š“€€Strange Occurrencesš“€€

Ring

Ring Ring

"Hello and welcome to the National Museum of Art!"

With each ring on the other end of the line, she recited her tour in her head to try and calm herself.

"Now, we will travel back thousands of years to get a close up look at an incredible ancient civilization by stepping through those doors there..."

Ring

"Welcome to Ancient Egypt!"

Ring-

"Hiya, this is Steven, sorry I've missed you. Leave me a message and I'll get back. Later gators."

She wasn't sure why she listened to the full message box recording for about the hundredth time. She wasn't going to leave any more messages. Maybe it was because she could hear Steven's voice and it was like he was still here.

Okay, no need to jump to conclusions now. Sure, this was very strange behaviour for Steven, but it could mean anything, and not necessarily anything bad. Too bad all that 'bad' was where her mind immediately went to...

She didn't want to keep calling and leaving messages, didn't want to fill up his entire inbox with her messages, but the question remained:

Where the hell was he?!

It was like, for lack of a better word, he had just disappeared, and without a trace.

"Hey, JB, any word from Steven?" She strode over to the security desk.

"Who?"

"Bloody useless." She cursed under her breath. "Get off you're damn phone-" She batted the device out of his hands, ignoring his, "Oi!"

She buzzed around the museum, but the more people she asked, the more discouraged she became.

"Donna, anything from Steven?"

"No, not since before he stood you up."

"Thanks, Donna."

She was honestly getting to the point of calling the police. She hadn't wanted it to come to this but she was running out of options. She was worried about him as a colleague and a romantically-interested friend.

She was just preparing to dial when she heard a familiar voice and someone scrambled into the museum.

She almost couldn't believe her eyes. "Steven! Jesus-" It was like he had just materialized out of nowhere. "Where the hell were you? Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, Eva, hi-" A grin split across his face. "Looking forward to steak time tonight!"

She stared back, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Our date."

"Steven, I had steak by myself two days ago. Our date was on Friday, I called and texted you like a hundred times. I was getting worried - I was going to call the police!"

"What? N-no, today's Friday. Friday comes after Thursday."

"And Sunday comes after Saturday, which was yesterday. It's Sunday, see-" She held up her phone, the screen flashing on, displaying the date and time. Sunday, 8 a.m.

"No-" He grabbed her phone out of her hand and stared down at it in frantic disbelief. "no - no! That's impossible..."

Something was going on - she had no idea what. "Steven," she said gently, taking her phone back. "Are you okay?"

"No, no-" He held his head in his hands. "I think I'm being followed..."

"Followed?"

"Yeah, there was the guy on the bus, I've seen him before - in a dream. Only now I'm not so sure it was a dream, only it had to be..." He was babbling, and she had no idea what this had to do with his mix up of the days, but clearly he had a lot going on. "Steven-"

"Gotta go-" With that he scrambled off, throwing one look over his shoulder before not looking back again.

"What's up with him?" Donna demanded striding over.

"I don't know." But now, instead of relieved, she was even more worried.

š“€€ š“€€ š“€€

Despite her confusion, she decided to keep a close eye on Steven throughout the rest of the day. Clearly, something was happening, something was wrong.

As she was making her rounds, she saw him at the mouth of the Egypt exhibit, talking to a long-haired man with a cane. Even at a distance she could instantly tell that Steven was very uncomfortable.

She hurried over and broke into the conversation. "Hi there, can we help you, Sir? Only it seems that my colleague here is rather uncomfortable with whatever's going on here."

The unfamiliar man spoke, his voice calm. "All will be well, Evelyn."

"E-Evelyn? Is that your full name?" Steven asked. "D-do you know this guy?"

"No..." Not her full name, he real name. And no, she had no idea who this man was. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

He said nothing more, but silently walked off. The tension immediately dissipated.

Eva exhaled a heavy breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Who the hell was that guy?"

"I have no idea. He thinks I stole something from him, but I have no idea what he's talking about!"

"He the one who's been following you?"

"Yeah."

"Well don't worry, you're safe here," she told him. "The only thing you may have to fear is Donna's wrath if you don't get your arse back to the shop, now."

"Yeah, good point." He nodded, though distantly. "Did I really miss our date?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Ugh, God, I'm such a bloody fool. I was really looking forward to it."

"Me too."

"I'm so sorry, Eva. I had flowers and chocolates arranged and everything. I was so excited to tell my Mum how it went."

She smiled. "Steven, you're a sweetheart. And it's disappointing, yes, but shit happens."

"Yeah, I just wish I knew what happened..."

"Well don't beat yourself up about it. We'll talk more about it later, yeah? Right now, we're both late for work."

He nodded, again distant. "Yeah. Thanks Eva."

"Of course."

Somewhat resolved, but something was definitely still off.

Can't wait for tomorrow's episode - will write the next chapter after I've watched it! :D

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)