Haphephobia

Chapter 25

"Okay, there's still one thing I don't get." I spoke up, having been the only one to do so as Aaron led us away from the coffee house. He grunted in response, apparently acknowledging my statement. Pursing my lips at his weird behaviour, I talked again.

"How did you know about that coffee house? And Alex and Lisa? I mean, I thought you just got here." I said. Aaron faltered slightly in his steps, looking back at me momentarily. I looked him square in the face, suddenly noticing something different about him. He'd shaved his short beard, and cut his hair. I guess I hadn't seen it before, since I felt too annoyed with him to look anywhere but at the ground when addressing him.

"Fair question. I can't divulge much at the moment, but you'll have all your questions answered, and many more, once we arrive at our destination. Trust, me, Ben, everything will make sense soon." Aaron finished, a finalized note in his voice, as though he knew this conversation was over, and that was it.

Ava sidled up against me as we walked, shrouded once more in uncomfortable silence. William and Stevie were behind us, hugging each other as they went. It was cute; I wondered how many people thought the same of Ava and I when we walked around. Stevie was only slightly shorter than William, so she was able to rest her head on his shoulder.

As we plodded down the road, I thought about how often my thoughts turned to our surroundings. Especially in a place such as this, it was easy to get distracted by the little things. The atmosphere tended to be so very quiet that I could hear the wind blow as it danced invisibly through the night. Ava herself seemed to be livelier than ever, and maybe it had to do with the amount of time we'd been spending out of doors. Don't get me wrong, the facility back home was lovely. But it was too closed in: people like Ava cannot thrive under closed doors and without sunlight. I was amused momentarily by the fact that I'd compared Ava to a plant.

Ava gave me a nudge and wrinkled her nose a little bit, like she thought my comparison was funny but a little strange. Agreeing, we walked on. It wasn't long before I began to wonder when we were supposed to arrive at our destination.

Of course, as is the way of things, Aaron halted in front of what looked like an old empty building, and I knew we must have found the place. It seemed remarkably serendipitous that we arrived at the same moment I'd wondered when we would arrive.

Aaron walked forward. The rickety building, which I immediately presumed to be the creepiest abandoned factory of all time, loomed over us darkly in the dead of night, as though the very wood intended to fall on top of us all.

"Ease up, Ben. You're being annoyingly dramatic right now." Ava breathed, as though her saying that should have helped assuage my anxiety. I heaved a large breath, watching as it turned to mist, swirling from my mouth. I was shaking from the cold by now- even making contact with Ava didn't change it.

"I don't exactly think it's a safe idea for us to enter that building." I said, releasing my hands from my pockets to gesture at the rotting wood.

"Come on, Ben, it's perfectly safe. Look, Aaron obviously doesn't think it will put us in any kind of danger." She replied, using her pointer finger to direct my attention to Aaron. I thought momentarily about how Aaron pronouncing something 'safe' didn't mean I shared his opinions. I saw Ava roll her eyes out of my peripheral vision.

"Enough bickering, children, and let's get inside." Aaron called out. My attention shifted over to him slowly as I watched what he was doing. Pulling a hand from his coat pocket, he walked straight up to the building's old door. A rusty metal box stood next to it, looking basically like a worthless piece of crap. For whatever reason, Aaron suddenly placed his outstretched hand onto it. 

What I thought was a worthless piece of crap turned out to be a polished steel hand scanner. I blinked a few times before I realized that not only had the box just suddenly shifted into something entirely different, but the entire building seemed to be...just fixing itself, like every panel of wood renewed its youth and became sturdy oak, all the way up to the newly shingled roof. Huge glass windows popped up all over the surface. Overall, it became a very mod-looking home that a millionaire would probably live in.