Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1 for disclaimer.
Warning: AU, meaning different dimension, not related to manga/anime, characters might act differently from manga/anime. PG-13 for occasional bad language.
Crossroad
Chapter 2 The Wait
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Previously
In a sweet and crystal clear voice, she beamed, "Hi! Welcome to Crossroad, the place where souls who leave the world of the living, like you, gather and wait as fate decides whether you go to Hell or Heaven. Please have a seat until your name is called." With that she smiled brightly at me and continue to read her magazine.
And here I was thinking, what the hell.
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I look at her, wanting more explanation on whatever she has said. But before I can interrogate her, someone calls me or should be referring to me because he said, "Hey chap, over here!"
Who the hell is that? How dare he call me chap! I turn to wherever the voice came from and identify the source easily. He was waving at me and patting on the seat next to him. Too bad for him, I have decided, at the moment he called me chap, not to sit anywhere near him. I look around the room. There is another door directly opposite the entrance. In front of the reception desk are rows of seats, which are divided into two blocks, four rows of six in each block. There are currently five people in this room – me, the reception girl, that cheeky, happy-go-lucky guy and two unknown characters who have taken a seat at two different corners at the back of the room. I sit at the first row ona seat marked with the number 3, at the red block of seats. The annoying guy is sitting at the next block, which is blue. I sat there so that I am as far away from these people as possible, but there is a certain idiot who don't seem to get my message and sat two seats away from me. Well, at least he is smart enough to sit that far away from me or I would have punched him in the nose for calling me chap.
I am hoping that he wouldn't talk to me or anything else but I think that was too much to hope for. He, against my wishes, starts talking to me. He started with an introduction. "Hey, my name is Lenny. What's yours?" That is the most common way of introducing yourself but I ignore him. But that does not seem to deter him. Instead, he starts a new topic. "Died from that wound?" he asks. He must have notice the bloodstain. I don't feel like talking so I keep my silence. Anyway, how I died has nothing to do with him. But he doesn't seem to realize this and said, "You must be weak, dying from such a small wound."
Any innocent bystanders who heard this must think it is just an innocent comment by the way he said it, but it is an insult to me. I am not WEAK! There is no way I can maintain my silence so I retort, "Try being stabbed by a mercury-laced needle." It sounded like an angry growl but this doesn't seem to have any effect on him. Instead it only stirred his interest. "Ouch! Hey, who would do such a thing?" This guy has to poke his nose into MY business. Can't he give me peace? But no, he keeps pestering me at the safety of being two seats away from me. So the only way to shut him up is to answer. "My secretary," I said in a low dangerous tone. I don't like the memory of what happened me between her as I recall the event that ended my life.
Lenny pull me out of memory lane when he commented, "Well, either your secretary is a bitch or you are a bastard." At that, I shot him a blast of my coldest glare and that get him to keep quiet. First chap, now bastard. This 'Lenny' here doesn't seem to know how to control what he says, maybe I can help correct that by teaching him a lesson or two. Hmm . . . that would be nice . . .
I snap out from my daydreaming to find the guy staring me. Stop doing that, there's nothing on my face, I thought furiously while I glared back at him. Wait maybe there is something on my face. No, maybe that's not the case. I know, this guy is studying me. That's it. No one study my looks, things should be the other way round. So I decide to take advantage of the situation to study this character name Lenny. Chocolate brown hair, dark brown eyes, good looking but not as good looking as me (Hah! Take that!). He wears a simple black tee and faded blue jeans. He looks like a normal person except for the few thin red lines running around his neck. It's easy to tell how he died. Most possible reason is strangulation and the tool that killed him would probably be a wire or fishing line or anything that is very thin.
He must have caught me staring at his neck as he begins to tell his tale of how he died. "I snatch my best pal's girl and he decided to strangle me with a fishing line," he said, hardly any remorse in his tone. But I am happy because my theory was correct and he deserves to die. Also, I decide that things will go my way, meaning that I will be controlling this conversation. And so, I interrupt him before he could start rattling non-informative things without stopping. "How long does this take?" I demand, sitting with my arms folded to show who is the boss. Yes, I demand, as I will get the answers I want so it's meaningless asking for it. He didn't take a long time to answer because his answer was short and sweet and it wasn't the answer I am expecting. His answer was "I don't know."
