Heartbeat

Chapter 1

A phone call was the way to change my life. I had lived in secrecy for a few years, and now that I had gotten used to a normal life, I was so happy to have left my old life behind. My name was Elaina Blackwood, and I was a criminal.

My parents had died when I was a little kid, so I grew up in an orphanage in Chelsea where I lived for a long while. At the age of 12, I got into bad connections with the wrong people. I started working with criminals, and even though I knew at some point that it was wrong, destiny pulled me into the criminal wheeling and dealing. Unfortunately, i had always been attracted to the dangerous.

As I had received all the money my parents had earned, i later bought myself a little flat, not big or too luxury, but enough to live. Going on with my criminal life, I only later realized how terrible it was, so I left the web of criminals, naively thinking that I'd be so easily able to leave. But it was a greater loss that I would have to deal with.

At that time, when I was about 20, despite my loss, I relievedly left the criminal web, starting a new life. My mental health, though, was ruined, and i had to go into therapy, which helped me a lot. Working also improved my life: i started working in a secrecy organisation (how paradox that might be) which my father had once lead to spy on the dangerous people I had had the misfortune to meet in my youth, and worked myself up, even though I had not been at University. No one at work ever knew about my secret.

About three years later, I got the phone call that would change my life.

I had just taken a shower and put on clothes for work, as the phone rang.

"Elaina Blackwood."

"No."

"Sorry, what? Who's this?"

"Abigail Greene. You worked for us."

I shrugged. Fear overcame me.

They had found me. Just as I thought I could live like an ordinary civilian, they had found me.

"We will sent you a message."

Then, the man already hung up.

I was terrified. But to be fairly honest, i had expected a sniper to have already shot me in that time.

After two weeks of worrying, i got an email from an unknown address.

'The library of London. 4 pm. Yellow tie.'

I sighed. Should I go? There was no other way. I knew the people I had worked with as well as I knew that if I didn't go, they would just come here and shoot me. So I went to the library.

As I entered, I saw a grey-haired, shy-looking man with the yellow tie he had mentioned in the email. He waved me to him and I followed him to a lonely spot.

"He needs you to work for him."

"Who does?"

I was confused, there had never been a person I had solely worked for.

"The man behind it all."

The man that I spoke to was about fourty years old, had once worked for the government, was married and had two children, as I deduced just from his appearance. He had obviously been threatened by someone - someone quite dangerous.

"The man behind it all? There is no one planning everything, or England would fall. Who are you talking about?"

"Moriarty."

I had never heard the name in my life, but in this moment, i knew that person must be very frightening, looking at the poor man's face. A sudden silence pervaded the library, as if there was a curse on that name. The man was very calm and had gone pale just as he had spoken the name out loud, as if he was even scared to say it.

"What does he want from me? I'm a civilian now, I haven't worked with anyone in years. There's nothing he could want from me."

"Moriarty knows about every member and former member of the criminal web. He thinks you have been in touch with people he wants to be ally to."

I didn't know about him yet, but Moriarty seemed to be something so dangerous that even all other criminals feared him. But connections to other people? Most probably to enlarge his web... If he really was the great mind behind it all.

"Who is he?"

"I really can't tell you myself."

"Then why are you working for him? You are obviously not the criminal type."

"Because he forces me to."

How terrible could a person be? Use weakness of others to force them to work for him? I started to dislike Moriarty, but otherwise, I was curious about him; curious, why everyone was so intimidated by him.

The man gave me a letter and told me that I'd be contacted again. He immediately left, looking as if he had a guilty conscience. I didn't know what would happen now, but if Moriarty really was what he seemed to be, I had no other choice than to go wherever he wanted me to.

When I arrived home, I sat down on my desk chair and opened the letter. There was barely anything written on it.

'11/21 , abandoned warehouse, Battersea.

JM'

Just after I had finished reading it, my phone rang. It was the man from the library.

"You will meet him on November 21st tomorrow. He said you'd be that person who'd maybe thrown it away."

The first thing he was wrong about.

"I know..."

"But before, I have to give you some advice."

"Why? It's not even clear that I'll work for him anyway, I had connections to other criminals years ago, I don't even know if I can help him now."

"He'll know. Please, listen to me. When you meet him, don't shake his hand.
He dislikes any kind of physical contact. And he is a psychopath, so don't expect any kind of emotion."

The man hadn't described Moriarty's appearance, but I already imagined the man I was about to meet: tall, a bit older, maybe around 50 or 60, looking grumpily at me. If I hadn't started working for criminals in my youth, I wouldn't have the misfortune to meet him tomorrow. But I would, and that made me stay up late with scary thoughts in my mind.

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Author's note: first chapter ^^ any stylistic tips or stylistic suggestions appreciated <3