Make Me

"I'll bring the world to your feet... but you'll be at mine, darling"

- J.

As he pushed me up against the wall, holding my collar, I groaned, trying to get his grip off me.

"Do you still feel like you wanna play the hero? You messed up Jacks face real bad... it's only normal we return such favour," probably accidentally, but he spat on my face while he was talking. So, this is what all the fuss is about? That I stood up for Veronica? I shouldn't get drunk anymore... I don't care enough about Veronica to get in a fight like that, it must have been something else that angered me.

Fucking hell, I thought we were out of high school.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, but I didn't have to keep it for long, because soon he landed a punch, numbing my face entirely. I felt my nose start to run, along with my tears. I wasn't crying, more like an instinctive thing. "Not so brave now, are we?" I don't remember what his name was... he was blonde, and his hair was very shiny, probably covered in some sort of product. It almost appeared as if it were plastic.

"Brave? What am I supposed to be frightened of?" I wish I would sometimes just shut the hell up. I can't. Must have the last word. Another punch. I let my head drop, as the world around me started to blur, but I didn't faint.

As the outlines of the outside world blurred, I saw something... something familiar. A tall, lean man, standing behind them. Elegant, but athletic build, but I could never tell the details, only his silhouette. It happened to me once or twice before... always when I started to pass out, it was some kind of hallucination, I was yet to understand. My eyes wandered off my attackers, for they didn't interest me much, and I stared at the strange creation of my mind. Before, it was almost just a black outline, but now I could almost see his clothes, his hair, and a few features. I felt like he was smiling.

"Freak! Don't you dare ignore me!" Another punch, now on my lower body. I grunted, letting my heavy panting escape my lips. I've had just about enough of this guy and the sorts of him, but even though I wasn't held down, there were too many of them for me to fight off.

I glanced up at the man again. He moved without a sound, slowly walking up behind the blondie, his steps just as if he had all the time in the world. He made a swift movement, and my eyes widened with terror when I realized that his hand went through the blonde's chest. He pulled it out almost immediately, and my gaze went instantly up, to see the eyes of the bully. What was that? He didn't seem to notice the pain, none of them seemed to notice the man, which is only natural. since I was probably having some strange hangover effects.

"Are you done?" I questioned calmly, but I didn't get an answer. His grasp loosened around my collar, and the next thing I saw was him dropping to my feet, his body falling with the lifelessness of a corpse. His friends ran to him, and I just stared at the boy, as they tried to wake him up.

"He's not breathing!" one of them shouted. "Fuck, man. What the fuck!" Panic was spreading through everyone involved in the situation, and I'm not gonna lie, I was also completely astonished, but my eyes were drawn to the man. He did this. Somehow... he did this.

He smiled at me again. He was too blurry for me to see clearly, but his smile was so signature evil, so vile and seductive, even mocking, that I was sure I couldn't have created such an image.

***

I found it hard to concentrate after yesterday's incident. As I took up order after order, my head was elsewhere. It wasn't like me, but it's only understandable after you witness someone's sudden death. How does a 20-year-old get a heart attack out of nowhere? He had no medical history and no sign of a weak heart. I have not seen the man after that, yet I was restless remembering the way he offered me a smile just before he moved. As if he was... As if he was offering to help me. Did I take it?

No, that man cannot even be real. It's just a freaky coincidence.

"Excuse me, young man, I did not order that." Someone interrupted my intense and deep thinking. I snapped out of it and glanced at the customer. A middle-aged man, in a suit, wearing a patient smile.

"This is hot chocolate. I asked for a black coffee," he reminded me, gently but sternly. I went a little red from embarrassment. I wasn't one to take any sort of job lightly, and I felt ashamed that I zoned out so much. "I'll be right here with it, I'm sorry sir."

"All is forgiven. I'm sure there's a lot on your mind." As our eyes met, I noticed that his irises were a deep red. Exceptional for sure, but his last line just somehow seemed too intimate to come from a stranger, it almost felt like he was hitting on me, but then he flashed me the most innocent smile I had ever seen and titled his head to the side.

"Off you go," I turned away furrowing my brows a little. That was definitely weird. I sighed, noting that even if he was weird, he was polite about my mistake. I served him the black coffee and tried to keep my head down for the rest of my shift. Suzanne was kind enough to notice how low my attention span became, so she took up the harder tables, while I had a little more rest. I would still have a lot to do when I get home; I could not afford to daydream about some strange dream- demon I had imagined just before Adam died.

I went around to pick up the emptied cups, but as I was about to move to the next table, I heard a loud crashing sound. I flinched, and regained my senses, then froze immediately. I was at the strange businessman's table. He was a little surprised, his eyes on the floor. Glancing down, I noticed that I dropped one of the cups.

"Fucking hell," I murmured, forgetting about myself. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what's with me today. Let me clean that up real quick, don't move until then"

I placed my tray on his table and crouched down to pick up the pieces.

"It's... It's alright, it just surprised me a little," he offered me an understanding smile. What a kind customer! We rarely have someone who wouldn't bite off my head after the performance I gave him here, and the cursing too.

I picked up the pieces and threw them out, checking that there was none left. I offered to pay for his coffee, since I was such bad service, and after talking a little bit back and forth, he agreed and left when I took care of the bill. "Such a trash day!" I sighed, walking back to the counter, and Suzanne gave me a strange side-eye. We were finally closing, so we just had to clean the place before leaving.

"I know I've not been much help today, I'm sorry...," I began, seeing the odd look she gave me, but she just became more confused and shook her head.

"No, it's not that. It's just that you were such a pushover with that man... You usually don't take bullshit from customers, even when it's milder than this jerk..."

I raised an eyebrow. Which man? What Jerk?

Probably noticing my utter confusion, she added:

"The businessman... You even paid for his stuff. I couldn't believe it," she went on, while I realized who she was referring to. I did not see the problem, so I just shrugged. I'm not a pushover. I'm the very opposite, but I also take my work seriously, and so I felt obligated to somehow make up for the bad service.

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"I broke his cup," I explained.

"No, you did not? Didn't you see? He pushed it off the table, then watched you clean it up without even apologising. I was so pissed, just looking at it." Suzanne was a redhead, but also quite literally when she was angry, her cheeks got impossibly dark. I was sometimes worried she might explode.

"Okay, that's kind of scummy, but I messed up his order just before, so probably he wanted to fuck with me a little," though I kind of feel annoyed that I paid for his stuff now. What a petty person.

"Table four, hot chocolate," she read out loud from the notes we kept on the counter to know who ordered what. "He was the only one at table four. He stayed for hours."

I slowly turned to her and checked the note as well. I felt my cheeks heat up in anger. The fuck was this guy's problem? And he had the audacity to give me such innocent smiles as if he was the fucking hero of the situation. He had no reason to even correct my service, he made a fool of me, and after all that, he even let me pay for his fucking stuff.

I felt like I was about to explode, I was so furious, but I didn't say anything.

"Not my fucking day," I groaned, and since the cleaning was done, I changed my shirt and left the café.

Finally, I could go home, and forget about these past days. It made me feel a little guilty, that I was much more upset about the unreasonable guy than the death I just witnessed. But truth be told, the world had not lost much with Adam. A cowardly, no-good bully. Maybe it was karma catching up with him, who knows?

Jesus Christ, I should go to jail sometimes for my thoughts. I threw my bag down as I stepped into my apartment. It was empty and silent in there, but I preferred it this way. I grew up in a noisy household. Noise always meant something terrible. And then a moment later, breaking the complete silence, something happened that shouldn't have been possible... Someone spoke:

"I made myself at home, I hope you don't mind"