Triple the disaster

Aurora. That was the name of the girl I met yesterday. Sending her a message was a move that had summoned her mother instead, and without knowing anything I got angry at her for using Silvie’s name.

Before that, I had tried to use Sil... Aurora as a source of information myself. How much of a hypocrite I am?

Once more, the train of thoughts was preparing to run in circles at full speed.

“Enough.”

I slapped my cheeks to focus.

Time to stop whining and pretending to be smart. Time to change my approach. If thinking gets me nowhere let’s focus on actions.

I still have Si... Aurora’s home address. Since today is Saturday, lessons should already be over. If not, I will simply have to wait for her to come back home.

Hypocrite?

Maybe, but I'm willing to bear all responsibilities connected with it. It sounds better when the word ‘adult’ is used instead.

Full of conviction I stood up and after three energetic moves fell down with a bang.

On the way to the corridor, my careless steps activated a tripping trap. The cardboard tube that previously had rolled over here.

“Ouch…”

While massaging my nose and checking for damage I shot a gaze full of hate towards the culprit. Since I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to get rid of it first. But… even if it was a fake used for scamming people it would feel bad to throw it away just like that. The walls of this flat were bare and could use some decorations.

Who knows maybe it’s pretty enough to frame and hang?

After a minute or two of fighting with the tube, I slowly took out its content. It was a rolled piece of drawing paper. Even if it was a fake I still had been expecting something more… fancy?

After unrolling it I frowned. Either it was a counterfeit version of Malevich’s Black Square or simply a square made with black crayon. As I took the tube to put the painting back in, I noticed that there was something else stuck inside. A self-adhesive card with few handwritten lines.

[Hello~ it was good to see youuuuu, or not you? The newwww you! well and healthy, butttttt as it was my? It was my! My fault you know?! Nevermind.

Ekhm! We neeeed to talk. I’m curious youuu know? Yup! Dying of curious! Curiosity death. Same as yours aaaaahaha.

Ehh… writing like that is tiring. Writing at all is tiring! WHY DO I HAVE TO EV- ]

As the card was rather small, whoever wrote this messy, chaotic message had run out of space. On the other side, instead of a continuation, I found a set of instructions written in a rather neat handwriting. Except for the last point, which also doubled as a phone number.

[1 - Cut out the black square. Do not damage it!
2 - Go to the vending machine you dug out.
3 - Look at it through the black square.
4 - Don’t die… please.
5 = xxx xxx xxx Call mweee!]

I had been treating it as a poor joke until I saw the point about the vending machine. There were only two people who knew that I dug it out. Me and that random dude. However, the note was inside a tube delivered by Aurora’s mother. Were they working together?

Was this chaotic card, screaming ‘look at how crazy I am!’, written by that guy? There were some other words that bothered me, but for now, I moved them to the ‘what if’ section. I wanted to avoid making the same mistake again - drawing hasty conclusions without a definite proof.

I decided to call this number first. Who said that I had to follow the proper order? After a few beeps, it connected.

‘Yes?’

It was a young man’s voice. One that made my blood boil.

‘Yo mate! How’s your necrophilia? Girl’s still fresh enough or it doesn’t matter? I’m kind of lacking experience in this area, so feel free to explain it to the police.’

‘The heck are you talking mate?’

‘Oh~ dead girlfriends and stuff.’

‘It’s you?’

‘And that note was from you?’

‘... a, ahahah, ahaha, ha. Give me a minute mate, the train’s coming, I need to go the station’.

‘What train?! Just tell me what do you want? What’s with those instructions and painting?’

‘No, no, no, you got it all wrong. It’s a magical train that arrives at the most unexpected times and forces you to travel at light’s speed. But, the feeling you get when it departs. How can I describe it? A word ‘godly’ fits quite nicely. And then…’

‘The hell are you talking about!?’

‘Eh… I didn’t want to use such crude words, but… just let me go to the toilet. I will be back soon. Unless you want to listen? Is that a fetish of yours? You see, as a necrophiliac, I’m rather open to other people inner desires.’

‘Fuck you!’

‘Ha, ahah, haha, hahaha, be back in a minute.’

