“For all that happened, Bell really is a beautiful place.” Watered-down tea and tomatoes on toast had never been so good. Sao wolfed down one piece and ordered another. “It looks completely different under sunlight. Makes me how things would have ended up if I had decided to stay that night. That is to say, if the recruitment had been successful.”

Rai was waiting on something, but Sao could not deduce what. They stopped at the first visible eatery at Rai’s prompting, but he hadn’t taken more than three bites of his toast. 

The cafe wasn’t the most appetizing of locations, Sao had to admit. Under buzzing lamps, the steel tables were covered in dents and scratches, and the benches were even worse off, a landscape of lumpy stuffing - or rather, lack of it. And the view, well, after a walk through Bell’s grounds, a single withered tree on the sidewalk left a lot to be desired. The entire area seemed to be in a state of suspended construction - bulldozers and cranes poised but motionless, as if the workers had just vanished right out of their seats one day. 

Sao shivered at the image and focused on his toast. “I hear you don’t actually have to work to be accepted as a resident. Your rent is subsidized if management approves of your stay, and you can help out on the grounds instead. That doesn’t sound like a bad time. I wonder if I would be any good at gardening? No, they probably leave that part to professionals. I’d be a professional lounger-”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Of course.”

“If really you need time off, take a vacation and go to the beach.”

“The beach?” Sao sipped lukewarm tea. “Maybe for a spot of people-watching. Though Bell’s not too bad for that either. Did you enjoy the lagoon?”

“They put up with me, but you’re not gonna tell me that I fit in with that crowd.”

“Well. Kiria seemed to take to you instantly. And Delta does respect you.”

“Yeah. That was kind of shocking. I’m not the one people tend to gravitate towards, whether there’s a case going on or not.” Rai jabbed a finger Sao’s way, and snapped it back to take a violent gulp from a paper cup. “I guess they saw a kindred spirit. None of us were the kind who would fit into a swimsuit photoshoot.”

Sao chortled. “I’ll toast to that.”

The look Rai gave him was blistering. “You know what I mean. You also know that you’d fit in just fine, that’s why you’re spinning up dreams about it. That’s also…” The cup crinkled. “...probably why you were recruited.”

“Fantasy is all it is. Me, as part of the Bell-approved beau monde? Have you forgotten? This isn’t my real face.” Sao tapped a patch of skin under his eye. The concealer was so thick he felt it part around his fingernail like gelatin. “And it’s a little unkind to Sigma to claim his two closest friends feel out of place when they chose to live by his side. The management house was the coziest place I’ve seen in awhile. Luxurious, but not forceful. Just a lot of little things to admire. I wouldn’t mind living in a place like that.”

“I don’t understand what the hell you’re thinking sometimes.”

“Rai, I’m not seriously considering becoming a resident.”

“Am I being too nosy here? Think about it this way: something happened at Bell two years ago, off-putting enough to make you never look back, but you can’t recall what happened. Today, you didn’t take a single nap, even declared napping a waste of time. You conspicuously rejected all food and drink offered to you, even by your old buddy Delta, making me wonder if they were gonna drug us.” Rai’s voice dropped. “This morning, I had the impression that something horrible went down there, that you never wanted to return. But we walk out of there, knowing a guy killed himself to boot, and suddenly, you’re all jokes.”

Sao set his cup down. “I see. That’s... considerate of you to note.”

“Fine. Your business, I get it. I’m getting another coffee. Their espresso tastes like shit but-”

“The memory loss that I implied. You think it’s like the part of childhood I don’t remember. Which had the suggestion of… a kind of trauma.” Sao shook his head. “Now that you mention it, I suppose I was a little misleading. But no, The dinner at Bell was something else entirely.”

“Don’t tell me if this is gonna get written up as harassment.”

“Nothing’s going to get written up, I even can’t say for sure what happened.” Sao frowned. “You’re more than half correct. The fact that I can’t remember a sizable chunk of that night is a big reason why I’ll forever be slightly suspicious of Bell, and Sigma.”

Apparently, shitty coffee could wait. Sao wondered just how long Rai had been sitting on that outburst.

