I woke up in a white and blue-themed hospital room. The stuffy and restricting atmosphere I usually hated was for once a welcome sight.
I guess they made it in time.
I noticed people in my periphery at the edge of my bed.
My body was incredibly sore. The small turn I did to face them caused my body to groan, but otherwise, there was no pain. I had managed to request full treatment before blacking out it seemed.
A nurse fidgeted in place behind a haggard, smoking man. His five o’clock shadow looked a few days old, and it was hard to tell if his eyes were red from the smoking or sleep deprivation.
“Hey, Kid. This won’t take much time.” He spoke with a gentle gruff. “Name’s Dan Bright, you can call me Detective Bright.”
If that was a joke, his flat delivery didn’t make it clear. There wasn’t much bright about him, including his nondescript dark clothing. Something about his clothes made it hard to focus on his body. The only hint of it being a joke was a tiny grin, and the only hint of him being a detective was his badge.
He must be high-ranking if he isn’t in uniform. The usual militaristic blue uniform was absent.
“Nice to meet you… Detective Bright.”
“Please, just Dan.” He waved.
Okay, he is fucking with me. Not that his serious tone made it clear.
He moved on to his next cigarette, handing the nurse his previous one. Once his hands were free, he pulled out a white string. “I have a couple of questions to ask you. Can you put this on?”
Eumalia’s legal system didn’t prioritize privacy. There weren’t cameras set up everywhere, but investigations had the means to be thorough. I couldn’t refuse or ask for a lawyer, not that the job existed anymore anyways. But as long as I didn’t commit a crime there was nothing to worry about.
“Sure.” I accepted the string. I avoided addressing him by name to avoid more jokes.
I fidgeted with the string, not sure how to put it on. When it finally wrested atop my wrist, it automatically snapped around.
You could’ve explained it, Detective… He was on to his third cigarette.
“Your name?” Puff. A third of the cigarette vanished.
“Cash King.”
“My condolences. What’s your recount of yesterday’s events?”
I was only out for one night. Not surprisingly, this seemed centered around Bruno.
“I went atop the Lowkey Suites to jump off the edge of the city. I was interrupted by Feror Stanton who saved me, then accepted my contract that legalized his attempt to kill me.“ Fourth cigarette. “As I was about to die, Bruno came in and murdered him. He stayed to see if I was still planning to jump, then he left when he learned I wasn’t.”
He studied the wristband which remained unchanging.
“Did you know Bruno prior?” He skimmed past the suicide attempt. Suicide was by no means illegal nor legally had any follow-up.
Perhaps he’s checking if I helped set up the murder?
“We are strangers, but I bumped into him randomly on the streets not long before.”
“Do you have any connection to The Circus?”
The entertainment district? The Circus was an organization that worked as the centerpiece of the entertainment district. And it was a group I had no connection to.
“No.” Fifth cigarette. If he was going to keep going at this pace, I needed to be brief if I didn’t want to suffocate to death.
“Did Bruno indicate what he was doing next?”
“No.”
“Was there anyone else in the surrounding area that may have witnessed the events?”
“I don’t know.”
“Admit it. You’re the mastermind!” He pointed his cigarette butt at me.
“No.”
Okay, he’s back to messing with me. It was best not to feed people like him a reaction.
“You must be fun at parties. You remind me of my teens. Aren’t you past that phase yet?”
The poor kids. I held back rolling my eyes at the man who could kill me easier than he could smoke a cigarette. Despite any potential risk, my curiosity couldn’t help a single question.
“Is Bruno at large?”
“Huh? No. He’s dead.” He stated as if it was obvious.
Even if you were strong enough to melt someone into a puddle within a second, crimes rarely went unpunished in Eumalia. There were no cases that I knew of, but I wasn’t naïve.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The punishments were never lenient. The rich could afford to commit anything they could picture, while the poor would never escape the law. The model system that kept Eumalia’s crime rate the lowest.
The one exception off the table was acts towards children, but there were some extreme body modifications out there.
I did have some lingering questions.
Did the police off him? We were in mob territory. Was it them enforcing? What was Bruno’s connection to the entertainment district?
“Why do you ask? Were you into him?” Dan interrupted my ponderings while standing up to leave.
“No.” The wristband turned white to red, my cheeks matching when I noticed. “I just found him interesting is all. Nothing else.”
The string returned to its white color. With a parting wave that parted the surrounding smoke, Dan made his way out the room leaving me and the nurse.
The nurse checked over her shoulder multiple times before letting out a deep breath, the tension leaving her body.
“Cash King.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“The doctor deemed you fit to leave the hospital. Would you like to handle your bill today or over installments?”
It was my turn to tense up. I probably should’ve been tense earlier, but this was scarier. How could she deliver such poisonous words with such a straight face?
“I’ll pay for it now.”
[Hospital fees - 62,148.01 Eumalian Dollars]
Tears welled up. A gasp escaped me. The notification hit harder than yesterday’s beating. I was getting ready to go back up on that rooftop.
