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It seems like a normal day, considering all the odd happenings you can usually expect from Destiny City. The weather’s great, the people are tolerable, and everything’s going fine. You are out, enjoying the good fortune, when you catch a familiar face in the crowd: yours. They are wearing your clothes, your face, and you see them for only a second but a feeling of dread floods through you. They smirk, like they know they’ve won—and then you lose them in the crowd. No matter how hard you look, you can’t find any sight of them, but a feeling of dread and being watched follows you for the rest of the day.


Things had slowly seemed to settled down after the 'Bootanical' Garden Halloween event fiasco. It was an event that Saffron couldn't help but feel guilty over because Arian had ended up getting sick after being bitten by one of the spiders that had invaded the event–

What made it worse was that her cousin hadn't even wanted to go - he had actually wanted to stay home which meant that she had had to convince him to go - well okay more like she had ended up nagging him a little and then it had turned out that Anxo had wanted to go and between the two of them they had eventually convinced him into agreeing.

Although given what had happened, Saffron couldn't help now but wish that Arian had been a little more stubborn about things, because then he wouldn't have been there to step forward in front of the spider that had lunged forward towards her or have taken the bite that had made him sick.

It hadn't helped that the little idiot had tried to hide it, but by the time that the spiders had been driven back it was clear that her cousin was looking definitely shaky and he'd started feeling nauseous by the time that they'd all gotten back to her apartment.

She sighed, waiting for the traffic lights to change before stepping out across the road, her destination the small square by the museum where she was due to meet up with an old friend. She had actually contemplated cancelling, but Arian had told her not too when she had spoken to him the evening before, his quiet voice exasperated as he gently pointed out that he already had Anxo fussing over him–

And ironically it was shaping up to be a lovely day for a meetup, the people out and about seemingly cheerful and the weather warm and sunny with the warmth - at least according to weather reports - predicted to stay that way well into early evening.

Her thoughts drifted towards her friend, it having been a while since Alice had been in town and thus for them to be able to meet up even as her mind mentally cycled through some of the eateries close to the square.

There was the museum café, or the nice little bakery just around the corner with the pastries and who also did a lovely coffee, although it was also late enough in the morning for Alice to perhaps prefer something a little more substantial, so maybe somewhere that did...

Her thoughts trailed to a juddering halt as her eyes made contact with a small group walking towards her, the men and woman clearly known to each other as they chattered amongst each other.

At least all except one of the group were chattering amongst themselves, the final member instead staring in her direction–

And the woman was familiar, the features those that Saffron saw everyday in the mirror when getting ready for the day. She froze as brown eyes with a lighter ring of golden brown caught and met her own, a chill slithering down her spine as red lips turned up in a cruel smirk and the smirk was familiar too - it had been about four years give or take, but Saffron had never forgotten it, never forgotten the way how the doppelganger with her features had looked when she had tried to kill her..

And she had thought that she was it for her as consciousness had faded, the smirk the last thing that she had seen...

But somehow she had waken up, had found herself in the hospital - Good Samaritans they had told her, although she had never found out who.

She found herself trembling, taking a step backwards even as the group continued towards her, because it couldn't.. She couldn't.. She absolutely couldn't go through something like that again and the woman's smirk shifted, a victorious look tinging that cruel, cruel smirk–

And then the group passed her and the woman was gone, the men and women still chattering amongst themselves as if nothing had happened...

It was a good few moments before Saffron could find it in herself to continue on her way, her legs unsteady and her breathing uneven - and whilst the sun was still out, the sun was still shining - there was a chill to the day that had not been there prior and it was one that continued to linger for the rest of the day.

-- 755 words --