Find Me

I casually drummed my fingers on the arm rest of the waiting room chair. The medical center didn’t look nearly this busy from the outside. Yet here I was. Waiting. It was foolish, thinking I’d be able to get my blood drawn in a convienent fashion. Everybody else thought the same today though. Nurses and Lab techs were frantically trying to make sure everyone was tended. A casual bystander would think there was some sort of pandemic going around by the sheer crowd here. But no. Most of these people, like me, were new students at the local college. Maybe reading my admission letter would have led me on to the mandatory blood test and kept me out of this situation. That’s not how the universe wanted it though, looking back. Glancing up at the clock again for about the twelfth time I just sighed to myself. Then she walked by. She didn’t belong; she looked too young to be here for the mandatory collage blood tests. Barely into high school from the looks of her, well, what I could see from her through her long dark cloak and hood. At the time I didn’t really think much of her on first sight, except for the fact that she dropped a scrap of paper. By the time I’d manage to acquire it she was quite far down the hall. Seeing no sign of any of the nurses looking to help me, I got up and followed her. Down the hall and then to the stairs, then we both stared climbing the stairs. You never realize how many stairs there are in multistory buildings till you climb every single step at a brisk pace. I thought that this climb would never end. Then I opened a door and we were on the roof. And she was on the edge. She was going to jump. “Don’t!” I wasn’t going to let her jump; something about her told me I couldn’t allow it. She turned and looked at me, the hood fallen from her head. First, I noticed her hair, it was white. Not silver. Not some light shade of grey. White, like pure snow. Then I saw her eyes, a strange mix of blue and green, full of terror and something else I couldn’t figure out. We looked stares for a moment then she turned back to looking down. Time seemed to slow down as I watched her step off the edge of the building. “NO!” I screamed, running to the edge of the building. Nothing was there though. No body, no girl, no signs of her escape. Nothing. Then I realized I still had that scrap of paper she had dropped. Frantically I unfolded it. Standing there on the roof of the medical clinic I read over that piece of paper several times. All that was on it was two words, written in frantic hand writing. Two simple words that shocked me to read.

Find Me.
I keep seeing the words, over and over.
Find Me.
Those words, they’re floating around me. I see them everywhere.
Find Me.
There she is, falling. I’m going after her this time.
Find Me.
I’m falling, hurtling toward the unsuspecting traffic.
Then a mix of chirps and buzzes snaps me out of my insanity. I groggily lean over and grab my phone. One message, from my roommate. James is his name. “At the pizza place. Want anything?” The text read. I was about to tell him no, then decided not to. “Sure, grab me a slice or two of whatever looks the best.” Hitting send I casually tossed the phone back towards the corner of my bed. Then I opened up and looked at the paper…again. In the week that followed watching her jump off the roof of the clinic I’ve looked at this paper hundreds of times. Expecting something to happen, the words to change maybe. Maybe even having her showing up. The sound of rain drew my attention to the window. The trails of water trailing down the window, bigger drops eating the smaller as they worked their way down. Stuff like that always interested me as a kid, and watching them now, it was almost calming. Well, at least until something hit the window. It sounded like a bird, a really big bird. Rushing to the window I glanced down only to see a football on the ground and a soaked guy running over to grab it. Sighing a little and shaking my head I walked into the bathroom and splashed some water on my face.
I was going crazy. Legitimately crazy because of this. It was about that time that James came back. Toweling off my head I walked out and grabbed the little box from James, opening it and taking a bite from my pizza. The pizza and talking to James about surviving our first weeks of college helped me forget about what happened for a while. At least, I was starting to forget. Then I saw her walk by the window.

It was her. I knew it was her. She was wearing the exact same cloak as before. To say that I ran out of the dorm would be an understatement. I was sprinting. James was saying something but I didn’t hear him. I think I heard the sound of a splat on the way out the door of my pizza on the floor as well, still not caring. I had found the mystery girl. I chased her through the rain almost all the way across campus. Water was getting into my eyes and my hair was dripping fairly consistently by the time I caught her. Something was stranger yet though. Despite the constant downpour of rain. She was dry. As she turned to face me she lowered her hood. She had the same look of terror as she had last time. Perhaps somewhat calmed, but she was still scared.
“Who…Who are you?” She said in a very quiet voice that had some strength behind it. “Are you one of them?” She asked, looking around, her hair dry even as water was landing on her head. It just sort of…vanished.
“I found the note. I was the one on the roof. You jumped…And then vanished.” She seemed to sigh relief when she learned who I was. I heard shouting coming from some other part of campus. She gasped and stepped back.
“I can’t stay. They’re coming. Here.” She shoved something into my hand and then vanished. Not like a slow fading affair. It was instant. One second she was there, the next she wasn’t. There was a puddle where she was standing though, the water that didn’t land on her. I shoved the paper in my pocket and headed back toward my room. Whoever was yelling wasn’t yelling anymore and I walked in. James asked where I went. I just ignored him and went into the bathroom. I pulled out what she handed me, another note. This one was longer and less cryptic. It was a command though.

