Chapter 8 ~ is she strange on weekends

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It had already gotten quite late by the time Arloh arrived at the arcade, he rushed in checking the rooms he knew those hooligans usually picked to hang out, he finally got to the right room ,and as he pushed the door open panting heavily he was rather shocked and confused to see the three thugs unconscious on the floor of the room. “What the -?” He uttered quietly as he crouched next to one the bodies, putting his finger close to the nostril to check for breath, luckily they were all still alive and breathing , just knocked out.  “Did she do this?”he wondered as he stepped back to observe the scene, spotting her blaring pink backpack on the couch , it was definitely Rei, “but where did she go…” his thoughts trailer off as he noticed a subtle trail of blood leading out the room , he immediately moved,dashing over to grab her backpack and rushed out the arcade, despite being in a hurry ,he made sure to tell the receptionist to check the room that there was an emergency on his way out.

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Arloh rushed out into the streets looking for any more traces of where she could have gone or been taken, there were no longer any blood trails on the floor,so he figured she was not bleeding heavily. He started to scout the area ,rushing in and out of alleyways and dark corners ,asking the few people who were still out late at this time if they had seen a silver haired girl. Some people were of help saying they had seen her and  leading him farther from the arcade, he hoped he was not going the wrong way , as he ran around like a dog looking for its lost owner he felt a rage overcome him amidst his concern for Rei. He was angry for if something actually happened to this girl  it won't be his fault but Reuben’s , but yet again here he is running around to clean up his messes, he hated it , he was tired , he was fed up with Reuben , Reuben was never going to get better and was never going to stop causing issues,even when he wasn't present. But in the end he just wished his cousin would have a change of heart , but that would be nothing short of a miracle. As he was still in thought searching frantically he was snapped back to reality as he saw a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye,sitting on a public bench with their head down and making sounds that almost felt like whimpering. He felt relieved when he recognized who it was.

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“Rei? What are you doing here? Are you okay?” Arloh asked all at once as he slowly approached her. The girl looked up immediately, almost jumping at Arloh “you..who are you?! you know who I am? Where is this ? Why am I here?” She questioned in a tone that sounded almost sulky but obviously distressed at the same time,she threw herself at Arloh in a motion that felt almost like an attack she was too tired or weak to complete,her hands trembling , “where am I?!” She asked again looking around like she was being chased by something, Arloh was confused by Rei's reactions but decided to try and calm her down,it was definitely out of character for the snobby girl he knew from school, but he figured something terrible must have happened and decided to just go with it. “Um yeah it's me Arloh, from school .” He said in a calming tone as he extended his hand out to Rei who just stood there frantically looking around. As soon as Rei realized that Arloh was not an enemy she immediately jumped at him , hugged him and started sobbing “ please help me , I don't like this place, why am I here?” she requested as she had him in a hug so tight he had to wriggle around to get some breathing space. “Okay okay try to calm down” Arloh said as he had his arms up not returning the hug but not pushing her away either , he was still confused by her abrupt actions “let's all calm down, I'm your friend okay?I will help you” Arloh continued awkwardly,using whatever phrases he felt will calm a person down. Oddly it worked enough for Rei to release her hug and finally stood in front of arloh calmly  “okay ,okay I'm okay” she muttered softly . “Okay,so did anything happen with Reuben's boys?, the boys you were with?” He asked trying to figure out the cause for her current behavior. “ Um .. I woke up in the room with lights, and they just  attacked me” she said with a face that showed she seemed to have some difficulty recalling the event. “Then I beat them up..and ..” she stopped and let out a loud gasp “I didn't kill them did I?” She asked her face now showing worry as she began to  nervously bite on a finger nail. “No they are fine,” Arloh assured “but they attacked you, are you okay?” He added ,tilting his head to look at her properly for any injuries or signs of harm. “I feel fine, just tired and I can't remember anything” Rei replied and slumped back into the bench she was sitting on earlier . “Here your bag..” arloh said as he handed her the bright pink bag in his hand which he had taken with him from the arcade. “My bag?” Rei observed the bag as she took it having no idea what it was or that it was hers , maybe she didn't remember anything, but for some reason she was sure she wouldn't have anything so loudly pink. “And did you say you can't remember anything?”Arloh circled back to address the comment she made earlier. “ Hmm , yes I feel like I was asleep and I'm in a weird dream where I don't remember anything about myself” Rei responded,just sitting there holding her bag. Arloh visibly clenched a fist *What did they do to her? Did they give her some sort of drugs?* He thought to himself, he suddenly felt angry and disgusted, all of this was Reuben's fault , he hated him even more , but he had to focus on helping the girl in front of him first , so he suppressed his anger and turned his attention back to Rei, “okay where's your house? I can take you home”  he asked as it was quite late at night and he felt the best thing to do was take her to her family or guardian, Rei simply shook her head while fiddling the bag in her hand , she did not remember her house either. Arloh sighed as he was truly concerned now, he had no idea there was a drug that could do that, or maybe she hit her head fighting them off? He thought of possible reasons but never once considered  that Rei could be lying or faking. He was concerned for someone who he hated this morning. “ Okay, what about your phone?” He asked . “Phone?” Rei simply asked ,she had no clue what that was. “Check your bag" Arloh suggested. Rei looked at the bag in her hands and started fiddling with it. What was this Gizmo ? She couldn't figure out the zippers and started trying to rip it open. “Hey ,hey just give it here”  Arloh stepped in as he could no longer bear watching her wrestle the bag , he showed her how the zipper worked and the two searched the bag for a phone, there was none , infact the bag contained nothing but a single notebook, a pen and the rest of its content was a ridiculous stockpile of snacks and sweets.

