She was settled silently on a park bench, her long, brown coat wrapped tightly around her as you would a duvet on a cold winter morning. The icy greens and muddy browns of the park sprawled out before her, the glow and safety of the city only barely visible on the horizon, and covered frequently by her frosty breath in the air. The pedestrian walk path was empty and the only sounds heard were the mating calls of tree bearing animals, which diminished the deathly silence of the area in which a police siren was expected. Below, the icy puddles struggled to reflect the hedges and the bleak, lifeless trees that bordered it. The chill in the air didn't seem to bother her as she sat there, her eyes fixed on no random point, her expression almost stricken with worry but at times contemplative, and watched.
A shady transit van, possibly once black but now tainted grey with dust and grime, quietly pulled up at the entrance to the public garden. It was early morning, about 3am, and the headlights merely glowed amongst the street lamps. There was a time when the caretaker would lock the park gates when it got dark, but there was no caretaker anymore. A grassy area, which once held beautiful flowers and exotic plants, had become a man-made shortcut, lined with trampled shrubbery, mud and cobblestones.
The girl on the bench heard the gravelly sound of a vehicle pulling up somewhere behind her, and the slamming of a door, but it didn't bother her. She appeared to be young - perhaps in her early or mid twenties - with unblemished skin and slight feminine curves. Her skin was smooth and pale, her hair dark and elegant - not quite black, and hanging to just below her shoulder. Most of it was tucked behind one ear, exposing her soft youthful features to the twilight
The owner of the van was no longer in the vehicle. Not taking his eyes off the woman seated on the bench, he closed the van door behind him, and started to pace up the shortcut.
The girl continued to survey the open air directly in front of her. The place was dead, devoid of life, an abandoned maze of dead trees, footpaths and the occasional squirrel. Electricity pylons towered over the area, and a network of overhead cables created a black web over the entire quarter. She sensed a man approaching, yet made no movement to ...
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The owner of the van was no longer in the vehicle. Not taking his eyes off the woman seated on the bench, he closed the van door behind him, and started to pace up the shortcut.
The girl continued to survey the open air directly in front of her. The place was dead, devoid of life, an abandoned maze of dead trees, footpaths and the occasional squirrel. Electricity pylons towered over the area, and a network of overhead cables created a black web over the entire quarter. She sensed a man approaching, yet made no movement to suggest that this was the case. She continued to perch on the seat with her coat still wrapped tightly, but rippling slightly at the edges in the gentle breeze; her eyes watching yet not really seeing, her mind being elsewhere.
The man had almost reached the girl now. His handed delved into his jacket, and then re-emerged, tightened around a heavy, matte-black metal object. He knew that she couldn't see him, but he was close enough to make out the details of her face: the slight flush on her smooth pale cheeks, the way a few strands of flyaway played about her nose, the fullness of her lips. He switched on the torch he had retrieved from his pocket, but the beam of the light pointed towards the ground.
The girl's attention turned to the man that she sensed approaching her. She could hear the faint padding of his footsteps on the dusty floor, the displacement of air in every breath he took. She could feel the warmth of his body and smell his sense of veiled trepidation. And she could hear the quickening beats of his heart, pumping inside him.
Their short but secure association together was unknown to anyone. However, their alliance was formed on the grounds of murder, jealousy and revenge.
The girl now knew who this man was. She didn't have to turn, hear his voice, or smell his familiar scent - she could sense him. Still her gaze was focused on the vacant air in front of her; past the ground below it lined with public footpaths, puddles and plants, past the dead trees and shrubs encasing the area, and past the light and surgical orderliness of the cityscapes and honed in on a fixed point in the centre of her vision, moving her shoulders slightly back and tilting her head vaguely forwards to focus on this point and to clear her head of the regretful news which was about to come.
His voice came as no surprise to the woman. The sound of it - dark and murderous - awakened something deep inside of her; a feeling she had experienced before but not on this scale.
"Cadence, he's out of the picture, he ain't coming back."
The girl's attention diverted towards the man and her face dropped with lament and angst. She tilted her head slightly further up, allowing the man a full view of her profile, illuminated by the full moon. She gazed at him into his eyes. Nothing much had changed since their last encounter - the same deep brown eyes, the same dark hair and trace of stubble, the same black shirt and combats and the same long brown coat - not dissimilar to her own - that hung to just above his ankles. Even his boots were unchanged - a timeless classic for him.
The girl returned to her former position, coat still waving slightly in the breeze. Relaxing slightly, the man returned the torch to his coat pocket and strolled to the designated footpath, which he considered less work for his ankles after stumbling over a shoddy, eroded track. He was not inordinately tall, but his posture and stance - shoulders back, chest out, feet shoulder width apart - brought him parallel with his acquaintance.
As he clasped his hands behind his back, he followed Cadence's gaze to the vacant air behind him, before quickly turning back. As he turned, the loud sound of police sirens bellowed in the distance. Trepidation overcame the man's face in an instance and was unable to move his position. Three police cars appeared from a distance fanned out in different directions. Although like flies at the distance, their headlights were just visible. The sound then weakened, returning the man to his usual malevolent state.
"Cat got your tongue?" he enquired maliciously, before whispering with an aggressive tone, "I said he's dead! This is what you wanted! This is what you came and asked me to do for you! A done deal is a done deal, I can't change it now!"
"This wasn't meant to happen," cried the girl, her words stuttered by tears. "I was just scared. I was angry at him. He shouldn't have done what he did. I just wanted an easy way out. I never wanted this to happen."
In one fluid movement the man swung round to the bench into a perching position mimicking the girl's. You could see now that the man was far younger than the girl, whose face was now covered with tears and smudged make up.
"Why did you ask then?" asked the man with a hint of compassion. "He was your husband for 12 years and he stumbles home drunk one night at 4am with lipstick on his collar, and you turned to this?"
"So?" replied Cadence irately, "He betrayed me. He told me he loved me that very day. He said he would explain in the morning but I had left before he woke." Having heard this information, the man was overcome with guilt. Maybe they were both in the wrong?
"Well, the police are coming now, you got your hiding place?" asked Cadence.
The man answered abruptly.
"Yeah."
There was a short pause, and the girl returned to gazing over the landscape before her. Once again the man followed her gaze. The girl, deep in thought, subconsciously twisted a lock of her hair between her fingers - a childhood habit she thought she had long eradicated. Then, very slowly, she turned her head to directly face the man, and stared deep into his soul with her tearful eyes.
A sparkle appeared in the man's eye as he recognized a friend he though he may never see again. He thought he saw a playful smile spread across the girl's face, but as quickly as it was noticed, it was gone. The girl bit her bottom lip and sucked, revealing a pair of perfect, precious teeth. The voice that spoke was her, but in a tone that the man thought he wouldn't hear from her that night:
"Oh well!" She said cheerfully. "Maybe all I can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Far away, as the sirens reappeared in the distance, there was a flicker of light by which made Cadence's eye twinkle, and set a smile on her face. She turned to the man to see if he saw it too, but he was gone. Nowhere to be seen. His heavy footsteps were audible for a short time as they moved away faster and faster. The sound blended in with the sounds of nature before fading away completely, leaving Cadence alone, stricken with guilt, apprehension, and resentment.
