Chapter Five - Swimming in Regret

That evening I went to the bridge a little earlier than agreed. It wasn't completely dark yet, but you could already admire the first stars in the night sky. I leaned dreamily on the railing and looked at the sky. I didn't know many constellations. Ursa major was the only thing I recognized right away.

As I stood here, I remembered something my grandmother once told me:

On some days you could see Mars, it should look like all other stars just red.

Unfortunately, I saw nothing that fit this description. Suddenly, a shooting star flitted across the sky, so I closed my eyes to make a wish. "I wish I could help Blake," I whispered carelessly to myself.

"Is that really what you want?" A voice came from behind me. I immediately opened my eyes, turned around and looked in panic where the voice was coming from. I really had taken a look in all directions, but there was nobody here. Did that start again?

"Or is it something else." It sounded like someone was standing right next to me. In a flash I turned my head to the right, again there was nothing. If I hadn't experienced it myself, I would have thought it was my imagination. But I couldn't imagine all that! "Listen to what your heart says Morgan!" This time it came from the left. I was tired of it, but of course I turned in that direction, but as expected I didn't see anything.

"Hey Morgan!", this voice sounded different. I was about to give up when I recognized Blake.

"Blake? Did you say something to me before that?" I asked him in a daze.

"Like what before?" He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"I mean did you say anything else besides 'Hey Morgan'."

He looked at me totally confused. "Ehm no?" As if he thought I was delusional. Maybe he wasn't so wrong after all.

"Well no matter." I shook my head hoping to get rid of it all.

"Did you find out anything?"

He nodded. "Yes, fortunately his password was pretty easy to crack. Shortly before he left the café, he received an message that said: The next meeting point is the big oak tree by the river. But without a sender." He grabbed his chin questioningly.

"There are thousands of tall oak trees by the river, aren't there?" I asked, more as a statement.

"But only one that means something." He looked so sad again. I put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "Why always those sad looks when you talk about stuff like that? After all, those are nice memories, aren't they?"

"Back then Jared and I were inseparable, but as we got older we really hated each other. At least he hated me." Blake continued to mope.

"I'm sure he didn't hate you. As you get older, you drift apart." That's how it was after all. Why would Jared have hated his brother? I knew that all too well.

Sometimes siblings or other family members just had some problems with each other. Well, there was the Mandy thing, but hating each other for something like that? And in the end Blake had given her up too.

"Thank you Morgan. For trying to lift me up." And he smiled again slightly.

"Never mind, what are friends for?" I said, since my big mouth was once again faster than my brain.

"Shall we look at the oak now? It's a bit late, but we can still go now," I tried to distract. Maybe it was too soon to call us friends.

"Let's go. Just follow me.", he said and I nodded and we went off.

The path wasn't far, but it got darker and darker with every step we took. Maybe it was because we were getting farther and farther away from the town and the many lights. In addition, it was getting later and therefore even darker than it already was here in the middle of nowhere.

"If we're lucky, Claudio and Sven will have seen him," he told me quite confidently. That he always had to talk so naturally about people I didn't know.

"Who are Sven and Claudio?" I was forced to ask and continued to trudge along the slightly wet path.

"Two childhood friends who live on the farm near the oak tree," he explained succinctly.

"You shouldn't talk so naturally about people I don't know, or it would be better if you enlightened me immediately." When I smiled at him, he just laughed. "Yeah, I always forget that you don't know all those people. It seems like we've known each other forever." He was right, that was exactly how I felt as well.

A "Blake, old boy, haven't seen you in a long time," totally pulled us out of the conversation. It was too dark to see who said it, but when Blake replied, "Sven, yeah, haven't seen you in a while," I knew for sure who it was. "Best get straight to the point. Did you see Jared here on Saturday the 18th?" he continued seriously.

"Me, no!" Blake's look was full of disappointment, but then Sven gave him hope again: "But Claudio, yes! Why are you asking?" Meanwhile, he shone his cell phone at us. I shielded my eyes from the light with my hand.

"Have you read the newspaper lately?" Blake asked annoyed.

Sven shook his head impatiently. "Come in first, then we can talk." He made no further move to introduce himself.

So we just walked to his house. Sven and Claudio lived in a beautiful country house, it looked a bit rustic, but still beautiful. "Just sit in the dining room." We had hardly taken a seat when Claudio and Sven joined us. I had a totally uncomfortable feeling sitting in a house with strangers. Which is why I tried to stay as close to Blake as possible. "Who is that?" asked Claudio, and by the question he meant me. "This is Morgan, a friend of mine." He gave me a quick look and I introduced myself as well.

You could see very clearly that Sven and Claudio were brothers. Not only their light brown hair looked similar, but also the contours of their face. Both looked a little older than Blake.

"Mm, so what now?" Claudio seemed really impatient and went straight to the actual topic.

"Jared is dead, he jumped off a bridge and that's why I asked you if you had seen him. That's the summary now." After Blake had finished this difficult sentence, there was silence for a while. You could tell it was a shock for everyone involved.

"Yes, I saw him," Claudio broke the silence. "But didn't talk to him. He and another figure were standing by the oak." Claudio stood up and paced nervously around the dining room. "Could you answer two questions for me?" came from Blake. I could already guess which two questions he meant. "Depends on which questions?" Claudio stopped and looked at Blake intently. "When exactly did you see him and do you know if he had a bag with him?"

*Beep beep* Sven's cell phone rang, he got up and left the room without a word.

"About 12:15 a.m. Sven and I fooled around outside. He left by one, and no, as far as I could see he didn't have a bag with him." He sat back down on the bench.

"The walk to the bridge takes about 10 minutes, which is fine, but about the bag.. he must had have it somewhere, or did we miss something?"

Before anyone could answer, Sven came back into the room. "It was our parents. They'll be back in five minutes. You should be gone by then, because our dad isn't in a good mood these days." It sounded more like he just wanted to get rid of us. Claudio sighed: "Mum will be devastated to hear about Jared."

Blake's eyes dropped to the floor. "Yes, then we'd better go now!" He got up right away. "Yeah, it's better that way," added Sven. "You can get out of here through the back door. The way is shorter.", Claudio explained and already held the door open for us.

"Hey Blake, if you know why he did that, let us know, okay? He was a good guy," Claudio added, holding Blake for a moment as he was about to leave. "I will, I promise you!" He nodded to him.

A little further away from the farm, Blake threw up his hands. "Something... something... we must have overlooked! There must be some clues! That can't be!" Desperate, he sat down on the cold earth ground. I stayed silent for a moment as I really had no idea what to say.

"Or someone is not telling the whole truth." This idea just came to my mind. How could the two of them, for example, have seen him in the dark at night? Blake looked at me a little more... hopefully now. It was so easy to distract him that way. "You're right, it could be, but what reason would they have had to lie? And most importantly, who would it be then?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Don't know, it could also be possible that we really just missed something." The last thing I wanted to do was throw some conspiracy into Blake's head.

"The most important question now is why he did it. Why was that his last resort? I'm his brother, if he really had something, I should have noticed. Oh crap." Blake frustratedly pulled out some grass and threw it in front of him.

"You know, you couldn't have known." I sat down next to him in the slightly damp grass. "I spoke to him shortly before the bridge thing. And then he seemed normal again. Some people are good at covering up their frustration."

I didn't know why he blamed himself like that, he really couldn't have helped - at least I hoped so. "Mhh, let's look for the bag tomorrow when it's not that dark. Maybe he left it on the way or something." Blake stood up again and gave me his hand to help me up as well. "Good, then we'll just check again tomorrow." A comforting smile crossed my lips.