Talking with this guy drives me nuts. There’s also this irritating laughter as if the air was taking short breaks on the way to his lungs. I will better sign up for some martial art classes. Even if I have to train for five years, one day I will kick his ass up to the moon.

But now I was sure, in some way he was involved with the note. Was he an author? Or co-operator? Was Aurora connected to him or not?

Damn… damn!

So many questions and this asshole is taking a long potty break. The chances for him to answer without any lies or shitty talk are close to null.

‘I’m back~’

‘...’

‘Don’t be like that, let’s talk.’

‘What’s with that note?’

‘Just do what it says. Trust me mate you won’t regret it. It will literally open your eyes. I told you before to keep an eye on that place right?’

‘What’s your connection with Silvie?’

‘Uhm~ a, hahah, aaaahaha. She’s my girlfriend’s mother I guess?’

‘Seriously?! Her daughter's like twelve! That’s it. I’m going to report it to the police.’

‘Rora’s my age mate and it’s all pure love!’

‘Who’s Rora? You mean Aurora?’

‘No? Rora’s Rora. Silvie’s daughter.’

‘Silvie has more than one daughter?’

‘Yeah, I think~ a haha haha.’

This guy was pulling me into his own pace. One filled with lies and distractions. I made a mental note to remind myself not to trust anything I ever heard or will hear from him.

‘So… what do you really want from me?’

‘Already told you mate! It’s all written down in the note. Just follow the instructions, but since I like you, I can give you a piece of an advice.’

‘I wish I could say the same about you… or not. I’m actually content with hating you to the bone.’

‘Uaaaa~ I’m getting all red! Like a lobster.’

This guy!

‘Oh yeah, the advice. You better remember it. Triple the disaster.’

‘Triple the disaster?’

‘Yup~ a, haha, hahaha, your twin sister picked that one as well. Bye bye! I’m going to block you so don’t call me again, but I will send you a new contact number tomorrow, or not. We will see~, and take a picture!'

‘Hey mate, what do you mean by that? What Viktoria has to do with it?’

After a longer while he answered in a voice that was dripping with hostility.

‘No more questions. If you’re going to fucking dare to waste this opportunity that Rora gave you, I will just take it for myself. Today or never.’

That was the last line he said before the call ended. There was no point in analyzing our conversation. The only real question was:

What am I going to do now?

Before I had opened this tube it seemed so simple... actually it wasn’t that different now. I just had a new option to choose from. So should I dance to their tune or not?

At least it stopped snowing.

It had taken me half an hour of walking in circles to face the shame and follow these guys instructions. Cutting out the square had been a ten minutes job since I didn’t want to damage it. I wasn’t even sure if folding was allowed, so after it was no bigger than A4 I had stored it safely in one of the newly bought notebooks.

Now, I was on my way to the vending machine to look at it through the drawing.

There was a familiar pair of blue earmuffs squatting at the riverbank. She was making mini snowmen and snow rabbits. Whole families of them. Given enough time, what would happen first - her running out of snow or the birth of a new snowmen metropolis?

Aurora was so absorbed in playing that she didn’t even notice my arrival. Only a handful of people were strolling near the riverbank, so that was probably the reason why she let her guard down.

I slowly moved right behind her. Luck was on my side as not only she had her earmuffs, but the crunching of snow was also drowned in the sound of a flowing river.

When she tried to grab a new pile of snow I made my move and lifted her off the ground.
I was only planning on twirling once or twice and letting her go, but this little girl defensive reaction was a praiseworthy one. Without uttering a sound she just back kicked straight into my crotch. Unable to cope with the pain I at least wanted us to go down together and threw her into the biggest nearby snowdrift. It was deep enough to swallow her whole.

“Ugyu~”

That cute sound accompanied her disappearance in the snow.

“Arghhh~”

This disgusting sound was a byproduct of me trying to resist the pain.

When she finally managed to get out from the snowdrift, her blue earmuffs were gone.
Aurora was eying me warily while removing snow from her clothes. Taking into consideration our yesterday’s conversation I just wanted to start this one on a good and silly note. Since it failed, there was still an option of pretending that nothing had happened.

‘Hey Aurora, what are you doing here?”

She frowned and just pointed in the direction of the snowdrift.

