‘Oh bloody hell!’ Matt moaned as he sat up in bed, the air raid siren-like alarm screaming for him to wake up. Charlie hadn’t burst into the room yet demanding breakfast, this had become a less and less frequent occurrence over the last few months, a worry that Matt had put to the back of his mind. He didn’t want to consider the fact his best friend was getting old. Just once he would have liked to have woken up feeling happy, but it was 5 AM and the anxiety induced by the urgent shrieks of phone alarm always gave him heart palpitations. He lay in bed, wondering why they didn't have a nice relaxing tone to wake people from their slumber, some phones did. He had seen the memes on TikTok, the brand of phone he used giving people warlike flashbacks whilst other brands had a gentle, peaceful jingle.

A gruff bark snapped him out of his thoughts as Charlie sauntered through the door, he couldn’t make it onto the bed anymore, he just sat at the foot and watched Matt silently. ‘Ok, I'm getting up.’ Stretching Matt pulled back the covers of his Christmas-themed bedspread, it was January, he had told himself he left it on to try and keep some cheer in his life, but he knew really he just was too lazy to change it.

It was already 5:30 by the time Matt got downstairs, Charlie was already sitting by the front door. ‘No morning coffee for me I guess’ Matt said to himself sarcastically, pulling his old worn trainers and winter coat on he realised he had left his phone on the bedside table. His energy levels were low enough without having to climb the stairs again to get it, so he decided to leave it, he grabbed Charlie's lead and opened the door.

It was a foggy morning, maybe zero degrees, he could see his breath hanging in the air. the frost from the night before had formed droplets on his neighbour's flowers, Charlie walking slightly ahead brushed past them, every drop soaking into his fur as he padded on past the identical houses of the street. These walks had begun to get slower which bothered Matt, he knew it wasn’t Charlie's fault but it was annoying. It gave him a mixture of sadness and frustration which always seemed to manifest in anger.

The local park was only a 10-minute walk on a good day, but it was cold and Charlie had to stop at every garden to sniff the wall, the gate or the flowers. To pee up every fence post and to look back at Matt periodically, to make sure he was still there. Charlie's hearing wasn’t very good anymore, he missed the sound of another smaller, yappier dog across the road, the sound of a bell as a young man on a bike urged the owner to move out of the middle of the path. And of Matt begging him to move a bit faster.

17 minutes later they reached the park entrance, Matt had started to wake up earlier to make sure he was back in time to start work at 7 AM, luckily for him, he worked from home cutting out the commute may have improved his work-life balance, but waking up an hour earlier to take Charlie for a walk had not improved his mental health.

As he walked through the arches that cradled the park, he saw the lady and the yappy dog, on the grass ahead, he wasn't in the mood to talk, or to peel a tiny angry chihuahua off of Charlie, so he switched up his regular route, opting to divert through a side entrance and around the bushes, cutting out the main area of the park.

As they passed under the damp trees, frost dripped onto Matts's head, he put his hands in his pockets and found his gloves, but he had forgotten his hat. his thinning hair left his scalp open to the elements, another thing to add to the list of annoyances. Matt had never considered a hair transplant, but on days like this he wished he had better genes, 32 was no age to lose his hair he thought.

Matt shook his head and broke free from his thoughts as Charlie barked loudly. He looked over at Charlie, sniffing at something in the grass ‘Leave it!’ Matt yelled, assuming it was some leftover food someone had dropped. It was common for people to walk through the park on their way home from a night out, takeaway in hand, singing ‘Mr Brightside’ loudly, It wasn't uncommon to find half a donner kebab or a pile of vomit. He had taken this route himself after a night out.

‘Charlie, come here. Now!’ he yelled, Charlie ignored him. Matt rolling his eyes wondered if hearing aids for dogs existed, he stamped over to Charlie. ‘Get away from….’ Matt looked down and on the floor, he saw a small black leather purse, frosty, and obscured by the long grass that hadn’t been cut since the summer. Looking around he saw a runner in their own little world about to cross the nearby path. Matt bent down and made it look like he was attaching Charlie's lead, he picked up the purse and checked again for anyone nearby. The runner had passed now, and the coast was clear.