'I don't know' is a short, smart, and stupid answer to get off a hook but I will not be fooled and satisfied by his answer. I will get what I want. "Maybe you don't quite get it. It's a simple question, you know. How long does this take?" I repeated myself, deciding to give him a second chance before I make him die again. He just shrug his shoulders and give me the same answer again, "I don't know." Then, he sighs. "Seeing that you are a first-timer, I'll explain how things work." I look at him, irritated. Hey, you will not be happy too if someone talk to you in such a manner. But he ignore my I'm-not-happy-with-you look and continue, "First of all, Mana," he pause for a while as he nod towards the girl at the counter. The girl look up from her magazine as she response to her name, smiles at us, wave and returns back to her magazine. Lenny returns the wave as he goes on, "She will call out the name listed on a piece of paper, which pops up from the slit on the desk. Then, she'll tell the lucky person on the list his room number and the lucky person exits from that door," pointing to the door opposite the entrance, "Then I have no idea what happens behind the door because no one ever returns after going through that door." Then he pauses for a while, trying to create a creepy effect which is down right stupid, meaningless and irks me to no end. He sighs for the second time as he realized that the effect failed miserably before surrendering the last sentence of his explanation, "Tried asking Mana but she refuse to tell me anything."
This portion maybe boring and troublesome to common people but it is fantastic, interesting but most often headache-inducing procedure – analyze whatever information he provided in my head. So if this is how the system here works, then how are they going to know the people's name? What did they get the information from when there is no form of registration whatsoever? Maybe that green circle did something. Maybe besides being a teleportation tool, it is also a registration system. Assuming the circle is the registration tool, it is has to be connected to the desk as well. But the desk has no form of gadget or computer that record information the circle provides. And the girl, Mana, isn't doing anything besides reading. The desk also shows no sign of a paper holder so how are slips of paper going to pop out of the desk like what Lenny had described. I sigh dejectedly, feeling a headache is coming soonand decide to stop thinking. There are too many questions with no answers at all. The only way is to observe how this freaky place function or ask Lenny.
Asking Lenny is a lot easier and faster, although I don't like the choice I choose. So I ask Lenny, in an ordering tone (I'm not going to be polite to get what I wanted), "Is there a sequence to the name-calling?" He was quiet for a while before answering. "Things happen quite randomly here," he says, "people just come and go. There are people who came in later than me getting to leave this room before me." Okay, so on with the next question, "How long have you been here?" Well, the answer was very unexpected. I was expecting for maybe a few hours of half a day, anything but not this.
" I have been waiting for a month now," Lenny answered. If I am an average person, I would have fall off my seat, but too bad I'm not. Still, I am surprised, and it is a bad surprise. One month!! The system in the room, wait correction, the entire building is nuts. So surprise and shock that I actually slip, letting Lenny have the opportunity to see my surprised look. "One month is nothing," he says as he waves it off. How can one month be nothing? Haven't he realize the amount of time he wasted by just sitting here and wait? I really admire his patience, being able to sit here for one month.
But the story doesn't end here as Lenny turn to the back and point towards the woman at a corner of the room. She is facing the wall, so I can see half of her face. She has long black raven hair, dull blue eyes so different from Mana's, and wearing long sleeved black gown with rose patterns on the sleeves and the dress. The entire outfit and her hair make her pale white skin stands out. Lenny introduces her, " Her name is Florence." Then, when her name was mentioned, Florence turns and looks at us. There is no emotion on her face, just a blank stare. She and I make eye contact for a few seconds before she breaks away and face the wall again. "She has been here for 5 years," Lenny whispers, but it is loud enough to be heard.
My eyes widen so much that my eyeballs could have fall out of its socket. 5 years!? She had been waiting for 5 years! And, her name hasn't been called. It's no wonder she become so lifeless, waiting for 5 years here with nothing to do can do that to you. The system here is more screwed up than I thought. There's no way I am going to wait here for months or probably years. "I will leave this place if I have to wait this long," I mumble to myself, but maybe a little too loud because everyone in the room, including Mana who usually only mind her own business and read her magazine, and Florence, stare at me. I am not so sure about the mysterious person at the other corner of the room as the person is in a heavy and big cloak with hood, which hides the face and doesn't make any movement at all. So I just ignore the person and pay my attention on the others.
What's so surprising or wrong about leaving? I am serious about this because it is impossible for me to stay here for such a long time or else my brain will rot. So I was about to say something sarcastic to everyone for staring at me because of what I said, when suddenly, a quiet, soft, feminine voice speak at the seat on my right, "You cannot leave this place."
TBC
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I have finish typing this long ago. Its just that screwed up and refuse to let me do my stuff. But the story is here so hope you enjoy it.
Please appreciate my story by leaving a review.
Bye