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Layla didn't need to catch HongJoong's and Illisia's conversation to figure everything out. The shadows of regular people were still, motionless, and pitch black. Layla hadn't figured out whose she would eat yet, but she stood in line. Acting as patient as she could be. The familiar sound rang it in ear; was it ringing? A beep? She never figured it out. But she figured out a pattern, it would sound at a specific time. She shook it off and shoved her hands into the front pocket of her jacket.

---

"What misfortune!"

The quarrel had not gone unnoticed by Wade, who felt briefly that everybody was looking in the opposite direction. However, this did not last long. He shivered slightly as a creeping feeling slid down his neck, dragging heated claws down his spine. Of course. Bloodshed. Grabbing for a cloth from his pocket, Wade pressed it against the back of his neck, his eyes set sternly on the ground before him. The poor soul next to him, a man only a little older than Wade himself, noticed.
"Are you alright?" 'Are you alright?' The sentence caused Wade to clench his jaw in minor aggression.
"Yes, I'm fine."
"You're bleeding." Wade gave no response.

She gave yet another sigh and a quick 'sorry' once his comment reached her, but her embarrassment soon went away and was replaced with a sort of seriousness. "Yeah, you're right..." She had more of a melancholy look on her face rather than tiredness, her eyes somehow growing even darker than they were before. Everyone with the unique figures all seemed to be some sort of insane, chaos followed their every action and a heavy sadness or pain surrounding them all. For once she felt sorry for others, since it was one of the few things she could relate with. Her attention turned to the sound of the door opening, where a strange customer appeared with the exact same shadow over their unusual figure. Illisia easily had a foot clearance over her, which made her feel slightly awkward. She didn't usually think about her own height much, but comparing herself to the girl was almost unreal. She had a small debate in her mind on whether the new customer was actually a little girl or not, considering her height and doll-like appearance, but the way she acted didn't seem all that childish.

---

The ring of someone entering the cafe reminded HongJoong that he had a job to do. Seeing that the cafe was mostly empty anyways, the morning rush ebbing for a moment, he quickly excused himself to bring Sidney his hot chocolate. Giving him a kind smile, he quickly scanned the cafe to make sure that no one had pulled out another knife, taking note of one customer who seemed uncomfortable talking to someone else, he scurried back behind the till only stumbling once.

Apologizing to his co-worker for leaving her to handle the rush by herself, HongJoong straightened out his apron. Making sure that he hadn't lost any buttons from the collection pinned to his apron strap and all his hair clips were accounted for, he turned to the customer who had just entered. "Hi there, welcome to Aurora Crescent Cafe! What can I get for you today?" He chirped, blinking rapidly in an attempt to focus his vision, kaleidoscope of colours swimming before his eyes. It was a bit weird to finally have to look down to meet the customers gaze but as he slowly took in the customer's appearance feeling a nagging sense of familiarity. She looked an awful lot like that famous model who HongJoong occasionally followed, her work inspiring some of his own reformed clothes. But that was crazy, there was no way that The Margot Bellamy was standing in front of him. Especially not with such a heavy cloak of amorphous darkness engulfing her petite frame that was starting to become sickeningly familiar.

---

Sidney come out of his trance as he hear a solf clink hit on the table, violently swinging their arm toward the hot chocolate, but barely missed it as soon as they come to figure out what it was, peering at it for a second before looking down toward HongJoong's with a nervous smile back, as he watch him scurried away. With a sigh Sidney slouch their head back on the table, beginning to think to himself again "I really need to stop pulling knife out on people..as i really don't want to go back to jail...again" but of course nothing would magically go away to his dismay, at least this time went smoother unlike the rest they encounter, finally consoling themselves as they begin to sip the hot chocolate, feeling a nice wave of relief taking in the moment while they can. But they soon catch the smell of faint blood, as Sidney slowly put there hot chocolate down back on the table, looking over to see a boy practically tearing themselves apart, immediately waving his arm as he begins to call out to HongJoong's, "h-hey I think w-we medical a-attention o-over here!" He's signal as they begin notching their shoulders at Wade.

---

"So what did you do?" "I ran."

Wade stiffened, hearing a shout from across the the café. Somebody had noticed the blood, though who it was he didn't care to tell. Almost instantly, he stood up, nearly knocking his chair over. Catching it, he stood the seat back upright and pushed it in with a single, fluid motion. The bell over the door jingled as he opened it, intent on leaving. The small ache in his stomach was gone, replaced instead by the feeling of spiders trying to crawl up his throat. He felt eyes landing on him, felt the numbers watching, felt their wonderous thoughts, taunting him, threatening him, screaming at him. He needed to be gone from there, and he would stop at nothing to be.

