Realistic or Modern Gone But Not Forgotten

[DrTrollinski]

"I'm not quite sure what you guys are talking about, but let's focus, please."

He'd heard of Stranger Things.

But he didn't watch it. The only time he'd ever watch TV was with Eddie, and Stranger Things? It just didn't sound or look like his kind of thing. Maybe one day. All he wanted to do for now was focus on getting to where they needed to be so that he could get the security footage and then get the fuck out of dodge. Because they were in a bad spot right now. If they got caught and went to prison, Eddie was as good as dead regardless of if he got let go or not.

Imagine that, coming home after so much trauma only to find that your dad had been given a 4-year prison sentence just for trying to help you.

A lot of people wouldn't be able to cope.

"No one's going to let you off the hook for breaking into a school overnight, honey, just keep that in mind." He said, "Especially with an older man and another student with you. It's a criminal offense no mater how you put it."

But soon they reached the security room. And ironically enough, this one was unlocked.

They had everything from servers to CCTV control, and the tech guy left the password on a sticky note stuck to the screen. After all, he was the only one who was ever in here. It was easy access.

"Okay, guys..." He said, booting up the CCTV program and going back to the recorded footage over the last couple of weeks.

For a while, they just had to sit and wait for the footage to play out. For the first few days of the previous week, there was nothing of interest. Then on one day, there was a van.

Throughout the day, it went around the school. Usually at their first break and then at lunch time.

"Hold on." Marc said.

He sped to the next day.

Same thing.

And it was the same thing right until the day before Eddie went missing. On the day Eddie vanished, there was nothing.

He sped it back and took down the license plate. 9DW N80.

"That's what we need." Marc said, scribbling it onto a sticky note. "We can run that. See if it's registered to anyone's name."

 

[Jupiter]

Milo and Shelley watched the CCTV footage intently, keeping their eyes peeled for anyone they didn’t recognise lingering around, or anyone acting strange. It felt so weird to see times where Milo and Eddie exited the school together, being able to pinpoint, even if they were speeding through, their figures and jackets among the other students. Milo let out a shaky breath. Come on, Eddie. Why couldn’t he still be here?

Why couldn’t this be one of Eddie’s games? Why couldn’t he be pranking them?

They didn’t need to tell Marc that the van was out of the ordinary. What it was doing was saying that much at least, and Marc was trained to be able to recognise strange and shady behaviour.

That was definitely both strange and shady.

“I don’t understand why they would make it so obvious...” Milo shook his head and stood up. “Do... Do Eddie’s files, like his school files and things... do they say what you do for work, Marc? What I’m asking is would it be easy to find out if you went looking for Eddie’s information?”

 

[DrTrollinski]

"No, of course his files don't detail that. But it's not meant to be a secretive job, either. I'm officially a Law Enforcement Officer." He said, "It's hidden from public records like his school files, though, just because it's not the sort of thing that needs to be included on there." He said. "The only details on there is my address and my cell phone number. So..." He shrugged, "It shouldn't have really made a difference. The only way anyone could really know about it is if, one, Eddie told them, or two, they were following me. But I would have known if they were following me. I would have figured it out." He said. "The only people who are better than me at following people are people in the agency, and..." He paused.

"Well, I mean, we have snatch and grab teams, but, none of them would do that to Eddie. To me. None of them have any reason to." He said.

"The thing about the van is, it's not obvious. If it was obvious you would have noticed it while you were at school. To us now it looks obvious, because we know what we're looking for. A week ago, they were just hiding in plain sight." He said, then he shook his head and sighed. "I don't see why this would have anything to do with me. It's not like I've foiled a mastermind's plans, or anything like that. Or maybe it is. Who knows." He said.

He ejected the tapes and stuffed them into his jacket pockets.

"Come on, we should get back. I'll have someone check over all of this and run that plate. Hopefully that gets us somewhere." He said, "Sadly, though, Eddie's just going to have to sit tight."

 

[Jupiter]

“That’s not what I’m saying.” Milo sighed. “I’m saying, if they did know you were an agent, then this is too obvious because you always know what you’re looking for... and being caught by security cameras... that’s just careless, isn’t it?”

He had a bad feeling in his stomach, and he gulped. “I just... I know it seems obvious to us now, I get that it’s because we know what we want to find and it sticks out like a sore thumb, but... when that little girl was taken, you would have done the exact same thing: looked for someone circling her school, and then like you said, you found nothing.” He pointed out.

“All I’m saying is this seems to easy. Too careless for someone who could potentially have targeted anyone but ended up with the boy who is an agents son.” He put his palm down on the table, and held the other up. “On one hand, they could just be idiots.” He swapped positions in his hands. “On the other hand... they could be leading you to a dead end.”

Shelley sighed. “I hate to say it but it does feel odd how easy you’ve been able to find this. But... at the same time, we can’t leave any stone unturned. It’s worth looking into.”

Milo pointed at her. “I never said it wasn’t. I just think we should brace ourselves in case this is actually the dead end we don’t want it to be.”

But it didn’t matter anyway. They were going to have to get someone to check the plates and see if it led anywhere, but it meant waiting. Milo nodded and sighed. “Sure. We’ll get the information sent off, and get rest. We can’t look for Eddie without rest.”

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Maybe you're right." He said, "Maybe they want me to find this. Maybe this is just some sort of mockery. Some sort of trap." He said.

He thought for a moment, then looked at Shelley.

Surely not.

He looked away again and sighed. "We should just get home." He said, then he made fo the door. "If it is obvious, if the trail's too strong, then I'll be more careful. I don't know why they'd want to bait anyone from the bureau, though. That almost seems like a deathwish unless they literally want to play cat and mouse with us." He said.

Was it really a possibility? Was someone doing this under his nose and was now trying to rub it in his face? Did they know who he was? What did he? Did they know that Eddie was his only weakness?

