Run Away With Me

Chapter 36: Wow...

"Come back home Nao," Dev orders, ignoring my current panic. Nao turns to him with a sharp look, daring him to use that tone with him again. Dev takes a shy step back. "Can you please come home...?" Where has your 'beat him to a pulp and drag him home' gone?

Coward.

But I don't care for their current family problems.

Because, one: Nao isn't going back.

And two: I am currently fazed with a much more serious dilemma.

Claudette must've been joking.

I scroll down my contact list to E, pressing the name before I can think twice about it. He will surely hate me for calling him so early in the morning, but there's nothing else I can do about it.

I mute the family's heated dispute for a moment and focus on the high-pitched rings.

"Hello?" comes from the other side. The tone is not what I was expecting. I was in for husky, just woken up, and a whole lot of pissed off, but what I got was panic. Plain panic. And the person I know doesn't panic, he fixes.

Something's wrong, but maybe it's not what I'm worrying about?

"Hey, it's Loopie-"

"Oh, thank God! I was just going to ring you up. Are you alright? You're still alive, right? Or are you calling me because you're on the road dying? Oh God, this cannot be happening," he rambles. I let his solo conversation continue as I take the phone away from my ear and check the name.

Emmie.

Of course, thank the above. I started thinking that the person I meant to call flipped. I called the wrong person, his twin.

I bring the phone back to my ear. "Emmie, Emmie, I'm alright." He stops talking at my reassurance and breathes out, calming himself. "I called to see if you guys are alright. Are you alright?"

A minute of silence.

I get anxious.

I hear shuffling on the other side of the phone, then a thud. My heart skips a beat.

"Emmie? Emmie!"

"Shut up. Do you know how effing damn early you're calling? We're trying to handle a situation here, what do you want?"

Emmyl.

I breathe out. "Emmyl... is Emmie, okay?"

"...yeah, just passed out. Again," he says, "how are we related again...?"

"Shush, you're twins." I let a smile tug my lips. "Anyway, what's happening? Claude called and..."

"Chaos, chaos, and a bit more of chaos." What I hoped wouldn't be happening. "That Shitty Bureau has gone and done it. Everybody's panicking; they're calling me left and right, asking me what to do."

"Well, you are the one with the largest rogue pack."

"Yeah, and I am also the one with the largest headache right now- moron! Go back in the cave! What do you think this is? A free-for-all?" He pauses. "I don't care if you have to pee, hold it in. Or do you want me to plug it?" I hear a quiet squeak and thudding steps. Emmyl sighs. "Gord called me too, he has most of the info. Call him, will ya? Maybe you can draft up a plan, 'cause I'm fucking lost."

"Okay, okay, will do, I'll call you back in just a bit."

I swipe down my contact list again and arrive at letter G.

Gord 1.

Gord 2.

Gord 3.