Chapter 13 (K)

As soon as I get outside, I don’t start heading home. I walk across the street and head towards the park. The air smells heavy and wet, and thick, fat clouds are piling up ahead of me… a storm is on its way. Somehow, it’s fitting to today’s events.

I plop down onto a green bench, carefully placing my tablet besides me. I take it out, and turn it on. There’s about 0.2% left on it, enough power to last me a couple of minutes.

I quickly go on LikeIt and find all my “friends” who seem to have some sort of information on Lukas, whether it was through the grapevine or were actually friends with him. I compose a quick group message: hey guys, I’m working on a project and I need some info on Lukas, even if it seems really unimportant. thanks so much!

I click send and wait until the sent confirmation comes up. Collecting all the info will take awhile, but I might as well find out stuff now. Lukas plays an important role in the epidemic, and I’m going to take any opportunity I’ve got to get more clues.

I stand up and start walking towards the street, paying attention to placing the tablet in my purse. It’s a bad habit of mine. I look up to look to where I was going when I walk straight into another person.

We land with a loud, “Oof!” and I see papers float down around us.

I feel my cheeks heat with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry, really sorry,” I repeat over and over again while I scurry to pick up the papers. I pile them neatly in my hands, and one of the headlines catches my eye: “13 Year Old Boy Disappears From Hospital, Doctors and Officials Mystified.” I try to not look like I’m poring over it. Highlighted underneath, in the article, was a name. Lukas Morgenstern.

Oh my god, you must be joking…this is a lucky day for me. I continue scanning the article. There’s picture of a smiling Lukas, his black eyes twinkling and brown hair in a mess. Snatches of sentences leap out at me: accident, car, coma, immobilized, disappeared…

I feel the papers being snatched away from me, and I look up at the person I bumped into. He seems to be older than me, and almost a head taller than me. He has black hair, and his eyes border black and a deep indigo. The eyes are almost hypnotic.

“Normally, you don’t look at other people’s stuff,” snapped the guy, and brusquely started to walk away.

“Hey!” I cry, running after him. “Do you have any information on Lukas Morgenstern? You know the guy who was in an accident? I’m doing a project…”

“A pretty morbid project, if you ask me. No, I don’t have any, sorry. I’m sure there’s lots of stuff on the internet.”

“But I saw in one of the papers you have…”

“You must’ve read wrong,” he simply states. He gives me an icy cold stare. “Now I must go so, if you’ll excuse me,” he pushes past me with a shove.

What a rude guy! But there’s got to be some reason why he’s trying to hide the fact that he has that paper about Lukas on it. I can’t let this one go. I let him get a head start, and then started following him. I made sure to stay within crowds so he wouldn’t notice me, but I still felt conspicuous. A couple of times he turns around, and I have to duck behind some people, or avert my eyes.

I feel like my heart is going to burst out of my chest, but I can’t risk losing him now. I realize that we’re already at Redmond Street, a good 15 minutes away from the park. How time flies when you’re concentrating on something! Sheesh. I glance at my phone. 3:45. I still have some time before I should head back. I look back up and realize that the rude guy had disappeared. Damn! I just lost any hope of getting information out of that guy. At least I know  what the headline is, and what to look for. I start to head back.

There’s a presence behind me. I can feel eyes bore into the back of my head, there’s someone watching me. Or following me. I briskly spin around, but there’s no one there. Goosebumps crawl over my skin. I check quickly to make sure there really is no one. I can’t see anybody standing still, no one at the windows of the surrounding buildings. I can’t sense the presence anymore.

Just my overactive imagination. Nothing to worry about, right? I head towards home, and I swear that I feel a pair of eyes watching, following my every move. I pick up the pace until I’m at the point of running, but I can still feel those unblinking eyes at my back. 

I wanted to slow down the pace, but it only slowed down a bit, as you can tell. Still lots of excitement going on ;)