Chapter 2: Missing
September 7, 2010
Early Morning
"I wanna hold em' like they do in Texas please/Fold em' let em' hit me raise it baby stay with me/Love the game intuition play the cards with Spades to start/And after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heart," Lady GaGa blared through the speakers of Mai's ihome. The girl under the blankets shuffled and eventually a slender hand emerged and silenced the song.
Mai sat up, stretched, and shook slumber from her eyes. She looked around her room, nothing purple in sight. There were a few bookcases covered in books, light green paint covered the walls and smiling pictures of people covered the walls, and a plethora of teddy bears strategically placed so that they can all look at one another and talk whenever she's not in the room.
After getting dressed, Mai wandered downstairs in search of food. She settled on a cup of yogurt before leaving for school. It was the beginning of September and slightly chilly. Mai wrapped herself in a cream sweater, but her legs still shook beneath her plaid skirt and stockings. Mai was beginning her senior year of high school at Aoi High.
The musings of Lady GaGa filled her ears as she walked the couple of blocks to the school's main gates. Mai noticed the leaves were beginning to change from green to a cascade of reds, yellows, and golds. The wind knocked a few leaves off the trembling branches.
"I love fall," Mai thought looking up at the trees as a soft breeze whipped through her auburn hair.
"Hey Mai," someone called from behind. Mai turned around and saw a stocky young man running towards her, his scarf trailed behind him.
"Hey Garrett, isn't it a little early to break the scarf?" she asked pulling one of the ear buds out.
Garrett laughed. "When you look this good, you can wear anything, anytime."
Mai rolled her eyes as they walked the rest of the way to the school together.
Mai wasn't surprised at her home room assignment. She was assigned to homeroom 220 along with Garrett, and a few of her other friends. At Aoi High school homerooms were assigned according to class rank and G.P.A., Mai being one of the best students, was lumped together with the other intellectuals of her year.
Mai and Garrett entered the room and sat down in adjacent desks alongside the windows that overlooked the courtyard, the bell rang shortly thereafter.
Following the chime of the bell an attractive blond man wearing a mint green sweater and khaki pants entered the room.
"Welcome everyone to room 220, I am your homeroom teacher, Mr. Smith, and for those of you who are interested in English literature, I will also be the senior lit. teacher," the young man spoke, calmly and confidently before the class.
"Now I'm going to hand out your class schedules, and please remember that after today the only times we'll see each other, aside from class, is before school breaks or during an important event," he said before walking up and down each aisle and handing every student a piece of paper.
Mai noticed Mr. Smith smiled when he handed her her schedule.
"Advanced calculus eh? I was never good at math when I was in school," he chucked.
"Parent's idea, not mine. I would have rather filled it with an elective, but colleges don't like that," she replied. Mai thought there was something strange about Mr. Smith's smile, it didn't seem fake or forced like many of the teachers that she had before, his smile and happy demeanor felt genuine.
After Mr. Smith handed out the class schedules he answered any questions that the students had for him, the most popular questions were: How old are you? (26), Are you married? (Single), and what his favorite subject was in school (oddly enough, Chemistry.) The bell rang shortly after one of the girls in the back asked him why he was single, he turned red , but did not have enough time to answer the question because once the bell had rung it was as if he never existed.
Lunchtime
"Hey Mai, over here," Garrett shouted flailing his arms, so that Mai would see him. He made a spectacle of doing this on the first day of every school year even though they had sat at the same table right off of the entrance.
"Hey," Mai said dumping her bag on the unsurprisingly empty chair next to Garrett. Mai always wondered how he was always the first one in the cafeteria.
"So what are we doing today?" Garrett asked taking a bite of his apple after Mai sat down across from him.
"New game shop just opened in the mall, wanna head there and check it out?"
"Yeah, sure. I wonder what kind of place it is. Like, I mean, is it an arcade? Or is it a game store? Or is it a souvenir shop?" Garrett continued going on lost in his own thoughts while Mai continued to eat her sandwich.
After School
Mai and Garrett walked down to the bus stop after the final bell had rung. Garrett was talking about a new card game that was ravaging the middle schools, Mai wasn't listening to the conversation fully, but the bits and pieces she deciphered were something along the lines of "tarot cards, and then you use it to summon a monster from myth, it's so cool!"
After a twenty minute bus ride Mai and Garrett walked into Ashland Mall and made their way towards the mood court. The mall was set up in a star with a grand fountain in the center. The new game shop was opening next to the Crazy Burger.
"Wow," Garrett said, his mouth practically watering. Mai rolled her eyes and muttered "boys," and walked into Mythos' Dungeon.
