While You Were Sleeping

Chapter 2

The air was freezing, as was expected in London in the middle of December. I pulled my thick black wool coat tighter around my neck, making a mental note to actually remember mittens next time. I couldn’t help but think of that cute pair of knitted mittens with snowflakes on them that Connor had given me for Christmas last year. Except they were sitting at home on the small table next to my front door.

Just my luck, of course.

I plugged my headphones in my ears, turning up the volume on my old-school iPod so I didn’t have to hear the heavy winds or the distant honking of angry commuters finishing their workday and just as anxious to get home as me. The sun was setting later and later recently, as it was coming closer to winter. The dull dusk did nothing to lift my spirits as I rushed along the back streets of London, wanting to get back to my small apartment as soon as possible.

I was dreaming of a warm cup of tea and the chick-flick marathon that was on tv that night when I heard a loud screeching, just around the back street. I made it a point to travel along smaller streets whenever I could; I couldn’t stand the bustle of the big city. Ironic, because I was the one who’d chosen to move to London. Also ironic because, had I chosen any other street that evening, it would’ve completely changed the course of the next few months.

The screech of metal on metal echoed through the abandoned street, so loud I could hear over my almost full-volume music. I pulled out my headphones immediately, shoving them in my pocket as I walked towards the sound. It was now deadly quiet in the old commercial street, leaving it quite unnerving. I walked cautiously around the corner, where the sound had originated from.

Don’t get me wrong, I generally stayed out of people’s way. I was just that kind of girl. I didn’t like to get too involved in anything, so I’d always kept my distance. It made it difficult to make real friends, but that never bothered me much. I just left people alone, and in return they had left me alone. I’d always been the loner, and I truly didn’t mind.

Usually I wouldn’t walk towards something that was so obviously out of the ordinary, and I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was that pulled me around that corner, but I instantly felt nauseous as I took in the scene in front of me.

I was never good with blood, and there was plenty of that.

I gasped quietly but audibly as I watched two large men standing over a crumpled figure in the middle of the street, the blood aforementioned in a snowy red pool at their feet. They’d been leaning over the figure on the ground, but had both turned their attention to me when they’d obviously heard my horrified gasp. I couldn’t make out their faces in the shadows of the impending evening, but one guy nudged the other and after inflicting one stiff, powerful kick each to the crumpled figure on the ground, they both hopped in the massive white pickup truck that only looked slightly damaged and hit the pedal to floor, gunning it down the street.

I didn’t need to think about what had just happened; my mind couldn’t focus on that. All it was able to think of was the dark figure on the ground, silent and unmoving, covered in blood. I struggled to maintain my composure as I rushed through the snow-layered street and finally to the pool of blood, tainting the snow a sickening red. I cringed, trying not to over-analyze the injuries on the man curled up on the ground. Luckily his heavy black coat covered most of his body, but he was still unmoving and that terrified me.

I kneeled down cautiously, tentatively reaching a hand out towards him, reaching to remove the hood from his head. My next move would’ve been to search for his wallet so that when I called the ambulance I would tell them his information. Of course, seeing that head full of chocolate brown curls stopped any proper, rational thoughts. It can’t be him.