To her surprise, Sophie had slept like a baby that night. And when she woke up, she couldn't even remember her dreams. Yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that a bald man had made an appearance in them.
With a cup of coffee in her hands, Sophie spent the full morning in front of the TV, waiting for it to tell her about anything that had happened last night, but it gave away nothing.
She couldn't understand how someone was able to do so many awful things and not have his face shown all over the news. How could he get away with that? Were the police really so inept? She thought back to her little visit to the precinct and remembered the officer's lack of determination and soberness.
Flinching, she realized that part of her had hoped to hear about another massacre and the bald man's name. If I really want to know it so badly, I should just ask him the next time I see him.
At this rate, she was rather sure that there was going to be a next time.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the TV announced breaking news. Sophie stared at the screen. The mayoral candidate, Janice Caulfield, had been found dead in her office last night. Someone had killed her.
Sophie had read about Caulfield's political agenda in the papers and couldn't help feeling shocked. She been planning to vote for the lady who was so eager to reduce the city's carbon monoxide emission while increasing its social equality.
She couldn't understand why anyone would want to murder her. There also had been attempts to kill the other candidate, Theo Galavan, she remembered. Maybe someone is trying to get rid of their competition, she mused.
Did Hobbs, the third candidate, ask the penguin-man to take out the others? Did they have some sort of business relation going on? But wouldn't the deaths of his competitors deem him the main suspect?
Two other things caught her attention. Firstly, Caulfield had been stabbed more than a dozen times with a large knife or dagger. Secondly, her office was not exactly in Sophie's neighbourhood.
She somehow assumed that the bald man only used guns - or fire, she shuddered – and it would have taken him more than an hour to walk from the crime scene to where she had seen him last night.
Wishful thinking, she caught herself, you just don't want to believe that he would murder your favourite candidate. Probably, his car just broke down or something.
She wished that she could just ask him. But Sophie couldn't imagine a parallel universe where he would explain his job to her.
A look at the clock showed her that she had wasted enough time sprawling around on her couch. She would have to continue her brooding at work.
Joice had never seen anything like this in all her life- and she was already eleven years old. She was standing at the window of her bedroom and looked outside with wide eyes. If her throat hadn't become so dry and her tongue so numb, she was sure she would have screamed, but now, only a small whimper escaped her lips. She watched the thing swirl around her house in large circles, making a swooshing sound. It was about midnight and the sun had set hours ago, but the blurry shadow was so much darker than its background and anything else Joice had ever seen. She wondered how it was possible for something to be darker than black. At some point, the light post in front of her garden became dimmer, flickered once, and then went out. Joice couldn't see a thing. She only heard her own ragged breathing and the strange noise of whatever was outside.
Cleaning a huge building was both dull and stimulating in a way. Without any people around and nothing to pay attention to but the task at hand, Sophie could either switch her brain off and fully commit to mopping floors or occupy her mind with anything she liked while her body robotically did the job.
She was free to think about her novel, to plan the storyline, to create a draft of the next chapter. She could have used the time to fully immerse in the universe she was creating.
But she didn't.
Instead, she replayed every encounter she had had with the bald man and her conversation with the bartender in her head until everything was sparkling clean.
Fortunately, Sophie only had to do the ground level and the awful staircase of the building. Her employer had told her that the first level was occupied by someone who had hired their own cleaning staff and that she was not to disturb them.
Not that she minded. It would have taken hours and amounts of energy that she was not willing to spend to clean another level.
After everything looked as flawless as it was supposed to, Sophie grabbed her cleaning equipment and brought it down to the basement. Somehow, she always felt a sense of accomplishment after she cleaned something up, be it her house or this building. Probably because it's nice to see when something you do actually has an effect, she thought flatly.
The part she hated most, besides the staircase, was the basement. Some of the light bulbs down there desperately needed changing as they were either burnt-out or flickering in a not-so-assuring-way.
Sophie usually wasn't a wuss. But this basement freaked her out.
It took her some time to find the right key, and Sophie felt herself tense more with every minute she spent down there. Finally, the lock clicked, and her deed was done.
She quickly made her way to the stair, she couldn't wait to get upstairs and out of here, when she heard a gunshot.
Oh no. Please no.
