.

Allude

Shaun looked around the house, wondering why this one had to look so different from the others. Every year on Shaun's birthday Jayden would give him a different key, and a different note with a different colored ribbon, different directions on how to get there...

Every year he seemed to move farther away, and this time it was really a long haul from the train station. But at least this time he didn't have to go practically in circles trying to find that elusive house surrounded by trees and secluded from the rest of the world... Shaun kind of wished he moved to one of those types of houses again; this one seemed… too homey. The others were more exotic, luxurious, and expensive.

Shaun folded the note back along its original crease and put it in his pocket. He sauntered sleepily over to the kitchen while he stretched out his arms, yawning. It was a long train ride here, and on top of that he had to walk here in the dark. Which he didn't mind, of course, since he had dealt with far much worse in the past.

"Hey, I got into another fight with Mom and her… boyfriend. Sorry for arriving so late this time!" he called, hoping he wasn't too loud, but loud enough that Jayden would hear in his bedroom. At least he hoped the man slept at this hour. Come to think of it, he had never snuck back into Jayden's room after they went to sleep just to see if he ever did, in fact, sleep.

"I guess this time I'll find out for sure if he really does," Shaun said wonderingly while he flipped on the light switch in the kitchen, got a glass out of the cupboard and sat it on the dining table, then turned around to open the fridge and find something to drink. He saw a carton of orange juice and grabbed it, shutting the refrigerator door afterward. He started to shake the carton while sitting down at the table.

In the back of his mind, he wondered why this would be. Why Jayden decided to suddenly move into an ordinary neighborhood, surrounded by ordinary houses, surrounded by ordinary people. It was like he suddenly didn't want to stand out. Either that, or he was losing confidence in himself. Shaun stopped shaking the carton.

Or losing money.

"Shit…" He muttered under his breath as he poured the orange juice into his glass, the kind with pulp. Shaun's favorite. He half-smiled- Jayden always seemed to keep some on hand for him. He actually cared.

Like a father.

Shaun glanced away from the table, looking instead out of the kitchen and into the back yard.

He's like you…

Dad.

"It will be... on the other side of that tree." Jayden said out loud, deciphering the scrambled numbers and letters on the paper. He walked down the steps of the back porch and went to a tree that was by itself near the corner of the yard. He walked around it, and noticed something red high up in a branch. He tugged at it, and something swung down with a card attached to it. It was a bottle.

"No way. You've gotta be kidding me." He untied the red ribbon from the tree branch, held the small bottle in his hand and read the card.

'Please throw it away. I don't want you to suffer anymore.'

Jayden leaned his back into the tree, speechless. Shaun somehow found all his hidden stashes of Triptocaine around the house and put it into one bottle. How did he know?

Jayden briskly walked back into the house, agitated and distressed, and sat at the table next to Shaun, who was waiting for him to return.

"I... how..." Jayden started, barely able to speak or form coherent thoughts. Shaun rested his hands together on the table, not immediately replying, and not looking at him either. He waited a few seconds to answer his unasked question with bullet-charged insight.

"You miss him, don't you."

Jayden froze. He slowly looked from the bottle when he put it on the table upon entering the kitchen to this child, this child that was way smarter than he should have been. Jayden noticed that Shaun was staring at him from the corner of his eyes this whole time. Shaun's eyes pierced into his, and was somehow able to read his thoughts.

"I...I do. ...A lot." Jayden's eyes drooped, overcome with sorrow and shame. He turned his head back to face the table and looked down at the bottle.

"He… was the greatest father in the world, Shaun. You should have seen how much he cared about you. I witnessed it with my own eyes; I've NEVER met someone who had that level of determination before. I can only imagine the things he went through to save you."

Shaun was quiet for a moment, letting all of this new info to him sink in. Slowly, he reached out a hand and touched Jayden's arm, meaning 'I know'. "Mr. Jayden?"

"Yeah?" He looked at Shaun, Shaun's face filled with compassion and understanding.

"You loved him, didn't you?"

Suddenly Shaun jolted awake, sitting upright in his chair. This was the same chair he sat in that day, and even the same table. He looked from the table to the view outside again, amazed at the memory provoked from simply sitting here. He quickly stood up; it was as if this house was playing with his mind, making him relive things-

"I guess this house really has more in common with the other houses than I thought," he said, and quickly drank his orange juice and left the kitchen with the light still on. He hoped it would give him enough energy to do what he was about to do.

That memory was from a whole year ago.

He hoped Jayden had stopped using by now.