Chapter Text
The school’s bell couldn’t have rung a second sooner. Even as the teacher struggled to keep the class for just a few more minutes, the half of the class that wasn’t packed up five minutes ago were already stuffing their bags. It was the end of the school day, after all; no teen worth their salt was going to stick around…
Except for a red-haired girl, who took her time putting her stuff away. She didn’t want to stay behind; she just didn’t want to be part of the rush to get out. Sighing when the last of her belongings slid into her messenger bag, she slowly stood up, looking at all the students flood out of the main gate from the second floor of the school. Friends waiting for other friends to then spend time doing God knows what until night inevitably came.
“Do you have work again tonight, Shelby?” the teacher asked, beginning to clean up.
“Y-yeah,” she managed to mumble out, “same as every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.”
“Don’t overwork yourself,” the teacher looked over her shoulder, “but don’t forget- “
“The homework is due the day after tomorrow,” she began making her way out of the classroom, blue eyes cast down at her feet. She had started on it and had been slowly picking away at it during her breaks, but she never really worked on it at home, strictly speaking. After she gave a proper goodbye to her teacher, Shelby made her way through the mostly empty school. Some clubs were still there, but they had stopped trying to get her to join them last year.
'My social life is so shot', she thought as she exited the school grounds. Having returned to her preferred clothing of black jeans, a long-sleeved black shirt, and a red hoodie, Shelby Baker felt better in a way that was unquantifiable. It would only last until she made it to the café, wherein she’d have to change into their uniform, but that didn’t make her wear a skirt. As she walked down the main street of Twilight Town, she couldn’t help but notice the fun kids her age were having; arcades, shopping with their parent’s munny, or just hanging out in a group. Instead, she got to work to cover fares in three different directions… yay. She had some pocket change, but not enough to really enjoy it.
She could, of course, ask her father or grandmother for some. She had on occasion, but if she felt bad asking her dad, she felt horrible asking an old woman who let her stay at her house while her father was away for anything more than room and board. She didn’t need much she couldn’t buy herself, so that was fine. It was fine to struggle; makes you human and all that.
“Rough day, eh?” her coworker, Lillian asked her half an hour into their shift. The afternoon rush was partly over; there’d be another one when the adults got off their work for the day.
“Yeah… Same as always, really.”
“You’ve got a nice work ethic, but there’s a part of me that feels bad for you,” Lillian mused as she fussed over the frozen confections, “I mean, a kid like you should be stressed about college, not working.”
“I got a few years,” Shelby shrugged, hoping that was the end of the discussion.
“That’s what I thought, but let me tell you…” Lillian took a breath in that told Shelby she wouldn’t shut up until the next rush came through, so she just decided to tune her out. Helped somewhat by the arrival of a regular.
He was a tall one, with fiery red hair compared to her wine red. His emerald eyes were also a stand out feature; she couldn’t think of many others whose green eyes were so… vivid. Some of her coworkers thought he was an ex-con because of the tattoos under his eyes (apparently that meant he killed someone), but he was nice enough. It was weird that he always wore the same coat. Shelby chalked it up to being his workplace uniform; he occasionally brought other people dressed similarly.
“The usual, Axel?” Shelby asked, leaning onto the counter lazily.
“You know it,” he said with that smile that never quite reached his eyes. When she first started working here, Shelby thought it strange. Now she just thought he was some kind of neurodivergent.
“No friends today?” she pressed, trying to avoid listening to Lillian chat up another customer. Axel seemed to pick up on it and chuckled that hollow chuckle and shook his head.
“Everyone’s a slacker at my job,” he confessed, “I get my work done early and bounce. Gotta make it here before you guys close, right?”
“…we’re open until 10 pm,” she couldn’t tell if she was monotone enough, but she did feel the corners of her mouth perk up, kinda giving her away.
“Careful there, Ms. Baker,” Axel’s smile turned somewhat playful, but in that hollow way she was so used to, “I might think you’re trying to say I’m not a valued customer.”
Shelby rolled her eyes as she produced the stick of sea salt ice cream from the freezer and began ringing him out.
“If I may ask,” Axel took the ice cream in his hand, “do you ever sleep?”
Shelby raised an eyebrow. Playful banter she was used to from Axel, but it was usually skin deep. They were both small constants in each other’s lives… for the moment, anyway. Shelby didn’t want to stay working here forever.
“Like any other person,” she shrugged. Axel nodded twice, before backing away and walking out the door. Shelby found herself staring at him as he left, trying to decipher the meaning of his question. He was a strange one…
“Shelby?” Lillian interrupted her, “You still there?”
Successfully shaken from her small trance, she returned to her job. The next four hours were Hell on her, but she made it through. Once Olette came through the door she practically threw off her apron and went to the breakroom. It was nearly sunset as she left the café, feet and back killing her. She had maybe two hours to enjoy her day before returning to Sunset Terrace. Twirling her self-made coffee in her hand, she considered going home early. Then she remembered she hadn’t been at that old mansion in a while. It was peaceful there, if nothing else. She was working on a sketch of it; wouldn’t hurt to see the real thing again.
