Dead Hours — The Fly, Page 11
By Suha · Published
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Transcript
Three panels — the beat a third time. First, Kaito is frozen mid-motion with both hands raised overhead, poised to clap, eyes fixed on the fly hovering above him, sweat at his temple. KAITO: There. Second, he claps hard overhead — a sharp CLAP between his palms — but the fly is untouched, darting sideways instead of up. KAITO: Up. Go up. Third, Kaito stares at his own empty clapped hands, hollow, as Rin films from behind. KAITO: It didn't go up. RIN: Nothing goes the way strangers say.
Image description
Kaito freezes with hands raised to clap, whispers 'There,' claps hard overhead, but the fly darts sideways instead of up.
About this chapter
3 A.M. and the Dead Hours store is spotless — until Kaito spots a single housefly. He decides on the spot that it must be gone by morning, alive: no death on the record on his shift. Rin starts filming "Man vs Fly." The night's regulars each hand him a different, confidently useless folk method — trap it under a cup and a card, approach from behind because flies supposedly can't fly backwards, just wait because it'll die within a day anyway, clap above it because they jump upward to take off, or open a window — and none of them agree. Three times Kaito freezes mid-air, whispers "There," and swipes at nothing. Rin, in a rare unguarded moment, quietly slides the door open a hand's width to let it out, then denies doing it. At last Kaito clamps a cup over the fly in triumph — and lifts it to find nothing underneath; the fly was sitting on the outside of the cup the whole time. At dawn the delivery doors open and the fly drifts out on its own, entirely indifferent to six hours of war — and a second fly drifts in as it goes. Kaito gets his answer and nothing else; Rin got her whole video. The final panel mirrors page one from the same angle, in grey dawn light, the new fly circling under the ceiling speaker.