Living in the shadows (1)

3. The Stranger

"Why the bloody hell does it have to be so hot?" Trix complained on her way to the London Underground.

She had opted not to take her motorbike today, simply because she would roast herself alive if she had to spend more than a minute in direct sunlight. It was only June.

Early June, too.

Bella's death still haunted her, as she knew it would, and all night she couldn't help but think of her body, all mauled and laying in a pile of blood. Her death had finally been announced but the news and the press along with the police had been flocking her apartment like kids at a candy store; interviewing everyone who lived there, even deaf Miss Ladbrookes who lived on the top floor. So far, the police are extremely puzzled to what could have caused her death, and are putting it down to a 'wild dog'.

But any idiot would know there are no wild dogs in central London.

"Well, at least I'll be on time today," She thought to herself as she climbed onto the tube, choosing to stand so her legs wouldn't stick together. She would never be able to get back up then.

The doors slammed shut and everyone jolted to the right as the train began to start again, speeding along making the tunnel walls blur grey and white. The windows had already steamed up and her hands had gone clammy already from holding the overhead handle in a death grip.

Before she knew it, the tube came to a screeching hault and as the doors banged open, the mass of people began to rush out, while the others waited impatiently to board. Nobody wanted to miss the train.

She easily blended into the crowd forming on the platform, going unnoticed as she existed it and climbed up the escalator to the top.

"Time to get to work." She sighed and began the 5 minute walk to work.

--------

She was probably one of the only 15 year-olds at work at 9am on a Wednesday morning.

The thought pounced on her unexpectedly as she was cleaning the tables from last night's debutant party. There was confetti everywhere, so were a multitude of streamers, too.

All of her friends would probably be in maths right now, learning about radius and Pi, and how to work out one and two step equations and factorisation. She wondered if any of them world remember her, the quiet girl who they didn't really know was there. The persona she wore at that school, she wasn't proud of it, but it kept her under the radar - just how she like it to be.

She wondered if they knew what had happened - knowing them, probably not. They were too lazy and ignorant and spoilt for that. Probably didn't even care about what was happening to her now. It was their fault, after all. If they hadn't-

Her fingers began to clench, almost breaking the spray bottle in her hands. Enough, Enough. They will pay, just not today.

She always hated school, but right now? She hadn't kept up with her schoolwork at all, unless buying notebooks from WHSmith and writing stories in them counted. School would be - she couldn't believe what she was about to say - a refreshing change.  But her favourite teacher had left abruptly halfway through her third year at secondary school, and also just happened to be an English teacher. The same one she had through her entire time at secondary.

And it then started to spiral from there, she supposed.

Her clean school record hadn't stayed clean for very long after she'd been charged. For something she hadn't done. Always taking the blame for someone else's shit. They didn't care about her alibi and now she was on the run. There was no-one to fight in her corner now. Only ghosts obsessed with the past remained.