1 Re/turn

Noah. 21 years old. Thick dark hair. He normally wears a black hooded sweatshirt with red details. He has a tattoo on his right wrist with abstract details resembling a bracelet.

April 1, 2009. Missing.

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July 20th, 2008. Noah has been brought to the police station to have his interrogation, this was determined by the authorities in order to find clues about what happened on the 12th, according to the report, Noah was found at the scene trying to help on several occasions.

A very cold room, illuminated only by a small light bulb fixed just above the small table found in the center of the room. A man enters, who by his physique appears to be about 40 years old, bringing a hat adding the little light in the room, it is not possible to see his appearance.

"How do you do Noah, I'm Detective Wayne. He reaches his hand towards Noah giving a polite wave. "I hear your situation with the 12th of July is somewhat complicated." He tilts his head slightly making his gaze fixed on Noah.

"I'd rather not remember what happened." Noah's face shows sadness, disappointment and even disgust for himself.

He detective lets out a small sigh. "Okay, I understand, I know it can be hard to tell, but we need information, anything you tell us is fine, and then we'll let you go."

"It's okay, I know I have no choice." Even he was surprised at how easily he was convinced. "It all started happening on July 11."

July 11, 2008.

I seem to be one of those people who are always alone, I don't like to be in crowds much, I prefer to take my time alone, however, despite being like that, I had a girlfriend, it was 6:30 in the evening, the 2 of us sitting on a hill on the grass everything seemed so perfect and beautiful, the wind caressed our faces and in the background was a beautiful sunset, never in my life had I seen one like that, what more could I ask for.

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"Hey Noah." He directs his gaze straight into Noah's eyes as he moves a little closer.

"Um... yeah, tell me." Noah gets nervous as she is very close to him, a girl about his own age, curly brown hair that reaches long down to his neck, along with her honey colored eyes, leave him stunned. He positions himself so close that he manages to perceive the smell of her perfume, just he thinks she is going to kiss him, he swallows saliva and closes his eyes waiting for it to come true.

"I think... That we should finish."

"Huh?..." A sound as if a crystal glass has broken sounds, it was Noah's heart, and with a worried face he tells her. "But... Marlene, why do you want to end it, did I do something wrong?"

Marlene arranges herself so that she can see Noah's face directly. "No, it's not that you did something wrong, I just... I feel like it's not the same anymore, we could give each other some time, and think about it, I don't know."

Noah annoyed stands up. "No, I don't want to hear your excuses, I'm leaving." He picks up his coat that he was sitting on, and starts to leave the place.

Marlene yells at him. "Noah!!!, you don't have to get like that, don't leave." However, her shouts were in vain, he didn't pay her a single bit of attention.

--------

That was the first time I felt a betrayal like never before in my life, after that, with nothing left to wait for, I headed towards my apartment, in that time lapse it got dark, my apartment was a bit far away from that place.

While I was on my way I heard a roar, I turned my eyes towards the sky, and I saw a bunch of fireworks in the distance.

--------

As he makes a groaning sound, Noah still just after breaking up with Marlene, thinks of her. -I wish I could be enjoying the fireworks with her right now-.

He starts to climb a large firework, when he sees it he is surprised by its large size, but what's wrong, it doesn't explode, it's going up too high, "This isn't normal anymore is it, it's taking too long". It goes up and up, until the moment it manages to overcome the first cloud it finds, it creates an explosion of exorbitant magnitude and a white flash illuminates the entire city.

Noah is stunned with that firework, turns to look around. "How... how impressive, even at this distance I can see the whole road perfectly, as if it were daytime."

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At the moment I saw that firework, I never thought that would be the beginning of my problems, after its glow was over, I continued on my way. I arrived home, I remember that the first thing I did was to go straight to bed, I felt horrible, my heart could not stand what had happened. In the middle of moaning, I ended up falling asleep.

"Going back... that firework you saw, are you sure it really existed?" Noah's words don't seem to convince the Wayne much, for the moment, however, he makes notes in a small notebook they have in their hand.

"Yes, I'm sure, why the question?". It creates a notch of displeasure on his face.

The detective stops writing. "A, right... They didn't tell you that during the hospital visits." Wayne takes with his right hand a glass of water that was on the interrogation table. He takes some water to wet his throat and continues. "Apparently..." He sighs. "You were the only one to have seen that strange firework."