Very much so.

Is it me who they want? Marc thought.

What good would he be other than a rat? An internal contact? Surely they wouldn't go this far to get that.

But his son was everything to him, so why wouldn't they?

This sucked.

"We'll do some more digging tomorrow morning. For now, let's get some rest." He said.

And with that, they went home.

 

[Jupiter]

Somewhere, USA.
Presumably.

April 8th, 2017.
Time: Unknown.

Eddie didn't know how he slept, and he didn't realise it until he woke up with the crick in his neck, peering into the bright room once again. It seemed the lights didn't dim at all during this time, they wanted them to stay awake, or at least unaware of the time. Make them go crazy, or crazier than they would if they were in captivity with a clock - but even then they may not know if it was AM or PM. Without a window was a better way of putting it. You didn't need to know the exact second of the day as long as you could recognise if it was day or night.

If the people wanted, they could throw off their body clocks so quickly by making them sleep whenever they decided they wanted to.

Or they could even make it so that they didn't sleep at all.

Eddie let out a yawn and pushed himself upright again, he'd seemingly slumped down against the floor in a tight ball throughout the night, and he scanned over the others who had done the same. No special treatment, not yet, no one had beds or blankets. Bill had his jacket pillow... Eddie wished he hadn't forgotten his own jacket. But it was what it was.

He noticed quickly that he was the only one who was awake - nerves, most likely, the fear of waking up somewhere unknown. These guys had had time to grow used to the whole situation. Eddie had not.

He pushed himself up to his feet, hearing his bones crack with the sudden movement, and went over to the door where he had entered. He didn't even try the handle, already knowing that it would lead nowhere good, if it was even unlocked. A small part of him liked the idea that he could try it and it could all be a placebo, have them think that you were locked in when you weren't, but he didn't want to risk it, so he instead examined the door from afar, and, once satisfied that his lack of exploration by pushing the door to see if it would open, began to wander around the room quietly, exploring, calmer.

There was no sense acting aloof. A caged fly only tries to escape a jar because it can see a way out. Eddie, so far, could not see one.

Why waste his energy?

 

[DrTrollinski]

Footsteps. They definitely heard footsteps coming down the hallway. It couldn't be mistaken - they were heavy, they echoed greatly. The echoes alone made it sound like an army walking towards where they were. This must have been their alarm clock each morning, surely. James and Riley woke up but they didn't seem to take it as anything out of the ordinary. It was breakfast time. Riley rubbed his eyes and looked at Eddie, simply giving him a curt nod. Just saying good morning, really - never hurts to be civil. James waved at him, too, but the two of them were being mainly quiet.



A slot opened at the bottom of the door, and a tray got slid in there. On it were four paper bowls. Yes. Paper. No way were they getting trusted with anything more than that.



In the bowls themselves, there was some nice thick porridge. No sugar, not enough milk... It was basically just gruel.



And yes.



Four.



Not five.



They were one short.



"Hey!" Riley got up as soon as he realized what was going on and ran to the door, slamming his fists on the surface, "Hey, you wanker! There's five of us now, fuckhead. What are ya' playin' at?!" He yelled through the door.



He got no response.



"Son of a bitch." Riley sat against the door. "So now we're in a spot, ain't we? Each bowl is barely enough for one person as it is."



"Someone either goes hungry, or we share."



"But who's the one who goes hungry if we decide to do that?" He said.



He looked around at everyone.



"What if he takes one bowl away each day? We'd fuckin' starve to death very slowly." He said.

 

[Jupiter]

He gave a small nod to the both of them, followed by one to Bill as he shuffled away from his curled up ball on the floor and sat up, cracking his neck. The two of them were used to this, of course, Bill and Elizabeth, so they were awake, eyes rubbed. Elizabeth stood up gracefully still, and moved away from the door.

Eddie expected it not to open. He knew that five people against one would be too much of a threat if they decided to charge him, or her, behind the mask. If they wanted to, they could probably slam the door away with brute force if they all tried together. But something horrible would happen if they did that, Eddie kept telling himself. Something horrible would probably happen with most things that led to escape.

After all, freedom is an illusion.

Instinctively, however, despite expecting that the door wouldn’t open, he stepped away from where he’d ended up, in front of the door again when he’d initially heard the footsteps, and gulped. He watched as the slit opened and the food was pushed through. A meal. His stomach growled in response. It wasn’t quite the Chinese or a fortune cookie, or the steak he had at the steak restaurant or chicken wings, but it was food nonetheless.

He supposed in this scenario it would either help or hinder. Give him energy, or... perhaps be poisoned. But it wouldn’t be, would it? If the others had been eating it this whole time... unless this time was different.

Narrowing his eyes and recounting, he had to subconsciously remember that he was a part of this situation as much as the others - there were only four food bowls, and there were five people.

These bastards knew what they were doing.

“Riley, stop. That’s a waste of energy, idiot!” Bill yelled back at Riley, stood up now and pacing, staring down at the food. Elizabeth looked slightly panicked as the thought of being starved to death was revealed. “Don’t talk like that, man! Don’t give them any sick ideas. Fuck. Well I don’t fucking know about you, but I’m starving, I’m having a fucking bowl.”

“But who goes without?” Elizabeth asked, her eyebrows raised. “Look at the portion, it’s measly anyway so we can’t exactly share it!”

“I don’t give a shit who goes without, lady, I’m getting one, that’s all that matters to me.” Bill lunged for a bowl, and Elizabeth went to slap it out of his hand before he grabbed her arm with his other hand, holding it tightly. “You really want to spill porridge on the floor. If you do, I’m still having a bowl, and you can lick that shit off the floor. Not that that is necessarily out of the ordinary for you, I’d presume.”

