RAINDROPS

Chapter 10

With a jolt I wake up, covered in sweat. The room I'm in is completely empty, giving me the change to catch my breath without anyone noticing. This is the third nightmare I've had in the past week and they keep getting worse. 

When we got to the house Nick told me his dad was out on business, so I wouldn't be able to meet him immediately. Honestly I didn't mind at all. We had been up all night and I was extremely tired. We just drank some tea before he showed me to this room. 

It has a bed, a desk and two chairs. That's about it. Slowly I get out of the bed,  ignoring the ache that comes with it. My phone sits on the table beside me, exactly where I left it. When I turn it around to check for the time, I realise it's dead. Great, now there's no way for me to contact Jack.

After the nightmare I know there's no going back to sleep for now, so I decide to try and find Nick. The hall turns out to be completely empty, the only thing I see is a small lamp lighting it up just enough. 

Left or right? Which way shall I go. For a brief minute I just stand in the door opening, thinking it over. Or not thinking about it at all, depending on how you look at it. Eventually I pick left, it feels like the right way to go. Ironically as it may sound.

I pass four doors, two on each side, before I make it to some kind of balcony that's supposed to be looking out over a living room. But instead of couches and a television, it contains about twenty computers and one really big screen on the wall right in front of me. Upstairs seems empty enough, so I sit down at the railing and watch what's happening down there. 

There's one man and one woman, both working on the computers. The woman has blonde hair and is wearing big headphones, she's chewing on something. A pen or a pencil probably. She looks to be about forty years old. The man on the other hand looks more like twenty. He has short scruffy blonde hair. Where hers is more of a gold shade, his is a lot greyer. I think they call it an ash shade of blonde. The glasses he's wearing have a very distinct frame.

Something about it doesn't seem right. He looks familiar somehow and I am certain I've seen those glasses before. When I notice something interesting or maybe weird looking I always remember, at least for a little while.

What I can't place is where and when I saw them. It must have been in this past week. Not monday or tuesday, I was in the house the entire day then. Wednesday was...

That's it! I saw him at the funeral. Now I remember. He was sitting in the back on the right side of the church. When people were giving me condolences I saw him sitting there. I remember looking for him after, curious to know how such a young looking man knew my parents, but he was nowhere to be found.

What was he doing there? Why is he here? Unless... Maybe he had something to do with that lady who died. No that would be strange. The only way to find out is to ask him, so I gather my courage and quickly find my way down to confront him about it.

'You!' I practically yell. Somehow my emotions keep getting the better of me. 'You were at my parents' funeral! What were you doing there?' It might seem a bit irrational to yell at him this way. But he intervened on a matter that was extremely important to me. He has no right to come there.

He looks startled and doesn't say anything. The only thing he does is stare at me, with bewilderd eyes and almost a confused expression. I probably look like I'm fuming and my eyes are most definitely green. He's probably right to be scared, I'm not going away until I get some answers.

'Why aren't you saying anything!' I yell out of frustration, when he doesn't answer after a couple of minutes. I must look ridiculous, but right now I don't care. 'Who are you?' I ask him then. My tone a bit softer.