The seventh instalment (wherein there is something in a box)

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Complications

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"A box?"

Well, it was that or a casket. At this point in time, Lavi did not know for certain what he would do in case it turned out to be the latter. "Allen?"

As expected, the beneficiary did not acknowledge him.

"What now, boy?" Tyki asked, tapping lightly on the lid again.

For whichever reason, that seemed to bring the beneficiary out of it. Which was a relief yet also not a relief.

Allen bit his lip, looking from the box to the man standing beside it, and then back again. From where Lavi was standing, it looked like he was a bit at a loss to what to do, and going by that Tyki guy's expression, it seemed as though the latter was coming to a similar conclusion.

"Here," Tyki said, extending a hand.

For a brief moment, Allen eyed the extended hand with seeming distrust. He still extended his hand though, albeit hesitantly, and allowed the guy to assist him in getting down into the hole. He seemed to have forgotten all about Lavi for now, which was potentially a good thing. It was good because it allowed Lavi to properly observe the situation. It was also not so good because even if he saw things, he felt as though he lacked the means to make proper sense of them.

"Open it," Allen said at last, his voice quiet but steady.

Tyki Mikk was not late to oblige the command.

The lid fell to the side with a heavy thud and Allen drew a sharp breath.

Lavi leaned over the edge, trying to catch a glimpse of what lay within the box. It proved hard, because there was a tall guy in the way.

Tyki Mikk meanwhile just stood there for a moment. Then he whistled, crouching down to have a closer look. "Well, that's pretty interesting."

Interesting was one way of putting it. Disturbing was another. Because that was most definitely a dead body, a human mummy, and it was definitely holding something that this Tyki guy had just− "Hey, what are you doing?! Don't touch it!"

Tyki blinked up at him, having already liberated the thing from the mummy's cold dead hands, literally! "A bit late for that," he noted, sheepish yet entirely unapologetic as he pressed the thing into Allen's hand. "There. Hold on to that for now. I need to close the lid."

Lavi was baffled by how casually Tyki treated this event. Well, that and horrified. Going by what he could see, the beneficiary felt something similar.

-.-.-.-

"Hey, you okay down there, boy?"

It was a stupid question. A really stupid one. "I just came face to face with a dead body," he mumbled, not bothering to remove the arm he'd laid across his eyes. "Do I look okay?"

The pause that followed proved very telling. "You seem to be doing pretty okay to me," Tyki commented, and he sounded like he meant it. "I mean," he went on. "You didn't throw up or anything…"

"Makes you wonder just how many dead bodies someone could've come across in their lifetime," Lavi muttered under his breath, and wasn't that an interesting thought?

The shrug was practically audible as Tyki spoke up once more. "I'm not gonna lie. I've definitely seen a few. Mostly animals of course."

"Mostly," Lavi repeated, his tone of voice very much betraying his thoughts.

"Empty buildings attract vagrants, and vagrants occasionally freeze to death… or overdose," Tyki deadpanned. "You get used to it."

Allen felt a little sick. "Could we talk about something else? Please."

There was a brief pause. "The cryptex?" Tyki finally suggested.

Right, that thing. "Do you want me to puke all over you?"

-.-.-.-

Lavi actually felt a bit better about the situation afterwards, back indoors. Perhaps it was strange to think that. But all things considered, it seemed a lot smarter to consider things somewhere dry and reasonably warm as opposed to somewhere open, mildly humid and decidedly chilly. Which was not to sat that the entire building was nice and cosy, but this particular bedroom certainly was.

"I know, right?"

Granted, Lavi would probably have felt even better without Tyki there, but you can't have everything in life now, can you? Besides, he reasoned that it was better to keep the man well within his sights, even if it meant having him in the same room as the beneficiary. Speaking of whom−

Allen Walker lay curled up underneath the covers on the bed. Judging by his breathing, he was sleeping soundly, his expression relaxed and unguarded.

"He's exhausted," Tyki commented, keeping himself busy with the cryptex. "It takes a lot out of you to 'remember' things."

That thing again. "Yeah, do you think that you could maybe shed some light on that? Because that's not normal where I come from."

Tyki shot him a brief glance as he joined him down on the thick carpet. "It is where I come from," he offered simply and then offered him the cryptex like some sort of peace offering. "Wanna try your luck?"

