Around an hour before the birthday party, Lorelai got dressed, put on a jacket, got out of the building and headed towards the address Ella texted her. The address wasn’t far so she decided to walk. It was a nice spring evening and a lot of people were still out walking, enjoying the warm weather after the cold winter. As she was walking a man dressed all in black ran beside her pushing her out of his way. She stumbled, looked at him, thought about shouting after him but then saw a police officer running after him. They both ran into an alley and a few moments after, she heard a gunshot.

There were sounds of police sirens getting closer and Lorelai saw more police officers running towards her and the ally. Afraid, she quickly crossed the street and started walking away from the whole commotion. She felt someone grab her hand and pull her into a side street, behind a corner of a building. It was a man dressed all in black. He looked like the man who ran into the ally. He grabbed her neck with his hands and tightened his grip, choking her. Looking into her eyes, he said. “When I loosen my grip enough for you to talk, you are going to tell me to go forward really slowly so I can hear each letter. If I hear any letter besides f I will tighten my grip and choke you to death. Nod if you understand me.”

Lorelai slowly nodded. Her neck hurt so much that she couldn’t speak. She was shaking and tears started to form in the corners of her eyes and drop down on both sides of her face.

“Good. I’m going to loosen my grip a little now and you start talking. Remember, if you say anything other than forward, I will kill you.” The man said and started to loosen his grip.

Lorelai coughed a few times and, as quickly as possible, she said. “Go back.”

The man’s grip started to tighten around Lorelai’s neck as he was shouting and cursing at her. ”You bitch! I don’t care how long it takes but I will find you and kill you! I will kill you and everything you love for doing this to me you whore!”. After a few seconds. his voice and hands around her neck started to fade. Lorelai thought that she was losing consciousness, that she was going to die, but the man holding her just disappeared. Lorelai fell to the floor coughing and crying.

Lorelai felt a hand on her shoulder and she jerked way fearing that the man was back.

“Sorry, miss. We heard a commotion coming from here. Are you all alright? What happened? What’s your name?” Lorelai heard a man’s voice say. She lifted her head and saw a police officer crouching next to her.

Crying and coughing Lorelai looked around, trying to see if the man in black was still somewhere close by, and said. “My name is Lorelai. Mn dressed in black, he looked like the man who ran into the ally over there. He shouted at me and told me that he’ll kill me. I don’t know what happened but my mind was going blank and then he was gone.”

“Would you come with us? There is an ambulance there. We just want them to check your injuries.” The police officer crouching beside her said.

“Yes.” Lorelai said.

The police officers helped her get to the ambulance and while the paramedics checked her injuries the police officer that spoke with her talked to a man dressed in normal civilian clothes.

“There is no severe damage. Your throat is a bit hurt and there are bruises on your neck. I know that being attacked can make you feel scared and anxious so I gave you something to calm you down, it will help. You will be as good as new in a week or two so don’t worry. Ok?” The paramedic said.

“Yeah… Thank you.” Lorelai said and the paramedic went to speak with the same man in civilian clothes. After they were done talking the man in civilian clothes came towards her.

“Hi, Lorelai. I’m detective Harker. I know you just went through a lot and told the police officers what had happened. Do you mind telling me what happened?” The man asked.

“I told the police officers everything. Didn’t they tell you?” Lorelai asked.

“They did. But they don’t listen very well. They just listen, they don’t pay attention to the details and the details are what’s important. Don’t you agree?” Detective Harker asked.

“Yeah, details are important.” Lorelai said, remembering how important the details of her tattoo were important to her, and continued. “I was walking down the main street when a man dressed in black clothes with a black hat showed me to the side, out of his way. I stumbled and saw a police officer ran after him into that alley.” She pointed to the alley. “When I saw the police officer, I knew that something serious was going on so I started walking away from the alley and heard a gunshot.”

“How much time passed between them entering the alley and the gunshot?” Detective Harker asked.

“Around a few seconds. I know because I didn’t walk that far away from the alley. After the gunshot, I heard police sirens and saw more police officers ran towards me and the alley. I thought that the man in black killed the first police officer and that he will come out and hurt me so I crossed the road and quickly walked away from all the commotion.” Lorelai said

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“So, you didn’t see what happened in the alley?” Detective Harker asked.

“No, I just heard a gunshot. But on the other side of the street, a man grabbed my arm and pulled me in the side street, where the police officers found me, and grabbed my neck. He was dressed all in black like the man who ran into the alley. I could have sworn that he was wearing the same clothes as the man who ran into the alley. He started choking me with both hands and telling me that he was going to kill me.” Lorelai looked at the detective and thought about telling him what the man wanted from her but she doubted that he would believe her so she said. “I don’t know what happened next but my mind was going blank and then he was gone.”

