As he tossed his phone onto the bed, Victor could feel his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tried to calm himself down. The adrenaline was still pumping, and his mind was racing with many possibilities that he could think of, but none of them were good.
"Let's not think about it for now," Victor muttered, trying to push the unsettling feeling back in his mind as he grabbed the dark grey chinos. After staring at it for a few seconds, Victor sighed, slipping into them and buttoning it up before grabbing the soft grey T-shirt and pulling it over his head.
"Now…" he said, shifting his attention toward the damp towel sprawled on the floor and quickly picking it up. Feeling the dampness clinging unpleasantly to his fingers, Victor frowned his brows a little and tossed the damp towel onto the rack. "When I'm free, I should really make some time to wash some of my towels and clothes."
After glancing around his bedroom for one last time, he picked up his phone and slid it into his pocket before heading to the door. His hand soon hovered over the handle. A sigh escaped him as he stepped out, softly closing the door behind him.
Standing in the hallway, Victor paused, his shoulders slumping slightly, and sighed heavily as his hand ran through his slightly damp hair. At the moment, he felt oddly complicated because the adrenaline he was experiencing earlier had dissipated quite a lot and left a hollow, uncertain feeling behind in him.
"Okay, now what?" he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck, wondering what to do next. As he surveyed the empty hallway, trying to find anything that could distract his mind, his eyes caught a faint soft glow in the corner. "Hmm…"
"Eh? Why not?" Victor said, shrugging his shoulders, and immediately headed toward it as he already knew that the soft glow came from the hallway hanging mirror. Standing in front of the mirror and looking at his reflection, he saw the sight of his tired, dishevelled self and couldn't help but sigh, "What a great morning view."
"Despite already taking a shower, I still look like a hobo that got into a drunken fistfight with a firefighter who blasted an ungodly amount of water at me," he groaned, feeling unimpressed, and soon let out a resigned sigh. "That's life for you."
After shifting his sight to the living room and leaving the hallway, his eyes then began scanning the room, looking for the light switch with which he couldn't help but muttered, "Where the hell is that damn switch?"
It didn't take long before he finally spotted it, a small, silver square on the wall and immediately went toward it. Victor then turned all the switches on with a flick of his right hand, and the room brightened up, revealing a cozy and well-kept space.
The walls were painted a calming shade of light beige, contrasting nicely with the dark wooden flooring. A plush, L-shaped couch in a charcoal grey sat in the center of the room, adorned with a few throw pillows in muted teal and mustard yellow. A large flat-screen TV was directly opposite the couch, mounted on the wall. Below it, a sleek, low entertainment unit held a gaming console and a few other gadgets.
A soft, patterned rug in shades of grey and cream lay beneath a modern glass coffee table with a couple of magazines and a minimalist ceramic bowl. To the left of the couch, a tall floor lamp with a warm-toned shade cast a gentle glow in the corner.
Victor then quietly looked around the surroundings for a few seconds before his eyes landed on the flat-screen TV, and a soft smile soon appeared on his lips. "Yeah, watching something would help clear my head."
"But knowing how bad TV shows are nowadays, let's hope there is anything decent enough to watch, " Victor said, shrugging his shoulders, heading towards the couch. After taking his phone out and placing it on the coffee table, he grabbed the remote and dropped himself onto the couch, sinking into its plush cushions and turning on the TV.
*hissss…*
The familiar hum of electronic static filled the room. After the TV was fully on, he channel-surfed for a few minutes, with the flickering images on the screen providing a mindless distraction.
"Just like I thought, nothing good is on," he grumbled, finally settling on a sports channel. He wasn't a huge sports fan, but the games that were on somehow managed to gain his attention. "Hmmm…..nice tits"
Growl~
"Oh man, come on," Victor groaned, involuntarily clutching his abdomen, trying to suppress the hunger before looking down toward his stomach when it finally calmed down a little and sighed, "I know I should have ate a lot more instead drinking non-stop last night but I guess that karma for me."
"Now, what should I make for breakfast?" he uttered, glancing at the clock for a moment before tossing the remote to the side and tapping his chin with his gaze toward the kitchen. "Pancakes? Nah, too much cleanup. Cereal? Nah, it's too boring. Oatmeal? No, that's even more boring."
After a moment, Victor let out a frustrated groan for being unable to make up his mind and immediately got up from the seat, stretching his arms above his head. "Instead of mindlessly thinking, let's just see what I have in the fridge first."
