Chapter 24: Well she's a strong one.
I didn't look directly at her; instead I was cautious enough to keep my eyes on things near her, I had no idea if she was the sensitive type so it was best to be prepared either way.
' I kept a safe distance from her, sometimes pausing to look in a shop window if she paused at a crosswalk, sometimes crossing the street to parallel her path.
She led me on a winding route, away from the main shopping drag and into a quieter, more residential area with tree-lined streets and rows of neat townhouses. The foot traffic thinned out as my unease grew.
"I wonder where she's going, though," I muttered under my breath, careful to keep my voice low. My legs were starting to protest. "She's been walking for an awful long time."
' So this is one of the perks of a one star mission then?' I thought, a trickle of sweat tracing a path down my forehead, despite the cool afternoon.
'A one-star mission is starting to look a whole lot harder than a zero. And yet, I have a sinking feeling this isn't even the hard part.' A helpless sigh escaped me. What was I doing? Following a weak looking college girl through a quiet neighborhood.
I knew it was to complete the mission but my actions were begining to border on unlawful at this rate.
Up ahead, Veronica reached a T-intersection. Without hesitating, she took a sharp right turn around the corner of a brick building and disappeared from view.
My eyes constricted. 'Did she notice me?!' A bolt of panic shot through me. Had my amateur surveillance been that obvious? My pace quickened from a casual walk to a brisk, hurried stride.
I reached the corner, my back pressing against the rough brick, and I risked a quick, glancing peek around the edge.
The side street was empty. Quiet. Lined with parked cars and the back entrances of shops. No sign of Veronica.
"She couldn't have gone far, right?" I whispered the reassurance to myself, trying to calm my racing heart.
I stepped fully onto the side street, my senses on high alert. My eyes darted into every shadowed doorway, every gap between cars, expecting her to pop out at any moment.
I was about halfway down the block. When all of a sudden.
i caught a faint blur on my left, which I realized was a dark alley. A hand, small but filled with startling strength, clamped over my mouth, stifling my startled cry.
Another arm snaked around my chest, pinning my arms to my sides. I was yanked off my feet with shocking force, my back slamming against a hard, wiry body. My cap flew off due to the impact force.
Before I could even process the assault, I was being dragged backwards, deep into the dim, dank confines of the alley. The smell of rotting garbage and wet concrete filled my nostrils.
I struggled instinctively, bucking and twisting, but the hold was implacable. My assailant was strong. Impossibly strong for their size. My heels scraped and skidded on the greasy asphalt.
"URRGH!" The grunt was all I could manage against the palm pressed to my lips.
"If you talk now, I'll let you off nicely," a voice hissed in my ear. It was soft, feminine, but filled with a cold, lethal intent. "Who are you, and why have you been following me?"
In the midst of my panic, I suddenly realized who this enraged voice must've belonged to.
It was her voice. Veronica's.
The realization was almost more shocking than the ambush itself. This petite, anxious-looking college student had not only spotted her tail, she had laid a perfect, brutal trap, and was now holding me immobile with terrifying ease.
While I struggled uselessly in her vice-like arms, I managed to choke out a few muffled words.
"Wait, don't hurt me! I'll explain, just let me go first!"
"Do you think I'm stupid?" she sneered, her breath warm against my ear. She adjusted her grip, making me wince. "If I let you go, you'll just try to run. Or fight. Start talking. Now."
'She's got a point…' a hysterical part of my brain conceded. This was not going according to any plan. The one-star difficulty rating suddenly made horrific sense.
"Veronica," I gasped, the name slipping out as I finally stopped struggling, going limp in her hold to conserve energy and maybe seem less threatening.
"I'm not trying to hurt you. Just let me go, and let's talk things out. Alright?" I was still trying to subtly test her grip, and the sheer, unyielding strength of it baffled me.
'How the f*ck is a girl her size this strong anyway?' I wondered, my mind reeling. I'd seen her petite and fragile looking frame, It just made no sense.
The moment she heard me call out her name . Her entire body stiffened against mine.
"Y-You…" she stammered, the cold confidence in her voice cracking for the first time, replaced by pure, unvarnished disbelief. The pressure on my mouth lessened a fraction.
"How do you know my name?" she whispered the question into my ear, but it carried more shock than her earlier threats.
' Looks like she's getting rattled, good for me, I can use this.'
It was my only opening so I forced my voice to be as calm and placating as I could while being manhandled in a garbage alley.
"Like I said," I repeated, each word seemingly calm. "just let me go, and I promise I'll explain everything to you. I'm not here to fight and neither am I here to hurt you. I swear."
The silence that followed was thick, broken only by the distant sound of traffic and the frantic beating of my own heart.
Her grip remain
ed firm, but the killing tension had shifted into something else, a wary, stunned curiosity.