Day 16

Start writing a story that...

Step 1: begins with this sentence: Someone was walking behind her

Step 2: add a character who wants to have a dog

Step 3: add a character who is based on a famous character from a novel you have read
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Someone was walking behind her as she left the bar. Sara could hear the footsteps, almost in time to hers, like a small army of two marching along the sidewalk. But while her high heels clicked along the concrete, the sound emanating behind her was the tapping of a man's shoes.

This was one of those times she wished she had a dog. Not that she would have been able to bring it to the reading tonight, of course, but if she raced home away from whoever was closing in behind her, at least there would be someone there to protect her when she arrived. Except big dogs scared her, so she'd probably wind up with something smaller, like a pug or chihuahua, in which case she would feel no more secure with them than if she were alone.

Sara picked up her pace as she headed toward the T stop, but her ears kept focus on the sound behind her. Whoever it was picked up their pace, too, but was not getting any closer. I should turn around, she thought. But as she prepared herself to turn, her breath grew shallow and she felt a sharp pain in her chest from the panic, and so she kept moving forward, listening to but not looking at whoever was there.

"Excuse me," said a voice behind her. Sara kept walking because she sensed the voice came from her would-be assailant, except that the voice didn't sound at all threatening. I'm sure Ted Bundy didn't sound threatening at first, either, she thought and picked up her pace again.

"Miss, please!" the voice called again. "I beg of you, please stop for a moment."

Not only did the voice not sound threatening, it sounded...British. And not that British men couldn't be threatening—there was Jack the Ripper, of course—but Sara was curious now and since the fear had subsided a bit, she decided that she would look. With a deep breath, she stopped walking and turned around.

The man behind her stopped as soon as she turned, and Sara couldn't help but stare. He was about 6'1" with dark brown hair and a kind face. What was most noticeable about him, though, was that he wore Regency Era clothes. He reminded her of someone...

"Thank you," he said, leaning over to catch his breath.

"Who are you?" Sara said. "Why are you following me?"

"Well, the 'who' part is easy," the man said as he stood back up. "I am Fitzwilliam Darcy. The explanation of why I'm following you is more complicated."