December 24th
11:55 P.M.
The night hummed electric with unbridled human energy. An inky, moonless sky made a perfect backdrop for multi-colored light displays and gaudy plastic arrangements of false holly, pine trees, and religious figurines. Nervous wisps of gauzy snow clouds insinuated themselves across the velvet backdrop, their insubstantial fingers tenuously touching the strobe-like flashes, reflecting and magnifying them. Combined with raucous music and the voices of people jostling each other along the streets, the chaotic lightshow of festivities turned the street into a parody of a 1970s discotheque.
It was Christmas Eve and death stalked the innocent on this holiday night.
One tall figure, bundled in a heavy woolen overcoat and slouch hat, watched the festivities out of the corner of his eye while blending with the shadows in a deserted alleyway. But the real cause of his holiday celebration existed on the other side of the window he jealously guarded.
The sensory intrusion of merry-making reverberated through and around the man, a shadow within a shadow, deafening and jagged inside his skull. He ignored it.
The window showcasing an old style 1930s ballroom, like a spectacular 3D movie, ensnared his attention to the exclusion of all else. Within his world, this window, the only window to exist, separated him from the only thing he wanted, the only thing he lived for. He focused all his attention on her, the one face, one glowing entity, shining in a room full of dead, faceless lumps of useless humanity.
A full instrument band filled the room with cheerful, but seductive, music. She swayed with the crowd while her delicate long-fingered hand grasped the neck of a champagne bottle and her eyes closed in sensual ecstasy Confetti and ribbons littered her thick hair as it came loose from a pair of fragile filigree combs.
He loved to watch her hair cascading down to her small waist. He reached out toward the frosty glass of the window; impulsively wanting to stroke that mane of silken hair as it tumbled over her shoulders. A golden, strapless dress clung to her curves, imbuing her body with the aura of a priceless work of art. The dress shimmered as she laughed and kissed the men surrounding her on the dance floor.
When her breasts threatened to escape from her dress, the watcher clamped his lips together and ground the painful erection he sported against the brick wall under the window frame. Blood pounded in his ears, his hands shook harder, and his breath fogged up the windowpane. His world narrowed into a pinpoint of anticipation and rage.
The woman drunkenly swayed away from the drunk's grasp and turned to talk to the man pressed tightly behind her. Still leering, the man at the bar leaned forward, rubbing his hand over the satin of her buttocks. The captor standing before her grinned and slid his hand between them to cup her pubic mound, she froze in place, a doe trapped between two predators who pressed her between them without mercy Her hand snapped up to slap the man who stared into her eyes while grinding his probing fingers between her legs. Raised in midair, her hand stopped, as if an invisible wall prevented her from making contact. She turned and fled.
Squeezing through the crowd, her stiff body made jerky progress toward the room beyond. She disappeared into the connecting room and out of the watcher's view.
Shuddering with anxiety and breathless expectancy he waited. His gaze alternated between the window and the street; knowing she'd appear in one or the other. His breath caught in anticipation of seeing her without the coldness of glass between them.
After what seemed like eons, she stepped out of the building with a white fur wrapped tightly around her body and the dim overhead neon light emphasizing the pale golden cascade of her hair. She stood under the awning, slowly turning her head to the right and left, cornflower eyes searching for a taxi and giving him a private show of her classic beauty as her profile turned to accommodate his admiring gaze.
He poised himself at the mouth of the alley ready to follow whichever way she went. She cursed loudly, realizing the taxis were wisely staying away from the downtown area tonight, then shivered again. The harsh cold seemed to make up her mind for her. Shakily making her way down the stairs on thin-strapped high heels, her hand slid down the rail. He held his breath, hoping she wouldn't fall on the icy concrete. She made it to the sidewalk, turned right and slowly moved down the street away from the alley. The watcher stepped out and turned to see if any of the loud party-makers clogging the street noticed his presence.
He grinned.
Soon she will be mine. The grin widened into a leer.
Soon. The leer widened into a twisted snarl.
His hungry gaze riveted on her retreating back and stayed there, like a possessive hand on her neck, until she disappeared into the night. He knew her destination; a cozy apartment three blocks away.
Soon.