The quiet hallway gave me the confidence to escape. It's now or never. But I need to be smart for this. Quick and subtle!
I grabbed the coat that was hanging by the coat holder and stood readied by the door. My heart pumped twice as hard with adrenaline and my shaky hand was waiting for the right moment to slide it open.
Sounds of the elevator 'ding' permeated through the hallway and I ducked!
'Is he here?' My ear pushed against the door but there were no footsteps.I took a couple of breaths.
I need to stay calm. Be calm and thorough to execute this perfectly because one wrong move, he would be on my tail faster than expected.
As soon as my wrist slid the door open, I put on my happy mask and stepped out with a deliberate step. Just as I wanted, the two women were shocked to see me.
"Do you think I would be able to catch the sunrise this morning?" I greeted the two women with such lively energy before they could say a word to me. My finger pointed up, hinting I would be heading to the rooftop garden.
"Ah... Yes... You should be able to see it up there -"
"The sunrise view up there is STUNNING! You should go and see for yourself!" The younger of the two women cut her colleague's words off with enthusiasm, dominating the conversation.
"But maybe wait til your -" Her hunched posture matched with the tone of her voice.
The younger one swiveled so fast towards her colleague and her face expressed annoyance.
"Girl! Must she wait for a man to see nature's beauty? What if she missed it?"
"There's still time-"
"Ssshhhh! Let the miss do what she wishes to do. We don't need no man's permission, right?" The woman winked at me and shooed me towards the elevator.
To be honest, I like her! Jaunty or not, she made my life easier. I gave the pair my best confident smile and a thumbs up before disappearing from the corner.
Was I going towards the elevator? Yes.
Was I going to go up to the rooftop garden? You bet I do!
I made sure to greet anyone I saw, commenting how excited I was to see the sunrise. My head kept on turning towards the elevator, making sure Edmund had not made his way to the rooftop. 'Let's hope the young woman would help me by giving him a misguided direction, please!!' I prayed.
Time was ticking and without any intel, I could never tell where he might be. I began to grow restless! As soon as I felt there were plenty of witnesses, I headed straight towards the staircase designated for staff only. I mean, who would use them when there's an elevator, right?
But my guesses were wrong. It was as busy as a hospital's lobby! My head turned at every footsteps behind me. I jumped when someone pushed the door open. With every voice of someone talking, I looked for the source. For all I know, I might have left a suspicious impression on the staff and that frightened me!
Like an answered prayer, a man's stern voice stopped me in my tracks, "Excuse me?"
I took a step down cautiously.
"You, there! Who are you?"
I bolted! As he had not seen my face clearly, I took my chance and ran down all the way from the thirteenth floor out of the fifteenth.
I made sure to keep on moving while my body was fuelled by fear. Whether the person was right chasing after me or not, it did not matter if he had not caught me. My legs numbed and my vision only focused on one - the exit door on the ground floor!
When I finally reached the ground floor, I wasted no time to celebrate. I kept on moving until I exited the building. My feet were on a mission and even when the cool air slapped me in the face, I dared not stop.
Dawn was breaking but the streets were busy with vehicles zooming by. After all, it was already half past seven in the morning and many had begun their day. I, too, made sure my steps were confident.
With only a hospital gown underneath the thick coat, I wrapped myself even tighter. It was not much of an unusual sight considering we were in the middle of October and I blended fairly well with all the pedestrians. The only difference was, I wore the despicable and thin disposable slippers. Even with the thick socks I was wearing, it did not provide a great shield to the cold frosty air that bit my toes.
Still, I braved through the morning autumn air without any earmuffs, no scarf to cover my neck, and face and pockets as my gloves. The freezing breeze from the zooming vehicles only made my nose redder and my ears ready to fall off.
Every inch of me wondered if I made the right choice. I had left the comfort of warmth and exchanged them with the nasty cold air with no direction to go. It was too cold to a point I had not paid any attention to my surroundings. Even the honking sounds of cars had integrated with the background noise that it muffled my sense of hearing.
Imagine how surprised I was when someone grabbed my wrist. I swore it would fall off had I fought it. I turned to see even though my mind had already made up who the person was.
Except, rather than the man I had been seeing for the couple past months, it was someone she had known for over a decade.
It was Alistair, the second least person I wanted to see right now.