The morning arrived cold, with a fine drizzle blurring the bus windows. I watched the droplets slide down, trying to push from my mind the image of the perfect triangles I had drawn the night before. It was just old paint, I kept telling myself. Just paint. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't forget the precision of those shapes.
Pedri was dozing beside me, his head nearly resting on the glass. I wanted to mention the lines to him, how everything seemed too exact, but I swallowed the words. He would probably laugh, make some joke, and change the subject. And I didn't want that. I wanted to keep it to myself.
When we arrived at the internship lab, the place smelled of damp earth and freshly brewed coffee. A group of interns was already organizing around the tables, preparing samples and sorting reports. Everything seemed normal—until I noticed a figure that hadn't been there before.
A tall man, with a firm posture, long dark hair falling over his shoulders. He was speaking quietly with the coordinator, but at one point he raised his eyes and stared at me. It was as if the entire room had faded around us. Dark eyes, fixed on me, intense. Eyes that seemed to already know me.
I widened mine, quickly looking away, but the feeling lingered. And then, as if it weren't enough, a voice echoed inside my mind, sharp and clear, though no one had spoken:
"I found you."
My body froze. I took a deep breath, trying to convince myself it was only imagination. But when I lifted my eyes again, he was still there, watching me. And on the ring finger of his right hand, a heavy ring held a black stone shaped like a triangle.
The coordinator approached, calling our attention.
"Everyone, this is Mr. Zade Thuner. He'll be joining you as field supervisor from now on."
He walked toward us with steady steps. Even when his gaze seemed to sweep over the whole group, it always returned to me. As if there was something specific about me that interested him. When he finally extended his hand to greet me, I hesitated for a moment before taking it. His skin was far too warm.
"Miss Rhode, right?" he said, as if he already knew.
"Yes…" I replied quietly, uneasy.
The smile he gave me didn't feel sincere. There was something about him that put me on edge, as if every word was measured, every gesture loaded with an intention I couldn't decipher.
For the next few hours, he explained procedures, gave instructions, walked among the tables. Everything normal, to anyone else. But for me, every time I turned, those eyes were there, fixed, attentive. They weren't casual glances—they were too long, too direct.
I tried to focus on my work, measuring the pH of a soil sample, but the words echoed inside me as if they still vibrated: "I found you."
Pedri, on the other side of the bench, was joking with an intern about who would wash the most test tubes. I smiled faintly, pretending to be natural, but inside I was restless. The dark ring on Zade's hand seemed to always draw my attention, catching the artificial light of the lab in tiny glimmers. Perfect triangle.
When the shift ended, I packed up quickly, wanting to get out of there. But as I stepped through the door, I felt it again: a subtle vibration, almost imperceptible, as if the air around me was charged. It wasn't like in my room, but it was similar.
At night, already lying down, the memory of his gaze returned. I closed my eyes, trying to sleep, but soon felt the subtle vibration again along the walls. I sighed and turned on the light. My eyes ran over the specks of paint in my room, and the perfect triangles stared back at me, clearer than ever.
Was it all in my head? Perhaps. But deep down, I knew it wasn't.