The Universe Rings, Funeral Bells Don't (a "Universe Rings" fanfiction)

Chapter Three: He's Not Here

I looked at Zoë. Then Kenneth. Then back at Zoë.

I shot Kenneth a look that said: "Should we let her?"

The look he gave back responded: "Why not?"

Before I could say anything, Kenneth turned to Zoë and said, "We could need you. Once we get more information, we'll find you."

Zoë nodded, smiled, turned, and jogged through the corridor. Kenneth and I walked silently back to the infirmary, where we found Azizi putting fresh bandages on the little girl.

"So," she asked as soon as she saw us enter. "How did it go? Did the Venenarius guy tell you anything important?"

"Can we... talk about this later?" I was still a bit shaken up from the conversation with the Venenarius man. I didn't need to talk about Dior right now, especially after visiting his grave accidentally earlier that day.

"Of course." Azizi gave me a sympathetic smile. "I have a little friend for you to meet!"

She gestured to the little girl on the bed. She waved shyly. "Hi."

"This is Amara from the Bishop Shelter. She"--Azizi's voice dropped to a whisper--"lost her parents in the attack. Her older sister is somewhere around here, and we need you to find her."

"How do you know this stuff?" Kenneth whispered back.

"She told me everything that happened during the attack, and about the sister she hasn't seen in months. Amara's last name is Reyes, and there's a teenage girl here with that name. You've met her already."

"Zoë?" we both whispered at the same time.

"Yep," Azizi confirmed.

Now that she mentioned it, Amara did bear a striking resemblance to our friend from earlier. They had the same long, dark hair, deeply tanned skin, and strange greenish eyes that shifted to hazel depending on the angle you looked at them.

Amara whispered something to Azizi in a language I immediately recognized as Spanish. Azizi responded in the same language, shaking her head and chuckling slightly.

"No tenemos galletas aquí," she said.

"So, Azizi, what does this have to do with anything? Why can't you get Zoë?" Kenneth asked.

"Because I'm busy making sure Amara doesn't reinjure herself."

"What happened to Zoë and Amara?" I inquired, sitting down on the bed next to Amara's. "How did they get separated?"

"In an attack a few months ago at the shelter in Universe H-YY361, Amara and her mom teleported straight to the Bishop Shelter using the Reyes' Universe Ring. Zoë's broke mid-teleportation and she landed here. She basically crashed through the roof, so I've heard from Harold." Kenneth and I gave her a strange look. "Oh, right, you haven't met Harold. He's the other medic here at Yancy. So, you going to find Zoë or not?"

We both nodded and left the infirmary as Azizi and Amara picked back up their conversation in Spanish.

"That's so sad," I whispered to Kenneth as we walked together. I was beginning to tear up a little. "Someone so young lost her whole family for months."

"Well, you and I have both lost our families for eternity," Kenneth responded, his voice shaking slightly.

"Right, but I was almost fourteen, and you were fifteen. Amara is six and Zoë is the same age I was. Do you think she even knows her parents are dead?"

Kenneth looked at the floor and didn't answer. His eyes were glassy with tears. He didn't like talking about his brothers as much as I didn't like talking about mine, the traitor who left us for the Interitus.

I miss having a consistent home, I miss my mom teaching me Scottish Gaelic, and, most of all, I miss the days when Sun was so innocent and no one could ever imagine he'd grow up to become this monster the Interitus raised him to be.

I know Kenneth feels the same. I stopped walking and wrapped my arms around him in a hug, and let my tears fall. He followed suit. I don't think either of us expected to get so emotional, but that's what it is now. The PTSD was going to catch up someday.

We continued walking, both still misty-eyed, and found Zoë eating alone at a small table in the shelter's huge cafetorium. Seriously, the ceiling had to stretch upward for at least fifty feet, ending in a very impressive wooden dome.

Kenneth and I both sat down in the chairs across from her.

"Hey, guys!" she greeted cheerfully, not seeming to be able to read our expressions. "Any news from the Venenarius guy?"

I shook my head as Kenneth responded, "It's actually about something else. Your sister, Amara."

Her eyes widened further than I thought was possible. "Is she here?"

"Yes, actually," I interjected, "but there's something you should know before you go to see her. Your parents are--"

"Dead, probably?" she interrupted, no longer smiling. She looked down at her food and poked it with the wooden utensils that I couldn't name. When we didn't respond, she looked up at me, dead in my eyes. "I knew it."

I could see tears welling up in her eyes, but they didn't look truly sad. They looked sad out of obligation, like she felt it was necessary to cry, even though she didn't want to. That made the situation even worse.

"Do you... want to talk about it?" Kenneth asked.

"Why not," she mumbled. "As long as I can remember, my mom has been a Venenarius. I didn't know my dad was an Interitus until he almost killed Amara and I when they destroyed our universe. He tried to reason with me the next time I saw him, telling me that he--that we--could be important. He said the Interitus offered him a life outside of the poverty he'd known growing up in a particularly poor coastal city in the Philippines. He expected my mom to understand, since she grew up in a similar lifestyle in a barrio in Mexico. She didn't, and she and Amara used the Universe Ring to leave for the Bishop Shelter. I didn't have a ring. My own mother left me there to die at the hands of my father. I only had a split second to take his ring and use it to get to the Bishop Shelter, but I wasn't concentrated enough and crash-landed here. The ring broke." She looked down again. "Of course, I don't blame Amara for what happened. Just dear old Mother and Father."

"Do you want to see her?" I asked, reaching for her hand. She took it. "Azizi said she's been asking for you."

She wiped her eyes and smiled again. "Sure."

We were almost back to the infirmary when a large boom shook the whole shelter. Without saying a word or looking at each other, we began to sprint through the corridor and burst through the infirmary's heavy door.

Relieved to see that Amara was okay, Zoë wrapped her in a tight hug, carefully avoiding her injured hand. That's when the roof came down.