The sound of fast approaching footsteps behind her as she turned away sent a chill up Felicia’s spine. She side-stepped and spun around just before the man attempted to place a hand on her shoulder. Yet more unsolicited touching, she frowned, pulling her candied apple closer to her chest and attempting to hide it with her hands. 

“Uh…,” she blinked at him as he rapped at her. ‘I’m here to make your sale’…? Did he want to buy something?

She attempted to step further away from him as he suddenly reached his hand towards her face, but nearly bumped into a passing festivalgoer. She winced and closed her eyes, unsure of what he was going to do now. She felt her hair move and something soft brush against her cheek, opening her eyes just as he hastily withdrew his hand and ran off. 

The flower had been so hurriedly placed; it hung loosely from her hair, brushing against the corner of her eye as she stared after him. Startled, she shook her head like a cat with tape on it’s ear and watched as a small white flower fell softly onto the ground. 

“Wha…?” she looked up, sweeping the crowd for the man, but found no one. Being unable to see his face, she had been incapable of noticing he was feeling sick. If she had noticed, she most certainly would have been concerned but, as it were, she was simply left standing there puzzling over the strangeness that was he. 

Perhaps he had forgotten something important and suddenly remembered? She took a step in the direction he had run off towards, but stopped-- caught in an inner debate with herself.

[i]Would chasing after him really be wise?[/i] she chided herself, [i]That would be just asking for trouble. Practically begging for it. But then….[/i]

She sighed. [i]Maybe something was wrong? Why would he come talk to me like he wants to do business and then suddenly disappear like that? His voice sounded funny on that last word,[/i] she thought, [i]But maybe I just imagined it….[/i]

That’s it!

She walked hesitantly in the direction she’d seen him go. [i]He must have been so embarrassed about messing up that last rhyme that he decided to run away![/i] She frowned, feeling a bit of sympathy for the stranger. He needn’t be so hard on himself! She was no expert when it came to rap or even music in general, but… well this would probably give her a good opportunity to politely request that he stop creeping her the heck out at least. 

Glancing down an alleyway, she spotted the man retching into someone’s pot. She quickly retreated back behind the wall, peeking at him quietly. She’d almost not recognized him with his mask off—having only caught a glimpse of him before when he decided to flash her a goofy grin before finally setting her down. What she saw next caused her nose to wrinkle in disgust and she felt the urge to hurl wash over her as well. 

She leaned back behind the wall as the man pulled his head away from the pot. When she once again chanced a peek, she watched as he fished around in the vomit-filled pot and pulled out a perhaps-once-shiny-but-now-blood-covered rupee. He smiled eerily, looking further down the pot-filled alleyway.

[i]EWwwWwwwWW.[/i] 

Felicia stepped away from the wall. The man [i]ate rupees[/i]. She shook her head regrettably. He was [i]definitely[/i] out of his mind. No wonder he was vomiting blood! 

She turned to leave the poor man to his self-inflicted fate, but tripped in her haste. In a panicked effort to protect her precious apple, she gripped it tightly and turned herself around. With a crash and a cry, she smashed into a small pile of pottery. 

“HEY!” a man from the corresponding booth cried-- evidently the owner of said pots, “You better be able to pay for those!”