Adam

"Welcome, Adam, Lindelle, Sina, Layelle and Viane."

The man smiled at us but we remained expressionless.

"Oh, pardon me." He stood and laughed as if he said something silly. "Where are my manners-- you humans introduce yourselves, right? And here I am, spewing your names myself!" he said as he scratched the back of his neck.

The atmosphere remained stagnant and no one bothered to reciprocate his enthusiasm.

Does this guy has a god complex? 'Cause I know humans don't just call their fellow human "human". That'll be an odd way to make an impression.

"How did you know our names?" the guy next to me said a little bit harshly. He may be the one named Lindelle.

"Oh please, it's pretty easy-- and that's rude, by human customs shouldn't you ask my name too?" The man practically pouted, dodging the first question thrown at him.

The Lindelle guy just scoffed and I found myself glaring at the man harder but the pale girl stepped up and proceeded with the question.

She smiled like a loving mother trying to understand her child.

"Then I'll ask the question then. Mister, what is your name?"

The man hummed in delight. "It's nice to meet you all, my name is Allie Wae."

The name made me choke on my own saliva and I heard the other girl laughed behind her scarf.

Is he serious?!

"Just call me Mr.Wae," the man added.

Yeah, he's serious.

"This is stupid. Your name is Allie Wae just because you're in an alleyway? What kind of joke is that?" the raggedy bob girl spat, arms crossed.

The man didn't react and kept on smiling.

"What are you? What is your bussiness here?" she added, though, I could ask that to ourselves too.

"I could make your wishes come true as long as you're in this alley."

The man's phrasing made my eyes squint. What does he mean by that?

"Wait, that's not what I asked about, you're clearly missing the point of my question."

"My forte is reenacting something precious to all of you," he approached us while putting his hands together like a negotiating bussinessman. "Whether it's a moment in your life or someone you loved-- I can reenact them myself. I can be someone you know, the loved one you've lost...your enemy," he glanced at me at the very last part. He looked like he's challenging me with something. I gave him a death glare in return.

The raggedy girl scoffed. "That's useless if you asked me. If you can grant anything then I wish to have cash right now, make it as thick as possible."

As annoying as she is, I just kept my silence and didn't stop her. It's best to lay low and leave the try outs to stupid people. I'd just watch by the sidelines and if things got worst, I'd bolt.

The man looked hurt. "I was hoping you'd try my specialty but here." He then nonchalantly handed out a wad of cash to the girl.

A chorus of gasp resounded. Our eyes grew wider and our mouth hang open and the girl who just got her wish handed to her had it worst.

"Uhm, d-did that just happened?" I asked, starstrucked.

"A-apparently," said the girl who's starting to dissasociate on the weight of the paper on her open palm.

"Hey, what did you just do?" Lindelle asked, anger evident in his eyes.

"I granted her wish, Sir Lindelle. Is there something wrong?" The man tilted his head, his brown eyes sparkling with innocence behind his glasses.

"Ca-can you grant my wish too?" the girl in the scarf pointed at herself, her voice wobbly. Her eyes is blown open and desperation laced her posture.

"No." Lindelle barricaded his arms between the girl and Mr. Wae. "You don't know him."

"But I just told you my nam--"

"You think that's enough?" he spat. "We humans don't say we know each other just by hearing the other's name, and the fact that you don't even know that proves you're not human," he concluded and I couldn't agree more.

"And you, bob girl--"

"Viane," she interrupted.

"What if he asked for something in return? No one gives away money in this time of age!"

This punk is surprisingly caring despite of his looks. Too bad, I really wanted to see what could've happened.

"Oh my, this has become complicated," Mr. Wae sighed.

The girl Viane, seemed to snap out of it and regretted her actions. "Hey, I take it back. Here take it."

"No," Mr. Wae pushed the money back into her hand. "It's yours now and I'm not going to ask for anything in return. I just hope you guys would come back here ever so often, that's all I ask," he said with an all pleading smile.

My eyes twitched to what he just said. My mind is torn thinking whether this man is good or bad.

Whatever it is, the reason that Mr. Wae is a bad guy still overpowers the good guy reason in my inner debate. With all the mystery and question dodging there's no way you'd trust this man, much less come back to his den.

"Tch, suit yourselves. Fall on your own demise. Me, I'm dragging my ass outta here." Lindelle started walking away.

The four of us looked at each other, I just shrugged at the girls then followed the guy out. They followed me soon after we established a space between us.

"Hey, Mr.Wae, you're gonna let us out, right? Don't pull any labyrinth trick on me," Lindelle added not looking back, walking ahead with both hands shoved inside his pockets.

"Don't worry I won't do that. You're all free to leave whenever you want."

"That's good to know, Mr.Wae. It's been nice meeting you--" I pulled my attention away from the pale girl and the man's conversation. She's the kind type and that's gonna be a hustle for her. And I don't want to butt my head into goody-goody business. That's just not my style.

I stared up ahead and there's a light that could only come from the outside. It's it's own version of 'light at the end of the tunnel' if the cars and towering building got a say to it.

One thing I found strange is that the exit of the alley appeared to be moving towards us and not the other way around.

It only took us a few steps until the outside greeted us.

The anomaly made me raise an eyebrow. I know we're far from the alley's end but it took us only a swift, brisk walk to leave.

I can still see the man waving goodbye when I looked back. Have we been that near to the exit this whole time? No, that's not possible this alley run across the city it would take us hours to--

"Guys."

My train of thoughts were halted when the bob girl called us from behind. I looked towards her and removed my hand from my chin that I didn't remember putting earlier.

The light of the sun struck us and we came into a halt as we stare at the girl's empty hands.

"The money... it's gone. It disappeared the same time we stepped out of the alley."

My lips tugged into a smile.

Interesting.