Lavi was understandably wary. Still, the guy likely had some useful info, so Lavi might as well give it a try. Besides, this was technically the second peace offering. The first had been Lavi's phone; the screen had a sizeable crack on it, but that had posed no real obstacle to Lavi. The real obstacle had proven to be on the other end.

You see, Lavi had managed to make contact with Bookman Senior and rattled off a rudimentary summary of all the shit that had gone down since the start of the day, finishing off with a nice "Old Man, what the heck's going on here?"

The answers had proven annoyingly evasive, especially in regards to Allen's behaviour. The instructions however had been surprisingly straightforward. "I will head over there immediately. In the meantime, do not interfere," the Old Man had said before promptly ending the call, leaving no room for debate.

Simply put, Lavi was a bit annoyed, yes. But he was also relieved, because the Old Man was coming, and knowing the Old Man did not in fact have a valid driver's licence at the moment, he would not be coming alone. Still, Lavi could only hope that he would bring along someone capable.

Even so, it would take time, hours, and Lavi had to find some way to keep both Allen and that Tyki guy at the location until the cavalry arrived. As such, it was a good thing that Allen was sleeping, and that he would likely continue sleeping for a while, if Tyki's comment served as any indication. Tyki Mikk in turn would hardly go anywhere either, because if he had been planning to leave, then he would have left already, which meant that something was keeping him there, and Lavi had a definite inkling as to what that might be.

Lavi tried not to think about it. Instead, he focused upon the cryptex, twisting the dials. It did him little good though, because instead of letters or numbers, there was a range of symbols that were decidedly familiar to him.

"I thought Dan Brown invented the cryptex," he muttered to himself, trying to memorise various combinations he had seen back when he, unable to help his own curiosity, had taken a good look at the letter he had delivered to Allen, back at the very beginning of this mess.

"It's practically a word lock," Tyki commented. "And the Chinese had those back in the 13th Century."

"And how the fuck do you know that?" Lavi asked, really just voicing his thoughts out loud.

Gleefully, Tyki held up his phone; no, Allen's phone. "Wikipedia."

Lavi refrained from bringing it up, but was it difficult? Yes. Much too difficult as a matter of fact. "Maybe you shouldn't be using other people's phones like that…" he muttered, unable to help himself.

"And maybe you shouldn't go around kidnapping people," Tyki countered without missing a beat, evidently amused by Lavi's irritation.

On one hand, Lavi had most certainly walked into that one. On the other hand, two could play at that game. "And maybe you shouldn't go around trespassing."

If anything, Tyki's amusement only seemed to increase. "Said one trespasser to another."

Really? "It's not trespassing if I'm one of the executors of this estate."

"Hoh? You seem a bit young for that."

Yeah, as if Lavi had not heard that one before. "I'm nineteen and a genius. You on the other hand seem a bit old to be sneaking around on other people's property."

There was a slight shrug at that. "Well, I'm twenty-six…ish. I have the memory of a goldfish, the curiosity and attention span of a cat, and−"

"Curiosity killed the cat," Lavi said.

"But satisfaction brought it back," Tyki easily responded.

Lavi kind of wanted to wipe that smug look off of Tyki's face, but why not dig for additional information while the other seemed to be in a good mood? "How does having the memory of a goldfish go with that 'remembering' thing you keep talking about?" he asked.

"Well," Tyki paused, looking thoughtful now. "They're not mutually exclusive."

Lavi slowly put the cryptex down, dedicating his full attention to studying the man in front of him. "You do know that the three second memory thing has been debunked, right?"

There was a mild shrug at that. "Up to five months, yeah, which is better than a lot of people I've met. Still, fairly accurate in my case."

That was fair enough, Lavi supposed. Still− "How?"

Tyki reached out and picked the cryptex back up, turning it over in his hands, scrutinising it. "Memory is a funny thing. The more I remember, the more I forget," he said, tracing his fingertips over the symbols. "These for example; I know I've never seen them before I came here, but at the same time, they were really familiar to me the first time I saw them… Still can't read them though."

Yeah, and Lavi was not about to inform him that there was someone in the room that could. Definitely not. "Earlier, you said it takes a lot out of you to 'remember' things. It's normal, you said. What's the basis of that conclusion?"

Tyki blinked, evidently puzzled. "The basis of what now?"

