The perfect timing

“What are you still doing here?” I asked surprised as I walked out after I had changed into my daily clothes.

Reece, who had just been sitting on the floor and had been scrolling through his phone, immediately stopped what he was doing and looked up at my words.

“I was waiting for you,” he told me casually as he got up from the floor, dusting imaginary dirt away from his pants.

“But why?”

“To go shopping of course. Or do you have other plans?” He questioned.

“No,” I answered, shaking my head in the process. I was about to add that I thought he meant to go and get a present for his sister like in a few days, but he just interrupted me like always.

“Good then lets go,” Reece said and dragged me out of the M.E.

I sighed mentally. If Reece wanted to get something done, he would do anything to accomplish his aim. I guess if I had told him I was really tired after our training, he would have just started to whine and tell me to get over it. But on the other hand I was excited to do something, which had nothing to do with super humans and secretly to spend time alone with him.

The car ride where Reece finally let go of me was relaxing. The two of us just listened to some music while Reece was driving to the next mall. We didn’t talk much, and we enjoyed the other ones company in silence. The car ride wasn’t long because the mall we were driving to was just in the next town.

“So what do you have in mind for a present?” I asked Reece as we were walking through the front doors of the mall. It was busy inside and I had to dodge a few kids, who were running around and parents who were trying to catch them.

“I actually don’t know,” he admitted, scratching his head.

“Not even the slightest clue? She is your sister you must have an idea.”

Reece laughed awkwardly at my words. “Nope. Kitty actually told me that I’m the worst person at picking presents.”

“Oh come one.” I said, looking at him as we were walking towards the first stores. “You can’t be that bad. What did you get her last year?”

“A desk lamp.” Reece answered, and I looked at him startled.

Was he serious right now? Reece noticed me looking at him still astonished at his answer and immediatly tried to defend himself.

“Well, her previous one got broken, and she was in need for a new one.” He explained and I laughed at his attempts to cover up his bad present choice.

“You know, I take that back. You are really a bad birthday present picker.”

“I guess I’am,” he admitted when we stopped in front of the first shop, which was one where you could buy jewellery. “But now I have you with me to help me get a good present. I don’t want to make her cry again.”

“Wait, what? You actually made her cry sometime?” I blurred out, and he put his finger in front of my mouth to stop me from asking another question.

“It was her six birthday and I will tell you the story sometime, but not now,” the boy clarified and I nodded. We were here because we had a mission. So I rolled my sleeves up and pulled Reece into the first store.

Our journey to find Kitty a good present was actually harder than I thought. I had asked Reece what his sister liked, which was only logical and to get her a good present. But he wasn’t a really good help. Pink was his glorious answer, and I wanted to face palm myself as he told me about it. Nevertheless I worked with what I had and tried to come up with a good one by myself.

We went into many stores from clothes, jewellery and what not. But Reece and I could never really agree with something. I for example found this beautiful rose-gold bracelet, but Reece was against it, because he thought it wasn’t enough to make up for all the years. In the end I still bought it as a present for her sixteens birthday and then our journey continued.

After about two hours wandering around and looking through every store they had, the two of us needed a break and we walked out of the mall to sit outside on a bench. Each of us had a drink in our hands and that the both of us were annoyed at the other one wasn’t a secret.

So we sat there, drinking our smoothie in silence. That was until Reece opened his mouth. I opened my eyes, which I had closed to enjoy the silence around me.

“Do you smell that?” he asked me and I turned my head towards his direction to see what he was doing. The guy was frantically looking around and was doing some weird movement with his nose, like he was a dog scenting something.

But I couldn’t smell anything. “No. Why do you ask?”

Reece took a deep breath and if I would have been a stranger and didn’t know him I would think he was some odd guy. But something told me he was being serious and so I sat up straighter waiting for his next words. After a few seconds he stopped what he was doing and looked into my eyes.

“I smell the person who sneaked into the bakery that day Nancy attacked you.”

At this one sentence my eyes widened, and I got up so fast that I almost tripped, but I could hold myself and my view was burning into Reece.

“Where?” I asked, and he also got from his seat and closed his eyes for a moment.

“Follow me,” he then said and walked away from the mall and more into the inner city.

