CHAPTER 2:

Julia was talking quietly with the wives of the influential men invited to this reception. She knew she was the only single person in that room and was easily judged because of that and her status as a doctor. She was perhaps the only woman to have been invited directly. She had not come on the arm of a man himself invited to this reception. And she was proud of it. She had succeeded in her life. She had managed to do everything she had dreamed of, and she knew her family was proud of her.

She turned slightly to glance at the bar. She once again caught sight of the man with the large, attractive brown eyes and raven black hair. When she had arrived at the bar to order a cocktail for herself and a friend of hers, she had seen this handsome man heading this way. She heard him order a strange drink and she tried to approach him. She was not good at that sort of thing, and she never had been. But the least we can say was that he looked confused. Was it because she had been ridiculous or that he had found her strange?

Observing him discreetly from afar, she wanted to go back to see him. In fact, when she looked him in the eye, she felt shivers. She did not know if such a thing had ever happened to her. She had found it wonderful.

After a few moments during which she was not attentive to the conversation of the ladies who accompanied her, the young man met her gaze. They held each other's gaze quietly until Julia looked away, her cheeks flushed with intimidation. She hoped to have the opportunity to meet this mysterious young man again during this evening.

A few minutes later, Julia went to the bathroom. She passed the dark-haired young man who now seemed to be in deep discussion with an aristocrat in a ridiculous green suit.

She laughs internally. She did not know this attractive man, but she could see from the expression on his face that this discussion bored him.

When she was in front of the sink of the completely empty toilet, she washed her hands and raised her head to observe herself in the mirror. She thought bitterly that she should have made the extra effort this evening. It was not that she was not pretty, but she did not change her style of dress or hairstyle often. When she had known that she was going to an important reception, she brought out her "party dresses".

According to her, she had no time to shop or go to the hairdresser. She had more important things to do. Her work and her responsibilities at the hospital were far more important than a dress. But now that she had briefly had a chat with this man, she thought she should have put on something different for that night.

Julia sighed and went back to the task at hand: drying her hands.

Then, suddenly, she heard a terrible scream coming from the reception room which made her jump violently. She completely stopped what she was doing, her hands still soaked in cold water. She listened but heard nothing. She blindly grabbed the cloth napkin from a hook and slowly wiped her hands, barely daring to breathe. She could not hear anything anymore and that was what really worried her. Should she come out of the toilet? What was happening? Did someone cut him or herself on something? Was there a fight? Maybe we needed her. She could not just stand there if someone needed treatment in the living room.

She suddenly dropped the towel, which fell to the ground and rushed to the bathroom door. She put her hand on the handle when a gunshot sounded so close to her that her breath hitched sharply. She recoiled, terrified, and almost tripped over her own dress. She heard a second shot and another scream that she could not distinguish as a man or a woman. Her head cleared of all thoughts and reflections. She just froze in fear.

She backed up again after what felt like whole minutes and rushed into a stall. She closed the door as gently as possible but, with trembling hands, it made a horrible creaking noise. She winced, tears in her eyes, understanding and registering little by little what she just had heard.

She lifted her legs and put her feet on the toilet seat so that no one could see her by poking her head under the half-open door. After what seemed like an eternity, she realized she had dropped the now damp rag on the floor in front of the sink. She panicked. Should she go put it back on the towel rack? With the sink still wet, and the rag lying on the floor, anyone would easily know that someone had been here recently. She slowly straightened her shaking legs, her eyes shining, and was about to get up when she heard the front door of the women's restroom slam open with force.

She hurriedly put her legs back on the toilet seat and put her hand over her mouth. If she even dared to breathe, she feared her presence would be noticed. Slow, shuffling footsteps were heard. Noises that seemed to echo in Julia's ears. She felt her heart racing with such force that she thought it was going to burst out of her chest. She listened, tears starting to spill out of her eyes and her eyesight blurring, not daring to blink for a second. She was simply staring at a point in front of her, on the red door of the bathroom she had locked herself in.

She perceived with horror a sound of fabric rubbing the ground and she immediately understood what was happening. The person who entered the toilet understood that someone was hiding there. Her heart raced uncontrollably. She was going to die. The person would open the doors and when he saw that one of them was locked, he would just kick it open, and it would open easily. Such a door could not withstand much.

Julia held her breath as she heard the echoing footsteps heading – as she had predicted – towards the cabins. She heard one of the doors open to her right. Then another, and another that creaked so loudly that Julia felt her teeth quiver. How many cabins were left before hers? One or two? Maybe three maxes?

How would her uncle and sister react upon discovering her death? She would have liked so much to say goodbye to them. The young woman looked up. Maybe there was an air duct? Something? Perhaps she could slip from one cabin to another from below? No, the gap between the ground and the beginning of the wall was far too narrow. And even if it had been wide enough, she would not have had enough time to slip into the other cabin before he opened hers.

Julia closed her eyes, feeling the nausea rising within her. Would the person shoot her directly? Or would he drag her by the hair to the main living room and shoot her in front of everyone?

"Hey!"

Julia thought she jumped so violently that she thought the person sensed her fear.

"What?" replied the person in the bathroom, who turned out to be a man with a deep voice.

"Comes to see."

"Wait, there's someone in the bathroom, I think." asked the man in the same room as her.

"Come on, it's important. No one will escape from these toilets." the second man replied eagerly, chatting through the bathroom door that led almost directly to the main living room.

The man huffed in annoyance. "I'll be back…" he whispered.

Julia felt a shiver run down her spine. The footsteps made their way slowly to the bathroom door, which opened and closed. The young woman, still with a hand over her mouth, did not move a single foot. She barely dared to breathe, still feeling her breath becoming more and more rare.

She had to get out of this restroom, no matter what. If she stayed here, she would not make it. He was going to come back and finish the job without any mercy. And, although she had been grateful for this interruption of the task that the man who had previously been with her in the toilets had set himself, she gradually understood that there was not only one shooter. in the mansion.

Note: Hope you like it. Thanks to anyone reading this story. That makes me very happy.