"Wait... do I even have any stuff in the fridge?" He muttered, feeling a little puzzled when the thought crossed his mind as he walked towards the kitchen. After stepping into the kitchen and turning the lights on, Victor then quickly approached the fridge, and the first thing Victor saw when he opened the fridge door was the eggs on the shelf. "How about scrambled eggs?"
"Yeah, scrambled eggs would be nice." Victor mused at the thought as he felt that scrambled eggs made from using a couple of eggs paired with something like a glass of orange juice would sound nice, but he quickly shook his head and changed his mind at the last moment.
"Nah, I'm too lazy to bother turning on the stoves," Victor said, rummaging through the shelves, pushing aside containers of leftover takeout and tins of condensed milk. After rummaging through the fridge for a few minutes, Victor slammed the door shut, followed by a heavy sigh escaping from his lips. "Ughhh…"
"There's a lot of stuff in the fridge, but nothing really caught my eye," Victor then uttered, leaning against the fridge with his hands crossed against each other. "Hmmm...what to do? What to do?"
As he absentmindedly stared toward the floor and drummed his fingers on his forearm, Victor mumbled, "Maybe I should just order instead. Something like a burger sounds good right now."
At the moment, he couldn't help but picture the greasy, satisfying meal in front of his eyes, but Victor quickly shook his head, changing his mind the next second. "Nah, forget it. I don't have the patience to wait for delivery. And honestly, dealing with the possibility of my hideout being compromised... ugh, too much."
"Then should I go out instead?" Victor then mused, putting his two fingers on his chin. The longer he pondered that option, the more Victor felt it sounding more and more appealing as he imagined himself sitting at a small table by the window, enjoying a leisurely breakfast while people-watching.
"Yeah, going out sounds way better," Victor declared, pushing himself off the fridge and heading back towards the living room. "Fresh air, actual food, and maybe even some human interaction. Or, well, as much human interaction as I can tolerate before I want to punch someone."
After grabbing his phone and slipping it into his pocket, Victor then picked up the remote and turned off the TV before heading to his bedroom and grabbing his wallet and a few other things that were in there.
"Now for the lights," Victor muttered, walking toward the light switch after leaving his bedroom and flicking it off, causing the living room to plunge into darkness, with the only light coming from the hallway and entrance. "Alright, time to hit the road."
After giving the room one final glance, he turned his sight toward the entrance and strode toward it. Along the way, his hand reached his key holders, and he grabbed all of his keys before fumbling around until he found the right one.
"Finally found them," he mumbled, jingling the correct keys in his hand before double-checking everything that he had on hand and in his pocket. "Wallet, money, phone, keys, pistol, membership card... everything is here"
"Alright, time to head out," he said, walking toward the door and unlocking it after slipping on his sneakers. As he stepped out into the hallway, a cool breeze brushed against his skin, and he quickly took a deep breath.
"Ah, fresh air," he sighed, stretching his arms. He then closed the door behind him and locked it with the key. "Hmm, what should I grab? Maybe some breakfast burritos? Or maybe a nice, greasy pizza? Nah, too heavy for breakfast."
As he walked down the hallway, he couldn't help but let out a sigh followed by a smile on his lips. "Guess I'll just wing it."
- o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -
Meanwhile, in a sleek, high-tech apartment overlooking the city, a blonde woman with piercing blue eyes sat hunched over her laptop, her fingers flying across the keyboard. She had been tracking a man named Victor Gabriel's location for hours, and at the moment, her patience was getting thinner by the minute.
"Bingo," she muttered, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips as a red dot pinpointing Victor's current location finally appeared on the general map layout of the entire city that was on her screen. "I've finally found you, you bastard."
"Let's see… triangulating from the cell towers…" She muttered, her eyes becoming more fixed on the screen while her fingers flew across the keyboard, rerouting the tracking program. "Factoring in the GPS from his burner phone just in case… yeah, that should do it."
After a few more keystrokes, she synced the tracking data to her phone, and a miniature version of the map soon appeared on the screen, with the red dot moving constantly in a pulse.
"Alright," she breathed, closing the lid with a decisive snap and sliding it into her sleek black backpack after shutting off the laptop. The woman then rose from her chair, stretching her stiff limbs while a satisfied grin spread across her face. "Time to go to work."
To Be Continued