Jake Addams: April 23rd, 20XX

I stood to the side of the ambulance door and watched them unload the unconscious Finn from the vehicle and wheel him into the emergency room. A nurse handed me a tablet to put in my information as a guardian and my payment information before they did anything.

Basic hospital care was pretty much free, but I didn’t feel super comfortable leaving the volatile Finn in a room full of people. What if one of the ‘others’ woke up and chose to cause chaos? Or to hurt others for the sake of proving a point?

I did some quick mental math about the state of my checking account and opted for them to put Finn into a private room. It was pretty pricey, but it wasn’t beyond what I could comfortably pay. Besides now that I didn’t have to drive Alice around everywhere or pay for our dates, few and far as they had been; I had more expendable income that before.

The nurse took the tablet from me once I was done putting in all the information I could remember about Finn, which wasn’t a lot, and lead me to the room they had settled him into. It was decently sized and could comfortably fit about six people, but it was good enough.

While he slept, his expression relaxed, and I found it hard to correlate the sleeping teenager with the vicious actions he had performed earlier. My hand subconsciously went to my neck, and I loosened yet another button on my shirt.

I suddenly had a hard time having things so close to my neck.

I considered requesting a psychologist, or a psychiatrist into the room but I was worried about what Cai or the other one would do to them or to me.

My thoughts were interrupted by a team of policemen that wanted to get a statement from me about the robbery. Their questions started out generic enough at first but then they got so targeted that I couldn’t help but pull back.

Why did they want to know so much about Finn? And what did his daily life have to do with any of this?

As I was about to ask them to leave two men I’d never seen before burst into the room.

One of them looked very warm and familiar; something about his face and somewhat obnoxious smile reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t remember who. The second man had a stern expression on his face, and he looked at the two policemen like he was fully prepared for a fight.

The first man completely ignored the policemen and went to talk to the nurse while the other man led the two cops out of the room.

“My name is William Truman; I was contacted that a ‘Finley Hall’ was admitted here? How is he? Nikolas”

Hearing his last name helped me make the connection between him and the woman I recently found myself hanging around often.

Was he her dad? No, he looked too young for that, probably an older brother. But how did he know Finn?

Mr. Truman addressed the other man that had at some point slinked back into the room and had him deal with the nurse while he fawned over the unconscious teen.

The other man, Nikolas Lux, pulled out a wallet and commandeered the nurse’s attention. He spoke so silently that I struggled to hear much of what he said even though I was just on the other side the room.

I assumed it had been to upgrade the room because a team of nurses got to work in unplugging Finn from the various things, they’d had him connected to and unlocked the wheels on the bed.

I wondered if I was allowed to come with them, but Nikolas stood behind me and didn’t move until I did.

The attending doctor suddenly ran over and gave Mr. Truman and Mr. Lux a diagnosis.

“The young man is mostly fine. We suspect he fainted because he is suffering from the beginning stages of malnutrition, but the main cause would be the exhaustion. The stress of the ... events that subsequently occurred didn’t help.”

“Well, when will he wake up?”

Mr. Truman clearly wasn’t satisfied with the explanation he’d gotten and tried to press for more, but the poor doctor had already given all the information they’d had time to gather in the three hours Finn had been hospitalized.

The doctor looked around for help and finally landed on me. Mr. Truman’s attention was directed toward me, and the doctor stepped away as they said their last sentence.

“If not for his friend there, things would have been much worse.”

Mr. Truman finally noticed me and waited for me to catch up to him in the new and much larger hospital room. I was tempted to slow down my pace and wait for him to strike up a conversation with someone else, but the ominous presence of Mr. Lux behind me didn’t let me take that option.

I staggered my steps and pretended to need to drink some water from a fountain to delay my journey. Thankfully Mr. Truman had been drawn into another conversation in the forty extra seconds I had won myself.

“Of course, you understand that we don’t want the media to catch any wind of this, correct? Nikolas.”

He patted himself down for a second before reaching out a hand to Mr. Lux. The man didn’t miss a beat and wordlessly pulled out a wallet from his pocket and put it into Mr. Truman’s outstretched hands.

Mr. Truman fished through the wallet and pulled out an imposing looking business card.

