“Uh, but before that, there’s somewhere I want to check out.”
“Where?”
“Well, it’s in a ghetto area of the city.” I figured it was at least worth a shot. I doubt they’d be open right now though, but I could at least scope the place out before deciding on whether to make contact with that Faceless girl.
“What do you plan to do there?”
“Nothing much. But hotels around there should be pretty cheap.”
“Hmm… good point. The cheaper the better.”
At a red light, I pulled out the card I received from the Faceless girl and plugged the address into the maps app on my phone for directions. I memorized the route and made my way there. Fifteen minutes later we were in an unfamiliar area of the city I rarely ever visited.
The place was like night and day compared to other areas of the city. The condition of the road was in a pitiful state, littered with cracks and potholes. The curbs along the sides of the roads in the area were all worn down and heavily degraded too. There were many old buildings with graffiti plastered all over the place. Garbage and trash were littered across both the roads and sidewalks.
“This place is practically a dumpster. I didn’t even know this place existed in the city.”
“Well, it’d be a perfect place to go if you’re thinking about going into hiding though, don’t you think?”
“True. Haaaaah, it sounds like I’m some sort of fugitive on the run. How depressing.”
“I doubt they’d think to look for you here though.”
“Yeah. Those girls who enjoy luxury would never step foot in a filthy place like this or even think to look for me here, that’s for sure. But are you trying to suggest that I give up my apartment and move here? Is that the sort of plan you thought of?”
“No. I’ve got something else in mind by coming here.”
I came to a stop in front of a building. It definitely wasn’t in the best shape, but it was at least good enough to run a business out of.
Right now it was 11:00 PM, all the lights were off. As expected, they were closed and it didn’t look like anyone was around either.
“What is this place?”
“It’s a mechanic repair shop.”
“Huh? Why’d you come here? To service your bike?”
“I’ve never actually been here before. Actually, to begin with, I never thought I’d ever even have a reason to come here.”
“Then why are we here?”
“That girl from before, she apparently runs this place. Though I don’t know for certain whether that’s true or not since I haven’t ever been here before and I’m just taking her word for it.”
“Even if she does own this place, what can that girl possibly do to help with my situation?”
“Well… I figured the best way to deal with things was to fight fire with fire. This girl… she claims she’s a gang leader… again, I have no way to verify her claim, but we might as well see if she’s telling the truth or not.”
“Hah? That girl? A gang leader? There’s no way that’s true, she’s obviously messing with you.”
“Maybe. But this is the best solution I can think of when there’s the potential threat of a gang leader getting involved in this.”
“This is the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard of. What reason would she have to help me out? None. There’s no benefit at all.”
“Perhaps. But there may still be a way. It all depends on negotiations and circumstances. Basically, what I need most right now is information. What gang is that crazy bitch involved with?”
“As much as I agree that she is a crazy bitch, she does have a name.”
“And how would I know what it is?”
“It’s Malory White. As for your question, her boyfriend is the leader of Swastika, a very violent gang filled with murderers and rapists.”
“Haaaaah. Why couldn’t they be something less intimidating?” Compared to Faceless, this particular gang I had heard of. Nothing but bad things. I’d seen a lot of headlines in the news about them when I got older and started to actually pay more attention to the news.
“Malory looks down on all of them, they’re nothing more than useful pawns, convenient tools for her to live her life of luxury,” Yuna spoke about it indifferently like none of it mattered to her.
“You sure sound calm despite the scary backing she has.”
“She might try to make me experience awful things so I hate and despise men the way she does, but she doesn’t kill other women. The one with the highest odds of being killed by her would be you right now if she finds out you’re not my boyfriend and that you already have another girl who’s your real girlfriend.”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to have one of her girls seduce you or something, then records it to show me how you’re cheating on me. In her mind, she probably thinks she can get me to hate all men the way she does by doing something like that. She’d try to make it so I would want to kill you myself and get me to use men the same way she does.”
“If I told her we broke up now after everything… she’d still try to make use of you to try and make me hate men. She’d think I did it to protect you and she wouldn’t be able to stand that.”
“Haaaah. Really… if you’d just kept and ignored the way he was acting earlier today none of this would have happened.”
“There’s no way I could know just how insane she was. I thought she was just some broke slut mooching off guys, maybe even entrapping and extorting those guys for money with her group of girls. Her being a gang leader’s girlfriend wasn’t something I considered.”
“Well, what’s done is done.”