She softened her expression with shock, and relaxed her arm, so he let go of her grip and stepped back, the bowl and spoon in his hand. He retreated to his corner and sat down, beginning to eat, selfishly.

“Well... now what?” Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. “That bastard has made it three for four now, one of us can’t eat.”

“I won’t.” Eddie offered. “I’m presuming that I’m the youngest. I don’t need it at much as you and... I probably had the best and most filling meal last if this is all you guys have got... I’m sure I’ll survive.”

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Oh, you tosser." Riley said, "That's just fuckin' mean. Whatever happened to feed the women and children, and all of that bollocks?" He waved a hand at him, then looked at the food, then at Eddie. "Nah, kid, fuck it. You eat." He said. "I've been longer without food. I'll be fine, mate." He said, and he gently nudged the tray along to him so he could grab a bowl. "Looks like shit anyway." He sat down against the wall, then looked off at Bill again.

"Tomorrow, you don't get fuck-all, mate. Try snatching shit with those hands again and you might just lose 'em." He pointed at him, but then he relaxed.

James looked at the food and took one of the bowls, reluctantly. "Riley, maybe you should eat. You're probably one of the strongest ones here - Wouldn't it be better to keep your strength up?"

"I'll be fine. There's nothin' of ya', James. Just eat." He said.

James sat down with his food and started eating, glumly.

Riley was silent for a moment.

"Dibs on whatever shit he brings in later. If anything."

James sighed, then looked at Eddie and Beth. "You two eat. While it's hot." He said.

Yup, whoever was running the show knew exactly what they were doing. They were building tension. Ultimately, if they'd all shared one spoon (pushing it), then there would have been enough for one person to have a mouthful, at the very least. It was better than nothing. But that didn't matter now. Riley took the fall, unless there was anyone who wanted to share. James was definitely thinking about leaving him a spoonful or two. It wouldn't have been much, but... Better than going completely hungry, isn't it?

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie sighed and, after it all played out, he reached out and took a bowl and spoon, passing it to a shaking Elizabeth first, before anyone else. He then picked one up for himself, and sat back against the wall with it in his lap, feeling the warmth before picking it up and beginning to take a few spoonfuls. In the corner, Bill looked highly content with his bowl of porridge like gruel, he didn't care at all if anyone else was mad. He was selfish, and I'd say that they would be soon to learn it, but I think that that was a pretty decent display of it right there.

Anyway, a few spoonfuls in, and knowing there were only a few left, Eddie just... Couldn't eat anymore. He felt guilty anyway, for taking it, and he had offered. He still stood by what he said.

He was the youngest and most energetic here. He had had that weird Chinese food the day before, and... Though he was hungry, he'd had a few spoonfuls so he surely wouldn't die... He didn't think they'd let them starve to death anyway. It would be too... Against the point.

Unless it was at the hands of the others.

Like Bill.

"Yeah, man, this tastes like shit." Eddie laughed, and offered it out to Riley. "Halves though. I mean, we both offered to take one for the team." A bit of a dig at Bill, who still wasn't saying anything in the corner. "And don't say no. We both need to eat."

 

[DrTrollinski]

Riley reached out and took it, hesitantly. He nodded to him and took a mouthful of it. "Fucking stuff." He said, "Amazing how we could like something so bloody vile, right?" He asked. "I don't even understand how we've come to appreciate something as... Plain and depressing as this pile of shit." He said, and he kept on eating. It was the warmth that it was best for, really, if nothing else. It was quite cold down here. They were underground, after all, the coldest place of just about anywhere. It didn't help that the outdoor elements still stacked against them. It was raining, it was cold, it was miserable - and it's not like there was any central heating in here.

Then again, at least they had insulation of some sort. Upstairs? They wouldn't have had anything. They would have really known about how bad the cold could be if they'd been forced to stay in a room upstairs somewhere.

"You think he's going to keep doing little things like this?" James asked, quietly. "Cutting out food, other basic needs?" He asked. "I doubt he had a headcount go wrong."

"Me too." Riley frowned, finishing the last of gruel. He looked at Eddie, "Thanks." He offered up a smile, too.

Eddie was in his good books. Not very often you get a sixteen-year-old willing to share food in a situation like this one.

"Must be something else we can do in here." Riley said, "Let's talk."

"About what?"

"About each other. Not like any of us are going anywhere." He said. "I'll go first. Eddie, tell us something about the place you call home." He said, "I haven't had a chance to go there yet. Nice place?" He asked. "You got any brothers or sisters there? Girlfriend?" He asked.

Small talk was better than no talk. Were the games up for today?

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie sighed. He supposed they'd eat anything if they were hungry. If it came to it, he reckoned they'd eat Bill. He knew they'd be their first call, considering, if things kept up the way Bill was playing, he'd be fatter than all of them if he ate all their food rather than shared it out. But he hoped that they didn't have to eat each other, obviously. Those campers in the mountains that each other, the people on the Raft of the Medusa... Eddie shuddered slightly at the thought of having to be reduced to cannibalism. He supposed after that, if he was one of the lucky few who made it, he would never be able to look at a juicy burger again. But enough of that thought, for now, Eddie, you've eaten your gruel.

"I think... They might be trying to see how we react." He mumbled, and then shrugged his shoulders. "It's just a theory, but, you know. Maybe they want to see how we'll act with each other in the cases where... God, I don't know. Maybe they are just trying to starve us out. God knows what for."

"The probably get off on it." Bill chirped up, and Eddie looked at him blankly for a moment before looking at Riley again. Elizabeth was huddled close to the other three, Bill was in the corner, almost excluded from the group.

