Crystalline Constellations

S1 E9: Mind Over Matter [Part 1/2]

Winter had so far taken its time settling in, but now it had resorted to applying its full blast in terms of the weather, with frost beginning to creep up windows and blades of grass in the area and the wind sometimes picking up enough that it could be heard loudly howling everywhere, small droplets of rain accompanying it, as this was whatever was left over from the recent raining that had taken place in the evenings. It was now Saturday, December 22nd, and this meant that it was currently the first day of the Christmas holidays. 2 weeks of freedom from work, school and in Jenny and Eleanor's case, uni, especially on the 25th itself. Sandra had looked into getting a weekday evening library job like the other pair of women since she'd arrived in the country, too. 

That Saturday afternoon, this brunette herself was walking down the streets, feeling gentle little rain droplets land on top of her cheeks, as she was on her way into town to see if she could find anything in the shops that Jen, Ells, Ludwig or Feliciano might like for Christmas. She'd already made some art depicting the trio of females with some of the Hetalia characters, but she also wanted to try and get them some things in real life now that they'd finally met in person, and she'd told them that she was simply going out to look for more job applications, providing a thrill due to the secrecy. Because of the pyrokinesis flowing through her brain, heart and hands, she'd become more resistant to the cold weather, sort of like how Jenny had.

After only about 10 minutes taking a slow, steady walk down the streets and past other tower blocks, she came to a juddery, abrupt stop right outside the car park to her own block of flats she'd rented one in, when her eyes caught the sight of a way-too-familiar white Jeep Grand Cherokee parked in one of the slots, prompting her orbs to widen. And the additional sight of the man stood next to it, one hand on its bonnet, made her blood run cold and icy, and her feet to be frozen to the ground in pure, fresh fear. 

He had his back to her, so at least she hadn't been noticed, but the fact that he was standing right there, only about 20 feet away from her, having travelled about 6,000+ miles to hunt her down, brought back all the horrid memories of a week and a half ago back in the U.S, of the countless needles jabbed into her shoulder and the chaffing of the restraints on her wrists and ankles, turning those areas of her skin red, and of the lobotomy he'd threatened to carry out after another few days. She also remembered how once, she ended up giving him a first degree burn each on both of his hands in self defence, and then him hitting her afterwards because of it. And the earlier memories resurfacing about her sessions she was forced into having with him as her psychiatrist when she was younger were adding to her building feeling of worry right now. 

And here he was, with the young American woman not even being able to break her eyes away, paralysed with immense dread. He hadn't changed a bit in the last few days, as his grey hair was still in a buzz cut like she remembered and he still had a short and stocky body build, and even from being 20 feet away, she could still make out the vivid burn mark she'd given him on his hand which was on his Jeep's bonnet, while the other hand was inside his lab coat pocket, most likely to protect it from the cold weather. He was obviously stood here, right outside the block of flats she'd moved in to, to catch her when she returned, so he'd clearly been digging through the type of files that would tell him where she lived. 

At this moment in time, Sandra didn't even dare breathe for fear of being heard, so, keeping her lips tightly sealed and making as little movement as possible, with the wind still whipping through her dark brown locks of hair and making a couple of them wild and frizzy-looking, she turned around in order to walk away back down the street and then leg it when she was far enough away. Luckily, Peugot still had his back to her. As she turned around, she was shaking a lot more due to the fear and suspense than the cold, and she began to ever so slowly tiptoe away back in the direction she'd come from, but she only managed to make it about 4 or 5 paces before she very nearly jumped in startlement at the fact that the toe of her boot stepping into a small puddle on the pavement had created a splash noise, to which she saw his head start to turn around to look in her direction.