Fall Away

It took a half-hour to pull Soren away from the computer, and another twenty-five minutes to convince him I really did need food. Kirian spent the time going in and out of the room, offering no help when he was nearby. It took ten minutes for me to discover that Mrs. Jones had already left, but they did indeed have frozen pizza in the freezer.

I was beginning to understand why the boys had a housekeeper. I even started to wonder how they got by making their own food – right now, they appeared pretty helpless.

Still, I got the pizza out of the freezer, turned on the oven, and introduced myself to the refrigerator, where I found some applesauce and green peppers. I cut up the peppers, then put the pizza in the oven and waited for it all to be done.

By the time Soren finally pushed himself away from the computer, handing me back my iPod, the pizza was cooling on the counter. “That smells good!” he announced, surprise in his voice.

“Pizza is always good,” I replied. “Thanks for helping, by the way.”

“No problem.” He paused, and the grin slowly faded. “Wait… I didn’t help! When did you do this?”

I groaned. Honestly, how did I get stuck with him? He was acting… well, dumber than usual. “Forget it. Where’s Kirian?”

Soren opened his mouth, but I interrupted. “Oh, how would you know? You’ve been on that computer for the past hour.”

“Are you upset?” Soren asked, looking at me in concern. “I’m sorry, I really am. You should’ve told me you were bored. I assumed you – I mean, I thought Kirian would-”

He died off as it became obvious that Kirian had done nothing of the sort. In fact, he’d done nothing but ignore me all night. There was a minute of silence before Soren cleared his throat. “Well. This is sufficiently awkward.”

I had to laugh. “Yeah. I’ll see if I can find Kirian.”

“He’s probably upstairs,” Soren called. “He’s normally…”

His words faded as I made my way up the stairs, taking in my surroundings. This was the first time I’d really had the chance to look at this part of the house, and at this point I’d take any clues about the boys that I could possibly find. “Kirian?” I called, somewhat half-heartedly, as I got closer to the second floor.

There was no answer. I stepped out onto the landing and looked around at the lack of decoration in the house. It made sense that two boys wouldn’t care as much as mothers normally do, but it was still odd for me.

Kirian’s door was open, and I poked my head in. The room was a bit messier than the last time I’d seen it, but there was no sign of the boy who lived there. “Kirian?” I called again, slightly confused. I had expected him to be in his room, just listening to his iPod or something.

There was still no answer. I turned and walked down the hall, peeking into various rooms. I repeated the tour the boys had given me, except I was able to get an actual look at each room. I had to force myself not to stop in the computer room (which looked more like an electronics store) and again when I reached the library. I was trying to find Kirian, I reminded myself, even if he didn’t seem to want to be found.

I frowned as I neared the end of the hall. It was like he had disappeared completely. I pushed open the last door and looked inside. It was dark, but I could make out what looked like a chair on one side of the room. “Kirian?” I whispered.

The moment I spoke, lights flashed on. I blinked in the sudden brightness. Were the lights voice sensitive? That was cool. After my eyes had adjusted, I began to look around the room.

There was a couch placed in front of a low table, but it was empty. The whole room was empty, yet I couldn’t make myself leave. The room, a stark contrast of black and white, made parts of the room seem to pop out, drawing me in.

But the thing that held my attention stood in the middle of the room. It was a glass box, like a fish tank only much taller and much skinnier. Inside it, there appeared to be thousands of glass balls, some as small as peas and some much larger. As I watched, the balls shifted, as if one had suddenly disappeared. But the glass still looked as full as before.

I forced myself to look away, taking in the rest of the room as my mind worked at triple speed. What had they said this room was? The “random room they never used?” I couldn’t remember, and suddenly it seemed important.

I completed my circle, stopping in front of the one wall not visible from the door. Two columns of words ran from floor to ceiling, and it looked as if the white letters had been painted directly into the wall.

I frowned, trying to read the words. It wasn’t until I saw “John” that I realized they were names.

It wasn’t until I found one name, a few inches below eye level, that I began to panic.