APRICITAS [ENG] || Johan Liebert || Monster

Chapter 13 - The Devil and the Angel

A few days after the rooftop events, Emiko enjoyed a sunny afternoon on the college patio, sitting on one of the benches in the grass. Spring was in full swing all around, with fruit trees and all the appropriate flowers blooming at this time of the year. Oh, how she loved spring! It had so much life...

The young woman sighed softly and looked around where there were quite a few students. At one point, she noticed Lotte walking across the college courtyard on the opposite side, talking to Karl about something. They didn't notice her, but she smiled at them.

Suddenly she realized something. They were being watched.

Lotte and Karl were being watched by some unknown, middle-aged black-haired man with a strong jawline. He was wearing a long gray cloak in which he kept his hands tucked in and watched them closely. Emiko frowned, watching him intently.

'What does he want from them...? Is he spying on them because he has any connection to Johan? Who is he? What if he was hired by him to...' The girl bit her lip as too many crazy questions started to tumble in her mind.

Karl and Lotte disappeared into the distance, and the man stood in his place for a moment longer, then went towards the exit. Emiko, without much thought, threw the backpack over her shoulders and followed him discreetly, because she didn't like the whole situation and decided to investigate it.

****

She was following him all day. An unknown man met some woman in the bar in the afternoon with whom he was talking for some time, and young Tenma watched it all from the other side of the street, because the windows of the place where was previously mentioned gentleman, were huge. However, the there were only a few customers, which made it difficult for her to enter without being noticed, which is why she decided to observe everything from the outside. She wished she could overhear them.

After a surprisingly short time, the woman left and headed in an unknown direction, and the man ordered a portion of some drink. Oddly enough, he sat for a moment staring at the contents of the glass, then left his money on the table and left without even taking a sip. Emiko followed him to some gray-brown building, inside which he disappeared behind closed doors. She cautiously made her way there and saw that it was 'an alcohol addiction and psychiatric care clinic under the leadership of Dr. Reichwein'. Everything became clear in an instant.

'So he ordered something stronger in this bar... But then rationality took over and he didn't drink it.' She moved slightly away from the clinic and rested her back against the nearest tree. 'And what am I supposed to do next... Apart from waiting for him and following him to his place of living, nothing else comes to my mind...' And unfortunately, nothing else came to her mind either.

After some time, the man left the clinic and headed home, and she followed him. When they passed a few streets and he finally entered his place of residence, the girl remained at a safe distance to see when he would left the house again and she decided to wait here for this moment. Emiko silently prepared for a sleepless night and sat down on the low wall by the street, a little away from the street lamp, in the shade of trees.

As the hours passed and the night chill, the girl felt the wetness and cold absorbing her in its claws, but she remained adamant. She wasn't going to get into some stupid cold. Now there were more important things. She rubbed her hands to warm herself up a little and tried to ward off the inexorable drowsiness.

'All in all, it's a good thing I'm cold...' she thought, pulling the coat sleeves even more over her chilled hands and looking for something good in the whole situation. '...I won't fall asleep that fast. I need to make sure who this man is and what his intentions are towards Karl and Lotte. I hope the sun will rise soon...'