Sao sighed. “I suppose that still sounds worse than it was. Alright, where do I start... I do recall telling you that Sigma voiced some odd opinions about science fiction sometime during dinner. That was the start of the strangeness.

“We were beginning to carve the roast pigeons. The topic turned to movies; it probably started with something Sigma starred in, and he was getting quizzed about his roles. Which ones he liked the best, who he liked working with, things like that. When asked if he’d take a role in a space operas, he became wound up. Not upset, but… invigorated.

“He said that science fiction as the movies envisioned was shortsighted, the result of sheltered minds and overinflated confidence, written by those who had never traveled beyond the country of their birth but thought themselves ready for the stars. There was always too much focus on Earth being the natural center of the universe. That all the stories that people liked revolved around some conceit that humanity would just slot right into, be the driving force, or at least a significant source of conflict with, an intergalactic trade and communications network. That life among extraterrestrials was made out to be effortless, as if their methods of transport and thinking and justice were based on that of a standard human city, and that was how they’d been all along.”

Rai was watching his hands. “He’s the expert, huh? Or was trying to sound like one.”

“It wasn’t an angry tirade. He was reasonable - humble - I would even say hopeful - about it; said he knew it was a difficult field for ordinary people to really explore. Even he had limited experience, and what he had learned stunned him to this day. But he went on to say, it was ridiculous that human beings believe they would flourish - or even begin to integrate - with the other residents of the universe. As if all humans were by default united and ready to move on to move on to worlds where inhabitants were green or made of jelly or spacedust. Movies make out that we’ll be making friends with, sharing familiar food with, shaking hands and lying in bed with fun multicolored people and enticing gentle creatures. But even if extraterrestrials had humanoid bodies, the spokesmen of humanity, and a good portion more, are too used to forming violent, lifelong divisions amongst themselves that no other being of tangible body would want to get close. Among humans there are divides just because some of them live a bit too far north, are too young or too old, or have wings or horns that they don’t even use. Or, he said, ‘they were people like Sao, here.’”

The coffee cup had been compressed into a mangled stick. Rai set it down on his plate. “What did he mean by that last part?”

“One of many exciting explanations I missed that night, if he elaborated it at all. I excused myself for a bathroom break almost immediately after the words left his mouth. I took a walk even afterward, trying to figure things out on my own. Figure out if I should further excuse myself for the night... I ended up somewhere near the management building. That was when...” The haze of the night descended on him again, the faceless shapes and the unhelpful echoes. “I met a child.”

“Like a baby?”

Sao laughed. “No, it was…” He stopped. “Actually, hold that question. But I do know this child was an age where he or she could walk alone, because after a moment of watching me, they turned and did just that. They were extremely light on their feet. I called after them, saying I was a visitor with Delta - just to show I wasn’t some evil invader. They looked back, but only waved, like they hadn’t heard my words. I asked if we were headed back to dinner, and just got another little wave. This time they waited for me to catch up, said to follow. We chatted a bit about the flowers. It was a relief to have met someone, because I had been wandering a while and wasn’t sure I’d find my way back in the dark.

“Instead, we found ourselves in an unfinished part of the grounds. The flower corridor opened to a bare lot, newly cleared by the look of it. The child pointed at the far end of the lot where some trees were clustered and said, ‘I’m going to be living there.’

“From this, I understood they must be a resident. It was a bit of a shock. I hadn’t seen any children at the dinner, hadn’t even considered children in the Group. They began hopping across the muddy ground, but I didn’t follow this time. Instead I said that we should be getting back to the dinner. 

The child ignored what I said, and instead put out two hands to point at the edges of their imaginary path. ‘We’re planting camellias here. Left side and right side. It’s supposed to be a surprise. The flowers will be pink. It’s a kind of tree that lives through winter, so the place can look nice when everything’s dead.’ Morbid for a child, no? ‘How do you know that?’ ‘It was like that back at the college.’”

Rai chewed on this. “So you learned that tree fact from a kid.”