Reece was walking with big steps and was almost running, nevertheless I could actually keep up with him. Maybe the training was paying of.

We scurried along the streets and sometimes Reece had to stop to find the scent again, like he called it. But my heart never stopped slowing down. I really wanted to meet the person who hurt Nancy and he or she was going to pay for that.

Suddenly Reece stopped in his tracks and I almost crushed into him, but he prevented me from doing it.

“There,” he whispered and pointed at a shady looking apartment a few meters away from us. The apartment was old and hid in a side road. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it, if I had been just walking by, but now that I see it, I knew the picture of it would never leave my mind.

I then was about to walk over the street and get into it, which was probably a dumb idea and a not thought-out plan, but I couldn’t stop myself. So someone else did. Reece to be exact.

“What are you doing?” he kind of hissed at me and my tone wasn’t pleasant as I answered him.

“What does it look like? I’m going in,” I said and attempted again to walk over the street. Though he stopped me again and his grip was firm on my arm.

“Are you out of your mind? You don’t know what the person who is in there is capable of and you don’t have a plan. You can get hurt Celia and I won’t let this happen.”

On another occasion his words would have probably made me feel something, but in the rage I was currently in, my mind wasn’t working rational.

“Maybe I’am, but I can’t just do nothing,” I explained frustrated and tried to get rid of his hands. But I failed and when Reece was sure I wouldn’t try to escape again, he let go of me and put his hands on my shoulders.

“First calm down, you are not thinking straight right now!” he told me and I stubbornly looked anywhere but him. Instead I looked at my shoes.

“Celia.” Reece sighed and put one finger beneath my chin so I would look up at him. It had the wanted affect, and I was looking straight into his deep brown eyes.

“We are going in no matter what,” he said word after word and I finally seemed to calm down like he wanted me to.

“But first we have to make a plan. It would be dumb to just walk in there, which is also probably impossible, because we don’t have a key and don’t know anybody who is living there. Okay?” He asked me after he had finished and I nodded to tell him that I understood.

“Okay.” I answered and took a deep breath. He was right, a plan what was we needed, and I was now calm enough to think about a proper one.

“Good,” he smiled and let go of me. “I actually have one already,” Reece added and then told me about it.

Reece plan was simple and something everyone would have came up with, but it was a good one and I agreed. The plan was to walk unsuspectingly around the apartment and find another entry. The task wasn’t difficult, because there was nobody around and we could easily snoop around it, without getting seen by someone.

And to our luck, there was a fire escape ladder at one side of the apartment. As we were climbing up the stairs we tried to make as less noise as possible, so no one would hear us.

Almost at the end of the ladder Reece stopped and mentioned me to be quiet as I wanted to ask him what he was doing. But then I saw why he halted. Next to us was a window and you could clearly see a person sitting with her back towards us inside. The girl was facing a wall and was talking on her phone.

Reece then moved and positioned us in a way, we could see the person better, but still be hide if she was going to turn around.

“It must be here. The smell is coming out of this room,” Reece whispered and I clenched my hands into fists.

We found her, the person who is responsible for Nancy’s condition. I tried to get a better glance at her so raised my head, but I only could see her back. The girl wasn’t tall and had a petite figure. Her hair were straight black and went to her waist. Sadly I wasn’t able to see more.

“Come on turn around,” I whispered and as she moved I had to hold on my breath for a second.

But the girl just got up from her position and was now walking around the room, her fingers still clutching her phone. And as she was wandering around the room, her surroundings attracted my attention for the first time. For what I could see there was only a table and a couch.

“Watch out!” Reece suddenly said and pushed us against the wall in the last moment, because in the next one the girl abruptly opened the window and looked straight out of it.

She wasn’t facing us and I hoped that she didn’t notice us spying on her, but it didn’t seem like it, because she was still talking on her phone and was now lightening a cigarette.

Though it was also the moment I could see her face, and it looked familiar. I thought about it really hard. I know that I didn’t know her in person, but I must have seen her around. And suddenly the puzzle was solved. She was there the way just minutes ago before Nancy attacked me. The girl was one of Nancy’s customers and the one I made a coffee for.