Requiem

The Curtains Must Not Fall

At one in the morning, I was on the street, a handful of caffeine tablets shoved down my throat. God, this was going to be a longer night than I imagined. I had briefly told my parents that I'd be out retrieving something important, and this time the higher powers have spared me from parental rage. That, or they were just too tired to deal with their problematic child.

I stood on the sidewalk, waiting for the Toyota which would roll along anytime soon. My place wasn't that far from Mika and Akito's, really, but waiting in the darkness seemed to stretch out the duration for a miniature eternity. Was I being watched even now? After the quick event that had just passed, I was half tempted to snap my flip-phone in half and toss it. I leaned against the concrete wall, tilting my head backwards a bit as I waited for the car to come.

The vehicle's headlights caught my attention first. Opening my eyes despite not remembering that they'd fallen shut, I climbed into the car. I had been in it so many times that the whole process started to get a bit irritating, but of course the other option would be to go by foot.

“What's with the riddle, Sage?” Akito asked, his green eyes reflecting off shards of streetlight. Loading up the text message, I handed him the phone, letting him read it by himself.

There was a long pause, longer than what it would have taken for someone to scroll over a few messages. He grinned, handing the phone back to me. I averted my gaze from his eerie expression.

“Let me search that up,” he said. I looked at him, waiting for a further development in his findings. I knew that those two sentences had somehow rang a bell, but I never did manage to piece together what and how that helped. “Le Petit Prince...”

A minute passed with just the screen of Akito's mobile illuminating the inside of the car. We'd stopped on the side of one of the streets, having no clue where we were headed and for what reason. At last, the entire page showed up before us, and Akito began to scroll.

...And a second brilliantly lighted express thundered by, in the opposite direction.

“Are they coming back already?" demanded the little prince.

"These are not the same ones," said the switchman. "It is an exchange."

"Were they not satisfied where they were?" asked the little prince.

"No one is ever satisfied where he is," said the switchman.

And they heard the roaring thunder of a third brilliantly lighted express.

"Are they pursuing the first travelers?" demanded the little prince.

"They are pursuing nothing at all," said the switchman. "They are asleep in there, or if they are not asleep they are yawning. Only the children are flattening their noses against the windowpanes."

Akito read out the small block of text, his head pressed against the car's windows. From the rear mirror, Mika peered at the two of us with raised eyebrows, coming to the same conclusion as I did.

“The railway station...” She spoke in barely a whisper, glancing at the time that was displayed on the car's dashboard. That had our locations narrowed down a bit — There was only one railway station in Rimona. Even so, the station was far from small. A killer could easily hide, and do their jobs. Especially when we didn't know who the target was, and when. The car's engine gave a little roar and leapt to life, the vehicle lurching forward and taking a sharp turn as Mika began to head towards the station.

A white light and flashy sign welcomed our arrival. Along with the local fire station and maybe a few convenience stores, the train station was one place that was up and running all twenty-four hours a day. Cautiously, we headed towards the flight of stairs which lead to the different platforms. Up or down? The first decision itself was an important one, but far from easy to make. In the end we headed downwards.

The platform was more or less empty, with not even a person in the train that rumbled past. People hardly visited Rimona, not like the average-Joe had any reason to do so anyway. We searched the control rooms and ticket machines, but there wasn't a single soul. Even the security cameras seemed to desert the place, leaving just their red glow to stare emptily at the station. After a few more minutes of wandering, we headed up the flights of stairs.

Standing in the wide corridor that connected one platform to another, we checked for any signs of people being here. There was no one. A sense of deja vu hit me, and I remembered my trip down to the Capital not too many hours ago. Of course, the corpse never showed up on its own. That shit was designed to be difficult to find despite being in more or less the right place. You don't find anything until someone shows it to you.

I ground my teeth together and cursed. If K showed up right now, I'd jump her then ask questions. This was getting more and more frustrating by the minute, and it became more and more apparent that the person who had been on the other line was toying with me.

Is the said victim even alive right now?

I glanced over at the air vents that whirred with a steady gush of wind, but otherwise remained as stagnant as ever. I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped, my thoughts wandering to unspeakable places for a moment.

Goddamnit Akito.

I growled at him slightly, knowing that I was seriously going to get a heart attack one of these days. But it was also only then when I realized I'd been spacing out. I sighed. Then, my phone rang. I seethed and Mika gave me one of her eternally puzzled looks, a look which more or less drew the fine line between me and the non-irritating human being. I shrugged and made a face back at her, pulling out my flip phone and answering it on the third ring.

Who the bloody hell calls at one-thirty in the morning? I was on the verge of answering with ill greetings, but then my mother started speaking.

“Sage! Come home now!” She demanded hysterically through the line, followed by a string of barely audible curses and threats. I brought the machine a few inches away from my face, my jaw still clenched in confusion and terror. She didn't just sound pissed like she did when I got back from the Capital, but there was something else. Urgency? I quickly muttered an answer into the receiver, then slid the phone back into my coat pocket.

“I have to go.” I gave the two of them an apologetic look, pivoting on my toes as Mika began to speak. If I never understood why Mika gave me odd looks before, I certainly did now.

“How are you going to get home?” She asked pointedly. I exhaled. I wasn't about to ask her to give me a ride right now and out of the blue — She at least would want to hang around until results turned up.

“I'll find a way,” I said, taking off in a sprint and loading up the GPS on my phone. The route blinked yellow as it showed me how to get from the station to my residence. Twenty minutes, it said. Maybe fifteen if I ran. What was it that called for such an immediate return, anyway? I wandered as I hurried out of the station, pausing at the roadside to catch my breath. Maybe if a cab passed by on the off chance, I'd take that instead. My phone vibrated in the palm of my hand, signifying the arrival of a text message. And again.

I hit a few buttons on the machine, bracing myself for the greeting of angry messages. Instead, I never got a glimpse of the text. A searing pain shot across my shoulder and echoed down my back. I stumbled forwards a few paces in attempts to somehow escape it by running, but ultimately collapsed onto the ground with my mobile phone just out of my grasp. It vibrated again on the concrete, and the screen blinked.

Turning to lie on my side in terror and pain that even adrenaline failed to quench, I turned to catch a glimpse of the figure that towered over me. It was cloaked in black, an indigo mist surrounding its languid frame. Whoever it was, they weren't hurrying at all. It was a given that I wouldn't fight back. I couldn't, with every nerve paralyzed and burning in agony. A slightly numbing yet sharp sensation spread across my torso, and I fell back into the ground with a choked yelp.

Maybe this was how death felt like. My mind failed to make sense of my surroundings, and everything became a blurred maelstrom of shapes and agony. I wanted to succumb to the darkness, but there was something that wouldn't allow it. Why?

 I was the third, and final victim of Anneke's revenge.