This was my first party in a long time. I was excited about this one, but my excitement was to come crashing down, Hard. Let me explain what I am talking about, if I do ramble, please excuse me. It was Saturday the 3rd of June. My friend had just invited me to a party she had put together with her partner. It was the normal party, alcohol, music and abit of the fun stuff. I got there around 6:12PM. As I wanted to get there to help setup. I asked my friend who she had invited to the party. “The regular people” was all she replied. That was an open-ended answer as there have been many “Regular” people over the years. But if she wanted to be tight lipped, I wasn’t going to ask anymore. It was around 7:15PM when the party really started. Everyone flocked in and started to enjoy the beverages provided. Everything was as normal, but when I saw this man sitting on the couch, he looked intriguing. Something told me to talk to him, and I’m glad I did.
When I walked over to him, he greeted me with a how are you, we talked for hours. Apparently, he had just moved in next door from my friend, and he was new to the neighbourhood. We had hit it off well and there were no signs of slowing down. He told me everything about himself, where he lived when he was younger, his favourite food and colour, even his deepest darkest secrets. Looking into his eyes was like looking into a black hole, I don’t mean to get all scientific, but it truly was like this. His eyes had me sucked in the whole conversation. Our eyes would not take gaze off each other. I thought I had met the one. We took photos together and had many laughs during the night. The party had stopped around 3am. By that time, I was ready to go home and hop into bed, lucky it wasn’t a workday. I slept in till 11AM and woke up with the biggest headache of my life. I reached for my glasses and went into the kitchen to get some OJ, my favourite hangover drink. Then it hit me, I started to remember the guy from the party. I ran over to my friend’s place to tell her, I couldn’t wait. I needed to know his name and where he lived and where I could contact him again.
As I walked outside there was an ambulance next door from my friend’s place. I was in my socks and underpants, but I didn’t care, I ran over and gawked at the ambulance that was hauling somebody away on a stretcher with face covered. I knocked on her door and she answered and said, “Come on in”. Her face was white as a ghost, and I asked her what was wrong, then she told me her neighbour Allan had died the last night around 4PM. A few hours before the party. She never had talked to him, but his death still made her uneasy. The mood shifted and I wrapped my arms around her to comfort her, I made her a cup of coffee and we sat down and talked. The initial shock had worn off, so we began to talk about last night. I told her about how I met this amazing guy and how we talked all night. She looked confused as she asked me who I was talking to. I told her again “This guy he was sitting on your couch, so I joined him, we spoke all night we did.” “What was his name?” she said. “I didn’t get his name; we were too busy having a swell time.” She advised that she saw the man, but he looked familiar, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She asked me if I had any pictures of that night and perhaps, he was in one of them.
I remembered, “Yes, I do have a few pictures of us. We took them on your couch. I’ll get them developed today and I will bring them over for you tonight.” I ran on home and got dressed and grabbed my Kodak and headed toward the 1-hour photo joint. While I waited, I grabbed something to eat as I was hungry, and my head was still hurting. While I was there the news came on a small portable TV near the Donut shop, then I saw it, I saw his face. I ran up to the Donut shop keepers and asked them to turn it up. The news reporter came on and said “Just in about a man that has been found dead this morning, the death has been marked a possible suicide which had taken place 4PM last night. Police were on the scene this morning as the body was taken away. More information to come” They showed his face, and my blood ran cold. It was him, but it couldn’t be.
I walked slowly away from the counter and said thank you, I grabbed my pictures and off I went. I ran back to my friend’s house and knocked franticly on her door. She opened asking “What’s wrong”. I ran in and told her, “The guy I was talking to last night they found him dead this morning, apparently he died last night 4PM a few hours before the party!! How could have I been talking to him.” My friend tried to settle me down “Listen, just calm down. Did you get the photos developed of you 2?” Of course, I did I grabbed them from my purse and quickly looked through them trying to find the photos I took. Then I found it, something I wish I never had found. The photo I was looking for. “Here look” I gave it to her. “Oh my god, you need to see this” she said as she looked into my eyes with solid cold fear. It was him; he was next to me. His face was blue his body had black patches everywhere. His eyes were blood shot red. My friend confirmed with me that it was Allan from next door. We both sat in silence as we stared at each other. Not knowing what to do next. We destroyed the pictures and never spoke of this again. It still haunts me to this day that on that night, I was talking to a dead man.