Wicked Minds and Wicked Hearts

- Chapter 11 -

A Trip to Rivain

Mal

     The train ride to Rivain was nearly two hours, making the total trip from Everly four hours in duration. Mal didn't mind train rides, but he was too amped up. He kept mulling over in his head the questions he was going to ask Saleed, and how he was going to properly word them to make it sound like this was for a school project. His phone buzzed. He had a new text from Leo. He opened it to find a picture of him and Laurence camped out on their bedroom floor. Laurence was looking up through his eyebrows at the camera. His right middle finger was in the air as Leo was smiling brightly and holding up a peace sign. Mal saved the photo to his gallery. He hadn't looked through his gallery in a long time. There were too many memories. 

     He clicked on the photo he had just saved and looked at it again. It made him smile that his disciplinary action for Laurence was going over so well. He swiped his finger to the right. The picture of him, Charlotte, and Dominik stared back at him. He zoomed in on Dominik. I will find you. He had to be out there somewhere.

     The train came to a halt. Outside the window, Rivain loomed in all its glory. Everly was considered a town, an entity with a population of less than 100,000. Any area with more than 100,000 inhabitants was considered a city. Rivain was the largest city in all of Asariel. Mal had never been to visit the capital city before. Jennie and he had added it to a list of places they wanted to go. He wished that he had brought her to see the big city. If she was with him, she would be all over the detective work. She would be taking the lead on finding Dominik. He knew she would. She would help him find Dominik even if it meant the trail led to a dead body. Don't think about it. The possibility of that being the ending had crossed his mind many times, but it didn't make the guilt and anxiety settle in his stomach. If Dominik was gone then that meant that he would have been too late. I will find him alive.

     Mal rose from his seat and exited the train car. The platform was bustling with people getting off the train and others trying to get on it. Everly's train station was only a small platform and a ticket booth that was closed most of the time given that many people just bought their tickets online now. Rivain's train station was an actual station. An enormous skylight roof covered the platform as the only open area was the entrance and exit for the trains. Benches were strewn about everywhere as men, women, and children all twiddled their thumbs or rushed to get to their train. A young mother was hurriedly pulling her son along behind her as the train they were headed to was about to leave. 

     Mal tightened his hand's grip on his messenger bag. He crossed the train station platform and stepped out the doors into the barely warm Autumn air. The seasons changed more drastically in the northern parts of the realm. They were the first to get the changes of Autumn, the snow of Winter, the rains of Spring, and the heat of Summer. Everly tended to have late seasonal arrivals. Autumn didn't begin until late October, Winter until late December, Spring until late May, and Summer until late July. 

     According to the GPS on his phone, the Rivain Police Station was only about a fifteen minute walk from the train station. Mal made it in ten minutes. The doors to the building were huge. They extended much higher than any first floor that Mal had seen. He entered the building and marveled at the coziness of the entry area. It didn't really feel like a police station, but maybe they reserved the metal chairs and cold tile floors for the booking area. He approached the front desk where a blonde woman, most likely in her forties, was typing away on a keyboard. When Mal approached she looked up. She paused and then smiled brightly, "My, what can I do for you today, handsome?"

     Mal let out a breathy laugh as he felt his face heat up. The last person who had said something red face-inducing was Jennie. He never really noticed when people flirted with him. Perhaps his sudden recognition of the behaviors was a side effect of being unwillingly single. "I'm here to see Saleed Malstrom. They said that if I stopped by around three or four that they could speak with me. I'm doing a school project."