Alex tied the shoe laces of his white custom-made sneakers, and stood up. He wore a white shirt on top, leaving only his dark pants as the source of the contrast in his attire. His sleeves were rolled halfway up his forearms, stopping short of his elbows.
He looked around, and paused on the open french window of the bedroom. It used to be a good addition to the room, but now it only seemed to be a source of displeasure. So after one glance, Alex turned away. He didn't bother looking at it anymore. He didn't even close it, leaving it as wide open as it was.
He took his car key, and he left the room, then the apartment. Soon, he jumped with his Aston Martin out of the underground parking lot of the apartment building. He slowed down just long enough to check the road, revved the engine, shifted gears, and galloped away on the sparsely populated road, a pair classy of gold-framed sunglasses on his nose helping tone down the brightening light outside as he comfortably leaned back into the softness of his seat.
Only the sound of his passage remained, until it turned into a whisper, an auditory hallucination.
*VROOMMM!!!*
_ _ _
_ _ _
Back on the top floor, a head peeked out of the stairwell, before its owner came out, seeing no one in the corridor. As she passed by, she looked at the door to Alex's apartment with a whirlwind of complexity swirling in her dark eyes, before she lowered her head to hide her face.
From the clothes and the figures, it was obvious that it was the same woman who had given Alex's night an unexpected flavor. Only, her head was not covered anymore. She had a dark baseball cap over her head of short, shoulder-length dark hair, along with a dark mask that covered only the lower half of her face from the nose down. She called the elevator, with her dark backpack bulging from the rope she had recovered from the rooftop.
*Ding*
Even as she descended, she kept her head down, covering the sight below the brim of her cap from the camera. Like Alex not long before, she remained alone inside the elevator until it reached the ground floor, and it opened with another notification sound.
*Ding*
Carefully keeping her eyes to herself, and her hands in the pockets of her dark jacket, she walked through the lobby. She left the building, but it was only when she turned to the side, and walked out of sight of the receptionists at the desk, that she was able to feel relieved, and she let out a silent exhale.
Life was already difficult, and any victory, as small as it might be, deserved to be celebrated. But the relief was short-lived, as the reality for everyone who had yet to leave the world of the living came crashing down on her.
So long as one was not dead, the end of one trouble was just it leaving the way for another one. And… she had failed.
What she had set out to do the previous night had ended in failure, and failure had consequences, consequences the crushing weight of which she could already imagine.
Her troubles were not over.
The spring that barely came to life in her steps turned into a short lived flicker that failed to materialize. Her expression cooled down behind her mask, and she hurried into the corner in front. She took off the gloves she still had on her hands, and put them in the side-pocket of her backpack. She unzipped her jacket and turned it inside out, making it go from dark to brown, before wearing it again, as if to protect herself of the cool breeze that had yet to heat up.
Without slowing her steps, she lowered her head, and deftly picked off the black contact lenses covering her eyes, revealing the original blue of her eyes, as she put the lenses away in the box she had taken out of the second side-pocket of her backpack.
To complete the transformation, she took off her baseball cap. She passed a hand over her dark hair, pulling it along, and freeing the blond hair with soft, gentle light beige color gathered together beneath it. She deftly put both the cap and the wig away into the dark backpack.
She took off her mask, untied her hair, and shook her head to let its silky strands fall down on her shoulders, and to the middle of her back. By the time she came out of the alley, there was almost nothing to link her to the woman who had gone rappelling in the middle of the night. Only the dark pants snugly hugging the legs, the dark boots, and the dark backpack bulging at the back could make the brown jacket-wearing blonde resemble the previous dark-haired masked woman.
Especially with the former's blue eyes filled with life, nothing like the latter's lifeless dark eyes.
_ _ _
_ _ _
The red light in front turned green. Alex lifted his foot off the brake and sprang forward. He lowered the window of the car, and pushed its speed to the limit set by the law, as he let the wind ruffle his hair. His light smile spoke of his improved mood, as he rushed down the streets which had yet to wake up.
He slowed down as he arrived at the transportation hub which was his destination, and took a path that led inside.
Despite the early hour, the airport was still a hub of activity, but said activity did not spread to the part where Alex drove his car.
He swerved and stopped beside a hangar in front of which was a jet waiting to go. Just as he stepped down and slammed the door of his Aston Martin shut, a black SUV arrived, followed by a van.
Alex stopped in his steps, and with an amused smile, leaned against his car and lowered his sunglasses.
"Oh? If this isn't the breakfast-making model husband! How come you arrived so soon? Were you in that much of a hurry to see me?"