"Or is there something you want me to do for you?"
Just as Noah said that the dead man started to move his right hand and he stabbed his hand inside his chest, the scene was as gruesome as one can imagine but this wasn't the reality but a nightmare.
After stabbing himself, a man pulls out his hand from his chest, he stretches out his hand in front of Noah revealing the same broken key that he had in his palm right before he came to this nightmare.
'Why is he showing me this broken key?'
"Does he want me to take the key from his hand?"
Few seconds later everything starts to blur and fade away like it was just a bad nightmare.
Noah opens his eyes in the real world and human emotions return to his eyes.
Noah's breath came in ragged gasps as he stood in the cold, dark night. His hand still trembled from the weight of the nightmare, the image of the dead man's gruesome act burned into his mind.
"This damn broken key is the reason behind this nightmare, it's better to throw this broken key away." With all his strength Noah threw the broken key as far as possible, in night darkness Noah couldn't see where the broken key was thrown nor he cared about it. The broken key had vanished into the shadows swallowed by the night but despite throwing it away an unsettling unease lingered in his chest.
Noah returns to his bed to sleep but whenever he closes his eyes the same scene keeps repeating over and over. Noah rubbed his temples, trying to clear his thoughts, but the more he tried to push the memory away.
This accident and nightmare are connected with each other not like trauma or PTSD but something out of the human realm.
'This all seems like a plot from horror novels. Is he going to appear right in front of me when I'm not paying attention or will he appear lying on the same bed beside me or is he hiding under my bed?'
Noah built up his courage and slowly turned around to look but there was no-one sleeping with him on bed.
Noah slowly turned back again, having his back against the wall, in this position he could see Dáithí who was sleeping not far from him.
Even though Noah thought that a ghost might be under the bed but he doesn't have courage to check it out, he doesn't want to set his foot out of his bed.
If that man ghost appears here, he won't hesitate to scream out Dáithí and Lucas' name for help.
Just like this night ends and morning comes, Dáithí wake up in the morning at 7:15 am. He had a really good sleep last night, Dáithí sat on his bed and yawned.
Dáithí got up from his bed and stretched his body and said what he usually said all the time in morning after waking up, " Good morning Noah."
"Wake.... Fuck." Dáithí opens his eyes and sees Noah sitting on his bed in a tuck position with his eyes wide open staring in the direction of Dáithí.
Dáithí blinked a few times, trying to shake off the remnants of sleep as he stared at Noah. The usual morning fog that clouded his mind dissipated quickly, replaced by a creepy uneasy feeling. Noah looked like a man who hadn't slept all night dark circles etched beneath his wide unblinking eyes, his hair are wild mess but it wasn't just his appearance that unnerved Dáithí; it was the way Noah sat hunched over in a tense almost unnatural position staring at him as if he was seeing something beyond the room.
"Noah?" Dáithí's voice was cautious, his earlier morning cheer evaporating. "You okay, man?"
Noah didn't respond. He remained in that rigid position, his eyes locked on Dáithí, but it was as if he wasn't really seeing him like he was lost in some far-off place.
Dáithí's heart began to race as he saw him staying awake all night like when they completed their first assignment in just one night but Noah didn't look so bad as he does now. He quickly moved closer, reaching out to shake Noah's shoulder gently. "Hey, Noah, snap out of it!"
At the touch, Noah flinched, his whole body jerking as if he had been shocked back to reality. His eyes blinked rapidly, finally focusing on Dáithí but the look in them was haunted and distant, "I can't forget about what happened yesterday."
"Dáithí…" Noah's voice was hoarse, a whisper more than anything.
Noah looks like a ghost as he has big dark circles around his eyes and dishevelled hair and the way he sat on his bed and looked at Dáithí.
Dáithí almost fell to the floor as he just saw a ghost.
"You just scared the shit out of me bro and don't worry it would take you two or three days to forget about everything just relax. It seems you didn't sleep at night?"
"Huh?" Noah failed to hear Dáithí words as he was distracted in his own thoughts.
Seeing this Dáithí just shook his head and said, "Forget it, just wash your face first Noah, you look like a drug addict old woman."
"No, I don't have much strength in me to walk Dáithí." Noah said he felt really weak and exhausted after staying awake all night in fear.
"Is that so if you don't have strength to walk, I can always drag you out of your bed."
Dáithí holds both of Noah's hands and starts to pull him out of his bed.
"Stop it, you idiot. I don't want to get out of my bed nor do I want to go anywhere." Noah said with a weak and resisting voice.
Dáithí sighed and looked at Noah with sympathy, "Noah, we understand that what happened was something that you wouldn't be able to recover from soon but keep yourself together, we were there to see it with our own eyes the whole incident too."
"Once a wise man said, life is all about keeping your shit together, even when you shit in your pants."
"Dáithí it's not like what you think, it's different. I had a nightmare last night and it was really creepy and weird."
"Nightmare felt more real, like it wasn't even a dream but reality."
