Poison City

 

The Rails was the only public railway running through Poison City. It went alongside the official border between the South-Eastern and South-Western Districts, and into a final station at the center of the Northern District. On the other end, the rail went across the areas beyond the lands surrounding Poison City and ended at another city. For many residents of Poison City, this was the only way to travel outside, or even across the city.

 

Gloria was one of those people - she only had a bicycle, which would be fine for South-Eastern and South-Western Districts, but not across the mountainous lands leading to the Northern District where her babysitting job was. And right now, she just needed to wait for the outpour of the tourists to leave the station so she could board the train.

 

“Oh god, finally we’re here.” A male tourist scoffed as he got off the stairs: “Let’s get this over with. What are we gonna enjoy here? Dirt and dust sprinkled street food? Or superstitious mumble jumble about how little babies need to be bathed in oil?”

 

“Oh, pipe it, Alex. ” A female tourist behind him smacked him on the shoulder: “Be respectful of the locals and their tradition. Keep your snark and attitude to yourself while we’re here, okay?”

 

“Oh yeah, I’ll be very careful. Suuure.” The male tourist waved his hands and raised his eyebrows: “I better not let them curse me by tricking me into drinking pork blood. That would be sooo scary.”

 

Gloria moved close to this tourist, then with a light bump on his arm, the man’s pocket was slit open by her fingertips, and his wallet ended up in her hand.

 

“Ugh, big talk for a man with only 50 dollars of cash.” After finding a corner away from security cameras, Gloria shook her head, then carefully tossed the emptied out wallet with all of the IDs and credit cards still in it onto the ground.

 

The entire car she was in was slightly crowded, with stilled air and smell of sweat and armpits. She was used to it by now. It was not pleasant, but if the chance came by, she could spot some interesting figures going through cars to cars. And before long, one of those figures appeared: a man with dirty hair and in a loose dirty cloak came to the car where she was in, and started asking everyone if they needed “something exciting”.

 

“What kind of excitement do you have?” When the man swept by her side, Gloria asked with a low voice. “Do you have any fragrances?” This was a coded way of asking if the man had talismans or other possibly illegally obtained blessed items. If she was to ask about candies or sticks, then she would be asking about drugs or weapons.

 

“Sorry, lady. No fragrances at this time.” The man shook his head: “You want some sticks? I’ve got some good sticks.”

 

“Ah, no. Thanks.” Gloria sighed: “Thank you though.”

 

“You sure, little lady? ” The man insisted: “It’s not a good time out there, folks’ve been up to some really shady stuff. A nice stick’ll make you safer.”

 

“Yeah, but I need fragrances more, I can’t afford sticks anyway.” Gloria shrugged. “Thanks.”

 

“A’ight.” The man nodded, revealing a mouth full of crooked but clean teeth: “Come find me if you change your mind.”

 

Gloria didn’t. When the train got to her station, she just headed right off and toward a bus stop. The sun was ready to set, after a busy day for her. Sue still did not call her yet, it seemed like she was sleeping soundly.

 

The bus ride took around 15 minutes, faster than normal, and Gloria ended up getting where she needed to be a few minutes earlier - the residence of Brian Teith, Samantha Teith, and their young 12 year old son Kevin Teith. It was a two-storey single family house with blue roof shingles, looking almost completely the same as the other houses on the same side of the streets. This was an area some called “Verpflanz-Burg”, or a place for transplants, in which many people that were born in, or had spent most of their lives in other districts lived.

 

“Thank you for coming.” Brian and Samantha seemed to be in quite a hurry, and with some kind of worry looming over them: “Sorry, but there’s been a change in plans, we’ll still pay you in full, but -”

 

“Oh, what happened?” Gloria asked, not too concerned about her payment but more so with the Teiths’ troubled look: “Can I help?”

 

“It’s uh - nothing to be worried about.” Brian Teith exchanged looks with his wife, then said: “We’re going to come back early, and we will probably check with you a few times while we’re gone.”

 

“Not that we don’t trust you.” Samanth Teith tried to reassure Gloria: “You know us, we completely do. It’s just recently there’s been a few crimes, break-ins and stuff, happening around the neighborhood. And we’re worried. If it weren’t for this dinner being a critical business meeting, we’d never go out at this time.”

 

“Understood, I’ll make sure all the doors and windows are properly shut.” Gloria nodded: “Drive safe.”

 

“And - uh - we also installed some security cameras. And you can watch the feed on all of them with that tablet.” Brian pointed at a brand new tablet on the main table of the living room.

 

“I’ve noticed. Anything else you’d like me to keep an eye on?” Gloria glanced at the tablet - there were six smaller screens, each displaying a different camera’s live recording. 

 

“Just don’t hesitate to call us if you see or hear anything. We’d be right back.” Samantha said as she handed Gloria a key: “And - uh, if you need anything for - for protection, we have some pepper spray locked in the kitchen counter and that locked drawer under the coffee table.”

 

“I see. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an extra eye on everything.” Gloria nodded, “Drive safe.”

 

“Alright, I’ll leave Kevin with you then.” Samatha and Brian waved to their young boy who was lying on the couch and playing with a tablet of his own.

 

“Bye Mom and Dad!” Kevin moved his head out from behind the tablet.

 

When the door closed, Gloria immediately headed to the backdoor, the kitchen, and all the rooms to check on the windows. She even checked the windows in the attic to make sure that they were locked. Though the Teiths did not tell her what was going on, she could easily tell that the thought of any crime in the streets even getting close to this household bothered them. So she would just need to be extra certain that all the safety precautions are in place.

 

“So, Kevin, we meet again.” After this, Gloria sat down by Kevin’s side and asked: “What do you wanna do tonight? You’d better think of something soon. You heard your mother, the dinner will be quick.”

 

“I don’t want to play anything right now.” Kevin threw his tablet to the side. Gloria glanced at its screen - it was news. What would a 12 year old boy read news for?

 

“Okay - what do you wanna do? You recently picked up reading?” Gloria nodded, then smiled at the boy.

 

“I know why they’re worried.” Kevin looked Gloria in the eye, stern and serious unlike anyone of his age: “It’s the missing kids.”

 

“Missing kids? What do you mean?”

 

“Over the past few days, there have been two children missing in this area.” Kevin picked his tablet up and showed Gloria some of the bookmarked web pages. One showed that there was a young boy missing just five days ago. And the other showed that a girl went missing on her way home. Neither of the children had been found.

 

“Why’d you know this?” Gloria frowned: “Your parents… you should not be reading news like this.”

 

“Yeah yeah, child blocks. I worked around it.” Kevin shrugged: “Dad’s passwords are all the same with a little variation. But - pay attention! Things are happening here! And - I’m afraid they may come for my friends!”

 

“Why - why your friends?”

 

“The missing kids.” Kevin leaned in a little and lowered his voice: “They saw ghosts before they went missing. And some of my friends saw ghosts - just yesterday.”

 

“Saw ghosts? How is that?”

 

“The first boy, he saw ghosts under his bed and in his closet, he cried for days until he was taken.” Kevin nodded, as if he was there when things happened: “And the girl, she heard people calling to her from the sewers and docks. She heard it for days! Days!”

 

“Okay, okay.” Gloria thought for a while, and couldn’t help but look out of the window.

 

There was a hint of the sun’s last flare in the distance, just above the horizon. The night was here.