A.R: 3

Emptiness. The emotion that allowed one to live a blunt life without experiencing any feelings whatsoever. The emotion that disabled one from feeling anything towards another person, object, or event. The emotion that stopped one from loving, wanting, despising, desiring, hating, or missing anything.

Emptiness is a comparable feeling to apathy but entirely contrasting. Apathy enabled one to live without the pure will to feel something while emptiness, on the other hand, made it almost unfeasible for one to have any vehemence.

One who was empty would be one who had never experienced love, no matter how much they have been given. Would be one who had never felt hatred no matter how much one had annoyed them. Would be someone who had never gone through the feeling of loss no matter how much things they have lost in their lifetime.

Emptiness is not contagious, nor can it spread.

It could only be found by the same effect, cause, and name:

Emptiness.

The roof dripped with contaminated water, droplets splashing on the already filthy ground. The lights in the open area flickered while others were dim, making the shed seem as if it came straight out of a horror movie. Junk was scattered everywhere, ranging from broken tables to worn-down chairs and smashed T.V’s.

‘Where is this guy?’ Rae asked, his urgency starting to overwhelm his patience. V shrugged as she stared down at her book, nonchalant.

‘He said his drive was delayed.’ V responded before adding, ‘Traffic.’

‘Traffic? I don’t buy it.’ Rae spat, causing V to look up in curiosity, ‘He’s the one who set up this meeting and yet he can’t even bother to arrive on time?’

‘You can’t change traffic.’ V sighed, ‘If there’s traffic, there’s traffic. Nothing you can do about it.’ Rae huffed disapprovingly as he tapped his foot, frustration slowly seeping through his cool exterior.

The duo sat in a silence that made one think about unnecessary things. In this case, Rae had begun to think about the clearly underpaid janitors overseeing the shed. Tranquil engulfed the two for a while before the decision was made.

‘Let’s go. This was obviously a scam.’ Rae snapped as he stood up, about to walk away from the location. But he was stopped when a booming voice, loud and boisterous, sounded across the space,

‘Hey now! No need to leave so soon! We haven’t even begun!’ the voice called from across the large area. Rae growled: it was as if they had waited until his patience had run out to magically appear.

Cautiously, he spun back around and was met with two men dressed in black attire – coats, boots, hats, everything. Raising his eyebrows, Rae beckoned one of them to speak, hoping that it would not be the one who annoyed spoke first.

Unfortunately, luck utterly hated him and everything he stood for.

‘I’m guessing you are Rae, yes?’ The man greeted as he gave a beaming smile, his teeth managing to pull off a good sparkle when there was hardly any light to reflect. His smile was the type that gave off a light-hearted exterior but could easily bite a man in half.

‘Correct. And you are...?’ Rae trailed off, expecting the man to finish his sentence.

‘Jasper is the name.’ Jasper introduced, giving Rae another one of his blinding grins. Frowning, Rae cocked his head to the silver suitcase the other man, which had not uttered a word, held.

He did not wish to continue the small talk.

As if sensing Rae’s eagerness to wrap things up, Jasper took interest in the suitcase,

‘Ah, yes. The payment.’ Jasper addressed the silent man. The suitcase was heavy in Rae’s lanky arms, but he managed to keep in hoisted in the air without spilling its contents.

Rae plopped down next to V, unbuckling the locks on the case. It was only then did Jasper seem to realize that Rae had company.

‘Oh! Who is this magnificent lady beside you?’ Jasper quizzed, his voice seeming to drop a whole octave. Rae, taking notice of the voice change, raised an eyebrow at the man in front of him.

‘Pardon?’ Rae asked, not looking up from the money.

‘How much is she?’ he asked, leaning down to kiss V’s freckled hand. If he wasn’t looking before, Rae was definitely looking now. He retorted,

‘She’s not on sale.’ The black-haired male said, his voice dripping with disgust. Jasper sighed defeatedly,

‘A pity.’ He stated as he drew back from V, ‘I had needed a new worker.’

