It was about 10 PM when I began wandering the busy streets of Manhattan. I felt like an insomniac taking a midnight walk. This time, however, I already had a plan for the night.
My journey to the bus stop was briefly interrupted as I marveled at the shimmering spectacle of fluorescent traffic lights against the dark city canvas. At an intersection, the driver at the front of the traffic, who should have accelerated at the green signal, remained stationary.
"Hey, fatty! Go ahead and cross! We don't got all day here, pal!" The driver poked his head out of the window and yelled at a rather corpulent pedestrian waiting hesitantly at the crosswalk.
"W-who, me?!" the pedestrian stammered, glancing around as if the insult might have been meant for someone else.
"Is this guy serious?" the driver muttered, glancing at what seemed to be his only passenger before turning back to the pedestrian. "I'm talking to you, fatass! Now cross this goddamn road, ya hear?!"
The pedestrian, startled, hurried to cross but dropped what appeared to be an MP3 player in the process. As he stooped to pick it up, several impatient drivers blared their horns.
"Hurry the hell up!"
"Yeah, man! We all got places to be!"
Breaking into a florid sweat, the pedestrian ignored the humiliation, grabbed his device, and finally reached the other side. As he did, the lead driver revved his engine, hurling an excessively vulgar insult and flipping the pedestrian off before speeding away. Some other drivers followed suit, honking and yelling as they disappeared down the road.
I glanced at the man beside me, comparing his round, peach-colored face to an actual oversized peach. Without another thought, I continued on my way, letting the cold air sweep away the unnecessary observations. Tonight, I had a purpose—I needed answers.
Roughly eight minutes passed before another sound, apart from the usual skidding tires and distant honking, caught my attention.
"H-hey, mister! Could you hold up a sec?!"
A quick survey of my surroundings confirmed that I was the only one he could be addressing. I turned to see the same overweight man from earlier. To my surprise, he had somehow managed to close the distance I had intentionally placed between us. He was still sweating profusely, struggling to catch his breath.
Concerned about my time but slightly intrigued, I decided to gauge his character while seeming helpful. Reaching into my backpack, I pulled out a bottle of water and tossed it to him. He chugged the entire thing in one massive gulp, his desperation leaving me slightly in awe.
"UHHH! Thank you so much!" he belched, handing the empty bottle back. "Thanks, man, you're a total lifesaver."
"It's not an issue—you just seemed thirsty, is all." From this short interaction, I could tell he was far too trusting. A victim of his own kindness. Naïve. Perhaps his strengths lay elsewhere.
"Do you need something else from me?" I asked.
"Huh? Oh, right! I called out to you, didn't I?" He paused, thinking. "My bad, I totally forgot what it was about." He laughed sheepishly. My slight irritation was thankfully hidden by the shadows of my red hood.
I turned to leave. "That's alright, just let me know when—"
"OH! OH! I remember now! Haha!" he exclaimed before I could take another step. "I wanted to ask if you could tell me where the nearest bus stop is. See, I had a GPS on my phone, but it died, and I have a terrible sense of direction, so... if it's not too much trouble?"
"Where are you headed?"
"Mason Street."
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you planning to do there?"
"Oh, I'm a big fan of Marlin Mayfair, so I'm planning to see his magic show tonight."
I had already assumed we'd both be targeting the same destination, so I decided to put his lack of awareness to good use.
"Oh? I'm also heading there right now. Since I already know the way, you could just follow me."
"Awesome! I'd really appreciate that, man!"
Is he really this trusting? I thought. If I had a weapon, I could've easily robbed him. Not that I would, of course. Crime rates in this area aren't exactly low either.
For a few minutes, neither of us spoke until he broke the awkward silence.
"Hey, uhh, I think it'd be a good time to introduce ourselves. If it's fine with you, I mean."
"I don't mind."
