CHAPTER 1: COLD SMIRK

CHAPTER 1: COLD SMIRK

The moment he entered the room, it was like the atmosphere has shifted.

Amy felt it. Lacey didn't, nor Mike did or even any of the customers around the small restaurant, but Amy swore she felt it. The air got slightly thicker, colder and her throat went dry. Her hands slightly trembled under the tray she was carrying, as the jingling of the small bells hanging on the door filled her ears, signaling that a new customer has entered.

“There you go, s-sir.” her voice broke as she almost dropped the steaming, grilled chicken before catching herself at the last second, placing it extra slow on the table this time. The old man sitting in front of her gave her a weird look before digging into his meal as if nothing had happened, and Amy was glad.

“Enjoy your meal.” she whispered, more to herself than to the man, before quickly heading off to the kitchen. She didn't even give a small glance to the door, she was too afraid. Her gut told her something wasn't right, and her gut was almost never wrong.

Mike was staring at her funny when she slammed the door of the kitchen shut, breathless as she felt the floor shaking slightly due to her sudden anxiety.

Great.

“What got to you all of a sudden?” his voice was laced with humor and confusion while Amy watched the floor.

“There’s a new customer.” she struggled to laugh before pointing with her thumb to the door, “Your turn.”

“Aww, c'mon I did the dishes for you last night.” he whined loudly which caused Amy to breathlessly chuckle.

“I mopped the floor for you the night before.” she easily retorted.

“Because I-”

“Mikey, please, it’s just one customer. Cut me some slack for five minutes, please.” by this point, Amy could feel the sweat at the back of her neck turn to ice as she hurried to hide her face from him. Shaking the ground by her anxiety was something that can go unnoticed, but definitely not the sudden change of her right-eye color. It will freak the s**t out of him.

“Sheesh, fine.” she heard him mutter before the kitchen door was slammed shut.

She sighed with relief.

Then ran towards the nearest sink and splashed cold water all over her face. Of course, she wasn't surprised when ice filled her palms and face as she did so. This always happened whenever she was nervous or even angry, but it still bothered the hell out of her everytime it happened. She huffed loudly, trying as hard as she could to catch her breath or else, it will become worse.

“God, what the f**k is happening?” she hissed to the empty kitchen.

The voices of the laughing customers filled her ears as she tried to concentrate on the water flowing through the large tap. It’s okay, it’s okay...she kept reminding herself as the ice on her hands and face slowing started to melt, and her eye color returned back to normal.

Now she looked like a complete mess. Her light brown curls were sticking to her face, her skin got paler as if she had seen a ghost, and her fingertips were all red from the effect of the harsh ice, but it didn't bother her. The cold never really bothered her at all actually, because her body seemed to welcome it every time she touched an ice-cube or even went out in a snowy day, wearing only a light cotton t-shirt.

God, she was such a mess, she thought.

“Yo, Em! Need your help at table three, c'mon!” she heard Lacey call.

“Okay, just a sec!” she found herself calling back and was glad her voice wasn't shaking anymore. Lacey’s voice was like a harsh kick back to reality as Amy’s feet automatically started heading for the door, before of course checking that her reflection seemed normal again in the nearest window.

“Thank God! Here, two large beers for table one, one caesar salad table four, one mushroom hamburger with extra cheese and crispy fries table seven. Oh, and don't forget new customers table three. Quick, GO!”

“Hey yo slow down, Lace.” as soon as she opened the door, Amy found all kinds of food being thrown at her from every direction, while her boss kept pacing around the kitchen like some maniac.

“Don't you f*****g dare talk right now or I'm sticking this spoon up your A*S!”

Woah, peachy.

Lacey was a complete, f*****g wreck. She kept screaming orders at anyone who stepped a foot near her and her dirty blonde hair was a complete mess it put pom poms to shame. She tried to seem intimidating to anyone who looked at her funny, but really she wasn't fooling anyone with those bright, innocent, blue eyes that made her face look like a child’s.

“Okay...” Amy muttered quietly before walking towards the customers. She got used to Lacey flipping out now and then, and she learned from experience not to get near her at those times, though it was a lot of fun she had to admit.

The amount of food Amy was carrying right now with one hand should be considered a crime. Really, the girl was a hair away from knocking someone off with the huge tray she was carrying, but everyone knew that Amy always managed. She was struggling terribly at first of course, but with experience and her growing love for this job, she started to get through it in the end.

“Mushroom burger, extra cheese with crispy fries.” she placed the food on the table slowly before running to the next one, “One caesar salad, there you go.” a friendly smile was placed on her face while she turned around, “Two beers-”

Her heart almost exploded out of her chest.

She was struggling to breath again. Her friendly smile dropped immediately, she could feel the cold rushing through her body as her eyes landed on the table she was about to head to.

