Pan POV
Nee asked me to go to the nearest mall to buy bed sheets for my room. He is kinda busy, so I forcefully volunteered myself to buy it. He just gave me directions and told me to use Google Maps to find the place. He told me not to ride a taxi. Taxi drivers often drive long cut to charge the passenger higher.
"It would be stupid to ride a taxi, Pan. It is just a 5-minute walk".
However, my sense of direction is not as good as what birds have during migration. The Google map I am using is faulty or shall I say I dunno how to read and use it. This city has a lot of streets unlike in the Beach Town where the streets can lead you the way to your destination.
I walked straight, just straight but the supposedly 5-minute walk Nee said took 30 minutes. I'm still under the heat of the sun. No mall, just colorful signboards of "Room for Rent Male Only".
"I think I am lost," I told to myself.
I tried to call Nee but I cannot reach him. An hour had past and the mall is still unseen. I passed some convenient stores. A bearded man, a few steps away from me, is slowly heading to the post where I am standing. I am a little bit suspicious about his intentions. In my head, this is a typical city scene in a movie. I have this strong feeling that this man, this bearded man, is a snatcher or a robber and he has this evil intention of taking Papa's watch by hook or by crook. I can picture it! He has a machete inside his clothes. But I think a machete is bigger. He has a dagger instead hidden inside his sleeve.
I turned my head left and right. I walked toward a crowd of people crossing the other side of the street. I squeezed myself. I really pressed myself going to the other side of the busy intersection. The fast beating of my heart dramatically stopped and I felt relieved. The throbbing becomes less intense and my breath calms down as I felt the sudden breeze fanning me.
Finally, after ages of walking, I found the hard-to-reach mall! I bought the bedsheets that my busy brother had asked me to buy. But when I attempted to read the label of the item, I noticed that I am no longer wearing my grandfather's wristwatch.
"Oh...Gee😱😱😱😱😱😱!"
Abruptly, I felt that my heart starts to pump too much blood. I can hear that my chest is echoing... pounding abnormally... rapidly pressuring my arteries. My sweat is 'secreting cats and dogs'. The feeling that I am freezingly anxious and trouble is making me hypertensive.
"The watch is lost!" I informed myself.
I cannot think clearly. I am pre-occupied. My tear glands are about to burst fountains of tears but I just hold it to avoid any commotion.
"I lost the watch!!!" 😱
I rushed to our apartment. What happened to me pushed me to take a taxi to the apartment. And to my surprise, it's less than 5 minutes. The driver shook his head. He said I should have walked home. In my mind, I am whining and screaming hysterically 😵. I shouldn't have worn that.
"Oh Myyyyyyyy 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱."
Nee stood at the door. He is holding his phone.
"Where have you been?" Nee asked. "I've been calling you many times and you're not answering!"
"I got lost!... that mall is hard to find!" I reasoned.
"Listen, Andreas, even a 7-year old kid can find that mall!"
"Well, I am not a 7-year old, so I got lost! I'm 19 by the way," I told him foolishly.
"Hahahahhahaha." Nee is sarcastic. " And you ride a taxi? I told you not to..!😡.
Nee would instantly kill me if he knows what happened. The truth is Nee had no idea that Papa gave me his watch. He wasn't present when we went to the beach with my grandparents before I leave. He has no idea though he is familiar with that watch because he wore it one time. Better to keep it and search the whereabouts of the watch myself.
My hands shake and my speech is broken. Everyone becomes insane when they lost something high-priced. Gollum went sick trying to find and get the "precious" back to his possession. So, it's the same thing that is happening to me except the part that it deformed him and twisted him both physically and psychologically. I can still manage myself.
My imagination is making me nuts. It pictures that my grandmother would be brought to the hospital because of a heart attack. My grandfather would be on a coma upon knowing I lost the watch. Nee would hit me and smash my head to the wall and press me on a water flushed bowl blaming everything the misery to me. My brother would no longer acknowledge me as his brother and would desperately kick me out of our premises. And the rain wets me outside while I walk poorly somewhere down the road. The worst thing, if Nee finds out, is that he will probably drag me using his car and force me to puke the watch which I cannot possibly do. Spite and resentment are the feelings.
I have a strong feeling that I can still find the watch. I am anxious that it's lost but I am not anxious that I will never find it. I guess I am trying to fool myself, telling my inner self to stay calm and to never panic. But I am already panicking. I cannot stop praying. I keep on squeezing my hands trying to pop my knuckles but it turns out it's painful 😬😬😵.
I cannot post it at school. Nee will know. I cannot tell my grandparents.
Should I call the police? 😨😨😨.
The night after that, I am still troubled. It's hard to keep it a secret. I cannot sleep well. The watch keeps haunting my thoughts. I have the perception that the man who tailed me when I walked on the street was the one who took it. But that is partly impossible because he never caught me up. Maybe it was when I crossed the busy intersection and someone intentionally plucked the watch from my hand. Or the lock was loosened and I accidentally dropped it somewhere in my route.
I tried to watch a YouTube video but before the video plays, a watch as is shown. "Video will play after the ad". 😫
I tried to read a magazine but the title reads "Watch out for Trends and Brands". 😫
I decided to watch Naruto Shippuden but the episode shows Jiraiya training Naruto using with an hourglass as the timer. 😫
Lastly, Watching Detective Conan crossed my mind but when I surf the website to choose an episode, the thumbnail showed Conan aiming his tranquilizer watch at his uncle, Detective Mori. 😫😫😫
While the world is asleep, my terror hasn't given me consent to rest. The incident kept banging my concentration and my dreams were full of random images of watches, clocks, hourglasses, sundials and Big Ben. I dreamed about Salvador Dali's painting and it woke me up. I guess Freud's interpretation of Dreams won't interpret this because "a watch is just a watch".
😵
Spoiler:
Next Chapter has four parts...