~5.14~

Laurie stepped out from beneath the archway and immediately turned left to head back down the sidewalk, towards better lit streets. She stopped in her tracks when she realized she was looking at a wall an aged and moss-covered wall a short distance ahead.

Even though there are few things less actually startling to be startled by when you are walking at a moderate pace than a wall some distance away, she let out a little yelp, as she was still quite keyed up from thinking spooky thoughts.

While she caught her breath and mentally commanded her heart to behave more reasonably, she turned and looked around, thinking she must have wandered down the wrong covered alley… had there been more than one? There must have been, because she was in another courtyard now. This one was longer and narrower across. It had a fountain that was still undrained and running despite the early freeze a few nights before. It burbled away. A soft orange electric light under the water made the narrow space seem less spooky than it might have been, especially considering that Laurie had not at all expected to stumble into it.

On the second floor and third floors of the buildings surrounding the open space, there were a few dim lights on. A sliding door stood open behind a wrought iron railing, a gauzy curtain moving slightly with the air. It seemed this space was not as abandoned as the other one had been. She decided not to linger, and also not to retreat back to where she wasn’t supposed to be, in case somebody was watching. There was a gap in the wall at the end of the courtyard farthest from where she’d come out, a space between two buildings. Laurie figured that this courtyard was simply not completely enclosed. She headed for that opening thinking she’d find herself on the street within a block of where Marnie had left her company.

Instead, she found a third courtyard.