TheTail
289 Words
The subway ride home was a gauntlet of screeching metal and flickering yellow light. Usually, Elena used the forty-minute commute to decompress, but tonight, the back of her neck felt cold.
Every time the 1-train lurched to a halt, she caught a glimpse of a black SUV through the window, keeping pace with the elevated tracks. When she finally stepped onto the slush-covered pavement of Washington Heights, the vehicle was there, idling at the curb.
She didn’t run. She knew she couldn't outrun whatever was in that car.
She turned the corner toward her walk-up, her boots crunching on frozen salt. The SUV followed, its headlights cutting through the gloom, painting her shadow long and distorted against the brick walls.
“Enough,” she hissed under her breath.
She stopped abruptly in front of a closed bodega and turned to face the car. The tinted window rolled down with a mechanical hum. It wasn’t Dante. It was a man with a broken nose and a suit that fit poorly across his massive shoulders.
“Miss Vance,” the man said. “Boss wants to make sure you get inside. It’s a bad night for a walk.”
“Tell your ‘boss’ that I’ve lived in this neighborhood since I was five,” Elena snapped, her breath blooming in the frigid air. “I don’t need a bodyguard. I need him to stay away from my school.”
“He didn’t ask what you needed,” the driver replied, his expression stone.
He waited until she turned her key in the heavy iron gate of her building. Only when the bolt clicked shut did the SUV pull away, leaving her in a silence that felt heavier than the noise.
- Writer
