WARNING
From this point onwards, the story will include increasing violence, gore (nothing heavy-handed), and darker themes (e.g. trauma, torture, mental illness, depictions of black magic and cult activity, etc) such that if I keep putting individual warnings for these in particular, it would eventually end up being for a great deal of chapters. However, for topics such as self-harm and suicide, I will continue to put individual warnings as I know these can be especially sensitive.
If you are uncomfortable with the above topics, please feel free to stop reading (if you do, thank you for reading till this point!). I have put a warning in the first chapter as well.
It's been a long time coming, but I plan and write as I go and did not have most things figured out in the plot when I first began writing as I do now. I have thought about whether I could avoid these as much as possible or refrain from them completely, but it is difficult with this cast of characters and I do not feel I can do the story and characters justice if I continue to restrict myself so much.
Below will be a recap of the story so far, in light of the (almost 3 year?!) gap in updates to hopefully be a reminder as to what's happened in the story so far (and to save you from having to reread the story if you cannot afford to do so ^^).
I will publish Chapter 29 (Part 1) in about a week so stay tuned! :)
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THE STORY SO FAR...
Shrouded in mystery, The 28th Stop is the place where one can fulfil their dreams, or so they say. Anyone burdened with negativity can visit this town via a train that runs late at night and return as a completely changed person, or never return at all. But of those who have returned, no one can remember their exact experiences - they are left only with warm, nostalgic feelings regarding the town and a yearning to go back.
This profound effect on the human psyche has piqued the interest of numerous reporters and their associated companies, leading to the origin of a mission worth twenty times one's yearly salary: investigate the town and write an article on your findings. However, every single reporter who has travelled to the town so far either went missing or died.
At 23 years of age, you are a reporter who chose this suicide mission for the exorbitant monetary reward - not for yourself but for the sake of helping to end your older brother's (Cyril) bankruptcy. He always stood by your side through thick and thin, from the abandonment of your parents and experiencing homelessness as a child, to the everyday adversities of growing up. It would not be entirely incorrect if you said he practically raised you. The beret you wear, the same one he bought you all those years ago, is your reminder to never lose sight of the end goal.
Embarking on your journey, you arrive at a town that seemingly radiates vibrancy and warmth. Composed of dynamic landscapes and architecture, strewn with cobbled streets and horse carriages, it is as if you have been transported to another time, the air palpable with magic and romance. But the illusion starts to crack. You witness the townspeople's prejudice against anyone who visits the town, whom they call "outsiders" in contempt or mockery. You hear rumours of strange phenomena outside of the realm of nature. The presence of a dark secret begins to make itself known, emerging from the shadows of the past. The resplendent mask unfurls at the seams.
Throughout your journey, you also meet various people - notably three young men.
Gael, who you first see on the train. Charming and elegant, mysterious and a little knavish, he is later found to be the son of the town's mayor - a greedy, snivelling man who spearheaded the law for a dismal end for any and all reporters. So it spelt disaster for you when Gael somehow discovers your status as an undercover reporter. However, it appears he has no intention of exposing you. Rather, ever since the moment you returned to him that gold coin on the train, there seems to be something he wants from you and you alone. Against his father's authority, he invites you and Asher to the Yearly Arthurian Party, proposing that you would be a representative of the visitors/outsiders to meet other invitees and help chip away at the stigma against the group. This eventually leads to a date meeting, which leads to revelations vital to your investigation...divulged to you so easily from the last person you could expect to lend such information. What are his motives? Is he trustworthy? What truth lay hidden beneath his handsome words and those brilliant blue eyes?
Asher, who you find in the town. Impulsive, crude and upbeat, he is another reporter whom you become allies with to make writing the final article more efficient. Having stolen (and desecrated) your notebook, and alerted town authorities to the presence of reporters amongst the new batch of "outsiders", your first impression of him was not the best. Yet things come to a head when you two receive an invitation to a historically significant party, which marks the start of your partnership and the initial sprout of strange feelings Asher begins to have for you. These alien sensations spread in his chest like a weed, sending pleasant chills down his spine. Delectable. Addicting. And to seal the deal, it was made known to him that these feelings were a sign he was in love with you. Love: a crucial step forward in his path to changing his life for good. To become...'normal'. To become a person far removed from who he was in his past. Thus sparked his resolve to make you become a permanent fixture in his life, no matter how much blood he had to spill to get his way.
