“Are you through yet?” I questioned, adding, “move.”2
Flipping the keys quickly over the loop until I found the right one, I clicked it into the lock below the buzzer.3
“Open sesame,” I said, ostentatiously twirling my arms as if to usher him into the dark, musty hallway.4
“Never gave me a key,” Elliott muttered as we entered.5
The building was old and its hallways resembled a very dismal school with only small, dirt-caked windows to complement the dull, fluorescent, uncovered light bulbs that dangled periodically along the hallway. The archaic elevator dinged as we reached its great, red door, yanking it open to reveal the open door to the small expanse. We reached the fourth floor in longer than it should have taken for a decent elevator, and he was one of the only inhabitants of that floor. It was by far the cleanest of the building, and, being almost the sole inhabitant, he did his best to keep the building clean. He even washed the windows, we noted, peering out the small window directly across from the elevator. We stepped out of the elevator, making a sharp left towards the apartment’s heavy door at the end of the hall.6
I readied the next key that would allow me into the apartment as Elliott knocked on the door. I fiddled some more with the keys, trying to find the right one, but Elliott’s hand reached out over mine. I peered up at him, but he shook his head and cocked his head towards the door that had slid open just a bit from his light touch. It emitted an eerie creak as it slid on its rusty hinges, reminding me of an old horror film.7
Elliott and I exchanged glances after both eyeing the phantom door, pushing it in cautiously. It swung open further, slowly revealing the mostly empty apartment. The lights were out, as usual, and it was completely quiet within. Elliott stepped inside first, flipping the light switch on his right up in a feeble attempt to light the dim room.8
“Oh, shit,” he half whispered. Standing in the entranceway to the apartment, he seemed slightly awestruck.9
“What?” I questioned, taking a half step in and peering around Elliott’s large figure, “What’s wro—wow…”10
The few pieces of furniture Lyon possessed were askew, strewn about and tossed aside from their normal places. The standing lamp was knocked over amid a large, scattered pile of papers. All his possessions seemed rummaged through and it looked like complete chaos; not at all like Lyon’s normal organized messes.11
“Maybe he was just… looking for something,” I muttered with half-hearted hope, stepping through the papers on the carpet towards the main room of the apartment.12
“Rae,” Elliott replied, calling from the hallway to Lyon’s bedroom, “even he doesn’t leave messes like this. We both know that.”13
I toyed with other ideas in my head, each seeming less and less likely as I wondered about possibilities. Someone had obviously been here, someone looking for something, or someone. Lyon never had any valuables, so whoever had been here obviously wasn’t looking for money… They were there for him.14
“He probably just went to school early,” I whispered, not even convincing myself, “let’s just go. He’s probably at school. Just at school.”15
He nodded, even less convinced than I (he’d always thought the worst), and we dutifully headed towards the car and what would probably be a very long day at school.16
As anticipated, the day progressed slowly, neither of us saying much as we separated for our respective classes and passed through a few periods. As fourth period rolled around, I became a little tired of school, or, more so than usual, and I was considering (highly) leaving for the day. I headed down the hallway, passing my English class as I counted the locker numbers past the door until I reached my own. I twirled the lock quickly, eager to grab my things, but, as usual, the locker stuck, betraying my attempts at a quick escape.17
I sighed in frustration as we faced our familiar battle; I pulled the handle with a jerk, giving the bottom of it a swift kick as it still refused to budge. As I drew my foot back again, a note fluttered down from the locker. It had obviously been stuck in the top or something of that variety.18
On a green post it note, like the ones that I used to leave notes for Lyon and Elliott, the words, “Gently, Rae,” were written in Lyon’s spidery black lettering. Obeying the mysterious notes, a gentle tug to the handle of my locker allowed me to open it and retrieve my things to head home.19
