Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to update! I kept forgetting to upload!
A couple of weeks went by and Aster adjusted to his job pretty quickly. His mom had gotten used to dropping him off at the Natural Science Center after Nicolas would drop him off at home and he'd gotten used to attending.
He also never mentioned Dr. Pitchiner's hello to Mr. Moon.
He had a feeling it was for the best.
But now he was constantly observing, printing off reports, and studying. Sometimes it overwhelmed him, but when the results impressed him they reassured him that he was in the right job.
Sometimes he would run files to other scientists, under the permission of Dr. Henders. He was the only assistant at the time and now that they saw just how useful he was, other scientists were starting to consider asking for assistants.
He didn't mind either. There were times when giving someone a file was the only useful thing he could do because Dr. Henders and the other botanists would be too busy with their projects to give him anything to do. It was almost better than wandering aimlessly around the garden that he'd seen repeatedly.
But one day, he was handed a file from someone in the meteorology department towards the end of the day and told, "Get this to Dr. Pitchiner's office if you would. I kept forgetting to drop it off today and I'm sure he's wanting to know where it is. Would be easier to do if he actually talked to any of us." The scientist shook his head and laughed bitterly.
Aster couldn't even get out a word of protest before the scientist turned on his heel and left, the file gripped in Aster's hand now.
He had to see Dr. Pitchiner now, as much as he didn't want to. At least he was getting paid.
But when he made his way to Dr. Pitchiner's door and knocked, there was no answer.
"Dr. Pitchiner?"
Silence.
Confused, Aster tried the handle only to find that the door was locked.
One of the scientists in the geology department saw Aster trying to get into his office and stopped when they saw the file in his hand. "Hey, sorry to break it to you, but he's already gone."
Aster turned around at the voice. "Oh. Um. Okay. Guess I'll just come back tomorrow or something."
He went to walk away, but their words stopped him.
The geologist eyed the file in his hand. "Is that the meteorology file? Because if it is, he's been waiting on it for the past week. I'm sure he would rather have it on his desk first thing in the morning."
Aster pointed at the door. "It's locked." He said feebly.
"I know that." The geologist rolled his eyes. "Stay here." And without another word, they walked down the hall, turning towards the main office.
Aster stayed.
He wondered what in the world the geologist could be doing, but his question was soon answered when they reappeared, a green lanyard clutched in their hand with a single silver key dangling at the end, much like the one that was draped around their neck.
They smiled at Aster as they stepped around him and unlocked the door with a deft twist of their hand.
"Oh." Aster said, peering inside the office.
"Well, don't just gawk. Go on in. Leave the file on his desk. It'd save a lot of us some unneeded grouchiness." The geologist slipped the lanyard on Aster's wrist and Aster nearly let it slide off and onto the floor before he snatched it clumsily. The geologist made a noise of amusement and slapped him on the back. "Don't forget to lock up on your way out. See you tomorrow."
Once again, the geologist was gone.
Aster watched them stride away before glancing at the lanyard in his hand. GEOLOGY-PITCHINER was stitched in white. Dr. Henders had a lanyard of her own, but her's was decorated with a couple of keychains and buttons. It was the same with nearly every other scientist's lanyard that he'd seen.
But not Dr. Pitchiner's. It was just a lanyard and a key.
Figures.
Aster looked up and stepped inside the office. It was as big as Dr. Henders's but it seemed much larger somehow. Probably because it wasn't filled to the brim with plants and sitting chairs. Instead, it was just a desk, a chair, and two simple black office chairs. A spotless whiteboard was on the same wall as the door, and Aster raised an eyebrow at how unused it looked. Dr. Henders's was stained consistently over its surface from where she'd written things.
Where the hell does he write down all his observations and data? The lab? Just the lab?
He crept farther inside the office, closing the door gently behind himself. Now he really felt like he was trespassing on forbidden ground.
Just put the file on his desk and leave.
He walked over to the desk and placed the file next to Dr. Pitchiner's shut-down computer. Nothing else was on the desk except for a single pen and pencil sitting on top of a blank calendar on the top left side of his desk.
It was weird, to say the least.
Aster was more than ready to leave the office (it creeped him out, quite frankly) and he would've left the moment he set the file down, but something caught his eye.
There was a drawer that was slightly ajar, easy to see out of all the order and preciseness Dr. Pitchiner's office possessed.
And it intrigued Aster.
Without even really thinking about it, he felt himself reach forward.
And then he caught himself.
What are you doing, you idiot!? Just leave!
He pulled his hand back, but it still hovered in the air.
He wanted to leave… But could he?
Something was telling him to slide open the drawer a bit further and look at what was inside. But that was crazy. What if Dr. Pitchiner figured out that Aster had looked through his files? And what if the files were confidential?
The Natural Science Center didn't have much to hide, but some labs were still working with confidential things.
Aster could be crossing over into some seriously not-to-be-tampered-with information.
Somehow, this didn't stop him.
He gave in, sighing and walking around the desk. He hunched in front of the drawer and pulled it out farther. "Let's see what we've got in here." His emerald eyes shot over to the door as a precaution, and when he felt it was safe enough to take a look, he did.
He pulled out a slightly disheveled file, deciding that it was probably what Dr. Pitchiner had handled last.
It was old and beaten, obviously worn out form being held and flipped open so often. A single word was scrawled in fading black ink on the tab: CONSTELLAR
Aster bit his lip and flipped it open.
The first thing he saw, shocked him and he could help but mutter, "What the hell."
It was an old faded photo of two young men, smiling and standing in front of a forest, backpacks thrown on their shoulders and eyes shining with fascination.