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“Uh Rei, don't you learn at school, where are your books?” Arloh asked, concerned, the “A” student in him couldn't comprehend such a terribly constituted backpack for a student. “Whuuuh?” Rei mumbled , completely zoned out and clueless. “Oh you can't remember, nevermind.” Arloh sighed as he realized it might be worse than he thought. “Your phone isn't here.. okay I'll take you to the police and they should be able to find your family” he concluded as he put his hands on his waist nodding with conviction. As he stood there thinking and just being a “guard dog” to the distressed Rei,she on the other hand had completely calmed down and was observing him , maybe because he was the first person to not try to attack her after she woke up she felt safe with him and concluded she was staying with him, like a baby bird imprinting on its mother.

“Okay let's go” arloh said suddenly interrupting Rei who was zoned out  watching him intently . “Go where?” She asked in a soft tone. Maybe he hadn't noticed earlier because of the tense situation,now that the atmosphere was more relaxed Arloh noticed how drastically different Rei just was as a whole, she spoke different, very calm but stern, she usually was very crude and brash at speaking in the few encounters he'd had with her earlier. But now she spoke eloquently like someone raised as a princess of sorts , she also had a very calming and adorable demeanour about her,in contrast to the “troll like” aura she emitted in the past, being rude and haughty, not even a fraction of those traits showed here , *it's bizzare, can a memory loss change someone so much?, I hope it's temporary * he thought to himself.

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A few minutes of walking silently, they arrived at the local police station . “What?!” Arloh exclaimed , frustrated and annoyed, Rei who was standing next to him jumped a bit,clutching the bag in her hands “what?what? What happened” she asked softly, looking around. “I can't believe it, a police station is closed?” Arloh complained as he again stood with his hands on his waist like a disgruntled elderly man. It was a small local station so they usually had shifts, but at the time it was too late at night for anyone to be at the front desk , so only emergency calls could be attended to at this time. “I can't leave you here to wait until the morning for the police to help you find your home ", Arloh said as he wiped some sweat off his forehead and loosened the necktie of his school uniform, he had been walking and running around for a few hours now and was tired. Rei noticed he was tired ,and she didn't want to be left with these police people he was talking about either “then let's go to your house” she said with a blank stare. “What? Why will you follow a stranger home?” Arloh moved back, surprised by her suggestion. “You're not a stranger ,you know who I am” Rei responded staring so blank and intently at Arloh, making him sheepishly avoid eye contact. He stood for a minute and looked around,at this time they were the only people outside standing on the now very quiet sidewalk. Arloh sighed and scratched his head “maybe you're right it's quite late and I shouldn't leave you here. Are you sure you don't remember anything?” He asked again, still not believing how she could possibly lose her memories so abruptly. Rei nodded in a manner that was a bit too enthusiastic for someone in her shoes. “Fine,but first thing tomorrow we are going to the police to find your family” Arloh gave in and gestured to her to follow him . Rei let out a quiet squeal and followed the leader, Arloh side eyed her feeling she was a bit too excited to follow a stranger home.

