The Last Dainv-Chapter 149

The Last Dainv-Chapter 149

Mia noticed the morning sun rising later and later through the day as the calendar pushed through to December. She slid her chemistry textbook into her backpack along with her laptop, a notebook, and her favourite old but reliable TI-84 white graphing calculator that she got for free at a book fair.
Checking her phone, it was 7:15AM. The TTC bus should've arrived by now, but she knew that it would be twenty minutes late. Plenty of time to go downstairs and wait for it.
"Mom, you ready today?" she called while zipping up her bag.
Her mom walked in and leaned on the doorway, steaming coffee in hand. "Yes, mija. I'm not working until this afternoon."
Mia walked up to her by the door and reached into her pocket, pulling out a small brass coin. "Remember, keep this with you at all times. In your pocket. Not anywhere else. Ok?"
Her mom rolled her eyes, taking the coin. "This thing will protect me from dust bunnies? Sounds like something your abuela would say."
"Just trust me, okay?" Mia said. "Put it in your pocket. Always in your pocket. And don't lose it."
"Ok mija. You don't need to repeat," her mother said.
Rachel had given it to Mia a couple of weeks ago, saying it would create a barrier against dust exposure. According to her, it stored enough energy to last for about two or three weeks.
Her mom placed the coin into her work uniform's front pocket. The protection would last a couple of more days at most, and Mia would need to ask Gale to ask Rachel to recharge it soon.
The choice to give her mom the coin instead of using it for herself was an easy one. Mom spent more time on buses and going to other people's houses, which meant she would be more exposed to the risk of magical dust.
"I'll be back after four, probably. Text me if you need anything." Mia grabbed a piece of toast, putting it in her mouth and running out the door. She couldn't afford to be late.
The bus ride to Yorkdale Adult Learning Centre took about thirty minutes. Mia sat near the back, watching the city pass by the window. The route hadn't changed at all, but the colours became different after that night in the asylum.
They
had called it Aur, a hidden society that was intertwined with the reality of the mundane.
A man in a business suit stepped off at Lawrence Avenue. Nothing unusual about him except the faint blue outline that sometimes flickered around his hands when he checked his phone. A week ago, she casually would've thought that was just the phone doing weird things. Now she knew otherwise.
The bus passed an alley where a woman walked in, looked both ways, then simply vanished. No one else seemed to notice or care. Probably similar to the thing that happened when they got caught in the invisible wall by those dust dealers.
Mia closed her eyes, not wanting to look at the unveiled world around her. Life had gotten strange since meeting Gale. Since that night at the asylum. Since… meeting that woman, Rachel.
The chemistry classroom smelled like it always did. The scent of dry-erase markers, cleaning solution, and morning coffee wafted through the air. Mia took her usual seat near the front as Mrs. Chen wrote equations on the whiteboard. This used to be one of her favourite classes.
"The equation for combustion of propane," Mrs. Chen said, writing an equation Mia didn't pay attention to. "Can someone balance this equation?"
A few hands went up. Not Mia's. Her notebook remained closed on her desk as Mrs. Chen's voice became background noise.
What did molecular bonds matter when there were people who could control fire with their hands? What was the point of studying valence electrons when others could teleport? Science had rules, neat little boxes for everything. But Aur broke all those rules, or maybe it played with a different ruleset. Who knew?
Mrs. Chen called on someone else to explain the reaction. The girl next to Mia answered correctly, describing how atoms rearranged during combustion.
Mia spent the whole time doodling in her notebook, drawing the Ann Estate's front yard gateway and the dragon statues by the front door. Even the walls and the floor in that house were definitely not 'mundane' materials. Every time she looked away from the walls, the grains on the wood would have somehow rearranged themselves. The floor gave off a strange glow even though it wasn't electronic. And that coin that she gave, it was denser than a 1x1cm cube of osmium.
What was it made of and how did it work? These questions were worth more than the questions posed by chemistry equations. It's a set of rules that were completely different from the ones she had lived by so far, and that by itself got her brain juice running faster and faster that she couldn't sleep at night.
Class ended with an assignment due Friday. Mia packed up slowly, letting the room empty before heading to the common area where Andrew and Jacob waited at their usual table.
"There she is!" Jacob waved like a puppy wagging its tail.
Andrew looked up from his laptop, "Hey."
Mia dropped her backpack on the table. "You guys heard anything from… Gale?"
"Nope. Not at all," Jacob said. "Speaking of which, I had the best idea this morning.
What if
we gave Gale a camera? Like, a good one. He could record all his adventures, and we could edit them into a YouTube series."
