I Found You

Chapter 1 | A light in the Storm

Henry navigated through the crowded hallway. He kept a nonchalant look on his face, plastering his doubts away from the students. He knows that looking not alright could bring unwanted attention, needing to make sure he was alright to whoever who asked was both lethargic and insecure. He pushed himself to be upright, to be confident and fixed his vision to the crowd. A handful of students greeted him energetically, hopeful for a better school year. 

The greetings did help to lift Henry’s mood, but he was still buried in his thoughts. The familiar heartbreaking thoughts flashed through.

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He was dashing through the tight streets, bumping at those who blocked his way. He glanced at his watch, 14:16, “I’m gonna be so dead!”. An explosion ranged a few blocks away from Henry. Heatwaves surged into the street and everyone ran away from the direction of the explosion. Henry was stunned and rooted to the ground when he glared at the explosion. The pedestrians pushed him fearfully, dashing away from the direction of the explosion.

Henry stared at the smoke emerging from downtown. Office workers, security guards and almost everyone is running away from the area of the explosion. Out of curiosity, Henry stopped an office worker who was running towards his direction. When the office worker understood his intention, instead of stopping, she screamed fearfully, "get away from me!". 

"Are you okay?", Henry muttered confusingly. "Don't try to trick me like how you did to the others!". Henry’s eyebrows frowned, unsure of what was going on. “I just wanted to know what had happened downtown.” 

“Oh my” She said as if the world was falling apart. “I was going for lunch and suddenly there was a very bright light!” She stuttered with a few ‘and’ and continued “when the bright light was gone, all I could see were bodies lying around me, their necks were stashed like it was bitten by rampant hyenas!”

“Where did that happen?”

The woman rushed to Henry with her eyes and mouth wide open. Veins are bulging out of her pale skin.

------ End of Part 1 (Chapter 1)