Grim Or Grin

Chapter 5: Encounter

Chapter 5: Encounter

'Stopping won't harm,' a small voice cooed in my head, trying to dissuade me from continuing.

Sweat covered every inch of my body. Some drops of perspiration were even rolling down my face. The sun's merciless heat was only forcing out more water from me. And my muscles still ached, reminding me of that late night chase. Undeterred, I continued with my legs aching and screaming their own pleas for me to stop. Coupled with my haggard breathes, I must have look like I had jogged for half an hour. But it was what five minutes of jogging did to me.

Wait. What time was it on my watch? My wristwatch announced that it was just after 2. 'Doesn't Cole jog at around the same time?' Panic gripped me when I realized this. If he was the pursuer, he could easily finish me off and silenced me before I said or did anymore that could criminalize him. I sped up immediately, my feet smacking the ground in larger strides.

A hand gripped my shoulder. I yelped in surprise. "Sorry, Lyla. It's just me," Cole said. My eyes widened in what I thought was a mix of terror and shock but Cole seemed to take it as a questioning look. "I called out your name a few times but you didn't answer."

I nodded, still as terrified. I felt myself tense and my pace slowed by shock.

"Are you okay?" he asked with his eyebrows contorting into a look of concern. With that, I relaxed. He was not my pursuer. He did not show any signs at all. Just a regular classmate. His face was slightly different too. It carried more of a subtle boyish look rather than a feminine one.

"Sorry. I got attacked by someone who looked a lot like you last night," I explained and noticed him tensing the slightest bit. His black hair still fell rather neatly so I assumed he had just begun his jog.

"How did that happen?" he asked worriedly as he began to follow my pace so that he was now jogging beside me. Something about him seemed to make me tell him what happened. Perhaps, I finally felt that receiving a friend's opinion would help me reason out the pursuer's attack or settle my nerves about it. So I told him about it. The whole time he listened really intently. At the end of it, he looked slightly stunned.

"It's rather shocking, right? I've been trying to consider possibilities but I can't understand why would someone do this," I said, hoping he would have an idea.

There was a silence that caused me to think he was going to come up just as empty handed. I was about to mention some of my ideas when he replied, "Perhaps, he wanted to use you to send a message? Possibly to your parents. You said before that they were overseas currently, right? So this would send a far clearer message."

That was useful. I had not considered that and it did make some sense except why would the perpetrator smile if he had not successfully badly injure or even killed me? "Someone sent him?" I wondered out loud.

"Probably. He seems a little psychopathic with some skill from your description so he may be hired."

I nodded. That did make sense and it would narrow down the number of suspects much further but I assumed Angela and the other cops had already figured that out. But this were just answers I sought to make sense of the situation. The real question was "Was I still in danger?"

Cole added, "He might come after you again so try not to be out that late.", voicing out my concern.

"Yeah, I plan to do so," I replied. We moved on to talk about more welcoming conversation topics, mainly steering clear of gossip I realised. That was a good break for me since I was not really into gossip and occasionally, even Pam did annoy me with gossip.

I had not even realized I had jogged for 6 over kilometers till Cole's pedometer announced it. "Wow. Never jogged this long. Usually, I'm flat against the ground, waiting for vultures to pick at me after 2 klicks."

He laughed. "That's probably because you don't pace yourself properly. A good pace is often the highest one at which you can still converse with others."

"I see," I replied as I glanced at my wristwatch. 'I think that was enough exercise.' It was already coming to 4 pm. "I think I should be heading back already. Thanks for hearing me out. Bye."

He waved good bye and continued his routinely jog at a much faster pace.

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After a shower, I was busying myself with school work. It was some time since I started and at around 6 pm, my brain was demanding a break. So I excused myself from work and decided to try and finish the sketch I had begun. I retrieved the large sketch pad from cupboard. My sketch was on an A3 sized drawing block. I had drawn multiple columns for myself to fill in to show the changes of the street that my window overlooked. It took me quite some time but the effort seemed to pay off. I was already done with half of the columns and the drawing block was coming to life with the different personas of the same street.

I looked out my window and did a simple scan for any details that stood out. Mostly, the terrace houses stood the same way they did but the scheme was brightened with lights as the moon began to dominate the sky. What did stand out was the crowded streets and... I squinted.

Cole.

He was still jogging? How long was that already?

I had seen him the previous times whenever I did my sketch but he never showed up because I could not draw running figures well so I usually omitted them. So this was the first time I realized how long he had been jogging for.

So I decided to attempt to draw him out on the drawing block this time, which reminded me, once again, how similar he was to the attacker. But I dismissed the thought. He would not have fit into any of the reasons I knew of so far. Who could it be though? Hopefully, the police officers will keep me updated.

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A/N:

Here's some fruit for thought - Why's Cole jogging for so long? Leave a comment if you've thought up of anything please.

Feedback is welcomed so please leave a comment. :)

Thanks for reading till here. Look forward to meeting you again in the next chapter!

Till Then,

Amanda :D