Clutching at Straws

EPISODE 1 PART 3:

I woke up surprisingly early for the weekend. Groggily, I stood up and went towards my bathroom, and started brushing my teeth. The mintiness of the toothpaste slowly brought me back to the land of the living or well awakened. As the events of last night loaded into my brain, I couldn't wait to check up on last night's progress, as I had left the program running. After the shower, I put on some charcoal lounge pants, pairing them with a loose gray hoodie that had my university name in black, which was extremely faint now, and went down, waking my locked computer. As that loaded, I rushed back upstairs once again to grab my phone, which was now fully charged.

When I came back, I saw one file successfully decrypted. It was a picture of Hannah posing in a similar-from-before white dress against a rusting wall background. The disappointment was crushing. I sent it to Q anyway because he insisted on "sending anything that I find in Hannah's cloud".

I went into my kitchen and made myself some coffee without milk and French toast without eggs, so I guess just toast. I didn't have any eggs or milk, hence the espresso. After this disappointing clue I really wanted something fluffy like a frothy cappuccino or French toast but alas! Me and my disorganization. I decided to go to the grocery store the second I was done with this sad excuse of a breakfast. It might have been a light energizing breakfast for weekdays, but today on a weekend it's a total flop !

I tied my long wavy hair into a loose bun and started eating at the workstation again. I was munching on my toast when I received a ping from Q. Finally.

"Did you find this picture in Hannah's cloud?"

"It's def not from my private collection", I replied, rolling my eyes.

Just then, I received a notification from Cleo's gallery update. In the photo, she was not wearing glasses. Instead, she was looking quite fancy with makeup and jewelry. As if she was going somewhere.

Another message from Q interrupted my train of thought.

"Mh, doesn't look like it will help a lot."

"So you got something useful?" I challenged. The whole night,not really scratch that,  A good part of the entire night I labored and no thanks at all.

"Touche"

They started to write something then erased it then finally sent "Just keep sending me what you find, then we can sort through it. Keep in mind things may be more relevant than you think on closer inspection".

"Got it", I sent back. I wondered to myself if I should ask them about the Hannah abduction incident they claimed they saw in the voice message. Then I remembered they haven't confirmed if it was them on the voice message.

"All right then.Good Luck."

"Wait," I sent immediately as I saw they were about to leave

"I want to talk to you", Nice save.

"Talk?About what?"

"About you", I said honestly. I mean, I have a right to know who they are in the least. After all, I am investing so much of my time to get Hannah's posed photos. I could be buying real eggs and milk during this time to get me the breakfast that I deserve.

"What? About me?".

Are they getting nervous? I smiled to myself as I typed.

" You're interesting."

They did that again with the writing and erasing, then sent," You are aware that I won't tell you anything about me right?"

They didn't reply for quite some time.

"Did this leave you speechless?"

This elicited a response from them that left me speechless.

"You have one question"