Oh dip? An update for Liminal Love that's *not* arriving in the middle of the night? Who woulda thunk it?
But yes! The next chapter is here, and as some of you may have guessed, we're gonna drop in on Charles to see how he's doing! The Bukowski Twins are here, too (because who else would it be?), so this is sure to be a fun time!
I'll let y'all get right to it; see you at the bottom of the page!
Phone Games (plural noun): means of entertainment mostly available on mobile devices, including but not limited to games of chance to games of mental fortitude and challenge
"Beach trip!" Calvin Bukowski cheered as Charles piloted his helicopter through the cloudy sky.
"Won't be much of a beach or a trip," Konrad pointed out, "considering this is a search and/or rescue mission in the literal worst beach town in the US."
"Aw," Calvin muttered, only to perk up again instantly. "We'll just have to find a better beach to go to next time, then! Right, Charles?"
Charles didn't reply, hardly having even heard the conversation up until this point. He was on autopilot, flicking switches and pressing buttons to keep the helicopter moving swiftly and steadily. He stared hard at the sky ahead of them, lips fixed into a small, firm frown.
"Charles?" Konrad lightly tapped his shoulder, and Charles whipped his head around to look at him. "You okay, man?"
Charles gave him a quick smile, though it was strained and unnecessarily toothy, like a wince. "Uh, yup! Just uh- Just focused on flying! Bit rough out there, you know? Gotta stay focused."
Calvin gave him a look. "You seem real worried about Price."
"Too worried," Konrad agreed, leaning forward to peer up into his eyes. "Why's he got you so stressed? What did he do?"
Charles tried to keep his "grin" up for a little longer, finally letting it slip from his face as he turned his attention back to the sky. "It's... more that I'm worried about what he might do." The twins tilted their in sync, questioningly. Charles sighed. "It's just... I don't know what the whole deal is with Gadget Gabe, or Shady Sea Town, or any of that stuff, but to be honest... When Rupert disappeared so suddenly, I was worried he was going to do something." He lowered his gaze. "Something... unfixable."
A thick silence filled the cockpit. The twins looked at each other, as if communicating telepathically. Calvin opened his mouth for a moment, then closed it again. Charles knew they wanted to help, to reassure him that Rupert would never do that. But they'd all seen how much he was spiraling that night at the bar; first hand, in the twin's case.
"Let's not worry about that," Konrad said at last. "Thinking like that won't help anyone. We'll focus on finding Price for now... and make him spill his guts to us later."
"He'll probably organize his guts in alphabetical order." Calvin nodded along.
"Or by size."
"We could call him and ask for his organizational preferences."
"Oh please, if he didn't pick up when Charlie called him, he won't pick up for us."
"That's true." Charles stared into space, an odd look slowly spreading across his features. "...Charlie?" Calvin said after a beat. "You tried calling Price already, right?"
"Of course he did," Konrad said. "Right, Charlie?"
There was an awkward pause.
"Konrad," Charles asked with a world weary sigh, "could you do me a favor and call Rupert's number for me, please?"
The twins blinked once. Twice.
Then they nearly fell out of their seats laughing.
"H-hey, hang on a second!" Charles stammered, face flushing to match his headphones. "It's been a long week; I haven't gotten a lot of sleep-"
"Oh my God," Calvin wheezed. "You were freaking out so much you didn't even think-!"
"I was worried about Rupert, okay?!"
Konrad flew into a coughing fit. "Charles 'jump to conclusions' Calvin, ladies and gentlemen!"
Charles made a few more sounds of protest, though his lips quirked upwards without his permission. It was ridiculous; he really had just launched himself to the worst case scenario, hadn't he? Apparently, his Greatest Plan wasn't so great if it didn't involve a real helicopter.
Calvin wiped a tear from his eye, holding his stomach as he shuddered with giggles. "Oh, wow. We're a couple of idiots, aren't we?"
Konrad groaned and massaged his temples. "A couple of idiots who care too darn much. Ay, me."
Charles shifted in the pilot's chair, exposing his side towards the twins. "One of you reach in here and grab my phone, okay? He'll probably answer if it's me who's calling."
"Sir, yes sir." Calvin fished the phone from Charles' jacket pocket and searched through his contacts once it was opened.
"Price probably wouldn't answer for either of us, anyway," Konrad lamented, swiping the back of his hand over his forehead dramatically. "Even after all we do for him!"
