The Midnight Before Me

by Elizabeth Lo

  The guards nod briskly and let us in.

  “I guess they haven’t read the recent news about my unit,” Lafayette says casually as though his unit had simply come down with the flu. “Such a shame this handsome face of mine must go unrecognized…”

  “As must mine…”

  I stop talking the moment I lay eyes on the town itself.

  A long, wide street with petite cafés here and there, overcast with a slightly hazy sky. It feels like the world from the inside of a snow globe.

  The people wandering the streets are already much different from any town I’ve come across before. I can already see clothes that could be worth a fortune back in my nameless hometown being sold in enclosed shops here like old fabric.

  Am I even still in Galviton?

  Lafayette, even in drab military clothes—nothing but the standard black shirt, camo pants, and boots all under a brown trench coat—blends in perfectly. Maybe it’s the way he holds himself because I, in almost the same clothes as him, feel like an awkward lamb brought into a pack of wolves.

  Girls wear hair veils that connect to tassels on the sides of their heads. The sheer mesh doesn’t even go any higher than their ears, but they’re only for covering their long, mostly white hair. Hair veils are a sign of wealth in Galviton since it’s a common clothing item in Thyrmia. Most of the males wear long elegant robes or short tunics with belts.

  Everything feels off. In my town, the norm was button-up shirts tucked into understated pants or skirts for both men and women. Not to mention, the general population was red-haired people with a scattering of teal and the occasional white. Here, it’s the opposite.

  But as we pass through, I think more about how this would be a nice scene to paint. After all, most Thyrmian traditions are seldom seen in Galviton except for here. It makes me wonder even more why Glorieux is here… assuming Sucre’s information was correct in the first place.

  Speaking of information, I told Lafayette about the curse on the way here. The real mechanics of it, and he’s been strangely calm about it. I thought he would at least be somewhat interested in how his soldiers had reached that point. But I guess he’s the kind of guy to internalize things, because afterwards he only said, “That explains a lot,” and stayed silent for a good mile of walking.

  As emotionless as he always seems to be though, Lafayette isn’t as heartless as one would expect a “killer” to be. Maybe… a bit disconnected from the world, but there’s still a person behind those yellow eyes as much as he wants to convince me there isn’t. I suppose that’s why I don’t feel threatened or scared when I’m around him.

  Or maybe it’s because that’s just the sort of person I am.

  Right now, however, despite his efforts to look as calm as usual, Lafayette is tense. I can feel it in his magic as my shoulder brushes his arm and see it in his face. His eyes have hardened into a slow-burning smolder, and he walks in a straight line without glancing left or right. It probably has to do with all the people around him… Even I’m uneasy… though it’s a different type of uneasiness from the usual anxiety from being in a public street.

  The town is basically in a large square separated and organized into smaller rectangles in this grid-like system. The streets seem almost as wide as they are long and paved with tightly knit cobblestones. There aren’t many tall buildings around, but instead, many small shops and restaurants with the occasional very official-looking building taking up an entire block or two of its own.

  Even if it isn’t really considered crowded, there certainly are a lot of people out and about. It’s probably hard for Glorieux to hide well amongst them… but if she does, the chances of me finding her are slim.

  “Is there…” I start, but my voice is too quiet. “Is there a particular place where there are more politicians and governors around?”

  There’s a buzz to this place from the bustling waves of people. Fortunately, Lafayette hears me enough to slow down a bit.

  “This is the place, Midnight,” he says. “This whole city is the place.”

  Well then.

  At least I can sense her, somewhere. She’s here, but her magic is getting mixed with so many other magic tones throughout the city. There are just too many people.

  I can think of a couple of reasons why Glorieux might be here. Given her track record and the state she was in the last time I saw her, either she’s here to regain her footing after burning herself alive in the Summer Palace, or she’s here to destroy it. And I certainly hope it isn’t the latter. But that would mean… if she’s here for either reason, she would most likely be near the outskirts in order to keep a low profile. I should start there.

