'You're going to need to quit your job.' Debbie said softly, looking at the dark brown floorboards of Lisa's now new apartment.
'I can't do that.' Lisa said, 'I can't.'
'Achilles doesn't know where you live now, he can't find you, if you go back to work I'm sure he'll be able to get it out of you, then imagine the trouble you'll be in.'
'I hate this being treated like I'm so powerlessly weak to him, I've only met him once and nothing happened, I'll just ignore him, blank him.'
Debbie sighed, 'He won't like that.'
'Well he can just deal with it. I haven't seen him in days anyway, he's probably given up.' Lisa didn't even understand why they all talked about him like he was some force to be reckoned with, he didn't seem like it to her. Maybe he was a different person now.
Debbie sighed. 'I guess I can't make you, but I strongly advise against this Lisa.'
She had then left. It wasn't that Lisa didn't like Debbie, she didn't really have an opinion on her, it was just she was so adamant on Lisa not doing things, whereas Lisa thought they were all going a bit over the top with the protection. It wasn't like he was going to kill her, right?
Adam was a lot friendlier than Debbie. They hadn't had very long conversations, but Lisa could definitely see them becoming friends, only friends though as she didn't really want Achilles to follow through on his threat. Not that she thought he would.
Adam had left back her belongings a few days ago. Everything had been fine except she knew her mobile phone had been messed with as the minute she had noticed it, she had found a new number on her phone that she definitely hadn't put there. She had deleted it. She really didn't want to have any part in this. If she could have gone to last week when she was about to call, she would have just told herself it wasn't worth it. If only she'd listened to her better judgement.
It had been days since he'd shown up in her apartment and since then, she'd thought about him an awful lot which annoyed her since she'd only met him once and he was already seeming to get at her head. She needed to talk to someone.
She rang her best friend, Alison.
'Hey Alison.' she said when she picked up.
'Hey Lisa, what's up?'
'I was just wondering if you want to hang out, I have something kind of important that I need to talk to someone about.'
'Sure, sure, is everything okay?' Her voice was tinged with concern.
'Just let me explain, it's kinda complicated, wanna go for coffee?'
'Sure, I''l meet you in town in about a half an hour, is that okay?'
'That's cool.'
After walking down, wrapped up in a scarf, Lisa met her best friend outside their favourite coffee shop. Lisa hugged her, it had been so long since they had actually met up and Lisa didn't realise how much she actually needed this. They stepped inside and the ambiance of classical guitar music and the smell of fresh coffee comforted her.
'So,' Alison began as they sat down, 'Tell me everything.'
'Well, I did something stupid last week....' Lisa began.
After she had explained everything, Alison stared at her, open-mouthed.
'Wow.....I mean just wow.....That's quite the fucking mess.'
'Yep.' Lisa said nodding, 'According to the guys at Hire an Incubus, he's some unpredictable maniac.'
'Fuck, what are you going to do?'
'I don't know, that's the problem. He knows who I am now, and I don't think moving apartments is going to stop him from finding me if he's as crazy as I've been told.'
'You could skip town?' Alison suggested, scratching her chin thoughtfully.
'I don't want to, I like it here, and he doesn't actually seem that bad, is that absolutely awful to say?'
'Okay, I have something to tell you too, but promise you'll keep it to yourself, okay?' Alison smiled.
'Of course.'
'Well, a few months ago I rang Hire an Incubus and oh my gosh Lisa, it was the best sex I've ever had!' she giggled, covering her mouth as her face flushed.
'Seriously? Why didn't you tell me? That would've made me much less embarrassed telling you Ali!'
'Sorry gal, but I was too afraid you'd crucify me.'
Lisa sighed, 'Alison, why would I do that? I really don't care what you do in your own time. What was he like?'
'Well, his name was Thom, he looked kind of Scandinavian I think, God Lisa, let me tell ya, I can see why incubi have shot up so much in popularity these days.' She said, smirking.
'If only the one after me wasn't so crazy.' Lisa sighed, putting her hands against her cheeks.
'Look, seriously, I know this is a really crazy situation so there's no way to know how to deal with it, but you're more than welcome to stay with me if you need somewhere to stay to get away.'
'Thanks Alison.' Lisa smiled.
After chatting for a while, they both went shopping, it was nice to just do something normal after the crazy few days.
'So, I've been thinking, why don't we do something Friday night?' Alison said, putting a black dress up against herself, 'What do you think of this?'
'It looks nice, flattering.' Lisa said with a smile, 'Where did you have in mind?'
'We could go to a club or something, take your mind off this crazy shit.'
'Yeah that sounds good....except I've got work on Saturday...' Lisa said, realising with a grimace.
Alison rolled her eyes, 'We'll just not make it a late one then.'
That was exactly what they didn't do.
They ended up going around several different bars throughout the night, and Lisa was getting sufficiently drunker after each one. It was only after stumbling in at four in the morning, did Lisa stop to even think about the fact she had work the following morning.
Waking up and getting dressed nearly killed her. Trying to function with a hangover wasn't her strong point. Walking past Alison, who had crashed on the sofa, she went to leave and walk to work.
She had never appreciated the fact that the shop was always so quiet so much. Her head was pounding, and she decided to have a snooze on the counter. It wasn't until a lady walked in with two children that she woke up quickly and greeted them sleepily as she walked in. The woman looked at her with disdain, quite clearly noticed how hungover she must have looked. After serving them at the till, the woman left and Lisa was back to the solitude, save for a few people coming in and out.