Matt opened the wallet, empty, of course, who carries cash these days? Another topping for the shit sandwich that was his life. He noticed a bank card, and an ID ‘Miss M Braithwaite’ he saw her address was nearby, and he weighed up the pros and cons of returning it. Pro: I do a good deed and maybe make someone's day a bit better. Con: I have to walk an extra 10 probably 15 minutes with Charlie for what? a thank you? And what if someone had already got to the wallet and raided it for cash? Then I'd look like a thief. The cons outweighed the pros, it was cold and Matt didn't care about the 5 minutes of satisfaction he would have gotten from doing a good deed. He closed the wallet up and dropped it back on the floor. ‘Not interested unless it's a dead body’ he joked leading Charlie away.

Charlie pulled on the lead, finally finding a satisfactory place to do his business, Matt looked at his watch, an Apple watch which seemed functionless without his phone. He rubbed his hand down his face, considering what a stupid thought that was. A watch was for telling the time, so it was the opposite of functionless. But that wasn't what had attracted him to it. Charlie pulled on the lead again. Matt bent down to pick up after Charlie, he was far enough away that he could still see the spot where he had left the wallet. He walked away back towards the gates and then back towards his house.

Finally home it had been over an hour since Matt had left his house, he only had 15 minutes before he started work and he still hadn't had breakfast, he dragged himself up the stairs. Got in the shower washing his hair with a bottle that promised to increase hair growth. He sighed and put the bottle down, rinsing himself and stepping out of the shower, quickly changing into his clothes. he put a slice of bread in the toaster as he pressed a button on his coffee machine.

He looked out of his kitchen window as he waited for his breakfast, a police car and ambulance whizzed by sirens blaring. he didn’t take much notice, as the toaster popped up he grabbed the bread, hanging it from his mouth as he grabbed his coffee. He climbed the stairs to his office and turned on his computer.

it was noon by the time he grabbed his phone from the bedside table. he looked at the screen, the usual mix of emails, news story pushes and social media notifications. But one stood out. ‘Body found at Marshal Park’ he opened the notification, skimming the story. The body had been found that morning, by a dog walker. That must have been why the blue lights had passed his house that morning. Curious he opened Facebook, he was part of a neighbourhood watch group. Some of the nosier locals were frequent posters, he went to the group and immediately saw someone had shared the news article. 56 comments, he clicked them and began to read, he readied himself for the conspiracy theories and speculation he was about to find.

The body had been found by a lady called Cathleen, a dog walker. She hadn’t commented but others had, ‘who was Cathleen again?’ one person commented, the lady with the Chihuahua’ another replied. Matt looked at Charlie sleeping. He let out a deep breath, realising his little diversion had potentially saved him the hassle of having to deal with this. He read on, comment after comment asking for more information, speculation as to whether this was a murder, someone had drank too much, or a homeless person who perished in the cold.

Then he saw it, someone had shared a second post, ‘Jake Braithwaite: has anyone seen my sister Melanie?, she went out last night and nobody has heard from her since. This isn't like her if anyone has any information please contact me immediately. Mel if you see this please contact me.’ 2 pictures attached of a young blonde girl laughing at the beach the other of the same girl holding a pint with a friend.

It didn't take Matt long to put the clues together. Melanie Braithwaite, Miss M Braithwaite. The wallet he had seen in the park, potentially the body they found in the park. A wallet with his fingerprints all over it. Matt stroked his hand through his remaining hair. 'not interested unless it's a dead body’ he mocked. He put his head in his hand praying the body was someone else.

The wallet was not special; the old leather had been crumpled at the edges, and the card slots were as torn as a cat’s blanket. Inside, the contents appeared basic at first glance. A few bank notes, some dirty coins, an array of loyalty cards, and a debit card belonging…to me. I read and reread the card, until, in a fit of sense, I realised the possibility that another person may share my name. So I continued to peruse the wallet, searching until I found a driver’s license. My name again, sitting proudly beside a picture of me. This time I let out an audible gasp. It was, without a doubt, me. I checked the birthday too, but apparently my döppelganger was born on the same day as me. Even the height and weight were correct. By this stage I could feel myself shaking, conscious of everything and everyone around me. When I finally built up the courage to re-enter the stream of innocent-looking people, I found no unknown twin brothers. The stream went on, and I was glad to be a part of it. As I broke from the flow to enter my apartment complex, I saw him in the glass reflection; a darkly dressed man with an unbreaking stare on me, assuring himself with the glock in his hand.

