I am starting to get a feel for this story and you know, I kind of like it. I’ll do some basic outlining this weekend but I already know more or less where i want to go. Which is always nice.
Day 3: This was the longest and it started to feel like home.
This was the longest and it started to feel like home. The thought of leaving again, of starting over was a depressing one. The thought of another run of short hideouts and temporary spaces was even worse. Here she started to make friends, to join things and become a part of the community.
‘Perhaps that is how they found me,’ she thought darkly.
She shook personal recriminations away as she had less time for them now than memories. She continued walking towards her home, moving casually and looking for signs that her wards were disturbed. These were more things she could feel rather than see with her eyes so she managed to keep her head straight as she walked down the side walk, studying with her mind more than her sight. They were like strings laced through the neighborhood. A network of fine filaments that hummed a peaceful tune to her.
The sound calmed her. No one unwanted had been in her neighborhood. Some of the tension eased out of her shoulders.
Then the wards screamed. The gentle song was gone. In chorus, each line screamed a wordless warning. Someone was here.
Try and make it home or run to one of her other hidden stashes in the city? That was the question. ‘Run,’ she decided in an instant. If she didn’t lead them to her doorstep they might not find or look for her actual apartment. They might not find whatever of her research she left out. She was always careful, but she had not been hunted in a while, or didn’t think she had and might have left something out. She turned slightly readying to sprint down a side street.
“Anna wait, we mean you no harm,’ The voice was behind her. It was one she knew. Knowing she should just run, Anna turned.
“Marcus, you joined them?” The words came out filled with more betrayal than she expected after all this time. Marcus had once been her friend. While she knew he didn’t have enough clout to stop them, she didn’t expect him to join the hunt.
“No,” he told her. “I’m here because things have changed. An agreement was reached.”
Anna blinked. “Agreement.”
He nodded again and reached into his coat. She watched him like a bird watched a snake. If he pulled out a gun or some other weapon she had no defense, it wasn’t as though she went around armed. Still she watched his movements. The alarms of her wards slowly faded in her mind. There was no other disturbance. Even if Marcus was armed, he came alone. No one else joined him in her neighborhood.
‘Even if it is a gun he might not shoot me right away,’ it was a slip possibility but eh held it like a lifeline.
It wasn’t a gun he took out of his inner pocket. It was a letter. He placed it on the side walk and stepped back a few paces. Anna swallowed hard. At this time of day there were few people about, but soon the sidewalks would be flooded with people coming back to their apartments. She couldn’t afford to stand here and wait for that.
‘Someone might get hurt.’
“What was in the archives,” she asked her feet refusing to move forward.
Ten til Midnight 