A/N: Good evening, guys.

How are you doing? I hope it from the bottom of my heart that you all are OK and safe.

No matter how difficult life gets, we must have hope... ( "Hoop doet leven")

BLM

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Dusk till dawn

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Chapter 1

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.. (This story is set in an alternate universe) ..

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He stood on the roof of the building with his eyes focused on his target. There were a lot of people around said target, but he didn't care. It was a party after all.

'Complete the mission.' he thought, and easily pulled the trigger as he exhaled.

When the man fell to the floor, he heard the familiar screams followed by people scattering from the scene and a few surrounding the dead man. As he watched the chaos at the party, one of the men in black suits discovered him.

"Time to go." he heard a voice through his ear bud.

He threw a last glance at the scene beneath him, and within moments he was gone.

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"Ana, don't go up there!" One of her father's employees shouted, as she held onto her roughly.

"Gail, what is going on? Where's my dad?"

The older woman held onto Ana and as tears rolled down her face, she shook her head." Don't go up there, please!"

A chill went up and down Ana's spine, as she heard the tremble in Gail's voice." Where's my dad?" she shouted, but all Gail did was cry instead of answering her.

"I'm gonna find out myself, OK?" she shouted, and went into the crowd of people from the party.

When Ana finally reached the elevator, she was stopped by one of her father's bodyguards.

"Don't go upstairs, miss Steele." he said firmly, with an expressionless look on his face.

"Why? What happened? Is my father OK?" she asked, her voice trembling heavily.

"Please, tell me. Don't leave me in the dark. Where's my dad?"

The man shook his head, and swallowed.

"No." Ana whispered, as her whole body shook.

At that, she ran towards the stairwell. There was no one there to stop her from going up the stairs where the party was held.

When Ana reached her destination, her heart rammed against her rib cage. What was she going to find? As she walked into the ballroom, she immediately felt sick to her stomach.

"Daddy."

Her eyes landed on the middle of the room, where she saw him.

"Daddy!" her scream was bone chilling.

The bodyguards were startled by her presence, and immediately put a blanket over her father's body, but Ana wouldn't have it.

She sank to the floor near her father, and tore the blanket away, her tears spilling from her pretty eyes.

"Don't leave me daddy." she whispered, as she touched his face.

"Miss Steele, the Police have arrived. Come with me, please." an older bodyguard asked. She ignored him though.

And as she kept looking at her dead father, her whole body shook violently from her heart wrenching sobs.

The pretty white dress she wore was soaked in her father's blood. But it wasn't white anymore. It became Red..

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"Miss Steele, please get up." Ana heard a woman say, after a while.

She didn't react, so the detective gave the two officers a nod. They walked towards the young woman and gently put a hand on her upper arm.

"Come on, Miss. Let's go. Let's get you home."

At that moment Ana felt like her life was over. She had no one. She was alone; all alone. She never knew her mother. Her father was all she had, and now he's dead.

As she felt two hands guiding her up, she wanted to refuse, but all her strength was gone.

"Let's go, Miss." was the last thing Ana heard a voice say, before it went dark before her very eyes.

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~ Seven years later ~

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"Good evening, Ana." she heard her colleague say.

She smiled at the man." See you tomorrow, Jose."

It must be late, if he was going home. She immediately threw a glance at the clock, and saw that it was almost 11 PM.

"Five more minutes." she told herself, and went back to work.

Anastasia Steele was a very brilliant biomedical engineer, and ran her own business. She graduated top of her class, and at the time she was also the youngest.

Well, it was actually the company her father had left her after he was murdered. She hated it when people said 'her company.' Why? Because it wasn't hers really; her father had worked his whole life to build it up from scratch. It was his, and always would be, Ana felt. So she always corrected people when they said it was hers.

As a sigh escaped her plump pink lips, her phone rang." Shut it." she mumbled, and let it go to voicemail.

At the moment she was on the verge of perfecting something she had worked on for years now. The last few years she had dedicated all her time in her project. She called it 'her baby'. It's true she had no social life at all, but she didn't mind. She loved her job. There were three important things in her life: WORK, WORK WORK.

