If you missed the first 2 chapters than you can catch up here:

CHAPTER 1 - Set in 19th century London, in which Charles meets a strange man with stone cold eyes
CHAPTER 2 - Set in the future, in which 2 yound adults meet a strange looking man while outside the village

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CHAPTER THREE

Charles opened his eyes and swiftly started to look around himself. The first thing he saw was a canvas with an unfinished painting of the embankment with spots of dry green paint; it was standing right in front of him. As his eyes run around, he started to recognise the familiar shapes of his own room.

A wooden table on which he could see a pile of scattered papers; on top of the pile was a letter knife and an open envelope. Straight away it reminded him that he still had to reply to Sir Rochester’s request to paint a portrait.

Strangely enough, his cane was leaning against the table, rather than hanging at its usual place, along with the umbrella on the door knob.

The room was rather small and dark, and the only light that it got was through a tiny window right above the writing table. Although at this time of the year it was so dark during the early morning hours that light would not usually fall into the room almost until it was half past nine.

Charles realised by the amount of light in the room that he had been asleep for far longer than usually; the long cold ray of the light almost hit the chair next to the bed on which he found his clothes neatly folded.

The cold soggy air of the basement calmed him down in a strange way; It was a sign that he defiantly was home and wasn’t dreaming.

He closed his eyes for a second…

A sound of a ladle hitting the floor and the muffled cursing of one of the lodgers coming from the kitchen upstairs made something click in his head.

He began to play yesterday’s events backwards. He couldn’t remember getting home, but he could vividly see the man with the pipe sitting on the bench.

Charles got up from his bed and made a few steps towards the cabinet at the other end of the room. He dipped his hands into the bowl with cold water that stood on the edge of the cabinet; washed his face and started to put his suit on.

As he made it up the squeaking stairs the voices from the kitchen got louder.

“It’s the last time I see you around that place” Shouted Mrs Janet, the landlady of the house “I don’t believe that you could even think of spending the last shillings on her, you old fart”.

“The hell with you and this house” quite old looking, but yet a very feisty, her husband Matthew still sounded drunk. The smell of stale ale could be tasted all around the ground floor of the house.

As Charles made it up the flight of stairs he saw a metal mug fly just inches from his head.

“Ye, old bastard! Get out the house and go back to your whore” Janet’s actions clearly were quicker than her words. That mug flew right into her husband’s back as he was storming out the door.

As Matthew went out, the small silhouette of Janet with a rolling pin in her hands carried right after him to the street.

The heavy entrance door headed right into the back yard of Kinnerton Street; as the couple run out, the door was left wide open and that mixed outside early afternoon smell of cold, hay and horses took away any hunger that Charles was feeling.

He proceeded to head outside, back to the embankment; he was sure that as soon as he will get there, the events would come back to him in a better light.

As he made his way outside through the corridor of the house he decided to leave the door open. He briefly searched if he could see Matthew or Janet, but none were to be seen.

Charles hurried walking past the taverns on the street; he was trying to avoid directly meeting eyes with any passerby’s in order not to stumble upon someone he knew.

There was no time for this now; not when he had to realise what happened yesterday.

Turning to the corner of Victoria Street, he passed a butcher's shop. Walking out of the shop, a man carrying what looked like a piece of meat wrapped in a paper, brushed his shoulder.

"How rude!" Thought Charles; he didn’t even apologise.

Usually, he would stop and tell the stranger off for this kind of behaviour, but not today. He had to understand what happened.

Realising that every passerby and every carriage that went past him is still looking as dull as always, it made him feel warm inside, it meant that maybe what happened yesterday didn’t actually occur.

The streets still seemed as grey as ever, people are still shouting loud and the smog still smelled of rust.

After a half an hour’s stroll he finally made it to the embankment, it was the first time for many years that he went past the cemetery and didn’t stop there.

Charles stood right next to his bench and stared at it, he didn’t know what to do next. He was awaiting something but he didn’t know what to wait for. He turned his head back to the road looking at the carriages; then he looked at each direction of the embankment, searching for any clues. But nothing different was there.

"The power station was still working, the clock tower was in place and the people still seemed to have 2 legs", thought Charles.

He didn’t understand whether to be upset or to be happy. His hands were shaking, but was it happiness or was he just being nervous... He wasn’t sure.