Her mind made up, she adjusted her bag and headed for the hole in the wall on the far side of the common. While technically no one was allowed to go through the hole, she knew plenty of other kids did it to hang out in the woods. The mayor claimed to be fixing it after… an incident that no one seemed to be able to recall, but it’d been a few months since anyone could remember it showing up and no progress had been made.
Walking beneath the wall was always an experience. She didn’t know much about architecture, but she felt like the hole should’ve collapsed by now, with the weight of the rest of the wall on top of it. As she walked through the woods, she absentmindedly drank from her coffee. If the mansion didn’t interest her today, she could sketch the trees easily enough.
As she rounded the last corner to the mansion, she noticed someone was standing there. She didn’t think she recognized him; he had blonde spiky hair and wore… something. It was one of the weirdest outfits she’d ever seen, but maybe that was fashionable? She kept still for a few moments, just staring at the kid. He seemed to be similar in age to her, but she couldn’t see him in the school’s uniform. Maybe he moved here from out of town and was exploring? That didn’t explain the blank look on his face as he looked away from the mansion.
Just as she was about to walk away (not being in the mood for introductions), a strange wall of darkness appeared several feet away from where the kid was standing.
'That’s… not normal', Shelby thought, turning fully to face the scene unfolding before her. Out of the wall came a person in a similar coat to Axel’s. She quickly ran behind a tree, hoping she wouldn’t be seen. Poking her head out, she began trying to figure out what exactly was going on. This person seemed to be slightly taller than Axel and was speaking to the kid. Was that his dad or something, coming to pick him up after work? Axel got off a while ago, but he said his coworkers were slackers… That would make some amount of sense, but not explain why he came out of a literal dark portal. That was… not good, right?
The new figure waved his hands and made a light show happen – magic? She knew some people could do it. Whatever he was doing didn’t look like any magic she’d heard of, though. The kid didn’t seem happy to see his maybe-dad, so maybe this was something more… nefarious? Should she call someone? She couldn’t exactly see the man’s face, but she knew what the kid looked like. She could provide the police a sketch if they needed one… of half the kid’s face, but that was probably good enough, right? Or should she run in there? That was a much more frightening prospect. She was in no way a fighter; she could barely play volleyball without wanting to die. She could be enough to scare off the man though...
She swallowed, closed her eyes to steel her resolve for probably the stupidest thing she would ever do, and opened them…
To find they were both gone.
Rushing out into the clearing in front of the mansion, she looked around baffled. The man had appeared from nowhere, but she was able to see him appear. How’d he get the kid to follow him so easily? She hadn’t closed her eyes for that long, surely?
She took a few deep breaths and began biting her thumb as she thought. There was a chance that wasn’t real and she didn’t have to tell anyone. She’d never hallucinated before, but the mansion was supposed to be haunted. Maybe that was a haunting? A memory of something that had already happened, doomed to endlessly repeat? It would explain the sudden appearance of the man and their just as sudden disappearance. That somehow made more sense than someone having the ability to teleport and using that to kidnap witless kids.
'Who’d use that kind of ability like that?' Shelby thought, removing her thumb from her mouth. If she could teleport, the last thing she’d use it for is kidnapping people, too much hassle. If it was a haunting, she could probably get away with not telling anyone. Sighing, she gave the clearing one last look before deciding to leave. There’s no way that was a real thing that happened in front of her, so she was going to stick with her ‘it was ghosts’ line of thinking and just head back to her grandmother’s place. She finished her homework during break, so maybe she could just relax and remove this from her mind…
Shuffling her feet up the annoying tall hill towards the station, Shelby found she couldn’t ‘just remove it’ from her mind. It felt like she saw something she shouldn’t have seen. Rounding the last corner to the station, she found her eyes drawn upward. Stupid kids were always climbing up there to have a snack before headed home for the night. Usually it was Olette’s friend group, but today it was two figures dressed in black. She couldn’t quite make it out from here, but she thought she saw a plume of red hair up there. Maybe one of the friends Axel used to bring around finally finished whatever it is that their job entailed.
Shelby frowned. The man had been wearing a coat identical to Axel’s. Maybe he would know about it. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up when she thought about bringing it up to him; that sounded like poking her nose in someone else’s business. If Axel was an ex-con who murdered people, he probably wouldn’t appreciate her doing that. Yet there was a stronger feeling that told her to push on this. Hell, it wasn’t like a girl from Twilight Town who had no friends had anything to lose, right?
Sitting on the train, she found herself attempting to do a sketch of the boy she’d seen. She found she couldn’t help but focus on his eyes; they were similar to Axel’s: hollow, devoid of light. Axel was able to make up for that with an expressive face and movements, but that kid… looked completely dead.
She found herself enjoying her night, despite the lingering thoughts. Her grandmother was a great cook and knew how to raise her spirits without pressing on what was wrong. Not that Shelby was sure how to explain it in the first place. She went to bed content that tomorrow was a new day and she could put all this behind her...