Another 5 days passed after my meeting with Mr. Tusin. Since then I invested a bit of money to afford Dandelion a comfortable sleeping bag to lie inside of as well as some new clothes and shoes. This did not prevent her from choosing not to wear shoes and climb into my bed at night anyways, but at least my conscious felt a little better.
The same routine from before continued as I worked on my story in the mornings while Dandelion usually slept in after staying up late the night before watching nature documentaries. On one particular day, we had a visitor as somehow having super directional ability; Roger managed to locate our exact location knocking on my apartment door again with his antlers. Not really wanting to oblige after seeing the 500 pound mammal and Dandelion's happy face upon seeing him, I yielded as we spent another day in the forest.
The only issue during this somewhat magical week of fun was the fact that I did not make any progress on the last question Mr. Tusin posed to me.
"Maybe I should just make up a conflict," I thought as I sat in front of my laptop, "Something arbitrary, like the demon king from the forest attacking. Wait that doesn't make sense, this should be consistent."
All the while as I did this, next to me slept the Vagabond girl deep in her slumber.
"Tacos… yum Tacos," Dandelion mumbled in her sleep
"So peaceful."
In truth there really wasn't a single authentic conflict at the time I could weave into my story. As fate would have it though, whether one was ever prepared for it or not, conflict weaves itself into one's life, and one's story.
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"Good morning Dandelion!" I said as the sleeping girl awoke. 2 bowls of ramen and some morning coffee were already prepared on the dining room table.
"Good… good morning Mr. Fogg" Dandelion said before dosing off again to sleep.
"Oi…" I said as I began to snap at Dandelion.
"Did we make it to India yet?"
"Nope, still in Nothingtown I'm afraid," I chuckled seeing that Dandelion had thoroughly enjoyed the Jules Verne tale from the night before.
"But the 20,000 pounds," Dandelion mumbled still half asleep.
"We use dollars actually… ones we'll need to earn to keep living here. Now hurry, your ramen is getting cold and it's almost noon."
Sluggishly, Dandelion crawled out of her sleeping bag and to the dining room chair. The morning continued quite normally as we chowed down on our ramen.
"You've improved!" I said watching Dandelion now be able to twist several strands of noodles onto her fork and eat at once. Honestly one of the proudest moments in my life. Finally, after about 20 minutes, we finished our bowls and were ready to head out for the day.
"Tacos Tonight?" Dandelion asked pulling on my sleeve. Her glaring eyes still hadn't lost one bit of effectiveness.
"Sure, when we finish for the day."
"Yay!" She said with a soft smile hopping into my bike basket.
"So precious."
As I was about to take off however, I noticed on the far side of the street corner 2 men in suits staring at us. I didn't get a good look at them as they were quite far away. As soon as I looked at them however, they immediately got back into their car and drove off. The only real distinguishing feature I remember were a few blue crests shaped like the sun on their suits.
"That's strange," I said, "Hey Dandelion you know what…"
"We have to leave,"
"Yeah that's true, can't be too boggled down by…"
When I turned around to face her however, Dandelion's expression had changed to one I hadn't seen before. Her already fair face dropped several shades lighter as she had gone as pale as a ghost.
"Dandelion? Are you alr…"
"We have to leave," she repeated, "get the large beep bop device."
"What? What large… the laptop?"
Dandelion nodded, "Laptop."
"Dandelion, I don't understand, who were those guys? Why do we have to le…"
Dandelion however simply shook her head.
"I'll explain later,"
"Is this something urgent? If we're in danger we should really go to the police or…"
Dandelion shook her head again. She stared at me with full seriousness in her eyes.
"Do you trust me?" She asked. We stood there in silence for a moment just staring at each other. I could see a bit of sorrowfulness in Dandelion's eyes as well, eyes that had known pain. Eyes that looked as if they pleaded for help. Gulping, I nodded.
"Okay," I said before running back into my apartment to grab my large beep bop device.
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"Where are we going again?" I asked as I pedaled as fast as I could in the direction Dandelion pointed towards.
"This way, a little further," she said. We had been biking for a good 30 minutes at this point and approaching the parts of town I myself had not been too familiar with.
"Magical Transport ahead!"
"You've been saying that for a while, what the hell is this magical transport?"
"Up the hill," Dandelion said ignoring my question as she suddenly pointed to a path deviating from the main road. Hesitantly, I did as she told and continued to bike up the hill. I did this for another 5 minutes using all my strength shifting my bike to its lowest gear before we finally arrived at the top of the hill.
"Magical transport below!" Dandelion pointed at the bottom of the hill. It was at this point that I finally realized the "Magical Transport," Dandelion referred to, was in fact a train. The hill we climbed up led to the top of a train tunnel with a cliff and a view of the train tracks down beneath.
