American accent
Jake Turner was half asleep on the sofa when somebody knocked on his apartment door.
Outside, rain hit the streets heavily, and thunder shook the windows. Jake checked the time on his phone.
1:17 a.m.
The knocking came again. Faster this time.
Jake walked to the door and looked through the peephole.
A young woman stood in the hallway. Her coat was wet from the rain, and she kept looking behind her nervously.
“Please help me,” she said when Jake opened the door slightly. “A man followed me from the train station.”
Jake looked down the empty hallway.
“I think he’s still in the building,” she whispered.
Jake hesitated. Something felt strange. But the woman looked scared and tired.
“Okay,” he said finally. “Come inside.”
The woman entered quickly.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “I’m Nina.”
“Jake.”
He locked the door behind her.
“You want me to call the police?”
Nina nodded.
Jake picked up his phone, but there was no signal.
“The storm probably damaged the network,” he said.
Nina stood near the kitchen window, looking outside silently.
Jake noticed she was no longer shaking.
In fact, she looked completely calm now.
Then the lights suddenly went out.
The apartment became dark.
Jake switched on his phone light.
“Nina?”
No answer.
The light moved across the kitchen.
Empty.
Jake’s heart started beating faster.
“Nina?”
A noise came from behind him.
Jake turned quickly.
A man stood at the end of the hallway.
Tall. Dressed in black clothes and gloves.
Before Jake could react, the man ran forward and hit him hard in the stomach. Jake fell onto the floor, struggling to breathe.
The intruder locked the apartment door calmly.
Then Nina appeared beside him.
She smiled at Jake.
“You picked the wrong night to be kind,” she said.
Fear rushed through Jake’s body.
The two of them had planned everything.
The intruder pulled a knife from his pocket.
“Wallet. Phone. Passwords,” he ordered.
Jake gave him everything with shaking hands.
The man searched the apartment while Nina watched Jake carefully.
“You’ve done this before,” Jake said quietly.
Nina smiled. “Many times.”
Jake’s mind worked quickly. He needed a way to escape.
Then he remembered something.
His father’s old gun.
Hidden inside a box under the kitchen sink after a robbery years earlier.
The intruder turned away for a second while searching a drawer.
Jake moved fast.
He threw a chair towards Nina and ran into the kitchen.
“Stop him!” the intruder shouted.
Jake dropped to his knees and reached under the sink just as footsteps rushed behind him.
His fingers touched the gun.
At the same moment, the intruder grabbed his jacket.
Jake turned and pulled the trigger.
The loud bang filled the apartment.
The intruder fell backwards onto the floor.
For a second, nobody moved.
Nina stared at the man in shock.
Then her face changed completely.
Cold. Angry.
She pulled another knife from her boot and ran at Jake screaming.
Jake pulled the trigger again.
The bullet missed.
Nina crashed into him, and both of them hit the kitchen table hard. The knife came close to Jake’s face.
Jake fought desperately to hold her back.
Then suddenly—
BANG!
Another gunshot filled the room.
Nina stopped moving.
Slowly, she looked down at the blood on her chest.
A police officer stood in the broken doorway holding a gun.
“Drop the knife!” he shouted.
Nina fell to the floor.
Jake stared at the officers in surprise.
Two more police officers entered the apartment.
“We received a call from downstairs,” one officer explained. “A neighbour heard shouting.”
Jake sat silently on the kitchen floor while paramedics checked his injuries.
One officer searched Nina’s coat and found several photographs.
Pictures of different apartments.
Different names and addresses written on the back.
Targets.
The officer looked seriously at Jake.
“You’re lucky,” he said quietly. “These two are wanted in several cities.”
Jake looked at the dead man on the floor.
Then at Nina, as paramedics carried her away.
As police led her past him, she stopped and smiled weakly.
“You know the funny thing?” she whispered.
“What?”
“You still opened the door.”
📒 Key vocabulary
- peephole — a small hole in a door used to look outside
- hallway — a long passage inside a building with doors leading to rooms
- nodded (nod, nodded, nodded) — move the head up and down to show yes or agreement
- rushed (rush, rushed, rushed) — move very quickly or in a hurry
- hidden (hide, hid, hidden)— keep out of sight
- trigger — the part of a gun that is pulled to fire it
- gunshot — the sound or act of firing a gun
- targets — people or things chosen to be attacked, aimed at, or affected
- paramedics — trained medical workers who give emergency care before patients reach a hospital
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