“Reach out to the number on the card if there are any complications. Yours is the only name I know, so you better make sure I don’t have any reason to call you first. You know, I consider myself a kind enough person, but I’m also very good at my job… I’d really hate to see you on the other side of the court room.”

He put on a warm smile as he finished his threat and dismissed the poor news reporter that had somehow found their way into Finn’s hospital room. Mr. Lux once again led the reporter out of the room to sort out the details.

The two worked together as a team despite how different they looked.

Mr. Truman was a tall and warm looking man who moved incredibly animatedly and used ten words when two would have done fine. He was only dressed in a pair of beige capris and a light grey sweater tied over a blue shirt at the waist. Meanwhile, the other guy, Mr. Lux, was dressed in a full suit and had a terse air of competence that surrounded him like a shield of armor. The contrast was heightened by his reluctance to use words and his stiff and cold appearance.

Yet one thing the two had in common was that they were both littered with brand named products all over their bodies from their watches to their shoes and the other was how obviously worried they were as they looked over Finley who was currently being relocated.

As Mr. Lux dealt with the reporter, Mr. Truman approached me with an outstretched arm and a friendly smile that did nothing to hide the wariness in his eyes.

“You must be the kid who took care of Finn all the way to the hospital… and even during an armed robbery as well. You deserve to be commended! in fact-”

He brought out a checkbook and sloppily wrote put a decent sized number on it. I didn’t know whether I could accept that much but I appreciated the gesture. They had already taken over the bill for the hospital, and I’d gotten a refund already. That much was enough for me, I didn’t need to be paid for taking care of a friend.

“I would like to thank you so if you could fill out the rest of the information here.”

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And tell me who you are and why were you with Finley?

Was the unsaid but obvious half of that sentence. I realized why he’d suddenly brought out a cheque book when he could just have easily digitally transferred the money to my account. He wanted my name. I took the cheque book from his outstretched hand and put down my information. I would take this as compensation for the sudden investigation

“Ah, my name is Jake. Jake Addams. I’m a friend of Finn’s from school.”

He didn’t show any surprise but swept a questioning gaze at my suit.

“From school huh?”

I could only give an awkward laugh. This was the second time today that Sparrows suit had gotten me misunderstood. It was annoying but since I’d told him the truth, I could only try my best to explain myself.

“Ah…The suit...is a long story. But can I ask how you know him?”

“I’m William, I prefer Will though, I know Finley from work… and I also sort of count as a legal guardian.”

“...Work?”

Before he could answer we were interrupted by Mr. Lux who whispered something to Mr. Truman who then turned to me. He looked surprised and then very wary. While Mr. Truman didn’t look nearly as hostile as Mr. Lux did, his friendly smile did falter and his eyes narrowed as he looked me over once more.

“You paid for the hospital bill? Weren’t you only a high school student? While this isn’t quite a private hospital it isn’t exactly a cheap public one either. We are thankful of course but it does give way to some questions.”

So it had been Mr. Lux that had handled paying me back.

I quickly mentally drafted what I wanted to say in response before trying to explain myself. While I didn’t like being treated like a criminal for no reason, I also got the feeling that Finn, whoever he actually was, had become someone that warranted such intense investigation and protection.

“I recently took part in a competition and got a bit of prize money. It was just barely enough to cover the costs for the room I got… I may not be from a super wealthy family but we do well enough for ourselves to cover one sudden hospital trip.”

“You would put down that much for a friend?”

“Well, it’s not like I could leave him on the ground! And as far as I knew he didn’t have a legal guardian or someone to look after him and help him pay. I saw it as doing a good deed for a friend.”

He seemed satisfied with my answer and patted me on the shoulder in a very heavy gesture.

“You’re a good kid- give me a minute”

He cut himself off and left to pick up a phone call. Mr.Lux still looked wary of me, but he let me sit down beside Finn’s cot as he walked around and tried to visually ascertain that my friend was okay.

I once again had to wonder what the hell Finn did to work with these type of person. From the way they acted, it was clear that he was their boss or something, but I couldn’t think of anything legal, or even illegal that would result in two fully grown men being so attentive to the affairs of a kid.

