Victor turned around to face his friends, a big smile on his face. He stepped forward and pulled Amir into a hug. Amir Aniruddha had been friends with Victor since his family had first visited the Academy when he was six years old. Amir was a kind and loyal young man with a mischievous and fun-loving personality.
He was 5'10" with a richly dark complexion and an Indian accent. He had wide, hooded, and almond-colored eyes with long but well-rounded facial features and a clean-shaven face and neatly trimmed black hair. He was quite handsome in a different way from Victor. Whereas Victor was handsome in a more aggressively masculine type of way, Amir was handsome in a more prince charming or boy next door kind of way. He wore a plain white, long-sleeve shirt and comfortable-looking sky blue pants with suede shoes the same color as his pants.
Seeing him dressed so plainly, most people would never guess that he was heir to one of the most vast fortunes in the entire world; his family owned quite a few of the tech conglomerates in Bengaluru and held significant stock in many more.
"Good to see you again, my friend!", Amir said as Victor broke the hug.
"Likewise.", Victor responded, grinning from ear to ear.
"Oh, wow, now I feel left out. Should I just go?", came the teasing voice from the woman standing next to Amir as she crossed her slim arms and pretended to pout.
Victor looked over at his other friend, still smiling. Thea Blake, Victor's other best friend, was a 5'6" firecracker of a woman with long dark red hair and fair skin. She wore smokey eyeshadow that really highlighted her bright green eyes. She had a heart-shaped face and thin lips covered in red lipstick, and a small, cute nose that added to the fragile beauty of her face. She was thin and athletic with a slightly defined set of abs that could be seen due to the long-sleeved black top she was wearing that exposed her midriff. She had simple gold jewelry in her nose and ears and form-fitting black leggings as well as simple white sneakers.
Victor turned his radiant smile on her and wrapped her in a hug before she could tease him anymore. When Victor broke the hug, he could see that she was wearing a smile of her own that lit up her whole face.
"Chill out dude", she said playfully. "You just saw us a couple of days ago. You act like you haven't seen us in ages."
Victor smiled a slightly embarrassed smile. "I know.", he responded, "I won't be able to see you guys for a while in about a week." he continued. "I've got to make every moment count, you know."
They both laughed and continued teasing him as they all walked together towards one of the extravagant black tables in the corner of the cafe.
Together, the three of them talked for hours while sipping black coffee about all the great memories they had and what they were all planning to do going forward.
Amir was going to continue learning the family business. He shyly boasted about how talented his straight-laced, traditional, and hard-to-please grandfather couldn't help but praise him for his talent and his insight. Thea and Victor let him have his moment instead of teasing him; Amir very rarely boasted about anything, so his friends could tell he felt immense pride in what he was doing, and his friends were proud of him as well.
Thea was planning to become a bodyguard, which suited her very well. She loved to live dangerously but had a kind heart that kept her grounded despite her immense talent with nearly everything she tried and her genius-level intellect.
Victor talked to his friends about how excited he was to be going to his first-choice college. When his friends asked him what he would be attempting to major in, he responded simply, "The sciences."
When his friends pressed him for more details, such as what sciences, a mad gleam appeared in his eye—the clear indicator of his voracious curiosity consuming him—before he answered with a wicked grin, "All of them."
After he said this, his two friends looked at him as if he were a madman for a moment, causing him to scratch the back of his head and self-consciously look away before muttering, "Synthetic and molecular biology, if I had to pick two."
His friends paused for a moment after he said this and then burst into laughter, telling him that if anyone could absorb all the knowledge sciences had to offer, it would probably be a madman like him. They continued talking for hours, unaware of the time slipping by.
By the time they had noticed the passing of time, it had grown very dark. Not wanting to inconvenience the staff or other patrons any further, Amir paid for their drinks, and the three friends walked outside.
Amir was the first to speak, turning to Victor and Thea and pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the time. "I've got to go, guys.", he said after putting his phone away. "I've got a shareholders meeting in the morning, and the other shareholders aren't going to scowl at themselves.", he continued with a wry smile.