It looked like a much younger and happier version of Dr. Pitchiner. But it was the man next to him that made Aster stop and stare in disbelief.
It looked like Mr. Moon.
He, too, looked much less worrisome and more youthful, but surely enough it was him. Just seeing the two men together threw Aster so far off that he couldn't help but pick it up and look closer.
He flipped it over and found a date telling him that the picture was taken more than twenty years ago.
Mr. Moon and Dr. Pitchiner had been friends decades ago.
His interest switched to the paper underneath the photo, where what looked to be a letter lay.
As Aster glanced over the elegant handwriting, he saw that certain parts were scratched out rather angrily, even tearing the fragile paper in some places. Other fragments were circled and comments that looked more like chicken-scratch filled the margins. His eyes flitted to the bottom of the letter where it was simply signed Moon.
Looking closer, he tried to find out what Mr. Moon had written.
…You should come by sometime. I could use the company…
The word 'company' was circled and a line was drawn from that to a comment in the margins that accused Mr. Moon of telling him he was only useful if they were together.
…I hope you understand that we cannot tell anyone of our discoveries in the cavern…
…I'm just a bit concerned. Evie is too. Haven't you spoken to her?...
The strikeout pointed to a question: Haven't you?
…Will you ever come out of that lab? We're not getting paid overtime, Kozmotis. At least I'm not…
The comment that the 'Kozmotis' strikeout was the most chilling and Aster shook his head after reading it: He's gone. Pitch Black.
Something made a noise out in the hall.
Aster held his breath, frozen in his crouch on the tiled floor.
He heard loud laughing from multiple people in the hall, their footsteps loud and intrusive. They kept going and going, fading away as time went on.
Aster blew out a long breath, blinking several times and looking back at the paper.
What did 'Pitch Black' mean? Who was Evie? Was Mr. Moon trying to convince him to give up the obsession he'd mentioned when he spoke to Aster about him?
What was his obsession?
Maybe it was in the file.
Aster lifted up the letter.
Below the letter was a folded map, the creases nearly tearing the paper in squares. Nearly everything was in pieces in the file, but this was the closest to falling apart entirely.
He had to take a moment to convince himself to pick it up.
And when he held it between his thumb and index finger carefully, he had to convince himself to open it as gingerly as possible.
When he did, he was surprised to find that it was a pretty detailed map of the outskirts of Burgess. There was nothing but trees west of Burgess and this map seemed to show every single one of them. A jotted red line lead from an old hiking trail to the middle of a clearing. The chicken-scratch was back again, but it looked much less angry over the supposed clearing: CONSTELLAR CAVERNS.
Constellar caverns? What the hell are those?
He gave it another odd glance before folding it back up and sliding it back in the file. When he went to put the letter and photo back in the file, he tilted it a bit too far to the right, causing the rest of its contents to spill onto the floor.
"Shit." Aster whispered as he immediately when to snatch up various papers and photos.
One of the photos in particular caught his attention. A cluster of pure white moonflowers sprouted up in patches, some larger than the area of his own bedroom. It seemed to be dark when the picture were taken, because the flash was used, but the blooms on the flowers were completely open.
Moonflowers opened at sunrise and closed back up in the middle of the daylight.
They were never open at night.
"Dr. Pitchiner?"
Aster jumped, his heart racing and thumping loud in his ears. He hadn't heard anybody approach the door and the voice on the other side of it scared him to say the least.
"Dr. Pitchiner, are you in there?"
Aster shoved the rest of the contents of the file back in.
Another voice: "He's probably gone."
Slipping the file back in with the rest in the drawer, he scrambled to his feet.
"I'm just going to check."
The door clicked open.
Aster pushed the drawer just enough to make it look like it hadn't been disturbed.
A geologist appeared at the door way, looking around and finding Aster. He made a face. "What are you doing in here?"
"Uh, just dropping off a file."
"You have his key."
Aster's eyes snapped to the green lanyard twisted on his wrist. "Uh, yeah. One of the scientists got it for me so I could drop it off."
He lifted his gaze up, trying to see the top of the desk clearly. Surely enough, a file sat on the edge. "I see." He gave Aster a look that reminded the teen of his parents when they were about to scold them. "You should get back to Dr. Henders now."
Aster crossed his arms and nodded, still feeling jittery and too exposed for his comfort. "Yeah, yeah. I'm going." He forced a smile as he walked out, passing by the scientist and out the door.
"Hey!"
Aster froze and turned slowly, a bewildered look in his eyes. "Yes?"
"Are you going to lock the door?" The geologist looked unamused with Aster as he pointed at the handle.
"O-oh, yeah!" Aster shakily replied, rushing forward to pull the door shut and lock it. "Sorry, I just- I thought maybe you were going inside?"
"By myself?" The geologist scoffed and the other one next to him shook his head. "Nobody goes into Dr. Pitchiner's office alone."
Aster's face fell and he ducked his head, making an escape while he could. "See you tomorrow." He managed to say. He wanted to get out of there before anyone could really blame him for anything.
"See you." The geologist said icily.
He didn't tell Dr. Henders of his discovery in Dr. Pitchiner's office. Not that he ever would. Sneaking around was highly frowned upon in any situation involving confidentiality. Granted the file didn't have any blatant warnings on it saying that the contents of it were to remain secret, it practically screamed secrecy.
He thought of the photograph and the strange moonflowers. What had happened between Mr. Moon and Dr. Pitchiner? And what did moonflowers have to do with it?
What did constellar caverns have to do with it?