What They Appear

[holiday_pirner]

She had woken up late, still a little fuzzy headed from the night before. Her first task upon waking was to down a bottle of water, then flop in front of the television and try not to revisit previous events.

After a good amount of vegetating, Holly had made herself some dinner. The brunette was too lazy to change out of her pajamas, so she just pretended she had the confidence to make fuzzy bunnies fashionable. She lugged the full bag of garbage down three flights of stairs and out back.

"Shit, where do they keep the bins?"

This was her first time throwing out trash in her new apartment, and it was hard to orientate herself in the pitch darkness. She grabbed her lighter, flicking it to illuminate her way. It wasn't until after the black bag had been discarded when she heard the noise.

The scuffing of shoes against concrete as they neared her. Holly whirled around.

Comments

[holiday_pirner]

Blinking against the light, she felt a flare of anger rising up like bile. It might have been severely misplaced -- this man had just saved her life -- but who else was there to rail against?

"I was chucking out the trash!" Holly blinked back tears now, and that made her even angrier. She crossed her arms tightly, shivering.

"Do you know how many times I've done this in London? Nothing bad ever happened to me there." The brunette tried to breathe.

[birthright_npc]

"I know. I watched you there too."

His voice was soft, the hint of an accent coloring his words. He took the cigarette out of his mouth, stepped closer to her. She was shaking so much that it was visible, and his free hand touched her shoulder in a gesture that might have been used to calm a terrified animal. He knew what shell shock looked like.

"Breathe through your nose," he advised her calmly. His fingers were still, but she would have been able to feel his warmth through the thin cloth of her pajamas. He'd talked comrades-in-arms out of this state before. He was fortunate she hadn't screamed. Even in this city, someone would have noticed.

"In through your nose, out through your mouth." It was a mantra, one with a mixtures of accents. "Let yourself count to ten."

[holiday_pirner]

"You watched me."

Her voice was flat. She closed her eyes, mentally and physically steadying herself. Ten seconds, and she was looking at him again.

"Who exactly are you?"

There begged the question why a stranger would be watching her, why he would be armed with a crossbow, and why he sounded stuck between an American and a British accent.

"Oh, god. You work for them, don't you?"

[birthright_npc]

"I don't work for the Council."

He said it without inflection. He had nothing against the Council, but their methods were not his methods. He took his hand away from her shoulder, put the cigarette back into his mouth. Bluish smoke escaped from his nostrils as he drew in smoke and then exhaled.

"I have a private party interested in your safety and well-being." Again, his voice was calm, nearly without tone. He had been a soldier for a long time, both professionally and privately. It tended to dull the emotions.

"I wasn't supposed to make contact, but I wanted to make sure he hadn't seriously injured you."

[holiday_pirner]

She shook her head, ponytail swishing over her neck. "Unbelievable. You've been 'watching' me for god knows how long, and I don't even get a name."

The secondhand smoke was sort of calming, at least. "Well, mine's Holly. You already know that, of course." The brunette touched her face.

"How bad is it? Am I deformed?"