It was a perfectly ordinary morning. Aside from the sweet smelling pink fog and the mysterious figure in said fog. I had been following it for quite some time. The person, not the fog. The fog was just another strange happening here in the fading town of Crossroads. It would roll in every once in a while, smelling awful and making potroling the streets even worse. I always felt slightly dazed after the fog rolled through, but I chalked it up to sinuses. The strange figure in the even stranger fog was an entirely different matter. I wasn’t sure what, but something about the figure struck me the wrong way as it was stepping out of the doorway of the old town hall. Perhaps it was the strange gait or the unusual hat, but something smelled fishy. So I found myself tailing behind them. “Salem Scott, stop it right now,” I could almost hear my Aunt Liza saying, “that person could be going to volunteer at an animal shelter or a soup kitchen.” “Then,” I told her, “they won’t mind if I see them committing such noble deeds.” She huffed but said no more. I considered it, there was no reason for me to be doing this, I had plenty of work on my plate, plenty of cases to be solved, and there just wasn’t a good reason. After all it’s none of my business if they walk funny or have an unusual fashion sense. It’s not like I’m one to judge. I could have stopped then, I could have turned around and walked back to the park, or the library, or the train station where I could have hopped aboard the next train back to the city, back to my home. But instead I continued to follow this person for no reason at all. It wasn’t to long before something fell out of the pocket of their trench coat, landing on the hard side walk with a loud thud. So loud in fact that when they didn’t turn around I wondered if they were hard of hearing. They continued to walk. I stooped to pick the thing up. It was a plain leather wallet, I looked up and saw that they were turning into an alleyway next to a dilapidated Laundry Matt. I began to run. They must be hard of hearing because I was shouting trying to get their attention, but they didn’t even turn around. I rounded the corner and saw a dark alleyway with no one in it except for a few trash cans. I opened the wallet hoping to find some identification, but instead what I found was a wad of papers and a letter, addressed to me.

I just took a deep breath. I couldn’t believe my eyes. ‘ No.... this can’t be happening to me ‘, I said to myself. I stood there for some few minutes, waiting to see if they would realize what was going and turn back. ‘ Ah well, maybe the goddess of luck has visited my abode today’ ,I thought to myself. I walked back to my hostel with a cheerful face, not taking notice of the surprising faces that greeted me along the way. I had wild plans running through my head, which made me not look on as I came face to face with an old figure. I paused and stared at this woman, with beads of sweat dripping down her worn out face. From the bodily expression, one could sense that she had walked quite some miles to get to this destination. The dust which covered her feet, her throat longing for a cold sip of water, her shaking legs which could barely support her exhausted figure and the load which took a toll on her body said the whole. I looked with pity as I helped her offload the burden that nearly sent her to the dark world. What at all made this woman walked through this midday sun with such load resting on her tiring head. I went to the nearest shop and got her a cold drink of water. The sigh of relief from her made me felt like I was the savior of the day. I began a conversation with her, wanting to know the story of this strange woman. She started; ‘ son, May the gods of our land always show their undying love to you. You have really helped me a lot and I’m very grateful for that. I have a daughter who refuses to pay heed to whatever I say. She is been obsessed with things that would always make people feel good about her. I have always tried to get her into the right path but to no avail. Now, it’s been three days since I last saw her at home. But she is the only one I got. I had to pack my things and set off to look for her. I don’t know where I might find her but I hope fate will surely get us together again’ . This she ended with tears rolling down the wrinkled cheeks. I looked so blue I couldn’t hardly open my mouth to say a word. After calming my head for some minutes, I asked her, ‘ do you have the means to continue your journey? She took her head slowly, depicting one who is in the state of despair. I dipped my hand into my pocket and took out the wallet with I had just found. Out of compassion, I gave her every penny in the wallet to settle her needs. Alas, I felt like I was the hero I had always seen myself to be. It was much worth it.