I saw signs for Covent Garden and made my choice, trotting on my heels like a girl gone mad, but barely anyone shot me a glance. I was spinning when I hit the park grass, checking for signs of an impending vampire attack, but none came.
Should I hide? Find another tube? Keep on running on foot as fast as I could?
I could see paths and benches, and people still walking on by… so which way? Which direction?
I guess I pondered my options too long, because when I looked back, I saw him there. Hans. Walking slowly towards me, like he had all the time in the world.
It took everything I had not to scream, but I kept walking, trying to blend in amongst some other people, even though I knew full well that Hans was watching me.
He didn’t try to catch up, and in some ways that made my heart pound even harder.
He was playing a game he had no fear of losing, but still, I wasn’t going to be an easy catch for him. Not this time.
I spotted an exit from the park and ran with everything I could, trusting instincts that were still fresh to me. My legs were already tiring, so it was a great relief when I saw signs for another tube station.
Leicester Square.
From that point, my race from the vampire was a blur of underground stations. I took random stops and switched lines, over and over. Sometimes I doubled back, and sometimes I ran across platforms, and I was panting, desperate, my heart crying out every second I had to wait for an overdue train.
I don’t know quite when I ended up in Camden Town, but it was a fitting location for a vampire given its almost otherworldly nature, lined with goth shops on both sides of the road. Hans would blend in like a mega posh goth guy pretty well here, but me? I’d be visible in a mile radius, so fuck it, I kept on running.
Of course, when I turned around at the end of the street, there was Hans, behind me, walking towards me with the same beautiful smirk on his face.
Fuck.
Running through Camden was even harder than running on the cobblestones. The people around me were unwelcome obstacles to avoid, made worse by my stupid heels. Fuck only knows how I ended up in Kentish Town, and fuck knows on top of that how I ended up back on the tube – destination Hackney – I was just grateful that Hans wasn’t on the same carriage as me.
Hackney felt different from the other parts of London. It had a different vibe somehow, with less people milling around. I felt out of my depth as I chose the next street to take, because some of them looked darker, quieter… more deserted.
But now was the time. I had to choose and run for it.
I picked the nearest street, and the nearest one again after that. The underground option seemed distant now, as though I was a million miles away from another station, so I slowed myself down and tried to use my brain.
Think Katherine. Think.
Hiding. That seemed the best option.
I dashed into a yard behind a closed restaurant and repeated a mantra in my mind. Maybe that would confuse him…
Kensington. Kensington. I’m going back to Kensington.
Maybe I was clutching at straws, but I had to try.
Kensington. KENSINGTON.
Ah, but fuck it. I failed.
I heard the footsteps and gave myself up with a grin as I panted, grateful for the shiver of excitement at what was coming. I was too exhausted to run any more.
My thighs were already parting, and my veins felt ready to be taken, and I couldn’t hold in just how much I wanted this. I only wished my hands could touch myself to get ready. My clit was aching for touch, screaming out to be played with.
I opted for as much confidence as I could, whispering out my invitation.
“Bite me, please,” I whispered. “And make it hurt…”
“Shut the hell up and give me your fucking purse,” a voice sounded out, and the tone of it gave me the horrors.
It gave me absolute, petrifying horrors, because Fuck, FUCK, the guy approaching me in the yard wasn’t Hans. Hans wasn’t the only one I’d been running from.