For the following week, Oluo had done exactly as he had promised. The two treated each other more as newly found lovers, exploring their relationship slowly as if they were just dating. It was thrilling, and Petra enjoyed every second she spent with Oluo. The two of them had traveled through the stalls on main street and explored the public visiting areas which had left the two breathless with laughter.

Petra still refused to ask Oluo of their past, and the man, in turn, didn't bring it up. She didn't want their new found relationship to end, and the past was best meant to be forgotten. The accident, the amnesia, nothing mattered now. Until Petra went to work on the second week.

Petra had been bringing files up to her desk as it held information on a recently newly administered resident that had just registered for a transfer. They had asked for a residence home close by, but that was proving more difficult than she had originally thought as they poor resident had been turned down by multiple places. With a heavy sigh and a heavy heart, Petra was prepping herself to tell the client of the bad news.

She was walking down the hallway, the folder held loosely in one hand as she also held a cup of coffee that was distributed freely from the lounge in the other. Although it was far from her preference of tea, it was the only option compared to their free tea bags. It was then that she saw a flash of green in the corner of her eye causing her to startle and stop in surprise.

Standing in the middle of the hallway was a young boy that couldn't possible be older than eight. The boy had startling bright green eyes that had immediately attracted Petra's attention. The young child was clearly lost as his large eyes stared back and forth along the hallway, searching for something. It was quite adorable to be honest, but Petra couldn't understand what a child was doing alone in a hallway on the eighth floor no less. The eighth floor was filled with the most sick clients and was highly dangerous if the boy ended up finding himself near a contagious patient.

"Excuse me," Petra called out as she leaned down to see the boy more clearly, "are you lost?" The boy's eyes widened in shock as if he had not expected her to notice him. He continued to stare at her for a long moment, eyes still in the same state of perplexed shock until he shouted out happily, "You're okay!"

Petra blinked back her surprise. "What?" The boy continued, oblivious to her surprise. "I was so worried when you wouldn't wake up, but I'm so glad your okay now!"

"Wait … ," Petra spoke slowly before dropping her coffee and the files onto the floor, her hands suddenly grabbing the child's shoulders as her eyes widened in horror. She barely noticed the boy's almost unnoticeable flinch at her sudden contact. "It was you!" she almost shouted at him.

"Your the boy who was with me the day of the accident."

The boy stared at her for a second before his eyes fell to the floor and he shuffled his feet against the ground. "I heard the doctors say you had amnesia, but I had hoped … I'm so sorry … It's all my fault … ," he spoke sadly as his tiny fists began to clench against his side. "It was my fault you were hurt."

What? Petra had remembered hearing the boy crying out to her. At the time, she had been in too much pain and exhaustion to attempt to comfort the boy, but she had certainly remembered him trying to wake her and screaming at her. But she didn't remember what had happened before that event. Was she saving him? But when she had asked Oluo what had happened, he had told her that there was no one with her, and Petra did not think he was simply lying. But now she had actual proof that there was someone with her, but that didn't add up. What was going on?

"Ma'am, are you okay?" the boy asked which shook Petra out of her thoughts. "Yes," Petra replied with a firm shake of her head. Her first responsibility was to make sure the boy found his guardian and then she could ask his parents to hopefully clear up any confusions. "What's your name?" Petra asked the boy. The boy immediately let out a beaming smile. "My name's Eren! What's yours miss?" "I'm Petra," she responded quickly. "We should find your parents, okay? Do you know where you last saw them?"

Eren, who had been holding onto Petra's hand, immediately let go and began to back away. Petra looked down at the young boy in surprise as Eren continued to shift backwards, and when she had reached out to grab his hand, he had immediately flinched and avoided her. "What's wrong?" Petra asked worriedly. She once again stooped down in hopes of looking less intimidating to the other, but this did little to ease Eren's fear.

"Petra," Eren spoke softly. "You must know that-"

"Petra? What are you doing on the floor?" Mina called out. The women walking around the bend and looking at Petra in surprise, but upon seeing the file and styrofoam cup on the ground, began to panic. "Oh no! You didn't fall and hurt yourself did you? Are you alright, can you stand?" she asked worriedly.

"Umm, I'm fine," Petra replied while standing up and dusting herself off. "I'm just helping Eren find his parents."

Mina tilted her head in surprise. "Eren, who's Eren?" Petra stared at Mina in surprise before pushing the young boy slightly in front of her and introducing the boy to her co-worker. Mina, however, did not look down at Eren or even glance at the boy. Instead she reached out to Petra and placed the back of her hand on Peta's forehead. "Did you hit your head? Are you ill?" she asked.