“Alright, give me a minute.”

Without any other choice, I started digging in search of the blue treasure. But! I had learned from my previous mistake and this time there was a small plastic scoop in my bag, which I had prepared just in case.

After three minutes I passed the blue treasure to the silver princess, who was standing near me like a prison guard, watching every move.

“Two minutes over time.”

“My snow digging skill’s low. I overestimated the bonus from the equipment. But what are you doing here?”

“Aura.”

“Hmm?”

“The way you called me earlier is wrong! I’m Aura.”

“Not Aurora?”

“A-U-R-A!”

Why is this girl’s name changing every few hours? Oh well, maybe it’s just an abbreviation or something. At least I’m not calling her with her mother’s name anymore.

“Ok got it. So Aura, I somehow doubt that meeting you here was a coincidence.”

“Adam told me that you called him.”

“Adam? The phone guy?”

“Yes him.”

Should I ask her what’s her relation to that scumbag? Let’s not, at least for now.

“Did he tell you… about that note?”

“Yes.”

“And the black square?”

“I drew it.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“But why? What does it mean? Is it connected with your power?”

“Uhm… yes?”

She tilted her head a bit and gave me a really sweet fake smile.

This conversation’s flow was bad. She was nothing like Vio. I had no idea how to handle her or make her say something more than simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

“Aura, please explain.”

“Can’t. Rora told me to not to say anything.”

In other words, I could forget about getting any essential answers.

“Who’s Rora?”

“My sister?”

“How can you not know if she's your sister or not!”

"Don’t be angry.”

I raised my voice at a little girl. Time to seriously cool down.

“Alright… alright… sorry.”

“It’s ok. It’s a test. Pass and I can explain a bit.”

“The note's instructions?”

“Yes. Do that. I will be waiting for you here.”

Except for the beginning, when I had surprised her, all her words and emotions seemed dull. Yesterday she was much more expressive and humanlike. Today it was as if she was reading lines from a script someone had prepared beforehand. It was one of the reasons for my previous outburst.

“Ok. I got this black square in my bag. Next step was to look at the vending machine through it right?”

“Yes.”

I sighed deeply and prepared to work. The machine I had dug out yesterday was covered in a fresh layer of snow. At least it was easy to remove, so it shouldn’t take as much time as before.

“Uhm…”

“Yeah? Want to help me?”

“Help? What are you doing?”

“Digging?”

“Why?”

“To remove the snow of course.”

“Why?”

“To dig out the vending machine? Am I doing something wrong?”

I stopped using my mighty plastic scoop and looked at Aura.

“You don’t - have to?”

She had answered my question with a question and included a short, highly destructive move of slightly tilting her head to the side. She was either a natural-born cuteness genius or a highly experienced master. Maybe it was a defensive reaction to make me less prone to get angry at her.

“I don’t have to dig it out?”

She nodded.

“Haaa~ so I don’t have to dig it out… If I get that Adam in my hands, I swear I’m going to kill him.”

“NOO!”

Aura suddenly screamed and moved to grab my jacket. This sudden outburst surprised me and allowed her to easily catch me. Her pupils changed color to bright red, while her mouth was frozen half-open. No words came out. After few seconds of standstill she let me go and moved away.

“You can’t kill Adam.”

“Sorry, it was just a bad joke.”

That was scary. What would have happened if she had ordered me something like that?

“Adam’s…”

It looked like she wanted to say something, but for some reason, the words got stuck in her throat.

“... nevermind. Pass the test quickly.”

I took out the paper and held it in an outstretched hand. After positioning it to block my view of the vending machine, the black square started changing. With each second it became more and more transparent and behind it, a warped world started shaping itself.

Startled I almost let it out of my grip, but before it had happened I felt a small hand on my back.

“Don’t look away.
Don’t let it go.
It’s alright.
It will be fine.
Don’t be afraid.”​

Somehow her tone was a lot softer than ever before.

“When it will be over,
I will welcome you
and explain everything.
Just…”​

The more I could see through that paper the darker the surrounding became as if the black square and the world around it were swapping their places. Aura's voice was swimming falteringly, barely resisting the pull of the black gateway.

“... don’t die please.”​