“Shame on me for acting otherwise. I then made the mistake of asking how mommy and daddy ended up at Bell. The kid turned away from me and for a long time just stared into the darkness and finally said - scoffed - something that resonates with me, to this day. ‘You won’t like it here.’ And then off they went, skipping down the unlit path and out of sight. I raised my voice to try to get them back, to no avail. I must have made quite a racket because when I backtracked to the corridor we had come from, Sigma was there, with a few other residents.”

“Then you ran for your life.”

Sao laughed again. “Not just yet. They were rightfully worried I was lost. Sigma told the residents to go back to the dinner ahead of us and began to apologize. ‘All that talk of sheltered minds,’ he said, ‘and I didn’t even think of what I was saying. I should never have brought up skins, I was foolish to think I was qualified...’ I laughed it off and said it was half makeup.”

“Huh.”

“Which is true. But for some reason, this only confused him.”

“I don’t think he was talking about scarring.”

“Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. Anyway, what the kid said was still fresh in my ears. That and the wine we’d been downing at the dinner, which might have contributed to my getting lost. In a rush to change the topic, Sigma asked how I’d gotten myself all the way out there, and I said I was admiring the plant life. Bent down and sort of poked the soil - clinical gardeners’ behavior, I know - and said ‘You’re growing camellias, right?’ Sigma made a weird face and said, ‘Who told you that?’ I was just kneeling there dumbstruck. ‘The trees and the carriage house were supposed to be a surprise for Kiria. But I haven’t even looked into contractors. The design’s not even confirmed...’” Sao smiled. “The trees… they weren’t even planted yet. How could that child have known Sigma's plans...?”

Rai finally cracked a grin at this. Sao knew what he was thinking, but held a hand up to stall the proclamation.

“I said that it must have been mentioned by someone at the dinner, but Sigma wasn’t convinced. I didn’t bring up that it was a child specifically; in fact I wasn’t keen on bringing up anymore talk for the night. I messaged a friend to fake a phone call, made my excuses, took my leave.”

“Sound like you--”

“That much was unsettling. I can’t explain what happened afterward.” Sao felt his smile fade into the fog, the everpresent fog. “For some reason, I was worried about the kid. Sigma was totally taken aback that someone knew of his plans for that lot. The rumors of Bell being a cult had been passed around, although I hadn’t really believed it was anything serious until that night. And also because it had been a cold night, and they looked underdressed, might not have been wearing shoes.”

“‘Might’?”

“That was the problem. I called a friend - the one who works with Chimera - to see if there were any records of a child missing, having been put into Bell’s care or spotted at Bell events… I was expecting that part to be easy. This friend of mine has a very comprehensive scanning system for news and public documents. Any further action, well, I could worry about that in the morning. But the search could not even begin. I wracked my brain for hours but couldn’t remember anything about this child: height, age, hair, gender, clothing, coloration... Were they really underdressed for the weather? I knew for sure we had introduced ourselves but I could not dredge up the name. Not a single usable detail of this person. They were like a dream slipping away, further and faster as I tried to recall it.”

Rai’s arid stare silenced him, and in that silence the echoes of the night reverberated clearer than ever.

I swear, Hro, this is so weird. I need your help finding this kid, but...

If you aren’t even sure what you saw, what do you expect me to do about it? I can’t read your goddamn mind.

I wish you could.

Judging by the mess you have up there, I’m glad I can’t.

Please. Give me a minute. I think I’ve got the name, I know I heard a name. It’s on the tip of my tongue. Cam… Cammy…?

What, camellia? The flowers you two talked about? Get a hold of yourself. Have you been drinking?

“You remembered a little of what they said, though. The camellias. And you took their advice to get out.”

Sao sighed. “You’re right - the things they said about me, Sigma and the trees did stick. It’s the person who said it that’s a blur. No, blurs retain some aspect of the original image - this child - this person - is a void in an otherwise clear picture. I had to wonder, maybe I drank too much. Maybe there were edibles hidden somewhere in that lavish meal. My fellow visitors did suggest as much the next morning when we regrouped at the office. But why would I blank on just one person, of all the night’s memories?” Sao slouched, attempting to garner comfort from the useless contours of the cafe bench. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“I’ve never been blackout drunk, but I don’t think it would take out such a specific slice like that.” Rai folded his arms. “I don’t have an answer, but this explains why you were so worked up about the Indigo kid being the ‘first Group baby’.”