Eddie had to think about home for a moment, and he didn't want it to weaken him... He wanted to save those thoughts for the times that the others were asleep and wouldn't notice him breaking down, thinking of his father or his best friend, or the menial, stupid shit that he left behind and missed. He didn't want to think about his mother, even in those times, but she came to him now, and he bit his lip before shrugging his shoulders. "Home is... Rainy. At the moment, like most places anyway. It's rainy, and we don't live in that big a' place. A nice town, I guess, got some cool stuff for kids and things. I reckon there are nicer places. Going to the city is pretty cool, but you know, a lot of tourists and politics and things. There would be, wouldn't there." He laughed.

"No brothers. No... Well. My only family is my dad. We're close. My mom died a few years ago, so it's just been me and him." He looked down at his arms for a few seconds and then let out a breath before looking up and continuing, shaking slightly. "My dad does good by me. He's... Probably got the whole town out looking in the rivers and things. I..." He decided to be honest for once. "I can't imagine what this is doing to him. I'm all he has left..."

He took a moment, and Elizabeth reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. He smiled slightly. "But... No girlfriend. No." He smiled, and tried to continue on; that was all he could do at a time like this. "What about you? What's Australia like?"

Elizabeth decided to pipe up. "Why are you travelling so far from home?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"I'm sure your dad's fine." Riley nodded, "Parents don't just give up, mate. You wait. He'll kick down the door tomorrow morning and we'll all be on a bus outta' here." He smirked.

If only that was the case.

He sighed, though. Eddie, an only child, dead mother, and now a father that was all on his own. Ultimately, they had no idea how his father was going to take this. What if it was enough to push him over the edge? I imagine that was probably a thought Eddie was trying to avoid, because... That's some dark shit, right there. But it was simply a thing most people in his spot would worry about - one family member left, and now that said family member had lost them, potentially forever.

That sucked.

"Well, I'll kill two birds with one stone, I guess. Answer both questions." Riley shrugged, "Well, I'll tell you now... Australia's good fun. A great place to be free. I've got a lot of brothers. A few sisters. About fifteen cousins and getting close to... Over twenty nephews and nieces." He said. "My folks, they, um... They own a big ranch, fair bit outta' the city. I lived near Melbourne, ish." He said, "I remember the heat as a kid. Even as a native you never got used to it during the summers. We'd lie in bed sweating one out every night, basically. Fans would be on but you'd still wake up looking like you'd just come out of a sauna." He sat back and took in a deep breath.

"I had five brothers. Three older, two younger. Four sisters. My parents got busy. They were wild people, back in the day." He said. "One sister's a year older than me, the others are all younger. Youngest brother of mine is... Eh... Fourteen now." He nodded, "It all sounds like I live a stupidly messed up life, I guess. But it's been fun. A big family like that has its ups and downs. Me and my older bros, we used to get a lot of snakes out by the ranch. It was our task to go out and kill 'em with a shovel." He said. "I remember the first time, Danny picked up this big bastard of a snake after he'd broke its neck. Fucker waved it in my face. Just as I walked out the bathroom. Oh, mate, I swear - That night I got some good revenge."

James sat back and continued listening.

"It's not as bad as it sounds out there, wildlife-wise. You saw some interesting stuff. Not all of it was dangerous. Me and all my brothers and sisters sat up at night sometimes, listening to the sounds. You got a lot of howling. We always used to tell the littler ones that it was the Tasmanian Tiger." He chuckled. "They used to shit 'emselves over that. Wouldn't walk to the kitchen in the night for a glass of water because of it." He said.

He went quiet. "I left Australia because..." He sighed, "A change of scenery, I guess. I wanted something different. Something that wasn't bloody... Desert and heat." He said. "And instead, I've got forest and cold. The other end of the spectrum. Not quite what I was expecting, but... Fuck it." He shrugged and smiled. "It happens, I suppose."

He looked at Elizabeth, "What about you, Lizzy?" He asked. "What's your story? An interesting one, I bet." He said.

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie nodded along and listened. He figured, darkly, that because he had so many siblings and they were so far away... No one would ever really notice he was missing. Maybe no one would come looking for Riley. He figured he, potentially James (not that he knew anything about James yet), and Bill were probably the higher alerts. Bill seemed high up in business, people notice when that disappears, Eddie was a child, and James... Well it could be anything really. He wasn't sure about Elizabeth.

"They sound great, man." Eddie smiled. "I'm sure we'll all get to hear a lot about them while we're here, there ain't nothing better to do so I'd probably much rather hear stories about the wild lives of having ten kids than freeze my tits off in silence. And... I can get leaving, I think. To change things, see new things, experience new things mainly. I really wanted to, uh, to move away I guess you could say. I know I had my dad and everything, and I know that he'd miss me, but... Getting a change. Being in a different place... I mean my dad would miss me but at least he'd be able to keep in contact and know I was alive."

"I talked a lot, before I ended up here, about just upping and going to the woods, abandoning all technology and whatnot. I reckon... You know, I reckon Milo, he's my best friend, he probably told my dad about that and now my dad thinks I'm living in the woods making tree houses." He laughed. "But... I like seeing new things, I don't think anyone could blame you. Besides, if I'm sure if something happened at home you'd be right there, even if you are far away, you're still always a phone call away."

He was rambling, and eventually he sighed.

The question was posed to Elizabeth.

"Me?" She looked at Riley and then smiled. "I don't... I don't have much of a story."

"We'd still like to hear it. Go on, it must be nice to think of times when we weren't in here." Eddie encouraged.

"Yeah, we're listening, tits." Bill laughed.

Eddie went quiet and Elizabeth shot him a look. "If you call me tits again, I will personally make sure whatever reduction we make in meals from now on is not fed to you, but rather these gentlemen who appear to at least have the genuine respect for someone despite what I ended up here in. I am certain we would all have preferred to be here in pyjamas, and if I was wearing those I reckon you would not be oggling me as much as you have the last few days." She hissed. "But that's just the unfair fact of life; we can't all be business men in suits with layers."

