Unlike the bare concrete and steel of stations like Coldessi Boulevard or Paulownia Square, Stone Crossing had a grand street level lobby. White fluted columns held up the arching roof. Old ticket booths lined two walls, their windows barricaded with gilded brass bars. Advertising posters hung over every free section of wall space: shows that can’t go on, galleries that couldn’t open, products abandoned in empty stores.
Shadows filled the hall. Only the glow of electric signs and the odd incandescent bulb left burning provided just enough light to navigate by. Rain echoed through the stillness as it pattered on the roof two stories above. Everyone’s cellphones told them that it was morning, but the city was still swathed in nighttime gloom.
Bern claimed one end of the lobby for himself. He skated around lazily, practicing his usual tricks. The wheels of his skateboard clacked rhythmically against the gray stone tiles that covered the lobby’s floor in a diamond pattern.
Sakari stood at the opposite end of the lobby, swinging his sword at the empty air. He was going through the training maneuvers Master Phong taught him a long time ago. He had to warm up if he was going to take out any Gibberish today.
David and Rianne stood by the information desk in the center of the lobby. At least, that’s what the banner sitting within that circular island of work stations called it. David leaned against the heavy wooden paneling, beside one of the gates that keeps the public outside the circle. Rianne sat on the matching wooden countertop, polished to a mirror shine. Both of them were supposed to be lookouts, but they ended up watching Sakari and Bern instead.
Rianne glanced down at her phone. The last text in the group chat was sent an hour ago.
C: Sorry all. Mia & I are running late. On our way now.
Two flashlights beams caught Bern’s eye. They were coming up the stairs leading to the Purple Line platforms. Bern kicked his skateboard into his hands and held it defensively. “Oy! You!”
“Who goes there?” Rianne called out, looking up from her phone.
The shouting grabbed David and Sakari’s attention. They slowly approached Bern and Rianne.
A familiar voice assured them, “Guys, chill. It’s just us.” Soon, Mia and Cara emerged into the dim lobby. They lowered their cellphones to angle the flashlight beams onto the ground.
“Cara! Mia!” Bern exclaimed, relaxing.
He, Rianne, David and Sakari jogged over to meet the sisters halfway. “How’d you sleep?” Rianne asked them.
“Okay,” Mia answered. “Mainly because I thought everything would go back to normal by morning. That uh — didn’t happen.”
“I feel you,” Bern said.
Rianne asked, “What about you, Cara?”
Cara stared blankly at the girl. She still looked half-asleep.
“I’m guessing not as well,” David concluded.
Mia said, “From what I could tell, she spent some quality time with her good friend vodka after you all left. Then she cried into her pillow for an hour, popped a melatonin, and went to bed.”
Cara closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “The walls in our apartment are too damn thin,” she complained. Her voice was rough and low, like those were the first words she had spoken that day.
“Good to hear your friend’s doing okay,” Sakari told her. “Say, any chance we’ll get to meet ’em?”
Everyone turned to Sakari. They each gave him a different look of confusion. At last, Rianne said simply, “Vodka is alcohol.”
“Where’s Nico and Shavonne?” Cara asked, changing the subject.
“Up the clock tower,” Bern told her.
“We’re back!” Shavonne’s voice called in the distance.
David faced the voice and observed, “Not anymore they’re not.”
Sakari waved his arms over his head, shouting, “Hey! Over here!”
Everyone regrouped with Shavonne and Nico at the information desk. Noticing Cara and Mia, Shavonne said, “Good. Everyone’s here.”
“Any luck, Nico?” Mia asked him.
“Yeah. Yeah,” he answered, though he seemed distracted with something. He pointed at the information desk and asked, “Do they still…?”
“Maybe,” David said.
Nico leaned over the counter of the information desk. Shavonne and Rianne turned on their cellphone flashlights to light up the area Nico was searching. He grabbed a city map from a plastic stand tucked behind one of the computer monitors. He unfolded the map, spreading it flat on the counter for everyone to see. “That’s where the Gibberish are,” he said, pointing to Vaughn Square. “All the ones in the neighborhood come and go from here. Picked up some flyers circling the block, like they’re guarding the place.”
Shavonne recognized the street names printed on the map. “I remember you staring out that way for a while. Couldn’t really tell since it’s so dark, but I’d swear the skyline had changed.”
“Really?” Sakari asked.
“How?” David inquired.
She replied, “There was an extra tower that I hadn’t seen before. Looked kinda creepy.”
Mia crossed her arms. “Yep. That’s a boss dungeon. Calling it now.”
Sakari wasn’t following. “But she said she saw a tower. Dungeons are supposed to be underground, right?”
“Pretty sure Mia’s using the gamer definition,” Bern told Sakari. He then asked the others, “Ya think those skin-walking bastards are behind it?”
“It’s possible,” David said into his hand.
“Regardless, let’s not go there today,” Cara reasoned. “Not while some of us are still at zero.”