After a few minutes of walking the two arrived at an apartment building,from its exterior it was a modern building which contained  expensive flats and had a grandiose lobby. As the two entered the lobby,the concierge who was dozing off at his desk suddenly sprung to life , “ah welcome Mr arloh,your mother called” he said as he hurried over to intercept arloh,he couldn't wait to deliver the message and he couldn't wait to satisfy his curiosity as his eyes darted to Rei “and who is this young lady with you?” He asked, twisting his moustache while eyeing her up and down. “She's someone I'm helping,I'll attend to mother so you can let me go up now” Arloh gestured to the concierge to move and took Rei's hand and led her to the elevator, Rei followed quietly looking back at the tall, slender man who was still watching ,squinting his eyes and twisting his moustache, he gave her the chills and she snapped her head back forward.

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“Why were all those people calling you Mister? And being so polite to you? Are you their leader?” Rei asked as soon as the two got in the elevator. “Hmm? Leader? Or do you mean boss?..” Arloh responded as he paused to press the number 10 on the elevator's keypad. “Wow” Rei suddenly jumped a bit as the elevator started to move upwards “what kind of room is this? ,is it moving?” She asked as she moved close to the keypad and placed a finger on the emergency button , “nope ,no ,don't touch that” Arloh gently pulled her away from the keypad while scratching his head. “Have you never seen an elevator?”

“What's that?” Rei asked ,giving Arloh the most ‘dead serious,clueless’ stare he had ever seen in his life. “This ,this is an elevator” he gestured, showing her it was what they were in now. “Huh” she nodded as though her brain ‘took notes’ for later “so are you their leader ?boss?” She circled back to her original question as she was still curious about how the concierge earlier  and the security men outside before that,were acting to Arloh .

“Oh they are just like that to every tenant here…it's their job” Arloh explained as he showed Rei to step out the elevator as the doors opened . “Ah so you are not their…boss?” Rei asked again as she stopped in-between the elevator doors to look at Arloh . “No not really..” arloh replied as he had to reach out and stop the elevator doors from shutting on her “you’re standing in the doorway miss” he added in a tone that mimicked the accent of the concierge from earlier. “Oh..”Rei moved out of the elevator properly and Arloh followed. “..why did you do that ..with your voice?” She added “do what?” Arloh asked. “What?” Rei echoed , immediately confused. “The..the thing you did just now, like the man from the entrance” she continued moving her hands about as she explained like they would help him understand her better. “Oh I was just messing around” he said as he pointed to the door to his flat “It's here”. “Why were you messing around?” Rei asked, sounding almost like she felt bad being the butt of a joke “..oh you said you're not really their boss, so are you their boss but not completely?” She pivoted to another question before Arloh could even answer the first . Arloh gave her a glance as he opened the door ,she just stood there .. waiting for answers “well my mom owns the building,so…..” the beeping sound of the door opening cut him off ,though he didn't intend to say anymore. “Oh, this house is really big for just you and your mom but why do you have to use the portal room to go to another room?” She shot another question as she looked around seemingly amazed by the very empty white corridor. “Portal?..” Arloh squinted,utterly confused “no I live in this flat, other people live in other flats” he replied , answering what he understood . “Flat?” Rei asked again. Arloh face palmed but stayed patient with her, “rooms, big rooms for different people” he said as he placed a hand on her head redirecting her to face the door of his apartment as she was about to wander elsewhere. “Ohhhhhh” Rei nodded as she walked into Arloh's home,looking around and observing,still clutching her bag closely. The automatic lights coming on spooked her a bit as she jumped back knocking Arloh's face into the door he just closed behind them. “It's a lightbulb Rei,please calm down” Arloh said as he leaned tiredly against the door,too tired to lift himself, and then to his horror…. “Where is your family?” Another question hit him like a needle prick, he turned to Rei who was curiously observing the living room like she'd never seen one before. *Is she a robot? What is she going to do with all these questions and taking screenshots of her environment all at once?* Arloh thought to himself,but he couldn't even be mad at her as she just stood there genuinely clueless. “I live here alone,separate from the rest of my family” he said as he walked into the living room and picked up the tv remote. “..don't ask why” he added quickly as he noticed Rei opening her mouth, he could sense the ‘wh’ question words swirling around in her head waiting to be unleashed. “ Oh okay” Rei said and smiled softly, swaying from side to side. “ Okay so you can come in, take off your shoes, I'll go get some beddings so …wait here” Arloh said as he headed to the closet “oh.. here” he added as he switched on the TV and placed the remote on the table ,then left the living room to go get some blankets and pillows for Rei.

