A Cold Smirk.

Eyes, dark and ever vigilant. Hair, black with fringes scraping delicately below the eyebrows. Skin, pale and smooth like a baby's bottom. Cheekbones, high and prominent. Lips, thin and at the lightest shade of pink, twisted into a cold, evil smirk. 

He stared.

And she stared right back into his intense gaze, his almost-evil sneer, his lean build, his long coat. She noticed how he walked, graceful and certain; light steps on the white snow. His face stood out in the crowd of business men and women, school girls giggling away, children skipping about; all wrapped up in winter clothes. 

Madness. 

She jumped violently at the sudden voice in her head. It was deep and unfamiliar, yet she knew it came from the stranger across the street. She looked at him again just in time to see him turning away, his trench coat swirling behind him as he blend into the crowd. She never saw him again but his face had been seared onto her brain. She wished she had followed him that day but the unexpected warning and her primal instinct told her not to. 

People say not to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes- maybe most times- it was inevitable. Judging a person by first look is human nature, evaluating the worst case scenario before attempting to escape, if you will. An average person of average status, average IQ, and average knowledge of the world would have stayed away from the man who portrayed evil. She wasn't exaggerating. The man had a look that would have silenced the president in a second. 

Yet, she was intrigued. She imagined a splatter of blood splashed across his face and oh, she was intrigued. And her curiosity had almost nothing to do with the fact that she had heard his voice in her head. Somehow, she didn't even give that a second thought. She just wished she saw him again. She wished she had followed. 

She became obsessed with him after that, speaking of a mysterious man with telepathic powers who lead a cult of similar people with similar abilities. Finally after almost 6 years into her obsession that became more and more worrying, Ava Lancaster was admitted into Bethlem Royal Hospital For Mental Illnesses at the age of 28 and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.