An update that's two days late, but here we go...
It was cold. That's the first thing that Tyler noticed when the door shut. He squeezed his eyes shut tight, staying stiff just like a robot, just like Daddy said after the door slammed shut. Daddy didn't tell him how cold it would be.
Everything felt wobbly. He could hear someone grunting. Spider. Sometimes Spider would make that noise at night. But Tyler didn't want to think about that.
He just wanted his daddy.
The door had shut on him. Daddy was still in Room. Still, in hopes that Daddy might be there with them, the little boy took the chance and he slowly opened up his eyes, peeking up through the hole above him. He'd never seen anything like what he saw now. Only on TV. What he saw was green. Green grass and green trees and brown leaves on the ground, like salad that rotted in the fridge. They were all over the ground.
The little boy couldn't believe what he was seeing.
He wasn't in Room anymore.
He was in the world.
But Daddy was still in Room.
"Stay stiff like a robot," Daddy said in his head. "You're not gonna make a sound."
Tyler pressed his face into Rug, not wanting to make a scared noise. He breathed in and out just like Daddy used to tell him to do when he had a bad dream.
That's when he stopped. He wasn't in the truck yet. Everything was too still. Spider was still holding him, so Tyler held his breath, squeezing his eyes shut again. Spider couldn't hear him. It was a trick. Like The Trojan Horse. He had to wait until he was in the truck.
"Damn it," he heard Spider hiss. "Damn kid's gonna be the death of me…"
And then, after a very long moment, they kept moving. The child opened his eyes back up slowly, trying to see every detail of the world. Daddy said it was big, but he didn't know how big. If the house with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Specs all there was or if there was more. He wondered if the aliens were still out there somewhere or if Spider was an alien himself. Maybe aliens were evil. He didn't know. Spider didn't seem human like him and daddy. Spider was mean. Spider stole people and tricked them.
As he continued moving, Race could see a little house. No, not a house. A garden shed. That's where Daddy was. That was Room. He couldn't move his arms, but he wanted to reach out for his daddy somehow and get to him. He'd never heard Daddy cry like he had been before. He sounded so sad. Not like a gone day when he didn't talk or move, but different. It was odd.
Something flew past him and Tyler gasped quietly, trying to shrink down before going stiff again. He could hear it chirping somewhere above him and fluttering around somewhere in the air. Then, something creaked and soon, some of the pressure around him loosened. Tyler whined and something above his head slammed shut.
Then everything went shaky.
"Truck… wiggle out… jump… run… somebody…" Daddy reminded him. Race made a scared noise as he looked up. He could see something metal. In TV he thought he heard someone call it a shovel. "Roll, roll, roll!" The child gasped and tried to wiggle out, but everything was shaking.
This was the truck. He was in the truck. Spider was busy and now was when he was supposed to roll, just like Daddy said. So he tried with all his might. He rolled one turn at a time.
The truck rolled to a slow. Then a stop. Race paused, wondering if he was too late. But Daddy kept talking in his head. "Roll, roll, roll!" So the boy kept trying. He held on tight to the charm that hung around his neck and he rolled and wiggled out until everything around him was bright.
Something cold was blowing all around him and he was moving fast. Tired from rolling so much, all he could do was lay on his back, expecting to see Skylight waiting for him to admire her. Instead, he found nothing but a clear blue sky with white and grey fluffs floating through it. Clouds. White and grey fluffy clouds. It wasn't stained or brown like the edges of Skylight. It was just blue and bright.
His eyes went wide at the thought as the truck kept moving. He bounced around, letting himself watch brown and green colored trees pass over him with real leaves and real-life branches. It was cold. His hair was blowing around and he tried to brush it away but it wouldn't stop.
Carefully, the child pushed himself up onto his knees and he held on to the side of the truck to stay upright. His big blue eyes widened so much at the sight of the streets and the grass and the trees and the houses and the people.
These were real-life people.
The truck slowed again, coming to a stop. "Jump," Daddy said. Tyler looked over at Spider. He was in the front of the truck. He wasn't looking back. He still didn't see him. Then Tyler looked back at the floor. It was so far away. Still, he could hear his daddy in his head, telling him to jump and run. So he tried.
But the truck started to move again.
Tyler let out a small grunt as he was thrown to the other side of the truck, hitting his head against the hard metal. He gasped when he felt the truck stop quickly and he took his chance, being brave for his daddy and gripping onto the side of the truck before pulling his legs over the side and jumping out. He could hear a door slam and someone talking quietly. He knew it was Spider. He knew that voice. "Stupid little bitch!"
