I can't focus on anything because of what happened in The Burning Tide. I'm sad now.
Oh, and school just started so I'm not going to be updating really often. (When do I update often anyways?)
The Burning Tide makes me want to write Legendary Rebel until the ending and just not upload anything because it was just disappointing.
Rollan opened his eyes. A black cloud loomed over him. No, not a black cloud, but Meilin. He tilted his head to find himself in his dim, empty basement. Beside him, a small clutter of shattered glass stood in a pile, neatly swept.
Meilin gave him a cool glare which told him to say something.
He tried to find the words in his mind, to assemble them piece by piece like the toy train his father gave him for his sixth birthday, but the only words he had placed were-
"Where's the phone?"
He knew it wasn't the right thing to do, according to his morals.
"Where's the phone?" he asked again, as Meilin blankly handed him his cellphone.
Breathe in
Breathe out
He dialed a number he remembered by heart for the sake of remembering it. He waited for someone on the other end to pick up, desperately fighting himself in his mind. He held the phone so harshly in his hands it might as well just break into pieces right there.
He wished it had.
But it didn't.
"Hello?" asked a voice on the other end.
Breathe in
Breathe-
I can't do it.
He hung up.
Rollan felt tears wield up in his eyes. "I couldn't- I can't- I can never-"
"You can't what?" Meilin asked, in a quiet voice.
She has no idea. She doesn't have to have any idea. I don't have to tell her.
"I couldn't assemble the toy train. My mother wouldn't help me because it wasn't 'her business.' So I just kept the pieces in a box-," Rollan said, getting up and reaching towards a small, wrecked cardboard box on his left hand side, "-and I never touched the pieces until now." He picked up a small piece that was supposed to be a railway track. "I can't talk to him because I'm scared, Meilin, I'm just so scared. I'm scared of everything and everyone, everywhere and every piece of reality. And on top of that, is spite. I'm not talking to him in spite of everything." He placed the piece on the floor of the basement. "I can never accept anything from anyone because every time I do, I just think about him, and I just can't- I couldn't- I can't- and I can never accept anything, even just a sorry or a thank you, from him. And I just can't lie or laugh it off anymore."
Meilin held Rollan's gaze, silent, but- but that was okay. Nothing needed to be said, nothing needed to be questioned, and nothing needed to be answered.
"Where's Conor?" he croaked, after a while.
"Conor…?" Meilin's gaze shifted from Rollan to the back wall moving her lips slightly. She twisted her head to the side, eyes glancing down.
"But- but Conor- Delphine- They got captured!"
"Delphine as in Lishay's sister?"
"Yes, she was with us and-" Rollan broke off. "She and Conor might even be dead, for God's sake. I'm dialing Garrin."
Meilin responded, "Why not his parents? Why Garrin? Why not Wallace?"
"Because you've never met Conor's family, that's why." He reached for his phone from his pocket, retrieving the device and dialing Garrin's number.
"Who the hell are you and why are you calling me?" Garrin greeted, his usual way.
"It's your girlfriend," Rollan greeted back.
On the other end, Garrin spat out something. "Hey… You're Lilia, right?"
"I'm kidding; it's Conor's girlfriend."
"Now I know you're lying. With his social skills Conor wouldn't ever get a girlfriend. Now what d'ya want, Rollan?"
"I want you to know that Conor's captured by some guy called the Ambusher," he responded, changing to his tone seriously.
"Bro, stop wasting my time. I'm at a party."
"If you don't come to my house, I might just have to tell your parents about that party."
Garrin was silent for a moment. Then, "What's the address?"
X~x~X
Garrin had arrived at the front door, forehead dripping with sweat.
In Meilin's book, that was the first sign of people she didn't like.
"What do you need me to do?"
"To help me find Conor, you idiot," Meilin answered.
"Wait. That was the truth?"
In Meilin's book, that was the second sign of people she didn't like.
Meilin lead Garrin downstairs, to the basement. "First of all, Conor's brother, I really don't like you. Second of all, Rollan is only calling you to help because it's three in the morning and the rest of your family is shaming the world, not including Conor, of course."
Garrin muttered a response.
"Second of all," Rollan continued for her, turning the old television on, "this is what happened."
On screen, the news reporter smiled the insincere smile all news reporters and formal personalities had. She reported about the protest going on in the streets, about people stealing stolen things, about people kidnapped being missing, about water being wet, about light being bright and other obvious things.
And then finally, "This is reporter Terry speaking and I'm just outside the crime scene where the building was supposedly bombed by the Ambusher, whose identity still remains hidden. As you can see-" Meilin could not see, "-the firefighters are still working to eliminate all flames in the building. The northern side of the Main Street office was completely destructed but a single bomb scientists are currently studying."
"Thank you, Terry," the other reporter, who was safe in an office with no bombs, "we'll bring it back to Jed."
A male news reporter came on screen. "The incident reported twenty-two deaths in which five are still unrecognised. We also reported two missing children, one of fourteen years of age, named Conor Shepherd and the other of seven years, named Delphine Met. Reports have said the Ambusher took them, around ten pm and twelve am. Police are on the search of them, but the only evidence came from fifteen year old Rollan Concorba and his friend Meilin Wang. Rollan had supposedly been unconscious after the incident, and covered in scars by the broken glass outside a window of a basement. Meilin had called the police and the rest is irrelevant in the situation. Now, moving on, we have for you, a report on local cows that have been mooing differently."
Rollan closed the TV.
"Conor is missing," Rollan told Garrin, precisely.
"Let's be real here," Garrin started, making Meilin hate him even more, "the police will eventually find Conor and that dolphin girl, and everything will be alright."
"It's Delphine, Garrin."
"I don't care, Meilin."
"You don't seem to care about anything, as a matter of fact," Rollan remarked, muttering under his breath.
Garrin didn't respond.
X~x~X
It was hard to escape home at four o'clock in the morning. Abeke had stealth, yes, but stealth had no use if you get caught after you leave. And this was precisely the situation Abeke was in at the moment.
'You're a killer,' her mother had told her. 'You're a killer who doesn't kill.'
It was much true.
'If a killer doesn't kill,' Soama had said, 'what happens?'
'That's for Abeke to find out on her own,' her mother had patiently responded.
And so she will.
She snuck out the door, already in her day clothes. She closed the creaky door behind her, carefully, then locking it in its place.
She ran out at dawn to Main Street Office, which was conveniently six blocks away from her house. Passerby's stared at her, probably wondering why a girl was hurrying away at four o'clock in the morning.
Half of the building was burned into nothing, and the other half was still standing; not proudly, but it was better than nothing. The whole building had been left in ashes and water, left in grey matter, left in destruction.
She entered the door, ducking under the caution strip. She entered the 'door', going up the 'stairs', all the way to her mother's office.
Abeke sat on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. She put her head on her knees and cried her words away.
X~x~X
Conor was nowhere.
He was so sure of it. He had remembered walking for hours, and finally reached it.
He was nowhere.
Conor had never known what power felt like, but just existing in nowhere felt like power to him. He was strong. No one could defeat him, because no one could reach him. No one could die here because no one could live here. No one could break him because no one could hold him.
No one.
That was exactly what nowhere was.
There was only one problem with the perfect world.
It was all inside his head.
That was so short, but I really cannot focus right after I read a new SA book, although it has been two days.
But I warn you, you will be surprised.