"That's a train Dandelion." I said stopping the bike to catch my breath. "Looks like there's nowhere else to go, what's the plan now?"
"Wait for Magical Transport," Dandelion responded.
"It's a train! But okay, it should be coming soon, what are we even going to do when it arrives? Don't tell me you're going to…"
Before I could finish my sentence however, by sheer chance, the loud "choo choo" of the incoming train below drowned out my voice entirely. When I looked at Dandelion who stepped rather close to the cliff, her expression seemed to confirm she would be doing exactly what I was afraid of.
"Dandelion!" I yelled, "I don't think this is a good…"
"Trust" I saw her mouth as she reached out her hand. For some reason despite the craziness of the situation, Dandelion's eyes this time looked like ones of determination, like she had done this before, hundreds of times perhaps. Gulping, I walked up to her and grabbed her hand with my backpack still on.
"Okay… so when do you know when to…"
A small smirk showed on Dandelion's face. Using all the strength in her little body, she pulled my hand as we both fell off the cliff. I am not sure if you dear reader have ever done something like train hopping in your life before. I'm sure if you have; you will know exactly what I am talking about when I say the initial state of free falling onto a train cart feels a lot like flying, not just in physical sensation of the breeze flowing onto my skin, but also in mental freedom. The blatant disregard for society's rules as one leapt onto a one way vehicle going anywhere.
I hope however, that if you have train hopped before, that you did the necessary training, or at least been naturally athletic enough to place your feet properly upon landing. I did neither, so although my landing spot had been a pile of hay, I still managed to twist my ankle pretty badly upon landing one foot awkwardly on one of the cylinders of hay, and the other between two stacks.
"Oww… owww… jeez… owwww," I said holding onto my twisted ankle. This did not at all feel like the movies. Perhaps this is why they used stunt doubles.
"Are you alright?" Dandelion asked pulling me fully on top of the cylindrical hay stacks.
"Ahhh… ahhhh…" I said still holding onto my ankle. "I think I twisted my ankle pretty bad, ouch."
Looking at me with sorrow in her eyes, Dandelion did what she thought was appropriate for such a situation which was apparently taking off my shoe and sock and giving a kiss to my ankle.
"Dandelion… what the hell are you…"
"Feel better?" Dandelion asked looking at me as if she had just preformed some intense surgery. In all honesty, the kiss didn't ease the pain one bit. However, looking at Dandelion's expression, I couldn't express myself properly as I began cracking up.
"Bwhahahahaah…. NO… bwhahahaha ow… not at all."
My laughter however, by some extremely unscientific reason, did begin to ease my pain slightly. Slowly, I sat up leaning against the side of the cart with Dandelion sitting next to me. Finally she breathed a sigh of relief.
"We're safe,"
For a couple minutes we sat there both panting. The sunlight shined down upon our faces. Finally, as we both caught our breath, I spoke again.
"So who are those guys in suits anyways?" I asked.
"Bad guys," Dandelion said with a serious expression. Looking back, I really should have been as serious as she was in such a situation, but the look on her face when she casually said "bad guys" cracked me up and I began laughing again.
"What's so funny?" Dandelion asked puzzled.
"Sorry sorry… it's just pff bwhahahah, sorry sorry being weird again. Bad guys yes, what type of bad guys?"
"Really bad guys," She said with the same straight face as before. I couldn't help but burst out laughing even harder."
"Kane…" Dandelion said looking annoyed, "Not funny, these guys are really bad."
"Sorry sorry, please ignore me," I said composing myself, "who are they exactly though these really bad guys? That doesn't exactly give me much information.
At the question, Dandelion once again looked at me with a grave expression, as if the weight of the next word she uttered would shatter the world. And in a way, it did to mine.
"Mafia,"
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Dandelion and I sat there in silence staring at each other. It took me a while to process her word.
"Ma… mafia?" I repeated. Was that code for something like Narnia?
"Blue Suns," Dandelion said.
I did not know much about the mafia at the time. From the brief history I recalled from my world history classes, the Mafia originated from Italy. What are they doing out here in Nothingtown America chasing down a poor Vagabond girl? And who the hell are the Blue Suns? Was that also code for something? No… I did remember seeing the blue sun crests on those men in suits earlier. Luckily, this being the real world, such things as search engines existed and I searched up the term on my smart phone.
"There doesn't seem to be any results," I said briefly scrolling through the first page. Still, there were no doubts about the crests I saw earlier. Patiently, I clicked on the next page.
"Looks like nothing still."
Dandelion however, simply shook her head and looked at me,
"They hide well."
