chapter 3
1354 Words
Caroline forced her breathing to slow even though her heart was still racing from the impact, she kept her face carefully blank, her expression slipping into something polite… detached and normal.
“I think you have the wrong person,” she said, her voice calm despite the tension coiling inside her chest.
The man didn’t respond or move he just watched her.
Caroline resisted the urge to shift under that gaze.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she added, offering a small, tight smile. “I really have to go, I’m already late.”
The man remained silent and continued to stare at her.
Her fingers tightened slightly around her bag, but she didn’t let it show.
She just had to walk away, that was the plan. it was simple and normal.
She stepped to the side, intending to move past half-expecting… something.
Another question, a hand grabbing her arm, something, but nothing came.
No resistance or reaction, so she walked past him.
She took a step, then another then the third one still nothing.
Don’t look back.
Her mind screamed it, sharp and firm.
Don’t. Look. Back.
Caroline kept walking, her pace controlled at first then faster. Her heels clicked against the pavement in quick succession as she moved, weaving through people without really seeing them.
Her pulse thudded loudly in her ears.
Was he following?
She didn’t know.
she didn't want to know yet.
She turned a corner, then another, her steps becoming quicker and sharper. The city seemed louder now, voices blending together, cars passing, life moving as usual.
Good, that was good.
Crowds were good.
Crowds meant safety.
At least… some kind of safety.
Caroline headed straight for the busiest street she knew, where people packed the sidewalks and spilled into the road. Vendors shouted, music played faintly from somewhere nearby, and movement surrounded her from all directions.
She slowed only when she was fully swallowed by it.
Only when she was certain that there were enough people, enough noise did her steps finally falter.
And then she stopped.
Slowly… carefully… she turned.
Her eyes scanned the crowd behind her, left and right
Faces passed by in a blur of unfamiliarity.
Strangers.
All of them but there was no sign of him.
Caroline exhaled sharply, her shoulders dropping as the tension drained just slightly from her body.
“He’s gone…” she whispered under her breath.
Relief came, but it was thin.
Because something about that encounter didn’t sit right.
Not just the question.
Not just the way he looked at her.
But the fact that she had been wrong.
Her jaw tightened.
She was never wrong.
Never.
She had learned carefully and painfully how to tell the difference.
The way they moved.
The way they felt.
The way they existed and yet she had walked straight into him.
Her stomach twisted.
Caroline dragged in another breath, shaking her head slightly as if to push the thought away.
No.
She couldn’t dwell on this, she couldn’t afford to.
“I just need to get to work,” she muttered. “That’s it. Just… get through the day.”
Normal.
She needed normal.
She turned and froze.
“Seriously?”
The word slipped out under her breath, laced with clear irritation.
Standing right in front of her, as if she had been there the entire time was the girl.
The same girl from her apartment with her arms crossed and her expression unimpressed.
“Wow,” the girl said, raising a brow. “You run fast.”
Caroline’s eye twitched slightly.
Of course she was here.
Of course.
Caroline didn’t respond.
Didn’t even acknowledge her beyond that brief glance.
Instead, she stepped to the side and walked past her like she wasn’t there.
Like she didn’t exist.
The girl scoffed loudly. “Oh, we’re doing this again?”
No response.
Caroline kept walking.
Her eyes forward.
Her expression neutral.
Just another person moving through the crowd.
The girl fell into step beside her effortlessly.
“You know I’m not going anywhere, right?” she continued. “You can ignore me all you want...”
Caroline stopped abruptly at a crossing, staring straight ahead as she waited for the light to change.
Silence.
Complete silence from her.
The girl tilted her head slightly, studying her.
“Something happened,” she said, her tone shifting just a little. “You’re even more tense than usual.”
Nothing.
Caroline didn’t react.
Didn’t blink or give her anything.
The girl frowned.
“Caroline...”
The light changed.
Caroline moved instantly, stepping off the curb without a word.
The girl sighed, clearly annoyed, but followed anyway.
“You’re really going to pretend I’m not here?” she asked. “After I literally saved your job this morning?”
Still nothing.
Caroline’s grip on her bag tightened slightly, but that was the only sign.
The only crack.
“You’re impossible,” the girl muttered.
Caroline walked faster.
Through the crowd.
Through the noise.
Through everything.
The girl kept up easily.
“You could at least pretend to listen,” she continued. “I mean, I get it...you don’t like attention, you don’t like talking in public, you don’t like being seen talking to thin air..."
Caroline shot her a quick, sharp look.
A warning.
The girl smirked slightly. “Ah. So you do hear me.”
Caroline looked away immediately, her expression tightening.
She turned a corner, heading toward the building where she worked. Her steps were quick now, purposeful. She was almost there, almost safe.
The girl leaned in slightly as they walked. “What happened back there?” she asked more quietly. “You looked like you’d seen something you didn’t like.”
Caroline’s jaw clenched.
Her silence was answer enough.
The girl studied her for a moment, her expression shifting, it was less teasing now and more curious.
“…You did see something,” she said slowly.
Caroline pushed through the glass doors of her workplace without responding.
The shift in atmosphere was immediate.
Normal people.
Normal conversations.
Normal life.
She exhaled quietly, her shoulders relaxing just a fraction.
Safe.
At least for now.
The girl followed her in, glancing around with mild interest. “You know, one day someone is going to notice you acting weird...”
Caroline grabbed her ID, flashing it briefly before heading toward the back.
She was still ignoring her.
The girl sighed again. “Unbelievable.”
But she didn’t leave, she never did.
Across the street…
He stood exactly where she had left him.
The crowd had swallowed her completely now. There was no trace of her, not her face, not her presence, not even the faint pull he had felt the moment he found her.
But he didn’t need to see her.
He already knew.
A slow breath left him as he reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone.
For a moment, he simply stared at the screen.
Then he dialed.
It rang twice before his call was answered
“Speak.”
The voice on the other end was low and expectant.
His gaze remained fixed on the space where she had disappeared.
“I found her,” he said.
There was a brief silence before the person at the other end of the line spoke again.
“Are you certain?” the voice asked.
His jaw tightened slightly.
“Yes.”
There was another pause and it was longer this time.
As if the weight of those words had settled heavily on the other end.
“And the item?”
His eyes darkened slightly.
“She has it.”
The response was immediate this time.
“Do not lose her.”
A command.
His grip on the phone tightened just slightly.
“I won’t.”
The line went dead.
He lowered the phone slowly, slipping it back into his pocket.
His gaze shifted once more toward the direction she had gone.
Hidden.
A faint, almost imperceptible smirk touched his lips.
“Let’s see how long you can keep running…” he murmured under his breath and then he turned and walked away.
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