Dáithí frowned and sighed, "We will talk about this later, first go and get clean and fresh."
Few minutes later Noah, Lucas and Dáithí walked out of their flat to go to their university as they stood at their apartment main gate. Three of them notice a large amount of vultures flying in the sky.
"I never knew this city has lots of vultures." Dáithí said while looking at the sky.
"Sometimes we get special visits I guess." Lucas said while laughing and they started to walk towards the nearest bus stop two blocks away from here but three of them failed to notice large amounts of feathers inside the garden of the residential house.
Even if they saw they won't be able to do anything as small maggots are crawling on the feathers.
..........
Inside the restaurant three of them are eating beef jerky and ham burger.
"This place sells the best beef jerky and ham burger."
"I agree with you this time Lucas but they also gave you a discount on everything unlike you we don't have a discount coupon." I. Dáithí remarks Lucas just didn't say anything.
"Noah, why are you silent, you don't like this beef jerky or hamburger from this restaurant?" Lucas asks as Noah seems bit down and weak in both physically and mentally and he is worried about his friend's condition.
"Our Noah is becoming a delusional person, Lucas."
"What the hell are you talking about Dáithí." Lucas said.
"It's nothing Lucas, it's just that I had a really weird nightmare at night, everything felt so real inside the dream and the people who died in the incident keep on appearing in front of my eyes." Noah said with fear and nervousness.
"After two or three days it would be fine Noah, just take it a bit easy on you." Lucas said to make Noah feel good.
'It's not that simple Lucas and Dáithí, I hope you guys can understand this at the same time I don't want you guys to experience this either.'
After filling up their empty belly they get on the metro to go to their university. Their rented flat is a bit far away from their university but they also have a low rent price.
Noah asked one question that has been in his mind since yesterday, "Dáithí why you took me to the old town yesterday."
Dáithí lowered his head when he heard this, "Few days ago I was just using social media and I saw this man's paranormal investigation agency advertisement. I thought talking to him might help you in your horror stories writing competition that you were talking about with us a month ago."
"Paranormal investigation agency people have lots of experience in this field and have better grasp over horror stories related stuff and genre and this man had good reviews on his site."
"I thought with his help, we can go to one of the haunted sites in the city or simply learn from his experience for writing stories and this might help you with writing your horror novel."
Noah looked at Dáithí as he knew now that he just wanted to help him with his horror novel that he had for sometimes couldn't find any inspiration for any good plot and storyline.
"Next time you see something like this, inform me first before taking a trip anywhere."
"Sure, Noah." Dáithí nodded his head in agreement.
"You are not mad at me Noah?" Dáithí asked, looking at Noah who was sitting at the window seat in the metro.
"Why would I be, it wasn't your Intentions to get us in trouble, what happened was just something no-one thought about and It was an unfortunate accident."
"Thanks Noah." Dáithí felt happy that Noah didn't blame him for yesterday's uneventful experience.
"You don't have to say that Dáithí." Dáithí
"Yesterday when that drunk man said his brother committed suicide year ago I was really shocked cause the thing is that paranormal investigation agency post was 6 months old."
"Someone is using that paranormal investigation agency for their benefit."
"There's many recent posts and pics from the haunted place they visited but a drunk man said after his brother's death the agency ceased to exist."
Noah and Lucas quietly listen to Dáithí words, something really gives them off feeling about this but it wasn't their problem or they want to get caught in some other people's mess.
Whatever is happening in the paranormal investigation agency that Dáithí saw isn't something they should worry about but for some reason Noah feels like both the paranormal investigation agency and train accident are connected to each other but Noah doesn't want to talk about this to Lucas and Dáithí as they wouldn't believe him nor trust his gut feeling.
But still Noah is happy that what Dáithí did was to help him achieve his dream.
Noah looked out the window looking at high rise buildings, tall towers, skyscrapers and beautiful parks and lakes.
As Noah was looking out at the beautiful view of the city, suddenly one of the shops in the distance exploded.
Explosion was quite big vibration can be felt on metro too, everyone in coach get one the window see the explosion, small white mushroom raise in the open sky.
"Ahhhhhhh."
Few people screamed out in fear seeing this explosion, People in the metro started to talk about the explosion.
"Do you think this might be the work of a terrorist organization?" One old man asked the people standing next to him.
"Might be the case. There's no other possibilities besides this it must be working of those damn IZC36."
"You really think this is the work of IZC36 bastards?"
"Of course it's them who else would do this."
"What if that building explodes because of underground gas leaking."
People were talking and arguing all around him , Noah was getting squeezed between people and the metro window.
Lucas grabbed Noah's hand and pulled him out of the crowd.
"That was scary, suddenly that building just exploded like this." Dáithí said.
"I hope not many people die today like yesterday." Lucas said as he still vividly remember whole thing how in just a matter of seconds all those people died without even being able to ask for help.
Noah looked at the rising smoke cloud from the exploded building.
"Yeah, something big is going on here in this city and we don't know anything about it yet."