Kim had been to Glasgow several times, but not enough to know her way. As a child she had always wondered why Edinburgh was the capital city- Glasgow was much larger. It was a great concrete jungle with the River Clyde cutting through the middle like a large blue snake. As she left the station, Kim was immediately unsettled by the crowds of busy people and the noise of thousands of voices talking. Pulling up her hood, Kim kept her head low as she tried to integrate into the traveling mass. The buildings towered above her like leering giants, the sun glinting in the top windows. Kim had never felt so small in her life. Here she was, alone and completely out of her depth. Part of her wondered if she should just get back on the train and try her luck going back. 

“...I’m such an idiot.” Kim mumbled as she turned around, but before she could walk inside the doors, something caught her attention. Two police officers stood there, arms folded and stoic as they looked around. They were dressed in the typical black and white uniforms with bright high-vis jackets. To anyone else they must have seemed completely normal. But something just felt… off. Kim had no idea what, but a little alarm bell in the back of her head told her that it was dangerous to approach them. As she stared, one of them suddenly looked in her direction and their eyes locked. Kim’s stomach dropped. Her feet were stuck. The man’s glare pierced her gaze. 

‘Turn around!’ a voice within her cranium spoke, ‘Walk away and do not look back!’ Kim did not recognise this voice but she could not afford to not trust it. Turning around, an unpleasant prickling feeling creeped up the back of her neck. Were they following her? She could not afford to look. Kim tried her hardest to melt into the perpetual snake of people bustling their way down Sauchiehall street. The feeling would not go away, whichever way she went Kim always felt that unpleasant notion of being watched by an un-noticed spy. Was it the pigeons? Kim looked up at the skinny bare trees that struggled under the weight of the plump birds perched like feathery tennis balls staring down at her curiously. She remembered the mad ramblings of a friend of her paternal grandmother’s about how birds were not organic beings but animatronic surveillance cameras. Kim had laughed at this before. She certainly was not now. Maybe mad old Maurice had a point after all. 

Why did those police freak her out so much? They looked normal. But their glare, something about their eyes sent a surge of panic up Kim’s spine. However, the more she thought, the dumber this worry became. All police would scare her right now, surely! Trudy would have called them by now and they would be actively looking for her! She would want to avoid all of them! Yes, that must have been it. She had to lie low. She had to find somewhere to sleep. Hoisting her rucksack further up her shoulders she continued up the road before turning onto Buchanan street. She continued until she finally found a shelter. It was two whole minutes of mental preparation before Kim could even open the door. 

The shelter, despite what Kim had expected thanks to movies, was actually not too bad. While she barely said a word to them, the volunteers were nice, sympathetic and, much to Kim’s relief, did not ask too many questions. She was shown to a large room full of mattresses and was provided with a sleeping bag and blanket. They offered to take her rucksack but Kim politely insisted that she kept it. 

It was difficult to sleep that night. The lights were kept on the whole time and the hall smelled strongly of disinfectant. Kim woke up with every small noise and could not shake off the feeling that she was being watched. She worried that, any second, she was about to be dragged out and thrown into a police van. Rather than sleep, she occupied herself by staring out of the ceiling windows, looking for stars. It was a half moon tonight. And… there was that owl again! It was staring through the window with its huge black eyes, blinking slowly. Kim could not help but stare. Surely it could not be the same owl? But how many tawny owls could there be in Glasgow? While she had no idea why it was here, something about the owl’s presence soothed Kim’s nerves. She almost felt safe, like she could sleep securely, knowing nothing bad would happen…

This sense of security was all but decimated by the next morning. As Kim stretched out her stiff muscles, lamenting over her aching joints from sleeping on a crash-mat, she caught a glimpse of something that almost made her pass out. 

A policeman was speaking to one of the volunteers! He stood with his arms folded as he questioned them. At least that was what Kim thought he was doing, she could not hear him after all. Still- she could not take any chances! Without thinking, she threw the sleeping bag in her rucksack and, keeping her head low and hood up, she scuttled past the officer, who seemed to be too absorbed in his own importance to notice.