And Emilio, who you encounter upon your arrival. Stoic and sarcastic, yet down-to-earth and with a heart set in justice, he is the town's gatekeeper and usually stands guard in his tower near the iron-wrought gates. As the primary witness to your...memorable entrance, the impression that you were perpetually intoxicated never quite seemed to go away. Emilio is often seen accompanying Gael, addressing him with the reverent title of 'my Lord' but also paradoxically conversing with him as if they were close friends. Yet unbeknownst to you, his family is fraught with poverty and hardship legally imposed upon them by the mayor himself—his friend's father—as presented during his inaugural speech, Emilio's father having been his opponent during the election 18 years ago. The townspeople share in the mayor's disdain against him and his family members, often treating them as lesser than dirt. How could this injustice have taken place? What truly happened 18 years ago? And just what is the 'Electoral Disaster' - an event that one can only mention under their breath and behind closed doors? What are the town, the mayor, the kingdom trying to hide?
---ARC 1: THE YEARLY ARTHURIAN PARTY [ Chapter 1 - Chapter 14 ]
May 25th, 3:00 AM. As an undercover journalist for 'The Weekly Envoy', you are boarded on a crowded carriage headed towards The 28th Stop, whereupon you spot a newspaper scrap about a man released early from jail, torn away from your sight before you could read it all. You refresh your memory on what you knew, taking note of the strange coins native to the town - golden coins that glow like a light source, and scorch whoever touches them for only a few seconds (other than their owner) without leaving burn marks.
You meet Gael and return a gold coin of his. Soon after, you find yourself in the town, except your notebook is gone. Emilio, the Gatekeeper, lets you inside the town after you almost Falcon Punched the iron gates (earning you the nickname 'Falcon Girl' for the rest of your time here). You catch the last part of the mayor's speech to the mass of outsiders. You learn that A) you will not leave the town without your belongings being searched and memories being wiped, and B) all reporters discovered will be killed - this declaration heedlessly provoked by none other than Asher (or, with his purple hair, 'Turnip Head'). Turns out, he was the culprit who stole your notebook as he was a reporter himself.
To help speed up your writing, you reluctantly team up with Asher to collaborate on the article. You explore the town together, noticing that despite the hours that passed, the sky was covered by night with no signs of daybreak. You gather information from whoever would oblige you and scourge the library - which possessed two clocks: one actively reading the time, the other perpetually stuck on 'February 30, 12 AM'. It was here that Asher not only stumbles upon a book titled 'Enigma 28: A Guide to Spells, Summoning and Other Uses of Black Magic' but also has a fateful encounter with a meek man named 'Boris'. Notwithstanding, it is during your research at the library where you first come across a certain name: 'The Glass Kingdom' but attempts to investigate it are barred.
You get along with your new reporting partner, although some moments make you strike him as somewhat off-putting. It is not long before, at your hotel, you awake to a knocking at your door. Gael and Emilio formally invite the two of you to the 'Yearly Arthurian Party' - an action that the mayor himself severely disapproved of, yet Gael had pushed for anyway. It is a celebration of the town's founder, Arthur Underwood, but also acts as a networking event and a stage to discuss reforms. It is attended by distinguished people and members of the Council and High Society, and it is Gael's aim that you will act as a representative of the current batch of visitors in what he says is an effort to mitigate discriminatory opinions against visitors (or 'outsiders', as derogatorily put).
You two agree to attend and, to further bolster your lies, you hug Asher to superficially prove to Gael and Emilio that you two were in a romantic relationship to deter suspicions of the true conspiratorial nature of your partnership. This unprecedentedly sets the first spark within Asher to a chain of tumultuous emotions, emblazoning you in his mind as someone potentially...more. The pair of you travel to the Council Building to confirm your assent when Gael reveals to you that, somehow, he knows your real names.
You and Asher buy new formal attire in preparation for the party, at the shop 'Humberville', where you meet Ruth, the kind shopkeeper. Ruth and Asher converse, where Ruth airily labels her observations of Asher's gazes and thoughts of you as 'love'. It was upon the declaration that these new feelings had a name, that they were a key piece to attaining a normal life when this dark flame within him ignites further. You notice a strange spike in Asher's uneasy behaviour, but you put that aside as you finally join the party. It is an illustrious setting with an orchestra, elaborate ballgowns, and expensive food and champagne.
To your misfortune, you meet the mayor, Hill Underwood, where you see his slimy nature with your own eyes. Gael presents a speech imploring guests to question their misjudgements, yet it rang deaf in the ears of a people too steeped in their prejudice to truly listen, although some take the invitation to ask you questions and learn more about you. Enchanting music leads you and Gael to share a waltz together (then later, you and Asher, albeit in a more awkward iteration of a dance). Determined to make the most of your time, you organise a date meeting with Gael to conduct a longer interview in one week.
Unbeknownst to either of you, 'Boris' (real name: Bob) is a loan shark who has been working with his boss, Wellington, and who has been tasked to follow your every trail. And their fellow loan sharks back in your city have held your brother and family hostage.
Finally, you return to your hotel and retire to your room when it happens. Asher enters, attempts to kiss you without your consent, and professes that he is in love with you.