"Alright then, I'll go first. My name's Tim—well, Timothy Gordon, but you can just call me Tim. I'll allow it since you look so friendly. Hmm... let's see... I'm 18 years old, I got suspended from college, my favorite food is my mom's meatloaf, turkey, lamb chops... oh! And hamburgers too! Yeah, that's about everything. How about you?"
While I found it hard to believe that my appearance radiated an air of friendliness, it was even harder to believe he was only 18 with a full-grown beard and a long brown ponytail.
"Okay, Tim..." It was my turn, but there wasn't much I could say. "Well... I go by Red. I'm pretty sure I'm 21... I like going for walks late at night..."
"Wow! Red?! That's such a cool-ass name, dude!"
"Really? That's quite interesting."
"Hmm? How come?"
"It's nothing... just thinking out loud."
"Oh, alright. I won't pry or anything."
After that short exchange, we continued the rest of the journey in silence. Once the bus stop was in sight, I decided to say a few words.
"We're quite early, by the way. The bus arrives in about twenty minutes." Tim quickly turned to me with a look of concern.
"Oh... would it be alright if you showed me the time on your phone?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't have one currently."
"Seriously!? But how do you know when the bus will arrive?"
"I have this." I momentarily pulled up my sleeve to show the plain watch I kept under it.
"Ohh, right, I see." Fortunately, my movements were deft enough to conceal the watch's broken dial without him noticing.
"It's currently 10:30," I said.
"It's fine, I don't mind waiting."
There was a reason I had left early for the bus stop that night—I wanted to take note of everyone waiting there. More specifically, I wanted to see if I would recognize anyone.
"Thanks for all the help, dude. I owe you one."
"It's not a big deal, but what are you going to do about your phone? It's quite dangerous for it to be dead this late at night."
"You're totally right..." A sense of panic contracted his eyebrows and stretched his eyelids. "I totally forgot about that. I have a cable in my pocket, but I left my portable charger at home." A flush of embarrassment spread across his face. "You don't happen to have a—"
I shook my head lightly, already anticipating his question.
"Dang... guess I'll have to ask someone else." He turned toward the other three pedestrians waiting at the bus stop. Two of them stood silently; one was dressed in an orange tracksuit, barely visible in the shadows, almost as if he were avoiding the light. The other leaned against a lamppost. He wore a long trench coat and dark leather boots, and as if his garments didn't already obscure him enough, his head was hidden under the deep crown of his black fedora. Its wide brim shielded a portion of his face, though I could still see the large puffs of grey smoke emerging as he moved a gloved hand to flick the cigarette between his fingers.
"Uhh..." Tim hesitated as a cold breeze swept through the silence.
"What's up?" I asked, feigning ignorance.
"Well... you see... I'm pretty awkward when it comes to social interactions." His words confused me, considering how easily he had spoken to me earlier.
"I wouldn't mind assisting you, if you want."
"Really? You'd really do that?"
"Why not? It'd be a good way to kill time while we wait."
"Wow! You really are a cool dude!" His compliments felt unsettling, but I refused to let that show in my expression.
Disregarding the man standing idle in the cold darkness, Tim led me under the transparent roof of the bus shelter. We approached a young girl who was kicking the air while seated on the bench. She seemed preoccupied with something on her phone, tapping at the screen repeatedly.
"Hey, uh... do you happen to have a portable charger I could borrow?" Tim asked.
There was no response. His words were ineffective against the noise cancellation of her wired earphones. He turned to me with an expression that silently pleaded for help.
Since words had failed, I opted for action. I crouched slightly to meet her gaze, noting how her head was tilted downward. When she lifted her eyes away from the screen, I pointed toward my ear. She understood my gesture and slid her earbuds behind her ears, though she kept her focus on her phone, tapping away as if we still didn't exist.
"Umm..." Tim faltered.
"Don't worry, you're free to speak," she said, her voice light but tinged with indifference.
"Oh, right... well, you see, my phone died, and I was wondering if you had a portable charger I could borrow."