"Good luck Amir!", Victor said with an amused smile on his face.
"Give them hell!", Thea chimed in.
As she said this, a jet black limousine came from around the corner and slowly stopped beside Amir's position on the sidewalk. A mask of cold, business-like indifference replaced the warm, familiar face that Amir reserved just for his friends and family these days, as one of the back doors to the limousine opened and he slipped inside. Poking his head out briefly, he asked if either of them needed a ride.
"Sure, drop me off at the gym. I'm feeling a bit stiff from sitting around too long.", Thea responded, a door on the other side of the limousine opening as soon as she said this.
"How about you?", Amir asked Victor as Thea climbed in.
Victor smiled before responding, "No thanks buddy. I'm not far and the night air feels amazing so I think I'll walk."
Amir hesitated for a moment before smiling and telling Victor to be careful. Victor promised he would and then stood waving until the limousine sped off.
Victor took a deep breath and, raising his head up, looked at the full moon. "Alone again.", he thought to himself already missing his friends. Shaking his head as if to banish the bad thoughts, like he had a habit of doing, Victor smiled softly to himself and began walking home.
Victor was so caught up in his own thoughts that it took him a couple of minutes to notice something felt very wrong. The streets and buildings looked the same as they always did, and there didn't seem to be anything outwardly suspicious around him, but Victor had learned to trust his instincts, and he could not shake the feeling that he was being watched.
Victor didn't immediately quicken his pace. He spent some time changing the variations in his speed, even stopping a couple of times, looking around as if lost or thinking about something, attempting to disrupt the rhythm of his unseen pursuer so he could pinpoint their location. He repeatedly checked the reflective windows of the buildings he passed as he walked by those that were near streetlights. He didn't catch a glimpse of his pursuer immediately, but after a few minutes of this, as he was close to home, he caught a glimpse—nothing more than a shadow.
But he now knew for sure that he was being pursued, or rather, stalked like a prey animal in the sights of a predator. Victor began formulating a plan in his mind. His instincts told him that trying to fight would be a terrible idea. He had only seen the shadow of his pursuer, but the instant he did, he felt a terrible, bone-chilling sensation of complete terror that had almost halted his steps because he instinctively knew at that moment that his pursuer had allowed his shadow to be seen, which meant his pursuer knew that the element of surprise was gone, making it far more likely that they would make a move in the next few moments.
Suddenly, as he was passing a small building that was just a few down from his apartment, Victor exploded into a flurry of movement, not towards his pursuer, but away from them. In the alley between the building he had just passed and the next building, Victor spotted a dumpster that led to a fire escape with roof access. With blinding speed, Victor jumped onto the dumpster, and then, after jumping as high as he could and kicking off the wall with his right foot, he grabbed onto the second-floor portion of the fire escape steps on the outside of the building and pulled himself up.
Without looking back, he began racing up the stairs, looking to get to the roof.
In his mind, because the buildings were so close together and went on for a while down this street, he could attempt to escape or find help from the rooftops by drawing attention to his situation and forcing his pursuer to withdraw for fear of being discovered by a third party. Or, at the very least, if Victor was forced to fight, he had the two advantages of his enemy only being able to come at him one way, negating the enemy's stealth advantage, and the advantage of creating a fall hazard.
He thought that he may need to make use of gravity to have a chance of winning if the enemy was more skilled than him.
As Victor took to the rooftops and began executing his strategy, he could hear soft footsteps behind him, clearly indicating that his pursuer had no trouble at all keeping up with him.
'Keep running!", Victor thought to himself as he leapt to the next building.
After a moment or two, a horrifying realization began to set in for Victor: his pursuer was getting closer at a steady clip. Victor couldn't even hear any heavy breathing despite the exertion it must have taken to keep up with him.
"Shit!", Victor thought to himself. With grim determination, He came to one conclusion: "I'm going to have to fight.", he thought.