-HIATUS- ᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇᴍ - ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴀᴡᴛʜᴏʀɴᴇ ʟᴇɢᴀᴄʏ (ꜱᴇQᴜᴇʟ ᴛᴏ ᴀɴᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ɢʀᴀᴍʙꜱ?) -HIATUS-

Chapter 8

"Your brothers are idiots," Avery said sighing. She had been pacing for a little while, while we blocked the door.

"It's fine. It's just what brothers do" I raised an eyebrow. "What Hawthorne brothers do" I nodded. He understood. Everything was silent. "The first blow is usually Gray's. He usually goes for a classic leg sweep. But first, he will circle Jameson. Actually, they will circle each other. Gray will go into warning-and-order mode with cause Jamie to mock him. So on and so forth until the first blow is struck." There was a loud thud from inside the foundation. The first blow had been struck.

"And after that?" Avery said her eyes were narrowing onto Xander's. I tried to picture them fighting. It was gruesome.

"We have an average of three black belts apiece, but it usually devolves into wrestling. One of them will pin the other. Argue, argue. Bicker, Bicker, and voila!" I leaned into the door. Trying to listen in to any arguments that could be happening on the other side of the door. I tried to imagine their fight. Their argument. Everything. Their life growing up. 

"I'm going in" Avery said dramatically as she did the door I was leaning on started moving. It opened and I started falling backward. I closed my eyes expecting impact. I fell into a body. I opened my eyes and looked up. Jameson caught me. Jameson looked like he always did but he was wet. He was sweaty. I smelt it. My nose scrunched up. Then I straightened it and I hoped Jameson didn't see it.

"Sorry. Just blocking the door so Avery doesn't break in" I said standing up correctly.

"I take it there was no beatdown?" Avery said.

"What? You're not the one that fell into him" I said smirking. I knew he had fought. I smelt it. I felt it. 

"What would make you think that?" Jameson said looking at Avery. He looked at me grinning. What was he grinning about? The fact that I fell into him? The fact that I smelt him? "If you wait out here, you have my word that she'll be perfectly safe inside. It's secure" Jameson said looking at Oren.

"I know. I designed the security on this building myself." Oren replied. 

"Can you give us a minute, Oren?" Avery asked. Oren nodded. We followed Jameson into the building. What had happened to Grayson? As if Jameson knew what I was thinking he looked at me.

"Don't worry, I took it easy on him" he murmured. Grayson came into view. He looked unharmed just like Jameson did. He put on his suit jacket.

"You two are idiots" Avery muttered.

"Be that as it may..." Grayson said I cut him off.

"We need him," I said looking Avery in the eye.

"Yes we do," Avery said. 

"I told you this was a bad idea, Avery." He said looking at Avery and then at me. "Amber?" I looked away. I had talked to him. He was in on it. I wasn't meant to leave him out.

"I know. I'm sorry" I said looking away from him.

"While you and Jameson were playing WWF like eight-year-olds, did he happen to tell you that Toby was adopted? Did he tell you about my birth certificate?" Avery said.

"Your what?" Xander said startled. He looked at me. "Amy Bear?"

"I was going to tell you but it slipped my mind and I started thinking that you already knew. Sorry." I looked at Grayson. "Sorry" Grayson stared at Amber then at Avery. I closed my eyes to think. He was thinking about the game. About the information, he was given. The search not only mattered to me but to Avery as well. Toby might be not only my father but Avery's as well. I needed to find him. I wanted to talk to him again. But this time as father-daughter. I wanted to see him. I needed this puzzle solved. We needed the puzzle solved.

"Here's a picture I took. Those are the charities listed in the will your grandfather wrote shortly after Toby's disappearance." I heard Avery say. Was Grayson looking at the pictures? I started fiddling with the edge of my shirt. I thought about Toby growing up. Why did he disappear? What happened at the fire? Why didn't he go home? What was he hiding? Why did he isolate himself? Why was he, my father? How did he know my mother? Who was she to him? A stranger he met drunk? Someone that he knew from before?

"Amber? Amber?" I heard a voice say. 

"Amy Bear?" That was Xander. I opened my eyes and shot my head up. 

"Did something happen?" I asked looking around at everyone. They were looking at me.

"We were just wondering if you were ok," Avery said looking at me. She was worried again.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I looked at everyone again. Silence. "So what did you find? I wasn't listening" Silence.

"The Allport institute, Camden House, Colin's Way, and the Rockaway Watch Society," Xander said looking at me dead in the eye.

"Ok" I replied cheerfully. They didn't buy it. "For the last time, I am FINE. Remember that word FINE." I walked away and opened the door. I walked out it slammed behind me but I heard it open again. I heard Grayson say words in a foreign language. Jameson replied. What were they saying?

I looked behind me and Grayson was walking up to me. I didn't want to talk to anyone I just wanted to think. Explore the final ladder. Then look for more. 

"Amber?" 

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure you are fine?"

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"About?"

"What kind of person Toby was. What kind of things he liked. What kind of clothes he wore. What kind of hobbies he had. What he thought about everyone around him. Why he never went back to Hawthorne House."

"How?"

"That's just how my brain works. How I taught it to work."

"Taught it?"

"It involves back alleys. You don't want to know."

"In fact, we all want to know. Why won't you tell us anything?" A female voice said. I looked up and behind me. Avery was standing there so were Jameson and Xander.

"Because it is private information. If you guys knew you would be keeping me to your side all the time Ave"

"Into the SUV we go!" Xander exclaimed.

"I'm going to walk," I said sighing. I got a look from Avery. "I need to think. Cars are way too tight." Oren gestured to one of his men and then he was behind me. It was his way of saying you can walk home. "Come if you want. I don't care. Just don't talk." I knew my way home. I memorized the drive here.

"What if you get lost?" Avery asked.

"I never get lost," I muttered. I walked off the wind in my face. I needed to think about the game. About Toby. I needed to get into his shoes. I needed to be him. What did Toby feel? What did he think about the adoption? There was a figure next to me.

(1163 words)