A few seconds passed before she finally looked away from her phone to face us. She then immediately turned back to her screen.
"Umm... can she still not hear me?"
I shrugged.
"Isn't there a certain magical word you forgot to add?" she asked, her voice filled with amusement.
"Please?" Tim said uncertainly.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Can I please borrow your portable charger... if you have one?" he clarified.
"I dunno, do I have one?" She smirked, stretching an open hand toward us.
"You can't be serious." Tim's reaction only made her grin widen.
After a moment of hesitation, he rummaged through his pockets. As she patiently waited, I noticed a silver tungsten ring wrapped around the base of her middle finger.
"I don't have any change, just my credit card."
"Oh, how generous of you... hand it over, please."
"Like hell!"
"Fine. You can go ahead and dig a grave for that phone of yours then... tubby."
"WHAT—"
"Will this be enough?" I retrieved two dollars and fifty cents from my pocket and handed them to her.
"Meh, I guess that'll do." She pulled a violet-colored cuboid with a charging port from her small backpack. "Here."
"Sweet!" Tim reached for it, but she recoiled slightly.
"Nuh-uh. You're not the one who paid for it. Only the weirdo in the red hoodie has the right to use it."
She was unfortunately referring to me.
"YOU LITTLE—"
"I'm sorry, Miss..." I interjected, hoping to learn her name.
"I'm not gonna tell you my name if that's what you're after... stranger danger and all that. But I kinda like the sound of 'Miss.' You can call me that instead."
Her condescending tone was frustrating, but I could tell she was quite sharp for someone her age.
"Right... Miss... what I was trying to say is that I don't have a phone, so I don't think I'll actually need this."
"Darn, that's a shame," she said sarcastically. "Welp, I guess I'll have to take it back then."
Before she could reclaim the charger, I made a final attempt after clearing my throat.
"Ahem, I humbly request that you grant my friend here the usage of this charger in my stead."
Tim's eyes lit up the moment I called him "friend."
"Oh? And what makes you think I'd allow such a thing?"
"Because I can tell you're a selfless and kind-hearted young girl who's capable of making sacrifices for others... even for a couple of unworthy strangers like us."
"Well... I can confess that I am quite selfless when I want to be. And even though you're a weirdo, you don't lack basic manners like most people... I'll allow it."
"AWSOME!" Tim exclaimed as I handed him the charger. "I'm gonna go over there and call my mom." Tim pointed a small distance away from the bus shelter. "She must be super worried since she hasn't heard from me in a while."
He turned towards the girl for affirmation. "I-Is that fine?"
"Yeah, whatever. Go do what you want." It seemed the girl had returned her focus toward her phone.
"Alright, thank you, umm... Miss... and thanks again, Red."
"Don't mention it." A feeling of satisfaction left an odd tingling sensation inside of me, which I couldn't quite pinpoint. However, the second I turned to face the girl, the feeling began to rot as I received a venomous stare that caused my hand to twitch instinctively.
Then, at this very moment, I saw an opportunity to free the question I kept imprisoned in my mind during this whole encounter.
"Do I know you from somewhere?"
"Huh?" She replied, the intensity of her stare decreasing.
"You just seem quite familiar, so I was thinking that perhaps we've met before."
She giggled at my statement.
"What the hell? You really are a weirdo, huh?"
I tilted my head in confusion.
"Don't worry, if I had ever met you before I'd definitely remember... you'd still be in my nightmares after all." She erased me from existence once again and started playing with her phone.
Her harsh words didn't really affect me, but in a way, it confirmed something that I'd been suspecting for a while now... I may be a dangerous person after all.
...
The time dragged on in silence—a solemn peace hanging over us all. I normally enjoyed moments like these, quietly loitering around. However, an annoying habit I had developed made things quite difficult this time. My eyes, the only part of my body that defied my patience, seemed to have a mind of their own.
