Midnight Stranger, Museme [ereader with dictionary txt] 📗

His eyes;
The color of bruised flesh.
Glistened like the crystal balls
Of a fortuneteller.
Just the same,
They promised lies.

Day seeped steadily into night, brewing up molten hues of red and gold, spattering them across the sky, a celestial canvas, where the Gods can portray their pain, and guilt, and sorrow. Shadows settled on the streets, nesting into every nook and crevice. Claiming a new world, a dangerous world. The layers of darkness falling on her path did not break Alexis’s stride. Her heels clicked along the concrete, resounding in the blossoming blackness, alone she approached the train station, not another soul in sight. Up the stairs she jogged, trying to force feeling back to her lower extremities that were exposed to harsh winter winds. She clutched her pea coat closed with glove-covered hands, gently rocking in place on the deserted platform as the final slivers of sunlight slipped from the sky and night officially reigned.
Wisps of smoke curled from her lips as frost bit at her lungs. Alexis rubbed her bare legs together trying in vain to heat them and simultaneously praying the train would arrive soon. The breeze ruffled her hair, halos of orange artificial light rained down on her as she cursed the train’s delay under her breath.
“Hello”
A pang of dread shot threw her body as she whirled around to find a man standing behind her. Startled by the arrival of this stranger she remained speechless and wide eyes, a deer caught in headlight. He chuckled,
“Sorry didn’t mean to frighten you, just trying to be friendly,”
Alexis shook the shock from her face forcing word through her numb lips,
“Oh it’s ok, ah hi,”
“Aren’t you cold?” He asked eyes darted her quaking legs.
She looked down, momentarily distracted from the climate, and giggled uncomfortably,
“Yes, quiet cold.”
Alexis noted that his choice of clothes, a dark pair of dress pants, a wrinkled button up shirt, and a blazer, didn’t offered much against the bitter chill either.
“What about you?” She inquired nodding to his attire.
He smirked, lighting up a cigarette with nude hands,
“I don’t feel it.”
Silence overtook the conversation. Alexis awkwardly stole glances at him, his eyes seemed to always be upon her and seeing this each time she quickly looked away avoiding his stare.
“I’m Adam,” he spoke.
Alexis met his eyes, a rush of adrenaline washed over her. Perhaps it was the light playing tricks that made his eyes appear to have a subtle glow and his skin to have the same appearance as powdery snow. He raised an eyebrow at her as she continued to gap at him.
“Adam…” she whispered absentmindedly.
“You know, once a person has offered his name it’s customary in civilized culture for the person he is conversing with to offer theirs.”
“Of course,” Alexis squeaked, snapping out of her daze, she had a quick look around for any sign of the train, there was none, “Alexis.”
Adam took a final drag of his cigarette before flicking it into the open tracks; the smell of tobacco was strong in the air.
“So Alexis,” he tested her name on his tongue, playing with, enjoying the feeling it had, “Do tell why you are so scantly dressed in such arctic conditions.”
She swallowed thickly, forcing back the anxiety simmering in her stomach,
“I’m going to a party.”
“A party,” he repeated lightly, “with all your friends? With music, and dancing, and drinks I suppose?”
She nodded between her shivers.
“I myself am looking for a drink,” his voice was casual and lulling, “I’m absolutely parched,”
“Is that w-where you’re g-going, to get a few d-drinks?” Alexis assumed, stuttering through her chattering teeth.
“In fact I am,” he smiled, “but you see no matter how much I drink I always end up thirsty again, I’m never fully sated.”
The train’s whistle howled out of the night allowing relief to flood Alexis’s tension filled figure. Breaking from his eyes she made her way to the edge of the platform, looking off into the distance where the tracks melted seamlessly into the darkness a solo headlight sped towards them.
“Perhaps you’d like to join me?” Adam stepped up behind her, his chest barely brushing her back.
She spun around; alarmed by his close vicinity she went to step back forgetting the platforms drop off, her arms flailed as she tried to catch her balance. Adam caught her wrist tugging her into his chest as the train sailed by loudly rumbling to a stop.
Alexis stared up at him, transfixed and shaking from her almost accident.
“Careful Alexis, you could get hurt.”
“Thank you,” She breathed, in her mind she knew to pull away from him, wriggle out of his grasp, but her legs felt paralyzed, they did not listen to her brains commands. His dark, pitfall eyes drank in every aspect of her face before he spoke,
“Your lips are turning blue,”
He lowered his mouth on hers, capturing her trembling lips. Alexis gasped out in outrage and astonishment. His kiss was cold as ice, painful even, more so then the frigid air of December before a blizzard. It seemed to freeze her insides, holding her in place like an ice sculpture; her mind was going numb until he parted from he, smirking.
“Now you got some color to them. Thank you,”
He let her go and backed up slowly, his eyes stabbing into hers like icicles.
“Are you for the train?”
Alexis jumped hearing the conductor speak, she looked over her shoulder at his silhouette cast from the electric light spilling from aboard the train. She hurried on; a warm flow of air welcomed her. She glanced back at the now empty platform, the cold slowly melting from her body.
“Miss, please take a seat,”
Alexis stood there searching the shadows for Adam or any sign of where he’d gone. The only thing signifying he had even been there at all was the cigarette stench soaked into her clothes and hair.
“Miss, we’re leaving soon, please take a seat,”
She did not move, fear and confusion rooted her to the floor, like little sinews of panic holding her in place.
“Miss, you’re bleeding,”
Her head swiveled in the conductor’s direction,
“Excuse me?”
“Your lip’s bleeding,”
She moved into the nearest seat and pulled off her gloves urgently. She touched her quivering fingertips the plump, swelling, flesh of her lower lip. Looking down she found them be coated in oily blood. Tears collected on the brims of her eyes as she blotted the red liquid oozing from her lip. She collected her things and headed to the bathroom, shuffling through the isles, bumping past passengers, she covered her mouth mortified the entire time. Inside the cramped little compartment she let herself cry as she wetted a tissue, reddish streaks stained her neck and chin, it stung when she patted at the open cuts, two pin prick sized puntures. There was sudden knocking on the door that caused her to yelp,
“I’m in here,”
The knocking didn’t stop, she yelled louder over the roar of the thunderous train,
“Someone’s in here!” she continued ebb the blood flow.
Still the knocking persisted,
“I said I’m in here God damn it!”
Silence.
Alexis sighed heavily sizing up the damage to her lip in the mirror when the train’s lights dimmed and flickered the bathroom door swung open and shut. Alexis screamed as a hard body pressed up against her, forcing her back against the filthy wall of the compartment. Her lip throbbed in pain as a rough hand silenced her, smearing blood across her jaw. Her brown eyes welled with fear releasing fresh tears to cascade down her cheeks as Adam’s face hovered inches from her own. A tiny drop of her own blood dried on the corner of his mouth visible when he smirked,
“Hello Alexis. What do you say to that drink darling?”

Publication Date: 03-21-2010

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