Simspirations 8/21/09 "Being Followed"
I posted this over at sim_spiration itself, but I should have just posted it here and linked it (and I can't delete my post over there). Anyway, this is my very first entry ever so I hope it turned out okay. This takes place during Chapter 4.5 "Perfection Lost." The target characters are Mary Devereaux and Tina Traveller.
Mary walked briskly to the Bubble Den. She was very satisfied with the fact that she had managed to bring the bookstore back up to top level, and she was looking forward to doing the same for the other family business. Then, maybe after that, she could open a few of her own. It would keep her busy and her mind off of other things.
Her random thoughts of future businesses kept getting interrupted by a tiny, nagging voice in her head telling her that the blonde woman she met while tending the bookstore was the woman that Goopy was cheating on her with. Mary furiously pushed that voice back into the mental lockbox she had in her mind, and she paused in her stride to take a deep breath. That was when she noticed that the footsteps that she and unconsciously heard behind her had fallen silent.
Mary looked around and saw no one. Mentally shrugging, she continued on her way. A moment later, she heard the footsteps again. Abruptly turning around, she managed to see the flash of a red coat ducking into a nearby alley. Heart pounding, very well aware of the hatred Pleasantview had for the Devereaux family, Mary slowly started walking backwards, hoping to see who was following her, praying that whoever it was wouldn't harm her.
She saw the blonde woman from the bookstore, Tina if she remembered correctly, timidly come out of the alley. Tina stopped, wide eyed when she saw that Mary was looking at her, and she fumbled with the books she had been carrying, dropping them onto the dirty sidewalk.
Mary stalked over to where the other woman had begun scrambling the books back into her arms, tempted to help, but at the same time angry. Angry at being scared. Angry at being followed. But most importantly, angry at this very woman who, she assumed, had an illegitimate child with her husband.
"Why are you following me?"
Tina looked up at Mary as she gathered the last of the books back into her arms. Tina stood up, but ducked her gaze from Mary's accusatory one. She knows, Tina realized.
"I..I'm not. I mean, um, this is the way I take home. I spent the last of my money on these books, so I couldn't call a cab." Tina blushed. It was the truth, technically.
Mary's expression relented slightly, but not much. She could smell the very familiar and cheap perfume the other woman was wearing, and it felt like it was enveloping her, taunting her. This is the other woman! This is the other woman! The nagging voice in Mary's head screamed this over and over as Mary frantically dug through her purse and pulled out some cash. She handed it to Tina.
"The streets in this area can be dangerous. Here's some money for a cab. Your daughter will miss her Mommy if anything happened to you. Karen was her name, right?"
Tina nodded gratefully, still unable to look in Mary's eyes, and she took the money. "Thank you," she said, simply. Mary waved the thanks off and she breathed a sigh of relief when Tina went into one of the corner stores to call a cab. The cloud of perfume dissipated.
Mary walked as fast as she could, attempting not to run, as she could never escape the thoughts in her head. Perky, pretty, perfect. Perky, pretty, perfect, she repeated in her head, over and over, faster and faster, in time with her footfalls on the pavement.
She was nearly out of breath from sprinting when she walked into the Bubble Den.