Lavi felt his fingers give an involuntary twitch. "How do you know that?" he clarified, uncertain as to whether or not Tyki's major problem might just be word comprehension. "How do you know that such… episodes are a normal thing?"

Tyki turned his head slightly, looking towards the bed. For several moments, he said nothing at all. "I used to have them when I was young," he said at last, putting a hand underneath his chin, looking pensive again. "I think I might've been about ten when they started, maybe a little younger… But no one really made a big deal out of them, and Sheril was always there to call me back…"

"Sheril?"

Tyki's expression soured slightly. "My brother… of sorts. It's complicated."

Lavi had a feeling this whole affair was overtly complicated. Still− "Did Sheril have them too? These episodes…"

Tyki shrugged at that. "Who knows? But he said it's a hereditary thing so…"

A hereditary thing, huh?

Lavi mentally compiled a list of plausible, hereditary conditions, but none of them included that memory thing. Then again, he was not a psychiatrist, so… not an expert. Still− "If it's hereditary, then why would he have it?" Lavi asked, nodding towards Allen, who was beginning to stir. Which was good, yet also not so good. "And what does it mean?"

Going by the look Tyki shot him, Lavi was starting to believe that he was barking up the wrong tree, at least as far as more complex matters were concerned. Then again−

Lavi opened his mouth to pursue the matter further but stopped when Tyki visibly perked up. Lavi was unwittingly reminded of how a dog reacts to the footsteps of its master, and the thought distracted him long enough for Tyki to get to his feet and sit down on the side of the bed, holding the cryptex.

"Yo, how's your head?" he asked.

This time around, Lavi had an excellent view. The look sent his and Tyki's way was decidedly dark. It was hostile, to say the very least.

"Sorry," Tyki said, seeming genuinely apologetic. "Here."

Allen's eyes fell upon the cryptex. They widened slightly in surprise and then narrowed as they turned back to Tyki's face.

To his credit, Tyki did not seem overtly fazed. Instead, he smirked, motioning to the cryptex now in Allen's hands. "For you."

Torn in-between mounting horror and curiosity, Lavi looked on as Allen brought the cryptex closer to his face, narrowing his eyes like that again. Tyki also looked on, puzzled at first. Then, abruptly, he snapped his fingers. "Right! Hang on a sec."

He quickly retrieved his bag, and from it, he retrieved those ugly glasses of his. "Try these."

Allen put them on, blinking repeatedly. "These are all wrong," he finally muttered.

"Better or worse compared to before?" Tyki asked.

"Better," Allen said, pushing them farther up his nose as he looked back down at the cryptex. "Somewhat."

"Coming to think of it, I think I saw a pair of glasses back in the office… Are they yours?"

"Probably," Allen muttered, turning the cryptex over in his hand. "I keep misplacing my glasses and−" He reached up to scratch his head and then abruptly froze. "Huh? I don't recall cutting my hair? Or bleaching it?"

By now, Lavi was horrified. And intrigued, of course, but mostly the former. Tyki on the other hand seemed to be mostly the latter. "What's the last thing you remember?" he asked.

"Uh… I think I was headed down to the lab to−" Allen looked up at Tyki, and abruptly, all colour drained from his face. "Wait−" His eyes darted from Tyki to the room to Lavi and then back again. "What's−?"

Horrified or not, Lavi decided to get involved. "What's wrong?"

Allen looked from Tyki to Lavi, as if only really noticing him just now. "Who is that?" he asked, tugging lightly at Tyki's shirt.

Tyki seemed puzzled but proved quite willing to indulge him. "That would be Lavi Bookman Junior of Bookman & Junior. Allegedly."

Allen(?) perked up at the mention of Bookman, and he eyed Lavi with renewed interest. "I didn't know he took on another apprentice…"

And Lavi didn't know there had been people before him. Allegedly. "Lavi Bookman, at your service."

Lavi extended his hand and tried not to show his surprise when Allen immediately took it and shook it while smiling almost serenely at him.

"My condolences," he said.

Lavi was not sure what that was supposed to mean, but he was decidedly certain about one thing. Uncaring of whether or not they could see and hear him, he pulled out his phone and called Bookman. "Hey, Old Man," he greeted immediately once the call connected. "The beneficiary has gone through a personality switch and suddenly needs glasses. Should I be worried about this?"

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