After school, Lorelai asked her best friend Ella to go get coffee. They lived a block away in the same direction and knew each other since kindergarten. There was a small cafe they both loved on their way home. Ella couldn’t come because she had after classes, Lorelai decided to walk home from school and get a cup of coffee alone. It was a warm spring afternoon and she enjoyed the walk until a woman approached her all flustered.

“Ufff… I finally caught up to you.” The woman said.

“Sorry, miss. I think you mistook me for someone else.” Lorelai said.

“No. I’m looking for you. I saw you a long way back and hurried to catch up with you.” The woman said.

“But I don’t know you.” Lorelai said.

“I just need you to tell me where to go next.” The woman said.

“I don’t know.” Lorelai said.

“But you must know. That’s why I’m here. You must know where I need to go next.” The woman insisted.

“Why don’t you choose yourself?” Lorelai asked.

“I can’t. You have to tell me.” The woman said raising her voice.

‘Mr. Marcus said he didn’t deserve to go back, so back is bad. I told him to go left and he was a little scared to go there, so left is something different but not bad. If there is back and left, there must be right and forward. But I have no clue what each path means.’ Lorelai thought but said “Hmmm… Where would you like to go?”

“I didn’t do everything that I wanted so I would like to go forward.” The woman said.

“Then go forward.” Lorelai said. The woman thanked her and started walking forward, passing her.

Lorelai thought about the woman’s words and turned around to look at the woman but there was no sign of her. ‘What did she mean by I didn’t do everything that I wanted?’ She thought.

Lorelai continued walking, got coffee to go and walked home. Again, on her tattoo, a grain of black sand dropped down into the lower chamber.

In the middle of the night, Lorelai was awoken by the sound of something hitting her window. Half asleep she walked over, opened the window and looked down on the street. A small rock hit her and she heard someone say sorry. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw a guy around her age.

“What?” Lorelai asked.

“I need you to tell me where to go next.” The guy said.

“Now? Are you crazy? Can’t this wait until morning?” Lorelai asked.

“No. I need to know now.” The guy said.

“We can’t keep shouting like this. I’ll come down.” Lorelai said, got dressed, went out of the building and saw the guy standing on the steps to her building entrance.

“So, where do I go next?” The guy asked. He was dressed like a gang member or drug dealer and even had a gang tattoo.

“Why can’t this wait?” Lorelai asked.

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“I already lost a lot of time finding you, we have to hurry.” The guy said.

“Are you a gang member?” Lorelai asked.

“Yeah, so what. Just tell me where to go.” The guy frowned at her and raised his voice.

Lorelai had an urge to tell him to go back but instead, she said. “What if I tell you to go right?”

“What, you want to waste my time? I don’t want to be there and then wait to move forward until I pass all those stupid tests.” The guy said.

“I have a feeling you must go right. Go right.” Lorelai said.

“You can’t do this to me. You bitch!” The guy shouted at her but started walking right.

Lorelai turned towards the building entrance, opened it, turned her head to look at the guy but he wasn’t there anymore. A second ago he stood on the steps and now he’s gone. Another grain of sand, on her tattoo, found its way into the lower chamber.

Thank the heavens it was Friday today and that she could sleep in tomorrow. Too tired to think Lorelai went back to the apartment, fell on the bed and as soon as her head touched the pillow, she fell asleep.

The next day Lorelai slept in all the way until lunch and she still felt tired. The guy from yesterday was still in her head. Taking care of the tattoo, she thought about the guy’s words, about passing the tests to move forward. Trying to put the pieces of information she gathered together, she heard her mother calling her to come and eat lunch, so she got up, got dressed and headed towards the kitchen.

After lunch, Lorelai took a notebook and drew a crossroad with four directions. She labeled them and next to the direction BACK she wrote bad because Mr. Marcus said he didn’t want to go there. Next to the direction FORWARD she wrote good but she was hesitant about what to write next to the direction LEFT. Mr. Marcus was a bit scared and also hesitant to go left but he went left so it must be good but a different good than forward. Next to LEFT, she wrote different good. The only one left was RIGHT and, by the reaction and the words of the guy yesterday, next to it she wrote different bad.

Looking at what she drew and wrote Lorelai still had no idea what it all meant and why did people look for her to ask her where should they go. She thought about talking with Ella about it, but what was the point. Why drag Ella into all of this when even she didn’t know what all this means. The only things that didn’t make sense, besides the people asking her where to go, were that she talked to Mr. Marcus even though the police said that he died hours before and the guy that disappeared a few seconds after talking to her.

Lorelai’s phone rang, Ella was calling her. She asked Lorelai to come with her out tonight. One of their classmates was celebrating her birthday and asked them to come.

“Shure. Are you gonna pick me up or are we gonna meet somewhere?” Lorelai asked.

“The party is at her apartment so we’ll meet there. I have to do something before the party so I’ll be there around nine. I’ll text you the address, ok?” Ella said.

“Yeah, text me the address. I’ll meet you there around nine.” Lorelai said.

Lorelai wasn’t in the mood for a party, she was still feeling tired. She told Ella that she’ll come to the party so she decided that she’ll stay a while and go home after two or three hours. Since she's already going to the party, she decided that she’ll show off her new tattoo. Searching through her closet she finally found a perfect black shirt with a low back. She put it on and looked at her back in the mirror. The whole tattoo was visible, just as she wanted. After some more searching through her closet, she found a matching skirt and decided that what she picked out will be the perfect party outfit.

There was more than enough time until the party so Lorelai went back to putting the pieces of information on the directions she had together. ‘It would be easier if I had someone to ask what does all this mean. Wait! Maybe there are others. But how do I find them when I don't know how these people find me? This all started after I got my tattoo. That can’t be a coincidence.’ She thought and decided to call Alina and ask her if she tattooed a similar tattoo like hers on someone.

“Hi, Alina! Sorry for calling you on your day off. No, everything’s alright with the tattoo I just have a question. Yeah… Did you tattoo anyone with a tattoo like mine? ... Yeah… You didn’t. Can you ask around? I mean can you ask your friends if they tattooed anyone with a tattoo like mine? … Yeah, death and the hourglass with black sand and white letters … You can! Oh, thank you! … Yeah, call me back at any time. Thanks again! Bye.” Lorelai said. Her tattoo was specific so she hoped that, if this whole thing is happening because of the tattoo, Alina would find out if one of her friends had a client ask for the same or similar tattoo.

With that done Lorelai hoped that no more people were going to ask her where to go next before she could speak with someone who knows more about this whole thing that’s been happening to her.