"What? I'm fine," Petra declared firmly while staring at Eren in confusion. Was Mina jesting her? While Petra continued to try to persuade Mina that she was fine, Eren decided to speak up, but Mina did not react upon hearing the young boy speak.

"Petra, you are the only person in the whole world who can see me," Eren spoke calmly as Petra stared at the young boy in shock. "Petra?" Mina called when she received no answer from the former. What? What was going on? Petra could see the world beginning to blur and the ground starting to sway beneath her feet. What did Eren mean? Could Mina not see him standing right in front of her? But how … ? "Petra!" Mina shouted, but Petra couldn't hear anything anymore as the whole world faded to black.

000

"Petra, can you drop this off at the main desk before you leave?" Mina called out from her office while waving a folder in front of Petra's face. Petra turned around after putting on her coat, preparing to meet the rainy weather that has been inhabiting the town for the past few weeks. She smiled at Mina and let out a heavy sigh half between exasperation and amusement. Mina, a cheery, black haired girl, with a sweet personality to match her ever present smile is as kind as humanly possible, but that didn't stop Petra from throwing a jab at her about being lazy which Mina immediately responded with an angry pout and a slight scoff of amusement before Petra parted off. Both co-workers giving each other a slight wave.

Petra, after dropping off the folders, pulled her jacket further up, hood over her head as she drew the collar closer towards her in an attempt to draw in more heat. Her fingers already curling around the front of her jacket where the top button wouldn't close before leaving the building. The cold immediately hit her and the rain pelted from above causing her to internally berate herself for not bringing an umbrella, but Petra could only shrug this off as she let out little puffs of air into the frigid cold night. Perhaps she should have offered to take a night shift seeing as she wouldn't be doing anything at home.

Home, the word was foreign to Petra now. She couldn't remember the last time she and Oluo had sat by the fire on frozen, cold nights like this and slept together curled in a cocoon of warm blankets with a pot of tea sitting nearby. She had loved those days where they would talk endlessly to each other about the future they wanted. The grand house they would get, the pet dog that would sit loyally by the door, the places they would go, the world they would see, and the home they would create. But the it had stopped.

Something had changed in Oluo ever since he had met with that man. Petra abhorred it, and she couldn't possibly fathom what in the world Oluo was thinking attempting to get into business with someone so obviously dangerous, and it was this very lack of understanding that had led the first few cracks in their marriage which would later lead to the great chasm that stood between them now.

Petra let out a heavy sigh, eyes staring intently at the ground as the rain continued to run along the crevices of her raincoat and splash upon the pavement. Her finger still curled protectively against her collar when a slight splash of green caught her attention along the corner of her eye. Petra's eyes widened as her head jerked upwards in shock. There, standing perfectly still in the middle of the road was a boy. His dark brown hair left untouched by the wind or the heavy onslaught of rain.

Petra could feel her whole body freeze in surprise as her feet stopped moving and the only thing she could hear beyond the rain was her heavy breaths against the wailing wind. What was he doing? The boy still remained perfectly still in the middle of the intersection, not moving. She didn't understand, why wasn't he moving?

Petra's eyes widened in horror as she watched the red light turn green, could see the headlights of an oncoming car moving straight towards the boy. It did not slow down; it did not stop. Before Petra could realize what she was doing, she had found herself running towards the boy. Her breath coming out in rasps as her heart thudded and pounded against her chest. Her fingers automatically letting go of her coat where the buttons had broken and she could feel the hood of her jacket fall off from the sudden movement, the rain splashing against her cheek and running over her eyelashes, but nothing mattered except saving the boy. She ran forward, reaching the curve of the street, before hurtling herself towards the small child in an attempt to protect him from the oncoming car.

The boy, hearing the splashing from Petra's boots, whirled around in surprise. His eyes widening in shock as Petra also looked back in horror and fear. She reached out and tried to wrap her arms around the boy's body, but her hands met nothing. Petra let out a surprised gasp as her body collided heavily with the ground, her breath suddenly knocked out of her as she met the full impact of the paved road. Pain searing down her side as she heard the sound of the car skidding to a halt. The bumper having already hit her side heavily upon impact and the inability to stop the momentum due to the heavy rainfall, but Petra didn't remember being hit by the car. She couldn't remember feeling the impact, only the pain that came afterward.

There was a scream, the sounds of honking and shouting, and the sound of approaching sirens that flashed across the ashened sky,

Deeply, within the voids of her mind, she could barely hear the sound of crying and sobbing right beside her.