east of eden 𑁋 salvis.

XXXIII

♥̩̥̩♥̩̩̥͙♥̩͙ˊˎ

Time was blurring. Before Travis knew it, he was on a plane back home. He had not been told what was going to become of him once he returned to Nockfell, just that he had to go back home since he was a minor. Anxiety gnawed at his stomach as he stared out the plane window. He hadn't even really processed Sal was gone. Not fully.

He knew it, rationally. He knew that Sal was gone forever. But he hadn't processed it. As he looked over at the person in the seat next to him, Travis almost thought for a second that it would be Sal. But of course, it wasn't Sal. It was never going to be Sal. Instead, it was a nice lady Travis had met at the police department after he'd been processed. A social worker named Shelly.

Shelly wasn't permanent. She held his case for now, until they stepped off the plane in Nockfell. There, he would be turned over to a different social worker, because as he learned, his father was imprisoned in the moment. Deborah was nowhere to be found, and until the police could prove Kenneth innocent, he would be in a holding cell in Nockfell's small prison. When he had heard that, he'd cried. Travis imagined the moment his dad would be gone forever, the moment Travis no longer had to worry about Kenneth breathing down his neck, for years. He'd imagined that when that moment came, he'd breathe a sigh of relief and get to finally enjoy his life.

That wasn't how it really went, though. When he got brought into Shelly's office in Hollywood, California, he was told the news. Deborah had gone missing not long after him, but she couldn't be classified as a runaway. Things seemed suspicious around her disappearance, so Kenneth was taken into police custody. He only seemed to incriminate himself with his answers, so he was being held indefinitely. And when Travis had heard his dad was gone for an unmeasured amount of time, he cried. His dad was gone and probably not coming back. Even if he couldn't be proven guilty in the disappearance, he might still not be proven innocent. They may still keep him, just to be able to say case closed.

Travis didn't know why he had cried. He didn't love his dad. He hadn't loved him since the first time Kenneth laid a hand on him in the name of God. He was not going to miss him. Travis was going to be extremely happy Kenneth was gone. But also, deep down inside, there was a little boy in him that was going to miss his dad.

"Are you alright?" Shelly's words brought Travis out of the spiraling thoughts of death, Sal, his dad. Man, was that a loaded question. Such meaningless words, but they were said like Shelly was afraid that if poked too hard, Travis would break. Like Travis was a hollowed out eggshell held in the hands of someone who doesn't know their own strength. Maybe he was. Maybe he was a hollow eggshell, and maybe he was the hands that didn't know their own strength. Maybe he was a fragile vase, and he was the child that didn't know how to keep their hands to themselves.