She froze in an instant. More gunshots. In this building. Her survival instinct kicked in and she quickly contemplated her options. Could she make it to the exit?
Just when she was about to take another step upstairs, she heard people running on the upper floor. So, back to the basement it is.
As she hid in a dark corner, she anxiously listened to the turmoil above, and hoped that no one would find her. People were shouting, running, screaming in pain, thudding on the floor. The sounds of violence came closer and, just when Sophie's teeth had started to clatter because she couldn't supress her trembling any longer, they passed her by.
She heard sirens and felt relief spreading through her body. Shakenly, she picked herself up and carefully sneaked upstairs. Her ears hadn't betrayed her; the people with the guns were gone.
But they had left a bloody mess.
The floor which she had so thoroughly cleaned during the last couple of hours was bloodstained. Apparently, they had left through the main entrance. She would take the back way and get the hell out of here.
She should have run, probably, but she just couldn't force herself to walk any faster. Her legs felt as if they weighed tons. It felt as if she was walking on jelly instead of asphalt. Her pace was agonizingly slow, but she couldn't help it.
Sophie focused to put one foot in front of the other and on normalizing her breathing. It took her an eternity to make it around the building. In the distance, she could make out flashing blue light. The police were here, and the people who had left the building probably ran straight into their arms.
She stopped and stared at the scene with wide eyes. A sane person would have walked away. An unhealthily curious person would have hidden behind an object close-by and not corrupted their safety to gawk at something dangerous.
Sophie, however, slowly sneaked closer to the scene and tried to remain hidden in the shadows of the buildings. Finally, when she was close enough to see what was going on, she crouched down behind a dumpster and took a peek.
There were bodies lying on the floor and several police officers who had taken cover behind cars. She couldn't really see how many there were, as they themselves only poked their heads out for a couple of seconds to aim…
To aim at something that was standing on her side of the whole thing. Sophie oppressed a groan. She had walked close towards whoever was up against the police. If I die tonight, this would be a case of natural selection.
Her eyes quickly scanned the area until they found the target of the police officers who had spread out like a freaking SWAT team.
It was the bald man.
Of course. Sophie started complaining to the universe. What's the point of moving to a big city when you always meet the same person? Seriously? What are the odds?
Not that she minded seeing him, she just wasn't keen on being confronted with the violence his appearance always seemed to entail.
Although Sophie was sure that he was, well, skilled at this whole criminal thing, she couldn't imagine him taking out all these people. She felt her heart sink.
Sophie realised that she was worried. I need some serious counselling.
About a second later, another shot rang through the street and she saw him drop to the floor. Did he just say "unexpected"?
She could feel herself standing up and moving out from behind the dumpster when he, in a swift motion, shot a hydrant, and got up to flee.
Without giving it any thought, Sophie ran into his direction and made it into the side alley a second before he did. When she entered his vision, he jerked to a halt and raised his gun up threateningly until he recognized her.
"Also unexpected", he commented flatly as he lowered his weapon and started moving again.
Sophie kept up with his pace and eyed him anxiously. He seemed to be out of breath and held his left arm slightly lower than the other one. "You got shot.", she said slowly. She could almost hear him clench his teeth. "Yes". He sounded pissed.
'How bad is it?" – "Graze wound." – "Huh."
She jogged along in silence, unsure what to do. "Do you have an escape route?", she asked and was met with silence. He had put his guns back into their straps and pressed one hand against his left shoulder. Sophie couldn't make out his face in the dark, but she was almost sure that his breathing had become heavier.
They had left a couple of blocks behind when the sound of sirens came closer. Sophie knew that they were probably going to scour the streets. When she was about to look around the corner of the street they were walking on, she felt a firm grip on her arm and was dragged back into the shadows. She turned to frown at him and he let go of her.
"Wait until they move away. Afterwards, you can go home.", he muttered.
Sophie exhaled impatiently before asking him: "What are you going to do?" For an answer, he wordlessly gestured towards his guns.
That did seem a bit suicidal to her. With some effort, Sophie successfully managed to suppress an eye roll.
"If you don't have a plan right now, I can take you to my apartment. I have a first aid kit and you can hide there until they give up. You won't make it far like this."
Sophie could feel his eyes intently scrutinizing her face for what felt like a long time.
Then, he nodded.