CHAPTER 295: APOCALYPSE ROMANCE 5

"Hoi, Sasha!" one of them barked, his voice rough as gravel. "We heard you’ve been actin’ real suspicious—buyin’ all sorts of crap. What’s the deal, huh? You plannin’ to skip town on us?"

The apartment door swung on its bent hinges with a deafening crash, the sound of splintered wood echoing through the tiny flat like a war drum.

Sasha froze in place, one hand still clutching a bag of instant noodles she had been stuffing into her dimensional ring.

Of course they would come.

Loan sharks had one thing in common with cockroaches—show them a whiff of food, money, or weakness, and they’d crawl right in, uninvited.

"Hoi, Sasha!" barked a man with a shaved head and too much gold hanging from his neck. His voice was so gravelly Sasha half-wondered if he swallowed sandpaper for breakfast. "We heard you’ve been actin’ real suspicious—buyin’ all sorts of crap. What’s the deal, huh? You plannin’ to skip town on us?"

Behind him, three more bulky silhouettes filled the doorway. One was gnawing sunflower seeds like he was at a baseball game, spitting husks on her carpet.

Another cracked his knuckles, the sound oddly synchronized with her wall clock. The last one, the tallest of the lot, carried what looked suspiciously like a lead pipe.

Fantastic. They had come armed.

Sasha plastered on the brightest smile she could muster. "Skip town? Oh, boys, come on. Where would I even go? I’m a corporate slave, remember? I can’t even skip lunch without permission."

Her joke fell flat. Four sets of eyes narrowed at her.

The bald one—the leader, probably—stepped forward, his boots crunching over the mess of her broken lock.

"Don’t play dumb with us. You’ve been makin’ rounds all over the city. Four different lenders reported you today. Four! That’s a helluva coincidence, huh?"

Sasha shrugged, tilting her head innocently. "What can I say? I like to spread my charm around. Why settle for one debt collector when I can have the whole buffet?"

That got a reaction. Sunflower Seed Guy let out a short, barking laugh before Baldy shot him a glare. Sasha, however, kept her face smooth, though her heart was thudding like a war drum in her chest.

This was bad. Really bad.

They weren’t supposed to check up on her this fast. Loan sharks normally left you alone until the first payment deadline, happy to let you drown in interest before pulling you under completely.

But Sasha had underestimated just how much noise she’d made in a single day. Millions borrowed. Four separate outfits. And all of it in cash.

Of course, someone would get twitchy.

She needed to think—fast.

"Look," Sasha said, lifting her hands in surrender, "you’ve got it all wrong. I’m not leaving. Why would I? I’ve got too many fun little projects going on here. You think I’m dumb enough to take your money and run? Come on. Who does that?"

"The smart ones," the tall guy with the lead pipe said flatly.

Sasha’s smile faltered. Damn it. He had a point.

"Search the place," Baldy ordered.

And just like that, her tiny sanctuary descended into chaos. The thugs tore through her living room like a tornado, flipping over her couch cushions, kicking open her closet, even yanking drawers out of her dresser and dumping socks onto the floor.

One of them knocked over her only houseplant, spilling soil across the tiles.

Sasha winced. "Hey, careful! That fern’s the only thing that’s survived longer than my last boyfriend!"

No one laughed. Figures.

Still, she kept up the chatter while they ransacked her apartment, buying herself precious seconds to think.

Her dimensional ring was safe—thank every deity in the pantheon for that. As long as they didn’t know about it, they couldn’t take the millions in gear, food, and survival goods she’d already stashed away inside.

But the armored car . . . that was another story. If they followed her to the mechanic’s garage, things would get ugly.

Sunflower Guy kicked open the bathroom door, peeked inside, and then came back, shaking his head. "Nothin’."

Of course there’s nothing. All of it were in my dimensional ring!

"Of course nothing," Sasha said cheerfully. "I told you, I’m not going anywhere. You think I’d keep plane tickets under the toilet lid? You don’t even see pack clothes here."

Baldy turned to her, squinting suspiciously. "Then what’s with all the cash you’ve been carrying, huh? Millions don’t just vanish."

Sasha tilted her chin up, grinning like she was the smartest person in the room. "Oh, that? I invested it."

"In what?"

She spread her arms dramatically. "My future!"

The silence that followed was so thick she swore she could hear the drip of her leaky kitchen tap three rooms away.

Finally, Baldy groaned, rubbing his forehead as if she gave him a migraine. "Do you take us for idiots?"

"Not at all," Sasha said sweetly. "If I thought you were idiots, I wouldn’t have borrowed from you. I’d have borrowed from people dumber. See? Respect."

That got Sunflower Guy laughing again until Baldy smacked him upside the head.

But inside, Sasha wasn’t laughing. She was cornered. And cornered animals did only one of two things: curl up and die . . . or bare their teeth.

Sasha chose teeth.

"Gentlemen," she said suddenly, clapping her hands together, "why don’t we make this easy? You’re right—I have been spending your money. But not for the reason you think. I’m not leaving the country. I’m preparing."

"Preparing for what?" Lead Pipe Guy sneered.

She leaned forward, her grin stretching just wide enough to look slightly unhinged. "For the end of the world."

That caught them off guard.

All four loan sharks exchanged looks, as if silently asking each other, Did she finally snap?

Baldy raised an eyebrow. "The hell are you talking about?"

"The apocalypse," Sasha said matter-of-factly. "Monsters. Blood. Fire raining from the sky. Trust me, you’ll thank me later when I’m the only one with a bulletproof car and enough canned beans to outlast Armageddon."

The thugs blinked. For a long, tense moment, no one moved. Then Sunflower Guy snorted. "Boss, she’s nuts."

"Yeah, crazy," Lead Pipe added. "But crazy doesn’t pay the bills."

Baldy glared at Sasha, trying to gauge whether she was bluffing or genuinely insane. She stared back, eyes wide and unblinking, pouring every ounce of conviction she had into her expression.

Finally, Baldy sighed. "You’ve got one week. Pay something back, or we come back with more than just pipes."

And with that, he waved his hand. The thugs began filing out, muttering under their breaths about lunatics and wasted time.

The door, already ruined, hung limply as they slammed it shut behind them.