Encounter

the man was typing on his laptop in a quick cadence. The sound was a bit jarring but my mind was hijacked by the eerie vision I saw earlier. An incident was bound to happen in the sea and it was going to be terrible. I put my headphones back on and chose a random Alpha waves track that helps me concentrate while I sipped on my coffee trying to remember the details of what I had earlier seen,

The beach, the weather, the waves…something caught my attention, a sound of rustling. I looked down: a newspaper was laying there by my bare feet. It had escaped the pack a little boy was struggling to carry and reached my toes as if pushed by the invisible hand of the wind or was it destiny.

I tried to focus on the image of the newspaper on the sand, there was a date, what was it? I felt my breathing accelerate abnormally, but refused to open my tightly shut eyes. I have to know. I could see in my mind's eye a number… was it Four?? Yes it seemed like a 4 . I clenched my jaw so tight I could feel pain radiating through the entirety of my skull. It was four, and the month was …-I mentally unfolded the newspaper's first page bent by the gust- the month was August, August 2021 . YESSS. I opened my eyes with a sense of victory- a very short lived one. In less than a month something evil was going to take over the city and I had no idea if there was anything I could do.

I could tell my hand was shaking because a splash of coffee hit the table escaping the mug I was carrying to my suddenly parched mouth. I mumbled an apology aimed at the man sitting next to me, thanking God the dark liquid fell a few centimeters away from his fancy laptop.He did not answer. I looked up nervously. He was too busy scrutinizing me, dissecting my features, to voice a reply. There was something nearly offensive in the the way he was frowning unconsciously at my face, as if it stomached him, as if he was reminded of a better forgotten bad memory!

He handed me a napkin and kept looking at me as he asked : you ok?

I nodded. he did not seem satisfied by the answer. I nervously said: I am.

He raised one eyebrow I raised mine too. He smiled at that: " you speak english, good… I am Haadi."

-"Everyone here speaks at least one foreign language", I replied defiantly.

He kept staring. I caved with a sigh. " I am Damar. Sorry for the mess".

But the real mess was yet to come.