His face shows that the detective's words surprised him. "But if it was gigantic, it's impossible that at least one other person besides me didn't see it."

"According to the testimonies that's the way things are" He moves back to the table to keep his gaze fixed on Noah. "But that's not what we're talking about here, go on, we don't have all day."

What happened next, well... I can only describe it as bizarre.

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July 12, 2008.

*Beep beep*. The alarm goes off.

He stretches his arm trying to stop it as it annoys him, since he slept so little.

After lamenting all night, he finds himself awake, a little disoriented, but not worried, he gets up and goes to the calendar to change the day, replacing the 11th with the 12th, then walks to the kitchen to have breakfast. As he prepares breakfast, he turns on the television to the news channel.

"We are informed that the route 3 train had an accident in the early hours of today, so far 38 deaths and 52 injured have been confirmed, we are trying to..."

-There were indeed many victims-. He thinks as he takes a sip from his coffee cup.

His cell phone vibrates. It's a message from his friend Derek, a guy who always has a cheerful and positive attitude. He's about her height, his hair is curly and currently dyed a faded orange color.

He picks up his cell phone and on his screen it says "Hi! Noah, I'm on my way to your house, I bought a bag of cookies I found on the way" *Derek has sent a picture*. The picture shows him together with the bag of cookies and showing a big smile.

"What!" He turns his head towards the clock next to the fridge, the clock reads 10:32 am. "I forgot, I was supposed to go to the movies with Derek today, he should be here soon." She sighs. "Well, at least it'll help me forget about Marlene." Deceiving himself, he convinces himself to change his attitude. He finishes his breakfast just before Derek arrived.

*Ding dong*. The doorbell rings. "I'll be right there." *Ding dong* rings again. Noah yells. "I said I'm coming!". It rings again consecutively, non-stop, until he opens the door.

"Bonjour Noah" with a cheerful greeting he meets his friend.

"I told you not to ring the doorbell so many times" He leaves his apartment and locks it.

"Don't be bitter, I've always said you need a little more encouragement in life, and here I am to give it to you."

As they make their way to the movies they talk about unimportant things, crossing street after street, until they reach an intersection that divided into three roads. In the background they manage to hear sirens, and right in the middle, in front of the main building, is a crowd of people.

"Hey, do you know what must have happened?"

"No, when I walked by there was nothing here, I just bought the cookies and left."

As they approach where the people are, sirens can be heard closer and closer.

"I'll go see what happened, you wait here for me."

Noah tries to squeeze through the crowd, but as they are so crowded he pushes anyone nearby. As he clears the way, he is shocked, in the reflection of his eyes the image in front of him remains impregnated, there was a dead person among a large pool of blood, his face was unrecognizable, apparently it was a suicide, he jumped from the building right in front of him.

Noah had never seen such a grotesque image. With his two hands he covers his mouth trying not to vomit, and runs out of the crowd. When he comes out, he can't hold it in any longer and vomits. Derek seeing him, gets worried and goes right away to help him.

"Hey Noah, what happened in there?"

"U... Suicide." He tries to catch his breath, but still feels dizzy.

"Hey, don't joke about that."

"Do I look like I'm..."

A car passes by at a high speed next to him, the people on top of it bring guns, they are shooting, who are they shooting at. Four cars after them appear behind them, it's a chase.

Derek grabs Noah's arm to pull him out of there running into the crowd, the cars can almost graze them. But... The first car is firing, one of those bullets hits right into one of the vehicles further back killing the driver of one, and damaging the left tire. From one moment to the next the car overturns.

Closer and closer, so close that you can see the car in the reflection of Noah's eye. -Am I going to die?

Noah, Derek, and the people standing nearby are crushed by the overturned car leaving the street and the surrounding walls red....

___

*Beep beep beep beep*

Noah wakes up sweating and startled, making a sound as if he had stopped breathing for a long time, the impression made him sit up with a jerk, as if it had been a nightmare.

*Beep beep*. The alarm is sounding. He stretches out his hand so he can stop it.

"Was it.... Was it a dream?" After calming down a bit, he gets out of bed and heads for his calendar, again it's on 11, he tears it off to change the day.

Date: July 12th.

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