August 21, 2020, at approximately 11:50 AM, about 20 minutes after his therapy session ended, Stanley stood in front of the Heaven's Kitchen station in his Mr. Morale outfit. Since it was nearly noon, most people won't be on the train since most people are at work, or at Candle City's beaches. As he waited for the train all he could do was think about Grace and how the therapist said that he saved, 4,231 people. The thoughts were contradictory to his estate; Grace made him feel as though he were naked at a field, the number of people he saved made him feel as though he was at home.
BRRRRING BRRRRING
Stanley took his phone out of his pocket and checked who was calling him, "Dad." He held his breath and let the phone ring until it stopped. While he stared at it he started hearing a familiar feminine voice laugh in the distance. He finally exhaled once he heard the train arrive. He made sure he was able to get into the second car from the front of the train. Once in, he took a look at the surroundings: to the left of him an old lady with the head of a frog and beautiful luscious green hair to compliment the green skin; to the right a crying young girl that wore pink pigtails with blonde highlights; and at the end of the train car nearest to the train car ahead, a mysterious figure with a black hood up and an overall dangerous vibe.
"Yeah, I'm not going to mess with that," he whispered. He grabbed his phone and headphones and began walking to a seat, as he chose a song to play, he started putting his headphones in, then paused before his chosen seat. It was in the middle of the train car and isolated from most of the people, where he began hearing the laugh again. The words of the therapist invaded his mind, "You have saved a marvelous amount of people," he shivered and felt his stomach twist and contort just like his face when he remembered the words. The train began moving, Stanley stumbled and held onto a pole to keep balance. "How can someone just turn all those instances of love I genuinely felt into a statistic. Heroes are truly sickening people," he swallowed whatever was about to come out from his stomach.
He centered himself, then sat down, unmasked himself, and looked at the crying young girl nearest to him. As he stared at her a sinking feeling overcame him, and the flowing of white hair appeared in the corner of his vision. "Save her."
Stanley sprung to his feet, smiled and approached the girl. "Are you okay young lady?"
"I'm going to die," the young lady said coughing while sniffling and covering her face.
Stanley's eyes shot out of his sunglasses, "That's so morbid," he thought. "We are all going to die eventually," he said squatting down in front of her.
"Yeah, but what if I die tomorrow. I haven't even eaten eggs for dinner yet."
"What if you die tomorrow? Do you have any regrets about how you lived?"
She stopped covering her face and looked at Stanley's face. She stared at him for several moments before answering, "No."
"Then why not control how you die?"
"Control how I die," her green eyes lighted up.
"Yeah, everyday I walk around thinking that I might get shot or be the victim of some villain's misuse of his oddity or just generally die of unknown causes. But there was this girl, who taught me that smiling can influence how you feel about things. That sometimes, when you make a face long enough you'll start feeling like that emotion you're making. So happy face happy life. Sorry- that's not really good advice. Uhm, anyway, this girl once told me that when things are rough you should start singing. She really loved music."
"How is singing going to control how I die?"
"Well, right now you're sad about potentially dying right? Let's sing. Let's enjoy this moment of being alive right now. If you can control your emotions, you can control how you feel about anything!"
The young girl wiped her tears away, "What's your name?"
Stanley stood up, took a step back, placed his hat on his hand and posed, "I'm Mr. Morale. What's yours young lady?"
"Darleen."
"Darleen," Mr. Morale began, "What song do you want to sing today."
"Gosh, I don't know. Can you pick?"
Stanley pondered for a moment, then took out his phone, then unplugged his headphones. He began playing the song, "Remember Summer Days" by Anri. As the beat began playing he took off his sunglasses and handed it to the girl who put them on. He then placed his phone next to her and made sure the music was blasting at the loudest volume. Before Stanley began dancing, he turned to the frog lady and yelled, "I'm sorry for the loud music, we're enjoying the moment."
Darleen laughed as the frog lady simply turned and croaked happily. He began bouncing his hips and sliding his feet across the train floor, two-stepping if you will, back and forth while snapping his fingers. "You have to come up here with me or else I'll leave you behind now Darleen." He spun around before singing along to the song with terrible pronunciation, "Hitori aki no umi o mitsumete omoidasu"
"That's Japanese, how am I supposed to sing along," Darleen laughed and clapped her eyes as she watched Stanley terrible sing and dance to the song.
"It's probably the same reason you wanna eat eggs for dinner! Just to do it right? Ima wa mou oikake wa shinai," he shook his hips and spun again then posed. He heard another croak and rhythmic clapping from the frog lady. Darleen's heart skipped a beat as the horns in the song played for just a second. "I need to record this," she said while taking out her phone and pointing it at Stanley.
She began recording him as he sang with his heart, "hito mitsuketanoyo shitteitano." He paused for a moment before screaming out, "Remember Summer Days!" Darleen busted out laughing, "What song is this? What song is this!"
"I just said it, let me sing, or join in!"
"I'll join along if you cook me eggs for dinner."
"Sure," he said as he felt his body jolt forward and come to a sudden stop.
The brakes of the train shrieked, as the train came to a complete and sudden stop. "What happened," Darleen asked tugging at her pigtails and curling up in her seat, while lowering her phone, Stanley immediately looked at the mysterious figure with a black hood up. His eyes immediately captured the figure, his legs ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
A beep could be heard from the loud speaker in the train. "Ladies and gentleman of the noon train. This is your new conductor speaking, as per The Silent Murderer. For the next couple minutes please enjoy the tune of the silence of the afterlife."