Encounter Intended

He had found a new way to stalk her, and this time Juri knew it was her own fault.

Babysitting.

The week during which Mari had slowly recovered from her pneumonia, Juri had spent part of the nights watching and playing with the little girl while her father gained back his sorely needed sleep and returned to working on lectures. Three of those nights she had ended up asleep on his couch again, and so in return he gave her rides to class with a sleeping Mari bundled up in the back seat. By the end of the week, the child–a sweet, joyful girl who was nothing like her father–was able to say goodbye and give a hug before Juri disappeared onto the campus. At the very least, she had to admit she had grown fond of her charge.

The father, however, was a different matter entirely.

If anything, his intent upon her had become even more focused, despite his quiet demeanor within his own household. He spoke little, mostly only to make smalltalk when she was visiting the apartment and they were both awake, but it was not his words that unnerved her; it was his eyes – the way he looked at her so sharply and blatantly, exposing what felt like every thought and secret she held within herself. She determined over the course of the week that this intense gaze was what had originally drawn her so completely to his presence. He was a wraith when he wanted to be, but those eyes… She could not ignore such eyes.

Internally, she feared that was how he intended it.

The hall was quiet tonight as she waited outside, lost in her thoughts. It was only when the lock clicked and the door swung inwards that she broke from her reverie to find him smiling gently from inside the doorway. “You’re early today.”

“My lab let out an hour ago, so I thought I’d just come straight here. It’s easier than stopping home and catching the bus all the way back,” she offered casually, looking anywhere but at his face as he stepped aside to allow her access.

The apartment was as quiet and disorganized as it had been the first time she had entered: books scattered haphazardly across tables, a grandfather clock in the corner ticking away the seconds, his coat thrown carelessly across the back of his favorite chair. She was again amazed at how he managed to create an area that spoke neither of a bachelor or a child, but always of content. The apartment was not altogether tidy, but neither was it cluttered; every countertop, despite the books or dishes, shone as a clean surface in the artificial lamplight. It was puzzling and awe-inspiring all at once.

“How is Mari doing? I take it she’s sleeping? Do you want me to make her some dinner while you work on your lessons, or do you think she’ll sleep for awhile?” Immediately Juri felt herself fall into the comfortable role of caretaker, glancing down the hallway towards the open doorway of the child’s room even as she reached for the discarded coat on the chair. She was halfway to hanging the garment in the closet when he spoke.

“She’s at her grandmother’s tonight.”

Time stopped. “P… Pardon?”

“I said,” suddenly, he was so close that Juri could feel the heat radiate through his clothes as he leaned over her shoulder to speak in her ear, “that Mari is with her grandmother tonight. She was feeling much better this morning, you see, and so I allowed her a small reprieve. Unfortunately, she will not be home until tomorrow.”  

Crap.

Against her better judgement, Juri turned to face him, only to find her back flush against the closet door. Slate gray filled her vision.

She drowned in it.

~ by eeratka on December 11, 2007.