Three Knocks | ongoing

14|

"You need to take a nap," Jake suggested when Camille yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Make me another black coffee," she mumbled.

"You already drank three cups. It's risky."

"Make me a mocha latte, then. Sweetness should do the task."

"Camille, I am no doctor. Anyone can see that you need to sleep. Your dark circles are beginning to look like the map of Australia."

She inhaled and sat straight. She turned her head gently to the right until she experienced a stretch on the side of her neck and shoulder. Camille held on for a few seconds before turning her head forward and repeating on the other side.

Huffing, she struggled to regain her feet and faced Jake. She yawned again, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Promise you'll wake me up in two hours."

"Two? It's-"

"Promise me, or I'm not going."

"Fine, I'll set a timer."

Sleep didn't delay when she laid her head on Jake's pillow in the lavender-scented bedroom. She had a hunch that he must have sprayed it before he ordered her to sleep.

After Camille shared her encounter with Jake while walking around campus, the invisible force showed an extreme presence. Death loomed everywhere, and it scared her to the core.

A red car made a rough spin and drove straight into the fountain. Jake shuddered at the Glasgow flashback. The student behind the wheel escaped with a little scratch. His time hasn't arrived yet.

Grey clouds replaced the blue sky. A drizzle fell for a few minutes. When they took cover in front of a coffee shop along with others who did not bring an umbrella, the screws in the oval hanging wall sign somehow went loose and fell on the pavement. It almost crushed a little kid if the father had not picked her up fast.

The crowd gasped and approached them for comfort. The baristas and customers stepped outside while Jake and Camille preferred to leave.

After she entered his car, white smoke ignited under the hood. Camille twisted her ankle due to her heels while getting out in fear of facing Shawn's end. Jake rushed to her help, and they stepped as far away as possible. A lecturer called a towing company for them.

Jake thanked him, and they hitched an Uber. After this eventful day, Jake requested her to come to his place instead. She accepted.

A few hours later, they arrived at a quiet residential area with detached brick houses bearing the same green lawn, shrubs and asphalt shingles.

First, he tended to her ankle. Despite her trepidation of today's occurrences, heat rushed to her cheeks, and she avoided looking at his face for a few moments. Jake gave her the slimmest tracksuit bottom and T-shirt he possessed. Considering his athletic muscles, they were still baggy on her. The painkiller she took soon dragged her into a slumber, which broke around three in the morning.

Camille woke up from the couch with a blanket slipping off her body. She switched the lights and refreshed before digging into every food Jake had left on the dining table. He had kept his bedroom door open. Camille smiled at the light snore.

Tying her hair into a high bun, she connected his Wi-Fi to her mobile phone and surfed the net for a connection between Anchor House and Maya Russell. When Jake arrived in the living room at nine on Sunday morning, he caught Camille going through the drawers.