“Yeah. Besides, there’s no saying things wouldn’t have escalated between the two of you further down the line anyway.”
I dismounted the bike, approached the door, and knocked a couple of times. I was just making sure there really wasn’t anyone around. Naturally, nobody answered.
I knocked a couple more times, but still nothing. Resigned, I decided to come back tomorrow when they were open. Well, at least I confirmed the location. It turned out to be a pointless pit stop in the end though. It was worth a shot if it meant saving some money.
Just where did that girl go at this hour? Was she just bored and felt like going for a ride? Well… she did seem like a free spirit.
I climbed back on my bike with a sigh and said, “Haaaah. Let’s go, nobody’s around. We’ll have to come back tomorrow when they’re open. We can find you somewhere to stay close by. This place seems pretty dangerous, but when you’re already escaping from something dangerous, hiding somewhere dangerous can be the best place to hide. A safe place like the police station would be the absolute first place they’d look now that I think about it.”
“Hmmm, now that you mention it, that’s true. They’d probably find us if we’d gone there first.”
“Yeah. Since there’s a gang involved, it’d probably be better to operate under the assumption they have eyes on the police station at all times. One call to that boyfriend of hers and we could have been intercepted before we even got there. We actually dodged a bullet there. Hell, when really thinking about it, they could have eyes looking out for us in other parts of the city by now for all we know. They might be watching popular hotels anticipating we might check into one. Luckily the area we’re in right now is another gang’s turf, so I doubt they’d have any eyes here.”
“Yeah. Haaaaah. It kind of feels like we’re in a movie right now.”
“A bit.”
I searched on my phone for hotels around here but was disappointed to discover there were none in this area. Well… it made sense. What hotel owner would dare set one up here?
“There’s a bit of a problem, Yuna.”
“What is it?”
“There aren’t any hotels around this area.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, see for yourself.”
I held my phone up to her and she immediately complained, “You’ve got to be kidding me, how bad is my luck?”
“Well… maybe the area’s so bad that hotels just aren’t listed or something. We could drive around a bit to see if we get lucky and come across one.”
“You’re really grasping at straws, don’t you think?”
“Haha… yeah. Let’s give it a shot though. It’d really be best to find somewhere around here for you to stay.”
“Alright.”
“Uh, but before that, there’s somewhere I want to check out.”
“Where?”
“Well, it’s in a ghetto area of the city.” I figured it was at least worth a shot. I doubt they’d be open right now though, but I could at least scope the place out before deciding on whether to make contact with that Faceless girl.
“What do you plan to do there?”
“Nothing much. But hotels around there should be pretty cheap.”
“Hmm… good point. The cheaper the better.”
At a red light, I pulled out the card I received from the Faceless girl and plugged the address into the maps app on my phone for directions. I memorized the route and made my way there. Fifteen minutes later we were in an unfamiliar area of the city I rarely ever visited.
The place was like night and day compared to other areas of the city. The condition of the road was in a pitiful state, littered with cracks and potholes. The curbs along the sides of the roads in the area were all worn down and heavily degraded too. There were many old buildings with graffiti plastered all over the place. Garbage and trash were littered across both the roads and sidewalks.
“This place is practically a dumpster. I didn’t even know this place existed in the city.”
“Well, it’d be a perfect place to go if you’re thinking about going into hiding though, don’t you think?”
“True. Haaaaah, it sounds like I’m some sort of fugitive on the run. How depressing.”
“I doubt they’d think to look for you here though.”
“Yeah. Those girls who enjoy luxury would never step foot in a filthy place like this or even think to look for me here, that’s for sure. But are you trying to suggest that I give up my apartment and move here? Is that the sort of plan you thought of?”
“No. I’ve got something else in mind by coming here.”
I came to a stop in front of a building. It definitely wasn’t in the best shape, but it was at least good enough to run a business out of.
Right now it was 11:00 PM, all the lights were off. As expected, they were closed and it didn’t look like anyone was around either.
“What is this place?”
“It’s a mechanic repair shop.”
“Huh? Why’d you come here? To service your bike?”
“I’ve never actually been here before. Actually, to begin with, I never thought I’d ever even have a reason to come here.”
“Then why are we here?”
“That girl from before, she apparently runs this place. Though I don’t know for certain whether that’s true or not since I haven’t ever been here before and I’m just taking her word for it.”
“Even if she does own this place, what can that girl possibly do to help with my situation?”