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Rei who was still observing her surroundings,noticed how clean Arloh's flat was,the picture on the wall was not tilted a single bit and the tiled floor glowed,a neat pile of books were perfectly stacked on a study desk in the corner and the velvet curtains on the window looked like they had been silk pressed. But then she noticed it ,the sudden sound from that direction startled her and she walked into the main area of the living room cautiously to observe it. Tiptoeing and her footsteps making no sound she made her way to the source of the sounds,which kept playing on, it sounded like a man talking,but there was no man in the living room so it confused her. “ What sorcery is this?” Rei exclaimed in a whisper as she approached the television, crouching and getting as close as possible but hesitating to touch it “what kind of magic mirror does this?”  she poked the TV and it shook a bit,the man on the screen paying her no attention and just kept reading from his paper. “Wooooah” she whispered as she kneeled and placed her ear directly on the screen.

“Okay so I got you some blankets ,I'll make the bed real quick, there's also this brand-new toothbrush I have you can use it if you want to clean up and I have a brand new set of pyjamas I was going to gift my mom, you can wear them if…..you…waaaant”  Arloh, heading back into the living room holding a bunch of blankets and other stuff, was stopped in his tracks as he was welcomed by the sight of Rei trying to literally listen to the tv and even sniffed it once before she then turned around to face him. “Where did you find this talking mirror?does it answer questions” she asked as she got up from the floor scratching her head. One visible teardrop ran down Arloh's right eye, was this what it was like to raise a kid?

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After a few minutes of explaining what a tv was and stopping Rei from eating the toothpaste, Arloh waited in the kitchen as she changed into the pajamas he got her,her uniforms were a filthy mess from the events of the day. He stood with one hand on the counter and the other on his chin *Is this how memory loss works? She still remembers how to talk ,how does she not know toothpaste,or a tv or an elevator..* he was thinking to himself and then it hit him, Rei was not recognizing things that were modern, she had asked about the chandelier too and was spooked by the automatic lights, the streetlights when they were walking home and the fact that his couch could be turned into a bed , he wasn't quite sure of it but it didn't seem like memory loss ,it seemed like Rei had become a whole different dumber person of some sort, well he didn't mind if she stayed like this , she was oddly sweet, but he was concerned about what could have happened all of a sudden to cause such strange behavior from her, he would have to find her family as soon as possible and hopefully they get her medical help. “I'm done!” Rei shouted from the living room letting him know she was done changing clothes. “Okay so I'm going to …” Arloh's speech trailed as he walked into the living room to find she had the pajama top on backwards. “How do you even button up a shirt in reverse? ..” he muttered “ah nevermind”.  “Nevermind what?” Rei asked as she just stood there oblivious to her wardrobe error. “..Nothing. okay so I'm going to go to my parents house ,I'll sleep there,the door opens from the inside , but don't open it to anyone who isn't me , I'll be back tomorrow morning and we will go to the police ,okay?” Arloh said . “You're leaving? Watch tv with me , I don't want to stay alone ",  Rei muttered quietly, looking down at her feet . Arloh really felt like a babysitter today, “well tomorrow is Saturday ,so I guess late night movies are fine” he said as he agreed to stay a bit longer, he would feel bad leaving her awake alone by herself in her current state,he felt it was best to just play along till she fell asleep.

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The two watched an action movie and Rei spent the whole time overreacting to everything, while managing to stay quiet and calm at the same time, gasping and squealing and of course bombarding Arloh with questions during every scene, it was all real to her. Arloh played the role of 'dad' and explained every scene to her and even joined in on her reactions at times. The first movie ended and Rei was on a dopamine rush, quietly yet rabidly demanding another movie be played, but about ten minutes into the film she was asleep. Arloh sighed relieved he could finally rest, it was a hectic day , he took a blanket and placed it on Rei who had fallen asleep on the couch. He got up and looked at her a bit.

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Although she asked too many questions and was quite strange. He didn't mind this side of her at all. He hoped she would  get better soon if she really lost her memories but also hoped that she would keep the calm but fun personality he got to know today. Finally ,he looked again for if he would notice any cuts or bleeding from her ,but couldn't see anything, he had been looking for an injury since he found her on the bench but there was none,he wondered who had the trail of blood he followed earlier then ,he shrugged it off and stretched, too tired to go to his parents house at this point ,so he took a blanket and went to his bedroom and fell asleep as soon as his head  touched his pillow.

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