---ARC 2: THE LOAN SHARKS / THE ABANDONED WAREHOUSE [ Chapter 15 - Chapter 28 ]
Candidly, you reject him, on the account of him falling for the idea of you rather than the real you. He takes this as meaning the two of you should get to know each other better. After he promises he will keep his feelings at bay, you relent, explaining your brother's predicament and inadvertently opening up about your passion for journalism. Satisfied, he leaves. You cannot deny, however, that the experience left you at least a little shaken. Meanwhile, Asher finds 'Boris' at the hotel reception, looking for him. Thinking him to be a potential new friend, a stepping stone in the path towards achieving normalcy, Asher facilitates a meet-up with him also in a week.
One week passes, largely spent familiarising yourself with various locations, landmarks and history - the only notable commotion being the recent blackouts across the town. You talk with Randall, a friendly man who owns a remedy shop, when you read the latest edition of 'The Still Times' - a tabloid-like article insinuating a scandal between you and the mayor, littered with inflammatory remarks that set your nerves on fire. Similar derogatory claims were also directed at Gael, mocking his speech, but also mentioning an incident that happened a few months ago. An incident about an outsider reporter who somehow escaped the town with all his memories intact yet got caught at Waverley station, and it implicated that Gael was involved and was severely punished. Randall imparts that not only is it a regular occurrence for the media to use Gael as a means for cheap entertainment, but also that his father blames him for any bad press.
Asher heads out to meet 'Boris'. You spend the time waiting for the carriage that would take you to Gael's meeting spot to hone your research when you receive 6 missed calls from Asher, yet this evades your knowledge due to accidentally leaving your phone behind in your room. Asher had called to warn you when he discovered Bob's true nature, only to get knocked out by Wellington himself and taken hostage at an abandoned warehouse.
It was a rainy night when you arrive by stagecoach to a restaurant. You talk with Gael in a private room. He reveals the existence of magic within the town, demonstrating with the table flowers whose petals glow when touched. Gael explains that the 'life-changing experience' one has when visiting the town is rooted in magic. More specifically, a spell was cast long ago that allowed the extraction of negative energy from visitors, which is then converted to all other forms of energy via a mechanism kept secret by the Glass Kingdom (the kingdom that oversees the town). Essentially, outsiders were the town's fuel source, and without them, the town could not thrive.
It disturbs you how easily you were able to attain this vital information.
Gael wants something from you. But first, he asks you to hold out your hand, whereupon he sets a gold coin. A minute passes, yet you show no reaction. Shocked at the confirmation, Gael explains that somehow you possess a quality called 'cross-resistance': total immunity against the burning effect of the town's gold, in whatever form they're moulded in (such as coin form). An ability so rare that many cruel experiments attempted to extract this ability, to no success. The only people who possess this are 'Gold Spinners', the people who excavate the town's gold, and 'Royals'. Gael quickly shuts down either possibility, particularly that you could never be a royal, because you were born and raised in East Villton, where you have lived your entire life. Anyone with a hint of Royal blood cannot leave the kingdom (including the town) for more than a year, otherwise, they die a morbid death.
Just as Gael is about to explain why all of this is relevant to what he wants from you, the two of you are interrupted by Ruth and Carol (another hotel receptionist and Gael's lonely aunt) who accidentally barge in, mixing up the rooms for their double date. Ruth laments the heartbreak Asher must face if he sees you two alone together like this; a victim of unrequited love. What? Stunned at the knowledge of his confession, Gael warns you that Asher is not who he seems, having come across various (albeit vague) sources that suggest Asher may not even be his real name. Your meeting is brought to a close when you realise the time and the absence of your phone. You return to your hotel room where you are met with a dismal sight - someone left it in tatters. And Asher had not returned.
You try and fail to call him multiple times. You ask Sara, the hotel receptionist, who informs you about a suspicious man who had threatened her at gunpoint and ransacked your room in search of you. Connecting the dots that he must have something to do with Asher's disappearance, you call his number again. He picks up, but he sounds tense and you figure he's not alone. Losing his patience, another man yells on the other side of the line - the same man who was looking for you. Wellington introduces himself and drops the bombshell that your brother's bankruptcy was because your brother borrowed 400k from their organisation, which is overdue, and now the amount he owes is 800k. Why did he need 400k? Why did he get it from loan sharks? Wellington doesn't know, but he tells you to sit tight as two of his men will come to escort you to their settlement. You have no choice but to comply.
Their names are Tony and Misha. The former is the stout and grumpy kind, and the latter is the tall and laidback sort. Enduring their banter, you discover that around 35 of Wellington's men had come here in pursuit of you. Later, you fume upon recognising Boris - no, Bob - who greets you at the entrance of their post: an abandoned warehouse in the desolate outskirts of town. This does not escape the attention of Emilio, who is luckily walking his rounds around the vicinity and spots you from a distance with the suspicious lot. His efforts to break through the door and employ the help of a council guard are in vain, so he resorts to running the hour-long path to the Council Building to alert Gael.
