(A/N): Well, here you go, chapter 11. Most of my exams are now over, so I will have more time to write! :) I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Terror. Sheer terror. There was no other word to describe it.

The man could sense it, I knew. He watched me, watched my reaction, and when he saw my face pale and my body beginning to tremble, his mouth broke into a smile.

"Why are you scared?" He tilted his head, furrowed his eye brows. His tone was puzzled, as if he did not understand why I was terrified. Yet his eyes said differently; he knew I was scared and he loved it.

I tried to calm myself. It was near impossible.

"You didn't answer my question. Who are you?" Trying to stop my voice from shaking, all I could think of was the one blunt question that stood like an ink stain on my mind: was he going to kill me now?

In response, the man sighed and rolled his eyes. "I told you who I am."

"I meant your name."

The man paused, as if thinking about my question.

"…No. I don't think I'll tell you. Where's the fun in that?"

Swallowing, I pushed away my fear. "Then why are you here, colleague-san?"

The man smirked. "I thought it would be fitting to make an appearance now."

I backed away from this madman. "Why? I don't understand."

The man looked bored, and fiddled with the lily in his hands. Slowly, he peeled the petals from the sepal, and when each one disconnected from the flower, he looked on in fascination.

"I'm afraid it's a bit complicated." He let the petals float gently to the ground.

I stepped further back from the man. The colleague. This was bad, I needed to get away from this man. I could not call for help – the only place nearby was the church, and there was no way I wanted the children there, or even Father Toujou, to be put at risk.

The man frowned at my gradual retreat. "What's the matter? Are you leaving?" He tossed the lily onto the ground, and shuffled forwards.

"Stay away from me." I could not contain my fear and desperation any longer.

The man looked offended. "I only wanted to see you."

"I said, stay away from me." I repeated it through gritted teeth.

The man sighed, exasperated. "John…"

But I turned my back, and left as quickly as I could.

By the time I returned home, it was late, around 8pm. I had spent the majority of the day trying to stay wherever there were a lot of people hanging around, whether that was a supermarket, a park or a shopping mall. The more people, the better – it made me feel safer, somehow. And all the while, I was constantly looking out for the colleague, straining my eyes against the backdrop and the crowd in case he was there. But I did not see him anywhere. Was he still following me? Deep down, I knew the answer was yes, no matter how much I wanted it not to be.

More worryingly, what exactly did he want? Why had he appeared? All this time, he had been acting in secrecy. And yet he suddenly decides to show up, in broad daylight, in front of the church? He even talked to the children there. What was his motive? He had not killed me, not yet anyway. So why was he here?

The darkening sky drained the colour from the wisteria that crawled up the side of the apartment, and the plants on the second floor balcony seemed much duller than normal. It was with hesitation and caution that I began to enter the apartment. It did not feel safe anymore. If the colleague had been able to track my movements, even predict my movements and leave that lily behind in advance at the church, then surely he would have no problem in finding my apartment. None of the other residents had mentioned seeing anyone hanging around, though, so perhaps he had decided to keep away from my home.

Unlocking the various locks on my door, I automatically turned to stop the alarm ringing. I pushed in the numbers, and while I did, my phone began to buzz in my pocket. Quickly, I checked the caller. It was Takigawa.

With only a second of uncertainty, I pressed the accept button.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me. I was just calling to, um, see how you were doing."

"Oh…" Distractedly, I pressed in the security number for the alarm again, as it seemed I had been incorrect the first time and the alarm was still buzzing.

"Um, thanks, I'm doing fine. What about you?"

"I'm fine, but I more want to hear about you. Have you, you know…remembered anything?"

I paused. "Um…well, no."

"Oh…nothing about this Kazuki person?"

"Kazuki?" Frowning, I pressed the security number in frustration, my number apparently incorrect for the third time.

"Yeah, remember a few nights ago when you stayed at my place? And you heard the news of your colleague's death on the tv?"

"Um…" I struggled to think. Now that I thought about it, just before Doctor Nakumura's death was announced, Takigawa had been asking about whether I knew someone called…Kazuki, was it?"

"Vaguely…why do you ask?"

"Well…it's just, when you were asleep, you started to say that name. You, er…you called me it."

"Oh." I frowned. "That's strange…I don't know anyone called Kazuki…"

"Huh. I think you do."

