Part 1
Light sank back into the shadows, sulking, cowering from the sky as it swirled and spread with an intimidating mischief. Night was up there, extinguishing stars, and in the air, teasing street lamps with such blatant malice that one couldn't help but be comforted. Isolated, distant figures shuffled slowly through the streets, with not one thought for the dance playing out around them, but all aware, away from the glare of day, of the safe honesty that only darkness offered.
The girl walked slowly but with purpose, her hair falling from behind her ears to shield her face from the cold. She was tired, so tired that it would take more effort to stop her legs from moving than to leave them as they were. So she continued, with her head bowed to an imaginary wind, storming through the demons in her head. Solitary energy in an overwhelming stillness. A figure in the dark. A lady in the night.
She walked in this unlikely calm for some time, until she noticed that her mind had shifted so very slightly, that the playful charm of the empty world had floated high up above, and that she had crossed an invisible boundary into Rochdale town centre. She slowed for a moment, almost coming to a stop. A small but steady stream of cars, glaring at her, at the guilt blistering out from within her, as they bounded around a corner. She crossed the road quickly, blinking back tears. There were people up ahead. She passed them, and passed many more, pulling her persona of purpose around her like a blanket, pretending she had somewhere to be. Headlights seared her back. The car pulled over.
"Rachel?" A familiar voice from the right.
"Tom. Hi!"
Her smile was convincing, but it's incongruity in the situation gave her away.
"You okay, Rachel?"
"Yeah, fine." she said, still smiling despite his obvious concern.
"Do you need a lift anywhere? I'm just heading home, I could drop you off on the way…" His tone was friendly, but his forehead was still bent into a frown of confusion. Rachel hesitated for a moment.
"Um, I… I, er…"
"I presumed you were heading home, considering the time…" he said with a slight impatience, daring her to push him to further questions. She sighed.
"Okay," then, catching herself, she smiled once more, "thank you."
Eddie breathed heavily with impatience, rounding that corner with a bit more speed than he should. He turned into the car park, driving past the smokers left from the football crowd, and two minutes later he was at the bar.
They drove in silence for a minute or so, Rachel staring stubbornly out of the window as Tom repeatedly glanced at her before turning back to the road. It was to break the awkward silence that he eventually decided to try his luck.
"Where were you heading then, at this time of night?" It was obvious to him that she was walking in the opposite direction of home, and it was obvious to her that he knew that, though the diplomacy of the situation demanded that neither acknowledge this out loud. She looked down from the window to the door handle, tapping it lightly in her hand. Her head ached under the weight of the tears she was defying, and her heart ached under the weight of the things she ached to tell this relative stranger. But she hadn't lost control just yet.
"I was on my way home." It was a lie, and both of them knew it, but that was the nature of this game, this shift of responsibility. He asked the question, and handed it to her, and she promptly refused to answer, and absolved him of any guilt. It was calm, and it was controlled, and it suited the stubborn woman and the innocent outsider equally well.
Eddie clumsily pulled out the change from his last order, handing over his money with a drunken glare. He held the glass in both hands, shaking his head with a slow, deep anger.
"How… how could she?" he muttered, spitting disgust through his words. His anger slid back, and his eyes showed grief in his quiet whisper.
"How could she do that?"