I Don't Want to Know

…

Link thought he was developing a hump in his spine. He sat up and pushed his back into the back of the chair to relieve the soreness. He had spent all morning hunched over the desk transcribing inventory and dock records onto new forms after the last idiot airman on shore work had spilled his coffee into the file cabinet. So far, he had only transcribed maybe two months out of five years' worth of ruined records. Naturally, Line had not been any help. Ever since reporting for duty to the woman in charge of the main office earlier in the morning, Link had not seen or heard anything from Line. Not that it had particularly bothered him; as long as Line was not in the Records Office, Link did not have to listen to him whine about being bored or, worse, doing something to alleviate boredom. It would only ever lead to them getting into trouble, and the regular office employees had been warned that both of them were already being punished.

Link was the only one in the poorly-lit Records Office somewhere in the back of the Skyriders' main office building. It smelled moldy, and he was sure something was alive in here. The records were all stored in filing cabinets sitting against one wall. Link had left one drawer near the desk open so he could remember where he was putting the files; the drawer that he was replacing sat next to the desk.

He was about to return to work when he realized that something down the hall was raising quite a racket. He listened to what sounded like people banging pots together and thought it might have been coming from the mess hall. He quickly corrected himself when he remembered that the mess hall was not that close to the Records Office.

Then the sound steadily rose in volume. Link began to feel alarmed when he realized that the source of all that banging was approaching the office. He was frozen in the chair, unsure of what he should do. But when the source flew into the office through the doorway to the right of the desk and stopped right in front of him, Link knew exactly what to do.

He stared in annoyance at his best friend.

Line wore a large pot on his head and had various pots and skillets tied around his chest and legs. He had an alarmed look on his face and, upon realizing where he was, turned to Link. He held up his hands and said, "Link, I'll explain later. If anyone asks, you and I were throwing rocks at the supply shed." Link blinked in stupidity at the hastily-crafted alibi, especially since the building's supply shed was made of glass and would more than likely earn them more punishment if they were actually throwing rocks at it. He had yet to form a reply when Line spotted a door behind Link and ran to it, clanking loud enough that it actually hurt Link's ears. "Oh, and my name's not Line, it's Leopold." Again, Link could not form a response in time as Line slammed the door shut behind him.

Link had paused in the middle of rising from the chair. He decided to settle back down and turn back to his work; trying to involve himself in whatever shenanigans Line had started likely would not end well.

Joyce, the middle-aged woman who was in charge of the Skyriders' records, stepped into the office not long after with a small packet of papers in one arm. Link thought she was a nice lady, although, whenever she was around, he always got a whiff of fish. Because she worked exclusively in the office, she wore a white blouse and black work slacks. In combination with her frizzy, red hair, Link thought she looked more like a teacher.

She seemed a little bored as she started setting papers on the desk in front of Link, telling him, "Link, I need these double-checked, finalized, and sorted when you have the time. I have the morning's overnight reports, the morning inventory check, check-in log, an incident report, and have you seen Line anywhere."

Link was in the middle of reading the incident report she had placed on the desk, curious as to what happened in the middle of the night that required the report to be filed, when his brain finished processing the last part of her statement. He looked up and asked her, "What?"

"Part of the kitchen staff thought they saw Line come running through here," Joyce explained. Then she glanced over her shoulder at the door on the opposite side of the room from the desk. "If you see him, tell him they want their pots back."

"Uh…sssure," Link replied. Joyce then turned and left through the door.

Link realized that Joyce was not stepping out from what he first thought was the closet. But if that was the hallway that led out to the back of the building… what did Line just walk through? He waited a moment for Joyce to come back through the office and right back out into the corridor to Link's right. Then he got up and opened the door to what was definitely not the hallway leading outside.

Inside, he found a few cleaning supplies, a bucket full of old rags, and Line huddled in one corner.

Line looked up at Link and said, "Link? It smells like something died in here."