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[𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝟺] 𝙱𝚘𝚐𝚊𝚗

Tap... Tap... Tap...

He kept tapping his fingers against the plastic of the table as the light swung over our heads. A single simple lightbulb barely hanging on to its wire.

Tap... Tap... Tap...

It's like every part of this room was made just to annoy me. It's like every part of this room was meant to muddle my head. It's like every part of this room...

This room. This room...

I blinked, hard. And I didn't open my eyes again for some time. He'd asked a question. I didn't answer.

What did he ask?

Tap... Tap... Tap...

I need to think. Think back. I— I need to orient myself. Do what Mom and Dad did all the time. What they did, what the Travis' did, what me and Taylor used to do, what Hayley's learning how to do—

Tap... Tap... Tap...

No more chasing after the rabbit. I found the rabbit. It was right here, in front of me, the rabbit with his beady eyes and gray hair. The rabbit with hazel, almost gold, eyes.

The rabbit who wouldn't stop tapping his long, calloused fingers.

Tap... Tap... Tap...

Voices. I can hear voices. Voices screaming in my ear. All of them indistinct. I can hear each and every one of them. I can't hear any of them. Too many of them. All part of the same crowd.

Tap... tap... tap...

"Tell me about your parents? Where are they? Are they living?" He— Shane, asked. His voice was deep and raggedy with the typical Australian accent.

I shook my head. A bead of sweat dropped down my face. My breathing was growing heavier.

Taylor...

Where's Taylor? Shane was going to talk to Taylor next, wasn't he? Was Mei watching him? Making sure he didn't go anywhere? I should make sure he's okay. And Hayley too. She's taking care of Boy alone. I hope nothing happened to them. Hope nothings happening to them.

"Are Taylor and Hayley okay? And... And..." did we ever come up with a name for the white haired child?

"I'll be asking the questions here." Shane replied quickly. "And they will be, if you answer me. Don't even think about lying."

"I won't." I croaked out, knowing full well losing whatever information I had was better than my life. Their lives. Our lives.

With that, I suppose I should his last question. "My parents..."

It hurt to answer, thinking of them. I missed Mom so much, the way she died... it was so quick. I didn't get to say goodbye. I didn't get to be there.

I was younger. I didn't even know what had happened. No one would tell me. I found out from the TV, and uncle Jake...

And Dad, I miss him a lot. And there's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder where he's gone. If he's alive...

Ones dead. The other, missing. Never to return in over a decade now.

I don't know how because I didn't answer him, but Shane seemed satisfied enough to ask another question. Was he in my head?

A shooting pain went straight through my skull into my head and I instinctively flinched away from it.

"Where's the Jaeger? Does it have weapons?" Shane spoke with a certainty that cut through the air sharper than the headache I'd just given myself. The incandescent light of the lightbulb wasn't making it any better either.