"Son, son, wake up," a voice called, "Rev, c'mon, it's time to get up." Rev moaned as Ralph shook his shoulder to rouse him from sleep. "Hmm… Pa? What time is it?" Rev asked groggily. "I think it's about," Ralph paused and checked his watch, "Six o'clock AM."
"Six in the morning?" Rev groaned, "You know the appointment isn't until nine, right?" "Yes, I am aware of that, son, but I want to get to the office early," Ralph explained, "Besides, the guys have been asking about you ever since we heard about your… accident, and I promised them I'd bring you around once you were feeling better to see them."
"Do I look like I'm feeling better, Pa?" Rev groaned as he sat up and turned to sit on the edge of the bed, "I'm a mess, and I feel awful. I don't mind meeting a few people, like Mr. McCollough or Miss Smithe, but I can't go around the entire office for a meet and greet with everyone like I did when I was a kid. I just don't have the energy for it right now."
Ralph nodded and said, "I don't expect you to meet with everyone, son. I have to meet with a few of the higher-ups to discuss a few important updates that we're about to implement into our larger data systems in the next few months. All you need to do is sit there quietly in the room during the meeting. It should only take about an hour and we'll head straight to your therapy appointment once it's finished." Rev arched a brow, looking at his dad intently and said, "You promise this isn't going to be another meet and greet?"
"I promise, son," Ralph agreed. Rev sighed and said, "Alright, Pa. Give me a few minutes to put myself together and we can head down to the office building." Ralph smiled happily and left to give Rev some privacy, walking down the stairs and sat down in his recliner to wait for him. It was about twenty minutes before Rev finally came down.
The poor boy looked exhausted with dark rings under his eyes and a very pale complexion. He was wearing a pair of dark blue sweatpants and a hoodie; the hood was pulled up, covering his comb and it was obvious he was wearing his binder again because his chest didn't puff out at all underneath the sweater. "Are you alright, son?" Ralph asked as he stood up, "You look… a little pale." Rev let out a soft grumble, crossing his arms and shook his head, saying, "I'll be fine, Pop. Can we just get some breakfast and head out now? Please?"
Ralph and Rev grabbed a quick bite before heading out to the garage and firing up the old family hovercar. Rev stared out the window, watching the homes and small businesses quickly change into larger, taller business buildings and wrapping his arms around himself to try to fend off the chill of the car's AC unit. "Ma never did get that thing fixed, did she?" Rev shivered. Ralph just chuckled, shaking his head and said, "No. To be honest it'd probably be a waste of time considering where we live." "Whatever you say, Pa." Rev sighed, turning his attention back towards the outside world.
The two avians rode the rest of the way in awkward silence, both trying to ignore the tension until they finally reached the Runner Enterprises office building. "Here we are," Ralph chirped, "Isn't it as grand as you remember?" Rev looked up at the towering building, a shiver running down his spine as he felt dizzy and grabbed onto the door to keep from falling over. "Well, it's as tall as I remember," Rev chuckled uncomfortably. Ralph locked the car and walked over, patting Rev on the shoulder before wrapping his arm around his son's shoulders and led him into the office building.
As Rev started walking towards the front door, he felt another shiver run down his spine when he spotted a vehicle on the other side of the parking lot. It was a bright cherry red sports car with a drop top and white decal stripes running across the sides and tan leather interior. There was something about it that felt familiar, as if Rev had seen that car somewhere before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where.
Rev felt his chest tighten as an overwhelming sense of dread flooded over him; though he wasn't sure why, the familiar appearance of the car sent pure horror through the young roadrunner's mind, making his whole body feel stiff, as if he was walking through cold molasses. He grabbed Ralph's hand and pulled it off of his shoulders, grabbing hold of it tight as he welled up enough energy for a quick dash to the front door.
"Whoa, whoa, take it easy, son," Ralph chuckled, "I can appreciate the excitement, but the building isn't going anywhere." Rev took several deep breaths to try to calm himself down as Ralph swiped his ID card and opened the front door, holding it open for Rev as he quickly shuffled inside the building. Once inside, Rev gave a sigh of relief, feeling just a bit safer as he looked around the familiar surroundings of his family's office building.
"This way, son," Ralph said herding Rev towards the elevator. "Pa, I've been coming here since I was six," Rev said with a teasing eyeroll, "I know my way around." "I know, son, but we've done some renovations since your last visit," Ralph explained, "The board room got moved in the process, unfortunately."