"You mean those 'pranks' you pull on him?" Charles asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What do you mean 'pranks'? We only work with the best jokes!"
"It's the Bukowski quality guarantee!" Calvin laughed, his thumb hovering over the green call button. "Okay, I've got his number pulled up; I'm calling him now."
"Put it on speaker," Charles said, leaning back in his pilot's chair, a sense of ease and relief washing over him as Calvin pressed the button.
The phone rang once, the low tone interrupted halfway through with an unfamiliar *beep*.
"What was that?" Konrad asked.
"Uh," Calvin said, staring at the screen. "He declined the call."
"What?" Charles peered over his shoulder briefly. Rupert never declined calls. Missed them, sure; he hardly ever had the volume on, but purposefully cutting off a call before it even started? "Could you try again? Maybe his finger slipped."
"Right," Calvin said slowly, dialing the number once more. That same *beep* sounded off again, almost instantly this time.
Charles' grip tightened on the shift stick. Why was Rupert ignoring him on purpose? Was he... was he planning-?
"Well, if you think about it," Konrad said quickly, "if he's actively ignoring the calls, then he's alive! That's good, right?"
But for how much longer? Charles couldn't help but think.
"Third time's the charm," Calvin said, more to himself than anything, and pressed the button one more time.
The phone rang once for a full tone, before a much more familiar *click* sounded out and a nasally voice that very much did not belong to Rupert snapped through the speaker. "Take the hint and stop calling!"
Charles looked towards the twins, who stared back at him before looking again at the phone. "Um, hello?" he offered. "Is, uh... is Rupert available?"
Heavy breathing was the only response, sounding staticky and sticky all at once. Finally: "No. No he is not." The breathing faded like they were about to hang up.
"H-hey, wait!" Charles called out. "Are you- Gadget Gabe? By any chance?"
There was a much briefer moment of breathing. "...Who wants to know?"
Charles forced a wide grin and started speaking, keeping his voice light and bouncy. "Uh, hi! My name's Charlie, and I'm a friend of Rupert's! I uh... I'm really into science, and when I heard Rupert was going to see you, uh- I thought that was so cool! I remember hearing you from my friend, my friend, um... H-Henry...?"
There was a beat of silence. Then, "Gadget Gabe may know the Henry you speak of. An excellent patron of Gadget Gabe's. A wise friend you have made."
Konrad and Calvin looked at Charles, who shrugged but continued talking. "Uh, right! Hen-Henry's so cool and... real. Um, anyway, I'm sure you're super busy, but if you don't mind, I'd love to hear about your latest inventions- er, gadgets. Whaddaya say?"
There was a throaty, nasally chuckle. "Well, Gadget Gabe can hardly deny such indulgences. What to start with, what to start with..."
The twins stared at Charles as he grinned and praised Gadget Gabe, who rambled on and on about his gadgets- though truthfully, it was more like he was bragging about how much money he was going to make, rather than what these gadgets actually did. Still, Charles continued to butter him up, encouraging the man to go into detail about everything. The conversation drew on for several minutes, to the point that a lot of Charles' praises began to sound even more forced than they'd already been. Gadget Gabe didn't seem to notice or care, though.
Charles glanced back at the twins after a bit, making an exaggerated wink and gesturing vaguely at the sky in front of him. Konrad's eyes widened with understanding before he whispered something in Calvin's ear. Calvin responded with a silent "oh" and matching Charles' wink.
Gadget Gabe might not have wanted them to speak to Rupert, but if they kept him- and possibly Rupert- from going anywhere, it would only be a matter of time until the helicopter arrived in Shady Sea Town. If Charles could keep up this charade, they'd be able to get the jump on him. Unfortunately, Charles could only say "wow, cool" in so many ways.
When the voice started to sound bored, Charles decided to take a risk. "So uh, how's Rupert doing?"
Instantly, there was a shift in the air. Gadget Gabe's droning voice was silent for a long moment, finally ending with a clipped "he's fine."
"Great!" Charles said, grinning so widely that it was starting to hurt. "I'd heard that Rupert was looking for an old friend of his. Since you've got his phone, you must be helping him, right?"
"...Yes..."
Calvin made a cautioning motion at Charles. Charles nodded in understanding. Gadget Gabe was clearly getting nervous; he needed to pick his words carefully from now on. "Rupert's friend is a huge science fan, too! I wonder if he's also heard of your gadgets?"
The man chuckled, settling back into the praise. "Most certainly, if Dave has good tastes."