The child landed on his side. It hurt. "Run. Like the little racer you are." The child did. Daddy always told him how fast he was. He said he was even faster than him. And Daddy was really fast. But his daddy didn't tell him that grass was slippery, like soap in Bathtub.
Breathing hard, the boy looked up. He could see legs ahead of him. That was a real-live person. It was the first person he saw. That was Somebody. So he pushed himself up, glancing back only to gasp. Spider was right behind him. He was really scary looking now, angry. It's how he always was before Daddy ended up with paint on his skin. Only it wasn't paint. Tyler couldn't remember what it was called. He just kept running until he collided with Somebody.
He tumbled to the ground. This time the ground was harder. It was colder. Something made a loud noise, a bark, like dogs on TV. "Oh my goodness, honey, I'm so sorry!" Somebody called.
"Help, police!" Just as Tyler tried to open his mouth to repeat his daddy, a hand grabbed his arm. It was a strong hand, pulling him up.
The child gasped and looked up at Somebody, reaching into his pocket as they spoke. "Hey, man, I'm sorry, she just came out of nowhere!" Somebody was talking to Spider. Race's eyes widened even more when he saw that Somebody was trying to hold a big brown dog away from him. A real-life, great big dog, growling at Spider and trying to get to him. Somebody held them back. "Is your little girl okay?"
"It's fine," Spider growled, pulling at Tyler harder. But Daddy had said to get away. Daddy said to run.
"Has she been hurt somehow? Do you need me to call someone?" Tyler whined and tried to get to Somebody, holding Daddy's note out in front of him. He tried to scream but his voice wasn't working and his head hurt. "Hey, hey, sweetheart… is that for me?" Somebody asked, trying to reach for him. But Spider picked him up and tried to carry him back to the car.
Real-life dog growled behind him as Tyler started to cry. "Daddy!" he screamed. "Daddy, help me!"
"I've got it under control!" Spider yelled. Race kept screaming. "Mind your own business!"
"Sir, I will be calling the police on a man driving a red Ford with the license plate number—"
"Fuck," Spider hissed, reaching out for the boy's hand and prying the note away from him. Tyler screamed but Spider just threw him to the ground and kept walking. That was Daddy's note. He didn't know what it said but it was important. So he tried to get it. But Spider got into his truck and then he was gone. And Tyler was all alone in the world.
He couldn't hear Daddy in his head anymore.
"Hey… hey, sweetheart," Somebody said as Tyler quickly curled up on the grass. It tickled his cheek as he lay against it. Real-Live Dog was still trying to pull away. He tried to sniff at the little boy. "Whoa, hey! Sit!" Somebody demanded, reaching into his pocket for something. "Don't worry. This is Dodger. He won't hurt ya. He just wants to make sure you're okay…"
Everything sounded far away. Race curled up even more, closing his eyes and trying to find Daddy's voice again, but it was gone. Daddy wasn't talking anymore. He was gone.
"Hey, my name's Todd… Todd Kloppman… what's your name?"
Tyler reached up to cover his ears when he heard the sky crackle. "Once upon a time, you were all alone…" he whispered, hoping that Daddy would talk to him again if he told him The Story. He muttered it all quietly, not knowing what Somebody was saying. He didn't care. He just wanted Daddy.
It was really cold but Tyler kept whispering to Daddy, hoping that he was in his daddy's head too, just like his daddy had been in his head. He gripped at the grass, realizing for the first time how wet it was. Somebody threw something over him, like a blanket. But it wasn't a blanket. It was smaller than that even if it still covered his whole body.
That's when water began to fall from the sky. It was raining.
Tyler didn't know how long he laid there but he didn't want to move. Not until his daddy came to get him. Somebody sat with him for a long time with Dodger, the real-live dog.
Tyler had never felt rain before. It always hit Skylight. Daddy liked watching the rain. Sometimes it made him sad, but he said he liked the rain.
Maybe Daddy had meant that he liked to feel the rain.
After a long, long time, flashing lights came towards him and Somebody and Dodger. Dodger was quiet now and calm because Somebody was petting his back. But Tyler didn't like that another person was walking up to them.
"Hey, sweetie…" Tyler hid beneath the not-blanket that was over him. He closed his eyes tight and tried to count himself back to sleep. Maybe when he woke up, Daddy would be holding him again. "I'm Officer Rueben…" she said. "D'ya wanna come with me? Inside the car? It's warmer in there."
