"To Steal a Heart"
Chapter 5: The Night Walk
Nightfall had hung its hat on Market Chipping by the time Sophie Hatter stepped out of Cesari's.
She stood in shock, not knowing that time had passed so quickly. Then she wished that she had brought a shawl. The air was chilly. The thick warmth of the pastry shop was already uncurling from her limbs as she stepped away from Cesari's and scuttled towards home.
Sophie wrapped her arms around herself and glanced around as she traveled, guiding on the lamps that lined the streets. Overhead, the stars were obscured by a thick haze, which made Sophie feel sheltered yet very alone. The spot where Sophie had first seen the blonde stranger was empty. As she passed it, she noted how it appeared a mysterious part of Market Square, half shrouded and half lit by lamplight as it was. For a moment, she could almost picture the blonde stranger standing there with his teeth shining white in a cat-like grin.
Her wrist tingled, and she shivered. She hurried across Market Square, feeling her thick braid thump against her back where his gaze might rest if he were there.
At the edge of the square she stopped.
Men, several men, were traveling back and forth across the street she was planning to take. Most of them appeared to be harmless, just workers back from the work houses and shops out to enjoy the last bit of May Day festivities. She spotted a couple of soldiers off-duty, and a watchman strolling across the well-used pavement with a casting eye.
It was the sailors who worried her. There appeared to be a lot of them visiting from the nearby Porthaven. They were usually a fun-loving and boisterous kind of people, but the reputation of several sailors in the last few years had tarnished the reputation of all. It was not in Sophie's best interest to go anywhere near them. The young woman of eighteen got a sick feeling as she scanned men leaning against the walls flanking the street, staring at any passersby. Walking down that street would be similar to passing through the gauntlet.
Sophie stepped back and glanced around. There should be a detour nearby.
She hedged around a slow-moving vendor with his cart, avoided looking at an approaching group of gentlemen, and ducked into a side street. The noises of Market Square dulled, then almost faded into the background. Her boots clicked dully against the cool stone ground, echoing against the close-pressing buildings. She heard the gentle tinkle of a wind chime from some distant doorway. She immediately relaxed, feeling a bit ridiculous for panicking into going another route.
"Sophie Hatter, you could have taken the main street," she muttered to herself, shaking her head. Her voice was muffled in the thickening air. "After all, no one ever notices you, so why would they..."
It started like a knot. A pinch in her stomach that slowly grew even as it tightened. But then, with aggressive speed, it transformed into what could only be described as dread. The dread manifested the mannerisms of a snake, curling in the core of her belly and slithering around with every step she took. Sophie's brow furrowed with this fresh bout of anxiety as she peered into the murkiness.
There's nothing back here, she tried to reason with herself, and her fingers tightened along the brim of her broken hat. So why did she feel like she was going to be sick?
Further ahead on the right, there was a single lantern. It was hanging diligently over the door of a jewelry store, a place Sophie had seen on occasion but never visited. A long mirror-like window stood post in the store's outer wall.
Sophie stiffened when she saw the hunched shape of a man in the shadows. He appeared to be examining the window with his hands. Though his back was turned towards her, Sophie stumbled as close to the opposing wall as possible. Her breathing quickened. Just as she was passing him, her sick feeling took a sharper twist, and she slowed considerably as it threatened to turn her stomach inside-out. She held her fist to her mouth.
The shadow man straightened. Slowly, he turned around, in an odd constricted way, as if his waist down was frozen in place. The faint fingers of lamplight that managed to reach him illuminated angles of his purple suit and pale yellow vest. The edges of an orange bow-tie could be seen on his collar, and a top hat of lavender balanced upon his head. But it was not pastel colors and bow ties that had Sophie frozen in place.
Sophie's eyes widened when the shadow man peered at her.
On his face, he wore a white half-mask. Below that, there were no visibly defined features: no mouth, no chin... His eyes were hidden behind the mask like two shifting pools of tar; they shuddered and scanned her.
Sophie shrank against the wall. The shadow man's left arm quivered, and suddenly he began to swell. Arms and legs and chest - expanding like hot air balloons!