I froze. That was not Takigawa's voice.

On the other end, Takigawa sounded puzzled. "Hey, what's that noise?"

It took me a long moment to reassemble my thoughts and answer. "It's…the alarm." Carefully, I pressed in my pin number one more time, making sure I made no mistakes. It was incorrect. Someone had changed the pin number.

Oh God. No. Please no.

Time seemed to freeze as I walked down the hallway, into the main room.

The colleague regarded me with an expectant, almost impatient expression on his plain and indistinguishable face. He was sitting calmly on a sofa, examining his nails. As I stood, dazed, he glanced at the phone in my hand and shook his head.

"Hey, Takigawa…can I…call you back?" I had to do what the colleague wanted. I was too afraid not to.

"Um, are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Miraculously, I kept control over my voice, despite the dread filling up inside of me.

"Oh, ok. Call me back some time, ok?"

"Yeah, sure. Bye."

"See you."

I hung up, and lowered the mobile from my ear. Then I turned back to the colleague.

It took a minute to work up the courage to speak. "…Did you…change my pin number?" Right now, it was the only question I could manage.

The colleague pulled a guilty face. "Yeah…About that…I thought you needed a new one. Your old one isn't much use anymore."

I honestly didn't know how to react.

"You know, I've been waiting here for a while. It's been quite boring. What took you so long?"

"I, er…" He was not brandishing a knife, he had not taken out a gun. The only thing in his hands was a cup, which he took a sip out of.

"I had to stop off at a few places." My mind was still reeling so much, all I could do was respond like his presence was normal.

The colleague nodded in understanding, then put his cup down on the table in front of him. He then stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"Do you take milk with yours?"

"With my what?"

"Your tea."

"Oh, um…I don't really want one."

I heard the colleague tut. "Oh, come on. I'm not putting poison into it or something."

Trying to steady my shaking hands, I called to him, "Why are you here?"

The colleague came back into the main room, carrying another cup. He gestured to the sofa with his head. "Sit down."

I did not argue. Instead, I slowly sat down on the sofa. He passed me the cup, and sat next to me.

Clasping his hands together, he said, "I think it's time we had a little talk."

I placed the cup down on the table, not giving the liquid inside a glance. "Yes, I think we do. Why are you here?"

"To talk to you, I just said. You know," he took a sip from his own cup, "I was going to speak to you earlier. I saw you on the streets at night ago or so, when you were walking home from the hospital."

I felt my heart jolt. So it hadn't been a drunkard wondering around on the street who had stopped and watched me. It was him.

"Why were you watching me?" I demanded, lacking confidence in my voice. The man rolled his eyes. "It's not like it was the first time. I've seen you a few times since you were discharged. Not many, it took me longer than I expected to find you."

"…A few times?"

"Oh yes. Let me tell you, I got a bit worried once. You're such a silent sleeper, it would be easy to mistake you for…a corpse."

I resisted the urge to throw up, and I started to feel dirty; defiled. He had watched me sleeping. He had broken into my apartment and watched me sleep.

"Why…why would you do that?" I was surprised the words were able to form in my mouth. The man did not reply to my question. Instead, he placed down his cup and turned to me, his gaze roaming up and down my body. I remained frozen in paralysis. Finally, his gaze fell on my neck.

"…What's that? A bandage?" He leant in closer, peering at it. Automatically, my hand flew to the bandage protectively. The mark was still there – faint, a nasty green colour, but still there. I did not know why it was taking so long to heal.

As if echoing my thoughts, the man pondered, "It must be taking a long time to heal, am I right?"

I said nothing.

"I know Saburou is quite…brutal, but I must say, I'm surprised it hasn't healed yet. He walked forwards, hand reaching towards my neck, as if to take the bandage off. At once, I batted his hand away.

The man stopped. "Now now, John, what's the matter? I only wanted to look. You might want to consult someone about it"

I raised my head indignantly, in spite of my fear. "I'm sorry, colleague-san, but my neck is none of your business."

The man was not fazed. "Well, there's something I must know, John. What did you tell your friends? What excuse did you make up?"

I froze. What did he know about my friends? Enough to threaten them? Enough to hurt them?

"…Car accident." My voice was suddenly a lot quieter than before. Hearing this, the man began to laugh.

