Alice glanced up at the clock, conveniently seeing Isobel out of the corner of her eye. She was taking a thoughtful bite of the tart. The way she ate was cute, Alice thought. Discreet and clean, but sort of shy.
Alice shifted her focus to the clock. One more hour to go.
Isobel glanced back up at the clock, blinking when she saw how quickly the time had flown. She had about an hour and a half until her first class of the day, but she needed to go back to her flat and get ready first. I'll leave in a few more minutes.. She began cleaning up her things, glancing up at Alice briefly.
Alice felt Isobel's gaze on her, but refused to look over at her. She served a coffee, a hot chocolate, a blueberry muffin and a ham sandwich before noticing Isobel was putting away her things.
Alice rubbed her hands together to stop the sudden chill. She looked up and out window to see _a guard standing there, staring at her. He wore the ever familiar blue uniform. A menacing smile stretched across his face, and her scars started throbbing. She recognised him; as if she'd ever forget him. Her face morphed into a mask of fear which she clumsily held back. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.
"Mike? I thik lgow," she murmured.
(Wait just to be clear she’s hallucinating right? Or is this real?)
(Oh right sorry yeah it's a hallucination)
(I forgot the second underscore)
(it's no problem, sorry for the confusion.)
Isobel finished packing up and glanced towards Alice one last time. Immediately, she registered the terrified expression on her face and stood up, gaze following Alice's to the door. There was no one there.
She pulled away from the bar, squeezed her eyes shut and hobbled out of the cafe.
" A B C D E F G H I J K…" she recited, attempting to block out the fact Ollie was standing two feet away.
Isobel's brows drew together. Grabbing hold of everything, she quickly slipped out of the café and followed Alice. "Alice!", she called out. "Wait up!"
"L M N O P Q R S" she continued desperately barely hearing Isobel behind her. She could hear Ollie's footsteps behind her, and sped up.
(Alice's backstory is ridiculously tragic just so you know)
(yeah, I gathered oof)
Isobel sped up as well, almost caught up with her. "Alice!"
"T U V W X Y Z". Alice came to a standstill. She couldn't hear anything. She very slowly, very tentatively turned around. Ollie was standing still, staring at the scars on her leg.
"I'm very glad you have something to remember me by." He took a step forward, and Alice stepped back.
(I'm sorry I'm attempting to steer this to the obessession don't wanna bore you)
(gnight I've gotta go)
(don't be sorry, you're not boring me either dw)
(and dear lord Alice)
Alice was hallucinating, Isobel was sure of it. She took a step forward, and the poor girl took a step back. "Alice, listen to me," she pleaded. "Come back to the café."
Isobel suddenly broke through Ollie and he disappeared. Alice fell to her knees, clutching her stomach, violently shaking. She looked up at Isobel with anguish in her eyes, but attempted to crawl away from her: this wasn't her problem.
Isobel immediately dropped down on one knee, placing both hands on Alice’s shoulders. “Alice?? OhmygodAlice—— talk to me— what happened??” Her heart and mind raced, one hand already leaving the stricken woman’s shoulder to reach into her coat pocket for her phone. “I’m calling 911– I’ve got you—“
"NO!" Alice screamed. "Don't call them, please, you can't call them." She grabbed Isobel's wrist, making her drop her phone back into her pocket. "Please, Isobel, you can't call anyone," she said between heaving breaths.
Isobel's eyes widened. "Alice– you need–" Her mind scrambled to find something to say. "Come back into the café– the washroom– I won't call if you don't want me too, I promise, but– I need you to talk to me. Come." People were beginning to stare, raising the levels of Isobel's anxiety. She needed to help this poor woman, and fast.
"Not the cafe. Anywhere but the cafe." She pulled herself to her feet and started hobbling away from the stares, the limp in her right leg suddenly very pronounced.
Isobel grabbed hold of her arm. "Not the café," she agreed. "Where? I– I want to help you–"
"There's a place," she gasped. "It's where I usually go for quiet and it's only a couple minutes away…" she let herself trail off, focusing on the effort of putting one foot in front of the other, leaning into Isobel's arm for support.
"Yesyesyes let's go there," Isobel said quickly, steering her out of the way of pedestrians. "Lead the way."
Alice managed a small nod and steered them towards the place. They arrived at a busy intersection with a large section of pavement, stopped only by a discreet tunnel into a disused subway tunnel.
Alice gestured weakly. "Down here." They descended into a dank, brightly lit tunnel and into a public bathroom that remained surprisingly clean despite the lack of visitors. Alice broke away from Isobel and, leaning against the white wall, sank to the floor.
Isobel immediately crouched down, worried eyes raking over Alice. "What happened out there??"
Alice dismissed it with a fluttering wave of her hand. "Nothing, don't you worry your pretty head."
Isobel shook her head firmly. "Alice, you were shaking and crying in the middle of the street. Of course I'm worried!"
Alice pursed her lips. "No need, seriously. I've gotten used to dealing with the aftermath." In the haze of her exhaustion and Isobel's closeness, she ran a trembling finger down the side of her jaw.
She quickly realized what she was doing and jumped back. "Sorry," she whispered.
Isobel refrained from flinching back. She wasn't anything close to homophobic, just not a huge touchy-feely person. "It's okay– I just want to know how to help you–"