My hands reached for the doorbell and pressed it. Almost immediately, it was opened by a woman in her mid-forties.

"Come on in, darling," she ushered, taking my bags away.

"We thought you weren't going to make it," Denise hugged me.

"I couldn't let you guys have all the fun," I chuckled. My head suddenly swirled to my left as a ginger-haired man walked up to us. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he had the chance, I was awoken by a vibration in my phone.

I sat up immediately, gasping for breath. Another fucking vision. I looked down at my phone, it was Axel.

"Hello?"

"I'm outside your house, where are you?" his static voice spoke through my phone. I removed my phone from my ear and checked the time. Shit. I had to go see Peter.

"Shit, I zoned out," I replied frantically. "I just need to brush my hair; I'll be there in ten"

I hung up and rushed into the bathroom, rinsing my face with water. I opened a shelf below my sink, picking up a multi-braided ponytail wig I had for emergencies like these. I clipped it in tightly and looked at myself in the mirror for a split second before walking out the door.

When I reached my porch, I saw Axel looking down at his watch, leaning by his Kawasaki Ninja 300. 

"Sorry for the delay," I said as I climbed onto his bike. 

"It's nothing," he replied and started driving. We drove past my neighbourhood and entered the town square park, which marked the exact centre of Crystal Falls. The roads surrounding this park had most of the shops, restaurants and entertainment sectors. 

We drove past the park and finally stopped in front of a cafe. Through its large glass windows, I saw a man with burgundy hair, drinking a cup of coffee and he looked like he was waiting for someone.

"Is that Peter?" I asked, pointing towards him. Axel nodded. 

We entered the cafe and I instantly felt people's eyes on me, whispering things like 'The rumours are true' and 'She is awake'. Except, there weren't any rumours. My recovery had already made it to the news, I guess they were just stupid. 

I rolled my eyes and sat down across Peter. 

"Are you Peter?" I asked sheepishly. 

"You must be the reporter!" He exclaimed, meeting Axel's eyes. He reached his hand forward and shook it with Axel's. 

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he continued. "Can I get you anything? Like, a coffee?" 

I was about to agree, but Axel spoke up first, "That won't be necessary. Just water will do" 

"Ok, then," Peter said beaming and I felt guilty. He probably thought we were here to interview his profession.

"So, you were a bus driver from 1997 to 2016, correct?" 

"Yes!" He said, excited. "My father was a-" 

"Weirdly, you quit shortly after the accident of Irene Henderson," Axel butted in. 

"Well- yes," He stuttered. "But let's not jump to my retirement so quickly, let's talk about how my career started!" 

Axel turned to me, both of us wearing the same guilty expression. 

"Well, Peter," I started, "we're not here to interview you. We're not even reporters"

Peter's face fell, and he tried to hide it but sipping his coffee, but his disappointment was evident. 

"But look, it doesn't mean we disregard your work," Axel said. "I've been on your bus a bunch of times and you're amazing!" 

He shot me a look and I decided to play along. 

"Yeah, he's right! Bus drivers are amazing," I said, trying not to sound awkward. 

"Well, I suppose I was wrong," Peter spoke up. "I was right about this generation"

He was about to leave, but Axel grabbed his arm.

"I know it was wrong to manipulate your feelings like that, but we really need your help," Axel said, "we need some information that only you have" 

He sat back down and said, "Fine, but you must buy me a strawberry cheesecake" 

That's all? Wow, he's cheap.

I called over a waiter and got him the cheesecake before continuing the interrogation. 

"Right, so as we were saying, you left shortly after the accident of Irene Henderson," Axel said. 

"Yes, poor thing," he said, "it's been five years and she's still in that coma" 

Axel and I, once again, looked at each other. He must not keep up with the news. But this also meant he didn't recognize me, which is weird, because most families know each other in this town, especially the founders' kids. But this worked in my favour, as this way, he wouldn't hesitate to say anything. 

I tried my best to say 'play along' with my eyes. 

"Yes- that," I said. "We found it a little odd that you left your job quickly after that incident, considering you still had a few more years until you would be old enough to retire" 

"I'm gonna tell you, kids, a secret, but you must promise not to repeat it," he said. We nodded and he leaned in closer and whispered, "I was the last to see Irene before she went missing" 

We already knew this, but we had to pretend to be shocked.

"What, seriously?" Axel exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down," Peter hissed. "She got on to my bus in the middle of the night-" 

"Do you remember the time?" I chimed in keeping my timeline in mind. 

"Well, it was probably around 2 in the morning. I loved taking night shifts" he explained. "We were alone in that bus and the next evening when I woke up her disappearance was all over the news" 

"What did you do after hearing this?" Axel inquired. 

"Well, I have poor vision. The doctors told me I needed glasses of 1.5 dioptres or so, but I wasn't gonna waste money on that nonsense so I never purchased them" he explained "After seeing the news, I wasn't sure if it really was Irene that I dropped off. It's not like I waste time seeing who my passengers are each time I drive, you know? I just saw her from the rear mirror" 

"Right..." I trailed off not sure how to get the conversation rolling.

