the weight of your hungering hearts

the ever-cloudy skies spoke of another dreary evening, of rain on-and-off and on-and-off throughout the night - as it had been all day. it left a heavy moisture in the air, that mounted against anything deemed too sunny.

jupiter sighed in annoyance as they walked through another horrendously-sized, unavoidable puddle and tugged on the straps of their backpack with a grimace. his eyes flicked to the departure board as they entered the station, and after a moment, set off towards his platform.
'just one train left.'

all this rain had dampened his work trip away, with only the thought of returning to his own, warm bed capable of sustaining him through more talk of webpages and errors and contrasting colours and far, far too much maths. the train had already announced an hour delay at lunch time and it was looking grimmer by the moment.

hopping down the last few steps, he beelined it for the emptiest, furthest bench from the last train arrivals' passengers and flopped down, dumping his bag on the hard, concrete ground. the crackle of the speaker announced another train delay and they rolled their eyes, turning his music down and pulling out his phone to pass the time.
his luck, however, continued to be trodden on.

in a flurry of announcements, the final cancellations were driven out and cries of annoyance echoed from fellow passengers throughout the station; jupiter did his best to avoid joining in too loudly. of the few people who had stuck it out until now, there were only 5 on the same platform as him - a family of three and a couple - and all seemed to have hit some breaking point.
the mother stormed away, children in tow, swearing loudly about a refund and "how useless the trains were!"; while one of the men tugged on his partners' arm, declaring "let's just get a hotel?" (something jupiter had overheard them discussing sometime earlier) and he relented.

they pointedly avoided looking at any of the others too long, fiddling with his phone as he flicked through coach times, prices and then his hotel from last nights' policy on extending stays.
'surely work would reimburse him - it was hardly his fault the train was cancelled.'

just as he had made up his mind and pulled his bag back on, standing with a silent groan, a peculiar crackling noise echoed out further down the platform and they glanced over, tugging their headphones down.

"what the hell, cuff! you didn't warn me it could do that!" a voice called out, with the thick twang of a new yorkers accent.
jupiter stepped forward slightly, phone in hand as he pretended to study the information board across the tracks, eyes flicking over to the american woman in the corner of his vision.

she was a black woman, taller than him, with dark-brown hair tied up in a bun and wearing... a cloak? it was a vibrant, pink cloak - definitely not a coat - that was decorated in layers of flowering or laces. fortunately, she wasn't facing him (she hadn't even noticed), and was instead animatedly talking to herself.

"alright, alright, shut up already." she concluded to the air, "what?"
the woman whipped around and jupiter glanced back to the board, biting his lip, internal thoughts running wild.

there was something so...familiar about her. it certainly wasn't that she was famous, talented in some field or particularly outspoken online. his thoughts drifted to university - she looked their age, maybe a tad younger. a thought struck him - she wasn't even carrying an umbrella, how the hell was her hair so dry? she couldn't have been in the station all day it was-

"hey! d'you know which station this is?"
"hmm?" they mumbled, turning to face her with baited breath.
"this station, i don't recognise this subway, is this new?"

"oh, um. this isn't.. this is the train station, birmingham central." jupiter paused, hand briefly reaching up to fiddle with his necklace, as the american frowned deeply.
"what? i could've sworn i aimed at-" she cut herself off, "nevermind. that's birmingham, alabama, right? you're a tourist, huh?"

"there's a birmingham in alabama?" they asked, glancing away then back, before breathing in and, "i- are you okay?"
"oh, yeah, yeah - i'm fine, just a rough night, you know, uh, drinking." the american woman hummed something, hunching a little further under the cloak as some light (her phone?) seemed to be set off underneath it, "i'm just uh, gonna go, thanks."

"r-right." jupiter nodded, offering a small, lopsided smile. as she walked past though, something compelled him to speak again, turning to call out.
"w-wait, aren't you alfrey holland?"

she whipped around instantly and he shrunk back a little.

"sorry, not in a um, creepy way - there was a post, it said you were missing - but like, in new york? are you sure you're alright?" they rambled, now firmly clutching his necklace in one hand and twisting it back and forth.

the light under her cloak went off again.

"if, uh, you need, you could use my phone to call someone? or i guess we could ask the rail staff maybe, if that'd be better?" he trailed off, fidgeting on his feet.

"hold on, hold on." alfrey - if that was who she was - held up her left hand, "you saw a post?" she glanced around, seemingly in shock, "who made it?"
"oh, uh. it was some judge, i think? she said you were a friend? but she was just worried, probably. she said you hadn't been seen in months, that no one else was looking. are you- i mean, is there anything-?"
"i'm fine. look, i appreciate it, really. but i can take care of myself."

'that light again- her phone maybe? weird.'

"right. um. sure, sorry to, to bother you." jupiter stepped back, dropping the hand from his necklace and offering another half-smile, "h-have a good night, hmm?"
"yeah..yeah, you too." she turned away, shaking her head as she did, and continued walking further down the platform.

they turned back to the board, eyes flicking between it and where alfrey had gone, thoughts abuzz. he was hardly a professional - 'you don't need to be a professional, just be there!' rang in circles through his mind, from some advert or some guide and slowly burned away anything else.

by now, she had slipped behind the stairwell at the next section of the platform, just out of view, and jupiter glanced over, stimming with one hand in a shaking motion.
he huffed to himself, decidedly walking that way. it was the longer way out of the station, but at least he'd see if she was there - if she was with someone or something.

'i can always tell the station staff, right? right! i can tell them, they'll know what to do for sure. especially if it /is/ a trafficking thing.'

as they approached, the strange crackling noise burst out, louder than before, and this time, a purple-ish glow burned into the ground; but quickly faded away into nothing. by the time he turned the corner, it had completely vanished.

she wasn't there.

behind the stairs, there was only some benches, a hastily discarded coffee refill cup and a very, very expensive looking, golden...bracelet?
"what..?" jupiter mumbled, glancing around. there was no one else on this platform or in view from the others.
'that's ridiculous. no way she ran out of here that fast...'

a soft, golden light drew his attention back to the understairs before him. it was emanating from the bracelet and he tilted his head, shoving his phone into a jacket packet. they glanced around once more - someone must have dropped it - and knelt down.

the gold was warm to the touch and, as he stood, hands gently clasping it, the glowing faded slightly. at closer inspection, intricate markings of some kind of birds and other symbols he didn't quite recognise were visible, etched into the metal by a skilled hand.

"huh...never seen a bracelet do that." they mumbled, running a single finger over an engraving of a bird, "i'd hate to lose something like this."

the crackling noise burst out once more and jupiter hissed, hand zipping up to clutch one ear and eyes squeezing shut at the suddenness. they squinted at the ground, eyes widening as a swirl of purple energy began to engulf the ground below him.
in an instant, the concrete reacted, transforming into a viscous liquid-state of magenta. the next, had him yelping out as the energy shifted, crumbling into an open void, and he fell through the world.