Ineffable - S.REID

00

Clara walked as quickly as her heels that pinched at her feet would allow her to without causing so much pain that she feared she would bleed. She much preferred a boot or a trainer to her current dark gray heels but needs must in these types of situations. She walked with purpose, heels clacking methodically against the sidewalk. She did not dare look back once, in fear of the shrouded hunting figure behind her that she searched to escape. It wasn't as if she did not currently have a firearm hidden in a holster on her hip and could easily defend herself if push came to shove, it was more the fact that she was desperate to not be followed so she could disappear down the dingy alleyway in which she came before to become unnoticed once again. She yearned to be back under cover of the dark buildings that loomed in the dankest parts of the city where crime livenied every corner.

Whilst music blared in one of her ears, her album of the classics, Clara hurried to find some sort of way out of the situation. She walked through the park, thinking that she could easily find a woman that she could talk to with her eyes to try and get away from the man hunting behind her. As she walked further along, that hope shred and she went to the second option on her list, a man that had a juxtaposing disposition to the man currently behind her that she could pretend that she knew, thus scaring the hunting figure behind her once more.

She managed to find what she was looking for within a few minutes, a brown ruly haired man hiding underneath a tree on one of the cleaner looking benches with a chess board balanced perfectly on top of his brown bag. She rapidly profiled him, as her job had trained her to do, and settled on the idea that he was her best option to reach the point of being unnoticed that she could disappear once again. The calm disposition, deep brown eyes, focus on the chess game yet the complete awareness of everything around him. The entire situation radiated safety and she found herself drifting towards him without even thinking twice about it. Something about him simply drew her in, whether it was the eyes or the messy hair that looked as if he played with it far too often or the jumper that he was wearing.

She cleared her throat as she approached, having suddenly quickened her footsteps in order to get a vantage over the man behind her so she could quickly communicate her plan so as to not completely overwhelm the stranger that she had seen as her escape route. "Hi, excuse me?" she began, hiding the deeper tones of her Italian accent behind the usual fake American accent she had been forced to adopt since her planned and prepared disappearance.

He looked up from the chess board, focus flickering from his eyes as a crease between his eyebrows formed along with a confused frown. "Can I help you?" he replied, voice sounding softer than she had originally expected.

"Weird request," she laughed awkward;y, hoping it would dispel anxiousness and the slightly tense atmosphere. "But can you pretend to be my boyfriend for like ten minutes? I can't shake this guy. He's been following me and trying to talk to me for a good twenty minutes."

He instantly nodded, wanting to help to make a complete stranger feel safe once more. How could he deny such a request, even if the presence of a stranger brought a specific type of anxiousness to the back of his mind. He pushed that away deliberately, instead replacing it with focus back on the chess game he was partway through. She smiled thankfully, though he did not see it, and settled down on the bench next to the chessboard being extra careful not to knock it over. With slight hesitation, she picked up one of the pieces and moved it. The man looked up, brow raised and the smallest of smirks crossed his lips before he moved one of his pieces, glad to for once have a new opponent that didn't know of his skill level in Chess.

As the man who had been following her stopped in front of them, Clara quickly noticed that the stranger's hand that had been holding his chin drifted to rest near his hip. She wandered, for a split second, if he too had a weapon hidden on his person. That thought dissipated rather rapidly as the shrouded figure spoke with his gruff and all around stereotypical voice, "Whos this then?"