picturesque.

v.

"Vincent!"

"Aah!!" I yelped as I snapped out of my wavering thoughts. Trevor's hand remained in front of my vision, and when I turned to meet his gaze, he seemed genuinely worried.

"Hey, are you okay? Do you need to take a day off?" He asked, his voice soft and tender. My eyebrows softened after hearing him speak; it was as if he could put me to sleep with his hushed tone.

"I... I'm fine," I sighed, sweeping away the bangs that covered my vision. "I just had a bad night yesterday."

"Ah.." Trevor mused, looking down. I noticed he was gripping my wrist. "Um.. you can do something I do when I couldn't sleep!"

"What's that?"

"Count backwards."

My eyebrows arched up again. "It works?"

"Yeah. I'd usually count from 200 and sleep at about 80. I never manage to reach 0 so far." He gave a light chuckle. "You could give it a try. It clears your mind."

"Hmm, I'll try, I guess." I laughed.

The department felt a bit different. Perhaps it was in the air; it felt like no one was in the office, except for me and Trevor. Clara didn't come to work today, so I assume the mood was less carefree. She'd usually be the moodmaker, after all.

"Vince, if you're not okay, just tell me, yeah? I'm right beside you, after all." Trevor advised me yet again. I nodded halfheartedly, trying to force my brain to push out any thoughts regarding what I've seen last night.

Lunch hour came about, and my eyebrows were still knitted together in concern. Trevor stirred his cup of Sprite worriedly while looking at my current state, and decided to cheer me up with something — something I didn't really see coming.

"Vince..."

"Yeah...?"

"You wanna... come to my house for dinner again?"

Upon hearing the words "dinner" and "my place", my brain halted all sorts of thoughts that were processing through my head at that moment.

"Uhmm..." I began, scratching my head. The last time you mentioned eating at your place, I couldn't remember anything whatsoever.

'Cause it wasn't even real.

Then is this scene real?

"Um, you can stay the night if you really can't take it." Trevor added while taking small troubled sips from his Sprite. I was still caught up in my unsure mind, when he grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a hard shake.

"Vincent!" He cried. I didn't respond. He sighed. "Oh, God...!"

I couldn't even register what had happened after Trevor had said that, but I did remember seeing the blurry image of the head department's desk, and then a dark corridor plunging downwards, and then our company growing smaller and smaller.

My eyes widened. Wait, what's happening right now?

My head swerved to my front to see that Trevor had lifted me up and slung me over his shoulder (I never knew he had the strength to actually do that), and had carried me all the way down the staircase leading to the office. Right now he's walking towards the neighbourhood where we both lived, only I had no idea where is he actually going.

"Trevor..." I began, now fully awake. "Where the hell are we going?"

He said nothing, just took a turn to enter the housing area. "Guard's out." I heard him mumble.