Felixentric

Scene 18

When Felix got back to the apartment, it was late and something in the drafty hallway air felt misleading. When he pulled one of the spare keys from his pocket and unlocked the door, he couldn't help but stare at what was lying on his couch sheets.

Quinn was sprawled across it, his arms out to each side and his stomach facing the ceiling. A grin was spread across his face, in a way that reminded Felix of Hen, and three beer bottles lied empty on the coffee table. One, half filled bottle was in one of his dangling hands. When he saw Felix, he laughed.

"What are you doing?" Felix grit his teeth together, trying hard not to sound panicky or even angry.

"What's it that you are doinnggg?" He giggled, but his eyes weren't focusing very well.

He was flabbergasted, staring and not knowing how to handle the situation. It would have been heroic to rip open all the cabinets and find every ounce of alcohol in the place before dumping it off the fire escape. It would have been good of him to sit down and tell Quinn why getting piss-poor drunk was not the right way to handle life.

Or maybe he could have talked Quinn through it. Why are you drinking? Do you always drink or did something happen?

But he was afraid of throwing hundreds of dollars off the fire escape and possibly getting killed for it. And he was afraid that he already knew the answer to how often Quinn drank. It seemed that even that morning he'd been a bit out of it - which wasn't an implication that he'd been drinking right out of bed, but that he might have been hungover from the night before. He could have very easily been drinking after locking himself in his room after the Poli incident.

But it was too late to be the perfect hero, because Quinn started laughing at him. "Why d'you look funny? Yur hair's knotty and youu look like.... Did'ye get laidd?"

"No," Felix said sternly. "I was on a jog. Now... what in the world is happening here?" He walked over and took up the empty bottles from the coffee table. Under them, the wood was white from the bottoms. There were white circles like them al over the table, in fact.

Quinn rubbed Felix's thigh with his hand as he came close.

"Don't do that!" Felix batted him away. "I told you I wasn't having sex."

But Quinn was stubborn and he kept poking the skinny legs and grabbing the loose ends of Felix's sweater, as he tried to get around. Finally, Felix made it to the kitchenette where he disposed the bottles and made sure not to get close again.

"Somebodyyyy came byyy for youuu," Quinn sung, pointing at the door.

"What? Who?" This shook Felix's bones. No one ever came to see Felix. No one but Janette even probably knew where he was living in his current state.

"D-n't knoww." Quinn went back to staring at the ceiling, his slurring slow and quite a bit frustrating to listen to.

"Well what did they look like?"

"It was a boy, ermmm, a guyy. I don't know how age he was. You know, he was wearing this rely darkk hood over'is face, covered most'f it upp and that was a longg time ago. Orphicc..."

"When?"

"Erm. What time's it?"

"Eleven."

"Like... nineee?"

"You don't remember two hours ago?"

He kept giggling. "Akrasiaa."

Felix ignored the vocab words. "What did he want?"

"To see you. Askedd hows you were. I told him I'd lost you! Or you were lost." He frowned. "And then he pan-acked. I think he thoughttt I meant forealsies."

"And then what?"

"I closeded the doorrr. Too bu-syy."

"You closed the door on him?" Felix couldn't comprehend it, who it could have been or what he would have wanted. And then Felix gasped. "Was he old? Did he have white hair?" Grandpa? He went missing. Maybe he'd come back for him.

"I don't...? His voiceee wasnm't."

Or maybe...

"Herm- He said eh was goingg somewherfe, then. Uh. The woodss? Drapetomaniaaa..."

Felix stomped over and snatched the bottle out of his hand. "You're done."

Though he didn't wrestle for the can, he told Felix to "eat slugggss" and then rolled around on his side to watch Felix dump the liquor down the drain and throw the bottle away.

And then Felix went back to the door, realizing it was stupid to ask if it had been his grandfather. His grandfather was probably too old to have come back for him, and why would he?

"You eat slugs first," he said, turning his head back to him and then ripping open the door.

Quinn made a horrah noise, but his head was slack on the pillow.

Felix wondered if he'd remember it in the morning. But he didn't care as much about Quinn's state as he had when he walked in. His heart was skipping beats as he skidded out the door and flashed down the stairs. In the dark, he sprinted down the streets to the path leading to his burnt down home.

"Dad! Dad!" He hollered all the way there. "Dad! I'm here! I'm not lost!"

He knew it was his dad.

He imagined getting to the house, the wood in ruins and his father staring at it harshly. Then, he'd turn around and see Felix, his gaze lightening a little. You're okay! he would say. And then he'd ask, What happened here?

"Dad!" He was just turning the last corner, off the highway and into the stretch that led to the house. It was just a little further. He pushed his legs. "It's me!"

It was dark, though, his eyes were adjusting. His scanned the parameter and stopped right where the trees opened up to the rubble. "Dad?" His voice fell.

There was no fatherly figure standing before it. He didn't even see the chilling, hooded figure Quinn had described.

"Hello?"

He trudged around the house, hoping to see him lying against one of the charred bricks and looking at the stars. But he'd made it all the way around and looked behind every nearby tree, only to find that no one had been waiting for him.

He shook his head and turned back to the path leading to the highway. "Where have you gone?" he whispered, almost afraid that what happened to him in the kitchen all those years ago was happening again. What if hearing that Felix wasn't "lost" had triggered that Madness again, making him go crazy and his eyes spin? Had he run away again?

Then again, Quinn said his dad would be coming to the forest, not particularly the house.

With shaking hands, Felix trudged back to the highway, crossed it, and started down the path that lead to the old factory. There were many places to hide here, in Jupiter Forest. He just had to find out which nook or cranny was the jackpot.