"What the hell are you looking at?" Somehow, the young girl noticed me staring at her, even though she was still focused on her phone.
"How did you know I was staring?" I confessed.
"Just a feeling. I get this shiver down my spine whenever a creep is being a creep."
While I pondered the meaning of her words, my attention returned to the road as a white bus slowly began to decelerate in front of us.
The man beside the lamppost deftly flicked away his cigarette, as if instructing the darkness to take good care of it. I also saw the man in the orange tracksuit slowly emerge from the shadows as Tim gradually made his way over.
"It's about time." Seeing the young girl finally switch off her phone as she stood up triggered the very sensation she had described earlier. That being the shiver I felt in my spine.
Her hair was baby blue, tied into two ponytails that ended just below her frail shoulders. She wore a black jacket over a white blouse and a navy jumper. She gently patted her tartan skirt before shuffling beside me.
Once the screeching of the bus tires ended, the doors slid open, and I wasted no time getting in before everybody else.
"Ticket to Mason Street, please," I said to the bus driver while retrieving a red card from my wallet. After purchasing my ticket, I heard a voice of distress cry out from behind me.
"Wait, I didn't leave it at home, did I?" The girl was frantically searching the inside of her bag while on the bus.
"You lookin' for this?" The man in the orange tracksuit approached her, holding what seemed to be a purple lanyard with a long badge attached.
"Oh... thanks. Where'd you find it?" she asked, repossessing her lost item.
"It was left on the bench you were sitting at just now," he replied, flashing an excessively large grin.
"I appreciate you bringing it back to me instead of running off with it or something."
"It's my pleasure. I'm always happy to help a young lady in need." At this point, I could tell that his grin was making the girl somewhat uncomfortable.
"Yeah... well... I'm gonna go pay for my ticket now."
"Hey, hold on, Miss!" Tim's voice called out toward her. "Here." He returned her portable charger before she entered the bus.
"Oh, thank you," she replied gratefully, inserting the device into her bag. Once she paid for her ticket, she hesitated before choosing a seat. I couldn't help but notice how she glanced at the man in the tracksuit as he also paid for his ticket. Keeping the same hideous grin on his face, he approached the girl and sat in the front seat beside where she stood. The moment he sat down, she practically fled from him, moving toward the center of the bus, where I remained seated.
"Hmm?" I let out a hum once she suddenly claimed the open seat beside me.
"You saw him too, right?" She spoke quietly as if she didn't want anyone else on the bus to hear her. "While we were waiting at the bus stop, you noticed the way he kept staring at me."
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I have no idea what you're talking about—"
"While we were waiting for the bus to arrive, you didn't move. You were still standing in front of me, like you were waiting for him to approach... You were trying to protect me, weren't you?"
Taken aback by her acute observation, I decided to remain silent.
"Is it alright if we swap seats... just in case?"
"... That's not a problem," I replied, though I did prefer sitting beside the window. Just as we changed seats, I caught a glimpse of the man in the tracksuit, who quickly retracted his gaze from our direction.
"Is he still looking?" she asked worriedly.
"No," I replied. Just then, she let out a strong sigh of relief. Despite her appearance, she seemed very calm and mature about the situation—almost as if she was used to it.
I then looked around the bus, trying to take note of where everyone was seated. The man with the fedora was sitting at the very back. The tracksuit man remained at the front. Tim sat in the seats adjacent to me, and of course, the girl known as "Miss" sat beside me.
The bus would take about half an hour before reaching our destination, so naturally, I began searching for a distraction. Since I didn't have a phone or anything else to fidget with, I considered sparking up a conversation.
Tim, who sat to my left, had his eyes closed with earbuds in, listening to something on his MP3 player. Miss, to my right, continued playing a game on her phone.
"You're staring again," she said without taking her eyes off the screen. I was still fascinated by how she noticed my gaze despite her focus being elsewhere.
"I'm sorry... bad habit," I confessed. Or maybe I was just bored.
