While the rest of the drivers were getting on the phone with police, insurance companies, and lastly an actual ambulance, most were none the wiser, as our trio slipped away from all the carnage, now all too aware about just how dangerous the coming times were going to be.

  They finally stopped to catch their breath outside of a noodle shop in the middle of the Eastmarch district. It was quiet, and the people around them were going about their nights. Some were partying, bar hopping along the strip, others were dressed rather nicely, and looked like they had very important dinners to get to. Our trio, our very motley crew, looked out of place to all, the sweat that lined their heads looked all too conspicuous in the cold air, and the way in which they huffed their breaths and swallowed their air gave the impression that they had just got done doing something awful, and that they were possibly en route to somewhere else to keep up the hard work.

  Dante, who was quite hungry, looked at the people seated in the noodle shop. Some with chopsticks, others with forks, but all were using whatever they could to shovel as many noodles into their face as they could.

  “Think we could make a quick pit stop?” Dante asked, trying not to rub at his tummy..

  “No,” Varin said succinctly. The quickest way to ensuring all of them stayed alive for the foreseeable future was getting their asses before the archbishop and making their claim. And even if they succeeded in that, the whole thing was a bit of a Hail Mary at the moment, and worst case scenario they’ll be served on a silver platter to the Vatos Crime Family. Which meant that their immediate survival depended on this meeting happening as soon as possible. Not on noodles.

  Opal, looking back over the shop said, “There’s plenty of food all around the city. This spot ain’t even got the best stuff, I promise you. As soon as we’re good and safe, we can eat as much as we like.”

  She took Dante’s arm in hers and started tugging him along. It was extremely late now and the light sprinkling of rain that still existed was soon to become snowflakes, and the winter air was nipping at her, and her husband was actually a really nice furnace that she wanted to be as close to as possible. Steam rose from his head in tight wisps. Her face rose to meet his, “Big fan of noodles? My favorite noodle spot is a bit closer to where we’re going too. The owner’s known me since childhood too, he’ll hook us up.”

  Dante nodded, and drew his arm out a bit, wanting to make sure Opal had however much of it she wanted, and they walked together, behind Varin, who was keeping his head on a swivel.

  “So, are we just walking there now?”

  Varin took but a second, and flashed a wizened stare at Dante, “Not here. You never know.”

  Dante shut his mouth, and Opal squeezed his arm tighter, “He’s just diligent. He’s got our backs.”

  Dante nodded and they continued walking.

  They must have passed eight couples, four drunk college posses, and two cops before Dante had a single inkling of where they could possibly be headed next, aside from this hotel. There were clues he failed to find along the way. How the people around them were already starting to bunch themselves up, getting just an inch closer to each other than Dante was comfortable with giving. And the sidewalk they were on branched out into this wide expanse that didn’t really look like it was going anywhere at all.

  Opal took notice faster, and to this day insists that she simply quickened her pace. Dante would rather me say she started dragging his ass along the concrete, and Varin wasn’t paying either enough attention to pick one side or the other. So, by however means feel most right to you, Opal popped up right alongside Varin, and, with her voice low, quiet, and steady, she said, “Varin, what the fuck are we doing?”

  Varin, knowing full well what Opal was actually asking, had no time to entertain the sheer amount of shit that entailed, responded, “We’re getting to the Hotel. If you don’t want your husband to get lost down there I suggest you get him up to speed.”

  Opal, not having very much time to work with at all, saw a Cosmos coffee shop hanging just off the brim of the subway entrance. “Varin, let’s all grab a cup before we go down.”

  Varin, though wanting to keep moving, was a lifetime caffeine addict who could never say no to a warm cup ‘a joe and simply nodded his head.

  “Oh, we can get coffee, but we can’t grab something to eat real quick?”

  Opal took Dante’s hand and shushed him, walking them inside the little coffee shop. Opal took a quick glance around to see who was in there. She knew Varin had already scoped it out by the time she had even thought to, but she wanted to see for herself. Everyone in there looked more normal than the last. Half of them were too absorbed in their phones to register them entering at all. Those who did notice quickly lost interest, and Varin went straight to the front, where a young lady with hot pink hair was waiting with a laissez blah face and a crisp name tag that sat atop a green apron sporting its fair share of stains.

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  Varin cleared his throat and asked for one black coffee. Large. The barista thought to correct him on the correct term for “large” in their establishment, before remembering that all the fucker wanted was a black coffee, and rang him up. Varin nodded over to the ditsy couple behind him, motioning that he’d be paying for them too.

  As Varin reached for his wallet he noted the disgusting condition that was the coffee shop’s floor and thought to offer his thoughts to the barista. The face she offered in return made Varin thirsty in that way coffee couldn’t satisfy, and in remembrance of current priorities, he left in a huff.

