The 11th Letter

The 11th Letter - Chapter Three

I open my eyes. Everything looks blurry. I feel like someone just removed my glasses away from my eyes, it's basically like that. Twist is I don't even wear glasses. I do have a seeing problem but I never wore one, I'm just mildly near sighted to say. Though the environment is definitely blurry, my surroundings are recognizably a park, it set itself the perks of looking like one. I look around and see tree branches waving through the rhythm of the wind as it flowed. Extremely short grass covered up the whole ground and a paved sidewalk that seem to strangely go endless on its trail. How did I even get here? I'm sitting on a wooden bench in front of a pond, or is it a lake? I can't tell, it's still blurry. I noticed the light fog clouding the area, limiting my vision even more. I look up to the sky, its noticeably dusk despite it being obviously grey because of the clouds. It looks like it's about to rain. The buildings' lights flick on and off at the horizon of the park as the dark night slowly seeps in. Those red lights on top of towers flashes brightly, it looks like cherries on top a cake. I feel the breeze swirls around, it's freezing. I could see that I'm wearing a thick jacket and a scarf around my neck but why do I still feel chilly? I shiver, I feel the coldness consume my body from the bottom and up. I exhale and see my breath turn to mist, is it that cold right now?
     I fold up my arms. I look sideways and back, I can't find anyone. It looks like I'm all alone at this park. It's silent like I'm in a very bad sound proof room with only the soft chirps of birds and the whistles of the wind decorate what I hear. I close my eyes and suddenly I hear footsteps, it wasn't the sound of grass being stepped on, the sound echoes with each step. I ascertain it approaches me, I look to my right and see a person. My vision is still blurry, why is it like this? I squint my eyes and look, I see a woman, brunette. Similarly wearing the same style as me, beige jacket, jeans, and a scarf. She carries a hand bag with her, it kinda looks empty. My vision starting to get better right after. As she gets closer and closer and I start to realize, I know her, I just can't tell who. As she nears she calls my name "Hey Johan!" She shouts, she wave and signal me to come to her.
I get up from the bench and I walk up to her. My vision's clear now, just like that the blurriness disappears. I see her face better, she looks very familiar "Johan? Why are you just staring at me?" She raises one eyebrow up "Aren't you going to give me a hug like you always do?" she looks confused, so am I.
"I'm sorry, who are you?"
"You're joking? I'm Lara you silly!" She gently hit my right arm. Lara, is it really her? She looks a bit different but her appearance is very similar. I almost can't tell the difference. Her hair tied up in a ponytail, she looks skinnier than her usual self and a bit pale but that smile, that laugh, it's all the same—it is her.
     "Lara? Is that really you?" I softly touch her right cheek out of curiosity, soft and smooth as everyday I see it.
     "You're not gonna give me a hug aren't you Johan?" She leaned her head to the side and shrugs
     "Alright, come here" she opens her arms and I hug her as hard as I can. When she let go, I ask her "Why are you here?" wondering why she called me for.
"We need to talk about something Johan" she said
"Is it serious?"
"Walk with me Johan" her tone start to become serious
     We walk all the way through the park passing the lake, the playground and the garden, until the very end of the park talking about things we usually would discuss. It feels normal. Although the it doesn't, I haven't felt this in along time, everything' so comfortable it's almost perfect. We lean on the metal fence by the gate. The fog got much worse than I expected, I look to the street and I barely see cars passing through the now heavy fog. We leaned there silently, enjoying the moment, staring long into the nothingness of the fog.
"Look Johan, I miss this but as much as I enjoy talking to you again" that unique smile appears on her face
"I missed this too Lara" why did suddenly I interrupt her?
"There's a reason why I'm here. I need to tell you something" she continues. Her smile starts to fade.
"Tell me what?"
"Johan, I have something for you—a letter to be specific—it contains everything you need to know, there's more out there"
"A letter? What are you talking about?"
She takes out a letter and hands it to me "Here. Don't lose it, It's very important" I look at it, the letter is wrapped in an envelop stamped with seal of an object I couldn't quite figure out, it appears to be interconnected hexagons.
"Open it when I'm gone alright" she hugs me "It was nice talking to you again Johan" she let go and slowly backs away to the gate and turns her back at me.
Full of confusion, I really want to ask her what is this "Lara, wait!" She keeps walking ahead despite me calling her continuously "Will I ever see you again" she keeps walking until I couldn't see her anymore. The fog gets worse, I could barely see my surroundings but I still run towards her—I have to, I don't want to lose her. I keep running, hoping to find a sight of her but I couldn't. I looked everywhere until I got to the other side of the road, no sign of her. I pant and lean post—I open the envelope and unfold the letter, there was nothing there except for one sentence, it said