In Shadows and Starlight

Glimpse Of The Unfamilliar .

Three Months Later .

The sun hung low in the sky ,casting an orange glow over the streets as Jay dragged herself to the mini mart .It had been months since she first encountered the entity ,and yet ,despite everything that had happened ,it felt like a distant dream - an impossible story her mind had spun in the dead of night .

Some  days ,she wondered if it had all been a hallucination .The door .The stange ,overwhelming presence .The powerful figure that had appeared before her . She could barely reconcile what she had experienced with the dull,monotonous reality of her everyday life .

Nothing made sense .

She pushed open the door to the mini mart with a sigh ,her hand still clutching the crumpled list of things she needed  - milk ,bread ,eggs ,noodles .The usual.The mundane .

Her thoughts , clouded by exhaustion and self -doubt ,kept swirling .She felt like she was losing touch with herself ,like she was disappearing into the gray haze of her existence. College ,work ,her lonely room - none of it felt real anymore .It was just a cycle ,a routine , a  never-ending blur of faces she didn't recognize and places that never felt like home.

Jay wondered down aisles ,her eyes unfocused as she reached for milk .She barely noticed the man who passed by ,his tall frame cutting through the space with an effortless grace.He was dressed in a black tailored shirt and a pair of blue jeans  , expensive clothes  - an air of authority and quiet arrogance emanated from him. 

The man glanced at her ,his eyes narrowing slightly .There was something in his gaze ,an unreadable flicker of recognition ,but Jay didnt see it.She was too far gone in her  own thoughts , lost in the blur of her discontent .

The man was standing several aisles away ,near the bottled water ,his gaze distant as he scanned the shelves .His dark ,perfectly styled hair and sharp features seemed almost out of place in the small cluttered store .But what really stood out was the air of casual elegance that clung to him, as if he had just stepped out of a different world altogether .

she grabbed the milk without a second thought ,almost absentmindedly tossing it in her basket . Her mind wasn't on the present ,bit on the weight of her life ,which seemed to be closing in on her from every side .

The man - silent and observant - watched her for a moment longer ,the quiet intensity in his eyes sharp .He knew exactly who she was .He knew she was the one who had opened the door ,the one who had set him free .But she had no memory of it ,no recognition of the path she had unwittingly set in motion. Jay didn't spare him a glance ,her mundane things was all she came for .

He didnt approach her .He  didn't speak .

There was no need .

he kept his gaze fixed on her ,it was like he was seeing something only he could understand.

The faintest of smirks tugged at the corner of his lips ,though it was barely perceptible .He straightened ,his posture shifting slightly as if making a mental note of her presence.

 He simply watched as she paid for the milk ,bread,eggs,noodles and walked out of the store ,unaware of the heavy gaze following her every move .

The encounter with the man didn't register in her consciousness,nor did she feel any different from the ordinary girl she was. The man still watching her from the corner of her eye , turned and left the aisle , his steps deliberate and measured .He wasn't in any hurry .There was something almost leisurely about the way he moved ,as though the whole world belonged to him . He didn't follow her and their paths didn't cross again as she paid for her items and walked back out into the heat of the afternoon .