“The police officers probably scared him away.” Detective Harker said.

Detective Harker sat next to her for a few moments and said. “The gunshot you heard was the police officer shooting at the man in black, well, actually killing him. However, there are two things that are bothering me. You said that a man looking just like the man who ran into the alley attacked you and tried to choke you to death with both hands.”

“Yes.” Lorelai said

“Come with me for a second.” Detective Harker said and they walked together into the alley.

Detective Harker asked. “Did the man that choked you wear the same clothes as this man?”

Lorelai froze in place. Not only did the man wear the same clothes, but it was also the man who choked her. She started to shake, standing there speechless. “I… I … I don’t know.” She finally managed to say.

“If he did then my case isn’t closed with this man’s death.” Detective Harker said.

“Why?” Lorelai asked.

“Because the bruises on your neck are identical to the bruises on the necks of the victims his man killed. And now he may have an accomplice.” Detective Harker said.

‘Oh no. How can I tell him that he was right? That there is no accomplice, that the dead man was the one choking me.’ Lorelai thought biting her lower lip, her thoughts racing through her mind trying to find an answer.

“Ok. I’ll have some police officers drive you home to make sure that you’re safe. And this is my card. You can call me any time if you remember anything else.” Detective Harker said and gave her his business card. He called one of the police officers over, told them to take Lorelai home and make sure she’s safe.

At home, her mother saw the bruises on her neck, started crying and asked her what happened. After Lorelai explained she remembered the birthday party and that she didn’t call Ella. She called her and told her that she won’t be coming. After she explained why Ella insisted on coming over tomorrow and after some time Lorelai relented. After the conversation, she went to her room and undressed. She felt so exhausted that she just put on a random T-shirt, fell on the bed and instantly fell asleep.

The next day Ella came over and when she saw the bruises on Lorelai’s neck, she hugged her and said. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry I let you walk alone to the party.” Ella started crying but continued. “I promise I’ll never let you go so late alone anywhere again.”

“Hey, It’s ok. The police saved me so everything’s fine. It’s not your fault. If you were there you could have gotten injured yourself, so don’t worry, I’m fine. Ok?” Lorelai said.

“No, you are never going alone anywhere again.” Ella said.

“Fine, if you insist.” Lorelai said.

They spent the rest of the day in Lorelai’s room talking and having fun. Lorelai hid her drawings of the crossroad, she didn’t want to involve Ella in the things that were happening to her. Not because she thought that Ella wouldn’t believe her, but because she didn’t want her best friend to get hurt as she did.

After Ella left Lorelai thought about last night's events again. Until now she wasn't sure that the people asking her where to go were dead people or souls but after tonight, she was now sure. The man from yesterday was dead when he attacked her and disappeared while still choking her. Now the pieces of information she had made sense. The crossroad had four paths, each representing different places with different things the souls would go through. She had to send each soul down one of the paths.

The difficult part was deciding what path to send the souls to. The most obvious path was sending them back like Lorelai did yesterday. To her, the back path was for the evil souls. The second obvious path was forward, to her it represented the opposite of the back path, it represented something good. The right and left paths were still a mystery to her. The right path had something to do with tests but she had no idea what the left path was. Still, the most confusing thing was why was this happening to her in the first place.

As time passed, the bruises on Lorelai’s neck healed and each day more souls came to ask her where to go next. She decided to ask the souls questions about their life and make a decision based on their answers, the way they talked and acted towards her and soon began to see patterns. A lot of souls lied about their lives and she sent a lot of them on the right path. Some she sent forwards, but she sent left only the ones that asked her to go left. Fortunately, she didn’t encounter a soul she had to send back.

Alina called her back about the tattoo and told her that none of her friends tattooed anyone with the design they made but that they were very interested in the design and would like to use it. Lorelai still wasn’t sure if the tattoo was the cause of the things that were happening to her so she asked Alina to not use the design. After some arguing, they made a compromise. Lorelai told her to change the design a little and remove the white letters and Alina agreed.

One day, after school, Lorelai was walking home, she had to pick up some things from a store near her school for her mother. While walking she felt someone pull her skirt. She turned around, looked down and saw a little girl holding a doll pulling her skirt.

The girl looked up at her wide-eyed and asked. “Where do I go next?”

This was the first time Lorelai had to tell a child where to go. She didn’t know if she should ask her the questions that she usually asked the other souls, it somehow seemed inappropriate asking a child how she died. She just took the girl’s hand into hers and told her. “Go forward.”

The girl hugged her doll and started walking forward. After a few steps, she disappeared. Lorelai stood there for a few moments looking at the place where the girl disappeared. She didn’t know how to feel about sending a child’s soul down a crossroads path. After a while, she went to pick up the things for her mother and headed home.