Her Broken Wings by D.K. Hood

Eighteen

Wednesday evening

It surprised him that people never realized someone was following them until it was too late. The sleet had cleared and yet Ruby hadn’t noticed his truck following her to the bus stop. He’d stayed well behind, waiting to discover her stop, crawling along the curb like someone out viewing the limp, rain-soaked Halloween decorations out front of most yards. The houses became scarce at this end of town, the perimeters of the properties turning from white picket fences to barbed wire. This close to the forest, many of the ranches had tree-lined driveways, and people used the alleyways as a shortcut to their homes rather than follow the road. His heart picked up as Ruby stepped down from the bus and it chugged away, leaving a puff of black smoke in its wake. He pulled to the curb, well away from a streetlight, as she walked a few feet along the sidewalk and then turned onto an alleyway.

Coldness dropped over him in an almost trance-like illusion. His body seemed to have a mind of its own as he slid from the truck. He walked hunched over and added a limp. Anyone glancing out a window and seeing him would see an old man battered by the wind heading home in the dark. He moved slowly to the entrance of the alleyway. Ahead he could hardly make out Ruby’s slight figure as she kicked aside the thick coating of fall leaves on the well-trodden pathway.

Underfoot the gravel crunched beneath his boots and he sensed more than saw Ruby stop and look at him over one shoulder. He increased his speed and could taste her fear as he came within a few yards of her. Her breath puffed out in great clouds of steam as she increased her pace. It made her appear ethereal as if she might take flight and he’d lose her forever. He stamped his feet as he gained on her, amused by how she zigzagged like a scared rabbit. Ahead, he could see the yellow glow of a streetlight at the end of the dark alleyway, and with a sigh, he turned and walked back in the other direction. Ruby had whetted his appetite, and the next time they met, she wouldn’t see death coming.