Midnight Wonders

6.0.3. Midnight

For the first time (probably ever), the entrance hall of the Sycamore was empty. Luc almost couldn't believe it—it looked so hollow and sad without the bustling life. It was enormous, cavernous. Like an empty auditorium, or a movie theater after everyone else had already cleared out. Not even Morgan was out and about; some other man with a red version of Morgan's mustache opened the door for Luc and Tristan when they returned from their last walk outside the Sycamore.

"Go to your room," Tristan said. "There'll probably be people there to help you get ready."

"Thanks," said Luc, glancing down the way where Kay's room was. That hall was perfectly empty too. It was Midsummer now, so Kay had returned at some point. He hadn't come to see Luc; Luc hadn't seen him at all since he'd returned. He went over to Kay's room and knocked.

Kay opened it.

"Hi," said Luc, feeling breathless.

"It's Midsummer."

"I know."

"I have to get dressed," said Kay. "And so do you."

"Okay," said Luc, not sure what he was going to have to wear. He almost didn't want to change; he'd been wearing these clothes for the entire time he had been in Under-The-Green-Hill, and he knew that probably made them disgusting, but at least they were his clothes. "Wait," he said aloud. "I'm not going to be able to take my own clothes back out with me?"

Kay glanced at him. "What?"

"Because I have to change. So I have to take these off."

"Just carry them with you."

"But it's going to look weird," said Luc. "And suspicious."

"How so?"

"Because I'm going to be the odd person carrying clothes from outside on me?"

Kay stared at him. Then he reached out with one hand towards Luc's waist, and Luc wondered what in the world he was doing, and he hooked a finger into one of the pouches hanging there and pulled it open. "Here," he said.

Luc looked down at it. "Um, I don't think it's going to fit my clothes."

"What you think is different from what is true," said Kay. He was still pulling slightly on the pouch, and Luc had the urge to lean into him. Then Kay let go, bent down, and took off his shoe. Luc stared at him blankly as Kay shoved his shoe into the pouch. It slipped in easily and disappeared inside, barely showing from the exterior. "You didn't know it could do that?"

"How was I supposed to know?" said Luc, lost between shock and acceptance.

"By using it," said Kay. "Take it out."

Luc stuck his fingers into the pouch and felt the edge of Kay's shoe. He pulled it out of the pouch, and it wasn't even squished or deformed from the tiny space in which it had been confined. "Does even space not exist as time does not?" he said.

"We're inside a hill," Kay said, taking back his shoe, and Luc supposed that was explanation enough.

"Do you think I could fit a person in here?" said Luc, half-jokingly.

"Do you want to try?" said Kay, raising an eyebrow. "I think they might get claustrophobic."

Luc shook his head. He really hadn't used the pouches at all, and he felt a bit bad for doing so when Kay had given them specifically to him. It seemed they would have been much more useful to Kay had he kept him. Kay hadn't even taken his things out of the pouches, and Luc wondered suddenly if there was more in them than he had realized, considering that there seemed to be impossible space inside them. He reached inside them and felt around. Kay watched him curiously.