Life Chapter 3
I stopped just outside the lounge room, and took a deep breath.
"Ok girl, all you have to do is tell them that Ace is missing" I told myself.
I took another look at the picture in my hand.
'It's no use,' I thought, 'You know he isn't missing'
"Just do it" I whispered fiercely suddenly feeling very angry at my emotional state.
I took a deep shuddering breath, wiped the tears from my eyes and attempted to enter the room with an air of normalcy.
No sooner had I taken three steps into the room, I was bombarded with questions.
Note to self: never try to enter a room normally when you have been out cold for three days straight.
"How are you?" asked Tech, "How do you feel?" questioned Rev, "The acmetropolis weathers on" offered Duck pointing to the TV.
Slam simply looked at me, and picking up on emotional state asked "What's wrong?"
That was the one question I didn't expect and/or want anyone to ask. It wasn't that I thought they didn't care it was just that, as guys, they tend to miss those things.
A wave of fresh tears threatened to fall but I held them in, courtesy of the little person inside my head that was jumping up and down chanting 'You will not cry, you will not cry.'
"It's Ace," I answered struggling to keep my voice steady.
They all looked at me with questioning stares, trying to figure out what I was getting at.
I couldn't believe them, were they really that clueless? Apparently they were and it made me cranky.
I wanted to yell and scream at them, accuse them of not caring enough about Ace because none of them had noticed he was missing except me and that no-one had thought to check on him while I was out! Would it have been too much to ask that someone actually checked on him as in went into his room and spoke to him and told him it wasn't his fault that I had gotten hurt?
I wanted to say all this and more but the words wouldn't come.
"He's gone!" I whispered lamely and the tears fell freely, keeping face had become a non-issue about 5 minutes ago.
I felt my legs give way beneath me.
'Good work Lexi, you pushed your body too far' I scolded myself.
I closed my eyes and waited to hit the floor but instead of feeling the carpet I felt a pair of arms catch me around the waist.
'ACE!' I thought to myself, 'He isn't gone.'
My eyes shot open and met teal coloured eyes. It was Rev that had caught me.
The disappointment coursed through my body, it felt like I had a full body headache the way it throbbed.
I smiled weakly at Rev to show how grateful I was that I didn't have a one on one with the floor. My weak smile probably only conveyed about 30 of the gratitude I was feeling.
I feel a comforting hand on my shoulder, the little person inside my head that refuses to abandon hope screams 'ACE!!!' and I refuse to believe it on account of the pain that was induced last time I believed it, I look up to see Tech standing beside me wearing a sad smile.
Slam walked over to me and picked me up as if I weighed no more than a feather; I wish my scales told me the same thing.
He placed me on the couch so that I could lean up against the pillows that Duck had piled up for me.
I smiled gratefully at everyone through my tears and hoped that this time 100 of my gratitude was communicated.
"We, ah, need to, um, talk to, err, Tweetums," I said only just managing to find my voice.
Tech just nodded, "Rev, can you and grab my portable communicator from my desk?"
"Yep-yep" replied Rev before he sped out of the room.
"Well, seeing as Ace is gone, that makes me the undisputed and unquestionable leader of the Loonatics!" proclaimed Duck as he struck his heroic pose of the day.
Tech shook his head at Duck as he turned the communicator on and pointed it at the blank wall beside him which was quickly filled with an image of the Royal Tweetums spinning around on his chair.
"Ooohh . . ." commented Slam before beginning to eat the plate of food he just acquired from the kitchen.
"Yes, Loonatics?" Tweetums asked as he ceased spinning his chair.
Tech stepped forward cutting Duck off, "We have a problem"
"No, we don't," interrupted Duck, "Ace is gone which makes me the leader. Problem solved!"
"Ace is gone?!?" exclaimed Tweetums, "How do you know?"
"Yeah-Lexi-how-do-you-know-Ace-is-gone?"questioned Rev as he circled the couch.
I sighed, I didn't want to do this.
"His room, in disarray and, this" I replied holding up the photograph for all to see.
"It's all smudged!" observed Slam.
"What's so important about a photo?" asked Duck being ever so sensitive, "I mean you can't even tell who's in it!"
I couldn't bring myself to say it. Somehow, I felt that by saying it everything would become reality. I was still trying to convince myself that this was all a terribly realistic dream, no, nightmare!
So, I did what any sane person would do in my situation.
I pinched myself, hard.
"Ouch!" I yelled as I jumped 2 inches off the couch.
Nope, I most definitely was not dreaming.
I looked up, ready to face the music, to see everyone staring at me as though I had suddenly grown a third ear on the side of my head.
"He's dead" I stated.
In the space of two seconds their expressions changed from confusion and mild amusement to startled and horrified.
The first to recover from the shock was Tweetums.
"But how did you get that from the picture?" he asked obviously uncomfortable with the word dead.
I looked directly at the Tweetums and replied "Long story short, Ace said I could have this photo when he died."
Saying it out loud caused tears to silently trickle down my face. I didn't try to stop them; I just closed my eyes and breathed deeply.
The others still hadn't said a word, I opened my eyes and found their gazes directed at me and their mouths gaping.
"Right then," said Tweetums, catching everyone's attention.
"Lexi and Tech," he continued, "seeing as you two worked the closet to Ace, you will become the co-leaders of this team."
Everybody just nodded and accepted the appointments.
Even Duck didn't protest, which was odd because on the subject of leadership he has a lot to say, usually about himself.
"Oh and Duck," sang Tweetums, "It's time for my bath!"
Just to give you and idea of how badly they were taking Aces death, normally, this comment would cause Duck to protest his knight duties and throw the rest of us into fits of laughter but this was NOT a normal day.
Today, Duck just quacked over to the palace without a word.
I briefly saw him appear behind Tweetums as Tech turned his communicator off.
The portable communicator was a new toy of Techs and he didn't show any sign of the happiness he usually feels when a new invention works, instead he just put it on the table and sat down.
Rev was standing still, not moving a single muscle.
Slam had stopped eating, and he still had half a tray of food left.
Me? I just sat there on the couch, tears streaming down my face thinking, I hope the universe doesn't need us anytime soon.
The 27th of the 7th was a day no-one was ever going to forget.
