Fearce

[2] Who Are You?

The next morning, I had woken up thinking about the man that came up to me. Something about him seemed too familiar. I couldn't seem to find the exact reason though. A feeling of me knowing this person or having met them before struck me. It could have been an honest resemblance to someone else, so I shouldn't exactly jump into any conclusions. I might have been reading too much into this whole ordeal--except I wasn't.

Once my classes had finished, I messaged Nora to meet me at the school cafeteria. 'Maybe if I talk about it with her, she might know what to do. Or she might at least be able to help me make sense of things. Who knows, Nora might be the rational one for once.'

Nora soon arrived and immediately began to go on about her day. "Do ya know how horrible my math class is? I know it's a requirement, but still, It seems like too much."

I responded plainly with, "yeah, it is."

Quickly noticing my absence, Nora decided to question me. "Okay, spill it. Usually, you pay attention to my ramblings no matter how moronic they are. Now spill, what's on your mind?"

Surprised by her sudden maturity, I fumbled for words. Gaining my composure after a brief moment, I responded with, "Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as rude. It's just that yesterday after my shift was done, this man came up to me out of nowhere and asked me for directions."

Confused, Nora asked, "What's wrong with that? Maybe he just genuinely needed help getting to wherever." Nora had appeared to be a bit annoyed with my lack of details.

"That's not the point. Of course, if he was genuinely confused about where he was going, then I would have no problem helping him. I found it to be a strange encounter because I felt like that wasn't the first time that I had seen him."

Looking for the right words to say, Nora finally spoke, "Is there anything that stood out? "

"Uh, I don't think so. He was wearing some beige work boots, grey sweatpants, and a black hoodie. I didn't get a good look at his face. It was nighttime and there wasn't good lighting. Plus, he had his hoodie on, so I couldn't see his face even if I wanted to," I responded.

"Hm, that doesn't really give us much to work with. You can't really say that something about that person seemed familiar if they're wearing a basic outfit like that. It can be anyone, or rather someone who has a blue-collar job. What made you think that you had seen him before?"

"Well, I think he said something about his car not working." As soon as had I said this, I saw that a lightbulb had gone off in Nora's brain. It was exactly like was one of those 'aha!' moments that you see people have on TV.

"Did you see his car anywhere? Did he point to it or faced towards where it might be? Was his car walking distance? If you saw it, what kind of car was it? Was it a van?" Nora had bombarded me with questions, trying her best to analyze the situation. I admit, her questioning was a bit unexpected.

"Now that you mention it, there weren't any cars around us--at least from what I could see. He didn't seem to have any keys on him either," I replied.

Nora's expressions showed that her visible concerns were increasingly growing. "Y'know, I think that you should walk home with someone. It's not a safe neighborhood where you work. What if something happens?"

"It's fine, Nora. Nothing has happened to me so far. We might just be blowing the whole thing out of proportion." I had tried to show that none of it was fazing me, when in fact, I was terrified at the different possibilities.

Nora paused for a moment, waiting to see if I would say anything else. She eyed me for a bit before speaking, "are you sure you haven't seen him anywhere?"