The first stretch of running took me to a highly populated shopping mall but my colorful appearance was hardly easy to disguise. The creepy old man was following at a distance and pretending to read advertisements as I briskly walked from store to store.

Each store was heavily manned and I couldn’t set foot inside without being bombarded with sales woman and products that I would never buy. I couldn’t take the risk of anyone noticing me but the driver was getting closer.

Down the mall, I could hear some excited shouts and whooping it wasn’t the first time I’d heard the elated screams of woman at a purse sale. This was perfect! I raised my head and pretended that I was much more confident than I actually was. Hopefully I could pull this off.

I entered the store just as a swarm of women preyed on the innocent handbags. An employee was nearly huddled in a corner to protect herself from the heinous customers. Slowly I approached her and put on my most daring and confident face. Her startled scream-coughs gracefully reminded me that my face looked more serial killer like than confident. I smiled politely and waved slightly behind me to the old driver. Through the reflections of some floral picture frames, I could see him waiting patiently at the front of the lobby pretending to be interested in some wallets.

“That man in the front is with me. My name is Kitty and I’m with a film crew from Singapore. We are currently in the middle of making a documentary of handbags,” The sweat of my palms slides between my fingers as I casp my hands at my waste. I need to go into acting. “We would love to use your store in our film. May I speak to your manager?” The girl slowly nods and leads me to a door in the back of the store. She opens the steel door with a key card and I look back fast enough to see the driver get stuck behind the hysterical customers. I wink before letting the door fall shut behind me.

I’m ready to breathe a sigh of relief but my work isn’t over yet. I turn to the girl and I grab her by the shoulder, at the same time I rip away my hat and glasses. She squints at me for a few seconds before removing my hand.

“My manager is this way.” She says pointing down the hall. She doesn’t know who I am and I’m speechless for a second. I presumed that my plan would work if she knew who I was and could help me…But maybe this could work better.

“I’m not actually on a film crew, that man is chasing me and I just want to go home. I can reward you if you help me.” She raises an eyebrow and shakes her head.

“I’m getting fired anyway,” She points down the hall “There is an employee parking lot behind that door, you can have my key card, and my phone number is on the back if you want to follow through with that reward. You don’t have to, but I could use some help too.” I bow and thank her profusely as she heads back into the store. I’m practically home free.