33 No Longer Exists

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Nora~~

I spend the rest of the evening researching. If I was taken outside of Somnia's fence, then I need to find where the gate is.

But when the sun rises, my research is only able to tell me that no such gate exists.

We're locked in.

*****

"We don't have a record of a Radia Dacy," the man at City Hall tells us. "Is it possible you have her name wrong?"

"No." I grip the counter. "Does Doctor Pace work here?"

The man sits straighter and cracks his neck. "You won't find him here," he says a bit stiffly.

Tye steps closer to me. "Where can we?"

"He doesn't take visitors."

We turn away from the desk just as Tye gets a phone call. "It's Radia's boss," he says before answering.

When Tye got home last night, he said Charlie backed up my story, but that he claims he doesn't know where Radia is. Tye then told me he quit, and that was all he'd divulge.

City Hall has about thirty bright white steps one has to climb to enter the building or descend to leave. Standing at the top of them, the sun reflects off them, hitting my eyes.

Tye's call ends before we take the first step down. "The police aren't getting involved because according to them Radia never existed."

"But there's footage."

"They're saying it was faked."

I sink onto the top step, closing my eyes against the sun. She's gone. They've erased her. Now if only I knew who they are. "We have her note to go on."

"She didn't get to finish it. And we can't be sure it's for us."

"It's something."

"I don't want to get our hopes up. City Hall has no record of a Raymond." Not in forty years. They said the last Raymond no longer exists.

Radia was erased.

That Raymond ceased to exist.

Are these the fates for which every citizen of Somnia is destined? To be erased? Tye didn't bat an eye at being told Raymond no longer exists as if it's something common to hear.

I pull myself to my feet, shoving down my worries. "We can't be scared of that, or we'll never find her."





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