A quiet night.
It was the living room. So dark. So cold.
Beautiful classical music plays from the vinyl disk that was just placed there moments ago before the room went dark.
Footsteps, heavy footsteps echoed out from the hallway. Hushed voices spoke to each other.
A person wearing a helmet suddenly walked in, with a gun in hand. A shriek of fright rang out.
A gunshot cut off the shriek..
"Olwen!—"
The girl or woman, Olwen couldn't tell her age, called out to him. He could see the shock on her face as she fell down before him and red, warm liquid splashed onto his face. That same liquid spreading from the side of her head.
"A…" Olwen tried talking but his voice never came out.
This person collapsed in front of him, he didn't know who she was but something about her felt familiar. That lily flower hair accessory, he gave it to her… who is she?
Throb.
Why can't I remember…?
Throb.
Throb.
Why am I so sad…?
Throb.
Throb.
Throb.
Olwen grabbed his head, it was starting to hurt again, like that time.
"Knock him out."
Before he could do anything, he felt something blunt hit his head.
"Aisha!"
Olwen sat up from bed so fast, breathing heavily.
"O-Olwen!? Are you ok?"
Olwen looked around his room and found Lune by his side. She had this worried look on her face he'd never seen before. Just what was that? He saw something in his dreams. Something he couldn't remember now but he felt uncomfortable, repulsed by whatever he saw.
"I think I'm fine now…. just a… bad dream."
"Do you want to head downstairs and have some tea to relax?"
"Yeah…. That sound nice. Why are you here, did you come to wake me up?"
"I was about to."
At Lune's suggestions, he headed down with her into the living room. Where he sat there for a bit as she prepared tea for him. The big clock in the living room read 5 am.
Wow…. It's so early. Lune was already up by then? What is her sleeping schedule? It doesn't seem like she's deprived of sleep but still... guess she's just an early riser.
Olwen sighed as he looked at sky from the window. A few minutes later, Lune arrived.
"Here you go, it might be a bit hot so careful."
"Thanks."
With a gentle smile on her face, Lune served him a cup of tea for the first time and some butter cookies as a snack.
"So… want to talk about it? You gave me quite the surprise when you sat up from bed while shouting something."
"Sorry about that…."
"You have no control over what dream you have Olwen, so you don't need to be sorry for that."
"Ummm… so anyways, it was just a short dream. It's not that serious…"
"I still want to know about it. Maybe talking about it could ease you at least."
He reluctantly started explaining what happened in the dream. When he was in this dark living room, hiding together with someone. A person who seemed to be around Lune's age. Then a bunch of people walked into the room, before his vision had turned all red for some reason.
"I don't know what to make of it unfortunately. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to dreams but I do remember having some nightmares every now and then when I was your age Olwen."
Lune seemed to ponder about what he had told her for a bit.
"So it's nothing to really worry about?"
"In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. It was just a dream. You will forget about it. I'm sure."
Lune stood up and beckoned Olwen to follow her to the dining room. The food was once again so good for breakfast. He was grateful to have this food today and the days to come but it was hard to wash away that image in his head. That girl getting covered in red liquid. It probably came from some tv show he watched back then. He was probably just making it up in his head. Nothing to worry about.
After eating breakfast, he went back to his room to grab his scroll and relaxed back in the living room. He was turning the scroll on for the first time.
"Ohhhh? That's the scroll that Ms. Ehketh gave you yesterday right?"
"Yep, that's right."
"That's the newly revealed Index Note 7!? Those shouldn't even be out until tomorrow?" She made a shocked face.
"Wait what?"
"I guess it isn't that surprising, but still… For Ms. Ehketh to go that far.…"
Lune started muttering to herself about something
"Uhm, Lune? Remnant to Lune?"
"Ohh sorry Master Olwen, I kinda got too excited there..."
"It's ok but I really wanna know how to use this. Oh, It's opening now!"
The scroll's screen booted with a logo of the brand "I-ndex" before fading into a get started screen.