‘Well, you aren’t going to find one here.’ Rae countered as he snapped the lid of the suitcase closed, cutting what had supposed to be a thorough inspection short. Standing up to his full height, which was only a few centimetres taller than Jasper’s stomach, Rae ended the conversation,

‘It was nice meeting you.’ Rae said, making sure there was enough emphasis on “nice” so Jasper could tell that it really wasn’t, ‘We’ll be on our way.’

And with that, Rae spun around, striding out of the dust-filled shed without a backwards glance. V had taken the burden of greeting and thanking Jasper and his “worker” as he liked to call it, before running off to meet Rae.

The two were silent for the majority of the walk, both taking in the world around them – the colourful headlights of cars dashing by, the chatter and music sounding from each vehicle that went past, the laughter from the pedestrians as Rae and V strode past them, keeping their heads down. Rae sighed, his breath icy and stiff in the cold evening of Tokyo.

The duo turned into the hotel’s street (Suki’s Hotel n’ Stay) and entered the building. Immediately as Rae swung open the wooden door, he was greeted with a crowd of people, all yelling and demanding things from the poor receptionist, Machida.

Finding his way through the crowd, Rae made his way to the reception desk where Machida seemed to be hurrying around, struggling to meet everyone’s demands. It was only when Machida spotted Rae, a familiar face, did she seem to relax.

‘Oh finally!’ Machida sighed in exasperation, ‘Someone I know.’

‘What’s going on?’ Rae questioned as he took a look around the hotel lobby, taking in the angry chatter and the annoyed yells. Machida seemed to slump at the mention of the lobby’s status.

‘Everyone’s trying to get a room. News of the serial killer has spread like wildfire.’ Machida answered, which piqued Rae’s curiosity, ‘The police are going to do a sweep to find suspects.’

Rae’s face dropped, turning into one of urgency and shock. Of course, the police were doing a sweep! Why hadn’t he thought of that?

‘Something wrong? They’re only going to question owners of rooms that seemed suspicious.’

Rae laughed, earning a confused stare from Machida. If only Machida what his room looked like: there were firearms, scratched and worn-out, strewn across his room floor, and his clothes painted red with dried blood. Not to mention, V’s laptop sat out in the open, containing all their hires and payments.

Hell, his whole room was the definition of suspicious.

‘No, no.’ Rae answered quickly, remembering that Machida had asked him a question, ‘Nothing important. Thanks for the heads-up.’

Machida nodded slowly but approvingly. Rae slipped out of the pack of frustrated customers and to V, who was conversing with another hotel employee and seeming to enjoy their discussion.

Rae grabbed hold on her freckled hand and dragged her past the commotion and up the stairs.

‘Try to be gentle, will you?’ V asked, clearly annoyed that her conversation with the female employee was cut short. Rae did not respond as he clambered up the wooden stairs, not eager on making small talk.

Entering their rented room, Rae unleashed V’s hand and snatched a nearby duffel bag before he begun to stash everything he could get his hands on in it. V quickly understood the memo and began to aid Rae. They stuffed anything that could be used to track them into their duffel bags.

Rae kicked open the locked window in the room and climbed through it. The other side of the bars was a tiny balcony, its fence rusty and black. It gave an impressive view of the street below.

Rae climbed onto the fence, probably the only time he was thankful he did not have average weight for his age and dropped his bags, watching as they clattered against the tar. Once all burdens had been taken off, Rae positioned himself to jump and leapt of the fence, the air rushing through his clothes and hair. He came into contact with the ground and rolled to a halt.

Rae stood up, heaving his bags beginning his getaway. He did not wait for V as he knew that she could catch up with him easily.

He ran for a while, his legs moving weightlessly above the chiselled ground before he hearing faint footsteps behind him.

‘Took you long enough.’ Rae sighed, not bothering to look behind him. V huffed, disapproving, not bothering to respond. Rae ignored her uncooperativeness,

‘A or B?’

‘A.’ V answered in an instant. Rae knew that V had no clue what the choices were but she had a knack for acting confident. If “fake it till you make it” was a person, V would be embodiment.

‘Australia.’

‘What was B?’

‘Korea.’ Rae responded bluntly. There was a pause between the two comrades before V spoke up again,

‘Isn’t Australia farther away?’

Rae smirked, giving V the answer she asked for. She cursed under her breath as she understood her mistake.