Chapter Three - Hard to Walk Away

Today was Sunday. Here in our town there wasn't much you could do on a Sunday. Most shops were generally closed or did so before 12.

At most, going swimming was another option, but I didn't want to do that - especially not alone, because nobody had time for me.

Normally I would have stayed at home and spent the day in my room, but I decided to go to the gas station. How so? For two very simple reasons: firstly, sweets were never wrong and secondly, sitting here and thinking about the last few days wasn't exactly what I wanted to do right now.

Five minutes later, I ran purposefully to the front door, which opened automatically.

As soon as I entered the store, I immediately noticed that Jared's brother was standing behind the cash register. Nervous from the embarrassing thought of last night, I wanted to turn around and just walk away. But apparently he had already seen me because he was shouting across the gas station, "You're the gir from yesterdayl!"

Luckily no one else was there. Embarrassed, I covered my face with my hand. "Really great welcome!" I said sarcastically and stepped to the cash register. "Yes, I would have called your name, but unfortunately I don't know it." Now he looked at me with puppy eyes, as if to say: Can you please tell me your name?

"My name is Morgan and you are?" I gave in. "Blake." He smiled and then looked away, embarrassed. "Um, oh yes, sorry that I just kissed you like that yesterday. It was kind of an impulse reaction," he tried to justify himself.

"You seem a lot happier today than yesterday," I stated, realizing at the same time how stupid that was of me.

"Could also be because I was slightly drunk yesterday. Let's just blame everything on the alcohol, it does strange things to you." He had a really big grin on his lips.

"I.. I mean, I understand that you were or are sad..." I stuttered and probably would have gone on like this forever, but he stopped me from apologizing for the stupid comment.

"It's okay, I know what you mean." He smiled softly.

Embarrassed, I looked briefly at the floor. "Well, I have to go." Extremely tense, I tried to end our conversation.

I was already at the door when he said this: "Wait, do you really have to go?" He looked disappointed.

"Yes, I'm sorry, my mother is going to annoy me otherwise, so bye," I talked myself out. Somehow I felt this conversation to be slightly uncomfortable and it wasn't only because I was completely embarrassing myself.

"Bye Morgan," he said goodbye and put his hands on his hips.

So I wanted to walk home again, thinking that my mum would have to come back from her friend soon and I still had to do the dishes, unfortunately.

Suddenly I saw a familiar car standing at a petrol pump. It was my mother who was just filling up.

"Are you on your way home?" she asked relatively relaxed when she saw me. I just nodded. "Then get in, I'll just pay." She didn't seem to care what I was doing here all alone. Totally uncharacteristic of her.

However, instead of worrying about it any further, I just followed her words and sat in the passenger seat. From there, I could see Blake glancing over and over at me through the gas station's huge glass windows. I tried to be inconspicuous as if I hadn't noticed and even slid down in the seat a bit. It probably looked a lot more awkward than planned. Although I was actually good at being inconspicuous.

My mother came back relatively quickly and we both made our way home.

In the days that followed I went to the bridge every evening. I had no idea why, but something magically drew me there. Just standing there in the silence seemed to calm me down a bit.

So I went here again this evening. The days before, not a single soul or anything else had ever been there. Also nothing similar had happened since the incident with the car. But this evening was not normal...

I was barely five meters away from the bridge when a gust of wind came and it sounded like the wind was whispering my name softly. The closer I got to the other side of the bridge, the louder it seemed to get. But there wasn't much behind it. The end of the town and a road that led through a sparse forest.

I stopped right in the middle of the bridge and shook my head in confusion. Am I imagining this again? No, no, I heard it very clearly, someone was whispering over and over: Morgan. Or am I slowly going insane? First the car and now this!

I was terribly afraid to go to the other side, yet I couldn't give in to the urge to know if that voice really only existed in my head. With some effort I went slowly and step by step to the other side.

The forest back there made me feel even more uneasy.

I finally stood there - completely surrounded by trees. A little light from the lanterns still made its way here. The shadows danced. Everywhere you looked, it seemed like there was a silhouette around every corner. It was there - it disappeared.

