Two True Limits

CHAPTER I

From the corner of my eye I saw her: a figure of a woman at the slant of a glimmering ledge, peering atop one of the city's highest skyscrapers. Her line of sight remained continually searching, seeking, spotting - a gaze that roamed from left to right, scanning the entirety of the surroundings below her.

In the midst of the afternoon where thousands of people walked the streets of downtown's most bustling intersection, how likely was she to find what she was looking for? It puzzled me, but through sheer deduction it was evident that the mysterious figure was in search of something. In fact, there resonated a gut intuition inside of me that hinted she was hunting for something. You could feel it from the way she observed the passive crowd that carried on with their day - that carried on with their lives. She was a hawk pin-pointing her next victim.

I did not hesitate to sit and rest on the nearest bench around me. There were many of them situated all over the compound of these major banks along the financial district. I casually took my time, pretending that it was the hour of my small break. There was no way I would risk making any obvious moves - I couldn't look peculiar in comparison to the rest of the unknown faces passing by around me. After purposely untying and re-tightening the laces of my shoes while subsequently flicking out my wrist to check the time, I slowly shifted my attention towards the figure once more.

There she still stood, her chestnut-brown hair gracefully blowing with the soft gusts of wind. The sharper I looked though my squinting sight, the more detail I could identify of her physical appearance. Her face, uncovered by any hood or headgear, carried the look of retribution. But her eyes – the unwavering focus in her eyes remained fixated on the people below her. From the distance between us, I could not tell her age nor the size of her body. Regardless, she stood there with the utmost poise and composure.

The senses of my ears caught the sounds of individuals nearby. A man dressed in his grey double-breasted top coat sat undisturbed in his own little world across from me, minding his own business as he hungrily chewed the hotdog he purchased from the street vendor close by. A joyful couple held hands at the corner of the street waiting to cross the road as they shared a small conversation about their day so far. The entire ambience meshed together with the honking of horns along with the sounds of vehicles driving to and fro, mixed with the occasional halt of tourist buses and public streetcars heading in every possible direction.

In my head, I wondered how this woman would ever be able to find what it was she truly searched for, given such a busy, complicated, clustered area. I continued to stare directly at her not breaking away from the first moment I laid my eyes on the strange figure, trying to figure out what it was she truly desired - what it was she could possibly be seeking.

And that was when I made the first mistake.

Our eyes met. A faint sparkle glimmered in the vicinity of her profile – it was definitely not her smile. It came from the area of her hands. With no emotional reaction, she implausibly jumped from the top of one building to the next, advancing closer and closer towards me.

So much for me trying to be cautious.

Immediately, I stood up and tried to act natural. Panic would only make it easier for the suspect to spot me - although it seemed that she already has. Instinctively, I still frequently peeked my head behind my back just to measure how close of a distance the woman was from my current position. I knew she would not be too far, but her exact location was something I was completely unaware of. To better protect myself from being detected, I began to walk at a uniform pace through the packed sidewalks of the city - blending myself in with the seemingly busy, infinite crowd. It was hard for me to process the thought that had just unexpectedly hit me. Out of all the people she could have been looking for, her target was me.