August 11th

Prompt: She had followed the woman for days and at last her patience was paying off…

She had followed the woman for days and at last her patience was paying off. The woman led her down a series of streets not unfamiliar to her; she had grown up in this city and no amount of random turns would throw her off. She was sure the woman had not seen her or knew she was being tailed. Francesca had been following her for days and the woman was none the wiser. Suddenly, the woman stopped and looked furtively up and down the street before entering an unmarked door down a side street. Francesca crept as close as she could and found a spot to wait and watch without being seen.

Less than an hour passed before a man exited the building. He was tall and had a misshapen nose, like had been in a fight long ago and the battle wound never healed correctly. Francesca was about to dismiss the man but noticed he was stuffing something into his jacket pocket. A small chain of a rosary hung outside of this pocket for a second before he realized it and stuffed the whole thing in. Francesca knew that rosary. It was the woman’s she had been following. Figuring there was little to be done anymore about the woman, she focused her attention on the tall man. He walked quickly down the street and cut over to the main street and blended into the crowd of pedestrians. He was a natural but there was no way he knew Francesca was following him.

She continued to tail him until he hailed a taxi. She darted into the street and grabbed the next open taxi she could find. Watching his cab take off ahead of her, she memorized the cab number. She had the taxi driver follow her instructions and soon they were close enough to the cab where she felt safe that she wouldn’t lose it. Her taxi was about four cars behind the tall man’s cab when they stopped at a red light. She watched as a man darted out from the sidewalk and ran up to the tall man’s taxi. Francesca shifted in her seat to see better and watched as the tall man handed the rosary out the window to the man would ran up to the cab. Francesca couldn’t see anything distinguishing about the man, just that he was wearing dark pants, a black shirt and a black leather jacket. The man turned and and walked quickly away from the cab and began walking down the street toward Francesca’s cab. Just as Francesca was about to toss a couple of bills to the driver and get out of the taxi, a loud explosion rocked the car and she was thrown against the window. Her head cracked against the glass and she felt a tremendous amount of pain. Her ears were ringing and everything sounded muted. Looking through the windshield she saw the cab the tall man had been in had exploded. Several cars next to it were either on fire or had their glass blown out. People were getting out of their cars and staggering around in the street with blood covering their bodies.

Francesca touched her head where it hit the window and felt wetness. Pulling her fingers away she saw bright red blood. Seeing the driver slumped over she checked that he was still breathing and climbed out of the car. Car alarms were blaring, horns honking, people screaming and yelling, in the distance there were police sirens. Francesca staggered a bit before regaining her balance. A bit nauseous and bleary, she managed to get on the sidewalk and look for the man that took the rosary. There were so many people running around that she knew she had lost him in the confusion. She knew that bomb was meant to throw her off, perhaps even kill her. So they knew she was following them, that she knew about the woman and the stolen rosary. Francesca blinked several times, trying to clear her slightly blurred vision, and thought she saw the man in black staring at her from a doorway along the street. Alert, she began pushing her way through the crowd to get to him. Suddenly she felt a hard whack on her head and realized that the man in black had not been looking at her…he had been looking at someone directly behind her. She fell fast to the ground and just before she blacked out, she prayed she would not get trampled to death on the sidewalk in Chicago.