Nothing Safe

"He's been missing for a few days, Officer Mayibara. His name is Daelen Ezra. My friend Scott was with him when he turned his back for a couple minutes, then he was gone." Noire wiped away the tears dripping from her chin. "You have to find him."

The police man glanced at Scott. "And are you the one who he was with?" he asked in English. Scott nodded quickly. "Okay, you'll need to describe him so we can begin to file the report."

Noire fumbled with her hands, closing her eyes tightly. "He's tall..much taller than me. Even taller than Scott. He has black hair that goes down to his chin. He has grey eyes and if you can tell, he has multiple cuts on his body, mostly on his chest."

The police nodded as he scribbled this down on a sheet of paper. "His ethnicity?"

"Oh, right. He's Caucasian. He's originally from Lithuania, so he has a slight accent." She bowed her head, trying to recall anything else of importance.

"Right. Thank you, Miss Aurelia. We will keep you informed." The man sent a small, reassuring smile her way.

"Yes. Thank you as well, Officer Mayibara." She turned on her heel and quickly left the station, not even glancing back to see if Scott was following her.

Scott easily caught up with her. "Are you okay?" he asked in a low voice.

"We have to look for him too, Scott. The police will take too long; they have other things to worry about. I just don't know where to start." Noire hopped into the driver's seat and drove off once Scott finally got in.

Scott was silent for a moment. "Are we going to check the park?" he asked.

Noire nodded absentmindedly before starting the engine and driving to where Daelen was last seen. "I wonder what they're doing to him.." she trailed off.

Scott stiffened. "No. Don't you even dare step into that thought process. We can't think of the possibilities when we need to keep our heads. We'll find him. We have to."

She took in a deep breath and nodded once again. "I guess you're right, Scott. I just worry. He's my first boyfriend. Yet, there's no one else I want to look at. Daelen and I have a connection since I've saved him. I can't just let him get killed because I didn't look hard enough, right?"

"I doubt they'll kill him anyway, Noire," Scott said thoughtfully. "I mean he's like..." he trailed off, wondering if he dared even speak the word. None of them had acknowledged it so far, but it was there, like a huge elephant in the room. Scott took a deep breath. "He's...psychic."

Noire slammed on the brakes after quickly pulling off to the side. "You are not to mention that to Daelen at all when we find him, Scott. I don't want him knowing we know."

He looked at her in confusion. "Daelen's a smart guy, Noire. I'm fairly sure he knows that we know." He hesitated before continuing. "I mean, it makes sense, right? Why else would he have been locked up if there was nothing out of the ordinary about him?" Scott shot her another confused look. "Why don't you want him to know we know even if he didn't anyway?"

"I just don't want him feeling uncomfortable around us. He might think we believe he's too strange. Oh, I don't know, Scott. I just don't want to bring it up until he does. He needs to be ready to tell us." Noire mumbled to herself quietly, before starting to drive to the park again.

They were silent for a few more minutes before Scott decided to speak up. "Do you really think he killed his sister?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head. "I don't think so. I think everyone just needed someone to blame and Daelen was there when she passed away."

"But his dad...seemed to genuinely believe...do you think he knew?"

"Knew what? That Daelen was psychic? I'd assume so." she said, parking the car and stepping out onto the cool grass.

Scott absentmindedly linked his arm through hers and they walked on. "But he just decided to blame him anyway? I mean, I know we don't know the whole story here, but it seems so...wrong, you know?"

Noire clung tightly to Scott's arm. "Yeah. You know how crabby his dad is though. Besides, Daelen isn't like that. He wouldn't do something so horrible to his little sister."

Scott frowned and stopped when he looked overhead. "Right by that tree," he said, nodding in that direction.

She slowly walked over to the small tree, sitting down on the grass, tearing up a few blades. "I can't believe he isn't here, Scott.." she said, wiping away a few tears. Turning her head slightly, she noticed a small sparkle. "What's over there?" she asked, crawling over to the spot.

Scott kneeled down beside her. He scooped it gently out of the grass. "It's a watch," he replied, tilting his palm to show it to her.

Noire quickly grabbed it from his hands. "It's the watch I gave Daelen! Scott, what do we do?" She clutched it tightly to her chest. "I miss him so much."

"I know," he sighed, standing up and offering her a hand. "At least we know now he was taken for sure. I mean, he would never leave behind something so obviously important to you."

She took his hand and stood up slowly. "Should we bring this to the police?" Her arms and hands shook as she held out the watch.

"Oh god. We touched it, though. What if, his attacker had fingerprints on the watch?" Scott asked.

Noire let out a loud sob that had been building up inside her throat. "We'll never find him now, Scott. The only thing that we have to prove he's been taken is all messed up." She buried her face in her hands, trying her best to stifle her cries.

"Hey, it's okay, we'll still bring it to them," Scott whispered, pulling her close. "We might not have erased all evidence. Let's just be more careful okay?" Scott put a finger up, signaling Noire to wait. He quickly went to a vendor, grabbed a few napkins and ran back.

Scott gingerly picked up the watch with one of the napkins, wrapping it around and placing it carefully in his pocket. "There," he said. "Let's bring this to the station."

Noire nodded and nearly sprinted to her car. "Hurry up, Scott. I want to get there as fast as possible. The sooner they receive that watch, the sooner we'll find Daelen."
--
Daelen crawled on his hands and knees, searching his tiny cell. In the corner of his eye, he could see Rentaro watching him with mild interest. "There's got to be something..." he muttered to himself, running the pads of his fingers across the stone wall and down to where it met the dirty floor.

Rentaro laughed just loud enough for Daelen to hear. "There's no way out. I've been here long enough to look for myself. Just face it, Daelen. You're never going to see the outside world again." He picked at the dirt that had collected under his fingernails, searching Daelen's face for some kind of reaction.