Meet me at the Diner down town. 3PM. Tommorrow.

The next morning came and I looked at the clock, it was only 11 in the morning and I was ready to head into town. I forced myself to wait though, till at least two in the afternoon. My phone rang at about noon. It was my mother. Part of me wanted to not answer. How was I supposed to act normal when in reality I may very well be going insane? Yet there was another part of me that was already forcing my hand towards the phone. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to hear that familiar voice in my ear. The part of my mind hoping that perhaps my own mother would be able to snap me out of whatever fog I was in and bring me back to reality. Before either side can argue their case in my mind, I hit the answer button and hold the phone to my ear. “Hi mom…” I said instinctively, a smile creeping its way across my face.
“Oh, good. I wasn’t sure if you were in class.” She said, sounding flustered. Not in the sense of being stressed about something really terrible, like mountains of work, or something wrong at home. She was flustered in the sense that her only son was at college.
“Mom, it’s Saturday. Check your calendar.” I say, chuckling to myself a little. I swear I can hear the paper shuffling of her flipping through the little calendar book she has with her no matter where she goes. Then she began to drone on and on.
“Oh. That it is. Well, I just wanted to make sure everything was ok and…”
“Mom…”
“And too check and see if you were doing alright in classes…”
“Mom.”
“And to see if you needed anything…”
“MOM!” I shouted. I couldn’t recall ever yelling at my mother, she wasn’t really talking to me though. She was talking to herself thinking she was trying to help me. She gasps audibly on the other end of the line. “Mom…I’m fine. Really.” I said, trying to calm her. I know what’s coming. She hands the phone to my dad.
“Son.”
“Dad.”
“You really alright son?” He asks me, I answer with a yes. “Alright then. Just know you can call if you ever need anything. You didn’t have to yell at your mom like that though.”
“I know. Bye dad.” I say, hanging up the phone. I glance back at the clock. It was still only 12:30 and the diner the note said I would meet her at was only a few blocks away. Staying in the dorm just wasn’t working. I stuff my phone into my pocket and leave the room. Heading down the side walk towards that diner.

I’d walked around the block three, maybe four times. I wasn’t keeping count, just killing time. After another round it was about quarter to three and I finally went into the diner. She wasn’t there so I took a seat at a booth visible from the door, thinking she’d use it. What was I thinking, expecting this girl to use the door?
“Hello.” She said, appearing next to me. I jumped and made some kind of noise in my seat, then stopped myself to not draw attention to myself. But as I looked around, none of the other diner goers even turned to look at what was going on. “They won’t notice us. It’s just the two of us.” She said, staring forward. “We’re safe to speak.”
I sit there and stare for a moment, not sure what to say. I blinked and shook my head, my mind finally catching up with events. “Ok…Let’s start with an easy question. Who are you? What’s your name.”
She turned to me, perplexed. “My…Name?” She said, as if the concept was alien to her. “They…they didn’t give me a name. They just addressed me by my number.” She rolled up the left sleeve of her cloak showing a tattoo of a couple numbers. “338.” She said to herself, running her hand across it. Once again I was unable to think of anything to say. Then she looked up again, zoning out some. “Gabrielle…” The name hung in the air for a second, letting it sink in, both for her and for me.
“Is that your name then? Gabrielle?” I asked her, putting my hand on her shoulder. She was physical now. I didn’t pass through her. She looked at me and nodded. “Well Gabrielle. Can you tell me anything else? What’s going on, why you can do the things you do?”
She was about to tell me something. I was about to start getting answers. Then two men dressed in strange black outfits walked into the diner, just as unnoticed as her and I. “Sorry.” She said, grabbing my arm. Then I blacked out.