Everything deep down inside was tickling and he felt a small itch right next to his gut.

As he carried on contemplating about his own feelings, he kept on walking along the embankment to the East of the city.

After half an hour’s walk, he got to the embankments market. The market at this late hour had already emptied, and it was only the fruit and the vegetable sellers that were still trying to sell any leftovers.

“Would you like to buy some apples Sir?” the kid offering the rotten apples must have been not older than 8 or 9. His clothes were scruffy and his face looked like he hasn’t washed it for a while. As disgusted as Charles was by those apples, he realised that the last time he had eaten was at least yesterday morning.

Up ahead he saw a tavern, and while hurrying to the entrance he quickly run his hand over his jacket to check for money.

The tavern was surprisingly quiet for a mid-market one. There were a couple of fellows dressed in red uniforms that were sitting in a corner and drinking something, what seemed like a jug of wine.

He walked past the tables looking for a more or less clean one. As he made his way to what seemed like a good place to take a seat, someone grabbed him by the hand.

“Have a seat with me chap”, he turned his head around to see that it was a man dressed in a suit just like his own. On the table, in front of the man, was a cup of a red drink and a whole grilled chicken that was resting on a metal plate closer to the middle of the table. The food was untouched, although it was clear by the look of the man that it wasn’t his first glass of wine today.

“Enjoy your afternoon Sir” Charles answered. He sat by the table he had laid his eyes on and called up the waiter by waving his hand. “Meat or soup Sir?” “Yes I'll have some soup and bring me a glass of ale”, he threw 2 shillings on the table.

The waiter was quick enough to grab them before the coins rolled over and disappeared into the kitchen.

Within 5 minutes Charles was served his soup and his ale. “This is good ale” he said. “Of course Sir, we always brew fresh”.

He tried the soup, and to his surprise, it was rather good. The soup had clearly contained meat and was more or less fresh. It was more than you could expect from this kind of place.

He ate quickly and hurried back outside, as decent as the tavern was the stuffy air inside mixed with the smell of tobacco was choking him up.

The ale let knew of itself; whether it was the lack of food or the strength of the drink didn’t matter right now.

He felt much better after that and decided to carry on walking; after all, it isn’t that often when it wasn’t raining at this time of the year.

He decided to head east once again; having walked through the last of the market carts he made his way back to the embankment and turned towards the factories.

Walking past the big noisy buildings he walked out to a quieter part of the river. He could see the port up ahead of him and he made it his destination. After which he knew he would turn back to the city.

As he passed building after building he walked out to an open lane that had a small canal going of it inside even a smaller and narrower than the canal itself street.

He was about to walk past the lane as something had caught his attention.

At first it seemed like any usual narrow lane, with a few old fishing boats tied up; clothes drying up on ropes outside the windows and a couple of big rats going through the pile of garbage on the corner of the street.

Right about 20 yards into the lane was a small bridge that was connecting the two opposite sides. Just below the bridge, there was a man that caught his attention.

The man was wearing a funny looking woollen hat, which was partially covering his head. He was dressed in a grey trench coat that was clearly a couple of sizes too big for him.

He was holding a huge rock in his hands; the rock was so heavy that he was barely able to keep his back straight while holding it.

Around the man’s neck was a tightly tied rope and the other end of that rope was tied around the rock that he was holding.

The look on his face didn’t seem like he was about to commit suicide, the opposite, it looked as though he was happy and he was smiling.

“Hey. Stop. What are you doing?” Charles run up to the man. “What are you doing?” he asked him again. “Isn’t it obvious” “I am doing what I have to do. It is in my best of beliefs to do so”, it occurred once again that the man was in fact smiling.

“Then I am obliged to stop you. If I saw you doing this, I cannot take the responsibility to walk away now”
“What makes you think that you could stop me from fulfilling my obligations”, the man’s hands were starting to shake under the weight of the rock”.

“What obligations could you possibly have that will push you into doing this?” Charles sounded bemused and at the same time curious.

The man turned his body back towards the canal, at this moment Charles made a leap towards him and pulled back with all his strength by the rope round the man’s neck. Both of them flew to the ground, the man landed on top of him and luckily enough the rock landed right next to them.

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