"Speaking of layers." Eddie noted. "Bill. I see you have no use for that jacket other than a pillow. Have you thought to offer it to Elizabeth?"

"Why?"

"Perhaps so you won't have to oggle her so called..." He coughed and put on a deeper voice. "Tits."

Bill furrowed his eyebrows.

"The jacket, Bill. If you don't need it, it's just getting dirty on the floor."

Bill grumbled to himself and eventually pushed the jacket along the floor. Elizabeth snatched it up and wrapped it around her shoulders, concealing herself much more than she had been, and most likely feeling the benefit in such a cold room. She did not thank Bill, but she did thank Eddie, and after...

"It's not as simple as it looks. I'm not just some show girl because I want to be one, as if anyone would love to be degraded so much by those sneering eyes. You barely make a dollar." She hissed. "But we all start out somewhere. In Las Vegas, it's filled with opportunities to be on a stage, of course, but no one wants to remain just a stripper down in some sink hole, or just the average show girl who comes out every so often and dances and doesn't get to keep the cash." She frowned. "We all want to be stars. So we're taking the hits now, but... You know. One day you dream you will make it big, or some such thing. I dream I will have my own show, and I will run it and make it better for the other girls. Our show, not their show." She smiled.

"Where are you from?" Eddie asked. "Sorry, it's just, your accent. It's definitely not American."

She laughed. "I'm from Italy. My family moved us to America when I was around fourteen years old. We speak Italian at home."

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Well, that's just what parents do." Riley said. "They miss you once you move out. At least you don't have any siblings who'll try and convince you to stay." He said, "That's what my little brother did before I came here. Me and him get on really well, and... God, he's gone a week without hearing from me. I'm hoping he's going to raise attention, maybe get my sudden silence looked into." He said. "He's a good kid, and he was one of the few things that made me want to reconsider, made me want to stay down under." He said. "But... I needed to do this. At least for a while. I told him I'd be back before his fifteenth birthday, so, yeah."

He thought for a second.

"Then again, at this rate, I don't know how likely that is." He said. "He's probably gonna' end up thinking I lied to him, told him I planned on coming back when really I didn't." He said. "Which isn't something I want him to think, I just... Needed time out of there."

He shot Bill a look when he made his comment towards Lizzy.

"Mate, you don't talk to people like that." He shook his head.

"Let's not get carried away here." James sighed. "Can we at least agree to be somewhat respectful of each other?"

Riley looked back to Lizz. He was surprised Bill actually gave her his jacket. Shocker.

"Oh, the beautiful Italy." Riley nodded, "Nice, nice... Always wanted to visit Italy, myself. Maybe one day I will. When I get married, might have a wedding there if I like it enough." He chuckled, "Well, if we get out of here, chase your dreams." He said, "I have a brother who works in some sort of TV company. Sure, he's in Australia, but, he might be able to help. I'm sure they'd love to see an Italian on the big screen out there. Usually we get the whole... Wolf Creek style shit. And the generic 'that's not a kniofe, this is a kniofe' stuff." He laughed.

An Australian with a thick accent putting on an even thicker accent.

Mindfuck.

"We need something exciting in an Australian city. Nothing takes place in bloody... Adelaide, or Melbourne. It's all California, New York, London - it's never the Aussies." He said. He looked over to Bill.

"So..." He looked at Bill, scanning him over. "What's your story, then?" He asked. "You've been quiet, and as you nicked someone's breakfast I think you could at least tell us a little something."

 

[Jupiter]

Elizabeth smiled. "Maybe. It would be nice to get something worthwhile out of this. Maybe one day it will be a story to tell, or... You know, not tell depending on the context of getting out of here." She laughed slightly. "But it will be something I can draw my dark inspiration from for my less nice characters, maybe." She grinned, pulling the jacket around her tighter. "And there are some really lovely places there if you ever did get married. I would be happy to show you them, if we ever do get out. In exchange for your TV brother."

A joke, of course.

Bill finally spoke up, but he did not come any closer to the group. "I'm from New York. I'm a hard worker. My father has a large company there, I'm not giving you any of the details because right now, at this point, they're irrelevant and I'd rather not gloat." He laughed, a laugh that itself seemed pretentious. "He owns the company, he's been training me to inherit it because my other brothers are all idiots who don't know how to handle money. You have to be smart with it, you can't just piss it away. Pissing away money is not how you make money."

"You're talking to the kid who'll buy around eight pairs of socks because they have dogs on them." Eddie raised his eyebrows. "Pissing away money is how you have a good time."

Again, a joke.

Bill scoffed. "Yeah, but that mindset will change when you get a job and earn it yourself, or have to handle it for a company. My life is... Largely work based. I get out with my girlfriend on the evenings, if I can make it home from the office. I don't live much of an exciting life."

Eddie would bet it was a cushy one, though.

He said nothing in response to the boring adult stuff, and instead turned to James. "What about you, James? Tell us something about you. Who knows, we might have surpassed an hour of being in this hell hole with talk of the outside." He smiled a genuine smile and let out a small laugh. He seemed... Upbeat. Happy. Ish.

Talking was a good distraction when you were thinking about the outside.

 

[DrTrollinski]

"Doesn't exactly sound thrilling, but that's just me. Fair enough." Riley sat back. "Each to their own. Some find their calling in big old books, and others in big old bottles of whiskey." He smiled. "Seems we're all cuts from different cloth so far." He said. He looked to James when he was addressed, however, and sat back. James hadn't said much about his life so far. It would be interesting to know more.

James looked around the room.

"Well, not much to say about me. I left home when I was about your age, Eddie. I worked all over the country. Small jobs, a couple of big jobs, at a couple of points." He said. "That's all there really is to say. I have an older brother out in the world somewhere. Singapore, at the minute, I think. He's some tech giant so he travels all over the world." He said. "I was just the quiet guy as I was growing up. There's really nothing all that interesting about me." He said.

