Heartbeat

Chapter 2

I woke up to the sound of rain.

What a way to start the day, I thought. I had no motivation at all, and I got completely nervous as I realised that I would meet the most dangerous man I had ever been contacted by in a few hours.

Moriarty. I didn't even know his whole name.

I hopped out of bed and got dressed. As I looked into my closet, i picked out a light blue blouse and a black pencil skirt, just a business outfit I often wore to work. When I had put it on, i stepped in front of a mirror in my living room and looked at my reflection.

My hair was rather long, curly and of a light brown, and my eyes were of a light, blue-ish green. Even though I had been an empath for the most years of my life, my face was emotionless as often. If he really was a psychopath, Moriarty would have a similar expression as me.

Opening my closet again, I threw over a black blazer and then put on just a little eye make up and black, simple heels.

Suddenly, I got the call that there was a car outside waiting for me. When I got in, I saw a young, brown-haired man next to the drivers seat looking at me. He looked very shy and wore nerdy glasses that made him look cute to me.

"I'm... I'm an employee of Moriarty", he murmured.

"Pleased to meet you!", i said with a little smile on my face. Even though I was rather emotionless after therapy, i was still kind to people.

"Can you tell me how Moriarty managed to get such a brand new looking warehouse?", I asked as I saw the building we had just entered, looking out of the window.

"Ah, Miss, Moriarty gets anything he wants", he replied.

The driver drove up a few floors of the car park, then finally stopped.

There wasn't much lighting in the garage, and as I left the car, I got overwhelmed by a frightening atmosphere, as I saw the dark silhouette of the man I would work for. I tried to stay cool and smile, which I fortunately managed. Everything was dead silent except for the sound of my heels.

As I approached Moriarty, I got even more nervous than I already was, but that got swept away as I stopped one meter apart from him, finally seeing what he looked like.

Moriarty was a rather small man, but still taller than me. He wore a dark blue suit and a black tie that suited him perfectly. Moriarty was incredibly young, perhaps around 25 or 26; he smiled at me, and if there hadn't been something frightening about it, it would've been quite charming to me because he was utterly attractive.

His pale skin, black hair and eyes as black as coal would probably have looked pretty creepy on anyone, but not on him. On him it just looked absolutely beautiful, and his big dark eyes made me smile when I saw him, even though I knew he was not what he seemed to be.

"Good morning", he started in a dark, charming voice while smiling at me.

"Good morning", I replied. "I would make some sort of introduction but you already seemed to know about me. But you know, no one has really told me a lot about you."

"But Miss Blackwood, you know who I am. I'm Moriarty."

"Yes, but Moriarty..."

"Please, call me James."

"Alright then, James... Nobody has told me much about you."

He looked over me thoughtfully, before replying: "But you can already deduce things about me yourself, can't you?"

"Yes", I answered.
Surveying him, i went on: "You're in your mid twenties. Even though you've been born in Ireland, you've come to England, most probably after graduating at high school. You've built up a criminal network, exaggerating it from time to time. You've been abroad for a few months in a nothern country, probably Sweden or Finland, therefore the pale skin, even though you're naturally pale. You've only come back to England yesterday and didn't sleep a lot, therefore your tired eyes. Then, there's your lips... You've tried to moisturise them with lip balm, which you never have to use, but your travel to a nothern country caused them to crack, therefore your arrival to England was yesterday as that was just a day ago. But you know what really surprises me?"

"What does?", he asked in a deeper voice than before, looking pleased by my apparently quite right deductions.

"Your age", I answered.
"How come someone as young as you managed to build a criminal network, probably including whole Europe and going even farther?"

At this point, i really started to get suspicious. How could such a young man be capable of building up something so enormous and dangerous?

"Who knows, perhaps you are going to find out...", he retorted. "May I ask which kind of mental particularity you have?"

"Emphathy", I replied, the smile disappearing from my face. "But cured, which means I got help in therapy to not feel emotions anymore as I felt them too much in my past. I'm just like you now."

"Good to hear", James said with a smile on his face. He didn't seem as emotionless to me as his employees had told me, but maybe he was just playing a game.

I felt the driver approaching, indicating my departure for now.

James Moriarty started to smile again, winking at me in a charming way. "I will contact you. Keep your eyes open."

I nodded, as the driver put his hand on my back, taking me back to the car. I shrugged. All the sooner dislike towards Moriarty had disappeared, and I had to remind myself how dangerous he actually was.
A few minutes later, I sat in the car, my cheeks still slightly blushed of nervousness. I really could've wished for a less charming criminal. Then, I wouldn't be pleased to be on the bad side again.