'What was that? Am I imagining things?' Ali thought.
Taking a step forward, she walked closer to the gate and peeked to the side, only to find a small boy wandering at the edge of the road with no one else around.
Her eyes widened, and she called out to the guard station at the main gate.
"Excuse me, sir?"
The guard saw her and came marching towards her at once, "Yes, miss? Is everything alright?"
"Do you see that little boy wandering alone?" She pointed in the direction where she had spotted the child just seconds ago, only to find the spot empty.
The guard followed her line of sight and frowned. He peered through the gaps of the gate and shook his head, "There's no one there, Miss."
Aliana found it odd because she really thought she had seen a boy. Attributing it to the effect of one too many drinks, she pressed her lips together and then released a sigh.
"Never mind."
She told the guard and turned around to go back in.
But then something made her pause, and she turned around again, only to see a little boy staring at her directly. His face was expressionless, and he had black hair and eyes.
He was dressed in a white shirt and black shorts, looking no more than four to five years old.
A mix of worry and confusion filled Aliana as she wondered what on earth a child was doing out here, so far away from the city, alone and at this hour of the night.
She called out to the guard again, "Sir! Look! The boy is right there!"
She pointed towards him and saw that the boy had begun walking further and further away from the gate.
The guard hurriedly opened the main gate and stepped out to get a better look.
Bewilderment was written across his face as he stared at the empty road and then back at the lady. It was then he noticed her flushed face and realised that she's probably very drunk.
Clearing his throat, he walked closer to her. His tone now bordering on the kind of patience one uses with a particularly difficult toddler. "Uh…Miss? I checked properly. I assure you, there is no boy out here."
But Aliana wasn't looking at the guard. Her gaze was fixed on the child, who continued to walk alone down the deserted road.
"What are you talking about? I can see him clearly! Seriously, who hired you? Because I would like a word," she muttered irritably as she stepped outside the gate and began following the boy.
She didn't mean to be rude, but incompetence had a special talent for getting on her nerves. Especially when it involved a child wandering around like he was looking for the nearest 24-hour candy store in the middle of a forest.
Her designer heels clicked against the road as she tried to catch up, but the boy seemed to be moving with a speed that was frankly rude, for someone with such short legs.
"Miss! Please don't go out there!" the guard shouted from behind, sounding increasingly panicked. "Cars tend to drive fast on this stretch since the road is so isolated!"
"Then tell them to slow down!" Aliana yelled back over her shoulder, nearly tripping over a stray pebble. "I'm saving a life here! And my shoes cost more than those cars, so tell them not to hit me either!"
The two guards at the gate exchanged a long, weary look.
"Okay, what's the protocol here?" the younger one whispered, his voice cracking slightly. "The Vanderbilt heiress is currently sprinting into the abyss. Do we tackle her? Is that allowed?"
"We stay at our posts," the older guard replied, not moving a single muscle. "Our job is to protect the building, not to chase a billionaire who is clearly seeing ghosts because she's eighty per cent Macallan at this point."
"B-but… what if she walks off the cliff? Or gets eaten by a mountain lion? We'll be in so much trouble! My career hasn't even started, Dave!"
"Fine," Dave sighed, looking deeply offended that his peaceful night was being interrupted by a rescue mission. "You go play hero. I'll stay here and guard the literal gate. One of us needs to be here to tell the police which way the 'She-Devil' went."
"Right. I'll be back soon!" The younger guard nodded and began a frantic, slightly uncoordinated power-walk toward the blind corner where Aliana had vanished.
Right then, a black Maserati prowled forward from within the premises, heading for the exit.
The lone guard, Dave, cursed his luck as he now had to manage the massive gates entirely by himself since his partner had gone off on a drunken heiress hunt. Still, he kept his expression perfectly neutral as he moved to fulfil his duties.
Meanwhile, Aliana, who had jogged a short distance from the property in her heels, began calling out to the boy, "Hey! Hey kid! Are you lost? Where are you going?"
The child didn't respond and continued further into the darkness.
Aliana's brows creased as the boy's silence was unnerving, and she pushed herself to move faster. "Hey, kid! Stop right there!"
A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead, and her breathing became uneven. Running while her system was loaded with alcohol was a disaster in the making, but she refused to leave a small child alone in the middle of nowhere.
"I said stop!" She called again, planning to speed up, when the boy abruptly halted right in the middle of the road, right where the blind turn ended.
"Ah! Finally!" She hurried over to him, finding him standing still in the middle of the road facing the other way.
Reaching him, she placed her hand on his shoulder, "What are you doing standing in the middle of the road? Let's go before a car comes!"
Just as she turned the child around, she saw his pitch-black eyes and pale lips twisted into a grin, revealing sharp, pointed teeth.
"Oh god!" Aliana gasped, stumbling back in horror.
The next instant, the screech of tyres tore through the silence, followed by a violent impact that slammed into her body. The force hurled her through the air before she crashed onto the road with a sickening thud.
Warm liquid spilled from her head, spreading slowly across her face, seeping over her eyes and down her cheeks as she lay utterly still.
Her beautiful grey eyes fluttered weakly beneath heavy lids, barely able to remain open against the blinding light ahead. All she could make out was the harsh glare of headlights pouring into her vision.
Pain shot through her body before turning into a strange, creeping numbness, as though her senses were slipping away one by one.
The world around her began to fade.
The noise dulled into a distant hum, her vision blurred, and her eyes struggled to stay open.
Just as darkness threatened to swallow her whole, she caught a fleeting glimpse of icy blue pools and the shadowed outline of a face, obscured by the light blazing from behind.
"W-ho.." she breathed, her voice barely above a whisper as she felt a warm hand over her cheek and then everything went dark.