Lune helped him navigate the tutorial for operating the scroll, it was similar enough to how new phones were opened back on earth that he'd figure it out for the most part on his own.
But it was probably best that he get informed by a native Remnant person on how it should be operated. Besides, it was really fun having someone like an older sibling help him.
"I think with this new model, you should be able to do this,"
Lune held the power button before a screen with a power off and a screen out feature was listed. What did do?
"There…!"
"Woah!"
His scrolls screen projected out his screen like a hologram and it was like from one of those sci-fi movies. Lune somehow adjusted the screen to face towards them by making a cranking motion.
"It really works as advertised."
"That is sooo cool! Can we like watch something on this scroll? I want to see how it looks."
"Yes we can, let me do that really quick."
Lune pressed on a app called VideoLog, then searched news on the search bar. A bunch of news live streams popped up andLune clicked on the one being streamed by VNN.
"The news?"
"You said you wanted to watch something? Want me to change it?"
"No, no. It's fine."
Olwen didn't really have any video in mind so he sat back on the sofa like Lune and started drinking the tea and trying out the cookies she prepared.
"This is the VNN Early Bird, a program for any of you people who are awake at this time of the day."
"What do they usually talk about at this time Lune?"
"I don't really know actually, I usually tune it at the 7 am news normally so this is gonna be a first for me."
"Today, cases of gruesome murders have been popping around districts 10 and 11 for at least a month now. We've only been given the go signal by the Falch Special Police to broadcast this information now for any tips that anyone may know on this crime."
"Goodness, I didn't know about this at all…"
The gist of the broadcast was that there were people being kidnapped, regardless of their age. Then out of nowhere, appear in public places and displayed in a horrifying manner while dead with flowers. They only vaguely talked about the characteristics of the victim's state with the " displayed in a horrifying manner with flowers" detail which they didn't elaborate further. Maybe they wanted to make people less scared?
"That's terrible, that means these criminals are quite good at what they do. The police normally don't make announcements like this." Lune said.
"What exactly do you mean by that?"
"You see, most serial killing cases are reported on after the Vale Police Department had pretty much solved the crime. But for them to ask for help definitely means that this is serious."
"Shouldn't they be making people aware of there serial killers on the loose a bit earlier? To make people be more careful?"
"It depends on the situation you see, just reporting things like this out of nowhere would make people fearful or more cautious. That could result in Grimm activity outside the city more rampant, so they're probably breaking the news out slowly and also broadcasting this to only District 9, District 12, and District 7. Which are nearby districts. It's a balancing act that the police have to be careful about, since that would make the hunters lives out there hectic."
"Oh yeah, the Grimm." Olwen muttered.
I'm still thinking that this is earth, it may have societal similarities here and there but this place is different.
"You sure do know a lot about this Lune. Were you a police officer before?"
"N-Not really..." Lune stammered. "I was only a rookie but I quit before I could get a year. Kind of hard to consider someone like me as police."
Lune then quickly changed the topic.
"Ahem. A-Anyways, here I was planning to bring you to a trip over to Glenelg Crossing at District 10 with Soleil. Looks like that plan is thrown out the window now. I don't want to risk you being kidnapped so I'm already thinking of another place."
Lune heaved a sigh before pausing the broadcast.
"I wonder how they haven't caught the criminals yet? They already have 15 victims claimed within a month and with that much they should have at least a clue on the killers and at least some evidence…. What's their motive?"
"It's hard to say Olwen, they are serial killers after all." Lune then clapped her hands.
"Enough of this depressing news, I already thought of a place nearby I thought you'd enjoy. We should get dressed and then we'll be heading out!"
"W-Wait right now!?"
"Yes!"
"Oh ok then…"
"Where are we and I thought Soleil was also coming along?" Olwen asked Lune, who just opened the van door for him.
"Oh…. I kind of forgot to bring him. Oh well, we're on our own here in Aven Outlet Park."
"Well what now?"
