William Truman May 24th,20XX
It had been a week since I’d seen Finn and Jake and slightly longer than that since I‘d seen my sister. Clocks and calendars littered Sparrow’s studio, where I had been living for the past week, and fast-food cartons filled with old food stank up the place to the high heavens.
“I should clean up the place or Sparrow will get mad.”
My eyes once again drifted to the clock, the calendar, the paper’s Jake had found in Finn’s apartment and the old, bound book that our parents had left me before they disappeared into thin air.
I was only fourteen at the time and Sparrow was barely in elementary school when my parents pulled me into the room and told me that they were leaving. That was also the day they told me about witches and fairies and goblins and all of that bull.
Or well, I guess it wasn’t bull after all.
At the time I’d just thought they were clinically insane and after months of trying to track them down while hiding the fact that I, a fourteen-year-old had been left in charge of a six-year-old and was living with no parental supervision, I gave up and told Sparrow they were dead.
Looking back, that was probably a bit reckless of me, especially since I knew they were still alive. To this day money still floated into the account they had left for us, and Christmas and birthday gifts still came on time. I’d just never seen them since and neither had Sparrow.
I returned to my seat and began to parse through the booklet again, absorbing all the information that I could.
There were fairies, goblins, elves and witches in this world that my parents had come from. They had left because of a war that sparked because of the joint child of the fairy queen and the Goblin ruler.
It was all so difficult to believe, and I wished I could completely forget about it all and go back to a week ago when I didn’t care about any of this. But until Sparrow came back, I didn’t have much of a choice.
Finn was probably fairy, I could tell that much by the giant wings on his back, and since he had gone to chase after sparrow, I guess she had awoken her powers.
But if Sparrow had powers, then did that mean….
My train of thought was cut off by a rapid pounding at the door. I edged up off the floor, where I’d been reading the booklet and inched my way over to the door, thinking it was the delivery that I ordered.
I made my way and opened the door by an inch when I caught a glimpse of a familiar head of black hair, and it wasn’t the one I wanted to see. I tried to slam the door in his face but an iron grip caught the sill from the other side and stopped me before I could.
At first, I hadn’t used that much strength for fear of slamming his fingers into the door frame, and because I was worried about the frame itself, but after a bit of pulling and pushing, I ended up leaning my entire body weight against the frame to keep it shut.
“William, what exactly are you doing!”
He sounded angry, as usual, but what wasn’t usual was where I was hearing his voice.
“Nikolas, why are you at my sister’s studio?”
“No William, why are you at your sister’s studio in the middle of the workday? Are you trying to get fired?”
“Jeez, do you live at the gym or something? Why are you so strong?”
I started to sweat as I used all my muscles to keep the door shut. It wasn’t even so much about keeping him out as it was a matter of my pride now. I was a big guy in general and Nikolas, although he was muscular, was both shorter and thinner than me. It made no sense that he could put up such a stiff fight.
“William, let me in. You haven’t been to work in a week so there has to be something in here to keep you here, right? The first three days or so were fine, but it's been over a week now, you need to get your act together!”
“But I applied for a two-week leave!”
“That you didn’t wait to be approved!”
“And who exactly was going to approve it? Our boss is out of the country off to who knows where!”
Well, I knew where, but the more I thought about it the more anxious I got. No, I had to believe they would be okay. They had to be okay. And if they weren’t then I had that book, I’d find a way to get over there and bring them home myself.
“William, just come out and talk to me okay? Even if you don’t want to let me in the house, you aren’t acting like yourself. You mentioned that your sister went missing before? Was she found? Is it something you can't bring up with HR? no, you can't possibly tell me you still believe that Mr. Hall eloped with your younger sister, do you? And even if they did it shouldn’t have affected you this badly! I always knew it was more than just you being overprotective of your sister.”
“Hey!”
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“What? Am I wrong? Did I cross a line? Then get out here and make me apologize.”
It was as he talked that I realized just how involved this guy was in my life. I mean, for that workaholic to take off in the middle of the day to come to check up on me. I guess I should have been flattered.
“Picking a fight with me isn’t going to work Nik. Just go back to work… I'll- Give me a week from now.”
“Haa. Fine. But you’re sure you’re okay?”
His grip on the door suddenly relaxed and his voice softened as well. I released my death grip on the door as well and moved the bulk of my weight away.
“Yeah I’m fi-“
The door was flung open by Nik ramming his entire weight into it and I got hit in the forehead by the sudden impact.
“Ahh!”
He gained his balance quickly and began to straighten out his suit like he hadn’t just linebacker-tackled my door into my head.
“Like hell was I was leaving after I came all the way here. Now, what’s-?”
His voice trailed off into a look of disgust as he looked behind me and into the living room. The old cartons of fast food, the clothes strewn around the floor and the papers that cluttered the area. The windows were all closed, and the curtains were drawn.
Nikolas brought up a hand to his nose and his body tensed up as if he were scared just being in here was enough to make him sick. I wasn’t embarrassed by the area since I was the one that made it that way after all, but the look of horror on his face was enough to make me reflect.
