Deadly Lover

3. Alone

Myra

I came to realise quickly that four officers were probably too many people.

They were like bells glued to my side that clang with every little movement I make. It also didn't help that they could be spotted from five miles away because of their giant bodies and painfully obvious guns. Strange looks were casted her way every time she went to the markets, to the police station, everywhere. Although they would be suitable shields from bullets.

There was the only one positive thing of having the officers around. They were constantly near me, so I was never alone. The negative; I was never alone.

If I was in the kitchen, they were too. If I was scouring the markets, they were too. If I was trying to fall asleep, they weren't, but they would take shifts standing around my room. I knew this because I had stayed up the first three nights they were watched over me. I also knew that at midday, two of the officers left to report back to the chief. It took me a bit longer to recognise this because I spent a week trying to ignore them all, but once I learnt this helpful detail, I came up with a plan for some alone time.

I moved the curtain to the side and stared through the kitchen window when the door slammed shut, watching as two officers walked away from my house and down the street. When they were nothing but tiny specks in the distance, I moved.

My house was small with four rooms and a short hallway. I never lived anywhere grand because in my experience, that was how someone was noticed. The walls were layered with cream wallpaper, something I put up when I saw the cracks and stains that had formed over time from trading owners. I moved new furniture into the house and got more candles to create a space that I could actually look forward to coming back to.

But what I loved the most about the house were the doors and windows. Silent, clean, and plentiful. Easy to access, easier to leave. Or rather, easier for me.

I reached into my pocket. I had two keys in my hand: one for the windows, and one for the doors. Of course, they would probably break through the door or smash a window and crawl through, but by the time they noticed I was gone, I would already be too far ahead of them.

The officers had become comfortable lately, so they didn't look up from their newspapers as I stalked around the house and locked everything, except for one door. I made sure to lock that one once I was outside. They never noticed me through the window.

~~~~*~~~~

I couldn't help myself. My lips curved into a smile as I strolled down the lively markets. It felt refreshing to escape those officers, I'd been feeling so claustrophobic lately.

My eyes glazed over the colourful market display, stopping short on some bread. My mouth watered at the sight of it, but I tore my gaze from the display to the marketer. He scanned the crowd, calling out to passersby after passerby with his hands full of food. He didn't notice my hand swipe over the display before I walked away. I pocketed the bread before strolling to the next stand. Once my pockets dragged my coat down, I walked down the road.

The gravel path slowly faded into dirt, and the markets faded into trees. My feet crunched against fallen leaves from the woods around me, the sun streaming through the leaves of the trees to the vibrant grass ahead of me. Birds sung above me; the wind gently blew my hair from under my hood before I pushed it off my head.

After a few minutes of walking through the flowery glade I heard water rushing. I had found the lake a few years ago when the blacksmith had seen me snatch a small knife from his workshop, and I lost him in the woods and stumbled across the lake. I stayed there for a few hours that day, and a few hours the next morning, then it became a habit to visit.

The lake was clearer than I remembered. Fish swam around the water, darting away when I sit by the rushing water and emptied my pockets. I laid all the food out on my handkerchief and looked at my feast with a smile. It had been a while since I had a picnic.

The bread was delicious, the kebabs were amazing, and I was about to throw a grape into my mouth when I froze. I stayed silent for a few long moments. All I could hear was the water and my heartbeat. There was no singing from birds, no rustles of bunnies, just...

I whip around, my eyes darting from tree to tree.

It was too quiet.

Normally I'd prefer silence, but that was before I saw someone get murdered.

I didn't wait for a sign; I picked up my handkerchief and folded it before shoving it into my pocket. The rest of my food tumbled onto the grass, but I was already walking away before I could see the grapes roll into the lake.

Pebbles rolled beneath my shoes as I rushed along the lake, my eyes never leaving the tree line. It took me half the time it used to take me to get back to the market, a few minutes after that, I was back on my road.

There was a group of officers lingering in front of my house, and I sped up when I noticed that Finnis was one of them.

When he noticed me, I thought the few hairs on his head were about to set alight.

"Where the fuck were ya?" He yelled as he stormed toward me, throwing his hands around furiously. "Ya demand more men to protect ya, and then ya up and leave!"

I just nod along, apologising convincingly and telling him I thought I heard something and got scared and ran. I was too dazed to process what was happening. I didn't know if I was going crazy or if I was being reasonable. Finnis just sighed and told me to go back inside, that he would visit tomorrow to discuss the plan for finding more evidence on Atticus Havélock.

I did it all without a complaint, I just wanted the walls to protect me. There were people standing across my house watching everything unfold, and my body shivered from all of the eyes following me walk through my door with six officers. They didn't say anything, they never did, and followed me to my room. I fell onto my bed and rushed to hide under my blanket.

But I was wide awake. I didn't know if I would be able to fall asleep ever again. I couldn't feel it then, but when I think back to the lake, I recognised the feeling.

Somebody was there, and of course it scared me, but what kept me awake until sunrise was wondering why they didn't kill me when they had the chance.