Kari turns over and buries her face deeper into her pillow. Her face is hot and flushed, and she can feel the fabric pressed against her face becoming progressively more and more soaked with tears but they don't stop coming. Her childhood bedroom provides little comfort despite it's familiarity, if anything it seems to emphasize what is missing. What is gone and will never be here again.
A weight comes onto her bed, and the spring squeal in the agedness. A hand, familiar, reaches over and rubs small circles in her back. Kari takes a few deep breaths and finally straightens up, sitting and looking over at her brother, who looks at her with sad, sympathetic eyes.
"I'm sorry." He says mournfully, and Kari presses up against her brother, arms tightly holding onto him. She's 21 but all at once she feels like she's eight again, small and vulnerable and so sure that Tai is an impenetrable pillar. That he can shield her from the hurt of the world. He wraps her arms around her and softly hums under his breath.
"Mom's going to the crematorium. Do you want to go or…?" Tai asks softly, and Kari's grips his shirt tightly.
"I can't." She mumbles, and he nods. "Please don't leave me." Kari says as Tai stands up.
"I'm going to go tell mom to leave without us. I'll be right back." He assures, and when he leaves Kari's view she breaks down again, the tears flowing freely down her cheeks before pressuring her hands to her eyes, trying to take deep and steadying breaths that do nothing to sate the pain that has burrowed into her chest. There's the sound of the front door opening and closing, and then there's Tai, standing in the doorway, two cups of hot chocolate held in his hands.
"Hey kiddo." He says softly, taking his seat next to her again. Kari blows on it, hands absorbing the heat from the cup.
"I feel so stupid." Kari admitted, shoulders sagging and seeming to collapse in on herself. "I'm an adult, I'm in college. Why is the death of a cat affecting me so much?" The words were meant to come out frustrated, but instead they were just tired and sad.
"Miko's been around your whole life." Tai pointed out. "It's only natural that Miko passing would cause you sorrow. You know, I cried before coming over here."
"You did?" Kari asked, hesitantly, voice sounding small and vulnerable. Tai nodded his head.
"Yep. It was so weird to come in and not have Miko rub up against my legs or meow at me until I give them a treat. And it probably will be weird for a long time. Miko was part of our family, it's okay to be sad they're gone." Tai assured, and Kari took a small sip of her cocoa. Tai must have added some milk into it to help cool it down because it didn't burn her tongue. Instead it was perfectly warm and rich in her mouth.
Kari couldn't stop thinking of the way her mom had told her the news, eyes downcast and sad. And when Kari had started sobbing so suddenly, an emotion and mourning that had somehow been trapped deep inside of her suddenly welling up and rebelling… the way that her mom had looked at her with melancholy, pitying eyes, like she knew something Kari didn't. Like she understood Kari's pain and sorrow better than even Kari did.
So Kari sat on her bed, looked at the ripples on her hot chocolate made from her tears, and tried to shake the feeling like she was forgetting something. If it was truly important, she mused, she would probably remember it.
oOo
"I never took you as a religious man, Joe." Ken said offhandedly. Izzy and Joe had started with the old friends that they felt they had the most in common with. Tai was busy doing something with his family, so the current meeting was just the pair of them, Cody, and Ken. Basically the quieter kids with an interest in learning. Tai remained an outlier, and Joe felt guilty to admit to himself that he was relieved that the boy with his gravity defying hair and loud personality couldn't make it today. While he was sure Izzy had told Tai about the inclusion of Joe in this little investigation it had still been at least eight years since Joe had seen the other boy face to face. Maybe longer than that. And he didn't want to look at this man who he knew should mean a lot to him, should be full of nostalgia and childhood memories, and just feel… nothing.
"I'm not." Joe responded to Ken, and looked down at himself, trying to figure out what it was about him that gave the other kid that impression. Oh, his necklace. He held the small pendant in his hand for a minute, eyes tracing the the simply black resin cross. "It was a gift from my brother, seemed rude not to wear it. And I think some patients are more at ease, thinking that their doctor can pray for them." Joe explained, and Ken gave a slow, thoughtful nod.
An added bonus to recruiting Ken on the crew was the fact that he was becoming a detective, and Joe was hopeful that those skills would work in their favor. Both Ken and Cody had been shaken up by the letter that Izzy had shown them, trying desperately to grasp for a logical explanation.
