Foreigner followed Foxtail from behind, her lithe form gaining a surprising amount of speed shifting from one back alleyway to another in a seemingly haphazardly manner. The crowds were starting to thin out with people, the sweat on the brows of some and the fully vacant expressions on their faces pointing to a job well done. Was he like that before all of this happened? If his memory fragment was anything to go by, he at least had life in him then, the love for his wife a grievous wound in his heart, the love for his son a hole in his chest. Fighting for their survival alone would have been enough to fuel him to the ends of the earth.

“Foxtail, how old are you, exactly?” Foreigner asked suddenly. She slowed down to respond but did not shift her gaze, eyes transfixed on the path ahead.

“Dunno. Peepers says I’m about fourteen thereabouts, so I’ve been going with that. What brings this up?” She was curt in her final statement.

“I don’t know anything about you so I figured I should get to learn about my partner as a courtesy. You’ve helped me regain a fragment of my memory and are guiding me to this apartment now. Only fair I should get to know you.” Foreigner replied, exerting more energy to keep up with her. Man was he fatigued.

“Not much to know. Born in the Outskirts. Grew up in the Backstreets. Found Peepers and Roxy. We made a home for ourselves in that abandoned warehouse. I go out and steal for the group while Peepers stays inside and redirects people elsewhere. Stands lookout. Just scraping by.”

“Roxy? I only saw Peepers back there with you. Was there someone else I wasn’t aware of?” Her body tensed up for a moment before relaxing again.

“No. No. She’s gone somewhere else. Bigger and better things. Trying to make a change for herself that neither of us could provide.” She stopped in front of a set of staircases, the cement crumbling and cracked in multiple areas. “This is the place. Let’s try to be quick about it.” Foxtail promptly entered the building, leaving Foreigner and his questions behind. The inside of the building was cleaner than the outside, but not by much. There was rubbish lying around and a bulletin board that hadn’t been used in years talking about curfews and alarms to be mindful of. The two of them were heading to the second floor of that six floored building, their room of interest being at the opposite end of the front entrance.

“Hey,” Foxtail waved at Foreigner and pointed to the open door, “Looks like the door was busted open as suggested. Something sharp. Any ideas on what kind of weapon this Banshee is running around with?” She traced her hand on the grooves of the marks before letting herself into the room. He kept pace with her.

“Yeah. She had this large cross like weapon. When I was running away, I didn’t look back but I could hear the splintering of wood like a storm of steel was approaching me.” Foreigner answered while taking a measured look at the apartment. As described, the room had been torn asunder with furniture thrown around and broken as well as clothes strewn about in all directions. The walls were cut into as if a hail of blades rolled through the area. From ceiling to walls, there were nicks and cuts to be seen. The Meisters suitcase remained open, sitting on the bed in disarray. Foxtail grabbed at it and started to throw the clothes out.

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“If I were a crazy Fixer looking to get my prey to come to me, how would I hide something that only my prey would take interest in?” Foxtail asked aloud, shaking the now empty suitcase to find any hidden compartment or message in its upholstery. The big issue here was that this woman knew him, or at least the him from before the mind wipe.

“She can only assume I have a bit of my memory so she’d probably want to give me a message related to something on my person or something I’d be keen to investigate. What would that be.” He scanned the floors amidst the shirts and jeans and did not find his answer there. The open drawers and scanning the inside of them for levers or hidden mechanisms yielded no fruit either, just more exasperation as the threat of the Evening Bell loomed over the both of them. The walls were torn apart with blade marks and yet none of the bedding and clothing were ripped in the process. Almost as if…

“Look at this mark,” Foreigner walked to the corner of the room next to the bed and pointed to a symbol, “You recognize this symbol?” Foxtail climbed off the bed and joined him at the corner, eyeing the insignia carved into the wall.

“What is it meant to be? An upside down triangle and a right side up triangle?” Foxtail asked.

“This Foxtail is an hourglass. I realize now you probably haven’t seen one because of the weird time telling rule in this district so asking you to recognize this is moot.” Foreigner shook his head and smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. He continued, “Hourglasses tell time by having sand fall within. If you recall, my last name and the name of my family is ‘Arenas’. The name means ‘sand’ in another language.” Foreigner taking a proper look at the hourglass on the wall could see it was etched at the top to denote it being full on one side. He scanned around the room from that corner wall position and found another hourglass mark amidst all the carvings like a needle in a haystack. Once more he repeated his actions, surveying the room from where this halfway mark was and found what he was looking for in an unassuming part of the room. The cuts were deeper at the bottom half of the hourglass. Instinctively, he reached out and dug into the wall with his fingers, pulling out the cheap walling to reveal a hiding place. Grabbing inside, he pulled out a small note curled up into a scroll with a thin purple ribbon.

“Alright, you found what we were looking for. Let’s get going now before Evening Bell-” On cue, a heavy chime rang through the area, sound thick as molasses causing his body to gag and retch. Foxtail, to her credit, merely hunched over with no further reaction. “Come on. Evening Bell hit. We have to get to Peepers. Now.”

Foreigner didn’t ask any questions. He shoved the note into his pocket and made a mad dash out of the building following Foxtails lead. The chittering in the distance forced Foreigner to keep pace.

He didn’t want to find out what kind of creatures came out with the ringing of the Evening Bell.