I saw the words "Game Over" flashing on her screen as she lightly flinched.
"Son of a—" She bit her bottom lip to stop herself from cursing before switching off her phone entirely.
A few more minutes passed in silence, and I found myself thinking about the man known as Marlin Mayfair, a well-known magician who was planning to perform at the Mason Street Theatre tonight. I didn't know much about him, having never attended one of his magic shows before, but I had learned he was on tour. He wouldn't be staying in Manhattan for long after this performance. This was an opportunity I couldn't waste.
"Hey, Mister?"
"Hmm?"
The girl's voice interrupted my thoughts, and I turned to her with a puzzled expression.
"I've been meaning to ask... is your name actually Red?"
She spoke in a tone of pure curiosity rather than mockery, which surprised me. It's more than likely she took notice of the way Tim casually addressed me earlier.
"What if it is?" I asked, trying to prod an insult out of her. However, none came.
"Well, that's quite strange then, isn't it?"
She spoke in a much quieter tone, as if talking to herself, so I chose not to reply.
"Aren't you gonna ask me why I think that's strange?" She looked up at me with an eyebrow raised.
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I assumed you were talking to yourself just now."
"Well, I wasn't, so..."
She was clearly waiting for me to ask.
"Alright then... why do you think my name is strange?" Hearing myself say those words made me feel like an idiot.
"Hehe, that's a secret." A devious grin formed on her face, piquing my curiosity, though I refrained from pressing further.
A secret is a secret, after all. We all have them, and we all want them to stay hidden—especially from strangers.
...
A few more moments passed, and I thought it would be an appropriate time to break the silence once again.
"So, I take it that you're also planning to attend tonight's magic show?"
"Oh? What gave that away?"
I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not, but given her character, I could at least make an educated guess.
"That lanyard around your neck, am I right in assuming it's a 'V.I.P Only' backstage pass?"
I had been wondering that for some time now, but it seemed she purposely had it facing the other way so as not to reveal the contents of the badge.
She glared at me suspiciously while tightly grasping her lanyard.
"Yeah, and?"
"V.I.P does stand for 'Very Important Person', doesn't it? Mayfair is quite a famous individual so for you to own a backstage pass to one of his shows must mean you're someone of equal importance right?"
At this point, she wasn't able to respond, but her actions here were enough to give me an appropriate answer.
"Your silence can be perceived as an answer too, you know?"
"Y-yeah, I'm aware."
Her demeanor had changed slightly, perhaps due to the suddenness of this topic. She seemed afraid of something, and I wanted to know what that something was.
"So I take it you're from a wealthy family then?"
An unaccompanied kid taking the bus at night to attend a magic show? Something about this seemed quite unlikely, and she also refused to answer so I continued.
"In that case, wouldn't you normally be accompanied by security? It's unlikely that you'd see the daughter of a wealthy family using public transport."
Which leaves room for a more likely scenario to have taken place...
"You probably must've ran away from home or something, right?" I made sure to keep my voice down, so no one else in the bus could hear me apart from the girl sat beside me, whose expression had dulled significantly.
"H-how could you have possibly known that?"
"Well, first of all, your phone."
"My phone?"
I nodded to her in response.
"You were constantly using it to play a game. I thought at some point you might have been messaging maybe a few friends or even your parents, but you never did, did you?"
"Well... that's--"
"Not to mention, I didn't see you receive a notification or a single text from anyone, which - I figured - suggested one of two things. Either there was no service in that area around the bus stop, or you blocked all their numbers from your contacts. But neither of those seem to be the case, right?"
Unbeknownst to her, her wincing face was the confirmation I required to finalize my hypothesis.
Tim was able to call his mother, so there would've been service available. And, assuming she had been trying to avoid contact from anyone after running away, then the latter wouldn't really work since they would still have access to her details, allowing them to send calls or texts through a separate number. This opens up the possibility of a third option.