"One strawberry cheesecake," the waiter said, placing the plate on our table. Peter immediately reached out for the cutlery and took a bite- well, more of a chomp of the dessert. 

"Later the next day," he said in a muffled voice "they found Irene's body in some house"

"A chalet near Lake Albert," Axel said precisely. 

"Yeah, yeah, that place" he cleared his throat "Well after seeing that, suspicion started to creep back in because I had dropped her off near that area" 

"Where exactly?" I asked. 

"It was the Brylant station but that girl was a weird kid I'll tell you" he chuckled, "She asked me to drop her off in a more specific location" 

It was weird hearing a 50-year-old man call me a 'weird kid' but I had to keep listening. 

"She asked me to drop her somewhere more specific and since I didn't have any other customers, I shouldn't mind" he took another chomp of the cheesecake "Which was kind of bitchy, to be honest," he muffled "but she was the founder's daughter so I couldn't do much" 

I drank some water from a pitcher on the table to try and hide the fact that I was offended. I was not bitchy.

"She kept telling me some weird directions and it didn't seem like she knew where she was headed either or maybe it was just because she's blind" he snickered, "I complied because, at the end of the day, it wasn't my money being blown on the gas" 

"Eventually, she asked me to go outside Crystal Falls and that's where I drew the line," Peter finished. 

"Where did you-" Axel started but was cut off by Peter.

"I did this for several reasons, the first one being I'm not allowed to take buses outside Crystal Falls without permission and second, my shift was almost over at that point and I needed to get the bus back to the next station where the other driver would take over. I finally stood my ground and told her what's what" Peter said, huffing his chest. I suppose he was still proud of something he told a girl, who he still thinks is in a coma, five years ago. I rolled my eyes. "I offered to drop her off at the nearest station but she refused and just exited the bus. After that I-" 

"She left the bus at the border?" Axel questioned.

"Yep," Peter replied, "my best guess is that she was running away from home but the plan went wrong and she got into a road accident or something" 

His guess was wrong because I was found inside a house, but I wasn't about to sit and correct him.

"Why didn't you mention any of this to the police? They did an investigation regarding this case." I informed. 

"They did? Wow, I never even knew about it" he laughed as he took the final piece of his cheesecake which he washed down with some water. 

No wonder Denise was so affected by the investigation. Axel never spoke up, people like Peter never even knew about the investigation, and the cops' only lead was Denise who seemed like she knows nothing. 

"Well, this was fun," he said "Even though you kids are scammers, I hope you're rich scammers" he smiled slyly. He called over to the waiter and said, "the bill's on them" and left. 

The bill came a few moments later and it turned out that prior to the coffee and cheesecake, he had also ordered a veggie melt with a side of kale chips. 

"It's nothing a little money can't fix," Axel said trying to look indifferent, but he was clearly suppressing a smile.

"You are not funny" I rolled my eyes while paying for Peter's food.

We walked out of the cafe towards his bike. 

"Well, at least we can confirm that he wasn't lying to us" Axel shrugged. 

"Yeah, he didn't even recognize me" 

"Or see the news apparently" he added. 

"Anyway, he's retarded, moving on," I said impatiently "he did give us some useful information" 

"Shall I drop you home?" he asked "You can work on that timeline of yours"

"Won't you stay?" I asked. 

"I have some work to finish," he sighed. I nodded and got on his bike. Once we reached, I waved him goodbye and entered my house.

"Are my parents home?" I asked Olivia.

"No," she said. 

Good. I thought to myself. They'd ask silly questions like where I was if they were home. 

"Do you need any help getting to your room?" Olivia asked. 

"No," I said raising my hand, "I can do it" 

I entered my room and locked the door behind me. The first thing I did was remove my wig and tossed across the room. The wigs were useful but equally uncomfortable. Then, I sat down at my table opened my laptop and went to the document with my timeline. 

"2 AM" I muttered to myself as I placed the cursor on the slot that said '2 AM' and typed in 'got on the bus with Peter'. 

I didn't know exactly when he dropped me off, but assuming that his shift was almost over, it had to be a time ending with an o'clock exactly. And since I got on the Amber Valley stop and was dropped off at the border with me 'not knowing where I was headed', I must've left at 3 AM. 

Simone mentioned that I was found about 24 hours after my accident so this left only 45 minutes for me to have fallen into an accident. Well, not that I believe it really was an accident. Not to mention, all my information was primarily based on assumptions so this might not even be accurate. 

The only thing I could rely on, for now, were my visions, which were also only giving useless information. I sighed as I rubbed my temples. I had no idea how to proceed with my investigation.

"Ms Henderson," Olivia knocked on the door, "it's time for dinner" 

Hopefully, I don't blackout during dinner.