It wasn’t until I was halfway home that I even considered the question of how the note had been left for me. In hopes that he had been in school, I left a note inside my locker for him to find if he returned. Opening my front door quietly, I sprinted in towards the stairs and up to my room, paying no mention to the luggage that hadn’t been in the entryway that morning.20
I had returned to school that night to get my coat, when going ‘missing,’ one did need to disappear completely.22
It was hard to just leave this time, though. Hard to abandon the love that I had developed for Elliott and, especially, for Rae. But, it was far harder to even fathom the possibility of my endangering their lives by staying.23
They knew my weakness now, Diffley had been here, and anyone with eyes could tell they were all that mattered to me now. I knew it would be only a matter of time before things began to repeat themselves, before things became unbearable and people became just tools. Rae and Elliott were not tools.24
I was the brave adventurer, the one who had gotten out and the one who wouldn’t break; who couldn’t break. Everyone I met was just a tool to them, just a way to break me. I didn’t want to be pulled back, and that’s what would happen if they got a hold of anyone I cared for. Just like they had with Leah… and she had only been the first.25
I had made it out, been the one, and now? They wanted me back. I had to go back anyway. I broke the pact – they were still there.26
Plucking the note from the pad in Rae’s locker, I pressed its edges together, creasing it just below the neatly printed words and placing it in my pocket to mingle with the photograph I was never without. I took out the photo as I slid the note into my pocket carefully, the smiling faces of the pact members faced me, happy as could be. Their eyes, though, to me, always seemed to ask me why. And I could never answer.27
“I have a job to do,” I scrawled on the notepad in return, placing it back, “I broke the pact.”28
No more lives would be lost over me, I decided; I’m not losing these them, I thought.29
Returning to the shadows, I slid my coat on and shut the locker behind me.30
“So long, Rogerstown, wish we could have been closer.”
“Rae?!” a loud voice called from the bottom of the stairs, interrupting my nap.32
“RAE!” it came again when I didn’t reply, a few thudding footsteps nearing the stairs. 33
Trying to ignore the sounds around me, I curled together into my sleep, burying my face into my pillow. I squeezed my eyes shut against the creaking of my open door, grimacing to myself as the footsteps entered the room and deliberately stomped closer to my obviously asleep figure.34
“You leave me no choice, missy,” a smooth voice whispered from above me, “it didn’t have to come to this.”35
There was a brief pause before I felt a collapsing weight on my stomach, gasping as my eyes opened in time to see the figure of my brother over, well, on top of me.36
“Kevin!” I screamed, immediately woken out of my slumber, and not only from the tremendous pain that stretched out from the weight on my middle parts.37
“Hello kiddo,” he replied, settling himself in as he slid off of my stomach so that just his dark denim clad legs were over my body, eventually curling them into his cross-legged sit. As he did so, I fought my tightly wound covers, trying to sit myself up enough for a hug.38
As soon as I was able, I threw my arms around Kev, my blanket prison thrown aside as I held fast and tight around my estranged brother. He patted my back in that, ‘time to let go, now’ way, as he tried to pull away for air, but my fingers just wound tighter within one another, not letting him go.39
“Calm down, Rae,” he wheezed dramatically, “no air, no more Kevin! Remember that!”40
“No Kevin?!” my second favorite voice questioned as its wielder passed by my door, doubling back to see the context.41
I laughed as Adam entered my room also, gasping at the imaginary situation that was a lack of my brother. He plopped himself down casually on my desk, his bare feet dangling from beneath his light wash jeans, and arms emerging from a plain white t-shirt.42
“Then again,” he mused with a smile, “that boy at the ice cream shop has been eyeing me…”43
Adam grinned as Kevin’s eyes widened and he flung my arms off from about his t-shirt clad neck. Hopping out of my bed, his much darker, much tighter fitting jeans dragged across my floor slightly as he headed over to Adam. Pulling him into a hug, their contrasting hair, Kevin’s blonde and Adam’s light brown, mingled together. Kevin’s slightly curly locks fell into Adam’s green eyes and Adam’s straightened bangs spread coolly before Kevin’s also green ones. The two sets of mesmerizing eyes met beneath their hair, deep as they smiled with their whole beings.44
