Edwin Davis, no matter how kind he was or eager to offer me help, was still a man who believed in what was logical and reasonable. My claims of seeing the memories of a dead man were anything but.
Before I could make an even greater fool of myself, I tried to take my words back and brush them off. “I apologise, forget what I just said-”
“No, wait,” he said, cutting me off. His expression had turned serious. “Are you certain that’s what you saw?”
I hesitated for a second before nodding. Was he actually taking my words seriously, or just trying to verify that I’d indeed lost my mind?
“I am.”
“I see.” A myriad of thoughts seemed to run through his head as he tried to comprehend the situation. “Has this sort of thing happened before?”
“No, this was the first time.”
While I certainly didn’t go about touching corpses as a hobby, it was inevitable during the war. But despite those instances, I’d never experienced anything like that.
“That’s strange if it just began for no reason,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Do you think it’s just limited to corpses?”
“Pardon?”
I narrowed my eyes at him when he suddenly extended his hand out towards me, looking at me expectantly.
“Well let’s test out if it only applies to dead bodies then.”
He couldn’t be serious, surely?
But that look on his face told me that he was. I eyed him sceptically for a few moments before I reluctantly bought my fingers towards his outstretched hand. I hesitated again before touching it. There were a few moments of silence as we both waited for something to happen.
“Anything?”
“No.”
He sighed, though I was unsure if it was out of relief or disappointment. “I guess I should be happy you didn’t see anything then.”
He pulled his hand back and crossed his arms together as he returned to thinking.
“I’d dismissed the whole regeneration thing as something that might’ve been explainable by science,” he said, disbelief slowly growing in his tone. “But seeing someone’s memories like this is a complete fantasy.”
Of course, he didn’t believe me. No one would. I clearly had too much faith in his trust in me. That was what I thought until me. That was what I thought before he spoke again:
“But, I know you’re not the type to lie about this sort of thing.”
My eyes widened. Did he actually believe me? He had every right not to considering he wasn’t wrong about this essentially defying the limits of reality. But, for whatever foolish reason in his mind, he was willing to trust my words without any real evidence.
“Director, if those were his memories, then that confirms the body does belong to Mrs Wright’s son.”
Davis sighed again. “While that may be true, I don’t think that fact would change her mind at this point.”
“Why not?”
“Because if someone desperately wanted to believe in something, no amount of evidence is going to change their mind that easily.”
“So there is nothing we can do?”
“All we can do is wait as that woman grieves.”
“I see.”
I was unsure why I felt a tinge of disappointment over an affair that had little to concern me. But this matter proved more complicated than I initially assumed. And even if the situation couldn’t be resolved, there was still something that irked me with the vividness and feelings I experienced in those memories.
It was far too similar to the dream I’d been having of late. Uncomfortably so. I could only assume that seeing the memories of Anthony Wright and my reoccurring dreams of a certain man wasn’t a coincidence. It had to be linked.
But this was something I would need to confirm for myself. I had to know for certain if those memories really did hold any truth to them and if I was really able to see the memories of a dead man or if I was just going mad. I wasn’t quite sure which was the worst option.
“Director, can I ask for a favour?”
Davis practically did a mental double-take at my words. I hadn’t asked him for anything yet despite his insistence that I could ask for anything at all, so he was beaming at my request.
“Of course. What is it?”
“Would you let me take the day off?”
—
Davis was more than happy to let me have the rest of the day off to rest, especially after my fainting episode. However, he was quickly disappointed when I told him I wanted to go into the city instead of staying in bed. Though fortunately, he didn’t ask why and only requested that I didn’t return too late.
I made my way further into the city and realised just how much more lively the streets were during the day. Dozens of people walked by and I was conscious not to bump into anyone this time.
There was only one destination I had in mind. But as I looked around, trying to see if there were any defining landmarks I recognised from that man’s memories, I struggled to see any.
Those memories came in flashes and didn’t detail his entire life, only a few notable moments that did little to assist my search. But, I continued anyway, skimming across every building around me.
“Sulking again, are we?”
A familiar voice reached my ears. I immediately regretted turning around as my eyes met those of a certain blonde-haired man. Fantastic. His hair and attire were equally just as well kept as the previous night, though he was wearing a different coloured suit. There was a hint of a smile on his face, though just as polite and restrained as the one he wore the night before.
Either way, he was the last person I expected to see.
“I thought you said it wasn’t a habit of yours to talk to strangers on the street,” I said, my eyes drifting towards the moving word. I wondered if I'd be able to lose him if I ran into it.
At the very least, hopefully, he wouldn’t recognise me now that we both were in broad daylight. And besides, even if he didn’t, there was no need to maintain conversations or pleasantries with him, unlike the staff at the funeral home.
“You offend me. I would say a woman I spent a couple of hours with last night wouldn’t be a complete stranger,” he argued, a playfulness seeping into his tone. “At least an acquaintance, I would say.”
“Is there something you wanted?” I asked him bluntly, uninterested in his overly sociable tendencies.
“My apologies, I saw you in the crowd looking all lost and couldn’t help but approach.”
“So you’re intention was to offer help?”
“Well only if you asked, Otherwise, I just wanted a closer view of you struggling,” he said which made me give him a deadpan look. But he just chuckled at that. “I’m only kidding. But really, were you looking for something?”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Well I didn't need to offer my help either, and yet here I am.”
I gave him another look. I wasn’t interested in indulging in this man for longer than he was forcing me to. “I‘m trying to find someone’s residence.”
“Do you have their address?”
“No.”
He blinked a few times, staring at me with blank eyes. “Well, that’s certainly going to make it more difficult.”
He wasn’t wrong. I was relying entirely on that man’s memory. It wasn’t the most efficient method, but it was what I had. I’d planned on doing a brute force search across the city. Since the man in front of me clearly wasn’t going to be of any help, I ignored him and continued to look around.
“Do you know at least roughly where it is?” he asked, his eyes following mine but not seeming entirely sure what he was looking for.
“Vaguely,” I said before facing him again, trying to recall the specific details of that memory. However, if those visions were just images conjured up by my mind, this whole pursuit would’ve been useless. “It should be down the street of a train station.”
“The train station?” he repeated, putting a finger to his chin as he looked away. “That’s not too far from here. It’s only a few streets down that way,”
He pointed behind me, towards one of the roads at an intersection. I glanced over at it before turning back and eyeing him sceptically.
“Are you sure?”
“Certainly, I’ve been there a number of times-”
“I see, thank you,” I said quickly. Without hesitating, I began to walk in that direction.
“Hold on-”
But before he could say anything else, I’d already disappeared back into the crowd.
—
“She just left.”
The man was left feeling rather abandoned. His eyes lingered on the crowd for a few moments before he sighed. He began to walk back towards a car parked along the side of the road. As he entered the back, another man sitting in the driver seat eyed him through the rear-view mirror.
“Mister Callisto, was there a reason you asked to stop?”
He shook his head, his expression becoming more stoic and reserved as he eased into his seat. “I apologise. I just got distracted momentarily.”
The man's eyes lingered on him, his eyebrows furrowing. “Was that woman important?”
The blue-eyed man stared at him for a moment before shaking his head.
“No, not particularly. It just seemed like she needed some help.”
“I see. Would you like me to continue driving to the office then?”
“Yes, please do that.”
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