“Well, I told you not to come in.”
Quicker than the speed of light he pulled out a mask and set of gloves from his bag and put them on. He took a few deep breaths and then turned to me.
“You need to take a shower, get some clean clothes on and come to work.”
His flat tone made it clear that he wasn’t asking but I similarly wasn’t agreeing. I needed to be here for when Finn and Sparrow came back. And if they didn’t then I needed to read over that stupid book and find a way to go over and get them back.
“Nik. Why do you work?”
“What type of nonsense are you saying now?”
Most of his face was obscured by the mask but I could hear the derision from his voice.
“Hear me out. We work because we want to make a living, right? And we have people to take care of, whether it's ourselves or our families. But if my family is gone… then really what’s the point?”
To my pleasant surprise, he didn’t just brush me off with harsh words and took a moment to hear me out. His eyes slightly narrowed as he sank into thought and when he finally responded, he did so with a low-pitched voice.
“Then what happens when she comes back?”
“What?”
“Say you give up on your job, and your life because there is no one you’re working and living for, then what happens when they come back? Will, she’ll be back. And when she gets back I’m sure she’ll want to pick up her old life. It’s up to you to make sure that can happen.”
He looked down at his watch and quickly began to push me towards the bathroom.
“Go take a shower and get dressed while I run out and get you some breakfast. I’ll be back in about half an hour to take you to work… Oh, and your car was impounded. I saw the notice outside.”
And with that, he ran out of the door like he was scared of whatever germs were in my room would follow him.
I debated his parting words and weighed how much time I would lose or save by going to the office and requesting a proper leave, versus staying home and having Nikolas harass me again. I forgot the shower and got changed into something decent and started on my hair.
My forehead still hurt, and I could hear a ringing sound, but that wasn’t enough to make me miss the loud, familiar thump in the bathroom.
Regardless of how hard I’d tried to suppress it, hope flared up in me and I slowly began to make my way over to the bathroom.
I had heard things falling in the bathroom before, but it had never been them. A gust of wind knocking down a frame, or a mannequin. There had also been the time a squirrel had gotten into the place and had made a fuss before I had managed to capture it and let it back out. All of them had similarly gotten my hopes up and had let me down just as harshly.
I listened a bit closer and heard shuffling, but that wasn’t enough proof.
Then I heard a familiar retching sound, though I’d only heard it once before. My heart rate sped up and my breathing shallowed as I made my way over. That was Finn for sure, but what about Sparrow-
The retching was followed up by loud groans and complaints from two other voices.
“Ahh, I forgot about this! Jake Go get some water from the kitchen!”
There was a harsh rustling as Jake maneuvered his way to the door and wrestled with the rusted doorknob.
All the proof was in front of me, but I still couldn’t believe it, not until I saw them all with my own eyes.
I finally reached the door and wrenched it open myself.
Two pairs of eyes and the top of a golden head greeted me, and the room was silent, save for Finn’s violent retching.
Jake was the first to break the silence and awkwardly smiled as he slipped past me and went toward the kitchen to get some water. The sound of the sink running for the first time in a while echoed from the kitchen and the sounds of metal banging against ceramic filled the room.
“Sparrow… you’re back.”
She first looked at me like a stranger but the longer she stared at me her eyes began to water and her lips trembled like she was about to cry.
I gathered her up in a hug and held her tight like I was scared she would disappear again.
“You absolute idiot. You couldn’t even be bothered to leave a note before you ran off into another world?”
My shirt grew damp as her quiet sobs escalated into wails but all I could do was hold her tight and let her cry.
I didn’t know what had happened in that world, but I didn’t particularly want to know.
“Shh, it's okay now. You’re back home. It's all over now.”
Jake finally returned and handed Finn a glass of water. Droplets of water had slightly discoloured his clothes, but he didn’t seem to notice as he handed the cup over to Finn. His line of vision slightly caught on mine as he looked toward sparrow, but after giving me a solid nod he didn’t say a word to me.
He looked to be okay as well. Thank god.
His stepmother hadn’t failed to call every day, asking where he was and even his younger siblings, who barely sounded old enough to use a phone had managed to get a hold of my number and call. It wasn’t difficult to see that they were close to one another and it wasn’t difficult to see why Jake worked so hard on his family’s behalf.
Finn finally got off his knees and straightened himself out. He quickly rinsed out his mouth and downed the rest of the contents of the cup, but he didn’t look straight at me.
He awkwardly shifted around on the spot and held both hands behind him like a disobedient toddler.
“Finn.”
It was odd to call the golden-haired and horned fairy by the same name as the kid I worked with, but the way his face lit up once he registered I wasn’t mad was enough to confirm to me that they were the same person.
I unwrapped my second arm from around my younger sister and ruffled his hair, taking care not to catch my hand on his ominously pointy horn.
“Welcome home kid… and thanks… Thanks for bringing my sister back safely and thanks for coming back.”
My voice cracked as I talked but that was okay. It felt like a giant knot had loosened around my throat and I could finally breathe.
They were finally home.
They were safe.
Things were okay.