Flicker

- barbara had decided to be away from as many people as possible today , and possibly thought , that the park was somehow ? the destination, she r e g r e t s  that choice , it has felt much more S U F F O C A T I N G , than the eerie silence of her bedroom , she couldn’t afford experiencing a breakdown at this moment , not in front of this many peopl-

“ hey hey hey , watch out , you never know who you’re bumping yourself to . ” - barbara was knocked down her heels , she was expecting the girl in front of her to help her stand up , nada ,

“ uh.. where are your manners ? has your mother or father never taught you at least things this simple and mediocre in life ??  H E C K , you wouldn’t even need them , it’s common sense , all in the head , ” - barbara continued to let her thoughts out to the young lady , she wasn’t meaning to annoy , she just needed missed the feeling of being able to take control of someone else , she has already formed another sentence in her head but stopped immediately when she found out why the other person was troubled , she handled things immediately and scans the park for a suspicious guy , ah , right there ,

“ okay , okay , i’ve found him , he hasn’t approached for a while since we’ve been talking , so whatever you’ve decided to do is helping , actually , —– i’m not a stranger to things like this , you see , men trying to hunt for .. preys , but i couldn’t quite put my hand in your situation , that guy was very revealed to everyone else , and doing those things in a public place , aren’t their usual plan , i’m guessing he isn’t going to sexually assault you , now . so , mind telling me what’s up ?? ” - barbara couldn’t help but let her natural smirk come out , it was getting p r e t t y  l o n g since , she last hunted , and she just found a perfect v i c t i m , the girl in front of her looks like she doesn’t know who barbara is , there is a lot of openings and opportunity , she took the girl’s hand , and she made sure to stare at the guy that’s been following the lady , now , she finally understood why the park is called a recreation destination .

“ let’s walk somewhere first , but you’d have to tell me the whole thing , trust me , you’re in the right hands . ”

Scout narrowed her eyes at the blonde when she badgered her for knocking into her. She wasn’t one to tolerate peoples nastiness, rather she’d just deal herself. What did this woman want from her? She apologized and the girl didn’t appear to be an invalid, she could stand up on her own. Scout had other, more pressing things on her mind in that moment than being miss polite. Jayden was a man she hated and wanted to see dead, a man she wanted to kill personally in the most involved way she could think of. The woman either was, or wasn’t willing to help. It was looking like the ladder.

“Wow, okay. Nevermind then.” She shook her head and let out a huff, just about to keep walking and get to somewhere more public since the park wasn’t terribly populated in that moment, when the woman spoke up again. 

Scout smirked but there was no humor or amusement in it, rather her expression was PLAGUED with a look of pure and utter annoyance. She didn’t know what Jayden was and she couldn’t know the situation, yet there she was running her mouth. Sure, she was asking for details, which made sense . . . But Scout wasn’t about to open up about all the horrors Vance and his buddies had done, not to anyone and certainly not to this rude woman. 

“Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Forget it, I’ll be good. Sorry for the inconvenience, you have yourself a great fucking day.”

sophie had set herself towards the edge of the sidewalk after minutes of walking so she would be able to check the time she had until her shift began. it was a decent amount of time, she mused just seconds before nearly being knocked over. with her frame, it wasn’t difficult. naturally, she needed to compensate for that, so her glare was frigid as she made the necessary turn to see who had bumped into her, and if they had done it on purpose. fortunately, the woman before her promptly explained the situation, igniting sophie’s need to protect. she didn’t look past the woman and search for the man in question, aware it would be all too obvious. “ sure. ” she spoke nonchalantly as if she was not just placed in a potentially dangerous situation. she began to walk forward, millions of thoughts running through her mind. “ just so you know, i have mace and two tasers in my purse. i’ll even let you use the pink one, if it comes to that. ” 

Scout was grateful by the girl's nonchalance as they began to walk on each other's side. The fact that the girl had options to defend themselves if it came to that was a relief, although she doubted it would be necessary. Jayden was too smart to try anything by himself when there were two of them now. “Good to know. I don’t think he will try anything with the two of us though, too much room for error. It’d be a risky move on his part.” She muttered the last part as she glanced over her shoulder. He was still around, probably waiting for her to be alone again. “Thank you, by the way. I’m Scout.”

“Yeah, sure…”  With her complete lack of connections with which to network, there were mutual benefits to be gained from Adrian helping out a stranger.

Adrian took a quick look towards where the other girl kept glancing to see if she could spot whatever - whomever - was so dangerous.  Nothing - or no one, rather - stood out, so she couldn’t really assess the situation she’d allowed herself to be roped into. 

“Just throwing this out there; I’ve got a keycard to one of those rooms.”  Luring a stranger into her motel room was a serial murderer kind of move; Adrian amused herself at the thought, but she gestured towards the motel across the street anyway.  This wasn’t prison, and given Adrian’s wide-eyed, willowy little girl’s appearance, she wasn’t breaking social contract and acting like a creep like she’d be were she some big, scary looking dude.  If there was a creep in their midst, they could lock him out of Adrian’s motel room.  The other girl looked to be about the same size and age as she was, so it wasn’t as if either would likely pose a whole lot of danger to the other.  Perhaps she spoke the truth, but her tone was clearly joking.  “I might be dangerous too, but not to you.”

Scout wasn’t one to trust people, so asking for help in the first place was a risk. The only reason that she did was because she lived in a van. If he were to follow her he would recognize the creepy white van as Vance’s and it would give him something to look for around town if he ever intended to get back at her for the blood she spilled. Even though Adrian didn’t appear to be much of a threat, Scout was paranoid. What if that was the whole point? To look unassuming and lure her back somewhere? What if she had a gun? A plan? No, Scout wasn’t going back to any motel room with her. 