“And the only other ‘child’ the residents seemed to know of is Arden.”

“You know this doesn’t change what I’m going to say.”

Sao threw out his palms. “Take it away.”

“You saw a ghost.”

“Wonderful. Case closed.”

“Not exactly. A ghost wouldn’t be so active unless they had unresolved business in life, presumably something to do with the Group since they were watching Sigma so closely to know of his secret building plans.”

Sao slumped further in his seat, hunching his shoulders. Rai sounded so delightedly sure of himself despite neither of them, nor anybody else (magical expert or otherwise) in the Central region, ever having even proven the existence of sentient ghosts.

“So we’d wanna find out what the ghost’s lingering concerns were...” Sensing that his audience was drifting off, Rai homed in. “You know, I’d really like it if this all turned out to be ghostly antics. Of course, a dead kid’s not funny, but if they’re using the afterlife to pull pranks on drunk guests, then we’ve got something to laugh about after the fact. Consider the alternative: that Bell did have a real, live mystery kid running around on the grounds and didn’t tell anyone. So you did meet a kid at the dinner, and your boozy memory just fell through. The question then is, what happened to them? A kid who’s close to Sigma that none of the residents talk about. We saw how they band together to preserve the peace and all that. Cover up a suicide. Hide a witness. But..”

“But the truth came out in rumors.”

“Yep. That would imply that the truth about this kid, if they exist, is something close to Sigma and no one else. And like I said, I don’t have a great feel for Sigma. He’s fine, he can make himself look fine, but the way he was talking to those Bells of his...” Rai tented his fingers and frowned. “You’ve noticed how Raph tells just about everyone about his old cult situation.”

“He is very open. It seems he even laid it all out for Sigma himself.”

“Yeah. But you also notice how he’s fixated on Sigma, rather than the organization - Delta and the recruitment, the residents as a whole. He’s always talking about how only Sigma might go off the deep end - is destined to go off the deep end.”

Destined. Sao thought of the baby named Destiny. Came to us in a dream. “Are you starting to believe he’s right?”

“I don’t think it’s exactly as he says, but Sigma’s definitely got his own agenda. Problem is, Raph’s working off feelings. We’re never going to be able to drag in a guy with that kind of money and a Best Supporting Actor award, based on feeling.” Rai scratched at his gloves. “It would be interesting to throw Raph and Sigma in a room, we might get something useful. But like I said, Sigma’s hard to nail down. I’m not just talking about his character. He came in just as detectives were wrapping the raid, and turned up late at the Racer scene. And he took us by surprise today too. Nobody’s been allowed to get the jump on him.”

“A therapy appointment.”

“Weird that he’d tell us. It feels like a page out of Raph’s book. Trade a story to keep another hidden, or buy a secret off someone else. Not that it would be a tact unique to them...” Rai’s look came to rest squarely on Sao. “The Indigo case is closed for now. I’ll take a while to dig through the Group’s press materials manually and look for some kind of child or childlike person.”

“Thanks. Hold on, ‘childlike’?”

“The kid mentioned seeing the trees at college...?”

“He did. Oh - I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. I assumed he meant Sigma took inspiration from his own college.” Sao huffed. “God, what if that wasn’t a child? I must have sounded so condescending when talking to them. I’m not sure I want to know the answer now.”

Rai was unfolding his crumpled cup like he expected to find coffee in it. “Can’t be an investigator if you let things go that easily.”

“Overattachment could have gotten me roped into the Group.” Sao stretched, and found himself largely relaxed. The insidious fog surrounding the child still remained, but it was nice to be stumbling about with willing company now. “The opportunity to see Delta again was a pleasant surprise, but I get the feeling it won’t come again soon. If that means no more recruitments and no more deaths on Bell grounds, then all the better we don’t meet again.”

“Whew. That’s chilly of you. And there you were shaking the guy’s hand and patting him on the back.” Rai seemed to find the contradiction delightful.

At that, Sao smiled and drained the remains of his flavorless tea.