Andrew snorted. "You think he has time to play cameraman while fighting monsters?"
"Not a big camera," Jacob insisted. "One of those little GoPros or something. Strap it to his chest or something."
Mia took out her water bottle. "And who exactly would watch these videos?"
"Everyone! We'd market it as 'real or fake' found footage. People would go nuts trying to figure it out." Jacob's eyes basically beamed at Mia. "We could monetize it."
"You're assuming he'd agree to this," Andrew said.
"Why wouldn't he? Free camera. We could even market it to him by saying that his girlfriend could watch him do cool shit during his adventures or something. I dunno."
"Have either of you even seen Gale lately?" Mia asked.
"Not since we saw him at his girlfriend's," Andrew said.
Jacob shook his head. "Nope. But that's kinda my point. He's probably out there right now doing something awesome. Fighting ghosts in some abandoned mansion or maybe even beat up a wendigo, you know 'cause it's almost winter."
"Or zombies," Andrew said. "Don't forget zombies."
"See? That's content people would pay to see!" Jacob slammed his hand on the table. "Think about it."
Mia took a big gulp of water. Had to, after listening to this bunch of lovable dimwits. Last she heard from him, he said he'd go north with Rachel. Something about a hotel. Not much details other than just giving her a heads up.
"He's probably busy," she said. "Not making content for your get-rich-quick scheme."
Jacob clutched his chest dramatically. "You wound me, Mia. This is art, not a scheme. The art of cinematography is the coolest thing ever!"
"Even if he's fighting monsters or whatever, I doubt he wants to film it. Privacy and all that." Andrew closed his laptop.
"Fine, then what about us?" Jacob said. "We could start a channel about the supernatural. Interviews with people who've seen shit. Research into weird events around the city. Journalism of the occult!"
"And get killed when we poke our noses where they don't belong?" Mia said. "No thanks."
"We wouldn't have to get involved directly," Jacob said. "Just what we find, like real journalists."
Right. They were all just mundane anyways. Rachel and Gale even called them
mundane
right in front of their faces
.
Not sure why that struck a nerve, but it didn't sit right with her being called such a thing, like they were second class citizens.
She sighed. They were right, though. One hard sneeze their way and they'd be wiped off the face of the planet. "Hey, what do you guys think happens to people like us in Aur?"
"What do you mean?" Andrew asked.
"I mean, we don't have powers. We're just regular people who know about things we probably shouldn't," Mia said, resting her chin on the table. "Rachel mentioned there are mundanes in Aur, but what do they actually do?"
"Paperwork?" Jacob said.
"Administrative stuff, probably," Andrew said. "Someone has to handle the normal parts of any organization. Budgets, scheduling, equipment maintenance."
"But is that all?" Mia said. "Just office work while others go out, find mysteries, and maybe even save the world? What's the point of
us
knowing all of this and we can't even do anything?"
"I don't know about you, but I'd make a great Aur secretary. 'Hello, monster hunting department, please hold while I transfer you to someone who can actually help.' I mean, I'm completely fine with that as long as I can see cool stuff everyday." Jacob leaned back in his chair.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. the violation.
"Being 'mundane' doesn't mean useless," Andrew said. "Think about it. In most books I've read, the characters without powers often come up with the most creative solutions. When you can't rely on magic, you have to use your brain differently."
"This isn't fiction, Andrew," Mia said. "We saw what Rachel and that butler of hers can do. We heard them talk about lots of things in a way us mundanes can never understand. They're not just super powered humans. They're smart!"
"But you can't just discount mundanes without fully understanding Aur. Like, what do we actually know?" Andrew said. "Instead of assuming, we should just ask Gale. Or his girlfriend."
"Remember those gangsters? They targeted me because I was weak. They calculated it. Their only mistake was running into Gale."
"So why would Aur have mundanes at all?" Andrew asked. "If powered people are superior in every way, what's the point of keeping regular humans around?"
Mia took out the laptop in her bag and opened it. "I don't know. Though I've been looking into it. Did some research on unusual events in Toronto. There was this incident about ten years ago. The official story was a gas explosion."
"The Lakeshore West Heights thing?" Jacob said. "My uncle lived near there. Said the whole area was fenced off."
"The news called it a gas leak, but the details don't add up." Mia tapped a few times on the touchpad, pulling up a folder of saved articles. "I think some cops know about Aur. I mean they have to right? They were first responders."
"It was just a gas leak. Boring. We should be exploring haunted houses instead! Like there's an abandoned high school in Hamilton. That beats boring crime suspense BS. Way cooler too," Jacob said.