"…A car accident." Finally, his laughing subsided. "That's funny, isn't it? Everything is about car accidents. Am I right?"

The realisation came to me. "You…you caused Doctor Nakumura's car crash. Didn't you?"

The man sighed apologetically. "It had to be done, I'm afraid. Your co-worker wanted to tell you some valuable information that I'd rather you didn't know."

He was talking about Mattaku, whatever that might be. I knew that telling him I had already remembered something about it would be foolish.

"Oh? What might that be?" I asked instead.

The man pulled a face. "Weren't you listening? I just said I don't want you to know." He looked towards the hallway, where the alarm was still buzzing.

"Turn that thing off, will you?" He asked, irritated.

"Well, I can't really. I don't know what the pin is now."

He smirked slightly at my hard stare. "It's 011511." I stood up and walked to the alarm. After pressing in the numbers, it stopped making noise.

"By the way, who were you on the phone to?" The colleague called to me. I walked reluctantly back into the room. This time, I did not sit down again.

"Did you say his name was...Takigawa?"

"That's none of your business." My tone was more forceful than before. "Cut the crap already- what do you want with me?"

The man rolled his eyes disdainfully. "Oh, please John, calm down. I'm not going to kill your friend. And I'm not going to kill you either. Well, not yet, anyway. It's far too early for that, so stop acting like a drama queen."

I stared at him. I felt the bile rising in my throat. This proved it. He wanted to kill me. Not now, but eventually. Suddenly, nothing felt real anymore. How did I get into this situation? How did it come to be that someone wanted to kill me? I could not understand.

The man continued talking. "Anyway, you mentioned Kazuki. I'm surprised you don't remember him, and him of all people. He would be quite upset."

"Who is he?"

The colleague opened his mouth, then faltered. "Actually…how about you pretend you never heard that name?" His suggestion was insistent, and his tone almost aggressive.

"…How about you just leave me alone?" I felt panic as I said the words, for offending him could end up getting me murdered, but I said them regardless.

The colleague frowned. "Whatever do you mean?"

I was taking a risk here, but I took it nonetheless. "I've got amnesia. You must know that."

The colleague watched me with his black, cold eyes. "Yes, I know. Go on."

"I can't remember what happened. Whatever you…did to me, I can't remember. And I have no intention to."

"I am afraid it's not that simple."

"What do you mean?"

The colleague stood up and walked slowly towards me, startlingly close. When I tried to shuffle backwards, he just continued walking forwards.

"The thing is, John, you will remember. Whether you want to or not." Soon, my back was against the wall of the room. I could not retreat any more. The colleague stood very close to me. I could feel his breath against my skin. It made my skin crawl.

"The way I see it, you're a time bomb. I don't know when you will go off, but you will. One day." His eyes bored into me, filled with spite and animosity.

"And when you go off," he continued, hatred spilling from his tone, "when your amnesia breaks…" At the last word, he held his hand under my chin and jerked my head upwards. For a moment, he said nothing. Panic coursed through me, and I struggled to restrain it. The man licked his lips nervously, and blinked a few times, his hatred swiftly altering into anxiety.

"…I'll be vulnerable. And I don't like being vulnerable." In no time at all, the alarm was gone, and the malice was back in his eyes.

"You see, you've caused a lot of trouble for me, John. Oh, an awful lot of trouble. And for that, I will make you pay." He said each word quietly, tauntingly. I could not say anything in response; my fear was too great. So he carried on speaking.

"The only real reason you're alive now, and not in a tragic accident like dear Nakumura-san, is because it's rather inconvenient for me. If you were to die suddenly, there would be many people who would doubt your death. And I can't just kill them off as well. It starts to get a bit messy if you do that. No. You don't have to worry about your inevitable death just yet, John. Not for a while."

At last, he stepped away from me. I let out a shaky breath, despite myself. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins, pulsating sickeningly.

The man stepped back, satisfied at the panic he had invoked.

"Well…" He spoke after a moment of silence. "I'm afraid I must take my leave now. It's been a pleasure seeing you, John."

He walked out of the room and down the hallway, humming a strange tune to himself that made my heart beat even faster. He stopped before the door.

"Take care of yourself."

Then he opened the door and walked out. The door clicked shut, and he was gone.