"No one was ever going to check up on you, and you were already aware of this, weren't you?"
Both fear and frustration were merged into an expression of shock.
"You... there's no way you could have possibly figured all of that out, right? They must have sent you after me, didn't they? They got someone even creepier to send me back."
By 'they' I'm guessing she's referring to her parents. If that's the case, then it seems she has misconstrued my intentions.
"Huh? I think you have the wrong person."
"Stop trying to act like an idiot, I've already seen right through you, but unfortunately, I have no intention of going back there this time."
"Hold on, I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding."
She silently raised an eyebrow as I began to explain.
I explained to her that she and I were here for the same reason - to attend Mayfair's magic show. At first she seemed reluctant to trust my words, but once I pulled out the printed ticket from my wallet, her weariness began to subside a little.
"It seems you weren't lying about that then. But that still doesn't prove anything. You could still be planning to take me back home after the show or something."
Maybe she wasn't as convinced as I thought.
Due to my shady appearance, there were probably many other possibilities that had been going through her mind at this moment. She could've thought that I was a kidnapper or a criminal of some kind.
Thinking about it, if I were to kidnap her at some point, I could then hold her for ransom. If she really does belong to a wealthy family, I'm sure they would be more than willing to pay quite a hefty sum for her return...
But unfortunately, there wasn't much benefit in doing so.
"Yeah, I guess you're right about that."
"Eh?"
She expressed her confusion toward my absent rebuttal. Since there was no way for me to prove myself, I decided that any further argument would just be pointless.
But before any words could come out of her mouth, the bus suddenly jolted to a stop before the doors began to slide open.
I immediately got up from my seat and exited the bus, making sure to thank the bus driver for his service. Fortunately the bus hadn't stopped for any other passengers, and it was parked right outside the theatre so I still had some time to spare.
Would it be better for me to claim my seat now? I was sure that there were already lots of people inside, seated in their assigned locations. I decided to double check the seat number on my ticket.
R13 was written in large font beneath the ticket's barcode. 'Row R, Seat 13' was where I had been placed, which meant that I would be seated somewhere around the rear.
I guess that makes things much easier for me.
"Hey, Red." Tim called from behind me. "What seat number are you?"
Without saying anything, I showed him the contents displayed on my ticket.
"R13, huh?" He muttered as he adjusted his glasses.
For some reason his expression hardened ever so slightly, which one could've easily missed if they hadn't been paying close attention to his face.
"Is something wrong?"
"Oh, my bad." He returned to his innocent expression. "I just-- I thought that maybe we'd be a bit closer to each other is all."
"I take it that we're not then?" I tried to confirm.
He then displayed his own ticket using his phone.
"Ah, I see."
The seat number displayed was L14, so he was placed quite a few rows in front of me.
"Yeah, bummer." He didn't seem overly upset about the whole thing, but his gaze fell to the ground in defeat. "I guess there's a chance we might not bump into each other after this."
"It would seem so."
"Oh, I have an idea!" He raised his head back up, his eyes now radiating with a sudden enthusiasm. "Why don't we exchange contact information?"
"I wouldn't mind, but in case you have forgotten, I don't own a mobile phone."
"Darn, I totally forgot about that."
He seems very forgetful, doesn't he?
"Well, I guess this is goodbye then, Red, it was nice meeting you." He waved me farewell as he proceeded toward the Theatre entrance. I shortly waved back and watched until he entered the building.
I began to notice some strange things about my interactions with Tim so far.
Despite being a stranger, he acted awfully friendly towards me from the very beginning, which I didn't think was that unusual at first. But on the bus, despite us sitting adjacent to each other, he never spoke to me once or even looked in my direction. He had just been facing forward most of the time as though he were in deep thought. Now, after getting off the bus, he suddenly decided to interact with me once more to know where I would be seated.
"Something is off about that guy." I mumbled to myself.
