3. Cigarette

I waited for Erick at the security guard post, which was located near the entrance of the school building. He said he would be a little late, so I chose to wait for him there instead of in the teacher's room. I still felt my legs get stiff and was thinking of finding a seat when a guard offered me a plastic stool. He even gave me a cup of coffee. Hot steam was still rising from the caffeinated drink, and it helped me to warm up my previously almost frozen hands.

"Waiting for pickup?" I just smiled at that question. I didn't 't want to talk much, not because of the cold. But I am still thinking about what I just experienced. There was an incoming call from Mala for me, but strangely like, nothing had just happened to me. I didn't go anywhere or even move one bit from my seat. It was like a dream, maybe the most real dream I had ever had.

…

Finally, I saw Erick's car coming. I thanked the security for the coffee he served me and said goodbye.

"You don't usually ask for a pick-up. What's with your bike?" It was natural for Erick to say that because while working here, this was the first time I asked to be picked up for home.

"I left it in the parking lot," I said, as usual, hoping he didn't suspect anything. "Just lazy to take it home" was a lie, and Erick seemed to know it.

He stared at me for a moment before turning his attention back to the road. "What's wrong?" His tone was demanding.

I took a deep breath and then breathed it out slowly. It was obvious that I could not lie to this man who had an acute curiosity and a spicy mouth. "I overslept and had a very strange dream," I finally confessed.

"I've tried to forget about it and distract myself with something else, but to no avail. That's what scares me from going home alone." I was still reluctant to explain it to him in more detail. "Besides, I still have work tomorrow, so while there is a free driver, shouldn't I use his service my best?" I tried to be funny. Erick paid it with a sneer.

The rain dropped heavily out there, accompanying our trip home. There was a long traffic jam not far from the school. We had to wait about thirty minutes until we finally got out of the jams, while the next, the vehicle we were taking in could only creep up to the city border. This kind of thing often happens during hectic hours. However, there was one thing that caught my attention at that time. I saw the road to the old shop like the one in my dream.

When we passed that place, we really couldn't go down because of the heavy traffic flow, coupled with heavy rain. I asked Erick to drive the car slowly so that I could observe the place carefully. I was right. The place was very similar to the one in my dream, with the buildings as well as the cast-iron paths.

"Ery" The owner of the name answered with a cough. "Can you take me to work tomorrow morning?" I slipped into a pleading tone, hoping he would.

"What time is it?" he asked, still focusing on the road.

"Four. Can you?" I wanted to go to that place first. To be honest, I felt so curious about it.

"Do you want to clean the school bathroom or sweep the yard?!" He said mockingly, also laughing mischievously afterward. This was the 'normal' conversation between us, insulting each other for fun.

I snorted loudly and was provoked to serve his words. "Yeah, I want to help the gardener to count the pebbles in the schoolyard," I said in annoyance.

He turned to me with an irritated expression. "Come on, don't start again!" After that, we actually laughed at our stupidity.

Erick told me that there were some people who found a lot of red spots in ruins outside the village. They came to the place because they smelled a very foul odor. When they looked for it there, they found the red spots, which were later believed to be blood stains. They also found something black and rotting.

"You shouldn't go out often at night, Tha. I'm sure that you still remember the incident of the past few weeks, there were so many death cases that remained unsolved yet." I was silent. I already knew who did it, and I didn't think I needed to worry about it anymore.

"What did they do, then?" I asked after a while. I just remembered that incident. We hadn't cleaned Summer's blood there.

"I don't know, but I saw this afternoon there was a police line there," said Erick. "Some say it belongs to wild animal prey. You know, some wolves often steal cattle. Maybe it belongs to their prey, many say so," He said nonchalantly.

I paused for a moment, thinking it might be an excuse to make people less anxious and worried after what happened. If they didn't make up a story that way, I guessed they would get panicked, or even more. "Yeah, maybe it's the blood of a wolf prey or something," I replied.

…

Around eleven o'clock at night, I visited Summer's place. I waited for the conditions around the house to be quiet so that I could see it up close. Unfortunately, the weather was not supportive. I had to stand in front of her house wearing a coat and shoes wet from the keep falling icy rain, along with the icicles that were very painful if they fell on your body.

Summer was standing in the rain alone. Sometimes, she walked back and forth in front of her house with her head down. A few moments passed, and I didn't hear her usual cry either, but I found her as if she was talking to herself. She spoke very fast, and a few words were heard repeatedly. Without Aras, I couldn't communicate with her. My voice wouldn't reach her. I really wanted to summon the spirit and tell her everything would be fine. Charon would soon pick her up so she could go to the spirit realm and fulfill her death.

…

No meeting tonight. I went back home unsuccessfully because I couldn't communicate with Summer. For almost an hour, I walked home under this very chilly weather and deserted roads at midnight. The finding of blood traces in ruins seemed to have a pretty big impact because, in recent weeks, people still had to deal with unsolved murder cases in them until the present time. That trauma was inflicted on them, though it had been said that it might be the blood of the prey of a wild animal.

I was just about to turn into the small alley that was heading to my house when I saw someone standing in front of my gate. I just watched him and peeked from afar, not wanting to come closer. The man lit a cigar and then I saw white puffs coming from his cigarette smoke, also the red amber of the cigarettes he was carrying in the middle of the dark night. He kept staring at my house while blowing smoke from his mouth.

I didn't know the person, but I felt like I had seen him before. He looked like the person I saw this morning at my doorstep. I was pretty sure because he's wearing the exact fur coat, height, and build. Yes, they were the same person. I marveled at what he was looking for from my house.

For almost an hour he kept pacing in front of the gate of my house. Half of my wet clothes made me shiver in the cold, and I decided to go to Erick's house to stay the night because I didn't dare to go home. I knew his mother would interrogate me with lots of questions, but I had no other choice because the comic rental shops or internet cafes, which were open until the morning, had now closed because of Summer's murder case.

"Where have you been until this early today?," Erick shouted as I was about to enter his yard. "In fact, it's almost morning!" His hot mouth began to speak. "Look at your clothes! You could get sick."

I ignored him and walked towards his terrace. "Don't ask too many questions. You're so talkative!," I muttered. I was already freezing, so I was lazy to listen to his words.

Next chapter