Mia reached over and smacked Jacob on the head with a rolled-up piece of paper.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"For being an idiot." She turned her laptop around. "This is Detective Frank. He lost his wife and daughter in that 'gas leak.' If it was really just an accident, why has he spent the last decade investigating it? Why was he demoted from homicide to records? Why did three officers who responded that night quit the force within a month?"
Andrew leaned closer to Mia's laptop. "So what are you saying? This guy is in Aur and he's also going to get us in that mundane Aur stuff?"
"I don't know for sure, but look at this." Mia clicked to another tab showing property records. "After the incident, the city bought all the damaged properties and fenced off the whole area. People can still see inside the neighbourhood, yet people are turned away at the entrance checkpoints."
"How do you know all of this?" Andrew asked.
"My cousin works at City Hall. She owed me for watching her kids last summer," Mia said. "The point is, there's something there we can find out. I went there last week."
"You went there by yourself?" Jacob asked.
"I didn't go inside," Mia coughed. "Just walked around the perimeter. But... I kept seeing things. Like, from the corner of my eye. Shapes moving in the windows. Flashes of light with no source, like ghost orbs."
"Probably just reflections," Andrew said.
"Maybe." Mia closed her laptop. "But I think they might be remnants of the people who disappeared."
Andrew stared at Mia for a couple of seconds before saying, "You're really serious about this?"
"Dead serious."
"Let me guess," Andrew crossed his arms. "You want us to come with you to check it out because you got scared last time and now you're bringing us with you."
Mia smiled. "Exactly."
Jacob's eyes darted between them. "Wait, we're actually considering this? Breaking into a secured government area to look for ghosts or whatever?"
"Not breaking in," Mia said. "Just investigating from outside. For now."
"For now?" Andrew said.
"We need to understand what we've gotten ourselves into," Mia said. "Gale and Rachel are out there doing who-knows-what, and we're just sitting here taking chemistry tests. Don't you want to be more than bystanders? Don't you want to learn the different rules of the
other side
?"
Andrew grinned. "When would we do this?"
"Tonight. After dark."
"Of course it has to be after dark," Jacob sighed.
"Less chance of being spotted," Mia said.
Andrew packed up his laptop. "I have work until nine."
"Pick us up after then," Mia said. "Jacob?"
"Fine! But if we die horrible deaths, I'm blaming both of you in the afterlife." Jacob chewed on his nails.
Andrew's car pulled up at Lakeshore West Heights at 10:00 PM sharp. Streetlights lit up the empty road as they got out onto the cracked sidewalk. The cold late November air bit at their jackets, a chill made worse by being close to the lake.
"This is it?" Jacob zipped up his jacket to his chin. "Doesn't look like much."
Mia pointed to the fence right in front of them that stretched left and right far enough that they couldn't see where it ended. "That's the point. They want it to look uninteresting."
The fence stood about 8 feet high with barbed wire on top. There were no cameras nor guards. It was just literally an ordinary chain-linked fence.
Andrew pushed the lock button on his key fob. "No gate either. How we getting in?"
"We climb," Mia pointed at where the barbed wires eased up by the side. "Jacob, you're up first."
Jacob looked down at his body. "No way. Look at me. I'm not built for fence climbing."
"You're not even fat," Mia said, shoving his shoulder. "Stop making excuses and get up there. Unless you're scared?"
"I'm appropriately cautious," Jacob corrected. "And why do I have to go first?"
Mia crossed her arms. "Because if you don't, you'll chicken out and run back to the car while we're halfway up."
"That's… okay, that's fair."
Andrew looked beyond the fence at the unlit park beyond. "I saw something."
Mia and Jacob turned to look.
"Behind that tree," Andrew said, pointing to a large oak about 30 yards in. "Something moved."
"Probably a raccoon," Jacob said.
"Too big for a raccoon," Andrew said. "I don't think this is a good idea. Gale isn't here. If something happens..."
"I know," Mia said. "But we can't just wait around for them to come back. This place has answers." She paused. "But you're right, it could be dangerous. We stick together, we don't separate, and at the first sign of real trouble, we leave. Deal?"
Andrew nodded. "Deal."
"Great," Jacob muttered. "Now I definitely don't want to go first."
Mia pushed him towards the fence. "Science requires sacrifice, Jacob."
"My dignity or my life? Some choice."
Jacob grabbed the metal links anyway and started climbing. Slow, but climbing. The fence shook, making clanging noises. Mia and Andrew looked around. No guards anywhere.
"Shh!" Mia whispered harshly. "Quieter!"
"Metal fences make noise!" Jacob whispered back. "It's what they do!"
