The Twins

chapter 3: Reunion

Part 2: blue
   
         Only a few days passed after that. Matthew went to school as normal. Baked with his family as normal. Played video games as normal. He didn't feel normal though. A hole was left inside of him that he didn't realize had been occupied with Amani before this. He would check his messages every day, hoping that he would find a message from his friend. There was never an answer.

      Matthew began not to care about things as much anymore. He would go through his day in a daze. Feeling nothing. Seeing nothing. The sun shone almost every day, and rain wasn't scheduled at all through this time. It was almost  if the whole world was telling him to move on. To let It go. Not to worry about Amani.

    He couldn't though.

It was almost as if there was a string connecting his thoughts with thoughts of Amani. It was an odd feeling. He would look at some people playing games in the park and wonder if he would have told Amani about it if he could still talk to him. He would wonder what Amani would have said back. Maybe "stop messaging me about stupid things! Do you not have a life? lol" or something else along those lines. Matthew knew that if he was able to talk to Amani again he wouldn't stop. He missed him. This was another odd feeling.

     The emptiness became a normal routine. Wake up. Feel nothing. Live life. Do nothing. Check messages. Go to bed.

As most things did though, this changed.

   Amani contacted him on the 5th of October.

He used a little antique radio that matthew said he had in his room. The wire on top was bent and it was a miracle that the thing worked and even more a miracle that Amani was able to connect to it. The static cracked furiously when the radio turned on which startled Matthew even more than the voices he heard coming from them. The voices were soft and overlapped so much it was impossible to tell what was being said at first. Matthew had fallen from his chair onto the floor out of shock right before the first voice cleared through the static silencing the other voices.

"Guys shut up It's working!"
The clearly male voice trembled with excitement and relief. The other voices were silent and seemed to leave after a short bit of celebration. Matthew said nothing.

"Matthew is this you? It's Amani."

Matthew couldn't believe this at all. He wanted to. Every sense in his body was telling him to believe the voice but his head stayed firmly in reality. There was no way this was true.

"Is this a prank?" He muttered into the radio not even sure it had a microphone to pick up his voice with.

"No, no It's not!" The male voice said. Apparently the piece of junk did have a microphone.

"So you mean to tell me that you're Amani? And that You've somehow managed to contact me through the dust box in my room that used to be a radio?" Matthew replied skeptically.

"Yeah. Obviously." The voice answered clearly annoyed.

Matthew sighed,"Well. I won't bother trying to get you to prove yourself because That's probably going to be a waste of time. What do you want self-proclaimed Amani?" His voice dripped with sarcasm.

This seemed to take back the voice as it was silent for a few moments. When it spoke again it seemed hurt, like this was not the welcome it expected.

"I wanted to tell you thank you. You've made the past few months some of the best in my life. After my parents left I wasn't sure what to do with myself. You gave me a purpose again I guess." The voice paused, shy, then continued,"Edis has done horrible things. I won't explain them because I don't want to get you involved. All you need to know is not to trust everything they tell you. I'm alive and on the surface. I'll be ok but if you start to believe what I'm telling you, don't come follow me." The voice began speaking more calmly and firmly. Almost with passion.

Matthew continued to be silent. He found the words intriguing and was strangely pulled in by them. He began finding it hard not to trust this voice that claimed to be his friend. His doubt was fading.

"I live in the 32nd district of Edis and my house is number 126. Feel free to visit it if you feel you need to but as I've said, I don't want to get you involved. Don't look for me any further than that."

The voice paused again,"......I miss you already."

Suddenly the static disappeared. The voice was gone and the radio was off. Matthew simply stared at it.

He paused then rose to his feet. All doubt was gone now. He needed to go to the house. Matthew wrote down the number Amani told him so he wouldn't forget on the way and dashed out the door to the nearest teleporter. Within moments he was on the other side of the city searching for the house labeled 126.

  It was a regaular house on a regular street with light blue walls and a black tiled roof. It was empty and locked but Matthew could see inside the window. Through the front window the blinds were closed,but a breese was blowing from a hole somewhere, into the house, ruffling the cloth so he could see inside. The living room was a mess. There must have been some sort of fight. On the coffee table in the centre of the room there was a picture.

It was the same one Matthew had seen in the article two weeks before.