The day started with the dawn sun shimmering through the blinds of Ben's window, not wanting to leave the silken smooth bedding he recently got at a bargain. He sighed wearily and got up to go to the bathroom. His small apartment in Manchester was annoying as usual, but since he got to keep it at the same price as when he was in university, he put up with it.

He quickly took a shower and briefly glanced at the mirror on his way out and saw his brown hair was getting a bit longer than usual and that he would need to cut it before he visited his grandmother, and she started nagging him to cut it.

His grandmother had raised him for as long as he could remember, and she told him his parents had gone missing when he was younger. His father was an archeologist, and his mother was a nurse. According to the police, they both disappeared at a dig site in Egypt, and they were nowhere to be found.

He shook his head as memories briefly flooded his mind of his grandmother explaining all this to him. Finally, it was time to go to work at the Coffee shop near the city center called Raynolds Fantastic Brew. He put on some clothes and put a jacket in his bag because even if it was sunny now, the weather in England was very unreliable.

Ben took his scooter into town and got ready to start his shift. He had prepped for the day to be lengthy and got his ready supply of 2 water bottles, 3 sandwiches, a crisp, a coke bottle, a bar of chocolate. He disembarked at the coffee shop and saw the newly built shop look slightly out of place in the olden-style brick buildings and inhaled deeply of the smell of coffee wafting towards him from the building.

"You finally made it mate, I thought I was going to die," Gary, his co-worker, said once he showed up.

"You haven't even been here that long. You've basically served a total of 1 person. So come off it," Ben replied, walking into the changing rooms and changing into his uniform.

"It's too early for me to be making coffee,"

"What on earth are you on about, you work in a coffee shop? What did you expect to be serving this early in the morning?"

Ben got started with making himself a coffee to wake himself up. The shop owner was lenient with them and allowed them to have 2 cups of coffee on the house a day, but he also knew both Ben and Gary were hard workers.

"At least you didn't have to open the shop this morning," Gary grumbled.

"Cause I opened it yesterday, and you didn't see me complaining. Come on, let's go to work."

Ben and Gary continued working together for the rest of the morning, serving their regulars and a few people who came in who weren't. The time went by quickly, and it was time for their break. The owner came to cover them as usual, and they took their break.

"Did you hear about Lawerence? She's getting married to some dude she recently met. They haven't even known each other for more than a month," Gary said as they went to sit down in the staff room.

"What? Why? she didn't seem the type just to run off and get married. I thought she hated guys? do you know the guy she went of with?"Ben got his sandwich and coke out of his bag.

"Yeah, a blond idiot that somehow couldn't look anymore shady, somehow he got his hooks on her. she was supposed to go Uni, but now? she isn't. Something ain't right, she swore up and down she wasn't going to be like her mother and not go to uni. She looks tired all the time with bags under her eyes. I will speak to the owner about talking to her and seeing if something is up and if the police need to get involved," Gary said, looking worried about our other work colleague and his close friend.

Ben had never got along with Lawerence because she always came across as entitled to everything, and she could never make any mistake. It was always someone else's mistake and not her responsibility. however, he had worked with her for a while now, and even if he didn't personally get along with her, his friend Gary did, and he would help if he can, and whatever came off it, he would be there.

It was time to go back to work, and they did. The afternoon quickly came about as the sun dimmed and the wind picked up, and soon enough, it was time to leave and see his grandmother. Ben walked into the changing rooms and saw Gary getting changed.

"You'll let me know if you find out anything init? Just give me a heads up before you do anything reckless," Ben knew Gary well, and he could be a bit reckless sometimes.

"Okay, I will call you," grumbled Gary knowing they had already had similar arguments before and he had lost.

Ben walked out of the shop to the windy day and got on his scooter. His grandmother lived in Rusholme, and it was only a quick drive from where he worked.

***

The amber light of the sun glinting off the windows of his grandmother's place. The place was one of the few old-style Victorian buildings to survive, and she bought it decades ago. She had renovated it to be safer for kids when he was younger. If he had to live in a house, he'd never live anywhere without his grandmother, who was always there when he needed her, to help him figure out how to put on pants and shirts and be sure to tell him to take his coat off. She had raised him pretty much by herself, and he didn’t have any memories of her having anyone else in her life.

She was a tall woman, physically fit, she might be about 60, but Ben knew she could still kick butt. She had taught him how to fight when he was younger and kept it up until recently when he moved out for university, and even then, he still practiced the kata's she gave him. The fighting style she taught him she said was called The Way Of The Aspect. But, strangely enough, he couldn't find where she learned it from or any other information about it on the internet. So he took out his old key from before he moved out and opened the door.