  “Soooo…” Lafayette says once we’ve walked a few blocks. “Why did you want to come to Hanbury, travel buddy?”

  “She—the Queen—is here, supposedly,” I say. “I kind of want to investigate her.”

  “Hmmm? Daring of you.”

  I had also told him that Glorieux cast the curse on Galviton, but he didn’t really seem to care as much about that.

  There’s still more for me to tell him. There’s still something I have to say.

  “Wait,” I call. We’re walking too fast. “Um… where are we going?”

  “I don’t know,” he responds. “I was following you.” He glances back and only just realizes that I’ve stopped walking. “What’s wrong?” He stops too.

  I should tell him.

  “Y-you know…” Here goes… “After this… I was thinking… That once I get settled in here… we should probably… part ways.”

  His face doesn’t betray a single emotion. Just a blank slate staring back at me.

  “Why?” he starts, but then, his eyes blink away any sign of confusion. “No, no. Never mind.” He looks away and puts on a smile that makes my stomach sink. “You must have your reasons, right?”

  Guilt? Why am I feeling guilty about this?

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper so quietly I can barely hear myself. “Well…” I say louder. “Do you know… of a place I could stay here? Maybe centrally located…”

  “For only you, right?”

  “Yeah…” Somehow, I feel like I’ve just punched both of us in the gut.

  How strange.

  But the illusion of tranquility from our walk here is gone. It had to break eventually. Like any illusion.

  “Yeah, I know a place. I was planning on going elsewhere anyway,” he says.

  The mask is back. That close-lipped smile we talked so much about is now on his face too.

  He takes a breath and walks forward with more momentum around the corner of a block, and we start down a completely different street.

  “Follow me.”

  “Where are we…” I cut myself off. If there’s anything I’ve learned from traveling with Lafayette, it’s to leave the navigation to him, even in the seemingly repeating streets of Hanbury.

  He leads us down the street to a tavern pushed slightly back from the street, in a cozy pocket of its own.

  A girl’s hand grabs my sleeve, gently tugging me away from Lafayette.

  “Excuse me, miss,” a small voice says next to me. “Would you like to buy some flowers?”

  “Mid, let’s go,” Lafayette says, a hint of impatience in his voice.

  But my entire body locks in place as I turn and face a dull-eyed Aroma girl holding a basket of flowers.

  “Hello,” she says sweetly.

  I yank my arm out of her grasp and stumble backwards.

  “What’s wrong, miss?” asks the girl, her head straightening back up again. Her dull eyes look even deader than before. She takes a step forward towards me.

  “Stay away!” I yell, stumbling back.

  The girl stands blank-faced for a moment. Then she smiles.

  “Are you scared, miss?”

  The girl takes a step towards me.

  “Do you need something?” I hope my voice isn’t shaking.

  For a second she just stops and stares at me bla
nkly.

  “Ah… You found out too quickly,” she says. Her voice changes from sickly sweet to deadly in one sentence. “It was supposed to be fun…”

  A hand steadies me from behind. Lafayette.

  “What is it?” he asks quietly.

  But I can’t take my eyes off her.

  Why? Because it feels as if Glorieux’s magic is coming straight from this flower-basket girl.

  “Why are you in a little girl?” I stammer. No… Something’s off. It doesn’t seem quite like I’m talking to Glorieux. It’s someone else.

  I at least recognize the spell. Possession—the ability to control someone’s body—a spell considered more taboo than Decomposition. An absolutely forbidden spell: controlling the body of another. It’s said that only people with two souls’ worth of magic energy in them can even attempt this spell. But then again… Glorieux’s got eight others in her.

  “My sister taught you well…” the girl rambles on. She smirks uncharacteristically considering her previous personality—more like a mischievous entity rather than a docile, flower-selling girl. “It’s really too bad she died…”

  “Who are you?” I start. “You’re not Glorieux.”