"Who's Dave?" Konrad mouthed at Charles.
"Rupert's friend," Charles mouthed back, then resumed smiling. "No doubt about it! I wonder which of your gadgets he'd like best..."
"A tracking device," Gadget Gabe answered immediately.
"O-oh, yeah? Why's that?"
"It would save Gadget Gabe plenty of time if he ever again falls into a pocket dimension-"
"Like the Backrooms?" Calvin blurted. Konrad shoved him roughly, but quietly.
"What was that?" Gadget Gabe's voice grew stern. "Your voice changed for a moment..."
Charles cleared his throat with as much exaggeration as possible. "Ahem, hem, s-sorry, I swallowed a dust bunny, haha. I-I was asking... uh..." He glanced at the twins, who mouthed the question to him. "Th-the Backrooms? It's, uh..." the twins gestured around with their hands, and Charles was just barely able to interpret the movements. "It's this thing I'd heard of- on the- on the internet? Um, it's when people... 'No-Clip?' Through the ground? A-and they end up in weird places. Just- just thought that kind of sounded like what you said, just now..."
Gadget Gabe grumbled to himself, too quietly to really make anything out besides a few words: "...Internet... copy-right laws... stealing..." After a moment he cleared his throat with finality. "Gadget Gabe has things to do. Gadget Gabe will hang up now-"
"Wait!" Charles cried. The screens on the control panel were blinking more frequently; Shady Sea Town was just a half hour or so away-!
"What is it?" Gadget Gabe snapped.
"Just- um-" he struggled to think of anything to keep him on the phone, but it was a losing battle. He sighed in defeat. "C-could you tell Rupert that I called? And let him know that I'm looking forward to hearing from him again?"
"Fine." There was another click, and the line went dead.
Exhaling slowly, Charles leaned back in his pilot's chair, eyes fixed on the sky ahead of him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Calvin and Konrad shift around each other, likely discussing what had just happened.
What had just happened? Charles honestly wasn't entirely sure, but it didn't seem good in the slightest. Rupert was with Gadget Gabe, as he'd suspected, but he wasn't available to talk. Gadget Gabe had Rupert's phone, and only talked as much as he had because of Charles' careful ego-boosting. Rupert had told Gadget Gabe about Dave, trusted him with that information, and Gadget Gabe seemed to honestly think that Dave was lost in a pocket dimension, or whatever he'd said.
Maybe it was petty of him, but Charles felt hurt at the idea that Rupert trusted this sleazy "scientist" more than him. He thought he was so close to bridging the gap between them, but apparently not.
Why did Rupert always keep his distance, anyway? Time and again, Charles had gone out of his way to prove to the man that he could lower his guard around him, confide in him. He seemed so close... Maybe he wasn't as good at befriending people as he thought.
"Uh," Konrad said after a minute, drawing Charles from his thoughts. "Not to alarm you or anything, but I tried to leave Rupert a text- just to see if he'd read it later? And..." He leaned forward, holding Charles' phone out to him.
Charles glanced down. Konrad wrote a brief message and hit the send button, only for a small red X to appear on the screen. His grip on the stick shift tightened so hard that his knuckles turned white.
Your number has been blocked. Sorry!
...Well, that sure happened. Definitely not ominous at all.
Did you like what I did there with Henry? He may not exist in this story, but that doesn't mean we can just not mention him ever. Does Gadget Gabe actually "know" the Henry that Charles made up? It's hard to say. On one hand, the most obvious answer is that Gadget Gabe is making it up to seem relatable and cool, but it could also be fun if he's thinking of a Henry from a different dimension... then again, I doubt he'd actually have the skills/working technology to get to know anyone trans-dimensionally. I guess I'll leave that to your lovely little imaginations.
Am I the only one who's ever jumped to the worst case scenario about something that could be easily solved/explained? Like, if I'm in a situation where I need help and I call or message someone and they don't immediately reply, I'm like "they are never going to notice the message I have to keep calling them RIGHT NOW until they give me the information I need", and then like five minutes later they text back saying "dude why'd you spam me, I was in the bathroom or something". The wonders of anxiety!
Anyway, there's not a lot to say about this one, except... We've finally crossed the threshold. The next few chapters are going to be Big. Very, very, BIG. The Big Ones, you could say. THE moments. THE scenes. It's about. To go. Down.
Anyway, see you next Monday! We'll be checking in on Dave again to see how he's doing. He's probably fine. Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you thought of this one! Until then!