The store was larger than Mai imagined. Beyond the front desk against the left wall were a few shooting and fighter arcade games, and along the right side of the wall were a row of monitors where various computer games were set up. Lastly, in the center was another counter with a rack of various games.
Garrett's mouth dropped, Mai wandered over to the magazine section.
"May as well let him have some fun," she thought smiling to herself as Garrett went from one end of the store to the next, seemingly forgetting she was even there.
After reading two magazines and getting halfway through a graphic novel, Mai approached Garrett who was standing next to the counter talking with the young cashier, it seemed he was debating between two video games.
"Yeah that's true, but Relic Raider has that awesome babe in it,-" Garrett said to the clerk as Mai tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, I'm going to go grab a smoothie and sit by the fountain, come find me when you're ready to go," she said, and then she was gone.
"Excuse me miss," a velvety voice called to Mai as she was walking towards the fountain. Mai turned to see an old man set up a kiosk telling fortunes.
"Care to have your fortune told? Its free," the old man said.
Mai was skeptic towards magic and fortune telling, but Garrett thoroughly enjoyed it. Mai looked back at Garrett and saw that he was still talking to the clerk, she had time.
"Sure, why not," she said, taking a sip of her smoothie.
The old man pulled out a deck of cards and shuffled them in front of her.
"I feel a great presence from you, Mai," the man said.
"How did you know my name?" Mai asked unnerved. The man placed the cards face down on the table and with one finger pointed to his head, "Psychic, remember?"
The old man drew three cards and put them face down in front of Mai.
"This is a simple reading, created by my own design. It will give you a clue of what to expect in your near future," he said smiling. "Whenever you're ready Mai, flip over the cards in any particular order.
Mai flipped them over from left to right. The first card was a man walking alongside a dog, the second was a picture of a tower being struck by lightning, and the third was a skull.
"Well, well, well, it seems you have quite the mission ahead of you," the fortune teller smiled.
Pointing to the first card he began, "This is the Fool, it represents that you will undergo a journey, whether physical, spiritual, or metaphorical is up to you to determine. This next card is the Tower, it signifies a great change and an even greater challenge coming your way, and the last is Death. Death does not represent the act of dying, but rather the end of something old and the beginning of something new," as the man read her fortune he never broke eye contact with Mai.
"Hey Mai," Garrett called, pulling her attention away from the fortune teller. "Who are you talking to?"
Mai looked where the fortune teller had been sitting and both the man, and his kiosk were gone, as if they never existed.
"Uhh," Mai stammered, dumbfounded.
"You better pull yourself together, or you're never going to make it to summer break," Garrett said before pulling out his video game to show Mai.
Evening
"Hey mom, I'm home," Mai called as she closed the front door.
"Hi dear, have you hear about the missing boy?" her mother called from the kitchen.
Mai's mother, was standing at the stove stirring a pot of stew with her eyes glued to the television. A photo of a young man was on the screen. He had a thin face with dark black hair and blue eyes.
"Who's that?" Mai asked, picking up one of the stray carrots from the cutting board and putting it in her mouth.
"Apparently he's been missing for a few days, his name is Edward. He's your age. Parents said he went out to a party and just never came home, its sad that things like that happen, isn't it dear?"
The one thing Mai admired about her mother was that no matter what, she always found a way to keep her warm smile.
Late Night
Once more Mai opened her eyes and found herself facing a purple chalkboard.
"Welcome back to the Velvet room," the man in a suit said with his inviting voice.
"Is this a dream?" Mai asked.
"Not really," the man said.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Igor, and I help those who are entered into a contract. You're on the cusp of something great my friend, but as with all things in life, you have a choice to make; whether you pursue this fool's errand or choose to remain blissfully ignorant, if completely your choice," Igor said, his eyes narrowed as if to peer deep into Mai's soul.
"You have great potential locked within your heart," he said after a few minutes of silence.
"You're talking about the missing boy right?" Mai asked, she still believed that she was having a crazy dream.
"His disappearance is but one link in a great chain that leads to far more than you could ever imagine, Mai. You already have the necessary abilities to pursue this endeavor, and I will help you along the way, all that I ask is that you think hard, and choose this fate, without duress, of your own free will.
Mai thought about the boy's family, and then about her mother. What happened if she had disappeared? Would anyone have come to find her?
"What about the police they-," Mai began before Igor interrupted her
"The police lack the necessary sight to fully see the grand picture."
"I'll do it, we have a deal. I'll find Edward, but I'm not sure how," Mai said, doubt in her voice.
"Don't worry, the path shall be made clear, but for right now, sleep, we will meet again shortly," right after the words left Igor's mouth, the world began to shift and sway until the purple room faded from sight.
