.
"Guys. I've been looking everywhere. Have any of you seen Jonathan?"
"We could come down and help you look."
"I don't think what he wants is the issue we have right now. Remember? He was the one who ran away."
.
And four long hours have passed since they heard the last of Luke late on Sunday night, watching him disconnect so suddenly and abruptly from the chat that Brian didn't even get to finish the thought spilling out of his head before the webcam shut down and Cartoonz was missing from the list of names lining the Skype call. Just a flash of black, and he was gone.
"I wonder what happened," Brian whispers to his computer, brows furrowed and staring at his still character in Dead Realm as the timer continues to count down in the background.
Tyler shakes his head. "There's no telling." Reaching under his desk to pull out a beer and pop it open.
"It's just not like him to .. run away. Not like that, and not tell someone what's going on." Evan protests, flinching at the sudden noise from Tyler's beer in the microphone. "Geeze man, do that a little closer to the mic next time why don't you?"
Tyler grows a toothy grin, leans in close, and burps as loud as he can his lips pressed close to the pop filter of the microphone.
"Yeah thanks," Evan winces and laughs.
Tyler frowns. "We have no idea what's going on down there right now." And takes a long swallow from his beer.
The end timer chime sounds from the game at 00:00 and echoes for a moment across the chat.
Evan bites his lip, thinking. Then shakes his head and pulls his phone out, still on camera, still recording. Punching in the numbers and holding the phone to his ear as it rings and rings.
"Hey now," Brian speaks up, waving his hand in a downward motion for Evan to put down the phone. "It's late over there right? And he's probably worried sick. I bet he just wanted to crash and go to bed. I'm sure he'll talk to us in the morning, right?"
The noise of his character being unleashed in game slipping behind his words as he tilts his head, hands flat on his desk and says, "Evan, put down the phone. Let him sleep."
And Evan does, still frowning.
Then Nogla comes back into frame, falling into his chair so hard it spins half away from the computer and he has to push himself back, sliding his headphones on and asking, "What did I miss?"
.
An hour later and they haven't made much headway into anything but at least they're playing the game now, even though half the footage being captured isn't usable because it's mentioning Delirious, his name keeps popping up every other word, every sentence almost. And as much as they don't know what's going on they know enough not to let loose to the world that something's going on until they have permission to do so.
But Tyler's footage is half even of that, because his computer keeps locking up in the middle of the game. Forcing him to power off, take another long drink of his beer, and restart. Frowning and rubbing his head, elbows on the desk as he waits again and again for the screen to light back up.
"Something is fucked up inside." He remarks as soon as he's reconnected once again, to the chat.
A cold silence follows his words as the web cams pop up, one by one. Solemn faces staring quietly back at him before Nogla manages to get out the words, "inside.. you, you mean?"
"What? No!" Tyler shouts and swears. "The fucking computer! It keeps shutting down and I'm not going to get anything good–"
"Oh thank God," Brain slaps a hand to chest, talking over Tyler'. "I thought .. I thought there for a moment."
"Yeah me too," Evan agrees, eyes wide. Then laughs lightly with relief, shaking his head. "This has got us all so tense. Hey, man, don't worry about it. I'll send you whatever footage you need."
"I want my footage," Tyler complains, logging back into the game. "I swear if this gets corrupted again I'm just going to leave you guys and go to bed."
.
And it's finally four in the morning, with shadows of the sun just beginning to rise from the window behind Tyler, all gentle pinks and stretches of gold and warm soft colors inching across his room and highlighting his face. And Tyler has been up all night fighting to stay connected, to keep his footage, just to stay online. Bottles of beer lining the floor under his computer as he reboots for the last time.
The notification popping up in the corner of his screen as the chat starts to load and load and, it's Cartoonz.
He's back.
Tyler sends him a message instantly, makes a private connection, rubbing his face to stay awake while the group chat fails to connect and retries yet again.
Then all of a sudden Luke's face is on his screen, eyes dark and swollen and hair every which way as if he hadn't caught an inch of sleep since the last they spoke, looking dead on his feet and still worried sick.
Tyler looks deeply at him, and asks. "Did you find Delirious yet." Not so much a question as he can see the evidence stacking up before him, but something he wants so badly to be wrong about anyways.
"No," Luke admits, rubbing as his face and letting the skin stretch as he slides his hand down.
The connection fails again, and Tyler absentmindedly hits retry as he can't take his eyes off Luke, face falling into a side-long look as he tries to roll things through his mind and asks bluntly, "What happened? He ran away right? You guys get into a fight or something?"
But Luke is too quiet, sitting there on the other side of the line with all the weight of the world drawing on his face, shoulders drooping and hunching inwards as he tells the truth of the matter, giving the words away like it will give the guilt away biting inside of him.