“Gran, I’m home!” he shouted into the hallway.

"In the living room."

He walked down the small corridor and found his grandmother in the kitchen instead of the living room making some food. He could smell the lovely Fettuccine al Pomodoro that his grandmother made when he came to visit. It was mouth-watering as usual the typical, not-too-thin egg pasta is seasoned with a rich, slowly-cooked tomato sauce flavored with a generous amount of freshly grated Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese.

"Yes! Grandma, thank you," he walked over to her and hugged her.

“Okay, now go and sit down, I will come over once I finish this up. It's almost done anyway.” She said, flickering about in the kitchen.

He walked over to the table next to the island in the kitchen and laid out the table cutlery for them to eat with, and by the time he finished, his grandmother had plated the food and set it down on the table.

“How has your job been, honey?” his grandmother asked.

“Everything is fine. I am looking for a job appropriate to my degree in finance, but at the moment, nothing is really available, so I will stick with this current job because it pays well so far.”

“We'll keep looking, dear. You’ll find something. You were always a worrywart, even when you were a lot younger. I remember when you were younger, and I was teaching you how to fight, you kept worrying about how good you were, and there would even be a point to you learning. I remember getting a call from your primary school about you getting into a fight, and the school admin didn’t punish you because it was self-defense. The school admin was telling me then how you defended a pair of siblings in your 3rd year, from 2, year 5 kids,” His grandmother reminisced.

“Yeah, I remember growing more confident about what you were teaching me, even though I still don’t understand what my breathing and some of the kata movements are for. Grandmother, what are they for? And where is the style you have been teaching me from? I’ve meant to ask where you learned it from,”

“I can’t tell you right now, but soon I will be able to tell you everything, sweetie, so hang on for a bit longer. I will be able to explain everything soon."

That was pretty much the end of that topic. Ben's grandmother didn't want to explain anything else. Finally, she told him that she would explain tomorrow. They ate, talked, and laughed, and Ben missed this feeling of belonging and having someone who cared about how he was doing. He had only felt so whenever he came to visit his grandmother.

Ben spent the rest of the day with his grandmother, and soon enough, it was time to leave. He had work in the morning. He stood up and moved to hug his grandmother and head to the door.

"Bye, gran, I will come over and visit tomorrow so you can tell me what you promised," he said cheekily.

"Go on, you rascal, and make sure you don't forget, okay? It's important you come tomorrow, sweetie," his grandmother said seriously.

"Okay, will do."

He walked into the crisp night air and looked around. The neighborhood was pretty quiet at this time of night. He put his helmet on and got on his scooter, and drove off. The police sirens were ringing in the neighborhood, and quite a few police cars were driving around. That was pretty strange. Why were there so many police officers? There was even police armed unit driving around. He had never seen that before, so this must really be a serious night. So, he decided that he would drive around the area since he didn't really feel like going home.

He was a little nervous for some reason. He couldn't explain it. He decided to just keep driving around, looking for a good lookout point. He drove around, looking for a place to get a good view of the whole area. Manchester was a pretty flat area so he had to find one of the buildings with a roof viewpoint he could find. He decided to go on top of an NCP car park building roof to see if it had a better view of what all this noise was about. He turned the corner and drove up the length of the car park to the top.

What he saw sent a chill down his spine. The area seemed to be on lockdown. There were armed police officers patrolling the streets. This was only 10 minutes away from where his grandmother lived so something must be going on. He checked Twitter and Manchester Evening News for any updates on the area but couldn't find any. It was then that he decided to go down to his grandmother's house and stay with her for the night, he didn't want to leave her alone with all this going on.

As he approached her house, he was quite relieved to see that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, although it was pretty late. He noticed that the door was open slightly so he thought that maybe his grandmother was waiting for him. He looked around the area and noticed that there were not many people on the streets. It was a very strange night. He went into the house, to find that everything seemed fine. What he did not notice at the time, was that a little bit of the door was cracked. He made his way towards her room where he expected to see her.

He walked in to find that the bed was not made and the room was in disarray. A few things were missing, but nothing unusual. He walked up to the bed, to find blood on the floor, in a trail leading to the bathroom. He thought this strange, but his mind was going too fast. His mind told him to follow the blood. He moved as fast as he could through the living room, kitchen, and second hallway, and stopped when he found the closed bathroom door.

AN:

I don't often like writing author notes but here I am, I have written the first 3 chapters already and plotted the first arc of the story. I plan to make this into a web series that comes out every Monday. if you want to read the next chapter it is already up on my Patreon or alternatively wait until next Monday when I would otherwise post it.

if you want to visit my Patreon and help towards my being able to produce more content and become a full-time author you can on: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=54336592