Okay, I am being dramatic.
I knew it was a fair price. Fatal injuries that would have normally left permanent damage even after recovery were healed overnight. I hadn’t stood up, but I could tell I would be able to walk.
I did have some school provided insurance, but contract related insurance was separate. Unless the contracts fell under some popular umbrella, insurance plans were individually formed. A tedious and expensive process.
Not that I liked insurance anyways. I only had my school insurance because it was more paperwork to not have it than to have it.
Basically, I had this coming. If anything I should’ve been glad how cheap it was, especially considering I received full treatment. It’s cheaper to heal the low levels.
Not that any of this logic made it less painful as something inside me cracked.
Accept.
Check Balance
[Cash King’s Balance: 37,831.78 Eumalian dollars]
I managed to walk out of the hospital and order a self-driving transport car home. I passed out once my head hit the pillow.
Only 10 minutes passed. No… It was 10:49 A.M., the next day.
My stomach grumbled.
I threw myself from the bare mattress onto the ground and spent the next few minutes working up the nerve to stand up. I checked each empty cereal box for a single Ch**rio. No luck. I needed food.
After sticking my head under the sink for hydration and changing, I ordered another self-driving transport over the phone.
To the entertainment district.
It was my first time in the entertainment district. It was only a forty-five minute drive, but I never had a reason to go. Wasn’t interested, not that I could afford the worthwhile places. Hell, I wasn’t close to affording any of the prime areas even with my newfound wealth.
The car parked outside a ten story building. Tinted windows and a sign reading “Lion’s Den” made the ground level, while the remainder of the building front was a mural of said lion.
I made my way in, finding myself in a reception room. A snooty, well dressed man stood at the podium.
I don’t like to judge people without knowing them, but it’s hard not to when you’re right most of the time.
“Leave. You can’t enter our restaurant dressed like that.” He shooed his hands and turned up his nose.
I looked down. Red, plaid pajama pants and a band shirt. It was what was at the top of the dryer. A red and black color scheme with my sandals matching the part too. Not too bad.
“Really? I can afford to eat here.”
“Leave before I call security.” So I left.
It wasn’t over.
I made my way down the street, passing by the occasional proactively or flamboyantly dressed person. In the far distance was an abrupt, two-story, dark brick wall. The Wall Of Absorption.
My first time seeing the infamous wall, but it wasn’t what I needed. I didn’t have a phone for GPS, so I wandered aimlessly. It didn’t take long to find my destination.
Shit!
I flinched back. Three people in a display window were staring at me. No, “people” was the wrong term.
It was a group of one male and two females.
They looked similar to people. Their skin was rosy. Their expressions were cheerful. Their hair was glossy, and their clothes seemed straight from a gala.
But, they weren’t moving.
Their skin had an unnatural sheen to it, and their eyes were glazed. They felt like the eyes of a painting that followed you wherever you went. These people weren’t alive. They were preserved.
The entertainment district decreased public restrictions the further you went in and the later it became. However, it was still lax, even here in the fringes.
Draperzombie & Stitch… This will have to do.
The shop was filled with aisles of clothes. On the left was a section of dark, professional clothes. The right was the color of the rainbow. From suits to skin suits.
No, really. One aisle was a row of nude mannequins varying in skin color, weathering, size, and body hair. They had the same unnatural sheen the mannequins in the window had. All they had on them was a price tag around the collar.
Another aisle filled with panda fur coats and ivory tusks apart of a headpiece or smaller segments studded into pants. I quickly walked by without paying attention to the other selections.
It didn’t take me long for my heart to land on a piece of clothing a mannequin was wearing.
It was a shawl made up of scales from a goldfish. It covered the torso equidistantly and was open in the center, held together by a connecting string. It possessed the same sheen.
I grabbed the golden shawl along with a suit checkered with the colors of autumn and went to the changing room. On the way to the counter, I grabbed a gold inlaid cane and an autumn leaf wraith. Passing by a mirror, I looked ridiculous, but my gait was confident.
My cadence, not so much.
“Um, I’d like to get these clothes.”
An unamused teenager set down her book. She gave me a blank stare. It stretched on.
Do these clothes have price tags that need to be scanned? Do I need to change back? Oh, was it okay to take the shawl off the mannequin? Wait, aren’t you supposed to be in school Miss?
I hadn’t shopped for clothes before. My entire wardrobe dated back to high school.
[Clothes. Total: 12,597.38 Eumalian dollars]
It turned out fine. The interaction, not the price. What the hell did I buy? I looked up for validation that all was good, but she was already back to reading.
A ray of light came through the window, breaking through the shade covering the girl. Then, her skin took on a familiar sheen.
Accept!
I hurried out of the store and down the street. I distracted myself with my new outfit. I gave an approving assessment but felt something was missing.
I left my previous clothes in the changing room.
I didn’t need them anyways.