  I hear a click behind me. Lafayette’s loaded his pistol. As discreetly as I can, I shake my head, no.

  The girl’s body continues to close in on me. Step-by-step, she advances, while step-by-step, I move back.

  “Me? Maybe. Probably. I’m not really sure anymore…”

  “What’s your name?” I try to take deep breaths to calm myself, but as I speak, questions continue to trip out of my mouth. “Why are you here? What do you want?”

  The girl stops and thinks.

  “What… I want? I want… My Glorie to be happy.” The girl’s smile reaches her eyes, but there’s not a speck of light shining in them.

  “Who are you?” I say again.

  “Who am I…?” she repeats absent-mindedly. “Well, I could be me, but I could also be everyone at the same time. All nine of us, that is.”

  “So then… what do all nine of you want?”

  “We want… to be free,” the small girl says, hugging a bouquet tightly against her chest. “It’s… this country’s fault for ruining all of our lives. Hanging us for misdeeds. Shunning us from society because we’re different. Forcing us apart from each other. And… Stealing our life and trading it away in exchange for the whims of its ‘people.’ We all agree… that it would be better if the corrupt upper class didn’t exist anymore… Don’t you think? After all, you—and your wretched brother had the exact same treatment. Especially you, excluded from the world yet manipulated, controlled, and blamed by it. Your brother was lucky to die.”

  Calm yourself, Midnight.

  But my heart is racing without my permission.

  Lafayette steps out in front of me, a strange look in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, little girl, but you see, me and my travel buddy here are a little busy right now… and you’re really just being a nuisance.”

  “Oh? But little Midnight here hasn’t had all her questions answered.”

  “Are you… my uncle?” I ask from behind Lafayette.

  The girl scrunches her face at that.

  “Don’t call me that… It makes me sound old.”

  So my mother’s brother is standing in front of me in the body of a little girl. Who would’ve thought my life would lead me to this point?

  “Would you be willing to tell me what you’re planning to do this city? Or to this little girl?” I ask.

  But the girl only puts a finger to her lips.

  “They’re secrets, Midnight. Why would I tell you now? Let’s keep it a surprise, shall we?”

  “You know, it’s really been bugging me…” I say, not taking my eyes off of her. “You guys managed to kill the King and a good chunk of the Royal staff. Tell me, are you satisfied yet?”

  “Would you be satisfied by just killing Felicius Harvey?” she says menacingly.

  How does this person know about Felicius… No, wait a minute… they share a body and a mind with Glorieux. Of course, they know.

  “No, I wouldn’t,” I answer. “Because it would just make me feel even worse. Because there wouldn’t be much satisfaction to it in the first place.”

  “That’s why… Our solution is to break free from everything. Get more, more, more satisfaction. Just keep going. There’s nothing else you can do.”

  The girl skips forward, ignoring Lafayette and almost touching me. A sadistic smile sits on her face.

  “Unlike you, we won’t be deterred by the very first step. We know that sometimes to undo a knot, you have to tangle it more first. That’s what separates us from the likes of you. A worthless coward who can only hide in her own darkness. You can’t even face yourself. How could you face me?”

  The barrel of a silver pistol pushes up to her forehead. She glances at it.

  “Stand down, dog of the Royals,” she growls.

  “Same to you,” Lafayette says, a smile that could kill on his face.

  The girl laughs emptily as she skips back and walks away.

  “Well, well, let’s not fight here. I just wanted to say hi,” she says lightly, dropping the tension, leaving the basket of flowers at my feet. “And give you a little parting gift.”

  She only gets a few more steps away before stopping once more and looking back at me.

  “Oh. And this,” the girl points to herself. “Is Marie. But my name is Soren.”

  And then, she disappears, Teleporting away.

  The people around us that maybe stopped to glance at us are already starting to walk away, on to their daily lives once more. As if the gut-wrenching encounter with my mad uncle didn’t even happen.

