Dead Hours — The Fly, Page 18
By Suha · Published
Log in to see this page
Page 18 of The Fly is for signed-in readers. Logging in brings you straight back here — and an account is free if you do not have one.
Transcript
A single wide panel mirroring the very first page, from the same angle behind the counter looking out to the doors — but in grey dawn light now, the street outside faintly waking. Kaito stands behind the counter, arms folded, staring up at the single new fly circling under the ceiling speaker. Rin sits on her stool, phone up, filming, faintly satisfied. Nothing was won; the night simply reset. KAITO: Clean floor. Empty aisles. One fly.
Image description
Final mirror of page one in grey dawn: Kaito stands arms folded staring up at the new fly under the ceiling speaker while Rin films.
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.