Chasing the Night || a moey au

Chapter Four

-Chapter Four-

 “Um, excuse me?” a voice coming from the nearby car asked.

 It did not sound like Tiffany’s voice, or anyone I even knew. I let out a puff of air from the bottom of my stomach, loosening my tightened muscles in the process.

 “Yes?” I breathed, concluding it was safe enough to look at the stranger. It was a young woman, older than me though. Her short brunette hair pulled into a stubbly high ponytail. Through the dim of the back seat, I saw a little girl dressed up in what looked like pink, and bows in the two ponytails she had on either side of her head.

 I opened my mouth, tempted to let out a small “awe” but the heat in my blood from the last situation with Tiffany would not allow me to show any happy emotion. Even my hands shook from the memories of that one night.

 “Do you happen to know where a ballet school is? Under the name of “Teeny Dance?”

 I coughed a laugh at the silly name, obviously a dance school for little kids. But I remembered the small dance school near Paul’s bakery when I sometimes turned left instead of right on my morning walk. I even ran into some kids with little tight buns and small pink shoes on my way to who knows where.

 “Uh, yes,” I replied, checking behind me again, paranoid that I would see Tiffany jogging up behind me, “If you don’t mind, my home is just a bit away from you location, could I hop in with you and give the directions along the way.”

 “Of course!” she smiled, leaning over to open to door with me. “I got it,” I mumbled as I pulled the handle for myself. I remembered the amount of times I had gotten into a strangers car, not long ago as well. I have never gotten into someone’s car with this intention though, and with the other person being so nice.

 I buckled my seatbelt and looked into the back seat, waving at the little girl in a short pink tutu. She covered her face with her little hands, cheeks turning a shade darker than her dress.

 “That’s Amber,” the woman laughed, “and I’m Christie.”

 I nodded, “Hello, Amber,” I squeaked. She peaked through the cracks between her finger tips, eyes wide. I chose not to mention my own name to Christie, for safety purposes.

 “Okay so…” I started with the directions, pointing where Christie should go, and receiving multiple nods from her every so often. We turned at corners and stopped at stoplights until I noticed the large sign reading “Paul’s Open Oven” in the corner of my eye.

“Yeah just keep going straight down here and it should be on your left,” I finished, keeping my eye out for the wooden building painted a pale blue.

 “Right there!” I pointed, as soon as I saw the bright colour.

 “Thank you so much!” Christie replied, pulling into the parking lot. I opened the door as the car came to a halt.

 "I can walk from here,” I said, before grabbing my shopping bags and heading back towards the café, “Thank you for the drive.”

 And thank you for getting me away from Tiff, for now. I said to myself before disappearing back to Paul’s, hearing a faint “Thank you!” from behind me.

 ***

 Chrssh, Chrssh, Chrssh.

 I ran my hands down my skirt, flattening the creases to distract myself from the almost painful sounds. The amount of times I’ve heard the sounds couldn’t be counted, even if I tried. It’s so hard to ignore it as well. Just the sound of grass smashing could have been stabbed into my skin. It sent shivers down my spine like the sharpest point of the glass shard was being pressed into my back, cutting precisely into the creases of my spinal cord.