He set his head back against the wall. "Travelling America is fun, though. You'd be surprised how much there is to see. I've seen rocky mountains and thick forests. Empty deserts and endless rivers." He said. "Sometimes I settle down for a while, with some female company, I mean. But not very often. I don't plan on settling just yet." He said.

"That's me, though. Live free. I prefer that life. You meet a lot of good people. It's a good way to... find who you really are. You travel and you either hate it, love it, or stumble upon an opportunity you never thought you'd have. Anything can happen. In a place like America, it's hard to not... Lose yourself, as such."

"But yeah." James shrugged. "That's it, really."

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie nodded along and listened to him. Another traveller. Hm. Two travellers, a showgirl, a business man, a kid... they certainly had an interesting bunch in this place. He wondered what it could possibly be that linked them together and made them all desirable.

He had a theory.

Maybe it was that they just wouldn’t quit. Wouldn’t give up. Business takes balls. Being a showgirl and working your way up was tempting to quit, but Elizabeth was still going. James and Riley... the world could be against you when you were travelling so far, and so much. They had to be strong willed to make it. Far enough to count at least. And Eddie... was he really the type that didn’t quit? He supposed so. Taking the punches for everyone else, even after his mother died... he wasn’t sure.

But that was only theory one.

Theory two?

They all had some darker secret they weren’t willing to share.

Maybe this was some Saw kind of shit in the making.

“It must be pretty good to live free. Like I said, I’ve been tempted. It’s different now at sixteen, you can’t really get away so easily because of school and everything. And if you run away people look for you. They might even have an amber alert out or some stupid shit.” He laughed. “If you’re a kid and you disappear you’re not... you’re not really allowed.” He shrugged.

“But I guess that’s just life. It continues until you’re ready to do something about it. Time doesn’t stop for anybody.” He shrugged, and looked slightly pensive for a moment before continuing. “What’s there to do for fun in this cave?”

 

[DrTrollinski]

Maybe they did all have secrets.

Everyone here seemed like the type - Even Eddie has his secret. Not necessarily a dark one, but, his dad was an FBI agent. And he had his secret about Milo - not that that really meant anything in this situation, but, still. He still had secrets.

At the end of the day, everyone has a secret they don't want others to know about. You could bet your ass that they all had at least one each.

But how many of them had exposed it so much that some random psycho knew about? Who was the man who was so well-connected that he could get hold of such secrets? It was a mystery, really, so maybe theory one was more accurate.

I won't say.

"Living free is good." James said, "But for you? I think you'd be content with one journey. Even if it was only a few states away, or a temporary visit to another country." He said, "You look like the type that would like to go across the world. You probably have, if your family has been able to afford that sort of thing. You've got that look about you." He said, "But living life in a forest, or on the road? Nah. You wouldn't like it. I think I can see that in you. Eventually everything would catch up to you, and leaving the life you have behind would be... Depressing, I think. You wouldn't like it." He said, "You see, everyone loves the concept. But there's a lot bad about it. Money, fuel, hitchiking, places to sleep... It all takes time to get used to. Doing it permanently isn't something many people like." He said.

Fun?

In this place?

"No such luck." Riley said. "You think this bastard upstairs is nice enough to give us stuff to do? Definitely not." He said. "Maybe one day. Until then, we could jerk each other off and see where that gets us - if that's not up your street, then it looks like we're stuck doing exactly what we're doing. Talking." He said. "Believe me, time moves quick down here - at least we think it does. You get used to it." He said.

Realistically, they'd been sleeping from 4am to 2pm most days, or from 5pm to 3am. It all depended. Losing the sunlight was hard. It made it difficult to keep track.

More people would join them tonight. Two more.

Not that they knew that, of course.

 

[Jupiter]

Eddie didn't let his face sour, but his feelings did. Who was James to presume anything about how Eddie would live, how he was the type who wouldn't be able to move away from home. He thought he'd be just fine, in fact he knew he'd be just fine. He'd make more than one trip, he could do it on his own or with whoever he decided he wanted to take with him, but he wouldn't feel like he had to come home. If he wanted to, he never would. Eddie didn't let it show, but his opinion of James slipped quite a bit at the patronising words. You wouldn't like it.

You look like the type.

He looked away and instead at Riley, saying absolutely nothing to James. He wished he could show him. He wished he could up and leave and never come back. But the issue was that he was kind of stuck here, wasn't he? He was stuck here for a very long time, or so he presumed, and if he did get out there would be no guarantee that he'd be out with James, so... Potentially, he may never be able to. But the point was that Eddie knew, himself, that he could go.

He definitely could.

"I was being sarcastic. I'm aware there's no such thing as fun down here." He forced a laugh. "Guess we make our own fun, and considering I'm not going to be jerking off anybody else or engaging in that kind of action, I'm not legal thank you very much strange adults... I suppose talking and sleeping are our only options. I don't suppose anyone brought books?" He joked.

And then he remembered.

"Wait. James... That book you had yesterday. What was it?" He asked. "Just curious. It must be something they think couldn't potentially be harmful, obviously, but... What is it?"

 

[DrTrollinski]

"It's a journal." He said, "I don't know why they let me keep it, either. Not like I can write in it." He said. "And I'm not going to kill myself with papercuts." He shrugged. "It's just something I've always carried around with me. I guess they didn't have any use for it - which surprises me, considering it's got a lot of personal experiences in there." He shrugged. "But I guess they didn't need that, especially if somehow they already knew all of it, in one way or another." He shrugged.

"Can we read it?" Riley asked.

May as well ask and find out what the answer w-

"No."

That settled that.

"Fair."

