Chapter Three

“I’ll catch you guys tomorrow!” I called out to Nico and Jack, waving to them as I took off. Once they were out of sight, I started to slow down, letting out a heavy sigh. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, watching the screen brighten as I put in my passcode. One missed call from mom. Probably letting me know she’ll be home late again. A text message from Elise, asking me to pick up more snacks for the house. She was like a furnace with how she burned through all her energy.

Elise hated when it was just the two of us eating, and I knew that. I wondered to myself if Cyrus and Emma were busy. I flipped over to my contacts and dialed Cyrus’s number. If I was right, then they should be closing up right about now.

“Hello?” The deeper voice of my older brother came over the line after a few rings. He never let it ring for too long, which was a good thing for me. “What’s up Daniel?”

“Hey, uh, mom’s gonna be late getting home tonight, and I’m in charge of making dinner,” I knew he had his own place, so I wasn’t going to be too upset if he declined my offer. “I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to come over and eat with us, that’s all.”

A moment of muffled speaking from the other end of the line, something I couldn’t quite make out. He was probably asking Emma if she would come too. I knew she would say yes, she never missed an opportunity to be with us.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Cyrus came back on the line after a minute. “We just closed up shop for the day, we’ll grab Freya from the sitter and then be over, how’s that sound? We can make dinner together, like we used to.”

“That sounds awesome,” He couldn’t see it across the phone line, but I was smiling when he said that. It was nice to have him over even though he had his own family to look after. “I’ll see you soon dude.”

“Catch you later. Be safe going home, yeah?” We said our goodbyes before he hung up the phone. All that was left now was to get ingredients to make dinner. Elise asked for breakfast for dinner, so breakfast food we would have. Maybe pancakes..

Within the next two hours, I was home and the living room was full of voices. Mostly Emma and Elise, but Freya attempted to join in the conversation as well. She was very insightful, and provided a lot of wisdom to the conversation. I assume, at least, given how passionate she was in her babbling. Well, even if Freya’s speech did sound like smashing keys on a keyboard, Emma seemed to understand her perfectly.

“She said what? How dare she?” Emma spoke to the baby, a smile on her face as Freya babbled something in response. The girls in the living room erupted in laughter, so entertained by the way Freya just babbled away, like they were actually carrying a full on conversation.

I can’t help but think about how she would have loved to be here.

“Daniel,” Cyrus brought me back to reality for a moment. “Can you grate up that block of cheese over there on the counter for me? We’re gonna need it soon.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Trying to distract myself from my thoughts, I quickly move over to the counter and start doing as I was asked. “Thanks again for coming over. You know Elise hates it when the dinner table is practically empty.”

“What, like you’re any better?” A chuckle escaped him as he turned his head to look at me. “I know you hate when it’s quiet. Probably makes you think about things you don’t want to. Isn’t that right?”

“How did you-”

“What happened wasn’t your fault, Daniel,” His gaze softened into something sympathetic. “What happened to Maria-”

“She’s alive.”

“You’ve been saying that for the past year,” He turned to more fully face me. “I understand why you’re feeling this way. You feel like you could have done something, but it isn’t your fault, alright? You couldn’t have known-”

“She’s,” I slammed the grater down on the counter. Again I felt that anger bubbling just under the surface of my skin. I take a deep breath. One. Two..

I exhale.

“Can we just not talk about this? Please.”

“..You’re right,” Cyrus probably had more to say, but he conceded for now. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Is everything alright in here boys?” Emma’s warm voice came from behind as she walked into the kitchen, holding Freya in her arms. The toddler immediately held out her arms to Cyrus, starting to whine. “She wanted her daddy. Why don’t you take her and I’ll take over cooking, yeah?” She offered their child to Cyrus and he didn’t argue, just taking her in his arms and carrying her off to the other room.

“Daniel,” Emma spoke my name as she put her arms around me, offering me a consoling hug. “Are you doing okay? How’s school?” She probably overheard me and Cyrus talking, but she was trying to distract me from the subject. She was always trying to make me feel better. “I heard you and your friends had a big project due today. You think you did okay?”

“Yeah. I think it went great. Nico’s always been really good at speaking. She’s gotta be charismatic to sell us on her crazy tinkering projects, right?” 

“She’s a smart girl. Then Jack, he’s good with research, that’s what you said, right? He must have made it really easy for you to put that project together.” She moved back over to the stove to finish what Cyrus had started.

“Oh yeah. I don’t mean to brag, but I made everything look really good. Besides, Jack didn’t cover everything we needed, so I had to improvise. I found a couple old books at the library that had what we were looking for, so I got kinda lucky.”

“That’s good! I’m glad things are going well for you. Oh, dinner’s almost ready. Would you mind calling them in here?”

Dinner wasn’t incredibly eventful. It was the same idle small talk. How was school? How was the restaurant doing? We talked about our days, but I wasn’t exactly involved in the conversation. I just stared at the clock for most of the time. It was only a matter of time before I could go back to my room, and I was counting down the minutes.

Cyrus and Emma took Freya home after dinner, leaving me and Elise sitting on the couch alone, some cryptid video playing on the television.

“Do you think bigfoot really exists?” She asked me without looking away from the screen.

“Uh..” I shrugged. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to find out about. “I mean, I don’t see why it can’t. There’s a lot about this world that we don’t know, y’know? It probably exists.”

“I thought so too,” She nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer.

Mom came home just in time before Elise headed off to bed. I didn’t listen to what they said, but once Elise headed up to her room, I approached.

“Hey mom, we left some leftovers from dinner in the fridge. Blueberry pancakes, your favorite.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” Her smile was warm as she hugged me, holding me tightly as if she were trying to make all of my worries go away. She may have worked long hours, but she always cared about us. She never made us feel neglected. “Are you heading to bed as well? I don’t want you staying up too late playing video games again.”

“I won’t, I promise. But I am gonna turn in early tonight.” Saying goodnight to my mother, I headed back upstairs, only to check the time. It was dark out now. I opened the dresser and pulled out my hoodie, slipping it on and flipping the hood up, putting the black face mask over my mouth to mask myself further.

I wasn’t crazy. I knew I wasn’t, and I was going to show them all they were wrong. “Sorry mom..” I spoke softly as I opened my window. Slowly, I climbed out of it, dropping down to the ground below before taking off toward the city.