Hands in the Dark

Chapter Three Stalked by Shadows

Chapter Three Stalked by Shadows

            “Maybe you just did that to yourself in your sleep.” Ruth offered.

            Tara lowered her hand to look at her friend from across the table at the café they were at for lunch with narrowed eyes.

            Ruth was dressed in a pink long sleeved shirt and white turtle neck T-shirt over top and dark brown jeans, her hair was done up in a braid. While Tara was dressed in a white turtle neck, a black tank top, and dark blue jeans. The weather outside had started to do it’s back and forth routine, from warm to cold so there would be times where they would have to dress warm, then become over heated, or the other way around, never the less it was the kind of weather that Tara liked.

            “Hey, it is possible you know.” She said with an honest stare.

            “I don’t think so, first off, my left wrist was grabbed with a left hand and also if you haven’t noticed it’s much bigger than my own, so tell me how the hell it’s possible?!”

            People began to look over wondering what they were talking about. “Tara calm down.” Ruth spoke in a hushed voice. “It was only a thought; I’m just as clueless as you are into how you got that bruise.”

            “I know how I got it, someone grabbed me.” She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest before letting out a huff of annoyance. “This is just plain aggravating, I know what I saw, but apparently I’m the only one who saw it.”

            Ruth took a sip of cola from her straw. “And what exactly did you see?”

            “A hand…”

            “Whose hand?”

            “I don’t know it was just a hand!” Tara snapped as she grabbed her bag and coat before putting her half of the money amount on the table before heading out the door.

            Ruth sighed before placing her amount on the table. “Thank you for the meal.” She said to the owner and followed Tara out the door. “Tara what’s up with you? Ever since Saturday you’ve been in a really bad mood.”

            Tara ran a hand through her hair as she let out a slow breath in the hope to calm herself before stuffing her hands into her jean pockets. “It’s because of what happened at the college, there’s this thing, I don’t know what it is, but it’s been nagging me and nagging me about something. I just don’t know what yet…”

            “Maybe you need to take your mind off things for a bit, why don’t you and I play that Inuyasha game that you have on multiplayer?”

            “But don’t you suck at that game…?”

            She held up her hand and gave a peace sign. “That’s because I’m out of practice, and hey while we are at it, we can talk about the next chapter for our comic.”

            “Are you still going on about that?”

            “I’ll always be going on about that!”

            Still even playing video games, the thought of that ice cold hand still came back to the forefront of her mind, it was so cold, like the feeling of a corps, a feeling Tara still knew too well in her life…

            When Monday came Tara told Ruth that she wanted to get to her college early and do some looking around, Ruth offered to join but Tara declined saying that this was something she became involved in, and wanted no one else to get caught up in it because of her.