Fix You ~Completed~

Act Eighty-Seven

"This is Halloween! This is Halloween!" the tiny Gale on the phone sang out in semi-perfect pitch, his eyes dazzling under the dull disco lights that had been installed in the café over the summer. "Lem, get your rear-end over here! Why are you so late?"

I leaned in over Eddie's shoulder, watching with great amusement as our ginger friend wiggled his arms around like a nonsensical alien, still humming along to the song that was blasting over the speakers. Gale was in his favorite green sweater and his hair was an absolute mess from running in the wind to get from class to class. We'd just started up a few days before and I was pretty sure Ale was entirely ready to give up.

"Dude, I'm right here. Why are you sending me a video of that?" I chuckled. It caught Ale off guard so bad he tumbled into the nearby table, sending Dame's sweet tea soaring through the sky and down to the floor. I cupped my hands over my mouth, holding back another laugh. "Smooth."

Eddie's arm was around my shoulders before Gale even managed to recompose himself. His girlfriend was giggling up a storm, rushing to get some napkins to clean up the mess. "You need to learn to stop sneaking up on him. Gale can't handle that," he teased, pressing a kiss to my cheek. I moved in closer, setting my head on his shoulder, muttering that I know. "How long have you been here? Were you just biding your time?"

"I got here about five minutes ago. Lyric and I walked here together. I spent a good ten minutes trying to talk him into coming, but he said no, then I just sort of stood there and watched this whole mess come together," I explained, gesturing to Gale. He sent me a death glare.

"Has there been any updates on the missing kids front?" Eddie brought up, his face falling ever so slightly. There still were no leads but, for a number of the missing kids, it was theorized they simply ran away. There were motives for those kids, but not all kids. Jimmy and Alto never would have ran away, not when Jimmy's moms were planning on adopting a child. Even without that factor, we knew those two. They just weren't the type. So many of the missing kids had good lives here and back in their home towns. I honestly couldn't imagine why they'd leave.

The bigger problem with that theory, also, is the question of why would thirteen kids decide- at the same time- to run away? It wasn't as if they all had any connection to one another. A few were close friends, like Jimmy and Alto, and Madison, Jesimae, and that Kam girl, and Calliope, Kaito, and Gabe. There were little dots to connect here and there, but it wasn't enough.

Solemnly, I shook my head. "Lyric said there's been nothing new in months," I sighed, glancing down at my shoes.

"Guys, no more talk about that. It's too depressing," Dame spoke up, her voice gentle. She must have decided she cleaned up what tea leaked out of her cup well enough because she hopped to her feet to toss the soggy napkins. "We get enough about that horrible affair everywhere else."

Gale stared at his girlfriend with glossed over eyes for a second then turned to us.

Despite only vaguely knowing many of those kids, Ale took their sudden vanishing pretty hard. What Ed said was that he just had too much empathy; his heart was too sizes too big. I'd shoved him and grinned, "You say that like it's a bad thing. That is Ale's best quality."

There had even been consideration on his and Eddie's part to leave Sawyer. They were worried about the possibility of another round of disappearances, these ones involving us. Eddie was a constant ball of anxiety and I hated the toll it took on him, but we were less than two years away from graduation. We could make it.

 "I agree with Dame. Let's talk about something normal, like work. How is the Shack, Lem?" Gale cleared his throat, leaning out to playfully poke me in the shoulder.