Two male strangers were sitting on it, the one on the left was wearing a huge brown coat that almost swallowed him, but also added to his dangerous demeanor. His features were angry, sharp and his eyes were a very deep pitch black that would somehow make you want to crawl into a hole with just the sight of them. The man scared the s**t out of Amy, but even his frightening aura stood no chance next to the stranger on the right.

While the man on the left screamed anger and strength, the man on the right screamed danger and near death. Dressed in all black, he wasn't fully facing Amy, but even so you could still feel the air getting colder at his sight. Grey, toxic smoke surrounded his face as he took another puff from the cigarette he was holding, smirking at something that obviously made his companion quite angry.

And God, this smirk. It sent shivers down Amy’s spine even from afar, like he was enjoying some private joke that wasn't even that funny as much as frightening.

It made ice trickle down her wrists.

She gulped as the smoke started clearing from his face, making those icy blue, almost grey eyes even more striking than ever. They were cold, so much colder than ice, much more cruel than anything she has ever seen before. They were so hollow, not a trace of emotion filling them, and they made Amy feel like death was clawing at her throat.

Amy has never been more frightened at the sight of a man in her whole life.

And he wasn't even that old. In fact, he seemed young, way too young to have such a terrifying aura. His features hasn’t even wrinkled and if you moved those dreadful eyes out of the picture, he would actually seem almost Amy’s age, and Amy just reached her seventeenth year.

How was that even possible?

“What are you doing?” she heard someone hiss close to her ear, making her almost jump from where she stood. She turned around furiously, nearly knocking Mark off before she noticed his frantic expression as he grabbed the tray from her hands and handed her the two beers, “Put the f*****g beers and follow me to the kitchen. Lace is literally flipping out!”

Amy’s heart almost stopped for the second time.

It was their beers. F*****g no! She couldn't step a foot near that table, even if it will kill her, but Mark was already pushing her towards them, towards him, even when she firmly placed her feet against the wooden floor. Mark was still way stronger than her and in the blink of an eye, she was standing right in front of them that the angry stranger stared at her with obvious fury in his eyes.

“What?” the stranger on the left nearly growled.

Amy didn’t respond. Instead, she hurriedly placed the beers on the table before swiftly turning away from them, not even glancing at either of their faces like she was a woman on a mission. Which in a way she was, but to her utter dismay, she heard the voice of the man calling after her before she could make her big escape.

“I asked for a beer, not a motherfucking ice cube!”

Amy literally stumbled on the floor at his tone. S**t, please please let him be talking to someone else, please. Amy kept praying silently as she turned around, only to notice that the two beer bottles had bits of ice all over them and were literally so cold to the state were the liquid inside turned solid.

S**t. Without even noticing, her powers were activated by her sudden fear, sending ice through her palms that must've froze the two beers while she was busy shaking at their sight. Double s**t. Amy kept swearing under her breath before she quickly ran towards the table once more, her quick paces almost not heard due to the loud customers surrounding her.

Her voice came out as a whisper, “S-sorry, I'll replace-”

“Just go.” he dismissed her. The stranger with the dreadful eyes.

Amy stood stunned, not sure what to do next for a second as she noticed something in her body has shifted. His voice made her mind click, and she didn't even know what that meant to her back then, but all she knew was that

something was wrong about his voice. No, actually something was too right about it, which terrified her even more actually.

His companion glared at him and if it was for anyone else, they would have already ran away with fear under the intense fury filling his eyes.

But he never even flinched.

“We're here to discuss important matters, not beer. So, stick that big mouth of yours up your a*s before I do it myself.” he exhaled another puff of smoke as he watched it vanish through the air, “I'm getting sick of this place already.”

His voice was calm, so calm it paralyzed her for a second before she turned away slowly, feeling as if her knees were turned into jelly. Everything surrounding her became a blur, her heart beat slowed and sweat trickled down her forehead, turning to crystals as it reached her jaw. Why was she feeling like a ghost all of a sudden? Why did she feel like she was suffocating?

Before she knew what was happening, she found her body smash against someone and the sound of shattered glass filled the large room, making everyone else quieten down to watch the scene. She heard someone gasp and swear beside her, probably the person she bumped into, but right now she couldn’t find the strenght to even glance at them.

She bent her knees slowly, picking up the shattered glass without even looking at it before a sharp pain filled her right palm, which was truly a harsh kick back to reality for her. She gasped and cursed loudly as she saw blood rushing from a small wound on her palm, reaching to her wrist.

“F**k.” she whispered one last curse. Everyone has already turned back to their business like before after the huge scene she made, even the person she originally stumbled into. Amy sighed softly at how much of an idiot she was, the pain in her palm eating at her before suddenly, her body froze.

Slowly, she found her head turning around as the intense feeling of someone watching her sent goosebumps all over her body. Amy has never had that feeling so...strongly before, but when her head finally came to a rest, she was slightly less surprised why the feeling was so strong.

Because when her eyes stopped wondering, she found the stranger with the dreadful eyes watching her bleeding palm.