Chasing Trails

Chapter 1: An Unusual Night

Thank you for reading <3 - Lela

It was 11.26 p.m. in the evening. The smell of black coffee filled in the room like cheap car perfume as it boiled to concentration. Mastura's head bobbed from side to side in rhythm to the 'tap, 'tap', 'tap' sound, her fingers jumped from one letter-key to another and for the thirteenth time on that night, she yawned. She remembered that it's bad manner to let one's mouth gape like a goldfish's while yawning so she covered her mouth at the last minute. A drop of tear trailed down her cheek from her bloodshot eyes and she wiped it off, her hand felt coarse against her smooth face. All those long hours she spent for the passion of her life came with a tax of calluses on her fingers. She was tired, but being the hard-headed investigative journalist that she is, she was not about to give in to the drowsiness. She refused to chug another cup of coffee because at that time of the night, she was too deep into the case to stop writing for toilet breaks.

She swayed her legs to and fro in a futile attempt to shun the sleepiness. The white cat sitting cosily next to her feet breathed softly. The cat was her only company tonight. She yawned tiredly (again), her eyes closed for a moment to reveal two panda-like spots under her eyes. She longed to sink her body down onto a nearby couch. But she can't and she won't. Writing pays her bills and feeds her little family. But, more than anything, it quenches her thirst for tracking trailing crumbs. She had to finish retyping the few remaining pages of her manuscript to her latest analysis -it started a feeding frenzy of media hence she continued striking the iron while it's hot. There are only two of them in her 'family', but as long as they are together, she's happy. Her little one was sleeping in the next bedroom, all tight and safe.

It was 1.30 a.m. in the morning when she finally finished the last paragraph with a period. The endless zizzing in her head that she always gets when writing finally fizzled into thin air. She saved the document and ran a quick spellcheck application through her manuscript. There was not much correction to be made so she armed herself with a strong determination and stretched. She cracked her neck and her eyes -like eagles looking for victims -spied for typos and missing punctuation marks here and there. As an avid writer, she won't make the mistake of depending on technology too much.

She finalized everything at 2.00 a.m. and made copies of the file. The original one was saved in her trusty black pen drive bearing designs of flowers. The laptop was turned off and she walked to the couch while mumbling a sorry for waking up the white critter slumbering at her feet. She curled herself, her knees met her chest and her hand snaked into the side of the couch to fish for a small pillow to cushion her head.

The pillow didn't even get to make its way to her head when she dozed off into a much needed sleep. The fluorescent lamp lighting the room flickered for a moment. The shadow of a figure looming over the house's window disappeared discreetly from the wash of light illuminating the apartment's walkway. It returned to the darkness and left only its footprints right under the window of Mastura's house.

*Author's Note*

EDIT: I decided to split some of the paragraphs to another chapter because I think the chapter is too long (^_^U)

Did you enjoy the story? It was my first time writing on Wattpad, I would appreciate kind,constructive criticisms on anything that I can improve on.

Please vote if you find my story interesting (^0^)/

I will try to update the story every two weeks.

Love, - Lela

*The media do not belong to me, credits go to its rightful owner

© 2017 Lela Rentaka