  Dante started a protest that was quickly snuffed out, and before long the 3 had their drinks, and were sat at a table and discussing. And it was with little thought paid, and with an all too cocky ass that Varin spotted a free booth and chair towards the end of the coffee shop. Naturally, he took the chair, and if he didn’t know that’d he be leaving shortly after, he’d be pretty upset with the quality of the thing. Varin ain’t much for vanity, but even he thought that his ass was worth more than whatever rejected tree stump he just plucked himself down into. The chair didn’t even look like it belonged there. In fact, come to think of it looked a whole lot like the chair that was stolen off my damn porch.

  Anyway, this chair really sucked, and its grooves and welts coalesced and culminated into what Varin would have called a huge pain in the ass. A pain so great, it was all he thought about in the moment, and didn’t see what was happening before his very eyes. Opal, who had decided she didn’t want to inform Dante just how fucked he was about to be walking through this damn subway just yet, decided to open up conversation with something a great bit lighter. Varin, was too readjusting his seat to see that Opal had rolled a nat twenty, and Dante was more than happy to throw away the tears and fright of yesteryear in favor of enjoying this quiet moment with his betrothed.

  The conversation they had was so spectacular, it’s said, even with regards to what happened next down in that truly quite awful Jaxon City Subway system, that they still remember the splendid time they had together in this humble edition of Cosmos’ Coffee. So, despite what more speculative youtube channels may feel compelled to speculate on, they ordained the meager coffee shop as the true location of their “First Date.” Oh, and Varin.

  Poor Varin, the sorry son of a bitch had no idea just what one single cup of coffee could become, and his presence at its birth did not go unrewarded. Opal and Dante always made a point to drag him back to this very coffee shop throughout the rest of their bliss filled days. Even when Dante and Opal had long since left Jaxon City, pursuing that stupid coffee shop by day brewery by night bullshit pipe dream in California, if they ever stopped to visit old Varin back in Jaxon City they couldn’t do it without dragging his ass there one way or another. When he first realized that this was going to be a routine sort of thing he enacted any and all countermeasures, and Dante and Opal upped their ante in turn.

  Opal looked around, wanting to make sure there were no listening ears and waited for Dante to finish his first sip before going into describing the ordeal that awaited them at the bottom of that treacherous staircase next to the coffee shop.

  “Dante, so you’ve never stepped foot into Jaxon City before?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay, so you’ve never ridden the subway?”

  “Nope.”

  Opal let out a long puff of air, “Okay, so for most people in this city this subway is just as normal as any other. As weird as any other too, but for us it works a little differently. Way too many years ago it kind of got…haunted? Or infested might be a better word? Long story short, the subway’s dangerous. Very dangerous, but you’ll be just fine if you do exactly what I say, when I say it.”

  Dante, who was in the middle of trying to enjoy the tiny morsel of food the cafe offered, was instantly ripped away from his pleasure, and his stomach grumbled as his attention strayed from the only food he’d seen all day.

  “What do I have to do. In order to not die. Again.”

  Opal cleared her throat. She thought about grabbing a napkin to write on, but voted against it.

  “Rule number 1. Stay close to me the entire time. We don’t have enough time to go over every single rule, but if you know the basics I can talk you through everything else.”

  “Rule number 2. You’ll see a man down there. I can’t tell you what he’ll look like, only what he’ll do. He’s going to try and grab your attention. Always from behind. Do not look at him. Do not speak to him for as long as you can.”

  Dante, perfectly focused, snuck in a bite of his strudel. “For as long as I can?”

  “Yeah, if you’re down there for long enough the fucker will eventually get too clever to resist, but just know once you speak to him a timer has started. And no one can tell you how long you’ve got, but when that ticker reaches zero, this thing’s going to have found some way to have made you look.”

  “Look at what?”

  “Don’t know. Never will.”

  Dante, trying not to look like the sheer horror of anything Opal was saying was getting to him, he simply nodded, and took another absent bite of his strudel, the sweetness of its apple filling now falling upon dead taste buds, as his brain diverted all power to his sense of hearing, and whatever was left over to his memory, making sure he drew in every word.

  “Just focus on me. This is gonna be a breeze. Look at me. Follow me. Listen to what I say, and we’ll be out of that place in no time.”

  Opal nodded and reached a hand across the table and squeezed Dante’s, “I really need you to not fuck this up. You will die, and from what I’ve heard, you’ll die quite horribly.”

  “I don’t think this is helping.”

  “Sorry.”

  Dante scarfed down the rest of his breakfast and by then all 3 had finished their drinks. Dante made sure to thank Varin for the bill, and tried to remember everything Opal had told him, and prepared himself to be able to accept new instructions on the spot.

  Chapter Fifteen: The Jaxon City Subway System