Author's note: This is my first fanfic ever so please let me know what you think, sorry the first chapter is kind of boring. I tried to dedicate it to character development. You will find out more about Sarah being chased in the much more exciting second chapter which I promise to have uploaded in a couple days, but for now please please please just let me know what you think of what I have so far. I'm open to any constructive criticism.

I was more than accustomed to living on the run. I first started seeing them when I was eighteen. Now, two years later, they still hunted me, even though I had run so far that I currently lived in a city just south of Atlanta, Georgia. My only constant companion was a large German shepherd named Duke that lived primarily in the passenger seat of my car. I wasn't sure why they hunted me, but I had a general idea. It had something to do with the events that had transpired five years earlier, when I wished away my baby brother, Toby. To earn the money I needed to pay for myself and Duke, I worked as a waitress during the day and accompanied men on dates at night. I was too moral, and frankly too proud, to sleep with the men I accompanied, but I made a decent sum going with lonely men who were too ashamed to go to parties and corporate events single.

Tonight I would be attending a gala with a frequent customer, but that was a good eight hours away, after my shift ended. Currently it was noon and a customer had just seated himself in one of the cracked, red pleather booths. I grabbed a menu, the little note, pad and a pen then made my way over there.

The man had fiery orange hair that faded to more of a blonde where it was closer to his scalp. His features were odly angular and delicate - almost like an elf or a fairy. His eyes were a glacial blue, but one pupil was considerably more dialated than the other one. I couldn't help but stare. That face was so odly familiar, but I couldn't place where I could have possibly seen it before. He was obviously educated and well payed. He had that haughty sort of demeanor. He wore a simple white button down shirt with black slacks. On his rather attractive face rested a large pair of spectacles that looked straight out of the seventies. On his slim wrist resided an expensive looking watch - a Rolex if I wasn't mistaken. His skin was pale and he was unnaturally slender. Maybe the stress of educated high paying jobs wasn't worth the money. I would never know. He cleared his throat, alerting me of my staring.

"Can I help you?" I blurted out, sounding unintentionally rude. "Er- can I get you a drink?"

The man laughed and the beginnings of a sly smirk grew on his face. "Just water, thanks," he responded. He had a distinct British accent. I handed him the menu and hurried back to the kitchen.

Because of the short staff, I had been able to sneak Duke in. The manager rarely showed up, except to collect money, so the only people who were working were me, Mary, another waitress and my only friend, and Ty, the lone fry cook.

Mary was a curvaceous blonde with eyes the hue of molten milk chocolate. She looked marvelous in everything - even the unflattering white polo shirt and jeans we waitresses wore as a uniform. She was 22 and just graduated from college so she was working as a waitress until a kindergarten teaching position opened up. She would be the perfect teacher with her paitience, kindness, and cademeanor. In other words, the complete opposite of me. I was thin as a stick with just as many curves. I was so flat chested that she didn't even need to wear a bra most days, thanks to the years of ballet. Although I had enough charm to manipulate the men who paid me to be their date, my personality usually ranged from a little cold to outright hostile. I generally liked people, but being chased for two years kept me from trusting them. Even before that though I had had a hard time letting people close to me because my mother had passed away when I was so young. For some reason, though, I had managed to befriend Mary. We were close enough, even after knowing each other for only a month, that Mary had invited Me to move into her small apartment. I had accepted. At the time I had been living at a Motel 6.

Ty was Mary's boyfriend, and I loathed him. He was gargantuan, standing a staggering 6'10", and had the muscles of Arnold Schwartzenager during his body building days. He had a tattoo or an ouroboros circling one massive bicep, and an ankh tattooed on the other. His black hair was shaved close to his head, and his black eyes were unfeeling pits. Looking at them was like staring into a well so deep that the light couldn't reach it. The way he treated Mary was appalling. He grabbed her and ordered her around as if she were some possession of his. As if she were his slave. He tried to crush her spirit and draw out the kindness and sensitivity that made Mary so absolutely wonderful. Because she had been abused as a child and shuffled from one foster home to another until she was emancipated, she had a hard time standing up to people who told her they loved her, whether it was the truth or not.

