“Dr. Munroe?” Paige said quietly, sticking her head through the door to his office proper. The doctor, a well-built man in his fifties with salt-and-pepper hair and brown eyes, looked up at her through his black-rimmed glasses, his fingers hesitating over the keyboard of his computer. “Kenny left. I put his appointment time for next week in the system already.”

“Oh. Good job. Thanks for letting me know,” he replied with a smile as Paige's face lit up like a Christmas tree at the compliment. “If you've already taken care of everything else you needed to today, you're free to go. I won't be here much longer myself.” Nodding, Paige confirmed that she had taken care of everything that she had had to do that day and withdrew her head from the warm, cozy office of the doctor. The cherry paneling and natural lighting was designed to make the visitor feel at home, and Paige could attest that it worked wonders on the nerves of the patients, as she had been, and still was, one.

To be fair, the rest of the building wasn't uncomfortable either. With humorous pictures on the light blue wall and a plush carpet, it did a good job of quelling the nerves of the patient as they waited to see the doctor, but his office had a decidedly cozier air than the waiting area. But that just went to show that Dr. Munroe had intentionally had the rooms designed to compound that soothing feeling. Whatever relaxation you experienced in the waiting room from the comics and colors was multiplied by the coziness of his office when you finally entered to meet him.

Before she could actually leave, there were still technically a few things that she had to do on her way out. The first was signing off the computer behind the front desk. The doctor had been quite clear that that was something that needed to be done every time she left the building, as it was a serious breach of security if she failed to do so. After having forgotten to do so more than a few times, Paige had figured that the best way to remember was to take care of logging off before doing any of her other end-of-the-day tasks.

The second, and last, task for that particular day was checking the bathrooms that were situated off the waiting room to make sure that no one was still in there and that the lights were off. Her mind wasn't really on what she was doing as she went about taking care of those few remaining tasks, however. Instead, she was thinking about the last words the patients had spoken to her after making their next appointments. Granted, there were only two regular patients that came in on Saturdays, but it was still weird that they had said the exact same thing to her: “Central Park. 9PM tonight.” And even weirder than that was the fact that they didn't remember saying it! Both of them had looked at her like she was crazy when she mentioned it.

The strangeness of the whole thing seemed like it might be something along the lines of the weird things that she could do. After all, why else would two people who have nothing in common say the exact same thing to her and have no memory of doing so? Really though, it had piqued her curiosity, and letting it go wasn't something that she would be able to do. Unfortunately, it was only around two o'clock in the afternoon once she finished her final tasks, which took a total of seven or so minutes, and that meant that she had a significant amount of time to kill.

By the time she got home, it was almost three o'clock, and she was beginning to think that she would never be able to last until she went to the park when her mother asked her if she wanted to go the store with her to pick up a few things after Paige got a fresh Goodnite on and changed into some regular clothes. Seeing a good way to kill time, Paige jumped at the chance, though it wasn't really surprising that she would want to go, as she loved spending time with her mom and dad.

Fortunately for her, though perhaps unfortunately for other people, Paige was a horribly inefficient shopper because she always gets distracted by things. With her mother there to help temper it, it wasn't as exaggerated, but it still extended the hour-long routine grocery shopping trip to about two hours. The trip was still successful, however, as they were able to get all the food and other supplies, like her changing supplies and soap for the shower, that they would need for the next month or so.

By the time they got back, it was around six o'clock. A late dinner killed another hour, and from there she only had a little bit of time to kill before she could justify leaving the house to go to the park, though she didn't actually specify where she would be going to her parents. She just said that she was going out, and they told her to be careful and take her phone. They probably assumed that she was going to see a movie or something, as she regularly did that. She didn't mind letting them think that either, as that would allow her some time at the park.

It was exactly 9:03 PM once she entered the park. Her outfit consisted of a lilac short-sleeved shirt with a silver star on the front, baggy black cargo shorts, and a pair of rainbow-striped Heely's on her feet, which was the same outfit she had wore to the store with her mom earlier in the day, minus the Goodnite, as she had, of course, changed into a fresh one since then. The heat in the late-spring air had lessened as night descended upon the city, though not so much that Paige regretted leaving her jacket at home. In fact, the breeze that blew across the park was delightful, not to warm but not to cold either.

As Paige walked further into the park, she noticed all the people who were still out and about, like the two guys on the bench, or the girl eating a few hotdogs in front of the stand, or the few people who seemed to be just out for a stroll. Regardless, Paige didn't see anything that seemed like what she was looking for, though, to be honest, she had no idea what she was looking for either. Humming to herself, she continued to walk in the direction of the park bench and hotdog stand, feeling drawn in that direction.

When she was about three feet off from the park bench, she felt like like she should stop. Something seemed... right about the particular area that she was in, and so she stopped and looked around, unable to mask her disappointment when nothing happened immediately. Sighing, she pulled out her phone to look at the time and maybe see about listening to some music or playing a game to kill a few more minutes. If nothing happened by about 9:15, it would probably just be best to go home.