The Façade of Quad in Nimrod ✓ | Satire, family drama, dark society

XVI

The headlines today were all about Ted-Manson McSneed's suicide of jumping out his office window. It led to his bleeding in the head and finally death. The successor of McSneed was made unclear as the nephew of Ted-Manson was Rick Memorson. Yet, Rick hadn't made headlines since his court case against his uncle was dismissed. 

As for other successors, there was only record of Ted-Manson's son who had died in a tragic accident of a fire when he was four during a visit to his grandparents who also died. And there was a daughter, but she was living with her husband in Jonchin having fallen in love with the culture.

"Jonchin of all places!" Mordecai said and flipped the paper looking for his name, but he couldn't find the news of a robbery.

"Left it open you bastards," he muttered in frustration.

Then, he spotted his name. "Mordecai Quad has made a handsome donation to the bank of three-thousand and fifty pholars. His philanthropic deed shall not go unnoticed and is very much appreciated."

And that was it.

"Why no one," he muttered under his breath. He would have to make a police report to get anyone to notice it. Frustrated that no one was going to shower him with words of sympathy and that he would not get to accuse Rick of the crime, Mordecai threw the newspaper on the floor and huffed to the phone.

He was about to pick it up and dial the police when he realized he should probably do it at work. Calling about a robbery at his office from home would be suspicious. So, he decided to head off to work when he remembered that today was his day-off day from work. His workers might think it strange that on the day their boss showed up, a police call was made.

With a sniff, he smirked, thinking it was pretty smart of him to realize that before he made some big mistake that would make him look suspicious.

Yet, he didn't remember the safe was not visible from outside the office. If one looked inside, they would only see the chair, the desk, and the bookshelf. The safe was hidden behind the bookshelf, disguised as a storage box to keep robbers away.

Mordecai was so smart to cover up his tracks and put everything back as if nothing had happened. When he said he 'left the safe wide open' it meant that the lock was undone. That was it. No doubt no one would notice anything amiss unless Mordecai himself made a scene about it.

In other words, he wasn't that smart.

* * *

The floor beneath Henry trembled as the train chugged on. It had been an hour already since departure and the train was now halfway to Quinex. Henry had been knocked out most of the ride and when the ticket master saw him passed out, he decided to let him sleep and come back in an hour.

The train rumbled on, stopping at a few stations where some more people got on. At one station, the train let out a loud whistle that startled Henry upright. Disoriented, he realized he wasn't in Cork's house anymore but in the compartment of a train. 

Heart beating, he looked out the window to see the platform of a station he didn't know moving away. Henry's breathing grew fast when he realized for the first time that he had been tricked.

"The bread must've been drugged, Beagley!" he said in a panic. He looked around the compartment, but it was just him and the clothes on his back. His trunk was nowhere to be found. He searched his pockets for something, anything, maybe even money but all he found was a ticket sending him off to a place he'd never been to before or even heard of. The ticket was bent and old. It looked like it was fished out of a garbage can.

Simply shocked, not even a swear word fell from his dry mouth. Realization sunk deep into his skin and the taste of the sweet bread still lingered on his tongue like a sinister joke. He couldn't jump off the train, lest he be killed. The wheels will crush his bones and mutilate him.