_Chapter Begins_
The burning light of the sun slowly rose above the distant mountains surrounding the big city.
William was already awake, scratching his eyes to clear the deep blur left by his slumber. After scratching until redness formed around them, he quickly got up from the bench and began slapping away the disgusting bugs crawling on his dirty, ripped clothes.
At the sudden movement of William hopping off the bench, Elsa—who had been lying on the ground sleeping—twitched and opened her eyes, only to be met by the intense light of the rising sun. She rubbed her eyes awake, then raised her head to look at William.
William was staring at Elsa with a dark expression.
"I'm looking at a girl who will be dead by the end of today... by my plan..."
He didn't really know what to feel about that. On one hand, this girl was totally innocent, but on the other, she had threatened to call the police when he told her about his plan to rob a store. He simply couldn't let her ruin everything.
William forced a polite smile and stretched out his arm to help Elsa to her feet. Elsa paused for a moment, then gave a weirdly sinister chuckle before taking his hand.
As she rose, William looked at her intently. He was still very suspicious of her, and now, with that creepy chuckle, the tension in the air was almost visible to the naked eye.
"Something is definitely wrong with her..."
William sighed deeply in his head.
"Man, who cares! The plan is already in motion, and there's no way for her to escape me now... I just hope she doesn't have a card up her sleeve."
He forced himself to smile so Elsa wouldn't catch a glimpse of his true emotions and intentions. Emotions could reveal a lot about someone, so it was very important for William to hide his while studying others to understand their intentions.
Elsa was unlike anyone William had ever met before, which made him very nervous and paranoid. When he first saw her in the alley, she had a distant and blank look, but when they came face to face, she acted like an innocent child, talking about how bad robbing was. Then, after William yelled at her on their walk to the park, she called him miserable. After all that, when they finally found the bench William was looking for, she suddenly behaved like a noble, polite lady out of nowhere. This strange behavior made William very wary of her.
After standing in silence for some time, William finally snapped out of his worried thoughts and focused on his plan.
"Okay, now that we had a good night's sleep, we should get going."
Elsa looked a little confused at his words. Her confusion was met by William's focused, dark eyes, and just as Elsa was about to ask something, William answered for her.
"You told me you'd call the police if I tried to rob a store, so now we need to find another way to get money. Luckily, I just happen to have some saved-up cash my family left me. I hid around fifty dollars inside an abandoned church."
Elsa sighed, then gave an amused smile. With a calm tone, she said,
"Sure.You can lead the way."
William's instincts screamed at him to leave her and scrap the plan altogether. Not only was the plan already risky because it involved a cult, but now the person he was trying to get killed was acting very, very weird.
He gave a deep sigh to suppress his instincts.
"All right, let's go. It's not too far from here."
Elsa replied with an innocent nod and stood waiting for William to go ahead and lead the way.
They didn't talk during the walk to the church, but despite the silence, the tension in the air grew thicker with each step. William was in full paranoia mode, convinced Elsa knew about his plan and intentions. Every time he glanced back at her walking behind, he was met with a polite smile that sent shivers down his spine. This mood persisted until they finally stood in front of the abandoned church.
William stood before the church, staring at it. Then, glancing back at Elsa, he said hesitantly,
"L...let's go inside, shall we?"
Elsa's already creepy smile widened even more, becoming almost sinister. She nodded to confirm William's question, which wasn't really a question to begin with, but due to his paranoia, he was now beginning to doubt himself — leading to the inconsistency in his words.
William, tired from all the overthinking, spoke with a weary voice.
"A...alright, let's go."
_Chapter Ends_