Run Away [Completed]

1

When Alden first saw her, he was sitting outside a coffee shop right across the upscale condominium he had just moved in to. He was scribbling away on his journal and just happened to look up from it when he saw her walking out of the building door and standing by the sidewalk with a despondent look on her face.

She looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was wearing a long, brown, body-hugging dress that reached her ankle and her hair was tied up in a messy pony tail. The mid-afternoon temperature was warm and humid, but she had a thin jacket on, which she kept tugging the sleeves of from time to time, making sure it covered her arms fully.

The fact that she was obviously attractive captured his attention, but her mysterious aura and the sadness in her eyes piqued his interest even more. He was an aspiring writer after all and he loved observing human emotions and using them as inspiration for his writing. He was currently working on a new book and had been trying to find an inspiration for the last three months, and now it seemed like he had finally found his muse.

Alden noticed a guy stepping out of the building door just a few seconds after she did, and the guy started talking to her in wide gestures. He could sense the building tension between them because the young woman was refusing to face the guy and she kept shaking her head.

Alden suddenly sat up in alarm and quickly placed his coffee cup down when the guy fiercely grabbed the woman by her forearm and pulled her forcibly toward him. He was talking through gritted teeth and she was wincing as if in so much pain.

He was about to go over there and intervene when a car stopped in front of the couple and a valet got out of the driver seat. The guy opened the passenger door and almost shoved the woman inside before climbing up the driver side and driving away.

Alden felt his heart beating fast as he watched the car speed thru the street and turn right at an intersection. If there was one thing he couldn't tolerate, it would be any type of violence against women. The scene made his blood boil and he wondered if the couple were actually residents at the same condominium.

That same evening as he was typing a story draft on his laptop, he suddenly heard a loud crash from next door. It was then followed by a shouting match that was only slightly muffled by the thick walls of the rooms.

"What are you gonna do about it, huh?" said a man's fierce voice. "You can't leave me, you know you can't!"

A woman responded but her words were muffled not only by the thick walls but by her sobbing too, so Alden couldn't understand what she was saying.

He placed his hand on his head and wondered why he had not foreseen this problem when he moved in. Well it was an upper-class condominium after all and no one would really expect to hear screaming matches like this in the middle of the night.

He decided he wouldn't be able to concentrate with all the noise, so he quickly shut his MacBook and got out of his room in haste. He decided to continue his work on the roof deck instead.

A few minutes after he had taken a comfortable spot near the entrance of the roof deck, and thought that he would finally be able to get some work done, he heard a sound of footsteps on the stairs accompanied by sniffs and a suppressed sobbing.

A young woman emerged from the door and slowly made her way to the edge of the roof deck. She had her back to Alden but he could see her shoulders shaking from controlled sobs. She then slowly climbed the ledge, trembling.

"Hey! Whoa, whoa, whoa what are you doing?!" Alden shouted as he ran towards the woman to stop her.

The woman's foot almost slid on the edge as his voice startled her, and he quickly grabbed her hand to pull her to safety. She landed on his chest and they fell to the floor, his shoulder hitting the surface hard.

"Ouch! What the fff--" Alden cried out as he grabbed his shoulder.

The woman quickly scrambled to her feet and looked at him lying on the floor.

He then realized that she was the young woman he had seen that afternoon, and at that moment her face was tear-stained and her bottom lip was starting to swell.

"S-sorry," she said, still trembling. She bit her lip and wrapped her arms around herself.

Alden slowly stood up, wincing a little when he moved his shoulder. "What do you think you're doing? Were you seriously trying to kill yourself?" he hissed at her.

She didn't respond and just stared at her foot.

Alden quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the ledge and into his spot near the entrance.

He sat her gently on the chair and knelt in front of her. "What happened?" he asked her.

She just shook her head and stared down her lap.

He touched her chin and made her face him and their eyes met. At once, he felt himself swimming in her gaze as he stared into her eyes and saw all the emotions she had at that moment. He blinked twice to gather himself, then he noticed the swell on her lip again. "What happened to your lip?" he asked.

"Nothing..." she answered, her voice barely audible.

"Who did that to you?" he demanded and he could already feel himself seething.

She shook her head again, brushed Alden's hand away from her face and quickly ran through the roof deck entrance.

Alden cursed as he ran his hands thru his hair, the sight of her shattered expression getting him all worked up and fuming.