"Let's just look around here for now, there's a lot of shops here and also a lot of people here. Do you mind If i hold your hand? Just to be safe since there are a lot of people here."
"I don't mind, lets go."
Despite the reporting about the murders in the nearby district. People seemed to go on and did what they want. There was so many shops to go to, restaurants, and other stuff you'd normally see in a mall. In the crowds of people they passed by, he saw some faunus amongst the crowd.
They stopped by all kinds of shops, fashion shops, one shop filled with a lot of electronics. Sadly, they didn't go into a dust shop or the few weapon shops he could spot. Olwen could understand though since Lune had no reason to go in there. She was not a huntsman.
"Hey…what do you think about buying more clothes for yourself?"
"Didn't you buy me already? Like before I even arrived."
"I think you just need a little more clothes then it would be enough."
"Ok then."
They then went into a shop called Qlic. It felt like a Nike brand shop since they kind of use a similar style. Quickly, Lune jumped straight away into picking clothes for him.
"Go try this on…"
"Sure." He quickly changed clothes and went out with the ones Lune gave him.
"That looks nice. We'll nab that one, stay there for a moment." Lune walked away then came back with another set of clothes. " Here, try this one as well."
"Errr… how many times am I gonna do this?"
"Only five times, I'm planning to get you at least five sets of new clothes today."
"Ok then… wait though, what do you mean by today?" Lune gave him the new clothes to wear with a smile.
After trying out all the clothes and buying them. They went around to another store, where Olwen was able to get earphones for his scroll.
"Are you hungry Olwen?"
"I kinda am, all that shopping made me really hungry."
"Good, cause I'm also hungry. Lets go to the food court here."
When they arrived at the food court, people were lining up to their chosen restaurants while others were already eating from the amount clicking sounds that were being made as utensils made contact with plates. Judging from the size of the crowds in the place, this was definitely a popular eating stop.
"Do you want to come with me and order then find a table or we should find a table first and I'll order the food for us?"
"I'll take option 2, I'm really tired right now Lune. That's ok right?"
"It's fine Olwen. You're still just a kid so it's ok."
"I think I can just seat here. Just leave the bags here as well."
"Alright, don't leave your seat ok? I won't be long."
Lune walked away with those words, Olwen saw as she disappeared amongst the crowd.
Well, since I'm gonna be here for a bit. Let's play with my scroll…..
Olwen hand went into the right pocket of his pants. But he grabbed nothing.
Huh? I don't think I brought it.
Olwen quickly remembered that it was still on the living room table. What a bummer. It was something he wanted to use more and get used to.
I guess I can just people watch… what else to do.
He just watched people go about their day. There was a family happily enjoying their meal while talking to one another. They consisted of a father, mother, a son and a daughter who seemed to be the same age. Around his age.
I wonder what it's like to have a sister or brother your age. Mom and Dad could have tried for another but they settled with me for some reason.
The brother was saying something to annoy the sister, then they started a back and forth. Which made the parents laugh. A few minutes passed, and the family packed up and headed to an ice cream place.
Come to think of it, I haven't thought about mom and dad. I wish I could've talked to them one last time before they…
Olwen sighed, as memories of good times bubbled up as he watched that family. He was starting get a little sentimental, which he didn't like.
I'm going to miss their funeral ceremony… I couldn't even be there for that at least. God damnit… if only I could go back in time. Man, I'm such a fail-
"Watch out!"
"Huh?"
Turning his head to the callers direction, something splashed onto his face and also on his shirt.
"Hah….."
Olwen let out a surprised voice as the front of his shirt was drenched in something that smelled like milk?
"Ruby…! Oh my, what did you do?"
There were two girls, one who had short black hair with red tips while the other had completely long yellow hair.
"Ahhh! I'm so sorry!"
"Umm…."
These two are… are they who I think they are?
A man with short blonde hair arrived behind them.
"Yang, Ruby. What happened…?!"
No way… what the hell is going here? Why are they here? Is that Tai Yang?