His Last Smile ( Sequel To His Last Joke)

Mirage

~ Chapter 4 ~

* Eva's P.O.V *

* Two Months Later *

I hadn't seen 'Jack' ever since that morning at the docks. The illusions stopped but the nightmares didn't. The more I got used to them, the worse they grew and impacted me the next time around.  I thought I would've gotten over him by now.

 I do double takes wherever I look now. If I turn my head fast enough I could always see his face at the edge of the room but not as accurate as that morning at the docks. He'd resemble Jack but not to the last bit of detail. Sometimes the image my mind creates has his nose a bit off compared to Jack's, and I'd always picture him with his long hair unlike the one at the docks. Whenever I'm walking down a crowded street, I'd easily mistake any tall, blonde, male for Jack if I blink quickly enough. 

I feel like now if I'd seen Jack I probably wouldn't recognise him for all the people I'd mistaken him for. Maybe his features are slowly burning themselves out of my memory..

I finished stuffing a few dollars into my sling on before swinging it over my head and across my body. I locked up the apartment behind me and made my way to the bus station. Oh right! I'd changed my job! Ever since that morning at the docks..

I just couldn't handle walking down the same path to work all over again and even though a part of me wanted to accidentally catch a glimpse of this ' Jack ', my heart probably wouldn't handle going through that again. I now work at a little boutique which I take the local bus to every morning. The only walking I have to do is to the bus station and I think I can pretty much handle that 5 minute walk.

I never imagined myself as a sales person. I mean I was always horrible at math! I never imagined this to even be an option but here I am. Just need enough money to pay off the rents so the land lord doesn't keep bugging me every 2 days. As you can see, I'm trying to limit my social interactions as much as possible.

I reached the shop about an hour later and I found a delivery truck outside. I had totally forgotten about the new stock just like how I forget about almost everything else nowadays. I opened up the metal sheds and then started signing the delivery papers the guy handed me on a clip board.

After that I walked them out back so they'd load up the boxes in our storage room. I stood on the side walk as they loaded the boxes in until something caught my eye. Across the street intersection..there was another storage room and many men standing around it. They were dressed like the men I saw by the docks. My heart beat picked up and I started to look for the one who the 'Jack' I'd seen earlier. I watched as they all carried boxes out of the storage room. They all had a strange synchronised walking pattern but I didn't give too much thought into it.

I was too busy analysing their faces, looking for Jack. I huffed as the line of men seemed endless. I went closer and crossed the first street line to the other pavement to get a closer look. However as soon as I reached the pavement the outpour of men stopped and they all hopped on a truck and it soon started moving. Feeling stupid, I mentally kicked myself. What was I thinking?! Was I really starting to believe that was anything more than a hallucination?!

However suddenly, and before I could've reprimanded myself even more, three more men came out of the storage room and I found myself with another spark of hope. The first two turned around and closed the shed after the third stepped out before I could see their faces. The third and the first men then stalked off and the last one was kneeling on the floor and locking the sheds. I craned my neck to the side to try to get a glimpse of his face and just like my prayers had been directly answered, he stood up and turned around and briefly glanced in my direction as I felt like a bucket on ice has just been thrown down my shirt. Jack. He was there. Across the street. He's right there. He's in the same outfit he was 2 months ago.