Phantom Recall

29 || some unwanted stranger

Three months.

The thought circles my head even after I've stepped off the bus, and it dwells with me until the moment I arrive at Eret's house. The sun has fully set. It's still summer, or so I've been led to believe, so I know that it must be late seeing as the extended daylight is gone. Even more so due to the clouds rolling in from the distant sky. Rain is soon to come. I can already feel a chill in the air, but that much is normal. Rain is normal in the real world. It doesn't have to serve as an omen. It doesn't have to warn of a beast's soon approach.

Things have been normal here — that is my greatest wish, at least.

Standing outside the Young residence, I peer up at the roof outside Eret's room. I can't quite see the window from here, and I'm no good a climber, either, so if I wanted to see if he were home, I would have to enter through the house like any normal person.

I hear voices inside. I can be assured at least someone is home and awake. That said, I brace myself and push through the front door with my heart already in my throat.

The house seems quieter on the inside than it was from the outside. Muffled voices, even softer now, the familiar and caring whispers of Mrs. Young who I find sitting next to Aiden on the living room couch. One of Eret's little sisters is there, too, but fast asleep with her head on Aiden's lap while he strokes her hair gently. A part of me is tempted to linger by the doorway just to listen in on their conversation — but I don't. It isn't my place, I tell myself. It was never my place.

I glance into the kithen on my way to the stairs just to make sure Eret isn't there, either. Even if he isn't anywhere in the house right now, I know it's no reason to panic. The guy has a job, after all. And college which he insisted once that he was saving up for. And third of all, a dear, dear friend who hasn't been feeling well for quite some time now.

So much on one person's plate...if only I could shoulder some of it for him. But that isn't my place, either.

I head up the stairs as silently as possible, then once more up the stairs leading to the attic. I stop in front of the door. The longer I try to prepare myself to see him, the harder it would be. Whether I tell him what Wisp told me or not. If nothing more, I owe him the honesty of where Noir and I have been this whole time.

Not wishing to startle Eret by walking in unannounced, I raise my fist to knock at the door and freeze up — voices, I hear voices again from inside the boy's room. The one belongs to Eret, unsurprisingly, but the other places a strange pin in my thoughts that urges me to search my brain for what sparked such a vague memory. It's familiar, but in the faintest sense of the term. As though I've heard it once or twice but no more. I don't believe it belongs to any of Eret's siblings...by now I've committed their voices to memory. At least the ones who live at home.

I hold my breath and press my ear to the door.

"I mean, like I said, I've already told Aiden," Eret says, not far from a whisper so I have to strain to hear him. "He believes me...I knew he would, but...ya know. I made him swear not to tell Mom or anybody else. I don't...really want them being worried about my mental stability any more than they already are..."

"I could move some chairs around," the second voice replies. "It might spook 'em, but you could always-"

"I told you I don't want to do that. It's not gonna make anything better."

"Then what will? Just say the word. I would do literally anything for you, Eret."

"I wish you wouldn't," Eret says, heaving a sigh of exasperation. "I wish you would tell me what you wanted for a change."