3 The November Rain!

"No...…!"

She screamed and dashed towards the window.

As she leaned looking down, her heart raced in a desperate search of him. Her eyes tried hard to find him, but the rain along with the wind was making it impossible for her to see anything.

"Darn it!"

She slammed her fist on the window railing and bolted towards the lift lobby. Her fingers kept pressing the down button, while she called and alerted the ground staff of a possible casualty.

She couldn't believe that he just ghosted her like that.

Right under her nose!

Her fingers tapped restlessly on the railing inside the lift, and her eyes were glued to the display, waiting for it to read 'Ground Floor'.

"How is he?" was her first question as she reached the spot under the window. But to her dismay, the ground staff had not found any injured person. Not even within the twenty meters radius.

Puzzled, she looked up at that window. 'How could he?'

"Ma'am, are you sure you saw him jump from the window? Because one cannot walk away jumping from the tenth floor!" asked the ground staff assistant.

Reigning over her anger, she narrowed her lips. "That was the only exit apart from the door. And I was standing next to that bloody door."

"Erm… We will continue searching for him, doctor. You can go inside," suggested the assistant as the rain was lashing hard and so was her temper.

"Just let me know if you find someone like I had described. And Wait! He would have our hospital tag on the wrist."

"Sure, Sure," he assured her.

"OK then!" Throwing one more cursory glance around that area, she walked towards the backdoor entry. Holding the handlebar, she was about to fling the door open, when she saw a familiar yellow-colored wrist tag lying wet on the floor.

Picking it up, she looked at it for a second and then darted towards the basement control room without even worrying that she had been drenched from head to toe.

'Knock Knock'

"Hello? Anyone there?" she knocked impatiently on the glass door, peeking around a column of wall-mounted plastic files lying on the table inside.

'Click''

"Come on in." Came a semi-muffled voice.

Caroline stepped inside the cluttered space and smiled at the sight of the supervisor who hurriedly pulled his leg down from the table. 

There was a distinctive stench of ham that made her stomach churn. Looking at his soiled hand and the Tupperware bowl placed in front of him, she could guess that he was just having his lunch.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you. I'm Dr. Caroline Young, from the -" she attempted to show him her ID card when he interrupted.

"I... I know you are a cardiologist. What brings you here doctor? Should I… Like, get you a towel or something?"

"Erm… No, thanks. I just need a small favor. I need to locate a patient of mine. He is sort of missing!"

"Oh!" he replied casually and quickly wiped his hands with a tissue paper.

"So you want to check video footage right?"

"Yeah!"

He swiveled his chair around and pushed himself towards the monitor panel. "Tenth floor ER room right?"

"Precisely!"

"How much should I rewind back?" he asked, turning back towards her.

"Twenty minutes from now should be OK."

His hands moved swiftly on the keyboard and a few keystrokes later, he turned the monitor towards her, "Here! Camera 23."

She looked at the monitor and saw herself in the frame, pointing her finger at the vital machine, while that man was still lying on the bed.

"Perfect!" she replied, glancing at the supervisor briefly.

"You can use this chair doctor. I am going to wash my hands!"

Caroline just nodded and fast-forwarded the video to the point where she was walking towards the door.

Her throat tightened and her lips parted when she watched him remove the sheet and walk towards the window but suddenly the screen flickered and the next thing she saw was herself turning back alone in that room.

"What the ...?"

She rewound the video back by five seconds, but the screen flickered again at the same point.

"Bloody Hell!" annoyed, she punched the table.

"Erm… Did you get what you wanted, doctor?" He asked timidly.

"No, there was a video glitch in between," she replied with a sour face.

"Ah yes, it happened yesterday for the neonatal wing too."

"I see! Err… Can you help with the ground floor, and backdoor side footage? Right under the ER wing maybe?"

Her voice sounded rushed, so he immediately checked. Had it been any other day, Caroline would have considered the glitch as a coincidence, but not today.

"There is no camera at that point doctor, but one corner camera does have a partial view angle. Will that do?"

Caroline nodded and leaned forward as he slowly turned the footage into rewind.

"There! Stop!"

Looking at the screen, she shook her head in disbelief, but soon a faint smile etched on her face.

"Who are we looking at here?" he asked curiously.

"No one!"

She replied, and walking back to the front table, she requested him to copy both the video footage into her mobile and thanked him for his help before coming out of the control room.

Slowly as she walked toward the lift lobby; her hands and legs were shaky. Leaning on the wall, she opened the second footage while waiting for the lift.

There was a man seen walking in the video, his back facing the camera. He neither limped nor walked unevenly. He halted for a moment and looked up towards the sky before turning in the direction of the ER window just for a second. And then he walked away.

She knew that was him.  A sense of relief prevailed in her, knowing that he was fine. Knowing that he wasn't hurt.

Although the question - 'HOW?' still haunted her.