Bruised (A GTA 5 Trevor Philips FanFiction)

Catherine

A pair of large, haunted green eyes met with mine when I turned to see who had just spoken. A middle aged woman with skin as pale as mine and shoulder length red hair stood right behind me, wringing her hands as if she were nervous about approaching me. She was pretty in a type of subtle Plain Jane sort of way. I raised a curious eyebrow at her -  no one outside of Trevor, Chef or Ron had ever addressed me as Doc before.

"Depends on who's asking", I cautiously replied, automatically suspicious. Was this a new tactic the FIB was trying to do? To send a harmless-looking older woman to try and make small talk with me in a public setting and let my guard down? If anything, this was having the opposite effect as I was thinking about the gun case I always kept in my car. I also still had my knife strapped faithfully to my calf.

"My name is Catherine", she timidly introduced herself. "May I sit with you?"

I cast a glance outside the large display window, watching Ron as he sat trying to look inconspicuous in his SUV. I wondered if he saw this woman randomly talking to me and was growing wary himself. Turning back to face her, I saw she herself was looking around, almost as if she were afraid of being followed. The nervous energy she produced reminded me quite a bit of Ron.

I decided to cut her a little slack. "Sure", I replied, gesturing to the empty chair across from me.

"I'm so sorry to intrude", she apologized as she sat down, still nervously wringing those hands, causing me to feel a little on edge myself. "And I'll confess right now, I did actually follow you here when I managed to escape."

Escape? Follow? Danger words if I ever heard them.

"Who the hell are you?", I demanded, dropping the pleasantries. This woman had been following me for I don't know how long and I didn't like it one bit. She looked so average, it was easy to not notice her in a crowd and my paranoia grew even more. And escaped? Was she some kind of lunatic?

"I'm sorry", she hurriedly apologized yet again. "That wasn't the right way to start this conversation. It's just..." She took another look around her before leaning over to say in almost a whisper, "If they knew I was gone, they'd send all their guys to come looking for me, and I don't have much time."

"Okay, you're gonna have to rewind, lady", I frankly remarked. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but it all seems very strange and, honestly, you're giving off these negative vibes that I'm not digging at all. Now if you don't mind-"

"Bruise is my creation", she whispered fearfully, interrupting me.

Suddenly, it were as if a vacuum had been turned on to suck all the noise out of this place. At that moment, all I could hear was her and my racing heart as I tried to piece together what I just learned. I thought I must have misheard her at first. No way did she just say what I thought she said.

I widened my eyes in surprise as I myself now leaned towards her. "That new strain of meth?" I quietly asked, unable to keep the shock from my voice. Really, it was this normal-looking, seemingly innocent woman behind all the visceral madness the media was reporting about?

She nodded as she again tried to keep an eye on her surroundings. She was certainly acting as if she were fearful for her life, I'll give her that. Still, how was I to know if she was speaking the truth?

"Why should I believe you?", I questioned, my hand instinctively starting to reach down for the knife I kept strapped to me.

She bit her lip, seeming skittish as she rolled up the sleeve of her shirt to reveal what looked like multiple cigarette burns and knife marks scarring her lily-white flesh, all the way up her arm.