Camp Twin Tails

Chapter 20: He Likes to Stress Build

By the time I've thrown some clothes on over my wet swimsuit and run over to cabin 3, Noah, Josie, and Hazel are standing around Theo. The first thing I notice is that he's not crying or freaking out, like at all. Instead he sits on the edge of a bed, slumped over something he's fiddling with in his hands. And his face, it just looks empty, devoid of any emotion. 

In comparison to Josie's reaction to her twin disappearing, Theo's the exact opposite. 

"Hazel, Josie, go find Reed," I say, pulling my phone out of my pocket at the same time. 

The twins give Theo one last sympathetic look before dashing out the front door. I text Calder, trying to phrase my message as nonchalantly as possible, that we can't find Lewis. Just on the off chance that anyone happens to look over his shoulder, intentionally or not. 

I sit down on the edge of the bed next to him, trying not to get it wet from my clothes. "Hey. What are you building?" 

Noah gives me a weird look from where e's leaning against the wall. I ignore em and return my attention to the little object in Theo's hands. "Just a little gadget..." he mumbles.

"What does it do?" I ask, finally getting a good look at it as he turns it over in his hands. There's gears and strips of metal stuck together, with a circular part in the middle that's had little pegs stuck on. "Is it a music box?"

Theo nods, "I built it out of some spare parts I found in the Art Barn a while ago. It wasn't all that hard once I had the right tools and stuff. I mean, a simple music box isn't that hard to make if you know how."

So apparently Theo's a genius inventor because most people my age don't even know how to fix a loose bike chain let alone build an entire mini music box out of spare parts they found laying around. I tilt my head to one side, "How long did it take you to build it then?"

"I don't know," Theo shrugs. "Maybe twenty minutes. Building and fixing things help calm me down so..."

"Wait. Gearbox, did you build that whole thing after we lost Lewis?" Noah suddenly adds. Honestly I forgot e's standing there; and eir question catches me by surprise. 

The boy only nods, focusing his attention on attaching the lever.

Yeah he's definitely smarter than me. 

The front door suddenly opens when Reed barges in, Hazel and Josie and Gwinny in tow. Calder runs onto the porch not a minute later, covered in dirt. I give him a silent look, curious as to how he managed to get all that dirt on him. 

My brother shakes his head, mouthing something about horses. 

"What happened exactly?" Reed asks, bringing both of us back to reality. 

I look back to Theo, who's hasn't stopped fiddling with his music box. After a minute of us holding our breath, he breaks the silence. "We were sitting by the climbing wall. Both of us were waiting for it to be our turn, I was next in line so I started putting gear on. He was right behind me, barely ten feet away, but then I looked back and he wasn't there. I ran into Hazel and Josie when I was looking around to see if he wandered off. Not even a single other person saw him though."

No one saw him? That seems a little hard to believe that he wasn't seen walking away. Lewis couldn't have just disappeared into thin air... right? 

"There wasn't anyone who saw him? Really?" Calder asks, voicing my thoughts. 

Hazel nods, "We asked around the climbing wall and surrounding area but everyone we asked hadn't been paying attention or they were dealing with a different situation, there were a lot of excuses but no one had any idea where he went." 

Reed takes a deep breath. "How long has it been since he disappeared?" 

"Maybe half an hour, tops," Noah says crossing eir arms. 

"It's been long enough that someone should've seen him by now. Let's split up and start looking around. Noah stay here with him," Reed orders. 

We all nod and head for the door. 

Hazel, Josie and I head towards the Dining Hall- while the others run for the soccer field. Ruthie and Lailani, who are holding hands, wave as we pass each other. I reach out for them, "Hey, we're looking for Lewis. If you see him, call me ok?" 

Ruthie nods, "Yeah of course, we'll keep an eye out for him." 

Thankfully neither of them ask any questions, to be fair I tried my best to seem nonchalant about it specifically so they wouldn't question it. The girls get ahead of me and as I sprint to catch up I wave to the teenagers. 

I turn around and quickly start scanning the area around us when I bump into someone. "Oh I'm so sorry! That was on m-"

Ms. Iris stands in front of me, raising an eyebrow at me. "Is everything alright Marina?" 

"I-um... yeah... just..." Shit I can't seem to get any words to come out properly. 

Something moves in my back pocket and Josie is suddenly standing next to me with my phone in hand. "Mari! Look what I found! You dropped it over by the cabins."

I try to make a believable sigh of relief. "You're a lifesaver Josie. I was looking for it everywhere."

The girl nods, and smiles at Ms. Iris. "Good afternoon Ms. Iris."

"Good afternoon, I see your phone is what had you so concerned Marina. I'm glad you found it," Ms. Iris says. 

I can only nod in response, but as we turn away I see her out of the corner of my eye. Something tells me she doesn't believe us in the slightest. We really need to keep our guard up better, there's no telling what the those three are thinking. 

Probably another fifteen minutes have passed when we meet back up in Cabin 3. Now, however, Theo's loosing it. His shoulders shake from crying and he's no longer fidgeting with his music box, instead having presumably tossed it across the bed. 

Noah's sitting criss-cross on the floor in front of him, with a hand on Theo's knee. 

My brother pats the boy's shoulder. "Hey, we'll find him. It's gonna be ok."

Theo shrugs off my brother's hand, Noah doesn't let go of his knee. "How do you know that huh?! You don't know what it's like when your other half just disappears!" 

"He doesn't. But I do..."

My brain lags for a hot second before I pinpoint the voice, then I draw my eyebrows together. Noah's the one who spoke, eirs hand still on Theo's knee. My eyes shift to eirs siblings, both looking much more uncomfortable than they were a few seconds ago. 

"What...?" Theo asks quietly. 

Noah takes a long pause, clearly hesitating to explain. Eirs siblings are the only ones who actually know what e's talking about, and it doesn't look like any of them want to bring it up. For a second I think e might not say it at all, but then e opens eirs mouth. 

It's quiet at first, awkward even, something I haven't heard from em before. E avoids everyone's eyes too. "I'm a twin too- er- I used to be one."

The silence of held breath fills the gap. E's a what?

"I had a twin sister once," Noah says. "She died when we were nine." E looks up to meet only Theo's eyes, a steely edge to the pale blue. "So yes Theo, I know exactly what's it's like to lose a twin and more because my sister is never coming back. Believe me when I say, I will do everything in my power to make sure you don't end up like us. We're going to get Lewis back."

Pieces start clicking in my head as e stops talking. Reed saying he stopped playing guitar after 'things changed' and how that was when Noah started getting into trouble. How Noah seemed way more compassionate to Josie when we couldn't find Hazel. And why the siblings get worried when they don't know the whereabouts of the other. 

I can't even imagine losing Calder- especially that young- I don't doubt that I'd have turned out much different than Noah. It must've been so hard for em. 

Theo stares down at his lap for a moment before bursting into sobbing. Noah hugs him, like it's the most normal thing in the world, and rubs his back. I guess e is the most suited for that out of all of us.