From the moment Marot had stepped inside, there appeared to be a chaotic nature to air, which was odd for what she initially thought was going to be a quiet and cosy coffee shop. Giving it the benefit of a doubt, maybe it was what gave the place its charm. Nonetheless, it didn't stop her from wondering if the guy had meant to recommend this place to her. Perhaps she had just come at a bad time? Was she even at the right place, for starters?

"Hi there, welcome to Aurora Crescent Cafe! What can I get for you today?"

Well, that had answered at least one of her questions - definitely the right place. Margot heads over to the counter, taking in her surroundings with quick cautious glances. It's not until she's standing opposite the cashier, that the uncertainty in her eyes disappears, replaced instead with glimmering awe upon seeing all of the person's colourful accessories. In a trance-like state, she's totally oblivious to the barely audible 'wow' that she whispers, taking a second to admire the shiny treasures. But after realising that she's been staring a little too long (and that she's probably holding up the poor guy's morning), Margot diverts her eyes to a nearby menu, her cheeks flushing out of embarrassment.

"Oh, e-excusez-moi... Um, could I, please, get a black tea and a... croissant?"

Illisia quickly turned and headed out the door, finding it unnecessary to stay any longer. She was almost ran into by a strange man, who she could've sworn had a faint scent of blood following him. She muttered under her breath before continuing to leave the cafe. She was so tired and felt so nauseous, it was driving her insane. She had tried to interact with the strange shadows above the head of the knife wielder, but it didn't work. No matter what she did, it refused to disappear and her body was still aching. Guess she would have to try someone else on her way home, she didn't exactly have a choice. She knew she could die in just a few minutes given her condition, so she had to be quick. Walking along a seemingly never-ending sidewalk, she closely looked at everyone she crossed, trying to decide on who would be her victim. It didn't really matter who she 'killed' next, the benefit for her would still remain the same, so it really came down to morals. That was the tricky part, morals weren't something she was fond of thinking about. She knew she was messed up in her head, so it was obvious her morals weren't the same as others. Then again, how was forcing someone to die of a terrible nightmare just so you could live longer in any way good morally, or even at all. She was mainly focused on the elderly, the homeless, and the infants. The last one was a bit sketchy, since it didn't bode so well with her considering the infant still had a life ahead of it. Oh well, it was a last resort anyways. She discretely stepped off the sidewalk and travelled down a different path, hoping to find someone that was out of the way and wouldn't cause such a big deal. She was met with an alleyway gang beating up some poor stranger who she had no care for, she was more focused on the attackers. She slowly walked up to the group and briefly looked at one of their 'darknesses', which she had commanded to be her own. As soon as it was over, she quickly turned away and walked back onto the sidewalk. It was weird how she suddenly felt like she downed 10 cans of Monster, at least compared to her previous zombie-like state, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about it for a while.

---

Seemingly oblivious to Margot's fascination with his accessories, HongJoong punched in the order having to re-enter it a few times due to trembling hands. "Certainly! Your total comes up to $3.15." He informed, moving to place one of the croissant's into a paper bag. Sliding it over the counter, he nearly ran into his co-worker who was in the middle of putting down Margot's cup of tea beside the bag. Shaking his head ruefully, HongJoong glanced at the clock hanging from the corner of the cafe and squinted to try and make out the time. It was hard to make out the position of the hands with his swimming vision but he was pretty sure it was almost time for him to clock out.

Once Margot had paid, he felt someone tap his shoulder sending a bolt of pain searing through his head but he ignored it in favour of switching out with the next person. It felt nice to finally take off his apron, taking a moment to look at himself in the small mirror hanging in the employee break room while readjusting his hair clips and making sure that his bracelets and rings were all accounted for. Yup, he was still cute as hell and was hot to boot even if he was a mess. The light makeup he had put on this morning ensured that he didn't look like death but still it was clear that he was frazzled from the admittedly very weird shift. Even by Aurora Crescent standards today was certifiably crazy. Like, it wasn't every day that someone saw a knife being pulled out in the middle of a coffee shop and found a whole group of people who had cheated death. That was just wacky

Slinging his bag over his shoulder and swallowing two painkillers dry, HongJoong slipped out the backdoor. He didn't feel like making niceties with anyone and wanted to go back home. There was music to be written and tunes to be edited and they weren't going to magically finish without a lot of elbow grease and caffeine. The fading pain of his migraine was a constant reminder to take care of himself before his body fell apart. Maybe if he worked efficiently enough, he could actually go to bed at a reasonable time!