It suddenly started rustling behind me. I turned around in a flash. I was expecting some criminal or a dangerous wild boar, and I was already in a fighting position, which at the same time allowed me to run away quickly, when I just saw Blake flying out of the bushes and landing right in front of my feet.

"Dude! Why are you scaring me like that!?" I immediately yelled at him. With a choice of words that didn't really suit me.

"Ow, I'm sorry. I was looking here for possible clues from my brother." I reluctantly gave him my hand to help him up. I could feel my pulse still racing.

"Tell me, why do you come here every night?" he asked me, patting some scraps of leaves from his pants.

"Wait, how do you know that I come here every evening?" I replied a little suspiciously. "Erm, not that you think I'm a stalker, because I'm not. I also come here every night looking for clues, that's when I saw you. You know, my mother hasn't been leaving the house since he died. She keeps asking, "WHY?" And I'm afraid that until she has an answer to the question, she won't step outside and sink into utter grief. And since she's already searching at home I'm looking for clues here." Although he smiled slightly, his eyes told me how sad he really was. I knew only too well how he must be feeling.

I would have loved to hug him long ago, he seemed to need it urgently, but I hadn't known him long enough to know how he would react. It would have been more than uncomfortable for myself.

"You know what? I'll help you look for clues!" I decided quite spontaneously. After all, that was the only thing I could do.

A satisfied smile formed on his lips this time. "Thank you, Morgan," he whispered.

I was so engrossed in our conversation that I completely forgot why I was actually standing here in the forest. "Did you hear that earlier?" I asked him cautiously. "What exactly?" He looked at me confused. "Oh, not that important," I broke off the whole thing to be on the safe side. I didn't want him to think I was crazy.

But that voice had been there, I had heard it very clearly! I couldn't have imagined that.

"Hello? Earth to Morgan, are you ok?" Blake snapped me out of my thoughts. He waved his hands wildly in front of my face. "Uh, yes, of course. I was only slightly absent." With a skillful movement of my hand I wiped a strand of hair from my face and covered up my insecurity.

"If that's nothing else. So I have the following plan: Shall we meet here at 3 p.m. tomorrow?" he suggested. "Can we say 3:30 p.m.?" I said and went through my schedule several times in my head.

"Yes, of course. We'll just look for clues here inconspicuously. Above all, we have to keep an eye out for his bag. I remember exactly when he left the house, he had a bag with him. But when they found him , it was gone." Blake was looking a lot like Sherlock Holmes at the moment, going over the first few facts.

"When I saw him here, he didn't have a bag with him either," I admitted. Blake looked around indignantly. "Maybe we should also look at places where he might have been before. What time did you see him here?" He leaned against the nearest tree and waited for my answer. "About... between one and two o'clock in the morning, I think." Unfortunately I didn't know exactly.

"He left the house at maybe 10pm, so clearly he must have been somewhere before. But where? I don't think he sat here for 3 hours." Somehow he looked at me so expectantly, but I hardly knew Jared. Not an hour to be exact. What I knew was definitely not enough to guess where he might have been. "Do you have an idea Morgan?" he asked now. "No, unfortunately not. He's your brother, you should know him best." At least that seemed logical to me.

"I'll just ask Mandy! Maybe she knows something!" Blake jumped in the air as if he'd just landed the winning point in a basketball game.

Though I wondered who the hell Mandy was, I didn't dare to ask. "I'm sure she knows something," he said fairly confidently. "So Morgan, we'll meet tomorrow then! In the meantime I'll try to set up a conversation with Mandy. See you later!" He spoke as fast as he could.

"Wait..." I tried to stop him, but he ran away.

Why did they all always run away so quickly?

I was about to leave when I thought I could feel a breath on the back of my neck. I got goose bumps. Again, I felt like someone was standing right behind me and whispering in my ear, "Don't go Morgan." The soft whisper was soothing and frightening at the same time. I turned around, but there was nobody.

I rubbed my head wearily.

Those words had to have a reason if they were mine.

Although I played with the idea of ​​listening to the voice that probably only existed in my head, I was too scared to be alone in the woods at night.

Still, my body struggled with every step I took away.