How to Start a Fire

CH5 [Overnight Revelations]

Millicent explained Mamoru the following night already that he couldn't come over anymore. She said we would have to work more consequently now and he understood, later he said good bye to everyone and was driven home even before the night had been over.

Needless to say, the fact that there was no change in our work routine afterwards- which means we still basically did nothing, irritated me a lot. Why did she want him to leave? He wasn't in the way and even always offered to help. She might be concerned for his safety, but what's supposed to happen to him? I had been at the station for more than 30 years and there has never been any danger as long as you stayed at the station.

This development didn't seem to sit right with Aleksander either and he would constantly try to text Mamoru, most likely to see if he was alright- but of course after some time the school year started again and therefore Mamoru was asleep during nighttime. Mold-man turned unbearable during these times. He was a little distanced, clumsy and wouldn't listen. It was exhausting to work with him and I soon grew sick of even trying.

One night, when I was tiredly sorting trading cards in my room, my phone started buzzing. At first I thought someone was calling me and got so anxious I didn't want to touch it, but after a few seconds I realized it was rapidly sent text messages, so I picked it up and looked at them.

They were all from Mamoru.

He was asking if I could come over because of something too big to type. He would call me, he said, but he knows that I am not that great with that.

I sighed. Yes, seeing that pillow kid again sounded like a nice idea... I had been doing worse again today, yelled at some people for no reason and gotten into a fight with Mold-man.

I picked up some of my stuff and got down to the door, but Millicent caught me in the hallway.

"Where are you going?" she asked, obviously confused about me wanting to leave the house.

"Mamoru just texted me." I explained. "He said he needed to talk."

"What on earth makes you go?!" she said out loud, it sounded like she considered me insane for showing up.

"...He... asked me for help?? Seriously, what's wrong with you and wanting to avoid Moru?" I asked, burying my hands in my pockets.

"It's dangerous for him! I thought you knew! You are always super cautious of things like this and are usually aware of the risk." She leaned against the wall. "I just don't want this kid to die for our sake."

"Die? Millicent, please." I made a tortured face. Why should he die? This was some strong exaggeration. "They don't have any plan! It would have been nice if you had told me to begin with, but talking to this Clara person it became very clear that their attacks are random! They would never get the idea to make a connection between us and humans outside of the station so they kidnap someone and kill them so we get mad. If they would, why are our human officers still alive?"

She sighed. "Tell the kid you are not going and you suddenly got a job and come with me, I... may have made a mistake."

I stared at her. Millicent was one of the smarter people among us. She was aware of danger but still laid back and I admired her for this- so I decided to trust her and nodded.

She walked off to her room and I followed her quietly and when she closed the door behind her I looked around a bit. It's not like I hadn't been in her room before but... it's always very special. Millicent had the habit of collecting her favorite things in her room- no matter from what time. This caused her room to look extremely wild, there were different styles of decoration articles, clothes in a wild range of fashion styles from most likely over a century ago up to now, but the best part were the photos she put up on the wall, an unsorted, wild mixture of pictures starting from most likely the first cameras up to the newest ones. It looked a little bit like in a media museum, with all the old black and white shots.