THE BAR SCENE got a little bit quitter as the gradient of colour faded to a cadaverous whites and greys while the Black-Eyed Peas’ electronic rap dance music scratched a disc for a halt; all to simultaneously look at Albert unfamiliar with the situation he was in. His date just left him stranded at the middle of the dance floor for an unknown reason and abandoned his boogieing soul ass and thighs.The noises all went back to him when he got tapped on the shoulder by Alexis.“Abe?”“Alex? What are you doing here?”“Ware you doing here, all by yourself? Where’s—”“No reason.” He started walking towards the stool by the bartender with Alexis following him.Alexis was contemplating it, but he decided on it after a while. “You should come sit with us.”Albert okayed after a bit more push-and-pull arguments to later find himself seated with Alexis and his

THE BUILDING WAS settling, but not more than Von; the doors were unhinged, but not more than Von; the woodworks were sapped, but not more than Von; the downfall of the warehouse was overtaxation, but so was Von’s. For as the wind whispered through the windows of their rustic solace, so did Albert’s story—though his ear to absorb the few one he found really easy to comprehend; like the Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris song story that he had with Margaret. Because even though he couldn’t find the strength and face to admit it, that experience they had was a mouse squeaker from probably one of the world’s most hopeless place. But what he can’t put twenty of his fingers on, was how did Caine “erase her memory” like erasing chalk from a blackboard. “It’s hard to comprehend, but it’s a higher for of hypnosis. I, myself can only do very little.” Albert also explained why the mind-wipe was important to the Baron’s reputation. “Marge knew so much, so Pierre just locked those

EVER SINCE AUGUST came out of the room of deceitful contemptuous tête-à-têtes, there’d been some weird air discharging from his pores that caught Bright off-guard. It wasn’t an obvious one, because he still is the same person in the mannerisms in his actions and words and the entire personality, but there’s just something that he can’t locate even looking at the 88x94-foot map steady on his driving. He’s perspiring buckets when he asked again, “Sir, what happened there?” And like the 17 times he asked, 17 times there wasn’t any reply. That happened a few times before, so Bright didn’t really attribute that to anything rather other than him having found out some really critical information. Bright waited patiently minding his inaudible Ps and Qs to not overstep the mark secured by a portcullis guarding his Sherlockian mind palace. After a few moments more of Bright camping the premises, the hydraulic winches started releasing the drawbridge to what August was

WHEN CAINE READ the latest update from the one person the public deemed missing about another person misplaced by the eyes of the birdwatchers, something clicked in his mind. The old Warehouse G that he was apparently hiding had been cleaned, cleared and abandoned during the end of the underground wars that he commended Albert’s quick-thinking of using it as his hideout: he knew the place like the back of his hand, it has hidden secrets and it’s pretty expendable.“I hope their plan goes well,” Caine said while he walked out of the orphanage to his car. He trusted them enough that he thought that his help wouldn’t be needed anyway.And he was right­—about the plan part, the part about trust still had to be discovered by the flock cover in their shimmering plumage­—because the moment they read the news, they were already done with their chirps of briefing; they just had to improvise a few.The first one to leave w