As her mind drifted off to her life outside the lab, a sad smile crept on her face. When her father was alive, she was a big party girl. She dated a lot of guys; not being serious with any of them. After her father died, she kept to herself and decided to let no one into her life anymore. It was too painful, when they left or died. So Ana closed her heart off from the world, only focusing on her studies. No more parties, no more girlfriends coming over, no more night clubs, no more flying off to Paris to buy expensive designer clothes, no more guys. Just NO. MORE. She had left that life completely behind, and never, not even once looked back.

Ana was taken out of her thoughts by her phone. Again." Damn it, who the hell could it be!"

She huffed and walked over to the table, and grabbed her phone out of her bag." You're very persistent, are you? What is it?" she said, after picking up the phone.

"Miss Steele, are you alone right now?" she heard a sultry voice say on the other side of the line.

"Yes, and who are you?"

"My name is Ros Bailey, and we're on our way to get you."

At hearing that, Ana furrowed her brows." What?! What do you mean you're on your way to get me! What's going on?!"

"Miss Steele, please lock up your lab, now. You're in grave danger."

"What, no! I won't do anything until you tell me who you are and what your intentions are. I'm calling security!" Ana exclaimed, and hung up the phone.

She then called for security, and waited. Her phone rang again. Damn it! It was that same 'Ros' woman. She ignored it, and looked up.

Ana was relieved, when she saw three security guards walking towards her. As a sigh escaped her lips, she rushed towards the door. But just as she was about to unlock the lab door, she saw men in black ski masks appear from nowhere. They began shooting, and killed two guards instantly. Ana watched in horror, as one of the security guards got shot through his head, the blood spattering all over the thick glass.

Ana heard a loud scream, and didn't even realize that it was her own voice. She was the one screaming!

Within minutes the men in black ski masks had forced the lab door open, storming towards her! As a silent sob tore at her, a single tear rolled down her cheek. This was it. She was going to die... right now.

The men were aiming their guns at her, but didn't shoot." Get her!" she heard one of them say.

But just as they were about to grab her, the lights went out. After that, she heard people getting knocked down and men screaming from pain. Ana hid under the table, and waited, her heart hammering against her chest. Never in her life had she felt this terrified before. After a few minutes, the lights were on again. As she looked up from her hiding spot, she saw a pretty brunette, a tall muscular man, and another man...

He was also tall, lean yet muscular, and broad-shouldered, with dark copper-colored hair. And at the moment that man was still fighting the remaining men who had killed the security guards. Ana couldn't help herself, and watched how that man incapacitated all two of his assailants...

His movements were swift and fast, almost like a dance.

When he was done fighting, Ana looked around her lab, seeing the chaos. 'My work! They destroyed my life's work.' she thought, and closed her eyes tightly.

"Grey, help Miss Steele up, will you?" Ana heard a voice say." She's not safe here... We're going to head out first, and check if the coast is clear."

"And be gentle, OK?" the woman with the familiar sultry voice added.

'Oh.' Ana thought, 'The brunette was the one who had called and warned me about the men in black ski masks.'

As her eyes fluttered open, she saw the man who had fought off the two thugs effortlessly, closing in on her. Her whole body trembled, as he came closer. Ana knew that he and the two others had saved her life, but still she was terrified. Why? They saved her, but they also killed those men. She even saw up close how this man had mercilessly killed one of the others... with his bare hands!

"Miss Steele, can you get out from under the table please?" she heard him say.

"No." Ana replied, and shook her head.

"Miss Steele, now." he ordered, in that deep tone of voice.

"No, I will not. Not until you people tell me why you ruined my life's work!" she exclaimed.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, OK?" he promised.

In response, Ana looked up again, and locked her eyes onto his... he had the most intense, gray eyes she had ever seen. As the two stared into each other's eyes, she couldn't help but feel at ease, the fear ebbing away...

"We need to go... now, Miss Steele." the man with the gray eyes said." And you do know it's not polite to stare, right?"

In response, she let out a deep breath, and kept looking at this mysterious man.

"Come on, let's go." he said, and grabbed her hand.

As he helped her on her feet, Ana purposely broke eye contact. Her whole body trembled, while remembering how the gray-eyed man had snapped one of the thug's neck with ease.

Christian noticed it, and let out a breath. He was used to it though; people tend to fear him. He didn't know why, but he decided at that moment that he didn't want this young woman to be afraid of him.

"Don't be afraid... I won't hurt you." were the words that left his lips." I promise"

Note: This is a short story. It has 9 chapters and I'll be posting 1 chapter every week.

Hope you like.

J