CHAPTER ONE
Serena POV
I had gotten used to being invisible, I was known as the girl who stayed long after everyone else had gone home, wiping the tables, stacking the chairs and counting the tips that barely paid for dinner.
Rossi's Café was small and always smelled of burnt espresso but it was the only place that didn't ask for a résumé and I didn't have much of one anyway.
"Serena, you missed a spot again," Mia said, snapping her gum as she passed with her lipstick which was always too red and her smile which was always too sharp. "No wonder you're still on dish duty." I forced a laugh soft enough that she couldn't tell it was fake. "Guess I like the smell of soap." She rolled her eyes and went back into the room and muttered something about orphans with attitudes that I didn't even bother replying because those words never helped rather they only made people look less of themselves and that was one thing I'd learnt not to ever allow.
The clock above the counter blinked at 10:58 p.m everyone had gone to their various territory and the rain outside pressed against the window and whispering in the silence i hung my apron and grabbed my coat then my fingers brushed the edge of the staff bulletin board where old notes and reminders curled with dust.
There's something new that caught my eye, It's a very small square envelope and my name is written in slanted handwriting "Serena". The envelope was damp like it had slipped under the door in the rain. Inside the envelope there was a black and white photo, slightly torn and it was a picture of a woman standing beside a man in a suit, her smile was soft but looked familiar.
My throat tightened, the woman looked exactly like me and on the back of the photo I saw a line that was written in ink, blurred from water saying you look just like her.
I turned and scanned the quiet café, the lights buzzed faintly and my reflection in the window looked pale and wide eyed, Outside, I heard a car engine purr.. the street was empty except for a sleek black sedan that is parked across the road with the headlights dim then my pulse quickened I couldn't see the driver but I felt the gaze heavily focused.
I shoved the photo into my pocket and pulled up my hood. It's just some creep I told myself that there is nothing new in this part of the city but this time I didn't take the main road home I cut through the alley instead where the air smelled of rain and iron.
Halfway down, my phone buzzed, it was an unknown number I took the call then I heard a very deep and unknown voice saying "you shouldn't walk alone Serena." I froze immediately who could this be? The streetlights flashed then I turned my back I heard a bottle clatter somewhere behind me and I spun around, I felt my heart slamming against my ribs. Who are you? Just a cat that is thin, gray, its eyes reflecting the light like tiny mirrors, I let out a shaky breath 'phew' and started walking faster.
By the time I reached my apartment , a tiny single room on the third floor of a rundown building, the rain had soaked through my coat, I locked the door twice and leaned against it.
The photo burned against my leg then I pulled it out again and studied the woman's face, the way her eyes tilted slightly at the corners, the faint scar under her chin I'd seen that scar before on me and the same spot.
A knock made me jump three slow deliberate taps, I stared at the door, nobody ever visited and not even at this hour."Who's there?" My voice cracked. There wasn't any response then I saw a shadow under the doorframe, it looked big with broad shoulders and whoever it was they weren't moving away.
I grabbed the nearest thing I could use as a weapon, a mop handle and took a step back then the knocking stopped and was replaced by something worse, a low murmur it was like two people whispering on the other side, i couldn't make out any words because it ended just as sudden as it started it went quiet minutes passed before I worked up the courage to check the peephole then i found out that no one is there it was just the empty hallway and wet footprints leading away my hands were shaking, I slid the extra lock into place and tried to breathe.
I didn't sleep much that night, every creak of the floorboards made me flinch and every passing car light painted shadows that looked like silhouettes. Before morning, I'd convinced myself it was nothing, it's just exhaustion, bad weather and too many shifts.
But when I stepped outside the next day, something was waiting on my doorstep, a single black rose which was tied with a ribbon with no note but only a faint smell of smoke and something metallic that smells like blood.
That night at work, I caught Mia staring at me from behind the counter, her smirk was gone, "Who sent you flowers, Serena?" she asked, her voice too curious.
"I don't know" I said tossing the rose into the trash but she didn't laugh this time, when my shift ended, the black sedan was there again parked across the street with the engine off and the windows tinted still waiting.
I took the long way home again but this time halfway down the alley, a shape stepped out of the darkness, tall, wearing a black coat, rain dripping from his hair, "Serena " he said.
My heart stopped, "you've got the wrong person." He smiled faintly though it didn't reach his eyes. "No, I didn't." I backed up a step and asked "Who are you?"
He didn't answer instead he handed me a folded note with the same handwriting as the one in the photo. Then he turned and vanished into the night like smoke. I opened the note under the dim streetlight. It said only one thing, "you can't hide from blood".
I didn't sleep that night either, I kept replaying his words, the photo, the rose, you can't hide from blood, what blood? Whose blood?
The next morning, the café was quieter than usual even Mia wasn't talking, the air felt so strange everyone was looking at the news playing on the tiny TV in the corner, The headline made my stomach drop, "Mafia Leader Found Dead Police Suspect Inside Betrayal."
My fingers tightened around the photo in my pocket, the woman in it, the one who looked exactly like me, stood beside the dead man on the screen and before I could even process that, my phone buzzed again this time it was the unknown number again, they'll come for you next .