  I look down at the basket at my feet, squatting down next to it. The flowers in the basket are white chrysanthemums. Funeral flowers. Fitting, really.

  Soren’s words are already starting to repeat themselves in my head.

  “A friend of yours?” Lafayette asks once I catch my breath.

  “Of sorts.”

  “I see,” he says solemnly. Opening the door to the tavern and striding in, he doesn’t look back.

  The whole place is set in a low, warm light, contrasting against the steel-gray outside view through the windows. There’s a low murmur from people talking, but no one seems to give any of us a glance.

  The people in this tavern are different from the ones I saw outside. Or maybe, they’re the same as those people, and I’m just seeing a different side of the coldhearted city.

  “Heyyy, Laf, long time no see, old pal!” comes a slightly loopy voice from over the bar. It’s kind of a rusty, young voice. “Ooh, what’s this? You’re not going to correct me, Mr. Important…”

  “Shut up, Captain. I see you’ve let yourself loose since the last time I saw you,” Lafayette interjects quickly, plastering a cheery expression on. “You got a spare room?”

  “Sure, man, anything for the famous King of Snakes.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Lafayette cuts in, ice creeping into his voice. “But it’s not for me.”

  “Oh. Who then?”

  “This one.” Lafayette flicks his hand in my direction.

  “Oh. Alright-y then.”

  The bartender chuckles and throws Lafayette a tiny silver key, Lafayette catches it with ease despite it being so small, then continues to lead the way through the tavern. The door separating the bar and the inn slides shut behind us, abruptly cutting off the bustle of the talking people behind us.

  “Who…?”

  “An old connection.”

  We make it to the room at the end of the hall, presumably the place I’ll be staying for the next however-many days. Lafayette keeps to the hall while I step in.

  The room contrasts with the boisterous atmosphere of the pub section of the building like night and day. Though it still has those russet wooden walls and interior, there are pristine white sheets laid onto the bed and a quiet-looki
ng desk pushed off to the wall next to an old wardrobe off to the side. White curtains rustle at the slightly opened window, providing a chill to the room.

  It’s almost reminiscent of my room back home, and the memories of my time spent in my room make me feel safe while at the same time sending chills down my spine.

  “Why’re you just standing there,” Lafayette asks, his footsteps clunking closer to me.

  He reaches forward and turns on the magic lamp on the desk next to me.

  “There. A little light.” His arms retracts behind me, as do his footsteps. “You can stay as long as you like. The bartender’s an… acquaintance of mine, so your stay is covered.”

  I only knew him for two days; this was bound to happen. But it just… went too fast. Maybe that’s where the guilt is coming from.

  I shouldn’t be disappointed. After all, I’ll be dying—really dying—soon. It could be tomorrow, in fact. Whenever Sucre says it’s time to pull the trigger.

  So… yeah. This is it. It’s better this way.

  This is it.

  His footsteps echo more when they reach the hallway.

  “Lafayette,” I say, whipping around just in time to see his back to me. He turns only an ear towards me. “Thank you. I really do hope… you can make good memories from here on out.”

  Unlike me.

  “Also…” I say to lighten the mood. “If you push your hair back so much, you’ll go bald early, you know.”

  He chuckles, finally. Good. I can know for sure that this body at least accomplished something before its end.

  “You too,” he says. “Be well.”

  And with that, he walks away. I stay rooted in place until I hear the door at the end of the hallway shut.

  Finally swinging the door closed, the room faces me, and once again, I’m alone, enclosed in a box of my own, left to my own devices. Drawing my legs into myself, I sit against the door in a little ball tracing the shadows the lamp casts on the floor with my eyes.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Midnight

  In Hanbury

  I keep tossing and turning. It’s hard to fall asleep. I feel as if I’m anticipating something, but what, I don’t know. The air just feels disturbed all of a sudden. The room feels heavy, and it’s hard to breathe. My eyes won’t stay closed, and even under two layers of blankets, I feel an inner frost growing from within me.