"Did everyone bring their devices?" Izzy asked excitedly, and the three other's obediently withdrew the items from their bags or pockets. Joe's was the same light blue as Izzy's, but the other boys had what seemed to be different models entirely. Izzy had done extensive online research, trying to determine if there was a chance that these were merely some kind of childhood gaming fad that had faded from memory, but it was like whatever these strange devices were had simply never existed. Ken and Cody both had a different model, so distinct that at first Joe had been reluctant to think they could even qualify as the same thing. They were a completely different shape and both were colored - one black and one yellow.
"It took me a while to find." Cody admitted. "I don't even remember getting it but apparently my grandpa packed it up along with some of my stuffed animals for posterity's sake for when I have a family of my own." The youngest of the group, Cody was sandwiched in between Joe and Izzy, and seemed to perfectly fill the space.
"I was reluctant to do any tests without the rest of you here - I don't know if any discoveries I make can be replicated, and the more witnesses the better."
"Izzy, if it's alright with you I brought my camera and a tripod." Ken spoke up. "I was thinking that we could set it up to record the whole thing."
"Prodigious!" Excited energy seemed to come off of the redhead in waves, eyes shining. "Go ahead and set it up!" Ken obediently went and got the camera ready, giving a quick thumbs up as he pressed a button on the top of it, a green light turning on. Izzy turned to the camera, face a bad attempt to look serious. "Today we will embark on our first experiment with the strange devices. The people who are participating in this meeting is myself, Ken, Joe, and Cody." He rattled off before he turned back to the table, where Ken had reclaimed his seat.
Joe held his blue device in his hands and pressed the buttons, frowning.
"So, I don't know about you guys, but mine doesn't even seem to turn on." He admitted. "But I don't see anywhere to put batteries or attach a chord to an outlet…" Cody nodded.
"I was thinking the same thing Joe."
"Maybe they're like simple calculators that just need sunlight to charge." Ken said thoughtfully.
"Well let's start by trying that out." Izzy said. "We'll take one of each kind and put them in my windowsill for a week, and then see if they turn on." The others around the table nodded. Izzy took two off the table and set them to the side - Joe's and Ken's. That left Izzy's and Cody's on the table. "Now, for the fun part." Izzy's grin did not settle well in Joe's stomach, but did seem so distinctly Izzy like, so familiar. Joe wondered where he had seen it before.
"Is that a hammer?!" Ken exclaimed, and Joe watched Cody reach out his hand and snatch his device, pulling it back towards himself.
"Relax Cody, I would ask your permission before doing anything so drastic to yours. I've already tried to pry open the edges of the device with a screwdriver, but they've done nothing. You might want to step back." Joe left his chair obediently.
"Why did I let myself get roped into this?" Joe said worriedly, facing away and shielding his face with his hands, wincing as he heard the loud, clattering sound of metal coming in contact with something, and the table shook on it's legs. Cautiously he turned and looked, expecting to see the object in pieces.
"Prodigious." Izzy whispered, holding up the hammer. The metal caught the light, showing off the imperfection, spiderweb cracks that had inched their way up the hammer's head. The device sat innocently on the table, still in a single piece, not even showing a crack.
"I don't think we're going to be able to dissect these." Ken said, reaching out and holding up the device with slightly shaking hands, eyebrows scrunching together and long hair like curtains framing his face.
"We're going to need to get our answers some other way." Cody agreed.
oOo
"Oh how nostalgic!" Mimi coos as she dusts off the old photo frame, revealing eight small smiling faces, facing the camera. That old summer camp dress, ah yes, those were the days. She missed the days of her youth, when she had worn whatever she wanted without a care, so secure and sincere with who she was. In the back of her mind she wondered if she still had that cowboy hat hanging around somewhere or if it had been lost in one of the purges of her wardrobe.
Her eyes kept looking up, trying to take in the figures in the background behind the children, like shadows of static. But each time her eyes seemed to glide past them, never quite managing to grasp the forms, and failing to maintain a hold on the memory that there had been something there that she had missed. With a sigh she put the picture back into the box. Nearby a small device gave a chime and with an excited clap of her hands Mimi reached out and grabbed her phone, eagerly seeing who it was that had texted her.
"Yolei?" Mimi tilted her head to the side, mind working. "Oh, Yolei, one of Kari and TK's friends. Nostalgia times two." She chirped, opening the message. She had met Yolei a couple times, but couldn't really remember anything notable about the girl. The message stopped in her tracks though, and she felt her eyes widened.
'Mimi,' It read. 'I know it's been a long time, but I need your help.'
oOo
Let me know what you think of the chapter! Review give me motivation to keep writing.