The Slave and Her Owner

Stalker

After our day of doing absolutely nothing, the next one we spent out roaming the streets of New York. Grace is currently ordering our drinks as I sit at the table awaiting her return. As I kept my eye on her from behind, I could see the barista have a weird smirk directed towards the current customer. While the change was being handed back, the twenty-something year old man lightly caressed Grace's arm causing Grace to flinch her limb away and walk back to our table with a polite smile.

"Pardon my French, Hannah, but that asshole wouldn't quit flirting his damn mouth off. I told him I was leaving the counter to come back to you and then he told me that his shift ended at seven. Like, who the hell cares?"

"What was it that the girl from the TV thing called people like him? A fuck boy?" I asked Grace and myself with a pondering look on my face. It made Grace let out a chuckle.

"Yes, a fuck boy is what that kid is." She replied and a number was called out that made Grace rise to her feet.

"That's us. Wish me luck." She sighed.

"Good luck." I told her as she departed for the counter once again. I gazed at her in her black, winter clothes until I heard the small bell sound from the door being opened. It was a person wearing a dark overcoat, black slacks with matching shoes, and glasses to shield their eyes from anything but the sun because of the sky being completely white outside. I couldn't make out whether it was a male or a female. The height the other patron had was sort of in between either gender and the face he/she owned looked pretty smooth. I don't know why I kept staring even though I knew it was a rather rude thing to do to someone. I cast my eyes somewhere else but tried to make not- so- subtle glances every now and then until Grace popped in front of me on the side of the table opposite of me.

"The manager was standing next to him behind the counter so the loser didn't try anything funny." She told me but I was only half paying attention to her. I only let out a hum of a response and her eyebrows tightened until she noticed that I was looking at someone past her. Grace turned her head around to share what we were both now observing.

"That dude looks like an undercover spy. Who do you think he's stalking?" She said jokingly. I tore my eyes away to look into Grace's and give a response.

"Hopefully, neither of us." I said seriously. As I said that, the man, who is most likely a man, had risen from his seat to go to the counter. His eyes could slightly be seen from over his shades and he glanced my way. I looked away but I kept my eyes on him as he made his order.

"Do you think we should leave? He looked at you a little too ominously." I nodded my head and I got up from the chair. We took our drinks with us and exited out of the small building. After a few minutes of walking to where we lived, my face started to numb so I lifted my arm to drink some of my tea to hopefully gain some warmth down my throat. I sighed and enjoyed watching the water vapor escape my mouth to form a little frozen cloud in the air. Snow flurries suddenly started drifting from the sky and onto the busy streets of New York landing on it's natives and tourists. I turned my head to see Grace have an enthusiastic look on her face with her tongue sticking out to catch the little, falling flakes before reaching its full descent. I looked away from her again and realized that other young ones and a few older people had reciprocated. My teeth started to chatter inside of my mouth and I saw Grace from the corner of my eye start to laugh. She caught my elbow and turned me to face her.

"Stop for a second, Rudolph. I have an extra scarf in my bag." She told me while reaching for said scarf. Grace's arms slightly touched both of my shoulders as she wrapped it from behind me. Our noses touched and it brought warmth to my red, frozen one. She backed away and tied it up front then looked into my eyes.

"You good now?" She asked with a smirk.

"I could use a heater inside my clothes, but this will have to do for now." I said and it made her laugh. Grace started walking again and I followed behind her as we started down the same frozen sidewalk.

A weird, dark movement caught the corner of my eye as it got up the same time we began walking again. I turned my head backwards and the figure was wearing the same clothes as the other patron in the coffee place we just left.

Who the hell is this guy? Is he following us?

Too frightened to ask any further mental questions, I grabbed Grace's elbow and sped up our pace back home.

"What are you doing? What's going on?" She asked looking at me while I tried to dodge the other pedestrians in front of us quickly.

"That person from the coffee place is trailing us. We need to hurry home." I said quietly to not let the mysterious follower hear us.

"Oh, ok. Let's take this turn right here. We can lose him....or her." She replied  and we made a left where we were two more blocks away from our building.

After passing a couple more skyscrapers, I noticed that no one was behind us anymore. I let out a sigh of relief and went back to our normal pace back into the building. We entered and headed towards the elevators to one of the top floors. Grace and I finally returned to the penthouse and sat down on the comfortable living room couch.

"What do you think that was all about?" She asked as she discarded some of her heavy, winter clothing.

"I don't know. Hopefully, that will be our last encounter with that guy." I told her honestly and jumped at the sound of someone knocking on the door.

"I wasn't expecting anybody." Grace said whispering. I put a finger over my mouth to silence her from speaking. I got up from the couch and made my way to the door with Grace behind me. I motioned for her to stay that way as I tried to look through the peep hole. I couldn't see anybody from the small opening, so I cautiously opened up the door. It was only cracked a few inches when I was pushed to the ground being shoved in by the force of the door. The person from before had entered the room and I quickly got myself up right.

"Go to the kitchen, Grace!" I commanded as the person swung a fist at me. It struck my cheek bone, but I hadn't fell back. I took my rightful turn and aimed for their throat. My attack had landed and as the person started to heave in pain, I kicked them to their side. I was about to strike again when I was pulled to the ground and on my back. I dodged my head to the side when a fist was coming towards me and I bent it to the side at an angle as I heard a crack. A grunt was released and it sounded more feminine than from a man.

The girl shook her hand out, giving me the oppurtunity to have the upper hand. While I was pinning the woman by the hands on her sides, a pan was being swung at me. I reflexively grabbed it by the handle and the hand that was grasping it.

"Grace, what are you doing?!" I asked her frustrately.

"Sorry, I thought she was still on top of you." She told me but the free hand the woman on the floor had was now on my shirt causing it to rip. With the hem of my shirt being torn, I headbutted the girl beneath me making everything spin for a second. The blood that was seeping from the girl's most likely broken nose started to redden the hard wood floor around her head. I noticed that I really did a number on her while I stared at the bruising around her face as she was out cold. Her face resembled something very familiar and that's when it struck me harder than all the punches this woman threw at me.

"Van?"