Tyler trembled. He really was freezing, but he didn't move or respond. Officer Rueben had darker skin than he did, but she had a nose and two eyes and two ears like him. She didn't look like an alien. She wasn't mean like Spider was either. But he still didn't want to answer her.
"She's been like that ever since the guy left. She was muttering to herself for a while, but other than that…" Somebody said. No. Not Somebody. Somebody had another name. Todd. Todd Kloppman. "It looked like she'd been with the guy for a while. No one else was around. She had a note, but the guy took it with him."
"Okay, my partner's gonna come out to take your statement, alright?"
"Of course! Just make sure she gets somewhere safe," Todd said. Tyler wanted to point out that he was a boy, not a girl. He wondered why it was that Todd was calling him "she" and "her". He didn't understand. The boy pushed his hair out of his face and curled up even more.
"Alright, hon, let's get you outta the rain, huh?" Before Tyler could say anything, he was being picked up. He let out a scared noise. "Shhhhh, it's okay. You're safe now." Daddy wasn't here. He didn't know what to do.
Officer Rueben took him into another car. It was like one he's seen on TV too. The ones with the flashing lights and the guys who tried to help people. Daddy said once, though, that they weren't always the good guys. That just scared Tyler even more. He curled away from Officer Rueben and hid his face in his arms. "Alright, sweetheart… can you tell me your name?"
"Tyler…" the boy responded almost immediately. He just wanted to go back to Daddy.
He peeked up to see that Rue was smiling at him. "That's good. Tyler… do you have another name?"
"Tyler James…" Tyler stated, wishing his daddy were here to talk instead of him. The ground shook as someone else got into the car. A door slammed shut and he flinched, closing his eyes. He was tired.
Rue sat next to him when everything started moving again. "So… where do you live, Tyler?" Racer didn't respond.
"Let's just call child services," the man in the front seat said. Tyler curled up even more.
"Hey, Tyler… do you… do you have a mom?" Rue asked quietly. Tyler wondered if she heard the other person. She didn't talk to him. "Do you have a dad?"
The boy sniffled. "Daddy…" he whimpered as the ground bounced beneath him. He leaned into the door. He just wanted to go back to Daddy.
A hand touched his arm. He couldn't move anymore to get away. But Rue wasn't grabbing him. She wasn't hurting him. "Okay! That's good… was that your daddy before? Or was that—"
"Spider…" he tried to explain.
"What, Tyler?" Rue asked, confused. "There's a spider?"
"You think he's on something?" the other person asked.
Shaking his head, Tyler looked up at Rue. She had dark eyes. Not like Daddy's. They were brown, but they were nice. "That was Spider… Daddy don't like him…" he said, his voice sounding watery, like he was in Bathtub, blowing bubbles.
"Alright… do you know where Daddy is?"
Tyler nodded. "Room…"
Sighing, Rue glanced up at the other person and shrugged. "Okay… your daddy… does he have another name?" she asked slowly.
For a long moment, Race thought about it. There was something Spider called him at night when he was angry. "Kelly," Tyler whispered. "Spider calls him Kelly but Daddy said…"
"You say, 'my daddy is Jack Kelly…'"
"Jack Kelly…"
The person in the front seat twisted around at that. "Jack Kelly—like James Kelly?" Rue was looking back at him. Tyler curled up tightly. "That's that kid from Lower Manhattan. He went missing six years ago… people used to take bets on whether or not he ran away."
"I've been in Room for six years…"
Daddy was talking in his head, but it sounded quiet. Tyler whined and tried to cover his ears to hear him better, but Rue tugged on his wrists. "Hey, shhhhh… it's okay… can you tell me more about your room?" she asked. "Can you tell me about… what's outside the room?" Tyler turned away, looking outside. This was a window. It looked sideways. He could see the trees and the grass and the brown leaves. "Does something look familiar, Tyler?"
The boy managed to shake his head. It was getting dark outside. Nighttime. It was time for dinner, then a bath, then bed.
"Can you tell me what's on the outside of the room?"
"Space…" Race responded before remembering. "No… the world…"
"Tyler, when you step outside of your room, what's—"
A shake of his head cut Rue off. "We don't step outside… we don't know how ta open the door…"
Rue nodded. "Okay… is there any sunlight in the room?"
"Yeah…"
She nodded. "Okay! How many windows?"
Windows looked sideways. "Zero," Tyler informed.
Rue looked confused. "Well then how did light get in?"
Tyler was tired. He wanted Bed. He wanted his daddy. "Skylight…"
"A skylight?" Rue asked. Her voice was quick and loud, like Daddy's had been when he was trying to get him to roll out of Rug. "Tyler, you live in a house with a skylight?"
