It would have been hard to miss the varied flyers dotted around town advertising the upcoming Fall Festival that the City Council and Saffron had been planning to attend.

She had even been thinking of perhaps dragging her cousin along with her because Arian could stand to get out more and there seemed like there was going to be a variety of stalls to go along with the funfair and haunted house.

Work had ended up scuppering any budding plans that she might have had however, after the coordinator covering the Rookstone event had unexpectedly fallen sick - which was how Saffron had ended up finding herself at work for the weekend after she had volunteered to step in and cover.

The first day of the event had gone relatively well however and whilst there had been a few minor hiccups to start off with, they were things that she and the two others with her had managed to largely iron out before the delegates started arriving.

She had had an early start to the day, which had meant that she had been in for a long day - particularly as the last delegate had not left until six - and she and the others had had to set things out for the next day before they could go home for the evening.

Well the others had gone home, but Saffron had opted to head for the gym that was around the corner to her apartment - or at least relatively so - because she had wanted to spend some time working off the excellent cake bites that the venue had decided to serve up with the equally excellent coffee during the afternoon break.

Which bought her to now as she finally made her way home.

There was a definite chill to the air that made Saffron glad of the warm thick coat and woollen beret that she had opted to wear. A part of her wished however that she had thought to bring gloves and she made a mental note to slip some into her handbag for tomorrow as she crossed over the first of the roads separating gym from apartment with brisk footsteps.

The second road passed largely the same way as the first as Saffron walked past a line of shops that had closed for the evening before turning down an alleyway that she tended to use as a bit of a short cut as it was shorter than going round the main road.

She was about a third of the way down when the wind suddenly turned direction with the full frontal blast causing her to stick chilled hands in the coat's pockets.

A prickling, the sense that something - that someone - was watching, had her looking up and behind before tensing at the sight of a shadowy black figure.

She turned back and started walking faster, shoes making soft tapping noises against the sidewalk, but the prickling sense remained and when she finally gave in to the urge to look over a shoulder the shadowy figure was still there as if it was following after.

And so Saffron walked even faster, a part of her wishing that she had gone with the main road option after all.

At one point she had taken a few steps towards the 'figure' and had called out sharply "Who's there?!" And then had felt very silly when there had appeared to be no one there.

But when she had turned and continued walking then Saffron had once again started feeling the prickling feeling and the shadowy figure had once again been there when she had looked over her shoulder.

It had been at that point that she had broken into a run, feet flying over the sidewalk - but even when she had exited the alley and back onto the last of the roads between gym and apartment - the prickling feeling had still been there...

And so had the shadowy figure when she had dared another look over her shoulder.

She had broken into another run at the point, pushing herself as fast as she could, refusing to stop until she was inside the doors of her apartment block, spending a few moments wheezing as she fought to catch her breath.

It took a few moments for her to realise that the shadowy figure had gone and for a few long moments brown eyes peered through the closed door of the apartment block entrance before Saffron swung back round and started walking for the lift.

She was going to make hot chocolate once she was inside her apartment she decided as a part of her noticed that the air not only seemed lighter somehow - but the horrible prickling feeling from earlier was also finally gone.

Hot chocolate with all the trimmings - whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles - the whole lot.

And whilst Saffron wasn't sure what had just happened, a part of her was considering perhaps opting for a taxi when she finished up with work tomorrow - just to be safe.

Even if she didn't - even if however for whatever reason she decided to once again opt to walk - albeit with mace as a back up in her handbag - there was one thing that was certain...

And that was Saffron was definitely going to avoid that alley from now on.

[883 words]