Mami had been missing for over three days now, and because of it the club was closed due to the mixed emotions of its missing chef. Shadow hadn't really been around, and the times he did he was either chugging down coffee or talking to several uniformed men, G.U.N. soldiers, who came walking into the club. Even I barely slept with all the commotion going on downstairs everyday.
But, on Saturday the commotion would come to a halt as everyone got something they were both hoping and dreading for in the past week.
"Hey, Shadow I found this in the mailbox just awhile ago. It doesn't have a return address, but it might give us a clue, or something. I think it's a ransom note." Immediately Shadow went to Knuckles and took the gently folded paper in his hands.
Everyone crowded around Shadow to get a look at the letter themselves, but what I saw caused me to be nearly vomit up all over it.
Plastered on the paper were signs of carnage: Many different types of girls were tied to chairs, their clothes ripped and blooded and their skin pale. Dead. One pick had held my breath and nearly made me burst into tears. On the bottom right was a picture of a hedgehog her hair was braided but, in a sigh of relief I quickly regretted, the hedgehog was orange rather than the pale-pink of Mami's fur.
Under all the pictures' was just a single sentence-typed with little grammar, but with enough fear to still even the heart of a lion.
where is my little hedgehog?
I looked up to see Shadow's expression turn into a deeply troubled emotion. A face I never thought I would see on the guy who I constantly wished would get hit by a slow-moving ice cream truck or trampled by Club Rouge's strippers'.
"Shadow are you okay?" I asked what could be possibly the stupidest question ever in a situation like this. But when Shadow looked up I could see something visible in his eyes', depression and/or failure?
"These photos are of some of the recently missing girls'. If my hunch is correct then this is a letter from our new killer, but by the looks of it even he is looking for Mami." Shadow's cold voice was changed into something of a dark reality. Even Rouge was picking up the tone change in Shadow.
"Shadow, take a little break and I'll organize some of the task force members to help us out in the deciphering the message, okay?" Rouge's voice was gentle but Shadow had seemed to ignore it and just walked away silently from the group.
While everyone was busying themselves with the ransom note, I decided to follow Shadow into the back room he wandered into. The room was littered with mops, rags, buckets, and other cleaning utensils. Shadow was sitting on a single chair that out looked a tiny, dingy window on the far left of the room. His entire stature radiated silence.
I quietly walked up to him and sat on the window's dusty panel, opposite of him. We were bathed in a musty sunlight and the smells of cleaning chemicals were burning my nostrils.
"Why did you follow me?" Shadow's voice narrowly made me jump.
"I – I was curious."
"About what?" Shadow still had his back to me.
"About your relationship to Mami. Your taking this much harder than everyone else. . ." I quickly shut myself up about the last sentence, as I didn't want to come off as uncaring.
"She . . . she isn't my girlfriend if that's what your thinking. She's the girl I was assigned some months ago on a mission in G.U.N.'s Tokyo division." Shadow finally turned his head only half way, possibly curious at my own interest in the matter.
"Tokyo? So why is she here all the way in Station Square, then?"
"She lived with me, but as you heard recently her brother moved into town about a couple of months before you. So now she lives with him, but I shouldn't have been such an idiot and agreed to the terms."
I looked at Shadow as he looked at me, a moment of emotions sprung between the open air between us. I didn't realize his eyes looked so pretty. I quickly bit my tongue at the very thought of it. He turned his face back down in, what I hope, was him trying to discern some weird thought that also crept into his head.
"So what exactly happened in Tokyo that you would let her live with you half across the world?"
"Her father died. He was a general of the G.U.N. branch their but someone had a bounty on him and he was shot dead during a dinner Mami had made to greet us in accordance to our arrival. And because of that, I made a promise that I'll take care of her. It was actually along the lines of a 'spur of the moment' but I never back down from promise. No matter how eccentric it maybe."
I felt a small stone fall down into the depths of my stomach. Mami's father was shot dead right in front of her? I guess I couldn't blame her for seeing the world in such a dark view.
"So what about her not having a last name?" I asked trying to piece together Shadow and Mami's relationship.
"That is actually keyed into the fact she had a psychotic break down and wouldn't accept the fact that her father was murdered. But she does accept the fact that he is no longer in this life. She considers herself an orphan rather than a child, who knew their parent their entire life."
Shadow and I started to talk more on Mami's case, when soft vibrates echoed from Shadow's jeans pocket. He quickly put the phone to his ear and pushed up his falling glasses.
"Hello?"
The voice that came from the phone looked like it stopped Shadow's heart for a second, but then reenergized it to start up again.
"Mami? Where the hell are you? You had everyone worried to fucking death."
More muffled talking.
"Your where? How'd you get all the over there? Who the hell is – He did what? Alright, just stay there I'll come to pick you up." Shadow shoved the phone back in his pocket and ran out of the room, me hot on his heels.
The G.U.N. soldiers seemed to have left as the only ones sitting on the couch were Knuckles, Rouge, and Tails? But when Shadow came running in, grabbing his jacket, and heading out the door, my feet kept moving in his direction, following him.
In Club Rouge's parking lot were three cars: a small compact black sports car, a rather beat-up red BMW, and then a black Hummer. I knew immediately that the hummer belonged to Shadow as I saw the G.U.N. symbol plastered on my side of the car.
"Stay inside! We don't want to attract too much attention. The killer might be nearby Mami's location for all we know." Shadow shouted getting into the car, while I was getting in on the opposite side.
"No, you can't go to whatever it is your going alone. Who knows if the killer traveled had accomplices?"
"Fine, whatever, you just better stay in the car when we get there."
We were driving for nearly two hours until I saw neon lights flooding the entire area around us. We passed a flashy sign that read "Casino Night Park." We circled onto different roads that swirled high up into the air, until the night sky look nonexistent compared to the flashy lights and amusement parks that encircled the area.
Shadow drove up into a packed parking lot, as visible young couples walked up to an entrance that displayed neon lights that screamed, "Twinkle Park."
I had seen a movie not too long ago, back in the Country, about Twinkle Park. Turns out many city-born celebrities casually hang out around here. But what were we doing here, unless . . . ?
"Stay here, and don't move until I get back." Shadow walked out the door and pulled his hoodie up to try and blend in some way. But thinking about it, maybe a better cover up would've been us acting like a couple, rather than strangers. Gross, who am I kidding!
I sat in the car, thankful that Shadow left the keys turned off in the ignition. I turned the set of keys and put the AC on full blast. For a fall night, the atmosphere here was heated and seeping into the car, quick.
I leaned the chair back and decided to turn on the radio to 94.1 a station I actually enjoyed minus some of the rap artist that had their songs broadcasted. My eye lids slowly covered my drowsy eyes and for a moment I was in a state of bliss, within the boundaries of a jerk's car.