Sophie recoiled in horror as his limbs started bubbling like oil, twisting and convulsing. Black goop oozed out all over him and - wait, no, he was the goop! The blob man's new and deformed body burst out of his suit as he shot up to loom darkly over Sophie.
In the next second he was lunging for her.
A scream tore from her throat. Sophie ducked under the blob man just in time for him to splatter against the wall behind her. Her sweaty palms snatched up her skirts from under her pounding heels, and she ran. Air whooshed past her as the blob man recovered and chased after her. Further and further they went down the side street. Sophie's heart battered madly in her chest. Her frantic gray eyes looked wildly ahead into the darkness as she rushed on.
Sophie felt something cold, wet, and slimy touch her neck. It slid around her braid and yanked her backwards towards the pavement. She tried to turn in mid-air and landed hard, scraping her knee and skinning her palms. She quickly rolled on her back and threw her hands up in defense.
"Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone!" she yelled, feeling adrenaline, fear, and something else built-up inside spill out through those words. The blob man recoiled, backing down for a second. It gave Sophie time to jerk herself to her feet and start running again, but she heard a sickening sludgy sound as he picked up pursuit with renewed vigor.
She had to shake him from her trail. Rapidly, she pivoted on her heel and took a right. Her clumsiness briefly pitched her into a wall. Then she went left, took another right, went left again. The sounds of her pursuer faded further into the distance until all Sophie could hear was her own panicked and heavy breathing.
She eventually slowed to a brisk walk but looked constantly behind her, a palm to her chest as she attempted to calm her heaving lungs. There was a stitch in her side. Her head hurt; it pounded. Her braid had unraveled after the creature had grabbed it and it hung in a wavy mass past her shoulders. She reached up a clammy, shaky hand to push it back.
She hadn't passed a single person in the back alleyways other than the blob man, but the thought put even more trepidation in her. Warily she glanced at every shadow. She turned down another street, the only one she could see, and was met by thick darkness.
Sophie turned back and froze. The blob man was coming her way! Or at least, another one like him. This one was feeling and sniffing his way along the walls, his purple tux glowing slightly from another lamp. He was rounder than the other one. When the second blob man saw her, he started to bubble.
"Not again," Sophie whispered. Her breath hitched in her throat. She turned on her heel and plunged down the dark alleyway as she heard it launch from the wall.
The second time was harder than the first. Sophie had already given the first run almost all that she had, not to mention the long and tiring May Day had taken its toll. Fear and adrenaline were her driving force. But Sophie had a feeling it might not be enough to outrun her pursuer, who, although slower than the first blob man, still had speed and purpose enough to be close on her heels.
"Drat!" Sophie muttered between gasps. "I... should have... made some... time for exercise… between making all… those hats!"
And not to mention it was nearly coal black in that alleyway. There were no lamps, no moonlight. Sophie kept bumping into walls and tripping as she struggled to find a way out of that street.
Sophie ran past what she thought was a wall when her peripheral caught sight of a glow. There, some light! People!
She dashed towards it in desperation. Her heels slammed into the cobblestones as she sensed the blob man getting closer. Once again, her heart jerked in her chest as something cold and wet touched one of her wrists swinging behind her.
She rounded the corner towards the light and rammed smack-dab into a large, hard, warm chest. Big rough hands shot up to steady her as she stumbled back.
"Whoah, easy there, lass!" boomed a surprised yet amused voice of a man. Sophie jerked her head back around to see if the blob man had caught up, but a palm cupped her cheek and forced her gaze back to the front. She felt uneasy and disoriented, as if the arms of this "savior" weren't as safe as she hoped.
It took a moment for her startled gray eyes to focus upon the clean-shaven face in front of her. The large man grinned.
"Well, lookee' here, mate, it seems I've caught a little mouse!"
A second man, even taller than the first, leaned around his shoulder and flicked his gaze up and down Sophie's frame.
"Did you now?"
Sophie glanced back and forth between them with a suddenly painfully clear mind. In a second, she took in the kerchiefs around their necks, their longer hair in loose ponytails, the tattoo on one of their arms, and the blue button-up togs.
Drat!
Sailors.