Carmo tapped furiously away at her keyboard. It seemed as though horrifying, nightmarish events had a way of breaking through her writer's block. Well, she really had no idea if what she was writing was any [i]good.[/i] She could feel her thoughts zipping around her head in a mess of frenetic energy. She had no doubt her article was chaos, full of run-ons and rambling thoughts. Her fingers worked so quickly, trembling, the mistypes happened faster than she could register them. But she refused to go back and fix them, desperate as she was to move forward, as though it could put distance between her and the haunting night before.

But then there was a sensation – a prickling on her skin. For a single, heart-stopping moment, Carmo was pulled back to the moment she realized she was prey, claws trailing against the ground, wood shattering in the darkness. Her eyes shot up and she felt her stomach freeze in her throat when she locked eyes with him.

Honestly, she didn't know if she was relieved it was only a man, or scared because [i]it was the same man from last night.[/i]

For a long moment, all Carmo could do was stare, frozen. Then her mind crashed back into her, and she realized it was the middle of the day and she was sitting in a coffee shop, and this was ridiculous. 

Shutting her laptop with an audible [i]snap[/i], Carmo grit her teeth. She finally looked away from the man and started shoving her things in her bag. She straightened up to her full height after. And then she finally looked back at the man, a new fire in her eyes. She held his eyes for a long time, then glanced to the door. After one last look, Carmo turned on her heel and marched out of the shop, not looking back to see if he followed.