“So, uh, what do you think?” After the meeting, Marcus did not go home, but brought Kevin to a 24 hour coffee shop - to get Kevin warm and to discuss the things they just learned.
“I - well, I can understand why you like her - and trust her. But I am not entirely sure I can.” Kevin sighed and rubbed his temples: “Not to rain on your parade, man, but she’s way too crafty for me to feel comfortable sharing a lot of information with, especially important information.”
“Crafty? You mean street-smart.” Marcus chuckled and shook his head: “And - I am more curious as to what you think of what she told us.”
“I’d say it’s definitely interesting. Especially the fact that the people at the S&S Corp already find their workplaces creepy and troublesome. I don’t suppose they would tell anyone outside of the company that. So we should definitely look into it, and see if we can press them on this information.”
“One thing about that, I remember hearing about the families - the city is providing them with basic living stipends. I also heard that the companies are sending them money, somewhat proportional to the victims’ wages before the incident.” Marcus nodded at the waitress as she brought the drinks over: “It’s strange isn’t it? It’s almost like they are trying to threaten these family members with financial cutoff, not simply to avoid the workplace death disputes.”
“So, should we ask to speak with them?”
“No, maybe now’s not the time. I think it’d be better if we’re more prepared with more evidence, instead of inconclusive information with insinuation.” Marcus shook his head: “If it’s possible I’d want to know what the community collective have on them as well - they seem to have a lot of interest in keeping these people’s mouths shut. I wonder why.”
“Hmm.” Kevin kept rubbing his temples: “Maybe liability? Maybe they have seen other cases like this one but kept them under the rug?”
“Wait - remind me - how many cases of these suspected paranormal deaths have something to do with electricity?” Marcus pulled out his phone and started looking for his notes.
“I think - I can count 5 of them as we know for sure. ” Kevin looked at his phone at the same time: “There have been some others ever since we - you know, REALLY started looking. But they are mostly cases in deserted and rundown places, easily attributable to local gangs and meditated murder by enemies.”
“Wait - wait wait wait.” Something clicked, then exploded in Marcus’ mind like a bomb. “Deserted places, you say?”
“Yes, deserted and rundown places. Slums, or those cheap apartment complexes. You know, like the coworkers of Lydia Mu?” Kevin shrugged and drank half his cup: “What are you thinking?”
“Electricity.” Marcus scratched his jaw: “If I remember correctly, before what happened to the Ling family, there was a very brief power outage of the local electricity grid, right?”
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“Yeah I remember. According to Shrevas and Keryn, it was not a power outage per se, more like electricity instability that might have led to some local houses losing electrical power for a short period of time.” Kevin sniffled and had to wipe his nose with a piece of tissue, but then instantly leaned in, almost bumping his forehead into Marcus’ nose: “You mean - THE LACK OF electricity has something to do with them? ”
“Exactly, and I think it is probably the other way - ” Marcus nodded his head: “It’s because of the lack of electricity in the environment that it happened.”
“You base it on the case with Lydia Mu?” Kevin seemed much more awake right now.
“Yes. I don’t discount the possibility that paranormal occurrences CAN cause the power to” Marcus squeezed the bridge of his nose: “But - let’s keep this between us for now. It’s just a theory. And I don’t wanna - ”
“You don’t wanna lead us on a wrong path. I know, I know.” Kevin finished up his entire cup: “I’ll look into it and scrape the crime data with this in mind.”
“Thank you Kevin. You’re the man.” Marcus chuckled and patted his friend on his shoulder.
When Marcus got back to his apartment, his father was still in the dining room waiting for him, with two plates of still steaming food on the table.
“What are you doing up so late, Dad?” Marcus asked as he put down his keys.
“That is because - I have some good news for you.” Elvin smiled and extended his hands at the plates: “Here, have some snacks with me.”
“Good news? What kind of news?” Marcus smiled as he got a bottle of beer for himself and sat down by the table. “Did we win the lottery? I don’t remember buying but it’d be good to know that we won - ”
“Not that - not that. Although that would be terrific.” Marcus’ father laughed out loud, shook his head, then took out a folded letter from his pocket.
“What’s this?” Marcus took the letter as his father slid it over, opened it and skimmed through the first paragraph out of three: “ ‘... and it is with great pleasure that we would like to invite you to be officially on board as a full-time store clerk.’ So you passed probation? Congratulations, Dad!” He chuckled as he raised his bottle of beer, to meet with his father’s cup of warm water.
“Yes! Just did the official paperwork earlier this afternoon.” Elvin laughed again: “It’s good now! I am officially back! And I wouldn’t be a burden - I mean I can make MY contribution to this household now.”
“It’s okay Dad.” Marcus chuckled and sipped his beer.
“And - here’s some other news. It’s probably not good, but I’d figure it could be useful to you, now that you’re more - interested and experienced with the unusual and ghostly stuff.” Elvin leaned in: “The store - Better Shopz, it used to sell those blessed items right? Imported directly from the South-Eastern Districts, some work and some are just junk, good looking garbage. Some guy came into the shop today asking for some, he knows his stuff and complained to us that nothing we have in store works. We suggested he check our other locations, and he basically said things are running out throughout the city - the monks and elders seemed to have stopped making them - for whatever reason.”
“What brought him to the store? Did he say?”
“He did - apparently he had some paranormal encounter earlier - basically saw a spirit somewhere.” Elvin shook his head.
“This is happening a lot these days, huh?” Marcus sighed.
“And - just because you told me, so I kept it in mind: there have been some more abductions of kids, young kids.” Elvin lowered his voice: “Apparently, even in the Northern District. I don’t know if it’s on the news, and I dared not search for it. But I heard it in the clerks’ lunchroom, it surely sounds rough out there.”
“Whoa whoa whoa.” Marcus waved his hands: “You didn’t ask anyone about this, did you?”
“No, of course not!” His father scoffed: “I’m not dumb! I just hovered around, like I’m not fond of talking about anything but beer. But I DO listen, if they brought it up, I’d keep my ears open.”
“S - Smart.” Marcus felt like giving his father a thumb up.
Just this moment, a horn-like sound blared from the floor above. This caused Marcus to jump almost instantly.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you, they just told me this afternoon, tonight’s the Night of Return for an old man upstairs.” Elvin jumped up and shut the door, as well as the curtains on the window facing the open air corridor outside.