Her worst nightmare was coming true. Without a second thought, she ran out down the apartment corridor.

She ran out into the black streets of Los Angeles, screaming his name.

Her voice was smothered by honking cars and drunk people calling out for their Ubers. The neon lights of bars and restaurants that lined Santa Monica Boulevard felt like they were pricking her eyes.

In a crowd of hundreds, her baby was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Byul Lee was a book influencer. That meant she was a reader. A studier. An analyzer. A very analytical one, at that. That applied to her everyday life as well. She knew how to act and when to act, what to say and what not to say. If she acted a specific way and said specific things, she could accurately predict how her situation would play out.

But at this moment, her brain was as good as jelly. It was as if she forgot even her alphabet. The world appeared like scattered picture after picture, not a smooth scene of video.

“Veggie! Veggie!”

She couldn’t stop screaming. Where could Veggie have gone? Her loveliest Golden Retriever puppy, too soft and too pure for this world. Where would he have gone? The ball could’ve rolled all the way to the elevator, and Veggie had somehow gotten on and off it. Byul imagined her baby, no doubt scared and looking for her. Thinking he could find her outside those glass doors.

No doubt even more scared now in the streets, all by himself.

“Byul, are you okay? I’m so sorry, I didn’t think he would run out like that- oh my god-”

Kat caught up to her, huffing and puffing.

Byul pushed back her tears.

“I have to find him.”

Byul said, burying her face in her palms and drawing in a deep breath.

“You will! I’ll help you!”

Kat exclaimed.

‘I have to be strong,’ Byul thought. ‘Veggie’s waiting for me.’

She breathed out, long and hard, and looked around. She had to stay calm.

“He would’ve taken a road that was familiar to him.”

Byul muttered out loud. She had taken Veggie on walks in the area countless times, making sure that he was sniffing the roads for as long as he wanted. She found her way back to the path they usually take. Kat followed her timidly, realizing her fault.

“Hey, isn’t that his ball?”

Kat said, pointing across the intersection. Sure enough, the bright, glow-in-the-dark squeaky ball had come to a halt at a curb by the pedestrian crossing.

Byul ran up to it. That’s when she noticed the TexMex-style brunch restaurant her and Veggie would frequent in the near distance.

‘Veggie loves the owners there. They always give him extra eggs.’ She remembered.

But the shop was a full intersection away, four lanes of blazing cars on each direction. Those cars would stop at nothing. If Veggie had been hit, surely someone must have noticed. She shuddered at the thought.

That’s when her eyes adjusted fully to night vision.

And she saw Veggie, her sweetest, fluffiest, baby-est little angel, circling the brunch restaurant front door, now closed for the day.

She was too far to hear what sounds he was making, but she knew. It was as if he was whimpering right next to her. She knew by how he helplessly bumped his small body against the door; how he furrowed his little dog-brows; how far back his tail was between his hind legs.

He was scared and was looking for something familiar, for comfort. For her.

This time, she couldn’t hold back the tears. And they were tears of joy, of relief.

“Veg-“

Byul nearly yelled out his name, but covered her own mouth just in the nick of time. She couldn’t say his name. If he heard or saw her, he would run towards her at full speed, not caring about any of the cars in the intersection. He would care only about getting to her as soon as possible. He only had eyes for her. That was how it worked.

She’d have to cross the intersection without him noticing, and hug him into her safe embrace when they were both a good distance away from cars. He absolutely could not know Byul was there.

“Oh there he is. VEGGIE!!”

Byul couldn’t believe her ears. Kat had caught up to her once again and had screamed Veggie’s name at the top of her lungs.

Veggie heard his name, made eye contact with Byul, and came running towards her at full speed as cars whizzed by at 60 miles per hour between them.

“No!!!”

Byul finally let out a scream. A piercing one.

* * *

Troy Ziwipeak had a bad habit.

While some may call this habit a completely normal thing, Troy took it to an extreme. It was the advantage of people who had everything but lived like they had nothing.

This specific winter night too, he was on his way back from a date. No, from fooling around. Actually, let’s call it a blackmailing session. Duress, intimidation, menace. Because that’s what it had turned into.

“Are you mad?”

The girl sobbed. She was pretty. A normie, but pretty. If she were to be walking around in daylight, no doubt most people would double take on her. Too bad she was stuck in her own bedroom, hair disheveled and eyes bloodshot, craving his attention and only his.

“Hmm?”

Troy asked back.

“Are- are you-“

“Don’t ask dumb questions.”

He immediately followed. His black irises reflected absolutely nothing. He smiled.

The girl drew in a sharp gasp. She choked, trying to control her bated breath. Her body was shaking uncontrollably. She dared to look up at him through her tears, looking for him to say forgiving words or share a kind hug.

He was still staring at her still with those midnight black eyes, not having moved an inch. Her head dropped again.

He reached out and put his fingers to her chin. She looked up in a face of desperate smile and purred, having waited for this moment.

He clicked his tongue at her.

He didn’t have her physically locked up. There was no chains linking her wrist to the bed frame, no lock on her pretty bedroom door, no threats to hurt her loved ones or post private pictures and videos of her online. Even so, she was bound to him. She was unwell without him. And that, all of a sudden, disgusted him.

Troy left the girl’s place without further ado. She would never see him again. He kicked down the signage of a convenience store by her apartment.

“F*cking waste of a night.”

Swaying down the dark street, unapproachable, brooding, and moody, he was reminiscent of a wolf unsatisfied with its meal.

What Troy wanted, Troy had to get. And once he had it, he had absolutely no interest in it. In fact, its every cell of existence annoyed him and irked him and bothered him.

“It” was always a person.

He never found fault within himself. He blamed others, mostly girls, for not being able to hold his attention. He understood nothing of care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge and didn’t bother to understand, but claimed love was his answer to the problem of human existence. As long as it was love as he defined it.

And his love was obsession.

* * *

Veggie started running towards her across the intersection. The scene appeared to Byul like slo-mo. The glimmer came back to Veggie’s wet eyes, just as terror seized Byul’s. He turned away from the brunch restaurant front door. His front paws came down onto the concrete and into the car lane. A Mercedes whirred by, mere inches in front of Veggie’s soft, jellied paws.

Byul ran into the intersection.

“Stop! Slow!”

She screamed towards oncoming traffic, arms flinging in the air. A gray SUV swerved to avoid her and let out a loud honk. The driver rolled their window down and yelled curse words, but Byul couldn’t hear anything.

“Stop! There’s a dog!”

People waiting at the nearby bus stop looked at her like she was crazy. Byul’s eyes were fixed on Veggie, running towards her in a straight line, a myriad of cars miraculously dodging him.

One car started honking at Byul. Maybe it was at Veggie. She couldn’t tell. Then, another car. Another car and another car and - soon, the whole intersection was a cacophony of various brands of car horns. To her dismay, the honking didn’t slow down the cars. That was how people drove in this city. She’d never resented the driving skills of Angelenos more than at this moment.

Veggie was only two lanes away from her now.

A silver Camry was coming straight at Veggie.

It was going to hit him.

She sprinted towards him with all her might, no longer bothering to traffic-police the cars.

The Camry came close.

Five feet, three feet, two, one, half a foot-

Byul took a leap in the middle of her dash. She hurled herself towards Veggie, arms spread open.

She felt the cold, dull impact of concrete.

To be continued...