Shadow Walker

Adele Home

Somehow, he made it home, cradling the box against his chest, his careful control slipping behind a mask of sweat. As he rolled up the garage door to their home, the smell of something sour blasted his nostrils, causing him to take a step back.

'Jeez,' he muttered, momentarily forgetting his predicament with the package. The room was a mess of broken plates, cutlery strewn on the ground, clothes sprawled between chair and table legs—worse than it usually was. Any normal person might've concluded theft. But Dec knew better.

Adele was home.

"A little help in here?" his sister called from behind the divider to their mum's room.

Dec stiffened. "Mel?" What was Mel doing home? She must've left school early to pick up their mum. But usually the hospital called him first.

He checked his Palm Pod. Two missed calls. Both from the hospital.

Shit.

His body went into autopilot, began the routine it had done so many times before. Leaving his spare shoes, vest, hard hat and stolen package in a pile on the floor just inside the garage entrance, he grabbed the pillows from his bedroom futon and joined Mel between the partitions of Adele's room.

Where he froze.

Mel wasn't alone.

Tommy was with her. And Tommy was standing in his place, holding Adele to her futon with cushions while she moaned and spat, tried to lash out against the restraint of sheets Mel had wrapped like a straight-jacket around her. Dec could tell she was naked from the outline of her body. She must've just had a shower. Her cropped hair, severed at different lengths, was still wet.

Tommy's expression was carefully neutral. But Dec could tell from the exposed whites of his eyes that he was more than a little shocked. Dec's cheeks turned to fire.

"What's he doing here?" he said to Mel, flashing an angry look at Tommy, forgetting all previous thoughts of making amends with his best friend.

Tommy's wide eyes widened even further.

"He's helping me," Mel said. Her voice was strained with exertion from trying to keep the tension in Adele's sheets. "When you didn't answer your phone, the hospital called the front office at my school. I needed someone with a car to pick her up, just in case she ... You know."

Dec knew. The last time they'd taken Adele home by bus, she'd hallucinated and tried to attack a child who was talking too loudly. Dec had restrained her by force, only just, while Mel had injected her with a spare sedative the hospital had provided them for emergencies. They were lucky the parents of the child didn't press charges.

Still, Tommy shouldn't be here. This was between their family and their family only. They didn't need anyone butting in on their business...judging them.

He stepped forward to help Mel hold down the sheets, giving Tommy a not-so-accidental shove with his elbow. "I thought they wanted to keep her in observation."

"They did. They do, but—" Delicately. "Apparently they ran out of ... funds."

Dec pulled the sheets a little harder than necessary and Adele moaned and wriggled in response. He'd completely forgotten to pay Adele's hospital bills, having been too distracted by the severity of her last episode when he'd visited.

It was Mel's turn to change the subject. "Aren't you supposed be at work?"

Dec averted his eyes. "Clocked off early."

Mel frowned. Tommy's wide eyes followed their conversation, rallying back and forth between Dec and Mel like pinballs. Silence stretched out between the three of them. Silence which was, surprisingly, broken by Adele.