Hunted

Act 21; Off

Amelia felt like hell.

But that didn't make any sense. Shouldn't she feel excited or at least giddy? She was in safe hands and was about to talk to her father in a few more minutes. After everything, she should feel ecstatic! Now she could breathe normally, and maybe even use the opportunity to try and get back to school. She'd be treated like a princess whose whim was law once she got back home. That was the kind of father she had. This wouldn't be the first time someone tried to threaten her life. And all those times before, she adored the royal treatment.

The problem was that, she didn't feel the least bit joyful no matter how hard she tried to muster the emotion. She was paranoid and jittery and angry for reasons she couldn't understand, maybe even reasons she didn't want to understand.

She stopped pacing by the door, the pristine white walls seeming to widen before her, as though a gap was forming between her and reality, like she was in a moment continuing to progress without her and she was standing still, unable to move forward. The room was white and the tinted windows were closed, sealing the room from the orange hue of the sunset and the sound of a gust of wind she couldn't feel the cold of. Her feet frozen where she stood.

It was those blue eyes of his, how they disappeared in the sunlight yet seemed to glow in the darkness. At first glance, anyone would think of him as a patsy. She sure did, when she saw him letting everyone push him around.

She mentally shook his head. He didn't just let everyone push him around. He wanted to be of support, an assist. Like a pillar.

Looking at him from afar, as a passerby whose eye was caught for a second, she would have compared him to a weakling. He never did anything ostentatious, so he was never the first person to catch anyone's eye. If anything, he'd be a background character at best.

But maybe it was because of that outside perspective that she felt an attraction to him.

There, she admitted it!

She wished Gary was around. He'd make her feel better just by being around her. He had that kind of soothing effect on her that was better than any aromatherapy Sir Saffron would recommend to her. She'd be seeing him again soon. She'd talk to her dad, he'd call the police and everything will be fine again. Whoever it was that had it out for her will be in big trouble and back off and she never had to hear another word about it. She should feel relieved.

So why didn'tshe?

She rested her head in her hands, breathed in, then out.

She continued pacing.