That didn't sound right. Tyler had never been in a house. Only Room. "No," he whispered. "Not a house… it was a… a shed…"
"A shed, Tyler?" Rue asked again sharply. "You and your daddy live in a shed?" Rather than answering, Tyler focused on trying to hear Daddy again. He still couldn't. So, instead, he reached into his mouth and pulled out Bad Tooth. "Tyler, honey, what is that?"
"It's a little bit of Da'," he breathed. Rue tried to take it from him, so he clenched his tiny fist around it tighter and pulled it away from her.
"That's okay, Tyler, it's okay…" she promised. "What about… when you jumped from that truck? Do you remember why you did that?"
With a small sniffle, Tyler nodded. "Daddy said it in my head…"
Rue rubbed the boy's arm. "Uh-huh, and what exactly did Daddy say? Do you remember?"
"Truck…"
"Truck."
"Wiggle out…"
"Wiggle out…"
"Wiggle out of what, Tyler?" Rue asked, not understanding.
Tyler rubbed at his tired eyes. "Rug… he made Rug shorter so that I could roll out and see the world…"
Nodding, Rue encouraged him to continue.
"Jump…"
"He said jump when we got to a slow and then a stop," Tyler explained, looking back up at Rue. "I tried ta jump out at the first one but I was still in Rug. When we went slow again, I fell back and everything went sideways. Then I jumped—"
"Oh my God I got it!" Rue stopped him. "Tyler, I got it! That was so good! You did so good!" Tyler tried to ask her what she meant but she reached for something on her shoulder and started talking. "We have a rough location of a possible kidnapped victim. South on Randell. Two stop signs back from Duane. Look for a shed with a skylight and possibly a red pickup in the driveway."
The car turned fast. Race covered his ears again.
He just wanted to hear his daddy.
Jack stared blankly at the door. He knew he was a mess but it didn't matter anymore. Tears fell down his already soaked cheeks and he couldn't move. He just waited for whatever was going to come next.
There was no doubt in his mind that Spider was going to come back once he found out one way or another that Tyler was still alive. He just prayed it was after his little boy was long gone, safe with someone who was going to love and protect him with everything that they had. Specs would take care of him. Jack knew that. Specs would be a better father to that kid than he could ever be and in the end, Jack was sure Specs would see that too.
He just wished he could see his family one more time, tell them that he loved them, that he was sorry this had happened and wished beyond everything that he could go back and change it all.
He pressed his back up against the corkboard walls of his own personal hell, right in between the wardrobe and the sink. He held the dull knife in his hand, waiting for Spider to come back to end him. All he had left to do was fight his way out, just like he'd tried to do all those years ago.
Only this time, he was accepting the fact that he might not make it out.
Closing his eyes, the young man tried to picture his baby's face one more time, the little miracle that would be out in the world soon, that would be happy with a family who could possibly love him just as much as Jack did. He tried to picture the kid growing up, living a normal life, forgetting that Room existed in the first place.
The kid would be better off if he just forgot about him and moved on.
Still, Jack couldn't help but think that something had gone wrong. It was dark out now. It had been nearly three hours since Spider had left, trying to find a place to bury his baby. Maybe they never even made it to the truck, maybe his kid hadn't been able to roll out of that stupid rug and maybe he was suffocating somewhere in a shallow grave and it was all Jack's fault.
He couldn't breathe. He tried so hard to find air but he couldn't. Room was spinning.
Yet, everything came to a crashing halt when he heard something beeping come from above him. He gasped, his eyes going wide as he knew he was about to die. He gripped tightly onto a weapon that would do little to nothing to protect him and bit down hard on his lip.
That's when the door scraped open.
There was nothing in Jack's life that compared to this moment. Terror gripped him for only a second before his blurred gaze caught sight of someone coming towards him, someone new and unfamiliar. Someone Jack hadn't met.
Whoever was walking towards him wasn't The Spider.
The dulled knife dropped from Jack's hand immediately and air rushed into his lungs before sobs wracked his whole body. His eyes were so big, afraid to look away and have it all just be some kind of hallucination. It wouldn't be the first time. He reached up to grip at his own hair, trying to ground himself.
The door was left open and freezing cold air rushed in from it. Raindrops blew in and several people stood outside, watching him. Only one of them tried to speak as everyone else fell silent at Jack's cries. "Mr. Kelly… we found your son. We found Tyler. You're both safe now."
