Bring Me to Life

(There must be something more) bring me to life
Wake me up inside (save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark (wake me up)
Bid my blood to run (I can't wake up)
Before I come undone (save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
I've been living a lie
There's nothing inside
Bring me to life

Something feels wrong, but Phayu can't put his finger on what it could be. He looks around the office, then at the plan he is drafting but the wrongness doesn't feel work related. His gaze drifts to his phone. That is it, he hasn't heard his text notification in a while. Rain. His sweet boy knows he can't constantly check his phone at work but that doesn't keep him from sending texts, pictures, and emojis several times an hour or whenever something strikes him as funny for Phayu to check when he gets a break. Phayu picks up his phone and sees that the last message from Rain was several hours ago when he had sent a message saying he was going to the little market place near the house to get food for their dinner.

"Maybe he went back to the house and took a nap." Phayu tries to tell himself, but it doesn't feel right. Everything about this gives Phayu a sick feeling in the middle of stomach, and that arrogant boy Stop comes to mind. What if he did something to Rain before P'Pakin's men could get to him to warn him off?

Phayu tries to call Rain but there is no answer. Phayu tries not to panic, maybe Rain did take a nap and turned his phone off or maybe he forgot to charge it. Phayu puts his phone down but immediately picks it back up to try again. He hesitates for a minute but then packs his stuff and leaves the office at a run. He sees P'Mhok look up in surprise out of the corner of his eyes but doesn't even stop to talk to his boss. He will call him later once he checks on Rain.

Usually Phayu is a careful driver whether on his bike or in a car but today he breaks several traffic laws getting home. As he is coming up the street he sees Saifah, who has spent the last few nights at Heam's, pulling into the driveway. Saifah parks and gets out to meet Phayu. He looks ready to tease Phayu about what he and Rain have been up to for the last few days but his attention is drawn to some bags of food someone dropped on the street in front of the house.

Phayu goes over to him and says, "What the hell is going on?"

Saifah says, "I don't know which idiot dropped a bunch of food on the ground. It's my burden to clean up now."

Phayu feels his blood run cold, those food bags look just the same as the ones Rain often picks up at the market when he buys their dinner. He runs into the house shouting for Rain. Ignoring Saifah yelling behind him. He quickly searches the rooms upstairs, praying to find a groggy Rain waking up in their bed, but they are empty. He dumps his bag on the desk and strips off his jacket without really thinking about it.

He even checks the home gym and storage rooms out back, even though Rain seldom goes out there. He decides to try Rain's phone twice more but there is still no answer.

It's starting to get dark and Phayu has lost count of the number of times he has tried to call Rain. He has tried Rain's mama as well, not letting on that he is worried but making it sound as if Rain went out with his friends and forgot his phone at Phayu's house. He just wants to check to see if he has been to his parents' home. Rain's mama says that he hasn't, but she will give him the message if she sees him.

Phayu runs his hands through his hair nervously, then picks up the phone and tries again.

Saifah, who has watched all of this, comes over and says, "What exactly is going on?"

Phayu says, "Rain is not here."

Saifah says, "What do you mean?"

Phayu wonders if he is being stupid on purpose. He stands up and says, "I told you Rain is not here, dammit!"