Soulmates

Fenris & Fiona / Part one

It's still early when Fiona leaves her flat. Not as early as usual though. She's late. Not for a meeting or a job. Fiona doesn't really do that anymore. She's living a life off the grid. That is how she would explain it to her friends, if she had any. The truth is that Fiona is entirely alone. No family - that mattered - left alive. No friends, not even the obnoxious boss or the crazy cat lady down the hall. In fact, she is pretty sure that she herself would be categorized as the crazy cat lady down the hall herself. She doesn't own a cat though. Just plant in the corner of her tiny living room.

Either way, Fiona is late. She pulls up her hoodie and tugs away the strands of hair that managed to peek out the sides. Like a shadow she creeps along the sidewalk, turning right at the end of the street. Her breath steadily getting back to her, she unlocks her phone just briefly to double check the time before tucking it back in her pocket.

There aren't many people out yet. It's somewhere after five on a Thursday. Anyone who is out right now is out with a plan. Like her. Fiona loves to fantasize where these people are off to. Maybe some of them are off to the airport, catching a flight back home for Christmas. She would've loved to have a place to go back to. Her last Christmas spend with actual people was three years ago. When everything was perfectly fine. When her world was just like any other person rushing in the early morning.

She reaches the house after twenty minutes. A tall, broad building cloaked in darkness still. There is a small driveway leading up to a massive, wooden door. Fiona saw this house many times before. She knows the door is a bold red and the windows have curtains in matching colors that are always open until five – when the lady of the house closes them – unless of course it is summer. In the summer the curtains are pulled back all the way and reveal a tasteful interior if you are close enough.

Fiona stands in front of the driveway for a short minute before creeping up to the window at the far right. Her heartbeat is beating rapidly in her chest. She closes her eyes for a second, catching her breath and finally she pulls a small device out of her jacket pocket. Just another minute or three later she is making her way through the window. A window that the lady always leaves unlocked and can easily be pushed open from the outside as Fiona knows from all of her research.

She finds herself standing in the enormous kitchen. White tiles shimmering under her feet. Dark marble cupboards and a stove the size of her entire kitchen back at the flat. There is no time to gush now, Fiona thinks. She hurries from room to room as quietly as possible until she makes her way through the house to the study. A large room that makes any library that Fiona knows look awfully small.

There is a large desk with a single locked drawer. Fiona removes one particular book from the shelves and fishes out from underneath it; a key. Her smile widens as she turns the key in the lock and opens the drawer but before she can take out whatever is hidden inside she hears a creaking noise by the door.

A tall man dressed fully in black stands before her. His almost white hair glistening in the moonlight that found him through the window. Casting an eerie shadow on his face. He doesn't speak. He doesn't do much of anything and Fiona would've been unsure how to respond if this hadn't been the ninth time she encountered him on one of her quests. So she sighs, grabs whatever she can from the drawer, tucks it into her pockets and walks slowly toward him.

'We best be quiet this time.' She says calmly, the corners of her mouth curled up ever so slightly. You'd think he didn't respond but Fiona noticed immediately how his hands twitched.

She doesn't have to wait very long before his right hand shoots up toward her and she has to duck away. He tries again and again and again until Fiona's back is pressed against a chair. She punches him in his stomach, hits him with a full fist against his cheek and tries to duck out of the way before he returns the favor but this time she isn't quick enough and one of his large hands grabs onto her arm, dragging her close to him. Her face inches away from his and he remains unfazed.

His fingers tighten around her arm and with his free hand he finds her pocket, already digging for treasure. Fiona wriggles around in his grip, jolting her knee up and he tightens his grip on her even more. That is going to leave a nasty bruise, she thinks as she feels his nails digging in deeper.

She looks up at him. His face blank, eyes dead, mouth pressed into a thin line. One of his hands tickling the inside of her jacket pocket, the other creating an impossibly large bruise on her arm. His eyes, even in the dark are revealed to her as light blue. Light and dead, Fiona thinks. Now, how will she get out of this mess. She won't let him get away with all of her hard earned treasure and thus she does the only thing that comes to mind when looking at his complete lifeless facial features. She pushes herself up to her toes, grabs at his shirt with her free hand and plants her lips firmly onto his, keeping her eyes open long enough to see the shock form in his. She keeps her lips there until she feels his grip loosen enough for her arm to free and his hand to slip out of her pocket, only then does she let go, pushing him back and rushing toward the door, creating as much sound as she goes.

When she reaches the doorshe turns back to face him, waving before slamming the door shut behind her andvanishing once more.