“Well… I figured the best way to deal with things was to fight fire with fire. This girl… she claims she’s a gang leader… again, I have no way to verify her claim, but we might as well see if she’s telling the truth or not.”
“Hah? That girl? A gang leader? There’s no way that’s true, she’s obviously messing with you.”
“Maybe. But this is the best solution I can think of when there’s the potential threat of a gang leader getting involved in this.”
“This is the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard of. What reason would she have to help me out? None. There’s no benefit at all.”
“Perhaps. But there may still be a way. It all depends on negotiations and circumstances. Basically, what I need most right now is information. What gang is that crazy bitch involved with?”
“As much as I agree that she is a crazy bitch, she does have a name.”
“And how would I know what it is?”
“It’s Malory White. As for your question, her boyfriend is the leader of Swastika, a very violent gang filled with murderers and rapists.”
“Haaaaah. Why couldn’t they be something less intimidating?” Compared to Faceless, this particular gang I had heard of. Nothing but bad things. I’d seen a lot of headlines in the news about them when I got older and started to actually pay more attention to the news.
“Malory looks down on all of them, they’re nothing more than useful pawns, convenient tools for her to live her life of luxury,” Yuna spoke about it indifferently like none of it mattered to her.
“You sure sound calm despite the scary backing she has.”
“She might try to make me experience awful things so I hate and despise men the way she does, but she doesn’t kill other women. The one with the highest odds of being killed by her would be you right now if she finds out you’re not my boyfriend and that you already have another girl who’s your real girlfriend.”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to have one of her girls seduce you or something, then records it to show me how you’re cheating on me. In her mind, she probably thinks she can get me to hate all men the way she does by doing something like that. She’d try to make it so I would want to kill you myself and get me to use men the same way she does.”
“If I told her we broke up now after everything… she’d still try to make use of you to try and make me hate men. She’d think I did it to protect you and she wouldn’t be able to stand that.”
“Haaaah. Really… if you’d just kept and ignored the way he was acting earlier today none of this would have happened.”
“There’s no way I could know just how insane she was. I thought she was just some broke slut mooching off guys, maybe even entrapping and extorting those guys for money with her group of girls. Her being a gang leader’s girlfriend wasn’t something I considered.”
“Well, what’s done is done.”
“Yeah. Besides, there’s no saying things wouldn’t have escalated between the two of you further down the line anyway.”
I dismounted the bike, approached the door, and knocked a couple of times. I was just making sure there really wasn’t anyone around. Naturally, nobody answered.
I knocked a couple more times, but still nothing. Resigned, I decided to come back tomorrow when they were open. Well, at least I confirmed the location. It turned out to be a pointless pit stop in the end though. It was worth a shot if it meant saving some money.
Just where did that girl go at this hour? Was she just bored and felt like going for a ride? Well… she did seem like a free spirit.
I climbed back on my bike with a sigh and said, “Haaaah. Let’s go, nobody’s around. We’ll have to come back tomorrow when they’re open. We can find you somewhere to stay close by. This place seems pretty dangerous, but when you’re already escaping from something dangerous, hiding somewhere dangerous can be the best place to hide. A safe place like the police station would be the absolute first place they’d look now that I think about it.”
“Hmmm, now that you mention it, that’s true. They’d probably find us if we’d gone there first.”
“Yeah. Since there’s a gang involved, it’d probably be better to operate under the assumption they have eyes on the police station at all times. One call to that boyfriend of hers and we could have been intercepted before we even got there. We actually dodged a bullet there. Hell, when really thinking about it, they could have eyes looking out for us in other parts of the city by now for all we know. They might be watching popular hotels anticipating we might check into one. Luckily the area we’re in right now is another gang’s turf, so I doubt they’d have any eyes here.”
“Yeah. Haaaaah. It kind of feels like we’re in a movie right now.”
“A bit.”
I searched on my phone for hotels around here but was disappointed to discover there were none in this area. Well… it made sense. What hotel owner would dare set one up here?
“There’s a bit of a problem, Yuna.”
“What is it?”
“There aren’t any hotels around this area.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, see for yourself.”
I held my phone up to her and she immediately complained, “You’ve got to be kidding me, how bad is my luck?”
“Well… maybe the area’s so bad that hotels just aren’t listed or something. We could drive around a bit to see if we get lucky and come across one.”
“You’re really grasping at straws, don’t you think?”
“Haha… yeah. Let’s give it a shot though. It’d really be best to find somewhere around here for you to stay.”
“Alright.”
