Soulless

Walking alone

As the sun sets and the sky is painted gold, Cerise buttons up her deep green coat and ties up the long black laces on her shoes, tucking the excess string gently into the sides, "Will?" She calls until a familiar figure appears at the top of the stairs, staring down at her, "I'm just going out for a walk down to the florist, I shan't be long, but, do you have any preferences?" She asks.
"I would say roses, but you can never go wrong with sunflowers, do you think they'll have those?"
"Of course, sunflowers it is then, I'll see you later, no more than maybe 20 minutes."
"Alright, but be careful, okay?" Will stares at her longingly, and it might just be her seeing things, but Cerise could've sworn that she saw a flicker of something different in his eyes, something that said don't go.
Concentrating back on to the boy, Cerise just nods and steps out of the doorway, there is a final click from the lock, and then she is gone.

It's peaceful walking down the street at this time, and it is less than a 10 minute walk until she looks up to see the familiar, painted , wooden sign of the florist, reading "Charles's Fresh Flowers" , and after smiling to herself, she walks in as Charles, the owner, comes out from the cupboard, "ah, Cerise, it has been a short while, has it not? I'm dearly sorry to hear about your loss, but what can I get for you? It's on me today."
"Charles, indeed has it been some time, and thank you, it means a lot, just a bunch of sunflowers for today. How are you doing recently?"
"Oh of course, coming right up, business has been doing well recently, actually. And my wife is pregnant with a girl, what do you think we should call her?" Charles looks at her, hopefully, "My mother's cousin's name was Annaliese Rose, and in my opinion it's a lovely name, but either way, congratulations, I'm sure you both will be very happy with a new addition to the family." Cerise says as Charles comes to the counter with a large bouquet of bright, beautiful Sunflowers, "Here you are, Cerise, now take good care, and I won't hold you any longer, as it's getting quite late, stay safe!"
"Thank you Charles, you too." Is all she says as brings the bouquet into her arms and walks out of the store, a smile plastered across her face, it's a good day.

It's a good day so far.

As Cerise was walking down the path, the clouds began to gather together in large formations, covering the sky in a canopy of dull grey, it looked as if it might rain, but that's not was worrying her, it was the constant footsteps, echoing her own, a few paces behind that started to hold her attention. And with her attention diverted, added on to some heavy breathing, and a rapidly quickening pace, it was just moments before the bouquet was on the floor in front of her, spread out along the pavement carelessly. Damn it. But she couldn't just leave it after how ruined some of the flowers might have been, so without a second thought, she was on her hands a knees, salvaging any of the flowers she could, and doing her best to gather the petals that had broken off. Until she heard the footsteps again, but this time there were much closer, and as she brought her head up she could see a pair of boots, on a figure staring down at her, she couldn't see the face behind the shapeless black hood hanging over it, but she could see a faint smile as the person crouched down in front of her face and violently grabbed her jaw, and swung a punch directly in between her eyes, it had happened to fast that she didn't have time to act before the person had stood up again and kicked her in the ribs, not just once but again and again, until Cerise was on the floor curled up into a tight ball, choking on blood and saliva. That's when the person reached for her arm and twisted it until it clicked a few times, and then just wiped off their boots and walked off, leaving the mess off red and yellow left on the pavement.