The Rails was the only public railway running through Poison City. It went alongside the official border between the South-Eastern and South-Western Districts, and into a final station at the ter of the Northern District. Oher end, the rail went across the areas beyond the nds surrounding Poison City and e another city. For many residents of Poison City, this was the only way to travel outside, or even across the city.

  Gloria was one of those people - she only had a bicycle, which would be fine for South-Eastern and South-Western Districts, but not across the mountainous nds leading to the Northern District where her babysitting job was. And right now, she just o wait for the outpour of the tourists to leave the station so she could board the train.

  “Oh god, finally we’re here.” A male tourist scoffed as he got off the stairs: “Let’s get this over with. What are we gonna enjoy here? Dirt and dust sprireet food? Or superstitious mumble jumble about how little babies o be bathed in oil?”

  “Oh, pipe it, Alex. ” A female tourist behind him smacked him on the shoulder: “Be respectful of the locals and their tradition. Keep your snark and attitude to yourself while we’re here, okay?”

  “Oh yeah, I’ll be very careful. Suuure.” The male tourist waved his hands and raised his eyebrows: “I better not let them curse me by trig me into drinking pork blood. That would be sooo scary.”

  Gloria moved close to this tourist, then with a light bump on his arm, the man’s pocket was slit open by her fiips, and his wallet ended up in her hand.

  “Ugh, big talk for a man with only 50 dolrs of cash.” After finding a er away from security cameras, Gloria shook her head, then carefully tossed the emptied out wallet with all of the IDs and credit cards still in it onto the ground.

  The entire car she was in was slightly crowded, with stilled air and smell of sweat and armpits. She was used to it by now. It was not pleasant, but if the ce came by, she could spot some iing figures going through cars to cars. And before long, one of those figures appeared: a man with dirty hair and in a loose dirty cloak came to the car where she was in, and started asking everyone if they needed “somethiing”.

  “What kind of excitement do you have?” When the ma by her side, Gloria asked with a low voice. “Do you have any fragrances?” This was a coded way of asking if the man had talismans or other possibly illegally obtained blessed items. If she was to ask about dies or sticks, then she would be asking about drugs or ons.

  “Sorry, dy. Nra this time.” The man shook his head: “You want some sticks? I’ve got some good sticks.”

  “Ah, no. Thanks.” Gloria sighed: “Thank you though.”

  “You sure, little dy? ” The man insisted: “It’s not a good time out there, folks’ve been up to some really shady stuff. A ick’ll make you safer.”

  “Yeah, but I need fragrances more, I ’t afford sticks anyway.” Gloria shrugged. “Thanks.”

  “A’ight.” The man nodded, revealing a mouth full of crooked but teeth: “e find me if you ge your mind.”

  Gloria didn’t. Wherain got to her station, she just headed right off and toward a bus stop. The sun was ready to set, after a busy day for her. Sue still did not call her yet, it seemed like she was sleeping soundly.

  The bus ride took around 15 minutes, faster than normal, and Gloria ended up getting where she o be a few minutes earlier - the residence of Briah, Samantha Teith, and their young 12 year old son Kevih. It was a two-storey single family house with blue roof shingles, looking almost pletely the same as the other houses on the same side of the streets. This was an area some called “Verpfnz-Burg”, or a pce for transpnts, in which many people that were born in, or had spent most of their lives in other districts lived.

  “Thank you for ing.” Brian and Samantha seemed to be in quite a hurry, and with some kind of worry looming over them: “Sorry, but there’s been a ge in pns, we’ll still pay you in full, but -”

  “Oh, what happened?” Gloria asked, not too ed about her payment but more so with the Teiths’ troubled look: “ I help?”

  “It’s uh - nothing to be worried about.” Briah exged looks with his wife, then said: “We’re going to e back early, and we will probably check with you a few times while we’re gone.”

  “Not that we don’t trust you.” Samanth Teith tried to reassure Gloria: “You know us, we pletely do. It’s just retly there’s been a few crimes, break-ins and stuff, happening around the neighborhood. And we’re worried. If it weren’t for this dinner being a critical business meeting, we’d never go out at this time.”

  “Uood, I’ll make sure all the doors and windoroperly shut.” Gloria nodded: “Drive safe.”

  “And - uh - we also installed some security cameras. And you watch the feed on all of them with that tablet.” Brian poi a braablet on the main table of the living room.

  “I’ve noticed. Anything else you’d like me to keep an eye on?” Gl the tablet - there were six smaller ss, each dispying a different camera’s live rec.

  “Just don’t hesitate to call us if you see or hear anything. We’d be right back.” Samantha said as she handed Gloria a key: “And - uh, if you need anything for - for prote, we have some pepper spray locked i ter and that locked drawer uhe coffee table.”

  “I see. Don’t worry, I’ll keep ara eye ohing.” Gloria nodded, “Drive safe.”

  “Alright, I’ll leave Kevin with you then.” Samatha and Brian waved to their young boy who was lying on the coud pying with a tablet of his own.

  “Bye Mom and Dad!” Kevin moved his head out from behind the tablet.

  When the door closed, Gloria immediately headed to the backdoor, the kit, and all the rooms to che the windows. She even checked the windows iiake sure that they were locked. Though the Teiths did not tell her what was going on, she could easily tell that the thought of any crime ireets eveing close to this household bothered them. So she would just o be extra certain that all the safety precautions are in pce.

  “So, Kevin, we meet again.” After this, Gloria sat down by Kevin’s side and asked: “What do you wanna do tonight? You’d better think of something soon. You heard your mother, the dinner will be quick.”

  “I don’t want to py anything right now.” Kevin threw his tablet to the side. Gl its s - it was news. What would a 12 year old boy read news for?

  “Okay - what do you wanna do? You retly picked up reading?” Gloria hen smiled at the boy.

  “I know why they’re worried.” Kevin looked Gloria in the eye, stern and serious unlike anyone of his age: “It’s the missing kids.”

  “Missing kids? What do you mean?”

  “Over the past few days, there have been two children missing in this area.” Kevin picked his tablet up and showed Gloria some of the bookmarked web pages. One showed that there was a young boy missing just five days ago. And the other showed that a girl went missing on her way home. her of the children had been found.

  “Why’d you know this?” Gloria frowned: “Your parents… you should not be reading news like this.”

  “Yeah yeah, child blocks. I worked around it.” Kevin shrugged: “Dad’s passwords are all the same with a little variation. But - pay attention! Things are happening here! And - I’m afraid they may e for my friends!”

  “Why - why your friends?”

  “The missing kids.” Kevin leaned in a little and lowered his voice: “They saw ghosts before they went missing. And some of my friends saw ghosts - just yesterday.”

  “Saw ghosts? How is that?”

  “The first boy, he saw ghosts under his bed and in his closet, he cried for days until he was taken.” Kevin nodded, as if he was there when things happened: “And the girl, she heard people calling to her from the sewers and docks. She heard it for days! Days!”

  “Okay, okay.” Gloria thought for a while, and couldn’t help but look out of the window.

  There was a hint of the sun’s st fre in the distance, just above the horizon. The night was here.