THE most anxious 15/20 mins of my life

At least in semi-recent times.

It was something like 10/half 10 in the night and my mom's friend and I were getting food for one of his workers in KFC curepe because the one in valsayn was too full. We reach KFC but there's no parking in the front AT ALL so he drives around to the side and pulls to the side of Royal Castle, which is on the corner. This was also the place where a partner was abducted from and subsequently murdered in the backseat of a car. That very spot. So you know all this done running in my mind by the time mom's friend parks by royal castle. He parks facing inwards by the way, i.e. with his back to the road.

So I figured he wouldn't be too long (completely missing the logical assumption to be made that all the cars in front of KFC belonged to customers) and the car might be safer if I stayed in it because it was no parked in the corner of the building in a darkish area with some shady characters around, especially in a car which was parked perpendicular to us. He goes inside KFC.

Five minutes pass and the anxiety is building because the guy standing by the front door of the car next to me is looking at the vehicle I'm in (CRV) occasionally, with what I thought at the time might have been intent. To add to my worries a girl came out of the passenger seat of the car (a girl was also involved in my partner's murder) and walked right towards the CRV and stared, about 4 feet away from the front right side of the CRV, into it.. then walked back to their car. Well anxiety shot up even higher then. By this time I had dialed 999 on my cell phone and had a thumb on the call button waiting. This number did not leave my cell screen until I left curepe.

Because the car is parked facing away from the road I couldn't see what was behind me so my head and eyes were constantly moving from right wing mirror to rearview mirror to left wing mirror, back to rearview mirror and right wing.. back and forth, back and forth like a surveillance camera. The people in the car on the side of me eventually leave but not before another, even shadier looking guy gets out the car and walks off behind the CRV.. that was a stress in itself but didn't last long as I saw him walk down the road.

So the car on the side leaves.. but then I realize now I'm alone on the side of Royal Castle in the dark. 10 more points gained on the anxiety scale. Still with thumb on call button with police number on the screen and head moving like a swivel-cam, I start running scenarios in my head about what could happen and how I'd react. This was prob a dumb move on my part and only served to make me more anxious. Every person that passed was given a good scopin out. No one came within 15ft of the CRV without me gauging them. Then two women came out of Royal Castle, got into the car that was on the opposite end of the building, towards the front and left. At that point I was the only vehicle on that side of the building. All that became too much for me so I hopped over the cupholder into the driver seat and turned the CRV around to face the road and parked a little nearer to the front, which was also better lit. I kept the car on, doors locked, transmission in neutral, hand breaks ready to deploy and foot hovering over the X. All during this time my thumb was still waiting to hit 'send' for the popes (babylon, police, 5-0 etc). At least I could have seen the road, so it put me a little more at ease.

Well eventually mom's friend came back and we left, safe and sound.. which I am very grateful for because many people have not been so lucky in that exact same area, even at that hour of the night.

here's to hoping I'm never put in that position again dred.