Rev's eyes widened and his beak flushed a little as he quietly said, "Oh." Ralph smiled and gave a soft laugh, beckoning Rev closer as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. "Don't worry about it, Rev. Let's just get this meeting over with, eh?" Rev smiled gratefully and nodded, scuttling into the lift as Ralph pushed the button for the top floor. As the two roadrunners rode the elevator up, Rev turned around to look outside the glass window on the back of the elevator, letting out a heavy sigh as he watched the ground get further and further away the higher the elevator climbed.
Just before they reached the top floor, a gleam of light drew Rev's attention to the far end of the side parking lot; Rev squinted and spotted the same cherry red hovercar from before. His heart sunk in his chest as he spotted someone sitting in the front seat of the car. It was another roadrunner dressed in very nice clothes and sunglasses, his body feathers were a light reddish-brown hue and his comb and tail feathers had been dyed a bright red. Rev clenched his chest as his heart started pounding wildly in pure horror. Rev spun around the second he heard the elevator ding, trying to purge the sight from his mind as he followed Ralph down the hall.
"Well, here we are, finally," Ralph said swiping his ID card and opening the door. As he turned to gesture Rev inside the boardroom, Ralph noticed Rev's face had turned sickly pale; the younger avian was shivering and sweating. "Are you alright, son?" Ralph asked, placing a hand on Rev's shoulder, "You're trembling." Rev said nothing, just shook his head and walked over to a chair located close to the door.
"You… might have to do this one without me, Pop," Rev shook, "I… I don't… I don't feel very good all of a sudden." Ralph arched a brow and asked, "You're not just trying to get out of attending the meeting, are you, son?" Rev looked up at Ralph with an expression of pure fear in his eyes; what little of Rev's face he could make out from under his hood was pale and dripping with sweat. He looked like Rev was trying to resist throwing up. "Right," Ralph said with a nervous drone, "Well, the garbage can is right there. Just… sit tight, son. This shouldn't take long."
Rev watched as his father vanished into the boardroom, evoking an eruption of chatter from the attendants. Rev covered his ears to try to muffle the noise, standing up and walking as quickly as he could to a chair in the far corner closer to the trashcan. Rev reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out his phone and earbuds, plugging them into his ears and searching for a good song to listen to while he waited for his dad to get out of the meeting.
As he scrolled through his albums, he heard a ping and saw that he had a text message. He didn't recognize the number, but there was a little icon on it that denoted it was urgent. Rev figured it had something to do with his therapy appointment, so he gave a shrug and tapped on the screen to open his texts. Rev's eyes widened in sheer horror as the text popped up; he felt his chest tightening again and his breathing became labored. His hands shivered as he read the message aloud, "Your gilded cage can't save you. See you soon. Love, Your one and only."
Rev's hands shook violently, dropping his phone to the floor and unplugging his earbuds in the process. Rev to the trashcan just in time as he felt his stomach churn and heave painfully, purging what little food he had in his gut. Rev whimpered in pain as he clenched his gut, wobbling over to where his phone had fallen and stooped over slowly to pick up his phone and earbuds. Rev reached up to hit the X icon at the corner of the message, hoping that Reggie was just trying to rattle him and that he could delete the message without it coming back to bite him. But something stopped him, a strange feeling washing over him that kept him from going through with trashing the message.
Rev lowered his hand, took a deep breath and sighed before walking back to the chair in the corner and sat down. Rev exited out of the message, looked through his contacts until he found Tech's number. Rev hesitated for a second as his finger hovered over the green phone icon, thinking to himself, "What if he's asleep, or eating, or in the bathroom? What if he's busy with other important stuff? What if… what if… what if he doesn't get here in time?"
Rev shook his head, clearing his mind and went to tap the green phone again, only to stop as another wave of nervousness washed over him. Rev let out a frustrated growl and quickly backtracked to Reggie's message, selecting it and hitting the forward option. Rev quickly typed out something about how he was scared, not even really thinking about what he typed out before hitting 'send' and let out a frustrated squawk afterwards.
"Oh God," Rev shivered, "Why didn't I just call him? Tech's never been good with checking his text messages!" Rev looked up towards the ceiling for a moment and quietly prayed, saying, "Please, Tech, please! For once, could you please just check your texts? Please!"