James gave him a funny look, then looked at Eddie, then at the other two, as well. "But yes. Just a journal. Nothing special. At least nothing that'll help us here." He said, "I wrote about a lot of my travels, my experiences. Good and bad." He said. "I thought I was free, but, as it says down here... Freedom is an illusion." He said. "I suppose you never realize how trapped you are until you force yourself to believe you're free in some way." He said, "I wrote about that a lot. I felt free, but I've never felt more trapped, either. Other than now, of course. Like I said, traveling is fun, but it wasn't as joyous as most people make it sound. There were a lot of down moments. Freedom was great, but at the same time it was a bit of a curse. We die alone, so ideally we should be surrounded by people while we're still here." He said. "On the upside, at least we get somewhat of control over our situation, even if it's only minor. We don't have to sleep rough, we're getting food... For now." He shrugged. "It could be worse."

"Not by much."

"We're alive, that's what matters." He said, then fiddled with a loose floor tile.

"For now." Riley shut his eyes and sat back against the wall. "Even a deck of cards would be nice."

--

Back at where Marc was, he was doing some more digging. Awaiting responses, yes, but since Eddie went missing, today he'd gone and had a shower, ate a good breakfast, and he was ready to go. Ready to fight to find his son. He was ready for action - and technically locked and loaded. If someone kidnapped him, then they were going to pay in one way or another. He'd kill all of those motherfuckers.

But for now, he had some digging to do.

Eddie's phone. He tried to turn it on after leaving it in rice for a good amount of time, and... It worked.

There was water under the screen, slightly, but it worked. Everything was okay. He could work with this.

He went to Eddie's room. His chest tightened, but he sat down on Eddie's bed and unlocked the phone with the passcode Milo had given him.

Time to do some digging. Social media. Texts. An invasion of his son's privacy, sure, but fuck it. It was necessary.

Would he like everything he'd find? Maybe. Maybe or not.

Up to you, really.

 

[Jupiter]

This morning, or afternoon, whatever time it actually was, Milo had walked Shelley home (she had fallen asleep on the couch while theorising) so that she could get a shower, change her clothes, and pack a bag. Looked like she was with them for the long haul, so I'll get you a picture of her soon enough. After she was sorted, Milo walked her back to his house so he could do the same things and explain the situation to his mother.

They wouldn't be gone forever, from Marc, but for now Marc was alone with Eddie's phone, while the other two did that. They weren't just going to leave Marc, were they?

Let's start with the basics.

Facebook, the actual Facebook app rather than his messages.

This one, simple. Marc had Eddie on Facebook anyway, so anything that he posted on his page could be seen, as could the things he was tagged in. His notifications were fairly new, of course, showing the comments he'd been mentioned in and the ones he'd mentioned others in and had likes. His saved videos were simply trailers to movies that he wanted to remember but couldn't be bothered to write down. If Marc wanted to truly go through that list he would probably find a lot of horror movies, but also things such as Freak Show, a movie about a teenage boy becoming home coming queen, and a few articles about things potentially related to homework or that he was too lazy to read at that moment in time.

On his timeline, of course, were the actions of other people. There was no one in Eddie's friends list that didn't have at least ten mutual friends, and everything that was posted was genuine teenager stuff.

On Facebook messages, the app, of course, it was a different story.

These were his conversations with his friends.

Things would seem relatively sane and normal in most chats. Nothing he did revealed any kind of secret to anyone. There were chats with groups, mainly things like science group chats where they all discussed the homework, a few with small groups of friends planning parties and events and outings, but they weren't people that Eddie was particularly close to. There were no Facebook chats between him and Shelley, but between him and Milo... Well, Marc would have to scroll for a good few years to get through it all. Meaningless things, sometimes heartfelt things talking about Milo's life (his home life wasn't as happy as it seemed, by the sounds of things, there seemed to be some arguments occurring at home), and occasionally about Eddie's mother.

That was the sad part, wasn't it. Knowing that it really was effecting your son... But, at the same time... It wasn't anything that he hadn't spoken about with Marc. There were no reveals about his depression that he may or may not have, or sexuality issues. Not on Facebook anyway. Unless you count the movie about a teenage boy becoming home coming queen, but... You know. Hardly solid evidence.

On Twitter, well... He didn't really use that so much. He occasionally retweeted funny pictures of dogs and funny memes, he particularly liked music related tweets too, but his own tweets were lacking; he mainly just, occasionally, posted pictures of him and Milo, or him and Marc.

Instagram was similar. Selfies, screenshots of music he was listening to, cool photographs that he'd taken while out and about in his life, one particularly sad one on the anniversary of his mothers death that simply had a picture of the orchids before they were lain down. Marc would understand, but it wasn't a post begging for attention over his mothers death. He didn't seem to share much about her, online. Occasionally, on throw back Thursdays, he would post pictures that he had from when he was a kid with his mother, some with Marc. But things seemed... Normal.

Even the things he liked seemed to coincide with what he was like as a person, at least the type that was revealed to Marc; funny pictures and posts.

So what had Marc found so far?

Anything?

But it was about to become a different story.

 

[DrTrollinski]

Maybe it was an insight into his son's life that h didn't necessarily want. It wasn't easy, looking through some of it. There were things talked about that Marc had literally no idea of, and part of that made him sad. Did Eddie not trust him enough to talk about this sort of thing? Was he scared to? Scared of hurting him? Scared that he wouldn't understand? A mixture of everything. He had no idea. But Eddie had seen Marc at his worst. The nights when he thought Eddie was asleep but actually wasn't. Those first few weeks after she died... Whenever Eddie came downstairs for a drink during the night or whatever, he'd more often than not find Marc sleeping (blacked out) on the floor or on the kitchen island from drinking way too much. He grieved with Eddie, but he coped in his own time. At the time, drinking while his son was asleep was the only way he could do it.