Finally, I reached the 3rd page before there appeared to be a useful link.
Blue Suns Information [Warning, use Proxy before entering]
On first glance it looked like some sort of spam website.
"Well… can't be too safe I suppose," I said. Heeding the warning, I hot spotted my phone and loaded my laptop with a VPN before loading up the search results and clicking on the web link. It took me to what looked like a much older interface with old html text, ones that hadn't been used since the mid-2000s. It looked more and more like one of those shitty scam websites as countless odd ads surrounded most of the page. I was about to click back when I noticed at the very bottom of the page, hiding among the ads, a button with the image of a blue sun. I looked over at Dandelion who nodded. It was too late to turn back now. Gulping, I clicked on the image which led us to a page that only had text on it.
"Dear visitor," I began reading, "By creating this text I may no longer be alive in this world. I have taken every reasonable measure to prevent the detection of my location when creating this message. Even so, the Blue Suns may find me."
"This reads like a creepy pasta," I said looking at Dandelion who looked back at me confused.
"Sorry… being weird again."
I looked back at the text and continued reading.
"I will make this as brief as possible to minimize detection chances. I am not sure what part of the world you live in, but I do not doubt that no matter where you are, there is a well-known gang organization; the Triads in China, the Cartels in South America, the Yakuza in Japan, the Crips and Bloods in America, the Mafia in Italy."
My hands shook and my voice trembled as one's voice often does when they begin uncovering a global conspiracy.
"What you likely do not know however, is that all these organizations are connected by one organization."
"Blue Suns," Dandelion said.
"Who… who the hell are you?" I thought looking at her before continuing to read.
"If you think that criminal entities still operate completely underground at secret clubs and buildings, than I am sorry to disappoint you by informing you that times have changed. The majority of the time these organizations operate on, and are connected by the same thing that connects all humans in today's day and age, the Internet.
I turned to Dandelion before continuing.
"This… this is insane. We should really call the police to…"
Dandelion however, held my hand as I began reaching for my phone shaking her head.
"They can't help."
Slowly I put away my phone and looked back at the laptop.
"Every business needs to adapt to the modern world right? That's true for criminal ones as well. But with governments and private entities being able to monitor most computer users, this seems like it would prove difficult for them don't you think? That's where the Blue Suns come in.
Using only resources found on the TOR dark web, the Blue Suns are able to set up chat servers, market exchanges, and all sorts of different tools to not only connect powerful criminal organizations with clients, but with each other."
I paused again as the train made another "choo choo" sound reaching a stop.
"Now you may think this is all bullshit. After all, the Blue Suns aren't exactly a household name. In fact, you'd think a group like that would be considered an urban legend by now if they existed on the internet no? I wouldn't blame you if you did. No evidence of them exists online after all. Why is that?"
The answer is a complex one. I cannot say who I am exactly, but I used to work for a web browser company. At times, I witnessed our CEO talking to some suspicious men in suits, all of whom had the symbol of a Blue Sun crest. That's what led me down this rabbit hole, that's why I'm on the run. I imagine if the Blue Suns have connections with my former company, they likely have connections to other powerful entities, governments even. It's how they're able to scrap any evidence of them on the internet, and why all reports to authorities I have made have no effect outside of multiple assassination attempts by these strange men in suits.
I looked over at Dandelion whose expression in contrast to my trembling voice appeared surprisingly calm, but also remorseful, as if a sad memory returned to her. It was at this point, my mind suddenly clicked.
"Your… your parents Dandelion, did the Blue Suns kill them?"
To my greatest dismay, although I had already suspected the answer, Dandelion nodded.
"10 years ago."
"I… I see…" I responded. Gathering up my last bit of courage, I read the rest of the webpage.
"If you have gone through the effort of reaching this page, then I assume that in some way or another, you had an encounter with the Blue Suns. If you have then my only suggestion is to run. Run as far away as you can. Change your identity and leave the country if you have to. There is no fighting them. I changed my location multiple times and still they found me. I even moved my family into the wilderness raising my daughter there to survive. When I am done loading this webpage, I plan to cut all contact with the outside world. It's the only way. I'm only writing this now because well… I can't say for sure. My consciousness, the innate nature of humans to reveal truth, my way of saying goodbye, it could be any combination of things. In any case, take this as a warning. Do not be like me and stick your nose into the Blue Moons' business. Do not post about them, do not discuss them, and most of all, do not go to the authorities about them. The best you can do if you see the men in suits with Blue Sun Crests chasing you, is to run… and pray. Take care, whoever you are. I have someone I must take care of too."
And at the end of the page after the last sentence written was not a name, but instead an image. It was the image of a flower, the image of a Dandelion.