#2 In The Dark

Chap. 1_familiar faces and unfamiliar faces?

Rob Easton was dead.

Or at least, those were the rumours. No-one could know. Not after his departure.

He'd left so quickly without warning. He'd told no-one, not even his colleague. And she was lost, really. She'd treated him as a best friend. And he'd simply vanished.

And now Sarah Stark gazed at herself in the mirror. Her light had been fixed, meaning she could look at herself without having to squint or block out any odd shadows. But right now, she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

When Frank had asked her out for dinner that day at the station, she said yes without much thought. The worries and overthinking came afterwards. And now it was today. Now the questions in her head were reaching a loud crescendo. And as she looked back at herself from the mirror, she started crying.

Frank was a lovely man. She really liked him. They hadn't seen each other for a while. But they had been keeping up and talking almost every day. Somehow Sarah felt like she had some people that she actually depended on. She did have her boss, but Rob had simply gone. He could've died. And she wouldn't know. So the presence of Frank on the end of a phone call had been helpful and comforting.

She'd warmed to him incredibly. She thought she loved him. But now was the time to meet face-to-face again. And Sarah Stark was crying.

She looked through her moistened eyes at her made-up self. Her smart dress and shoes, matching in lovely flaxen yellow. And her round face, and dimpled cheeks.

As the tears accumulated, they streamed down her faces, pooling in the dimples and resting in her mouth. She didn't want this day to go wrong. And she'd worried about it for so long that she couldn't cope. She'd lost so many people in her life that losing people was just a standard occurrence for young, brave Sarah Stark. But that didn't mean she could handle it all the more easily. Experience in these circumstances hinder rather than help, and as she thought about how losing one more person could push her over the edge of despair, all the thoughts of who she'd lost came flooding back like one huge tidal wave.

Her Mum, who died just a few years ago. Her lovely, beautiful Mum who'd raised her and been there for everything. 'Laughter is the best medicine, hon,' she used to say. And she was right, but sometimes crying is the right thing to do too.

She hadn't heard her Mum's voice for so long now. She missed it and ached for her to say it just one more time. That wasn't going to happen, though, and the ache transformed into pain and then into grief.

And her Dad. Her Dad who her Mum loved to the world's end. Her Dad who died when she was 3, but her Mum still remembered and loved and craved for. He made her happy, and Sarah wished that he had been there for longer. She couldn't really remember him. But she still wanted him back now. Just for a shoulder to cry on. Or someone to listen.

And then Rob. Her boss who had really changed her life. Whilst Sarah had no-one, Rob walked into the limelight. He took her on and helped her, comforted her, gave her purpose. And now he'd gone. And she didn't know where. She prayed hard for him to come back, or at least tell her that he was alive and well. But there'd been no contact. Literally nothing.

Sarah reached for a tissue and mopped her face clean of tears. Because she couldn't cope. But she kept on going. She had so much weight on her shoulders and this was going to be the time to throw it all off, and have a lovely evening with someone who cared for her.

She'd decided.

This was going to be a nice night. No distractions. No sad or dark thoughts. And she slowly walked away from the mirror, picked up her little clutch bag, and sidled out of her door, whistling a tune.