When Melissa missed her alarm, she knew it was going to be a bad day. It was nine o'clock when Melissa rushed out the door, hastily dressed with her breakfast in one hand.
'You just missed the talent agent.' One secretary said as Melissa burst into the office. Melissa cursed and ran back out onto the street. As she dashed down the street, Melissa suddenly felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up, but when she turned around, there was no one there. Then she spotted the talent agent's car stuck at a traffic light and sprinted towards it, desperately waving her arms over her head.
'Wait, Mr Ingenium!' She panted as she run up beside the car.
'Who are you?' He asked, leaning out the window.
'I'm Melissa Sera, the one who has an appointment with you.' Melissa said nervously.
'No, you're Melissa Sera, the one who had an appointment with me.' Then the light went green and the car drove off.
'I'll be in contact!' Melissa shouted after the car before slumping down on the sidewalk. One way or another, Melissa always managed to blow her interviews with talent agents. How could she be the next big thing if no one could recognize her talent?
Melissa decided she needed a star bucks. Just as she had predicted, it had been a bad day. As Melissa was waiting for her coffee (the machine had broken down) she noticed the man behind her was looking at her strangely. His hair was completely white, though he couldn't have been much more than thirty. He had sunglasses covering his eyes but Melissa felt uncomfortably aware of his eyes following her everywhere she ,went. After ten minutes, Melissa gave up and went home. But she couldn't help seeing the same man, every time she turned around, always twenty or thirty meters behind her.
But even so, Melissa only started to really freak out when the man followed her into the apartment block. She tried to rationalize with herself, but every time she saw the man, she shivered. Finally, she reached the safety of her apartment, slammed the door shut, and locked it. Only then did Melissa allow her heart to slow.
Then came the knock. It was soft at first, but became louder and more persistent when she didn't open the door.
'I know you're in there Esme!' The man shouted.
'I don't know who your talking about!' Melissa shouted back.
'Open the door Esme, and stop all this foolishness! Just pay back the boss!'
'Who's the boss?'
'Don't play dumb with me! Just give me the money and no one gets hurt!'
'I still don't know what you're talking about!'
'You asked for this Esme!' The man shouted, before he started to break down the door. Then he was inside, an empty bag in one hand, a gun in the other.
'Give me the money Esme.'
'I don-' His gunshot cut her off.
The next day, Melissa finally made the front page.