A Promise

Taken

Cassie's POV

I pulled my visor down further on my head as I wrestled the door open against the January wind. One big bag of trash, then sweeping, and mopping, and then I get to go home. Finally. Of course the dumpsters were all the way across the parking lot, and of course the parking lot wasn't salted so a thick layer of ice had formed in the potholes and lower areas with the setting sun, but at least the parking lot lamp was working tonight. Shouldering the trash, I trudged my way across the freezing parking lot. At last reaching the dumpster, I had to jump to lean the lid back against the brick wall behind it, and after a few tries it finally stayed open. Then I heard it.

Struggling. The thuds of fists connecting with tissue. Pleading. Poking my head around brick wall, I saw it. A van, the kind people always make fun of for looking like something you'd get raped in. And a man, tall and lean, dressed in black with a matching ski mask, standing over another man on his knees. It was hard to see anything from here, especially as the biting wind forced tears from my eyes, but it almost looked like... Travis.

Generally known as a bit of a dick, Travis owned the diner. I'd known him since he'd hired me in high school and honestly that was too long. His head whipped backwards as the masked man's fist connected with his face. I could see the blood running down his chin, his hands snapping to his face as he cried out. They were talking, but I couldn't quite make out the words. Although the tone didn't sound happy. I had heard stories of people disappearing overnight. The mafia sending hitmen to do away with the poor idiots who owed them money, but I'd never actually registered it as anything more than an urban legend. Something that my coworkers joked about when we dealt with more unpleasant customers. With a final shake of his head, the masked man reeled his arm back and slammed his fist across Travis' face a final time. He watched my boss' body collapse for a moment, shaking out his fist, before grabbing his slumped body and tossing him into the van with ease. 

Closing the back doors he adjusted his mask and headed around the driver's side of the van. A crash from behind me forced a short scream from my chest as my heart stopped. Glancing behind me, the lid to the dumpster had fallen closed, slamming into the metal contraption with a bang that could've been heard the next town over. I whipped my head back around and locked eyes with the masked man across the parking lot. As we stared at each other for a moment that seemed to stretch on for hours, a glimmer of hope crossed my mind that maybe he didn't see me. That maybe, just maybe I was hidden enough behind the rusty dumpster. But that hope disappeared as he cocked his head to one side, lifted his gloved hand and waved at me. I swear to god, I could see him start to smile from under his mask as I turned and took off sprinting back towards the diner.

My years of track in high school did nothing to help me on the icy pavement, and even with my heart pounding in my ears, I could almost hear his heavy footfalls getting louder and louder as he gained on me. I was maybe halfway across the pavement when my luck ran out. There was no way I could've seen that thick patch of ice filling the pothole we had complained about for years. Even if I had, I couldn't have reacted fast enough to keep my foot from landing on it, or slipping out from under me as I tumbled across the ragged parking lot. My skin catching painfully on the frozen pavement, I cried out as something in my knee popped and I scrambled to get back up, but to no avail. Even with the adrenaline, my knee buckled under me with a sharp pain and I fell back to my hands and knees. Rolling over, I tried desperately to drag myself backwards, as the masked figure slowed his chase from a sprint to a walk.

"Now look what you've done." He called to me slowly growing closer and closer, as the tears in my eyes threatened to freeze, "You've gone and hurt yourself." A sarcastic tone to his voice feigning concern. The ice stung against my scraped palms, my fingers quickly going numb from the cold. This is how I died. At the hands of some hitman in the back parking lot of the stupid diner I'd wanted to quit from for years.

"Please," I begged with him, knowing that I couldn't run, or fight, or hide, or do really anything but be at the mercy of this nightmare. "Please, I won't tell anyone. I promise. Please, please-" Sobs racked through me as every move sent another stab of pain through my leg and the freezing wind bit at my skin. Coming to a stop next to me, he crouched down, seemingly amused with the whole situation,

"Oh I know you won't..." He pulled my visor off my head, inspecting the name tag pinned to the band, "Cassie..." Testing out my name, he tossed the visor to the side. I could feel his sharp gray eyes leering over me. Carefully studying my stained uniform shirt and half apron, before returning to my face and pausing on my trembling lips.

"Please-" My short blonde hair whipped around and stuck to my tear stained cheeks, "Please, don't kill me, I'm sorry..." His eyes shifted as his eyebrows raised under his mask.

"Don't kill you? Oh, you know that's a big request..." I could hear the smile in his voice. He ran a hand over his face as if pondering my request, "I mean... I should kill you right here. Cover all my bases. No witnesses. No worries..." He sighed, rubbing the back of his gloved fingers across his jaw as he thought out loud."But, shit, why not. You got a deal, sweetie."

The tiniest twinge of relief fluttered in my heart as he nodded, the possibility that I might live for more than the next 30 seconds flashing before my eyes. "Here." He chuckled. Reaching towards me with one leather clad hand, he outstretched a pinky, "We'll shake on it." I stared at that hand like it was my death sentence. "Well, come on..." He wiggled his pinky at me, Staring at me as he waited expectantly. "I pinky promise that I won't kill you." This was worse than a nightmare, but a part of me wondered if it could be real, and that tiny hope for a somewhat normal life after tonight dangled in front of me like bait on a lure. A massive... terrifying... lure. Whimpering at the pain in my leg as I shifted my weight, I lifted a hand and hesitantly wrapped my pinky around his, the size difference in our hands almost laughable.

His grip tightened as he nodded at my decision, "And you can't break a pinky promise." he stated it as a fact. The leather of his glove creaking quietly as his grip tightened to almost painful. "Not ever." He looked me dead in the eyes as he quickly jerked my arm towards him and pulled a syringe out of his pocket, jabbing it into my arm before I could make a sound.

My gaze fell to the syringe in terror and disbelief as he slowly pulled the needle from my arm, holding it in front of me as the edges of my vision began to blur and tunnel.

"Don't worry though," he let my arm fall to my side instead placing his hand under my chin as I began to sway in the darkness. "It won't kill you."