It was a busy morning with a cloudy sky. Kim kept her head down as she walked away from the shelter. As her heart-rate began to slow back down, she began to think. Her best plan was to simply wait for the officer to give up searching and go back tonight. Yes, that was a good idea. 

However, her thoughts were swiftly dashed as her eyes were suddenly drawn to a small crowd gathering outside an electronics shop housing televisions. Kim remembered how she would often try and watch cartoons through the window while walking with Trudy, usually she would be dragged away and told that only unemployed idiots watch television all day. Kim was about to walk on, when she noticed something that practically stopped her heart. 

Her own face on the television! 

It was a news segment with a serious looking anchorwoman talking at the camera, and in the corner was a photograph of Kim. It was an older one, back when her hair and eyes were their pretty dark hazel. She recognised where the photo was from, during Christmas a couple of years ago. The photo had originally been of Fraser but she got caught in the flash, hence her shocked expression that was now being plastered all over the ten televisions in the shop window. 

Kim let out a strangled gasp (hopefully muffled by the chattering crowd) and ducked into an alley, gripping onto her chest. Her heart was hammering hard against her ribs and she could feel the prickles of anxiety sprout up her neck. Not only did the police know, but now everyone in the city knew too! What was she supposed to do? Kim took off her rucksack, opened it and pulled out her bear, burying it into her jacket. Just having it against her seemed to help settle her nerves a little, and allowed her to think.

Then it hit her- that was an old picture being shown everywhere. Kim looked at a shop window and saw her vague reflection. She hardly resembled herself from even a few days ago. Her galaxy hair and kaleidoscope eyes were hardly ordinary, and surely strangers would assume she was just some attention-seeking teenager, right? So, there was no way the police or anyone else would know who she was! Kim sighed and, after a quick glance around, left the alley, now not quite as worried. Maybe things will look up?

Kim spent the rest of the day ducking in and out of shops for warmth and nibbling on her snacks. It was only during this time that she realised she had stupidly not taken any money before leaving. However, after some thought she decided it was not such a good idea after all. Kim could not imagine stealing, despite how much she hated Trudy. She could only hope that the meals at the shelter would be okay.

But as Kim turned back onto Sauchiehall Street, her stomach lurched as she saw, yet again, the same two officers from outside the station yesterday. Gulping, she put up her hood and kept walking... but found herself getting slower and slower, until she stopped. Again, that feeling... that prickling of hot fear on the back of her neck. Perhaps she could just walk past them?

'No!' a thought punctuated through. They were not police officers. She just… knew they were not!

One of them turned in her direction and his eyes grew wide. He elbowed his partner. Kim, shaking violently now, took a step backwards.

"HO!" The officer suddenly roared, "YOU THERE!" as he pointed in Kim's direction. With a surge of panic, Kim turned around and started powerwalking away, her heart hammering.

"STOP!!" Kim turned around and, to her horror, the officer had lurched into a heavy run, his partner close behind him. With a frightened yelp, Kim took off as fast as she possibly could. Everything grew blurry as blood pounded in her ears and behind her eyes, her knees and calves burning from the effort. Many people yelled, stared and jumped out of the way as she ran. She could hear the heavy boots of the officers close behind her.

"'ERE YOU-!" Something heavy grabbed Kim's rucksack, yanking her back. Kim shrieked as she was thrown backwards, turning to see the furious face of the officer, panting from the effort from the chase. Without thinking, Kim wriggled free from the rucksack's straps and, without another thought, kept running. She heard the man cursing behind her as he tried to keep up.

It was the bottom of Sauchiehall Street before Kim was able to escape the Not-Police. She ran across a busy road in a practically suicidal move, almost being hit by a van in the process. Still, Kim could not stop until she was certain beyond certain that she had lost him. She barely registered how he had basically robbed her of what little food and water she had, as one punctuating thought kept coming back again and again;

What did he want? And why did she have such a bad aura from them? How did they know who she was? Surely they did not, she did not match her description, right?

As Kim curled up at the hooded entrance of a shopping centre, looking out for that owl- she kept revisiting the same questions again and again.

But how was she supposed to know?