Blinded Boy (Eyeless Jack)

04: Truthful Answers, or Loveable Lies.

I could tell that he was calmer. His breathing because stable, he stopped crying, and he was no longer shaking. His arms no longer clung to me, they dangled down. He had passed out once he read everything. I held him, that way he wouldn't fall over, but I didn't know what to do. I could reach for my phone, but I didn't want him to fall over if moved, but to my luck, the back door opened.

"Hey," I whispered to Amber. She raised an eyebrow, trying to piece together what was going on. "There's something I need to tell you and Tyler. Could you go get someone to get Micah off of me? He's passed out."

She nodded and rushed away, back into the building. Micah and I weren't out here for long, but it feels like forever.

~·~·~·~

Tyler had picked up Micah and placed him on the floor in the back room, with my bookbag under his head. Tyler sat in the chair beside of him, while Amber sat on top of the table. Tracy was out on the floor, attending to a customer who still lingered, then came in, leaving the door opened. She felt uneasy without a worker being in there.

"If it's okay, could we move this in there? I feel uneasy." Tracy asked, holding her arm and pointing.

I nodded and everyone moved to the station's floor. Tracy went to the register and we all huddled around her. Tyler and I stayed on the other side while Amber went to Tracy's side.

I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone, making sure that I still had the article pulled up from when Micah looked at it.

"Micah will be okay, he passes out if he's under a lot of stress." Tyler said, looking to Amber, who kept glancing at the back room's door.

Amber puts her hand over her chest, and exhaled a breath that she may have been holding. Then the attention turns to me. I grip my phone in my hand, explaining the article that I found on Tracy's phone, then told them that I let Micah read it off my phone. Tyler seemed a little better knowing that it wasn't school related, but still not understanding how an article made him faint.

"It took the latest picture of Emily Burns and did the age process last year. She would have been fifteen, so she would be sixteen," I held the phone up with the picture of Emily, allowing not just Amber and Tyler to see it, but Tracy, too, so see if for the second time. "This is what we were panicking about in the back room... I'm sorry."

Amber was leaning over the counter, trying to get a better look. I couldn't bring myself to look at Tyler, I was scared. I didn't know what he would do, or say. Though I don't remember him, or Micah at all, I was worried he would be upset. For me, I just met them, I didn't want them to hate me because of this.

The only thing I remember from being that young was being in the hospital for something. Some days, I would try my hardest to remember, but nothing. I'd even ask my parents, but they would blow it off, same with Michael and Anna.

"Oh, my god!" Amber covered her mouth, tears were threatening to break from her eyes.

Tracy stayed silent, not knowing what else to say, and not wanting to repeat herself. I looked at her, meeting her gaze. She held up her phone with nine-one-one already pulled up. I nodded, telling her she can make the call. I watched her as she placed the phone up to her ear, squeezing her way past Amber, then going out the front door.

I looked back at Amber, tears were rolling down her face. She hadn't seen it either. I didn't understand how people haven't seen this, considering it's on the internet and from a news page. Did they not put in on TV or in newspapers?