It was dark when she left, the walk home at night was never an easy one. Especially not in the winter when it was subzero temperatures outside. This part of the city was always kind of quiet at night, so she didn't really have to worry about anything happening to her.
However, another advantage of the quietness was that it was always easy to tell when someone was around and it wasn't long before Lisa heard someone fall into step behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see the outline of a man and started to walk faster until she heard a familiar voice.
'Lisa.' His deep voice cut through the silence.
She didn't turn around. 'You.' She breathed, not knowing what emotion she felt at hearing his voice.
'I was wondering when I was going to see you again.'
She heard him walking closer and before he got too close, she turned around to face him.
'Well, here I am.' She laughed softly, not quite able to see his face in the darkness.
'Were you wondering when you were going to see me again?' his voice gave away little emotion.
'I figured I would.'
'That's not what I asked.' He said, moving closer to her. She felt her stomach flutter slightly.
'Yes.' she blurted out without meaning to, internally cursing herself. So much for blanking him.
He just gave a soft laugh in reply.
'What are your intentions with me?' She said more seriously, trying to sound like she meant business.
'I think that's pretty simple Lisa, what am I?'
'I...' Lisa didn't want to answer because she already knew what he was going to say. So at her silence, he continued.
'I want you and I want you to want me, nothing else.' Lisa felt herself blush at this and hoped he couldn't see, but with her luck he probably had night vision or something.
'Then why am I being told repeatedly that you're dangerous and I should avoid you at all costs?'
She could almost hear him smirk. 'I don't know, you tell me. Let me ask you something, are you afraid of me? Be honest, I won't care.'
Lisa couldn't lie to him, even though she was going completely against what she was being told she looked down and softly replied 'No.'
'Good.'
When she didn't say anything, he spoke again.
'Are you walking alone?'
'Yes.'
'I'll walk you home.''
Lisa stopped when he said that. She wasn't supposed give away where she lived. That was the whole point of why she moved. 'It's fine, um..I'll be fine.'
'You don't have to tell your babysitter.' Something in his voice changed then, she could only imagine he meant Adam and that the slight bitterness was directed at him. But it was only momentarily and then it changed to something else less petulant. 'Come on, let's go.'
Lisa knew there wasn't any way of getting around this so within a few minutes of walking she decided to just completely call his bluff and walk somewhere that wasn't her apartment and then try and shake him off.
She still felt slightly sick from her hangover and she tried staring at the pavement to focus herself and after a few minutes of this he must have noticed because he asked
'Feeling alright?'
'You don't miss a beat do you? I'm just hungover, no big deal.'
He snorted, it was the first noise he'd made to show humour besides those deep laughs. 'Last night must have been fun. What did you do?'
'I got drunk and danced, not much to it really.'
His gaze shifted down from straight ahead to her and he asked something strange; 'Meet anyone?'
She felt how she answered this might be the difference between her arriving home in one piece or not.
'No, I'm not currently looking for a relationship, thank you very much.'
'Good that I don't do relationships then.'
His statement made her feel odd. Obviously she had no intentions with Achilles, but surely if he was trying to make her want him so badly, he wouldn't be so nonchalant?
She decided to chance her arm at trying to find out more about this guy. 'Have you ever been in a relationship?'
'No.' his voice suddenly went plain and emotionless. This guy was a mystery.
'Would I make an exception?' She said, holding her breath.
He just laughed. 'I thought I was supposed to be doing the flirting?'
Quickly changing the subject, she crossed the street to an apartment complex that wasn't hers. 'Here we are.' She said cheerily, hoping he would buy it.
He saw straight through her.
'You can explain why you're deciding to lie to me some other time.'
She decided to play dumb. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'
'This isn't where you live.'
'How do you know that?' She said, crossing her arms defensively.
'I've been around long enough to read body language.'
'It's dark outside.'
'I can see perfectly fine in the dark.'
Of course he fucking can Lisa thought to herself angrily.
'Fine, you got me, I'm going home now, don't follow me.' She tried to sound like didn't give a toss what he did but secretly she was praying he'd just listen to her.
'I won't do anything you don't want me to do.' he said, his voice carefree.
It then started to rain as she was about to walk away.
'Fucking typical.' She hissed at the ground.
'Take my jacket.' Achilles said thoughtfully, holding out a grey hooded jacket.
'I don't want it.'
'Whatever you want.' he said softly as she turned to walk away from him. She wasn't prepared to wear that walking home intoxicated by his musky smell, or she knew for a fact she would have turned around halfway and just let him have her. So much for her supposed to be avoiding a crazy monster. Or whatever he was.
Walking in to her apartment, seeing Alison had left, she dumped her bag and shoes on the ground and walked towards her room to take a shower. The rain hadn't done her hair any justice and it clung to like black snakes. The hot water jetted down her body, calming her down and heating her up. It was her favourite place to be.
Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped her towel around her body and realised she had left her phone in her handbag, she walked out of the room to go find her bag.
She screamed when she saw Achilles leaning against the grey leather sofa.
'What the fuck are you doing here? I told you not to follow me!' She screamed at him.
'I guess I told a lie too.' he said, his now red eyes twinkling.
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