Freefall (Jaspar)

Chapter Nine

"-and then I woke up to find Phil missing this morning. Joe's gone too of course. We scoured the apartment, but there's no trace, as usual," Dan finished, letting out a sigh. Caspar had tuned out for most of the explanation; none of it was news to him. He was perched on the armrest of the couch, scrolling his twitter feed, and writing out carefully planned responses to the thousands of worried tweets from his fans. He did owe them an explanation, but no one could know what was actually happening. To the outside world, Joe was ill, nothing more.

It hadn't been working thus far in, considering how his social media had exploded the first time he'd even suggested that Joe wasn't fit to be on camera. The majority outright believed it was all lies, with theories popping up all over the place: Joe was working on a secret project, Joe had been found guilty for a crime, Joe had quit YouTube. There'd even been a small group arguing that Joe was in a freak car accident, backed up by their blurred photos of newspapers and a man who, whilst bore some similarity, was not Joe.

Liam occupied the seat next to Caspar's careless position, leaning forward on his elbows, and staring at the ground in deep thought. He hadn't said much for the entire explanation, but that made sense. After all, he'd only had his suspicions confirmed a little over an hour ago, there wasn't much he could contribute to the story. This would be the first time he'd heard a full description of the tale though, but he wasn't the only one.

The other two young men on the opposite side of the room were much more openly curious about the situation. They'd arranged a small end-table before them, seated in the colourful chairs from around Dan's dining table. The closer of the two had his head bent down, scratching a pen rapidly across a small notebook, taking notes on every word that left Dan's mouth.

The other man seemed more inclined to talk, asking questions in between pauses, and humming along in understanding whenever Dan mentioned one of Joe's 'antics'. He had longer hair that fell past his ears, choppily cut yet not unattractively so. His chiseled face held a warm expression, and Caspar got the feeling that he was a good man, even despite the business he was in.

"Have you checked...Joe, was it? Have you checked Joe's apartment yet?" The man questioned, eyes focusing on Dan, who only shook his head in response.

"Yeah, sure, Cam, they're totally going to want to go search for a demon in a dark and abandoned apartment. Way to go," the note-taker spoke up without lifting his head, plainly sarcastic, although it was more than obvious he was just joking.

"Just trying to help, Sean," Cam retorted, giving Sean a challenging stare. "Unless you can think of a better idea?"

Sean's head rose to meet Cam's eyes, giving Caspar the chance to give him a long look. He was strikingly similar to Cam, the same chiseled face and friendly gaze. His hair was much shorter though, trimmed back to reveal most of his head, unlike Cam's mop.

Caspar guessed they were brothers, especially considering the close relationship they seemed to share.

"I could go look at it myself?" Sean offered, raising an eyebrow. He was immediately rejected, Cam shaking his head slowly.

"We can't do that, not until we know what we're dealing with." Turning to face the couch again and ignoring Sean's disappointed pout, Cam continued. "Is there a room spare that we could use as a headquarters of sorts?"

Caspar lowered his phone and turned his head to watch Dan. The obvious choice was Phil's room, it was large and spacious, especially if they moved some of the furniture out. It was unlikely that Dan would give up that space easily though, even if Phil was doomed to never return.

Dan looked like he'd come to the same conclusion, his face falling as he realised there was no other option. If Cam and Sean were staying in the flat, they would surely question the lack of occupancy in Phil's bedroom, and Caspar wouldn't put it past them to snatch up the extra space as soon as the opportunity showed itself.