"Jon's mom and sister died, last week. About when we were in that con. Something to do with a car crass, and he said everything was fine when I called but I haven't heard anything from him at all since the last day I talked to him and that was Wednesday and it's fucking Monday now and I looked everywhere I could think of but I just can't find him anywhere."
Tyler goes cold. His spine could be made of steel, nothing less would move him.
Then Evan sends him another invite to rejoin the group chat and it finally fucking connects and Luke is accepting the same call at the same time and all of a sudden Tyler is screaming at the top of his lungs as his friends faces pop up on his screen one by one, web cams flickering into view surprise echoing across each of them.
Startled by his loud voice but knowing better than to interrupt him when he's like this.
.
"You mean to tell me he's been missing this whole time?" Tyler yells through his mic.
.
Sitting there, staring at the blank space where a web cam used to be. Where a picture flashed across their screens for two seconds, and was gone.
"Evan.." Brian starts, slowly, as if the question he is asking is a flavor he is reluctant to part with. "Are you still recording?"
Nogla blinks and sits up straight, hands on the armrest of his chair. "Wait, what? You were still recording? Evan!"
"Hey now!" Evan starts to protest, palms out in front of the camera as if could ward off his friends.
"Of course he was still recording," Tyler rolls his eyes. "When is Evan not recording?"
"Ah come on," Evan grins and tries to laugh it off. "It's kind of our job, you know?"
"Well, yeah but, that was all kind of.." Nogla trails off.
"That was fucking personal," Brian finishes.
Evan sighs, slow and deep, the air sliding out his chest so softly it could be a lullaby. "Yeah, I know."
There is dead air between them. Radio silence as no one is really sure what to say, what to do to rectify a situation where someone they know but have never actually seen face to face is gone.
Missing.
"You were recording," Tyler begins.
"I think we established that!" Evan shouts, his tone betraying the frustration he feels at being singled out. At being left out of the loop, not knowing where Delirious is, what's happened to him.
"Are you still recording?" Nogla asks, gently accusing. "I mean you're not going to use that in footage or any–"
Evan interrupts. "Look! I've stopped, okay? I've turned it off already, alright? What more do you want?"
Tyler continues his thought. "You got that picture of Delirious right?"
There is static in all their faces as one by one the eyes of his friends meet Tyler's and pierce into him.
"You're not going to try and post that, are you?" Comes from Brian. Head tilting as he squints into the camera.
"He's still our friend," Says Nogla. Mouth forming words he doesn't voice as he continues to think the situation over.
"I do," answers Evan. "Why?"
Tyler looks straight at Evan, solemn. "I want that picture."
"Why?" Evan wants to know. "Are you really going down there? You don't know his address do you? I know I don't." And gives a glance to the rest of the web cams.
Brian shakes his head.
Nogla says, "I haven't a fucking clue."
"It doesn't matter," Tyler pushes the topic aside. "Because he's obviously not at his house now is he? But you do have it, don't you? Send it to me. I'm going to need it."
And logs off the chat. Saves what footage he can, and shuts down the computer.
.
He doesn't know exactly where Cartoonz lives, but he knows which city and which state and he knows how to get there, he knows how to drive and he's pretty damn sure he can figure out the fucking rest on his own.
Tyler gets up from his desk, just a little drunk, and is already swaying on his feet.
"Fuck," he swears, and tries to figure out how he's going to do this when already there are two doors starting to form to exit his bedroom when he knows there's only supposed to be one.
Then the phone rings.
He swears again lightly, as he pulls it out of his pocket and answers the call. "What Evan? You didn't send the picture."
He can hear Evan rolling his eyes across the line, the man is so predictable. "It's sending now. But have you thought this through at all? Where are you going to stay? How are you going to find him? What about Kino and Archie?"
Tyler glances at the dogs lounging on the bed, who look up at the attention as if they knew they were being talked about.
"I'm not sure," he admits. "But I'll figure it out."
"Delirious wouldn't just run away," Evan starts, searching for an answer.
"To be honest though," Tyler answers. "We don't really know that. I mean, we know the guy, yes of course, we've all played tons of online games with him and stuff," he continues over the protest he knows is building on the other side of the line. "But that isn't enough to really get to know a person. To find out what makes them tick. You've gotta sit down with them, be right there beside and know them to figure it out. But none of us have been able to do that. At least, no one except for Luke. And he wasn't worried."
There a moment before Evan speaks up. "I don't accept that." Biting the words out like they were rotten fruit stuck between his teeth.
"Me neither," Tyler whispers. "Send me the picture, and I'll find him."
He looks to his dog, who perks up, tail wagging, ready for adventure. "I'm the closest one of us to reach them after all."