Meanwhile, Gael returns 'home' and finds himself facing the prodigious Royal Scientist, Mallory, who scolds him regarding the excessive usage of the kingdom's negative energy emergency stores during the town's recent blackouts, such that it was almost empty. This strikes Gael because, while he used a little more than necessary, there was plenty left. So where had all of that energy gone? Additionally, there is still no sign of 'The Oracle', who left their radar for a few months now. Ending their conversation by mocking Gael's trauma, Mallory leaves.
You meet Wellington face-to-face. He divulges the following: Cyril borrowed money from them on January 15, used the money on February 28, and his generous deadline was April 28. You seethe when you learn about your family's kidnapping, demanding to know what happened, only to find out that they disappeared. You're knocked out and you dive into a dream, a childhood memory, of Cyril telling you a bedtime story about a place named Reacesall. You awake to chains binding your wrists, and Wellington demanding the 800k in full, now. You bargain that this would be easily covered by the cash reward of your article, but you barely scratched the surface of the town hence of writing your piece, to which Wellington questions why you don't just lie. Where are your priorities? Determined to find the truth, you ask for more time, which he allows.
Nevertheless, he later confides in Bob that he has a new plan. His patience is worn thin - it would be quicker to kill you and Asher and harvest your organs to sell to the black market, that way Wellington could even make a profit. Horrified by his schemes, Bob has had enough. He finds it within himself to quit, asking his ex-boss to fulfil his part of the contract (that upon cessation of his term, Wellington was to give him a lump sum of his earnings to pay off his father's medical bills), to which Wellington laughs. He murdered Bob's father long ago.
Bob is left to drown in his torment, but he eventually gathers the will to do things right for once.
He rushes to where you were imprisoned, undoes your binds, takes you to Asher, and leads the way towards the exit while evading the rest of the loan sharks. Wellington blocks your path. Asher stays back to deal with him, while you and Bob take another route, making your way to a hidden corridor on the map that Bob accidentally found one night. You arrive and dread impales you instantly. All you see is unending darkness; a vacuum of light and sound. Bob holds your hand and you walk through it, counting the doors that line one wall. Minutes after passing Room 27, you are struck with an excruciating headache and drop unconscious.
In the meantime, Asher sprints after Wellington, who flees into a room filled with thirty-odd goons. For the first time in many years, Asher murders a person. It does not end at one. Like clockwork, Asher kills everyone he sees in that room. Gleefully. Once done, he searches for you and Bob, using a map he had stolen, when he stumbles into Misha who points him to a blank spot on the parchment, saying there was a secret hallway and assuring they were there. How does he know? Misha vanishes before he can ask.
You regain consciousness. Crossing the last part of the hallway, Bob tells you why he quit. Touched, you offer him to work together on the article, which he is delighted by. Hope starts to creep into your heart until you hear the crack of a gunshot. Wellington shoots Bob in the leg, having hidden near the exit from Asher. Said man arrives on cue and starts attacking him while you tend to Bob. All it takes is one moment of distraction when Wellington reaches for his gun again and aims at Asher. Bob caught onto the motion, pushing Asher away when—BANG! Bob is shot dead before your eyes. Not a second later, you watch Asher stab Wellington mercilessly at the back of his neck.
Shock besets you, the image forever scarred in your brain. Rescued by Gael and Emilio, the four of you leave for Ruth's place. It is arranged that you and Asher will reside with her for the time being when you vehemently protest, avoiding Asher's penetrating stare. Gael surmises the tension was due to Asher, so it is decided that you two will live in separate places, you with Ruth and Asher back at Carol's hotel. This incenses Asher, causing him to mistakenly leak your real name in full. Nevertheless, the separation eases your anxiety and Gael encourages you to take it easy for the next few days.
When you can finally relax, you are dealt a final surprise: Ruth reveals she, too, was a reporter.
A/N: And that should be all so far! I made it detailed because of my own experiences with stories that I'd been following for a long time that updated after a big gap...and I simply could not remember what happened except for a few details and would just read the latest update based off what I vaguely knew. 2.5+ years is a long time, so I wouldn't blame you if you can't remember anything that happened and are not rereading, which led to the idea of creating a recap chapter before updating again :) I still recommend re-reading if you are able to - I've added/edited descriptions, dialogue and scenes that would hopefully make for a smoother reading experience. If you do happen to reread past chapters, hopefully this recap will help connect the dots to other foreshadowing I've left sprinkled throughout and maybe help form theories :)) As I said at the start, the next (actual) chapter should be out in a week!