Jack could hardly hear her over the panic and overwhelming relief that gripped him all at once.
He was dreaming. He had to be dreaming.
But the hand that touched his arm was real. The soft hush in his ear sounded close enough to be coming from a solid human being as he was held to stand. He couldn't straight up. He couldn't do it. He hunched over, holding himself around his torso as he took those five steps to the door before he gripped onto the side of it, not believing any of this to be real. Maybe he was already dead.
But the cold air felt real.
His legs nearly gave out on him as he looked out into the world for the first time in six years. It was dark and sad and chaotic with so many people surrounding him. It was beautiful.
Fresh air met his lungs and he forced himself to breathe it in. He looked down to the ground, seeing soaked grass and mud beneath it. With bare feet, he stepped out onto it. He hugged himself tightly, letting out a sob of a laugh as he stood in the pouring rain. And just like that, he was out of Room.
He was free.
Tyler watched through the window as almost a hundred real-life people ran over to Room. He couldn't see them all. There was some kind of door blocking his view.
Everything around him looked strange. He couldn't remember seeing any of it before. All he could remember was watching Daddy cry and turn around as the door was shut. But there was a great big house here now. There were lots of houses out here now.
So many flashing lights were all around him, red and blue but he couldn't see anything in the darkness. He couldn't make out that familiar face. So he started to cry, knowing that his daddy had to be somewhere past all of those other people. Rue wasn't with him anymore. Tyler was alone with another person who wouldn't open the door for him, even as he hit the windows. "Daddy…" he whimpered, knowing he had to be out there somewhere. "Daddy?" Daddy wasn't in his head anymore. Race just wanted his daddy to pick him up now. "Open this door!" he demanded. "Open the door! Open! Daddy!" He couldn't get out. He just wanted his daddy.
The man in the front seat sighed. "Hey, buddy, they're looking right now. Can you sit back for me?"
Tyler wasn't listening anymore. Because in an instant that strange door opened and he could see Daddy wearing his pajama pants and white shirt coming out towards him. The people were holding some things over his head. Tyler didn't know why. The rain was falling and Daddy liked to feel the rain. But daddy was already all wet. Tyler hit the window harder when he saw him.
Through the window, he listened very carefully to hear a familiar voice. "Tyler?! Where's Tyler?" Daddy asked, looking around. His daddy was crying. Someone was holding his arm. It looked like Daddy wanted to run. "Where's my son?!"
"Daddy!" Tyler screamed, banging on the window of the car. "Daddy I'm in here! Daddy!"
Jack's instincts took over completely when he heard that little voice. He ripped himself away from the kind officers and rushed over to that patrol car. He couldn't seem to move fast enough as he ran, oxygen hardly reaching his lungs as he continued to cry and sob.
Placing a hand on the window, right in front of his baby's, Jack broke. "Tyler!" he sobbed, trying to open the door. It was locked. He turned to those people, the ones who'd saved him, and he screamed, banging on the door desperately. "Open the door!" For a moment, no one moved as he fought futilely with the handle, trying to wrench the thing open. "Open this door!" Finally, someone with common sense listened to him and Jack nearly fell backwards as he pulled the thing open, but suddenly there was a bundle in his arms and all he could do was sink to the ground and hold on tight as Tyler sobbed onto his shoulder.
Words didn't seem to matter anymore. Nothing did except for the boy in his arms because despite Jack's doubts before, his son was real. His son was here and solid and safe and alive. So Jack screamed out a sob as he fell onto the sidewalk, hugging the child around his back and holding the back of the boy's head, unable to close his eyes as he took in the sights around him.
All Jack could do was cry until a hand helped him up and guided him into the backseat of that car. He was careful not to hit Race's head on the way in and suddenly, the door was gently shut beside him and they were rolling away.
Away from Room.
Jack tried to calm himself down, at least on the outside. The tears didn't stop, but he managed to take a few deep breaths somehow. That's when Tyler looked up at him. "Daddy… can we go ta Bed now?" he asked.
With a small laugh, Jack nodded. "Yeah… we're gonna go somewhere ta sleep real soon, alright?"
"No…" Tyler groaned. "Bed. In Room."
The adrenaline subsided when he heard those words and suddenly Jack was just as exhausted as his son was. He swallowed hard, sniffling as he brought his boy's head back onto his shoulder, not answering him at all. He just held the boy gently and watched the world pass him by out the window.
They were free.
And yet still, somehow, this wasn't over.
As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, what you would change or what you'd improve by leaving me a review! Much love, kiddos!