– Ouch… I sat up on the road, massaging the back of my head. It all happened so fast, one second I’m trying to cross the street and then suddenly a black van closes in on me. I looked around and found the same van in the ditch next to me, with smoke coming out of the hood. Suddenly, a tall man wearing black clothes, a cap and a mask walked out of the van and kneeled down next to me. I could only see his dark eyes, which seemed stressed and worried.

– Oh my god are you okay? I am so sorry we didn’t see you and we were driving too fast to stop the car in time. I was a bit shocked that he confronted me in english, but since I was pretty comfortable with my english i didn’t really think about it. His dark and husky voice sounded familiar for some reason, but I couldn’t put my finger on it…

I nodded my head saying I was fine, they didn’t hit me that hard with the car so I wasn’t badly injured. He sighed in relief.

– Can you stand up? He held out his hand towards me. I was unsure at first, but then I slightly blushed, took his hand and stood up slowly.

– Ehm, may I ask why you were driving so fast in this area?

– … I-It’s a long story a-and I doubt you would believe me if I told the truth-

Suddenly he was interrupted by another guy, wearing similar clothes to the man next to me. He was sitting in the van, talking to the guy next to me in a foreign language that I didn’t understand. Then, we heard distant screams a bit further away from us.

– What the hell?

– Oh god… The man standing next to me looked towards the sounds with terror in his eyes. I didn’t know why he would react that way or what those screams were but I understood that it frightened him. Then, he turned towards me with a look of despair.

– Look, I know this might sound crazy but we need to get out of here, quickly. Me and my six friends in the van were being chased, that’s why we were driving so fast. My friend in the driver’s seat says he can’t get the car running again but we need to get away from here. Is there any place here were we can possibly hide until our chasers leave? Please I beg you.

I didn’t believe what he said at first, it sounded too made-up and I know you shouldn’t trust strangers. However, there were something in his eyes that told me he said the truth and that I could trust him. I thought for a couple of seconds on what to do, looking around towards the screams, the van, my house and back at the guy standing in front to me. He seemed so desperate and scared. Some other guys came out of the van, so he was speaking the truth about the six friends. They looked at me with desperate eyes and some of them were… physically hurt?

I’m probably gonna regret doing this…

– … My house is just across the street. It might not be much but it’s what I can offer as a hideout for the moment. He sighed in relief, took my hand and bowed.

– Thank you, thank you thank you so much. I blushed a little bit.

– Now follow me.