked up to face her fate.

The shadows were right in front of her. Alexa watched in shock as both shadows grew larger and larger, slowly taking a humanoid shape. The blackness of the shadows faded away as they revealed their human form. They were now fully transformed into two men, wearing black leather shoulder pads and strange face paint.

It were the same 'men' who had attacked Sami and Bayley...

'Don't try to outrun us, you little bitch...' the 'man' with the black ponytail said with a sadistic grin on his face. 'There is no way you will ever escape us.'

Alexa was about to accept her unknown fate when she remembered the pepper spray in her purse. It was now or never.

She got back on her feet as fast as possible, pulled the can out of her purse and sprayed into her attackers' eyes. 'Fuck off!' she screamed at the top of her lungs, expecting the 'men' to go down to the ground writhing in pain, giving her a chance to escape.

But it didn't happen.

The two 'men' seemed to be completely unaffected by the pepper spray, the white part of their eyes didn't even color red. They mockingly chuckled as Alexa dropped her jaw in horror. The hand that was holding the pepper spray was now trembling like a leaf. How? How was this possible?!

'Like I said...' the ponytailed 'man' said. 'There is no way to escape us.'

The only thing that Alexa could do now was scream in pure fear.