picturesque.

iv.

The next morning, I was at my workplace as usual, feeling fresh and clear-headed. I struggled drifting to sleep yesterday night, but I endlessly persuaded myself that I knew what I was doing and that the voice at the back of my head was just nothing worth noting of.

I was at my desk earlier than usual, and it surprised my fellow female colleague, Clara, who had become friends with me since last month. Clara was known for being the earliest to reach the office, so upon seeing me already opening my inbox, she was quite taken aback.

"Vincent?"

"Yeah?"

"Gosh, that really is you."

"I know, Clara. Couldn't sleep at all yesterday night, so I washed up and got here sooner." I said as I stirred my cup of freshly brewed coffee. "Didn't want to waste time, after all!" I laughed.

"Hmm, well, if you were staying up, something definitely was on your mind," Clara mumbled as she settled down on her workplace, which was just opposite mine. She looked up at me, her eyes questioning. "Mind telling me about that?"

I didn't hesitate to say "no, it's okay" to her offer. I didn't want Clara to get dragged into my personal problems. Plus, it'd be kind of embarrassing to tell a female colleague how you've just woken up looking dead drunk in front of your house.

"Mm. If you say so." Clara shrugged, and right after she opened her computer, I felt a thin hand touch my shoulder.

"Boo!"

"Aagh!" I exclaimed, though lightly. As my head whirled around to see who it was, I found myself face-to-face with a cheeky-looking Trevor, who wore a small smirk at the corners of his mouth.

"Got scared?"

"Yep, definitely."

His thin lips formed a pout as he settled down his seat next to me. I got up instead, giving him a scoff, and walked towards the radio at the corner of our office, which was the closest to my workplace. I flicked the power switch on and pressed a button, and the scratchy voice of the male radio host that appeared very frequently on-air was heard.

"And now we will be bringing you today's news," He announced, along with a hum from the female radio host that would always be partnered with him whenever on air. "So for the local district's news, local investigations regarding—"

"Vince!" Trevor said, appearing behind me. I turned around and told him to stop scaring me every five seconds, as I wanted to listen to the news, but unfortunately, we had a bit of a small bicker over a quiz that aired just now asking whether the chemical compound dihydrogen monoxide is poisonous or not.

"Gosh, Trevor, dihydrogen monoxide's water!" I cried out in exasperation, causing Clara's shoulders to flinch. Trevor just furrowed his eyebrows, ready to fire back a nonsense statement, when she shushed us up.

"Don't you two men have better things to do?!" She whispered fiercely. We returned to our seats. By the time I placed my focus back on the radio, the host was already talking about forecasts of misty nights and windy afternoons.

I didn't bother about it anymore and just focused on my assignments. During the afternoon break, I overheard Clara talking with her fellow female workers about an accident that I have heard somewhere before.

"Clara, I don't know whether it's okay for you to talk about this in this sort of place..." Her best friend Jennifer mumbled.

"I don't care.." Clara sighed. "It's been bothering me too much I just have to say it out..."

"Say what?" A colleague I recognized named Barbara pressed on, clearly interested. 

Clara let out a breath of anxiousness. "So about the recent case... you guys know what I'm talking about, right?"

"You mean the one about the woman?" Another colleague, Alice whispered, her hand gripping onto her coffee cup as if something would happen to her if she were to speak about it. 

"Yep. So on the night that happened, I think I witnessed the murder..." Clara began, her sentence earning gasps from all of her listeners. "Wait, wait! I just... I wasn't sure about it, so I told Trevor about it yesterday before work ended."

"Girl, is that a good move?" Barbara questioned. 

"He told me just now before lunch that he'd already helped me tell the police about it yesterday night, and that the police might ring me up shortly, so... I guess it should be alright..."

That was the last thing I had overheard from the ladies' talk before I was interrupted by Trevor yet again, telling me to talk with him. Although, when I turned to look at his direction, he was looking at the group of women, his eyes gleaming a faint glow. Or was it just the light?

"Bye, Vince! Don't go home that late, yeah!"

I sighed as I waved off Trevor and turned to face my blaring computer screen. Dusk was up faster than expected, perhaps due to the winter season where nights lasted longer than days. I swiftly typed up my report and closed my laptop, hoping I could catch up with Trevor, but unfortunately the moment I stepped out of the office, there was no sign of a tall figure wearing a painfully obvious white coat in the looming darkness.

Swallowing my saliva, I made my way briskly across the road to my neighbourhood. I felt the signs of a headache creeping up my forehead as I walked closer and closer to the corner where I had first seen that scenario that had since then flipped my life upside down.

Holding my breath, I made my way around the bend. And I saw, meters away from where I stood, what seemed to be a blurry image of whatever I had seen two days ago.

Like a broken record, playing again and again, haunting me endlessly.

Same posture. Same messy hair. Same shocked expression. Same sluggish steps forward. 

The only difference was that he did not look back.

Stinging.

My head stung like mad all the way, from the moment my eyes shut tight and my legs started running, to the moment I collapsed onto the sofa after messy attempts of trying to open my house's front door. As I blindly tried to take myself up to my room, my head, albeit cloudy from the pain, still managed to form the question that had been occupying my headspace for some time.

Just who are you?