...

Oh who was he kidding, he was going to stay up till 5 am regardless

---

Layla winced at some pain passing through her body, but she shook it off. She popped a piece of gum in her mouth and fished for her earbuds in her purse. She successfully found them, a bit annoyed that they were all tied together but she managed. She put them in her ears and connected them to her phone, getting lost in her phone while she looked for a song and she didn't pay attention to where she was going or where she had been.

---

As the sky began to dim and the city began to settle down, Illisia walked home and fell to her bed, suddenly feeling quite attached to it. She began to feel an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion, even when just a few seconds ago she had been quite lively. The room around her began to fade and became distorted as she somehow quickly transitioned into a state of hallucination. Her eyelids became so heavy that they could hardly stay open, forcing her to fight to stay awake long enough to figure out what was going on. As much as she tried, she soon found out that it was pointless when her eyes closed on their own, and she collapsed completely.

She tried to wake up immediately after she discovered that she had slipped into a strange dream, but nothing seemed to work. Something was off though, this wasn't a normal dream. The way that she was forced into a deep sleep, the unsettling way the dream felt so realistic, and the nearly empty white room she was trapped in caused so many questions to run through her mind. She could see other people in the room, as well as a monitor and a black door all on the east wall. A few people even suddenly appeared in the blink of an eye while she stood there, some where those she had seen before with the strange shadow hovering over them. Now that she thought about it, where were they? She began to examine the top of everyone's heads in hopes that she was just seeing things, or rather the lack of them, but to her surprise she found nothing. There were no figures, no smokey hazes, nothing. It was so odd to see nothing there, unsettling even. Normally it would be quite a relief to never see them again, but she had a feeling this wasn't a good thing. All of a sudden, an unbearable amount of fear, panic, and a sense of doom weighed down on her until it felt like she couldn't breath, and she noticed others felt the same. Their eyes began to grow wider and their bodies began to shake ever so slightly. More and more people began to randomly appear, which was a great distraction for many, but nothing else seemed to be happening. Was there really more people? She assumed that whatever dragged them into this place was dragging everyone with the cursed ability into it too. But if that were the case... why?

---

So here's the thing. HongJoong doesn't sleep. Not for some dumb male posturing reason, even if that was exactly what it was when he was alive, but he genuinely couldn't. Sure, he'd get tired and sleepy but actually sleeping? The last time he had naturally fallen asleep was the night before his death. It was almost ironic how robbing him of an eternal sleep meant that temporary rest had also been stolen from him.

This held true when HongJoong finally stumbled back into his room after his shift to work on his music. He felt a wave of exhaustion crash over him but stubbornly ran into the nearest wall on his way to his desk. Stubbornly keeping his eyes open, he set to work editing tacks that would be due in a week but he had to get them done now damn it. And so, powering through the exhaustion that lay heavier and heavier with every passing second, HongJoong fiddled around the the programs to try and mix the song he wants. The last thing he remembers is clicking the send button with his finished song attached.

The next thing he knew, he was looking at the ceiling of an unfamiliar room.

... Not the first time he's gotten blackout drunk but okay. Forcing himself to his feet because apparently he had been sloshed enough to fall asleep on the ground, HongJoong noticed the multitude of other people looking at him weirdly. Glaring back at them until they adverted their gazes, HongJoong brushed off the dust on his pants and straightened out his outfit. Everything seemed to be in place and his accessories also seemed to be there. Well thank goodness for that, he would have killed someone if his fashion had been compromised.

---

Suddenly, a new person appeared quite close to Illisia. The person in question had a ton of random trinkets all over them, and they were laying in the floor much like everyone else here. They looked quite familiar, and it suddenly snapped in her mind that it was the one working at the cafe that day. It was nice to see a somewhat familiar face, but their previous and awkward exchange made her hesitant to talk to him. She gave in after a while, when he had time to at least 'wake up' and walked closer. "You alright?" She started off, her voice as low and quiet as usual, and her expression remained unchanged. She was about to ask if he knew what was going on, but he looked just as confused as she was. Illisia found it stupid to ask the question, so she repressed it.

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