The stranger suddenly had a serious look on his face, tilting his head to the side like a dog who heard a noise that woke it's interest. He stayed like this for a few seconds, then looked at Claire who was still staring at him. "I have to go get busines done. You stay right here. Otherwise you will die but even if you don't, I would find you anyway and trust me, you don't want this." His smile widened again, he winked at Claire and was gone just as fast he had appeared.

Claire was sitting under the tree, breathing heavy. What had just happened? She was so shocked, she needed a cigarette. She was reliefed when she reached in her pocket and the package was still there. She put the cigarette between her lips. "You better not light this one up, sweetheart." That creep was in her mind again! She shook her head and hold the flame against the end of the cigarette anyways. She was trying to sort out what those events were all about so she didn't even think about just standing up and getting away from this strange man who was not only one of the weirdest guys she had ever seen but also a total douchebag.

Before she could even finish her cigarette and think about what she would do next, a breeze blew through the leaves of the tree and the odd guy stood right next to her. Claire got so scared that her cigarette fell on her thigh, the burning ash immediatly burnt a hole into her black jeans and she cursed as the pain hit her. "Fuck!" The guy laughed. A deep, throaty laugh full of spite. Claire forgot about all the things she imagined, he would do to her. She just got really angry. Who did he think he was? The words just flew out of Claire's mouth: "What the fuck is wrong with you anyway? You talk to me in my fucking mind, give me instructions on how to behave! And now you have the boldness to even laugh at me. You better apologize because I'm really fucking pissed right now and I can be quite unpleasant in this mood!" Claire hab been standing up, wildly gesticulating in her rage. The man simply grabbed her wrist, his touch was cold and tingled on her skin. The first time in their meeting he opened his mouth to speak to her. "You know that smoking isn't good for you anyway, right? The oxygen intake of your blood is hindered through the carbon monoxide, Darling." Claire's mouth was open in shock. He could not be serious, this was just unbelievable.

Her eyes went down to his belt as Claire tried to think of something quick-witted to say to him. And holy shit! There was a revolver hanging down. Claire was panicking. "Oh my god, you're really a criminal!" At the end of the weapon was still soot. Did he shoot someone when he told her to wait? She could not control her actions anymore. Her legs were just trying to run away without her telling them to. She was running maybe two seconds when the voice appeared in her head. "Do you really want to run away? Deep down you know that I will catch you. Spare me this effort, babygirl."

"Fuck you!" Was Claire's simple answer as she ran through the park towards the train station. "Oh, you really want to play this game with me? I like this, I have not had a bit of fun for a long time.", said the voice. Claire just ran.

Suddenly, in a few metres in front of her, the red eyes appeared again and around them, the man seemed to materialize just out of nowhere. Claire ran into him with full speed and fell down to his feet. Her head hurt, the collision had been really tough. He laughed lustily and dark. Almost hysterically. Claire just lied there, holding her head. This dude was definitely not normal! But the fear had turned into anger. It was cold, her head hurt, her leg hurt, she was confused and just wanted to go home! "You wanted it like this. It should be a lesson for our next meeting." This was it. Claire was pissed. "Next meeting? The fuck are you talking about? I will go home right now and you will definitely will never see me again, you creep!" He had his smirk on again. "Darling, your train is long gone by now." Shit, he was right, Claire thought. "Fine, then I will get a taxi, bye then."

He laughed and his grip on her wrist hardened. "I will not allow this. It is not safe for a lady like you at such a time out here."Claire's laugh just burst out of her. "YOU are telling me this? You with a fucking revolver who tells me what to do all the time?" He smiled. "Oh, the revolver is not meant for humans, silly." "Oh come on, spare me this shit. I don't care what you do with this thing as long as you don't threaten me with it, right now I just want to go home. So let me take a taxi right now!"

"No.", he said determined. Claire was desperate. "Fine, any other ideas?"

He looked deep into her eyes. His stare was gripping. Everything around Claire was shaking and she felt dizzy. Then everything went black. Only those red eyes were still there. Staring.

The sunlight was shining through the half open white curtains of Claire's bedroom. She rolled around, letting out a groan. Her bed sheets felt so warm and comfy that she never wanted to get out of them when she thought about the cold autumn air outside. Lying in her soft sheets felt the best when not wearing anything, Claire thought and enjoyed the feeling of her legs tangled in her blanket. Wait... not wearing anything? Claire could not remember taking her clothes off. Or even getting into her bed. Or to her flat! The last thing she remembered was standing in this damn park, fighting with the strange man because he would not let her take a taxi. As she thought about him, she remembered his face. She really liked it in retrospect. But she didn't want to. That dude was carrying a fucking revolver! But maybe everything had just been a big missunderstanding. She hoped for it.

As she slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room, she saw her clothes from yesterday neatly folded on her desk. She was only wearing her panties. "Oh my god! He did not seriously remove my clothes?!" Claire could scream. He was just insolent and even if he was not around it seemed that he was making fun of her. How did he even get into her flat? Oh right, Claire thought, she had keys with her of course. Claire reached to her bedside table where she always kepped her cigarettes, her hand found the package and her keys to her relief. She opened the cigs up and... "He can not be serious about this..." Every cigarette was neatly broken in half. "Hopefully he will never have to meet me again". But this face she would have recognized in the biggest of crowds was still on her mind.

-Song of this chapter: BANKS: Fall Over:

"You got my heart beating.
Beating beating beating beating beating.
You got my mind to follow.
Follow follow follow follow."-