𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ━ 𝐬. 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞

━━ . FIVE

Katherine found herself in a very precarious situation.

She let an absolute stranger know where she lived and into her apartment, willingly. Sure, there was that strong possibility of him not putting on a facade or marauding as a superhero during the day and a serial killer at night. Or he could very well be a superhero that saved her life and simply wanted his cloak back. After all, Katherine did not know this man from Adam; there was no way to gauge his intentions for her or if he was the one that was using his powers to make this cloak stay on her.

However, for some reason, she found comfort in his presence.

 In the back of her mind, she knew he did not mean her any harm; nevertheless, she continued to keep her guard up. She had walked in before him and immediately got behind the door, carefully shutting it and making sure her eyes were on him. He had not moved, however, just looked around poised with his hands carefully folded behind his back.

She slowly turned the locks of the door and stood against it for a moment. After a while, she supposed he felt her staring at him, because he glanced over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised and cleared his throat.

"It's rude to stare, you know."

Katherine blinked at him with a scrutinized look. "Oh, so you did hear me?"

He let out a low chuckle in response. "And you could sense me. How?"

"Lucky guess." Katherine nibbled at her bottom lip. "You wouldn't have just let me keep this. Obviously you were going to trail me."

"Hmm",  was all the man mustered, a curious glint in his eyes. It was like he'd come to some miraculous conclusion of the sorts. She wanted to ask, but kept her thoughts to herself.

Katherine cleared her throat. "Well, I don't want you here anymore than you want to be, so..."

She cut him off before he had time to question her more.

Stephan gave her a puzzled look, opening his mouth to respond, but she glided past him and disappeared down the hallway to her bathroom. Of course, he would be curious about that; maybe she could ask him that weird incident she experienced last year. Maybe it was him, maybe it wasn't—but deep down, Katherine knew it had been.

Those eyes of his were an unforgettable scribe on her mind.

She got a look of herself in her bathroom mirror and at the cloak. It was still stuck to her forearm, but she had become quite accustomed to the thick, leathery material; it weighed like cotton, which was the opposite of the feeling. It was certainly not anything she had in her wardrobe or would ever find. Admittedly, it actually looked like a pretty fancy garment—that was if she were planning on being a magician sometime soon.

Katherine paused at the thought and shook her head, grabbing two towels from the bathroom closet and heading back into her living room. The man was still standing in the same exact spot she had left him, and it eased her mind just a bit.

She handed him one of the towels and he stared at it like a foreign object. "Thank you."

Katherine shook her head. "It's the least I can do. I still need to dry this thing for you as well."

"It's a cloak." He paused to look at over at her with amusement and she glowered. "I don't think she takes dry cleaning."

"Well she is getting dry one way or another. Please do not touch anything."

He nodded understandably and she disappeared down the hallway again into the laundry room. As soon as she started turning the dial on the dryer, she felt something shudder against her skin. Katherine froze, shaking her as if such a thing had been possible; surely the man in her living room was using his powers to toy with her.