The Shadows Within

Chapter One- The Confrontation

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“ Accordingly, one race is neither superior nor inferior to another ” - Walter Lang.

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It was exactly 2.46 pm, GMT, when she entered the complex. This was noted. It was a Wednesday. She had come straight from home. Her mother had dropped her off at the front door at precisely 2.45, said she would collect her at 4 pm. This was also noted. The exact length of the shadow the sun cast on the faded grey tarmac. The length, breadth and most importantly, the shade of the shadow as she entered the building were all meticulously recorded. She was being watched.

                                                     

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Cáit shivered as a rogue blast of steamy air from the showers made its way into the dressing rooms, accosting her where she stood in front of the mirrors. She grunted as she struggled to secure her hair under her swimming cap, flyaway pieces stubbornly escaping from under it. With a last tug, she accepted that it was a lost cause and made her way to the swimming pool.

It was warmer there. She breathed in the humid air, heavy with the dull smell of chlorine and disinfectant. There was only a small crowd today she noticed, as she suveyed the pool. A few pensioners, a few trophy wives. Good. Less distractions. She was looking forward to her workout, already anticipating the satisfying burn in her muscles.

A flash of bright blue pulled her out of her daydream: a boy wearing blue swimming trunks. He looked about her age, 18 at the most. Here was a serious swimmer, Cáit thought. His body was a contrast of smooth lines and sharp angles, his face too. The sharp edge of his jaw, the jut of his cheekbones were softened the feminine curl of his lashes, the curve of his lips. His eyes were paradoxical: lazy yet assertive. They were coloured the richest shade of brown, were intriguing, inviting, and staring right at her. As his lips curved upward in an amused smirk, his eyes informed her that this was a norm for him. He turned away, dismissing her. Disdain seemed to roll off him in waves. Cáit’s eyes snapped downwards immediately, her face burning. 

 It was then that she noticed.

Now that her eyes had taken in the marred skin of his back, she couldn’t help but stare.The scars seemed to start below the waistband of his swimming trunks, and stretched all the way to his shoulders, tapering off to jagged points there. There were four identical scratches, jagged, deep, the skin around them puckered and red. They looked like old scars, old and worn and everything about them screamed of incomprehensible violence. They jarred her eyes. They were wrong. Her own back suddenly burned in sympathy.  She couldn’t tear her eyes away and she found herself looking at the same set of scars, but on his front. Again they were identical, deforming, ending just below his collarbone. Wait! His front? He had turned which meant- he had caught her staring.

Unwillingly, her eyes snapped up to meet his. He stared with such intensity that she involuntarily took a step back.  His previously relaxed eyes now blazed with an inexplainable fury.  She swallowed her pity for him as if it were bile. Her heart seemed to be attempting to force its way out of her ears. With shaky legs, Cáit extracted herself from his gaze and busied herself at the water cooler. She could still feel the heat of his inexplainable rage shooting across her body. He scared her.

She hovered in the background and watched as he drew near the pool. He approached the ladder slowly. He turned around, gripped the handles and lowered his foot onto the rung. Cáit stared as, before his foot had even touched the water, he spun around, facing the ladder on this front instead. Even from this distance, Cáit could see how white his knuckes were where he gripped the ladder. She couldn’t help the smirk that rose to her lips. He was afraid of water. She snorted in satisfied amusement and made her way to the edge of the pool, beside the ladder, where he was still perched. Without a glance in his direction she smoothly slid in. The sudden heat she felt on the back of her neck as she waded away from him, told her he had seen.