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to give up. Just because you have accepted your fate doesn't mean we all have." Daelen sat back on his heels glancing around for a moment. A hopeful expression flitted across his face, and he shoved his hands into his pockets, turning them inside out. A small pocket knife clattered to the floor. Daelen picked it up and studied it, flipping it open. "What kind of stupid people are they? They didn't even bother to check my pockets."

Sliding closer to the bars between them, Rentaro let his eyes drift over the the small knife Daelen held in his hand. "What do you plan to do with that?"

Daelen turned to look at the man, eyebrow raised. "Well, it's a weapon, isn't it?"

The jingle of a doctor's keys quickly neared the two. "What's with all the noise, you pathetic pieces of shit? Do I need to teach you another lesson, Daelen?" He leaned in through the bars, his mask reflecting the sliver of light that was being let in through the window.

Daelen kept the pocket knife out of view and stared up at the doctor. "Then why don't you come in and teach it?"

The doctor flung open the cell door and shoved Daelen against the wall, his sausage fingers wrapping around his throat. "Have any more smart-ass comments for me, Mr. Ezra?"

"Just one," Daelen choked out. With that he shoved the doctor to the opposite side and flicked his pocket knife out and pressed it against his throat. "Rentaro," he said quickly. "Grab his keys!"

Rentaro reached out as far as his could, letting his fingers grip onto the doctor's large bundle of keys. "I've got them.." he said to himself quietly. He held them close, afraid they would be taken from him.

"Don't you dare move or I'll slit your throat," Daelen whispered menacingly to the doctor. "Rentaro, quick as you can, please."

He fumbled with the lock before finally opening the door of his cell. He already felt free, but he knew there would be doctors coming soon enough. After a few moments to collect himself, he unlocked the door for Daelen and motioned him to come out. "Hurry, Daelen."

Okay, now comes the hard part. Quickly, Daelen shoved the doctor away from him and against the wall, darting outside the cell and shutting it on his enemy. With wide eyes and veins pumping with adrenaline, he whipped his head around to look at Rentaro. "Which way?"

"I-I don't know..I've never been let out of my cell.." Rentaro took a step away from the cell, seeing the doctor beginning to get back on his feet. "My best guess is that there are at least two doctors either way we go."

Daelen picked a way at random, running along the corridor. "Ever play Red Rover?" he asked Rentaro as they slid and turned down another hallway.

"I've never even heard of that game, let alone played it." Rentaro winced before tripping, the keys being flung down the hallway, clashing against the cobblestone floor.

Daelen bent down and snatched the keys up, grasping Rentaro by the forearm and pulling him up. They continued down the hallway as fast as they could. "It's simple," Daelen explained. "If we see a doctor, just grab my hand and let him run in between us. That should knock him over," he huffed out.

Rentaro stumbled behind him. "Okay, I think I understand." He studied the two doorways ahead of them and quickly tugged Daelen towards the right. "I have a feeling it's this way."

As they burst through the door, a doctor came running towards them. "Red Rover!" Daelen yelped holding his hand out to Rentaro.

He swiftly grabbed onto Daelen's hand and charged past the doctor. Their connected hands quickly took down the man and left him on the floor, clutching his stomach in pain. Rentaro smiled and let go of his partner's hand. "That was actually sort of fun, minus the slight pain."

Daelen grinned back at his new partner in crime. "Ay, what's life without a little pain in it?" They turned another corner and took a second doctor down. "Ouch, you're right though." He rubbed at his forearm absentmindedly.

"Do you think we're almost out?" Rentaro asked, looking around for more doctors. He could almost smell the fresh air of the country he grew up in.

"I think--," they turned another corner and suddenly a big group of doctors were running towards them, "so."

"Shit." he muttered to himself. "We can't exactly red rover them now..do we run?"

"Uh...yeah?" Daelen's shoes squeaked as he forcefully turned and ran the opposite way. "Oh. Oh no." There were doctors coming that way as well.

Rentaro trembled. "What do we do, Daelen? Do we red rover the ones in the way of our exit?" He moved closer to Daelen for some sort of protection. "Do you still have that knife?" he asked quietly.

"Uh, yeah." Daelen reached into his pocket and gave it to Rentaro. "What are you going to do?"

"I actually don't know..I was hoping you would know what to do." He smiled sheepishly at Daelen, handing back the knife.

"Honestly," he started, "I'm not sure this will help." As the doctors approached, Daelen desperately searched for another way out. There was none. "Well, when in doubt, shock them," he said quickly. He took a deep breath, and ran forward as fast as he could, yelling at the top of his lungs. The doctors seemed too surprised to react fast enough and he barreled over them. "C'mon Rentaro!"

Rentaro watched in amazement as Daelen disappeared into the group of doctors. He took a deep breath and followed his partner's lead, screaming as loud as he could.

They continued on in this manner for as long as possible, but soon enough they were once again, surrounded. "This isn't going to work, is it?" Daelen muttered out of the side of his mouth.

"I don't think so.." Rentaro mumbled back. "Do you think it's time to basically turn ourselves back in?" He looked around at the doctors, who were slowly closing in on them.

"No," Daelen replied resolutely. "Always go down fighting." And with that, he lashed out, pocket knife slashing through the air and drawing the doctors back.

Rentaro stood off to the side, suddenly bumping into a doctor's back. "Um..Daelen?" He could soon feel the grip of many hands on his arms, restricting him from any movement.

Daelen shifted his eyes around warily. "Yeah?"

More doctors came in and began to lunge at Rentaro. "Daelen! Help!" He thrashed as hard as he could, but it was no use. The doctors held on tightly to his wrists and ankles, carrying him down a new hallway.

Daelen stared after his friend as two more doctors grabbed onto him. He sighed in defeat.