Cold air brushed her cheeks, hair stuck to sweat slicked skin.
It prickled.
Rina had very sensitive skin.
In their prefecture, close to the city but far enough to be considered a little town, darkness settled heavier, no never-stopping lights around to disturb it; nights came a lot sooner too.
Rina knew her home like she knows her body, she knows every crevice and nook, all the marks that spread across her back, trying to be a constellation, the scar on her knee – it has always been her home. A shadow hovered near the pond that second uncle had built for her, with imported koi fish too. She stepped closer. After many years of trial-and-error Rina had discovered that no one ever used the path, it was a strange sight to see someone, especially a woman.
"Excuse me, are you allowed back here?"
Rina stepped closer.
The woman's arm dipped in the water frozen mid - motion unnaturally. She stood regally in one fluid move, long hair whipping around her head as she turned.
"Visitors are not allowed back here, the signs forbidding entry were clear enough. Out before I get security."
She laughed.
Rina took a step back.
"You are very pretty, the prettiest of them too," she said.
"Security it is."
The woman stepped away from the pond under the light of the lamppost. She tilted her head sideways in an unnatural angle that made her look more like a dead corpse on puppet strings than the breathing human she was, and she grinned. She grinned so widely her teeth were showing, sharp canines.
"I bet he would like you."
Rina stumbled back.
Suddenly, she felt parched, and she tried to swallow but there was nothing to swallow and it only made things worse because she became conscious of her mouth and it only made her more conscious of her constricting throat and the sudden desperate need to go back to her brother, who was just a bit behind and if she reached him she would be safe because her brother was strong, he would never allow any one to hurt Rina –
"I would not do that if I were you, pretty girl."
Rina froze.
Every muscle in her body screamed for her to move…
This was anther obsessed fan. She could deal with her.
"Get out," Rina spat, but her voice cracked anyway.
Her uncles would deal with this, they would make the woman disappear from Rina's life, hire bodyguards; they will make her feel safe with their overbearing protectiveness until Rina stopped feeling like a bird slowly being chocked in a giant hand.
The woman smirked, walking towards her with a sway to her hips – she wore a red suit, her lips red and her nails painted red. No wander she had stood out in the massive crowd.
She couldn't move.
The woman's nails dragged lightly over Rina's cheek, down the line of her jaw to her neck where she tangled her fingers in the strands of hair loose from Rina's bun.
"Collecting pretty, rare dolls is much better than ordinary trash."
Rina screamed at her hands to move, but the shriek at the back of her throat was strangled and weak.
"Tell me, would you like to see my collection?"