People Watching

Chapter three

Feeling quite embarrassed I catch a cab home and almost forget to pay the driver. I run to my room, slam the door and collapse onto my bed, but before I can take any of my clothes off I'm already asleep.

Blue. Everywhere is blue. A bright fluorescent beautiful blue. The kind I have seen only once before. Crisp flakes of irony gold with the warmth of the sun and the taste of rich caramel, floated effortlessly amongst the bright blue. So unique yet so familiar.

I wake up to the front door slamming. Still tired I roll over and hope it's not too late to fall back asleep. Sadly after 10 seconds I discover the moment has passed and my sleeping time is over. I sigh and get out of bed reluctantly, hoping the slammed door means food has arrived.

"Auntie Janice!" I call out, rubbing my eyes.

"Hey! Lexi, I didn't know you were home." I turn the corner into the kitchen to find Janice unpacking the groceries. "I thought you told me you'd be out today, or whatever it is you do when you're a journalist."

"Umm, let's just say my work got cut short by some unexpected events." Knowing my auntie would think I'm crazy if I told her what really happened (or didn't, I'm super confused at the moment) so I decide to leave all the details out.

"Oh, that's too bad, it looks like a gorgeous day out there." Glancing out the window she sighs. "It's not very often we get a sunny day like this, you should go sit out in the courtyard." Janice says, smiling warmly at me.

"Yeah, maybe I will. Thanks" I grab an apple and a muffin on my way to the door. Me and my auntie live in her apartment located on the 9th floor of one of the 1billion high rise buildings in New York. Although it's not the fanciest, we do have our own little private courtyard that looks over the city, and for that I am grateful. It's so nice to have a place where you can watch the city from afar and not have to be amongst the craziness.

Sitting down in my favourite armchair I get comfortable and close my eyes letting the sun soak into my skin. It's the perfect temperature; not too windy or rainy, not so beyond freezing that it's literally painful to be outside, and not snowing. Don't get me wrong I love the snow, but sometimes just having clear, fresh air is good once in a while.

I stretch out my legs and rest them on the nearby coffee table, starting to day dream while I stare down at the people walking across the streets.
A very strange noise comes from behind me, it sounds like nails on a chalkboard scraping slowly but ruff. I twist around in my chair, trying to find the ear damaging noise, my whole body goes still when the cause is found. The back of my head goes numb and the veins in my wrist freeze, sending a huge shiver throughout my entire body.

"No." I breathe "nope, this is not happening." I shake my head, and roll the tips of my fingers over my temples. "You just imagined it" I look back at the glass door that leads back into the house, hoping what I had found was no longer there. I take a big deep breath, as my eyes stare straight at the messy, almost unreadable handwriting written with the condensation on the glass. The writing reads; 𝒽ℯ𝓁𝓁ℴ 𝒜𝓁ℯ𝓍𝒶, 𝒾 𝒽ℴ𝓅ℯ 𝒾𝓂 𝓃ℴ𝓉 𝒻𝓇𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉ℯ𝓃𝒾𝓃ℊ 𝓎ℴ𝓊, 𝒾 𝓅𝓇ℴ𝓂𝒾𝓈ℯ 𝒾𝓉𝓈 𝒻ℴ𝓇 𝓎ℴ𝓊𝓇 ℴ𝓌𝓃 ℊℴℴ𝒹. 𝒪𝓇 𝓂𝒶𝓎𝒷ℯ 𝓃ℴ𝓉. 𝒩𝒾𝒸ℯ 𝒶𝓇𝓂𝒸𝒽𝒶𝒾𝓇 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓌𝒶𝓎.

l stand up and look around the courtyard franticly, there is nowhere for anyone to hide so I don't understand how this is happening. I walk up to the railing and look over, it's way too far for anyone to climb or jump off. I look directly across the road to the building that is next to ours just in time to see a figure move behind the curtains. Before I can think anything of it I get knocked suddenly to the ground with a loud and forceful thump, my whole vision blacking out.