Nico examined the map again. After a moment, he said, “Well, I found three smaller groups here… here… and here.” His finger glided over the paper, stopping on Hill Avenue, Museum Street, and Vista Street in turn.
“The Gibberish have spoken. We’re splitting up,” Shavonne concluded.
“Guess so.” Rianne turned off her flashlight and held her phone to her chest.
Bern put a comforting arm around his sister’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. I can come with.”
“Thanks, but I already promised Mia and Shavonne that I’d go with them if this happened.”
“Huh?”
Shavonne told a surprised Bern, “Yeah. We worked it out last night.”
“Where?” Cara asked Mia.
Mia reached into her purse and took out her phone. “Over text,” she said as she scrolled through her recent ones. “Didn’t you see the thread when you woke up? It was in…” Mia’s eyes widened with a sudden realization. “Oh.”
“Let me guess. You worked this all out in fandom chat?”
“Sorry,” Mia replied sheepishly.
“Me too,” Rianne told Bern in a similar tone. “I should’ve told you this morning.”
Cara sighed. “Well, if that’s what you want.”
Bern looked Shavonne in the eye. She answered Bern’s silent demands by saying, “Don’t worry. I won’t let the Gibberish get Rianne. Promise.”
After a second, Bern gave Shavonne a nod of trust and acknowledgment. “Then I call dibs on pretty boy.”
David perked up.
“Not like that!” Bern quickly pointed at David. “I just don’t trust you not to try some shady shit. So I’m gonna keep my eye on you.”
Sakari angrily added, “And I don’t trust you not to snap him in half like a twig just because you feel like it. So I’m coming too.”
David smiled and said calmly, “I told you before. I’m down for a threesome.”
Bern shouted like he was disciplining a pet dog. “Hey. Hey! No. Stop it!”
David laughed. Shavonne hid her face in her hands and groaned. Mia scrunched her face in annoyance as she caught on to the innuendo. Sakari looked back and forth at David and Bern, growing more confused. “What is…? I’m…”
Rianne put a hand on his shoulder. “Sakari, don’t. Just don’t,” she advised.
Meanwhile, Nico and Cara caught each other’s gazes. They shared a look of realization that the two of them were paired up by default.
Cara rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry you’re stuck with an old-timer like me.”
Nico sighed. “Just keep up, alright?”
Everyone’s phones rang and buzzed as they received the next mass text. It came from the same, unfamiliar number as yesterday — the one that presumably belonged to Kesa Industries.
Kill the unnatural beasts called Gibberish. All who do not by 2am tomorrow morning will be removed.
Mia concluded, “So we are supposed to hunt Gibberish. Guess your instincts were right, Cara.”
“And we figured it out before those creeps ever said a thing,” Shavonne added with a proud smile.
“We hunt Gibberish and pursue our own goals at the same time. Everybody’s happy. Nobody has any reason to suspect anything.” David smiled. “I love it when all the pieces fall into place.”
Bern held up a determined fist. “Gloat all you want, Author. You’re not stopping us.”
Cara began, “Look, y’all. I know we’ve got side quests on the list, and I’m the last person to stop anybody from pursuing a mystery. But we can’t let that distract us from our top priority.” She held up her phone and pressed a button on the side to light up her lock screen. The other seven could clearly see the three zeros beneath her name. “Increasing this number and earning our place on the leaderboard. I don’t want any of us getting removed. Got it?”
The others nodded in unison, signaling their understanding.
“So what are we waiting for?” Sakari said eagerly. He asked Nico, “Where’s the biggest, toughest group? Let me at them!”
David giggled. “Someone’s up for a challenge.”
Nico turned on his cellphone flashlight to better illuminate the map. He spun the map on the counter for a few seconds, trying to reorient himself and jog his memory. Pointing, he answered Sakari, “That’d be the Vista Street gang.” Moving his finger north, Nico added, “Cara and I will take Museum Street. Fewer numbers.”
“Which leaves Hill Avenue to us,” Shavonne reasoned. “We’ll take care of it, right girls?”
“Yeah,” Mia answered confidently.
Rianne asked, “Hey, um, after we’ve done all we need to today, could we meet up again? Ya know, like yesterday?”
David concurred, “That’s a good idea, actually. It’d give us a chance to share what we’ve discovered.”
“Cara? Mia? Would it be okay if we met up at your place again?”
“Sure,” Mia answered. “Just shout in the group chat once you’ve made it to Silver Arches.”
“The main thread this time,” Cara added, giving her a teasing grin.
Mia chuckled awkwardly.
“How about dinner at seven?”
“You’re willing to cook again?” Shavonne wondered.
“I’m willing to cook as long as our food holds out. What’s wrong with keeping a bit of normalcy around for the sake of your sanity?”
“I’m not complaining,” Bern said. The others voiced their agreement to the dinner plan too.
With a brief round of goodbyes and good luck wishes, the eight split up to catch their respective trains. Nico and Cara descended to the Red Line. The rest left for the Blue Line. The boys headed to the southbound platform, while the girls headed to the northbound one.
©2024 Skyla Caldwell. All rights reserved.