“Right. . . .” She said when the long haired brunette mentioned how she might be dangerous but not to her. What an odd, suspicious thing to say. “Just walk with me to the pastry shop maybe?” She requested. “You probably don’t want him to know where you stay if he does decide to keep following, and that shop is just a few blocks from here. Public enough that I doubt he’d try anything but this park is looking like a ghost town so I don’t trust it.” She said, not wanting the girl to pick up on the paranoia she harbored toward her. Scout knew there was a fair chance the girl wasn’t a threat but she didn’t take such risks, not after what she had already gone through. “I’ll buy you something from there if you want?”

Alex glanced down as he noticed her immediately check her pockets, his eyebrow kinking upwards in interest. A hint of a chuckle left his mouth in disbelief at her words “Alright, well i apologised, not much else i can do.. so you’re welcome..” He nodded, pulling his jacket on “you know, for the apology” his voice laced with sarcasm. 

"Wow thanks so much for running into me and apologizing, what a fucking gentleman." She muttered with a role of her eyes. She wore an annoyed smirk over her features, also apparently taken aback by his nerve.

Timothy browsed the menu as well, trying to settle on whatever seemed to agree with his tastebuds at the moment. “An order of onion rings, one bacon cheeseburger and…maybe one of those club sandwiches? Yeah, get us one of those.” Even if she said she only wanted onion rings, not eating all day meant she could probably use a sandwich at the very least. “You need a main course to go with that side,” he explained cheerfully. “Don’t worry about skimping or anything like that. My mom’ll probably be happy to know I used food to make a friend. Oh, speaking of which – we can’t exactly be friends if you don’t know my name. It’s Timothy!”

She raised her eyebrows when he ordered her a sandwich, saying that she needed it. She didn't understand such generosity and she had a feeling that she never would. Brought up a thief by her abductor, the girl didn't know much about kindness. Not other than what she'd learned from her cons and the few people she considered friends, the two that had escaped with her . . . But a stranger being this nice? It was FISHY. "Uh, okay . . . Thanks." She said again before smirking in a way that let on so clearly how suspicious, or rather uncomfortable she was, all because of his kindness. She took a long gulp from her drink when it arrived as he spoke. "You live with your mom still?" She asked, only then realizing how judgemental that sounded. Oh well. "I'm Scout."

She stood from the bench and began walking quickly. She knew if he got his hands on her he’d do something . . . Anything, to avenge Vance. He knew what she did and he knew her face. She would figure out how to take care of him later but for now, she had to be safe too. She was walking so fast and looking over her shoulder more than in front of her when she crashed into another pedestrian.

“about time..” alex half muttered to himself as he exited the cafe he worked at. his shift had been long, people had been cranky and frankly he’d had enough for the day. He headed off towards home. He glanced down at his phone as he walked, catching up on what he’d missed that day - though it only felt like a brief few seconds, it was enough time to lose focus and collide solidly into another person “Oh shit! Sorry” he apologised quickly “I wasn’t looking at all..” 

Typically, Scout was the one bumping into people on the sidewalk, although not by mistake. It was a perfect opportunity to distract her target enough to fish in their pocket and snatch something off of them . . . Wallets, watches, and so on. However; she hadn't been seeing this coming, so she lost her chance to pickpocket him and rather, checked her pockets briefly just in case he meant to use her own trick on her. "Yeah, apparently not." She said when she realized nothing of hers was missing. So he really was just a clutz.

Eli nodded, glancing quickly and seeing everything was in order. After a few months, he got pretty good at knowing when things were off, just by looking. “Yeah, I’m ready to head out.” That was the only warning he gave before he made his way to the door, unlocking his doors and waiting for her to get in. Unlike most people, he didn’t need to shove anything in the backseat beforehand. His car was immaculate, always had been. Back when his life had resembled something like normalcy, his friends used to make fun of him for it, the way everything had an order and a place even in his car.

Scout grabbed her bag from the backroom and then jogged to catch up to him at his car. She opened the door once it was unlocked and plopped down in the passenger seat. They were both more on the quiet side, but Scout was feeling slightly more social, if only so it'd be less weird that she was going to use his shower. "So when did you move here?" She asked as she fastened her seatbelt

“It’s basically tequila and coffee,” Timothy explained, absentmindedly tapping his fingers along the bar top. “They take a Mexican liquor that’s got rum, sugar, vanilla, and coffee in it, then mix it with the tequila. It’s actually based off of some movie from the 60′s, I think. I dunno, my dad’s more into that kind of stuff than I am. Makes for a pretty good drink though.” As naive as ever, he had no qualms about sifting through his wallet, making a disappointed sound when he realized they were hundreds. “Damn, I don’t have change. You guys take credit, right?” He asked the bartender, grinning when he got a curt nod in response. He didn’t hesitate to pull out a credit card and ask his companion, “You want anything to eat? It’s always good to eat when you drink.”

Scout nodded as he explained what the drink was, thinking it sounded tasty. Coffee was one thing that the girl loved, why not mix it with liquor? "Sounds pretty good to me." She agreed before raising her eyebrows when he offered her some food. That was where her pride came into play, but hungry as she was she decided to accept his offer. Either that or steal it off of someone else, no reason to steal from him over it if he was willing to give it anyway. "Yeah, actually, I haven't eaten all day. Thank you." She said as she glanced over the menu. She was sick of hamburgers so she decided on a side instead. "Could I get the onion rings?"