At least the alcohol numbed the pain. Made him rest. There were probably a few messages about that in there - way back when. The drinking didn't go on for long, but anyone who saw it wouldn't have forgotten it.

Those nights Milo stayed over, and Marc had ended up falling asleep in one of the downstairs bathrooms after throwing up or something. Sometimes there was no choice but to just leave him there - maybe ignore the fact that he was there, for Eddie's sake. God knew that Milo would have walked in on that a few times, unintentionally. He spent enough time here to be able to see all of that unfolding.

Marc could only hope, from reading the chat, that if Milo had seen any of that... He'd kept it quiet. Eddie didn't need to know about those times, too.

It saddened him. Maybe he felt like a shitty father, where he'd put his son in a spot where he didn't feel he could talk to him about it.

Then again, how many kids would really go to their parents about that? Parents overreact. They book in counseling sessions. Maybe Eddie was just scared of that happening - or his dad relapsing back to what he was. Maybe it was best to be happy with him and just vent his problems elsewhere.

Marc was worried he'd never know the truth now.

Pictures. Lots of pictures of mom here and there. Old pictures of him and her, him and his dad, him and Milo.

Marc got a lot of smiles, and tears, out of it.

So far, there wasn't anything that he considered too bizarre, or too worrying.

Nothing so far.

But what else would he find? Nothing ever truly gets removed from the internet.

He kept searching... Curiosity killed the cat. But would satisfaction really bring it back in this situation?

 

[Jupiter]

It was time for other things.

If Marc wanted to go through Eddie's camera roll, here is what he would find.

Selfies, silly ones and ones that didn't quite make it to Instagram, some were silly and posed. There were lots of pictures of textbooks that Eddie needed to remember pages from, and pictures saved from the internet. There were occasional pictures of animals and some pictures that were quite strange in terms of you couldn't really make out what they were. Oh, wait, they were accidental pictures when he was walking, pictures from inside his pocket or from right after he had just taken a picture and the finger was still on the button.

The camera roll was innocent. The deleted pictures were empty. He seemed, by all means, to be a photo hoarder.

What next, what next?

Let's see.

What apps did he have?

Eddie was a simple man. Due to his photo hoarding and such, and his love for music, he didn't have so many apps. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter... Snapchat. Snapchat was difficult though, because you quite clearly couldn't see anything if it hadn't been saved. And any screenshots that he had taken were usually silly ones in his camera roll. His friends seemed remotely innocent in terms of the fact that the only snapchats he missed, if Marc decided to open them at all, were ones asking where he was.

What other apps?

YouTube, again simple stuff. He liked to watch stuff about how to be efficient out in the wilderness, how to make things from scratch, and other things like gaming YouTubers, and some singing things. He had a few game apps, but not big ones, and... And iTunes, obviously. His music taste ranged through a lot of different genres, but I can't see how that would help anything right now.

Let's get to where the real juicy stuff is. His texts.

He didn't really text much, sometimes he text his dad to let him know that he was on his way places. Marc would probably be sad to see the last text received from him was the one saying he'd be home early. Other texts were people asking where he was, Milo messaging him to see why he wouldn't pick up the phone, from before he had found the phone itself.

In the texts with Milo, there weren't many. They mainly used messenger.

It was buried right down at the bottom that there was a number that was unsaved. But from looking at the messages, it was safe to see it was someone that Marc was beginning to get to know.

1st December, 2016, 3:21am:
Unknown: Your secret is safe with me!!!!

Eddie:

5th January, 2017, 3:30pm:
Eddie: Was it you that told them?

Unknown: Told who what??

Eddie: Jacob. You're the only one who knew.

Unknown: I can explain. Meet me at the girls room near chemistry.

6th January, 2017, 5:45pm:
Unknown: I'm sorry

10th February, 2017, 8:15pm:
Unknown: Thanks for your help earlier.

Eddie: Any time. Seriously.

Unknown: I mean it Eddie, I'm really sorry about what I did and I genuinely can't believe you would help me even with that... I didn't know what to do and you were just there, it wasn't your issue to deal with I mean you don't even know my sister. You didn't have to help.

Eddie: Shelley.

Eddie: I know you did something bad but we all make mistakes don't we? You can consider that forgiven and just make sure your sister gets some rest. She will need it now.

Shelley: Thank you again.

Eddie: If you ever need me, just ask.

20th February, 2017, 5:22am:
Shelley: Are you up??

Eddie: Am now.

Shelley: I need you rn.

Eddie: Call me.

Those texts were the last. Everything was so cryptic... What could possibly be done, here, to understand? At least he knew who the texts were to, so he could ask Shelley? But would he like what he found out? Would it even be worth finding out?

 

[DrTrollinski]

He was more shocked at what he saw this time.

This time, he found the contact log. A chat history. A history with a mystery someone who actually turned out to be Shelley. It was all secretive. Ambiguous. He didn't like it, he didn't like it one bit - maybe Milo was right to suspect her. He didn't know if she was doing this for some sinister reason or if she really wanted to help. Was she helping out of guilt or was there more behind it? What had she been hiding from him? She wasn't really anywhere else on Eddie's digital footprint than right there.

Why was her involvement so minor with him but so major at the same time?

He didn't like it. He scrolled through it all, read it, saw what he could see. Her sister. Something happened there. Shelley had revealed something of his, something that he didn't want revealed.

Just who was this girl?

Speak of the devil, though, he heard the front door open and presumably some small chatter from Milo and Shelley. He immediately made his way downstairs and stopped them in the hallway, straight away. He stood before them both and stopped them from progressing any further in.

He held up the phone, displaying the messages publicly to the two of them.

"I'm giving you one chance to tell me everything. One chance."

He meant business. It was literally a case of 'tell me what this is or I'm going to push you out the door', basically. Whatever this was... It could be serious. It could link in some way.