Then, suddenly, one more thought had occurred to me as though a blunt object had mercilessly struck the back of my head. It was the matter of his ticket being displayed on his phone, which had died earlier. If Tim had not been able to gain a portable charger from someone, he wouldn't have been able to access his ticket, meaning he would have been denied entry to the Theatre.
Was that some kind of lucky coincidence? Or maybe he thought about it before hand and had a physical copy of the ticket just in case? From what I've judged so far, the latter would seem unlikely do to his careless nature, so maybe it was best not to think about it too deeply.
"How long are you gonna keep standing there?" That repugnant tone belonged to the girl I sat next to on the bus. "Even the way you stand is creepy."
It seems she had been observing me from behind all this time.
"How long I spend standing around should be of no concern to you, or is there something you want from me?"
Just as I said this, I watched her eyes wander to the side. Following the direction of her gaze, I saw the man in the orange tracksuit, who was tapping his phone, perhaps searching for his ticket.
His attention shifted toward the girl, but once his eyes temporarily crossed mine, he turned his attention forward, hastily moving toward the theatre entrance.
It was almost as if he was fleeing the scene.
"If you're still uncomfortable, why not just call the police?"
"That's very funny considering you're already aware of the situation I'm in."
Sure, her current situation was quite complicated.
If she were to contact the police about a potential stalker, then they would have no choice but to come and investigate. In that case, they would eventually have to ask questions, meaning she would have no choice but to confess her story and she would likely be sent back home to wherever she came from.
"I hope you're not thinking of calling the police on me."
"Why would I do that? You clearly have your own personal reasons for running away, who am I to send you to a place you don't want to go back to?"
Naturally, she was stunned by my response.
"So my parents didn't send you?"
"Nope."
"Really?"
"Mhm."
"Are you sure?"
This is starting to get annoying.
"I'll say it again, I'm here for the same reason you are. I just want to watch the magic show, that's it."
"Liar. You want something from me, don't you?" With her fingers in the shape of a gun she began to point it directly towards me, as if her blue nail would shoot into my head at any moment.
I'll admit, if there was anything that could be exchanged for keeping her situation in confidence, it would have to be that backstage pass of hers. Such a thing would definitely make things easier for me. But unfortunately, it didn't seem like she would be so willing to give away something so valuable.
"Nah, there isn't. I'll be heading inside now," I said, about to proceed toward the Theatre entrance.
"Hold on a sec." She stopped me with a light tug of my sleeve. "Are you a big fan of his? Marlin Mayfair, I mean."
It's not like I was a fan of the guy or anything, or maybe I was. Either way, I wasn't too sure how to answer that.
I deeply thought about for a few seconds before saying anything.
"... Pretty much." I cautiously answered with a lie to prevent her from prying any further.
If I had said no, she probably would've asked me something like "then what's you're reason for coming here?" which would force me to disclose the real reason for my attendance.
"Is that so...?" She took a moment to think to herself whilst nervously fidgeting with her ring. She then let out a mild groan as if she had finally come to a conclusion.
"Ugh, how about this?" She showed me the front side of her backstage pass, which immediately stole my attention. "Easy there, I don't plan on giving it away, but lucky for you, I have a special incentive."
After reading the contents of the pass, I was able to see that it only granted post performance access. There was also a seat number written on the pass. However, the most important thing I noticed was that it also granted the owner permission to be accompanied backstage by a guest of their choosing.
"So that's how it is. You'll let me be your selected guest and in exchange, I'll have to keep quiet about your situation, right?"
"Exactly, but if this isn't enough to satisfy you then I'm afraid--"
"Deal."
"H-huh? That fast?"
"Of course, it'll be a once in a lifetime opportunity to actually meet Mayfair the Magician face to face."
"... I guess..."
But most importantly, it is the only chance I have to obtain the answers that I seek. The man known as Marlin Mayfair is the key, however, the locks within my mind are many. I think it's finally time I reduce that number by one...