Then again, Mr. Truman had said that he was Finn’s legal guardian, so maybe that’s why he was so attentive?

And wait. If he was Finn’s legal guardian then didn’t that make Sparrow something like his aunt?

My head hurt with how much had happened today, and I still had to go pick up my siblings from their afterschool program. Thankfully the coordinator had agreed to let them stay for a bit longer while I sorted things out here.

I wanted to leave, but I also didn’t feel like it would be responsible for me to keep what had happened at the store to myself.

Mr. Lux looked surprised as I tapped him on his shoulder, but he still followed me out of the room and even brought Mr. Truman with him. I wasn’t sure what type of expression I had on my face but I was sure it was bad enough for them to be willing to hear me out.

“What was it?”

“Mr. Truman. Mr. Lux… I didn’t feel like I should tell this to the doctor, and it seemed out of line to tell anyone else, but has Finn ever… has he ever suddenly acted like a completely different person around you two?”

I was a bit nervous about telling them about this but since Truman was Finn’s legal guardian, or so he’d said, and Lux had even been able to fill out things like his social security number and his personal information, they were probably as close to family Finn had.

Mr. Truman frowned.

“First, don’t call me Mr. Truman, I’m neither thirty or married; And what do you mean like a different person?”

Before I could answer his question, he suddenly cut me off. His neutral expression had flipped into one of careful deliberation. Each word he said lost the easy flippancy of the past and landed on my ears like sonic bricks.

“Actually. Before you say anything; I know that you just see the kid as a fellow classmate, and since he wants you to keep thinking that I won’t go into any details. What I can tell you is that your ‘friend’ in there is a much more important person than you can probably imagine right now. Anything you say about him, even in what you think is private could escalate to you getting sued out of house and home under charges of libel and or slander. I’m his lawyer and his guardian so I can understand why you came to me, but that ‘trust’ has to end right here. With me.”

Mr. Lux coughed as Mr. Truman accidentally excluded him and jumped into the conversation.

“I’m not Mr. Hall’s guardian but I am most definitely no less close to him than Truman. What Truman means is that whatever you hear or see about Mr. Hall that you think is concerning should be kept between the three of us. If it’s nothing important, then it should start and end with you.”

I gulped on a dry throat which made my throat burn but still nodded. Honestly, their warning had worked, and I wanted to stay silent and not tell them anything but doing that would mean I was leaving Finn vulnerable against himself. As a friend I couldn’t knowingly leave him alone knowing that an ‘alternate personality’ could jump out at anytime and put him in danger.

Besides, they’d said it was okay to tell them since they were his guardians, or whatever they were to him. It was probably okay, and they clearly cared a lot about Finn. They were definitely in a better place to take care of him and help him get the help he needs. They also clearly knew more about him than I did.

“If you’re sure that what you have to say is worth me hearing then I’ll ask you not to leave anything out. What was it?”

Feeling the pressure but also feeling responsible to my friend I began to talk in a serious but lowered tone, as to prevent others from hearing what I was saying.

“After Finn passed out I got the robbers to let me take him to a back room so I could get him elevated and at least off the floor. He suddenly woke up when we were alone and started talking about being trapped in his own head with another guy. From the way he talked and acted he made it clear that he wasn’t Finn.”

Mr. Lux cut in with a question and he had a sympathetic expression on his face. His voice was still cold, but he seemed to have realized something that lent credibility to my story.

“Did this…new person try to hurt you?”

I hadn’t said anything about getting hurt so I wondered how he’d known. My mind raced and I jumped to the nearest plausible conclusion.

“... Has it happened to you as well?”

Nikolas shook his head and motioned towards my shirt.

“I guessed from how low your shirt is buttoned, considering we’re at the hospital. You also seem weirdly conscious of your neck for someone that survived a mostly non-violent robbery. You’re pretty well built too so it was probably someone you trust, like Finley, that managed to get close enough to you before you could react.”

He spoke with enough confidence as he recounted an event that he hadn’t witnessed that I figured he had experience with this sort of thing. What type of person was he and why was he so close to Finn?

