Blake Pierce - Almost Dead

“Thank you,” Cassie said.

She gave Tim her number and finished her beer. It seemed as if everyone else was ready for another round and would carry on talking until past midnight, but she was exhausted.

She got up and said goodnight to them before heading off to have a hot shower and climb into bed.

It was only as she pulled the bedcovers back that she remembered, with a shock, that her anxiety meds were still in her suitcase.

She had suffered the consequences of skipping tablets before. It was difficult to sleep if she was behind on her medication, and she was more likely to have vivid nightmares. Occasionally, she ended up sleepwalking, and Cassie felt nervous if that should happen in this shared dormitory.

She could only hope that her own exhaustion, together with the beer she’d had, would keep the bad dreams away.

“Quick. Get up. We need to leave.”

Someone was tapping Cassie’s shoulder, but she was tired—so tired she could hardly open her eyes. Fighting her exhaustion, she struggled awake.

Jacqui was standing by her bed, her hair a glossy, perfect brown, wearing a stylish black jacket.

“You’re here?” Excited, Cassie sat up, ready to give her sister a hug.

But Jacqui turned away.

“Hurry,” she whispered. “They’re coming for us.”

“Who’s coming?” Cassie asked.

She thought immediately of Vadim. He had grabbed her sleeve, torn her jacket. He’d had plans for her. She’d managed to escape, but now he had found her again. She should have known he would.

“I don’t know how we can get away,” she said anxiously. “There’s only the one door.”

“There’s a fire escape. Here, let me show you.”

Jacqui led her down the long, dark corridor. She was wearing trendy ripped jeans and high-heeled red sandals. Cassie padded behind in her worn trainers, hoping that Jacqui was right and that there would be an escape route here.

“This way,” Jacqui said.

She opened a steel door and Cassie recoiled as she saw the rickety fire escape. The steel stairs were rusting and broken. Worse still, the stairway only went halfway down the building. Beyond that there was nothing but an endless, dizzying drop to the street far below.

“We can’t go out that way.”

“We can. We must.”

Jacqui’s laughter was shrill, and staring at her in horror, Cassie saw that her face had changed. This wasn’t her sister at all. It was Elaine, one of her father’s girlfriends, the one that she had hated and feared the most.

“We’re going down,” the evil blonde woman screamed. “Down you go, you first. Show me how. You know I always hated you.”

Feeling the rusty metal tremble as she touched it, Cassie began to scream, too.

“No! Please, no. Help me!”

Shrill laughter was her only response as the fire escape started to give way, breaking under her.

And then other hands were shaking her.

“Please, wake up! Wake up!”

She opened her eyes.

The dormitory light was on, and she was staring up at the dark-haired twins. They were looking back at her with expressions of combined worry and annoyance.

“You have been having many nightmares, screaming. Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry. I have bad dreams occasionally.”

“It is disturbing,” the other twin said. “Is there anything you can do to stop this? It is not fair on us; we are on day shift and have to work twelve hours today.”

Cassie felt racked with guilt. She should have realized that her nightmares would cause major disruption in a shared room.

“What’s the time?”

“It is now four-thirty a.m.”

“I’ll get up,” Cassie decided.

“Are you sure?” The twins glanced at each other.

“Yes, I’m sure. I’m so sorry for waking you.”

She clambered out of bed, feeling dizzy and disoriented from lack of sleep, and quickly pulled on her top in the dark. Then, grabbing her purse, she left the room and closed the door quietly.

The lounge was empty, and Cassie sat down on one of the couches, curling her legs up on the cushion. She had no idea what she should do now, or where she should go.

It would be inconsiderate to risk disrupting her roommates’ sleep another night, and she couldn’t afford a private room even if one became available.

Perhaps she could if she got a job. She didn’t have a working visa, but from what the others had been saying last night, if the work was for less than three months, nobody in Italy minded too much if it was done on a tourist visa.

Working would make her stay here affordable and buy her some time. Even if Tim didn’t remember where Jacqui was staying, her sister might try to contact her again.

Cassie headed to the notice board to see if there were any jobs available.

She hoped to find a waitressing job, as she was experienced in waiting tables and would feel confident applying. However, to her dismay, she found these jobs all stipulated that applicants must be fluent in Italian. Other languages were an advantage but not essential.

With a frustrated sigh, she scrapped the idea of waitressing.

What about dishwashing? Cleaning?

Scanning the board, she couldn’t find any such jobs. There were a few store assistant jobs, but again, Italian was required. Then there was a bicycle courier job that sounded interesting and was well paying, but you needed to have your own bicycle and helmet, and she didn’t.

Those were the only opportunities available, and she didn’t qualify for any of them.

Discouraged, Cassie returned to the couch and plugged her phone into the charger. Perhaps she could look online and see if there was any other work available. It was still very early, and after her interrupted night she felt heavy-eyed with tiredness. On the couch, she slipped into a light sleep, and was woken a couple of hours later by the twins leaving.

People were up and about, and she could smell coffee brewing. Cassie unplugged her phone and scrambled off the couch, not wanting anyone else to know that she’d slept there instead of in her designated bed.

Following the aroma of coffee, she found Gretchen, wrapped in a dressing gown, pinning two more job notices to the board.

“These have just come in,” she said with a smile. “And coffee is for sale in the kitchenette down the passage.”

Cassie looked at the two new job cards. One was another advertisement for a waitress, which again was no use to her. As she looked at the other, she felt a chill of nervousness.

“Au Pair Required. A divorced mother of two requires help for 3 months, starting asap, to care for two girls, aged 8 and 9. English speaker preferred. Luxury accommodation provided. Please call Ottavia Rossi.”

Cassie closed her eyes and felt her spine prickle with gooseflesh.

She didn’t think that she could handle another au pairing job. Not when the first two had gone so horribly wrong.

Her first assignment, in France, had been working for a wealthy landowner. It was only after arriving at the chateau that she realized how dysfunctional he and his fiancée were in parenting the three traumatized children. Each of them had rebelled against his brutal authority in their own way, and Cassie had borne the brunt of their behavior.

The job had become a nightmare, and when his fiancée had died under suspicious circumstances, Cassie had narrowly escaped being arrested as a murder suspect.

The landowner—Pierre Dubois—had ended up being charged for the crime, and his trial was ongoing. Whenever she saw reports in the news, Cassie scanned them anxiously. With the legal teams putting up a fierce fight, the most recent article had stated that the verdict would only be given in February.