As the waiter brought there food to the table, Joe thought this date was going well. He was trying to put all of the drama and confusion around the piano out of his mind for one night and just relax. This first date was nice, she was smiling and seemed to enjoy his humour, flicking her hair and showing interest. Joe thought she was quite something, and the more she talked, the more interesting she became (or was that the wine talking)
source pixabay
As dinner progressed, the conversation took a weird turn. Joe's date started asking him about his family, and seemed to focus in on his grandmother. She kept asking him about how well her knew her, did they get along, and what he knew of her lifestyle. Joe found these questions really odd, so he put his guard up and tried to change the subject. After a few more questions, it became obvious that this woman was more interested in finding out all she could about his grandma, than she actually was in Joe.
Joe hurried through the rest of the meal, quickly asked for the check, wrapped things up with some boring pleasantries, and promised to call. A promise he had no intention of keeping, but was just made out of politeness. Heading home, he was tossing around in his mind why the date went the way it did, had this girl only wanted to go out with him to find out about his grandma, and then more disturbingly, had she been checking up and researching/stalking him before this?
As he got out of the lift at his floor, the sight of two balaclava clad figures running through the fire escape doors into the stairwell startled Joe out of his contemplative state. They had been at his place, no doubt. The door frame was broken and the place trashed - again. Joe was really freaked out now, who knows about this Piano, and how much do they know? Also, was this whole "first date" thing actually a set up to make sure he was out of the apartment tonight?
So many questions and some much paranoia creeping in to Joe's life, all because of that bloody Piano.
This #freewrite is a continuation of my Piano series of posts. You can find the last part of the story here: @jk6276/the-piano---part-5---fiction-by-jk6276 and links to earlier sections.
This is a short peice of fiction written for @mariannewest 5 minute freewrite challenge. Check her feed out to get involved, you may find you have more creativity than you realise - I did.