Mary handed me the glass of water for the customer and I headed back out. He had set the menu aside and was now gazing intently at the screen of his phone as if trying to figure out how it worked. I set down the glass and brought out the pad of paper and pen I had tucked away in the black apron tied around my waist.

"Can I take your order?" I asked in the bubbly, happy waitress voice I learned from Mary, trying to make up for the awkwardness of my staring earlier.

He turned and stared into my eyes with the same intensity with which he had been staring at his phone. He looked into my green eyes as if he were searching for something and trying to figure me out. The look passed quickly and he responded, "I think I'll have... a hamburger?"

"Good choice," I commented, picking up the discarded menu. "If you don't mind my saying, you look like you could do with a good fatty hamburger. You don't look like you eat too terribly much."

"No," he muttered, staring into my eyes again. "I don't particularly care for things so trivial as eating."

Odd, I thought, but I just gave him a quick smile and headed back to the kitchen. I could feel his eyes on me until the kitchen door swung shut behind me. I gave Ty the slip of paper with the customer's order on it and sat down on the floor next to Mary who was petting Duke.

"Do you want to go out for drinks tonight? It's Saturday and we haven't been out for a night on the town in ages," Mary asked hopefully.

"I can't," I sighed and layed my head against the wall.

"Oh," Mary said, trying to hide her disappointment. "Do you have a - erm - 'date?'"

I nodded dismally.

"That's cool!" Mary said in a falsely cheerful voice. "Yeah, Ty and I can have a night in." Something close to panic swam in her eyes as she said that. I grabbed her arm and dragged her out the back door to the parking lot, where Ty couldn't hear us.

"Tell me straight," I commanded. "Does Ty beat you?"

Her eyes were answer enough. She refused to look me in the eye, instead starting at her blue keds. I could see the purple bruises on her stomach and back through her white polo shirt.

"Dammit!" I shouted, unable to control my temper. "You can't let him treat you like that Mar! He doesn't deserve you! You're an amazing person. You can do so much better than him." My voice became gentle for the last two sentences.

"He loves me," she countered in a meek voice. "Maybe I can change him. There has to be a good person in him somewhere."

I hugged her and whispered, "People like him don't change." I didn't have the heart to tell her that he didn't love her. I let her out of the embrace and stared into those soft brown eyes with tears about to spill over. I hated when she cried. I wiped away the one tear of hers that fell. "I'm sorry," I whispered and walked back inside.

I stared daggers at Ty as I ripped the hamburger from his grip. How dare he hurt someone as wonderful as Mary? The customer was staring at me as soon as I walked into the main dining area from the kitchen. Dear God just let this day be over, I thought as I walked over to the table. Creepy staring customer, a somewhat one sided fight with Mary, what else could this hell of a day have in store for me?

I sat the food down on the table. I would have topped off his glass of water, but it was untouched. He was still staring at me. Why did he keep staring at me? "Can I get you anything else?" I asked.

"That'll be all. Thank you, Sarah," he muttered, looking at the hamburger briefly before flicking his eyes back to me. As I walked back to the kitchen, I felt his eyes boring holes into my back. Mary met me at the door.

"Do you know him?" Mary asked.

"Who?" I returned.

"Mr. Creeper over there, staring at you. Who else?"

"I have no idea. I feel like I've met him before but he's clearly someone important so I don't know how I would."

"Well he clearly knows you."

"What makes you say that?"

"Um the fact he just said your name perhaps, even though you lost your name tag a week ago. 'Thank you, Sarah.' Remember that from two seconds ago?"

I hadn't even thought about it. How did he know my name? I walked out to ask him just that, but he was gone. A wad of cash was next to the untouched plate of food. I walked out to the table with Duke just behind me. He sniffed the seat where the man had been and growled his most menacing growl. Who was that man?