Red

“License and registration, please.” He recited, monotone.

“Of course.” She casually responded as she dragged her bag onto her lap from the passenger seat. This wasn’t her first time in a situation like this - in fact she was quite practised in dealing with law enforcers. So much so that traffic police were no more than a bit of fun. She had three driver’s licences stashed in her bag, none of them portraying her true identity; she let her long dark red finger nails dance over each of them, before landing on Ms Alexis Taylor, born on the 17th of September 1983 – in the state of New York.

She tilted her head forward and let her oversized, dark brown sunglasses fall down the skinny ridge of her nose; to reveal silvery baby blue eyes. A deadly innocence was threaded between each eyelash. They were dangerously hypnotic, and she was well aware of their power… however, she dropped her gaze to her lap when his eyes met hers. She wasn’t sure why, never before had she thought twice about playing anybody. She just twiddled the tassels on her cream, bohemian top; and sheepishly pushed her glasses back up against her eyes.

“Ok. You’re free to go.” He turned to walk away.

“Wait! Um, what, um, was your name?” Brilliant. Both the first and second times she’d ever used the word ‘um’ in her adult life and they were in the same sentence. What was wrong with her?

“Archer. Dan Archer.” She nodded as he left, faster this time. As the police car sped off into the distance, she began digging furiously in her bag until she found a scrappy, torn, piece of lined paper. A dozen names had been written in a list down the page, though the first eleven had been chaotically scribbled out. Flames of vengeance danced in her eyes as she read the name at the bottom, obsessively circled in thick red pen; Daniel Fox Archer.