At The Other Side of World (2)

Soon after leaving my house I was standing in front of a shop. It was a new shop for glasses from the looks of it.

I peeked inside the shop multiple times from the outside and finally entered. As I entered the shop, it looked mostly empty and the staff inside were mostly free.

There were three staff members, two female and one male. There was one customer a few minutes ago but I waited for him to leave before I entered.

The name of the business sounded like a perfume shop, thankfully that was not the case.

"Hello, how can I help you today?" The clerk smiled brightly as she asked me.

"I wanted to ask about something. Are you familiar with this card."

"This card... It looks like the card of our store but it is slightly different."

As I expected, the card had a slightly different logo from the shop and the card looked way older to belong to this store.

"Emily, do you know something about this card?" The clerk showed the card to another female staff member who looked closer to my age.

"This is the previous card we stopped using a few years ago in a different branch, why do you want to know about it?"

"I was asked by a friend to come near this store who hasn't been to this city for years."

"Then he must have been talking about our second branch, unfortunately it was closed two years ago."

"Can you please give me the directions for it?" I smiled politely while saying it.

"Of course, please wait for a bit." Saying that she went inside a room.

The two other people started chatting and giggling quietly while I messed around with my phone.

'A certain tone in a conversation gives familiarity and comfort to others which leads to making others subconsciously happy while helping you without feeling uncomfortable.'

After a few minutes the young clerk returned with a slightly old book. It had a map of our city.

"The place with the cross, that's where the previous branch was."

"There is another cross, did you have a branch even before that one?"

"Yes, though it's a little far away and it has been closed for more than five years now."

"I see, just in case I'll note that location as well. Thanks, this will help a lot." I said as I took the picture of the map.

As I completed everything my phone started ringing. I quickly took out my earphones from my pocket and answered -

"Hello Chandler, you're already there? I just left my house so it'll take me a while."

I took out one of my earphones from my ear and then said - "Thank you." With a gentle smile to the young clerk and walked away.

'Complete your story for them or they'll do it for you but don't act forcefully in the process.'

I went out of the store and put my earphones back inside my pocket. I was glad that it worked out as I planned.

I gave out a heavy sigh and started walking.

When I saw the employees before entering I thought of using the way Chandler taught me how to interact with others.

I guess I wanted to make contact with them while not making them awkward about my mysterious quest. So after my work was done I played music and got out of there without dragging out the talk.

Though what I was most embarrassed about, was that I completely imitated Chandler.

I looked at my phone and both locations. The first location of the previous store was only a few minutes from here but when I saw the locations I became pretty sure it was the older branch.

The older branch is located at the 21st Street and near the 7th District, the two digits of the number which I first mistook as a date. The area was not much populated and mostly isolated.

"I probably should not take a taxi to such places right? Just how far can it be..." After thinking that, I went back home and packed a bag and changed my clothes into something which was more comfortable for exercise.

And thus my day's biggest regret happened.

Almost 2 hours after leaving the store, it was in the middle of the afternoon of April and I was wandering in the middle of nowhere. Even if the direction I was following was correct, it had been more than half an hour since I had seen any buildings or signs of intelligent life.

I have never in my life travelled out of the city area by foot, especially alone. I did think about many things and how I can prevent it, things such as heat stroke or getting lost but getting tired was not a part of that.

The building was finally in view. A closed shop in the corner of a field. There were few houses in the distance so I guess this place wasn't completely a ghost town.

I walked closer to the building, it was completely locked from all places. As I checked the building from all sides I found two windows through which I could peek inside. One of which had its covers removed and had a crowbar lying in front of it.

"This can't be a coincidence right."

I wore a thin mask on my face and a cap to not be recognised but I still hesitated a bit.

I looked like a robber even more with this getup.

Can I really enter this place without any repercussions?

I picked the crowbar and hit the window with a little force and one more time after that. The glass was already dirty and broken, with the second hit it looked safe enough to enter.

"I hope the glass is not laced with a chemical."

I somehow made it inside, the height wasn't too high and the pieces of glass weren't as dangerous as one would imagine.

I took out my phone and turned on the torch while I slowly recorded the whole thing. The store was extremely dirty, so much that it can be mistaken for a haunted house. The place also smelled awful.

I'm kind of glad now that this place has no lights or I surely would have seen a family of a vermin or two by now. Is the clerk really sure this place had been closed only for a little more than five years not a few decades.

The store was completely empty just a photo frame which didn't look too suspicious. I dusted it a bit and got a picture of it while ending my recording only to restart it after the picture.

I looked around but there was only a cash register in the entire store. The place was too big and had only three rooms, all of which were completely empty.

I tried to interact with the cash register but I had no idea on how to operate one.

*Crash* Trying to find something, I accidentally pushed the cash register and dropped it. The sharp sound was deafening, consisting of multiple coins along the register falling on the floor.

That's it, I'm totally a criminal now.

As I looked down, there was something wrong. Despite the multiple sounds there were only 5 coins and 3 keys in there, one of which was for a vehicle. There was a sheet of paper which looked suspiciously fresh.

I got out of the store and looked at it, it looked like a local map of some place with a bunch of scribbles on it and an ink mark on it. I removed my mask and cap, finally returning it in my bag, I wiped the sweat off my face and finally realised the situation I was in.

Now I was completely lost, I had no idea where to direct from here on.

I took out my phone and tried to find something.

"Maybe someone can tell me?" But I looked quite odd in my clothes. "I don't want to talk to people like this."

"Hmm" That's when a thought came to my mind.

I searched for a place located in the 7th district but which is connected to both 21st and 23rd street.

A place like that can't be impossible, right.

Since 21 and 7 refer to places and this place has been shut down for five years, 23 can only be another reference to a place.

And such a place did exist, a further walk of 20 minutes in much more of an isolated spot and that exactly matched with the map on the cash register.

With dragging my feet I somehow got near the place. And that place had... "NOTHING!"

A place completely empty with nothing but trees, as I got closer to the marked location, I could see a beautiful sunset but that alone was not worth the effort.

The marked location had a car parked on it. Despite having dust all over it, the car looked new. I may not be informed about cars but it was surely a new model which can't be more than 2 years old.

As I stood in front of it I could feel it. All of this journey brought me here, I could feel the end to my search. This may be the final clue which will form a connection between Chandler, his killer, Irina and finally me. And I'll finally end it.

I opened the locked car using the key. There was a box placed at the front seat besides the driver's seat and opened it.

"It's... it's empty?" The box had a space for keeping a key inside but it was empty. It most likely contained the key to the box Chandler gave me as a present.

"GODDAMMIT!" I thought I screamed inside my head until the echoes of my voice snapped me back into reality.

I closed the car door and took a few pictures of the car.

I had nothing to do now.

I was almost two and a half hours away from my home in a desolate place with a car beside me which I didn't even know how to drive.

I took a long breath as I realised that sunset had a lot of time, I did not have any cash on me and if I did not hurry, my phone would die.

I put on my earphones and listened to the slow melodious music as I started walking towards my far away destination in grief.