Autophobia

Trouble

Zane leaned back in his chair. Everyone's cards were laid out and almost all the chips were stacked neatly in front of him. The game was a lot longer than expected. Since he entered the first game halfway through it zipped by. As someone counted his chips for him he looked around the large room. He felt anger rising in his chest. His eyes darted though and around people.

Amelia was gone during the rest of the duration of his time playing cards. He has not seen her once since she left to go get snacks.

"Lost your tiny lady friend?"

Zane look to his friend, Carlo, and gave him a warning look. He hated how he said the word 'tiny'. The girl on his friend's lap was counting what little chips he had left from the game. He was just about two years older than Zane.

He was Italian, you can see it easily in his face and it was deep in his accent. He came to America often, mostly for human trafficking. Zane always told him to just move here since he spent more time here then at home but Carlo refused to move here.

He claimed that Zane, although a good friend, was a horrible person when it came to business. Carlo knew if he were to move here Zane would be leaching off his mafia in some way. Zane, as Carlo described, was too territorial. He preferred to only visit and take.

Zane's attention was brought back to the game table. The man who was counting his chips finished and had set a large clean stack of cash on the table. It was a tall stack of hundreds. He took the stack and flipped though it with his thumb. The feeling of the money in his hands was familiar, very familiar.

He didn't make as much as he usually did tonight. He blames for his distraction of his missing Amelia. But luckily the stack was not to thick to look strange when he put it in his pocket under his coat.

He stood up from his chair and pushed it in. Carlo did so as well, pushing off the lady from his lap. She turned to him with a sour face, irritated with his rude gesture. He told her she could take his winnings. In excitement the lady was fast to count the few chips she had left to count. Carlo put on his coat and walked up next to Zane, adjusting his collar as he did so.

"I'd like to meet your tiny lady friend." Carlo emphasized on the 'tiny lady friend' just to push Zane's buttons. "She's very beautiful."

Zane looked out to the room. In the mass of people he could not see her. And with people moving around and slowly leaving, it was more difficult to look for her.

He hated this. For her not to be right next to him had brought on an unfamiliar feeling, an anxiety. He started to think of all the things that could go wrong in this situation, all the ways she could get hurt all alone in this sea of people. He was easily able to see over everyone but that would not matter with her short height.

"She is very beautiful," he agreed quietly.

Carlo looked at his friend. His head tilted slightly. "Relationship problems?"

Zane was finally able to spot Amelia. Hearing Carlo's chuckle, he know Carlo saw her too. The sight brought mixed feelings. Feelings of frustration and the slightest bit of relief.

And a shit load of anger.

Amelia was sitting in between two people. He knew who they were. Benard and his witch of a wife Hazel. They seemed to have been getting ready to leave as well. Hazel had her arm around Amelia, she seemed to be showing her something on her phone. Benard was already standing chatting with other men.

Zane glanced back to Amelia. He didn't notice before but she looked tired. Her shoulders were very low and she seemed to keep almost resting her head on Hazel's shoulders.