“Mine,” Kevin said jokingly possessive as he wrapped his arms around Adam’s waist.45
I laughed from my spot as they argued their love for one another with more tongue and fewer words than necessary. After a few moments, though, the situation lost its appeal to me and the aww-factor that had been repeating in my head disintegrated.46
“Okay, lovelies!” I called out, their faces finally separating, arms still around one another, “too much for my innocent mind,” I joked.47
“Oops,” they both mumbled, not moving, “we’ll catch up with you la— ”48
“No,” I cut in, “you two have tons of time together, all the time in the world. Can you please just keep your tongues in your own mouths long enough for us to catch up?”49
They smiled sheepishly, each of their faces blushing as their lips met for one final peck. Kevin returned to his spot on my bed and Adam smiled shyly.50
We spent a good hour or so discussing all that had gone on in each of our lives. Kevin and Adam filling me in on all of the places they had gone; Russia, Africa, Egypt, Romania and other assorted exotic places, adding where they wanted to go next year. And I? Well, what did I have to mention in Rogerstown? I told them about the new traffic light that was all the rage two blocks down, and I mentioned Lyon’s, Elliot’s and my first trip to the Laundromat.51
“Wait, Lyon?” Kevin asked, “where did he come from? And, how, pray tell, did he weasel his way between my dear little sister and that lovely, sweet, bo… I mean, your good friend, Elliott?”52
Adam shook his head, laughing as Kevin turned a quick shade of red.53
“You’re so cute,” he mumbled barely audibly, adding, “Yeah, seriously, Rae, you and Elliott haven’t let anyone into your friendship since you were, what? Seven? And that wasn’t even friendship, that kid, Mark or something. Just wanted to play House, and you slapped him... I’m assuming Lyon didn’t want to play House, but did he receive a slap to the face?”54
I couldn’t help but laugh at Adam’s remembering that minute detail of my childhood, but I shrugged.55
“Well, no, he didn’t, but,” I said, “he’s just so… interesting, I guess.”56
“What’s so interesting about him?” Adam questioned, eyes widening with an odd sense of interest.57
“He’s complicated, I’d say, but he’s just so visceral, y’know? He’s more real than anyone I’ve ever met in Rogerstown.”58
“Lyon,” Adam repeated to himself, him and Kevin nodding along understandingly.59
“And is he pretty?” Kevin finally interjected the question both Adam and I knew was coming.60
I laughed quietly, nodding, “Yes, incredibly.”61
They both giggled and a smile took up residence on my face as they asked me some more questions that I’m pretty sure I answered through my growing daze, Lyon’s eyes filled my mind’s eye.62
The evening continued on as usual, dinner and ‘homework,’ and intensive familial catching up. With all that Kevin and Adam talked at the dinner table, finishing one another’s sentences and bursting into fits of laugher at jokes no one even caught, I found it remarkable that my parents could still be quite so oblivious to their relationship, but, I suppose they amazed me more each and every day. But dinner was quick, and Elliott and Kevin retired to bed earliest of us all, myself following, both my parents staying up for the silly late night television shows that weren’t really funny.63
As I was readying myself for bed, my phone buzzed with an incoming call from Elliott’s phone. His smiling picture emerged on the small screen as the phone continued its dull buzzing on my desk.64
“Hello?” I answered, slipping my feet beneath my blanket.65
“You,” Elliott’s voice replied, “need to come over.”66
He paused as if to continue his sentence, and I waited for the next words, but a long pause was all that followed.67
“Now” came the final finish, as a click indicated the end of the call before I could even question him as to why.68
I groaned as I sat up from my chair and shoved the phone into my pajama pocket, digging a purple sweatshirt from the pile of clothes on my pillow and pulling it on over my white t-shirt and green plaid pajama pants. The orange flip flops I slid on before leaving my room were a sharp clash with the rest of my clothing, but it was quite late at night and I knew Elliott wouldn’t mind how silly I looked.69
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