I wanted to brush it off since it hadn’t been ‘Finn’ that had hurt me, but since it had been brought up, I had to address it. I told them all that had happened save for the discoloration of his eyes and hair. It wasn’t like they would believe me anyway, and it was probably just y eyes playing a trick on me because of the stress and the lack of oxygen.

Truman nodded slowly as he listened and then launched into his question. He was completely serious now and most traces of the warm guy from earlier was gone.

“Did this new personality say anything to imply that Finley knew about them?”

“He did mention something about rules and ranted about Finn being mad at him for breaking them.”

“Anything else?”

“No. He was apparently dragged back in by the other guy and fell unconscious again”

The two stayed silent as they absorbed all I said. The silence was awkward, and I was tempted to break it, but I didn’t have anything relevant to the topic to add. Truman finally broke it with a firm voice that was aimed at telling me to take it off my mind.

“We’ll look into it, but thanks for telling us. We have to consider that Finn was just stressed or sleepwalking. I… yeah we’ll keep an eye on him but we shouldn’t involve anyone else for now.”

Even he seemed unconvinced by his own words, but I understood his dilemma. It was hard to accept that someone you thought you knew was hiding such a serious mental disorder. Lux on the other hand, showed no intentions of going along with Truman’s reluctance to get Finn professional help.

“We absolutely cannot brush this under the rug like that Will. I don’t know what it is, I don’t even know what it could be, but ignoring it is only going to leave him and others in danger. As the closest adult to him, don’t you feel ashamed of leaving him vulnerable like that?”

Lux’s cold voice cut into Truman’s non-plan like a sharp knife and made his partner grimace, but that didn’t mean he backed off.

“This isn’t something we should debate here, and I’m not saying that we should ignore it, I’m just suggesting that we deal with it more privately. It looks like Finley has a good handle on the situation considering none of us had any sort of clue about it until now. I’m sure he’s already seeing someone since he isn’t someone that takes his health lightly. Instead of putting him and the company at risk because of some self-entitled desire to be a ‘good adult’ we should instead do what’s best for Finn. Jake.”

I startled as my name suddenly popped up and stood at attention.

“Yes, Mr. Truman?”

He grimaced at the title but didn’t correct me this time. Truman dug around for his wallet in his pocket before turning and glaring at Mr. Lux. The other man calmly reached into his jacket pockets and pulled out a wallet which he then handed over to Truman.

“This is my work number, Nikolas will take your phone and put in both of our private numbers. Since you were out with Finley today, I’ll assume that you two are relatively close. Keep an eye on him when you can and give either of us a call if you suspect anything like what you experienced today is going to happen again.”

He saw the reluctance on my face and let out a low chuckle. I didn’t know what he thought he’d discerned from the expression on my face, but his next statement gave me a clue that it wasn’t something I would agree with.

“Don’t worry too much about it, we’ll definitely make it worth your time if that’s the issue, but you’ll be less of a babysitter and more of a concerned friend. Again, your friend Finley is a very, very important person. It would be a damn shame if anything happened to him for the simple reason that he happened to be alone.”

He didn’t even give me as much of a chance to explain how being compensated for my time was the least of my issues with this whole thing and strode out of the room. Mr. Lux made to go after him but turned back to me at the last minute.

“Of course, I can assume that you won’t speak of this, any of this, to anyone beyond I and William… correct?”

Something about his voice and the way he looked at me made me feel like I would regret if immensely if I gave him even the slightest hint that anyone else would find out about the conversation we’d just held.

I hurriedly nodded my head in response, not trusting my words to convey what he wanted to hear.

After he made sure I nodded in confirmation he walked out with his phone in hand, leaving only myself and Nikolas in the room. He sat there for a moment, clearly unhappy and in deep thought but after a while he stood up as well and turned to me, speaking in a cold and vaguely dire voice,

“This… of course includes Sir Hall. He seems to have a goal of making friends that do not know what he does for a living. It would be a shame if something like this were to break that.”

Well, I didn’t know much of anything about Finn but I also wouldn’t say that the little I’d learned today would make me see him as any less of a friend as I previously did. I told Mr. Lux as much.

“I actually don’t know what he does for a living.”

He nodded in an affirmative and pleased manner.

“And if you want to keep him as your friend it will stay that way.”