Anna made a note of the guilty look in G's eyes. She could guess that said freaky church people were the ones who had distributed the food in the shelter and had been the ones who had seen her around.
She mulled over this nugget of information and stored it away for further inspection in the depth of the night.
[I spent the night in an overnight internet cafe. Had heating.]
G seemed relieved at this addition. She nodded in understanding. "Must have been expensive, though. Heh, to think a kind and sweet person would let one of our kind stay at their place. There aren't people like that out there."
Anna agreed completely.
"The rumors said he was handsome too," G whispered conspiratorially.
Anna rolled her eyes. Yes, Ladislas was considered timelessly beautiful, sinfully so. And it made sense in his case… If his words were to be taken as truth, he was a powerful supernatural being.
"Now that I have told you the story, you have to dream it up and live with it," G said with a grin. "This man sounds too good to be true."
Normally, Anna would agree, but Ladislas did exist even though he was not kind or sweet.
G didn't pry about this story any longer, cutting her losses for what it was.
"Hey Kiddo," G said and brought Anna out of her contemplation.
Anna looked at him. "I can tell you have a good education and a bright future. Then what the hell are you doing here? How did you get here? You never said."
Good education. Bright future. What were the signs of that? Did Anna have it stamped on her forehead for everyone to see?
She had the age-old story of a teenager who ran away from home. With the dust and grime, her age was hard to gauge and she had always had a youthful face that made her look at least ten years younger than she actually was.
[I don't have a home to go back to.]
She wrote this in short.
G bit her lip as she read the words. "I mean, I don't know the real story but most homeless teenagers out there act out and come out. Just hold out a bit longer in your home and get a job before moving out. You… you could have done so much more."
Anna scoffed.
"Why did you scoff?" she asked. "Do you think you don't deserve it because you can't talk? That's not a very good reason, kiddo. There are plenty of people out there with disabilities who live a healthy and differently-abled life. You will get along with the world just fine if you give it a proper chance."
What was supposed to be sound like good advice sounded like a beginning to indoctrination. When one homeless person starts speaking like that to another, disregarding their reasons for being out on the streets, you can recognize just where they were trying to push you towards.
The clues added up. Freaky church people. The sandwich. The talk of a handsome man letting her stay in the house. Anna knew no one was keeping an eye on her, but there was a freaky cult keeping an eye on Ladislas. Now, that was a good place to start.
Anna gave G a quick smile and lay back on the hard cot. She was tired and finally starting to get warm in her sleeping back. She rolled onto her side facing the wall and looked at it. Anna closed her eyes and kept her ears alert as she immersed herself in her thoughts.
She must have drifted off to sleep because suddenly G's voice brought her back to reality.
"Damn, mama," G whispered.
Anna groaned and tried to ignore him. She needed a break.
"Kiddo, did you lie about spending the night with a handsome man?" he asked quietly.
What the hell was she babbling about?
"A very expensively dressed bloke is over there by the entrance," she whispered harshly.
'What?' Anna exclaimed in her head. She rolled over and didn't shoot up to sit on the bed. She only blinked a few times before sweeping her eyes across the large room to the door. Her heart skilled a beat and her mouth went completely dry.
Ladislas had found her.
She drank him in with her eyes. It was definitely Ladislas but he looked different from that night.
He looked absolutely pissed.
There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin was somehow pale. His hair was pulled back in an unusually messy ponytail and he looked like he had lost some weight. He was talking to one of the men who managed the shelter, and he looked like he was on the verge of breaking the other guy's neck. He was still gorgeous and I suddenly noticed that all the eyes in the room lingered on him.
Absolutely conspicuous.
Without hesitation, she slipped out of the sleeping back and slowly retreated out of the other door. She was sure he hadn't noticed. No good would come from seeing him, especially at a place like this. Though she had a reputation to uphold, getting in the wrong books would pull her farther away from the mission.
Therefore, it was best Ladislas didn't see her.
Moreover, G wasn't someone who could be trusted any longer, either. Not that Anna had revealed any information to the woman. Anna was sure Ladislas wouldn't find her inside because she had never used her other name to sign into the shelter. No matter how much he asked for her name, he wouldn't get her. Moreover, there were plenty of women with the same description as her living in this one shelter. How long was he going to hang around?