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Chapter I, Page 1

The anonymous, soot-tainted walls and dampened sound of smashing raindrops left the room with an eerie, monochrome atmosphere. Jared sighed where he stood hunched over by the window, eyes wandering out into the darkness rid of purpose.

A sudden flash of lightning lit the cityscape below, however his gray eyes fixed on something else. The unfamiliar face that for a split second reflected in the glass made him flinch. It was a tired face, lined and scarred not by age as much as cruel and unfair twists of fate. His hand instinctively moved to his cheek, where it lingered for a moment before the fingers start spreading, ultimately reaching and covering his eyes.

Welcoming the darkness his mind went back in time yet again, desperate to clarify what had occurred. Earlier, he had burst through the door gasping for breath, with a dry taste of blood in the back of his mouth. He had obviously been running as if his very life had been on the line. But why?

“Damn it! Why can’t I remember?!” he let out through clenched teeth.

A deep breath rushed oxygen to his brain. This was not the first time he had suffered a lapse of memory. Naturally the events had always disturbed him – frightened him even. Never before though had he had this eerie feeling of something being simply… wrong.

The last thing he remembered was bringing a set of documents to the clerks of the office at block C. He looked at his watch and the uneasiness grew stronger. “More than five hours ago…”

A sudden lound sound ripped through the silence in the apartment. Jared spun around, heart racing. Somebody was banging heavily on the door.

Written 2011/07/24 by Fredrik Karlström of cbsmth.se.
Distributed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA Licence.