He got to the top, moved between the gaps of the barbed wires, then dropped to the other side with a thud. Mia followed, wincing at the noise of the fence but made it to the other side quickly. Andrew came last, landing almost silently on the other side.
The unlit park behind them stretched beyond. A space with plenty of benches, a playground, and old trees that almost covered the sky. Everything looked ordinary aside from the fact that there was literally no one else around other than themselves.
"Which way?" Andrew asked.
Mia pointed through the park. "Through there to the residential area."
They walked close together across the park. Dry leaves crunched under their feet, the only other sound other than Jacob breathing hard.
Jacob stopped suddenly. "Did you see that?"
"What?" Mia turned.
"By the swings. Someone was standing there." Jacob pointed to the empty playground. "A kid, I think."
Mia squinted at where he pointed. "I don't see anything."
"They were just there," Jacob said. "Then I looked right at them and... gone."
"I've been seeing them too. In the corners of my vision. When I try to focus, they disappear," Andrew said.
They were right. Something was up with this place. The moment they landed on the other side of the fence, the temperature dropped, colder, and that wasn't because of the season. In the corner of her eye, she saw them too. She repeated to herself in her mind,
ghosts aren't real.
"Let's keep moving," she said.
They kept walking through the park and reached the edge. That was when the fog rolled in. Thin at first, then thicker the closer they got to the residential area. It was just outright creepy and anything beyond 20 feet was not visible.
They stepped onto a street lined with houses. Mia stopped and stared. "There really was no gas explosion."
Jacob whimpered. "What the hell is all this?"
"Look at these houses," Mia said. "They're perfect. Windows not broken. Paint still good after 10 years empty."
Pulling up her phone, she pulled up the map she took before coming to school. She rotated the picture of the map a bunch of times before settling on one orientation. "This way. Frank's house is on Willow Street, 3 blocks east."
They moved through the fog, past the empty, undisturbed homes. Sometimes the fog cleared enough to show a bike left on a lawn or a rotting plate by the front porch of a house. Everything left in the middle of being used.
"Here," Mia said, stopping. "This is it."
The house was a modest bungalow, like all the others on the street.
Andrew tried the front door. It clicked open, and he pushed it in.
"Should we knock first?" Jacob asked nervously.
"Too late for that," Mia said, stepping inside.
The house was dark. Andrew turned on his phone flashlight. The light revealed a living room with old furniture covered in dust.
"Spread out," Mia said. "Look for anything unusual. Documents, photos, evidence."
They moved through the house carefully. Jacob checked the kitchen, Andrew the bedroom, while Mia looked through the living room.
On the mantel was a framed photo covered in a layer of dust. A man stood with his arm around a woman and a young girl between them. The man was clearly Detective Frank, just a lot younger than what she had seen in his files.
"Guys," she called softly. "Found something."
No answer.
Mia put the photo in her backpack and kept searching. In the dining room, she found a small wooden cabinet. Inside, hidden behind some dishes, was a small glass vial with clear purple liquid and grey grains.
It looked exactly like the stuff the gangsters tried to use on her that day when they were going out for lunch.
A car stopped suddenly outside.
"Goddammit, Alan!" a man's voice shouted. "At least stop like a normal human!"
Mia's head snapped to where the shout came from. The vial slipped from her fingers and hit the floor. No time to lose. She was already running to the back of the house.
"Jacob! Andrew!" she whispered loudly. "Someone's here!"
They met in the kitchen.
"Back door," Andrew pointed. "Now."
They slipped out just as the front door opened. They crouched low, ran across the backyard and into the alley behind the houses.
"Who was that?" Jacob asked when they were several houses away.
"No idea," Mia said, breathing hard. "But I found something in there. That guy must be related to the dust network. I found the same vial in that house."
"Are you sure?" Andrew asked.
"Positive. Same size, same clear liquid."
"So Frank might be connected to the Silver Lions?" Jacob asked.
"Maybe."
"Or he was investigating them," Andrew said. "Found evidence, kept it."
"Either way, it connects him to all this." Mia looked back toward the house. "Did you guys find anything?"
Andrew nodded, pulling a folder from inside his jacket. "In his bedroom desk. It was locked, but the wood was rotted."
The folder had two words stamped in red: "RED DEATH INCIDENT."
"We need to get out of here," Mia said. "We can look at this later."
They went back through the foggy streets, moving faster. The strange apparitions and ghost orbs seemed to have occurred more frequently.
At the fence, Jacob climbed first again, complaining about the dangers of scientific curiosity. Once all three were over, they ran to Andrew's car and got in

.
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Chapter 149