The Clockwork Girl

The Man

The cold air nipped at Ivy's exposed skin. She wore a hooded cloak that stopped at her feet. Her long brown hair loosely over her shoulders. She could see her breath when she exhaled. In her hand she held a watch. In about 10 minutes, she thought, it will happen. Her job wasn't the most fun. She knew when everything would happen, and needed to make sure it happened. She suddenly heard the click of shoes on cement behind her. She turned, instinctively reaching for the knife in her pocket. The green eyed Jack stood a few yards away. "Woah there," he spoke with sarcastic alertness. "No need to pull out weapons." His chiseled features just visible in the dark. "You're late." Ivy said as she walked to greet him. "Yeah, I noticed." His tone seemed to be always relaxed and careless. "You could at least try to act like you're sorry." She spat. "Acting is for liars." He said lazily. Ivy sighed. She took a piece of gum out of her pocket. She removed the wrapping and placed it in her mouth. As she chewed it, Jack grinned his smug grin. "What do you plan to do with that? I've only known you for about 200 years, but I know you enough to know that you hate chewing gum." Ivy took the now chewed gum out of her mouth. "Just watch." Jack cracked his knuckles and ran a hand through his curly blond hair. "I'm watching." Ivy walked out onto the street and placed the gum in the middle of the cross walk. She ran out of the street and back to where Jack was waiting for her. They were hiding in a dark alleyway. "Now what was that for?" He grabbed her by the back of her coat and pulled her against him so her back was against his stomach. "Wha-!" He put a hand over her mouth. A tall man was walking on the sidewalk. He glanced over at the alleyway, but continued to walk. Ivy could hear Jacks heart beating. Even though Ivy saw the man too, he still held his hand over her mouth. The man was walking on the crosswalk when he suddenly stepped in Ivy's gum. "Ah!" The man hollered. He pulled out his credit card and started to scrape the gum off. A speeding car turned the corner. The driver slammed his breaks on, but that wasn't enough. Ivy felt Jack tense against her back. Whenever they needed to do something think this, his careless exterior melted away to leave a child like stranger in its place. A child like stranger who hated to see people in pain. The man looked up at the car, but it was already too late. Jack inhaled sharply as the car collided with the man. His hand slid off Ivy's and stopped at her waist. Ivy's inhaled sharply. Jack quickly stepped back from Ivy. "Sorry." His face was flushed. "I didn't mean to-" he looked at his feet. And like that the sensitive little boy was replaced with the cold hearted, sarcastic Jack. "May I ask, why did you just killed that man?" He asked suspiciously. "If we didn't make sure he got hit, he would have become president and started World War 3." He nodded. "Okay. Let's get going. We still need to meet up with Edgar and Sebastian."