Before they went their separate ways after the festival, they agreed to meet together sometime around noon to help clean up. But there was a morning left to go until then, one Lynette spent helping Nana and Papa around the house. She still felt like she owed them something, for the things they’ve done for her and the acceptance the town gave her.
A letter came that sparked something close to a whispered argument between Regind and Papa, but Lynette couldn’t listen to it for long; she excused herself to answer the rather urgent-sounding knock on the door.
She was only partially surprised to see that it was Loraena—troubled, anxious—and Ragnis—more or less looking like he was just dragged out of bed. “Is it time to—”
“I need your and Regind’s help,” Loraena interrupted quickly. She poked her head inside. “Is she here? Or is she working?”
Lynette jumped when Regind appeared right beside her to eagerly ask, “Is it urgent? Please tell me it’s urgent. Or that it’s going to take all day.”
From the kitchen, Papa called, “Regind, this is important! You can’t keep ignoring it!”
“Did your parents write to you?” Ragnis asked cautiously.
“Yeah, and it’s pretty hard to care for people who still can’t get your name right.” Regind clapped her hands together. “So! What is it?”
“I heard a rumor,” Loraena said. “I need to make sure if it’s true or not.”
“Rumors barely hold any truth to them,” Lynette pointed out. “There’s probably better things to do than to try chasing after them.”
Loraena shook her head. “This is a serious one. I’d do it on my own but I don’t want to do it alone…”
“Well, then, what is it?” Regind prompted. Whether to help a friend or ignore whatever she was supposed to be doing, she was already halfway out the door.
“I’m afraid something happened to Astyu.”
They all just… stood there, and looked at Loraena. Regind glanced over at Ragnis with a who’s that? kind of look and he just shrugged. At least Lynette wasn’t the only clueless one.
“Astyu,” Loraena repeated, sounding slightly distressed at their confusion. She realized what she’d need to say to get them to understand: “Astyu Takemra. The one who’s been living alone at the estate all these years…”
“How was I supposed to know that?” Ragnis asked. “I might’ve been here the longest but that kid never left the estate. I definitely wasn’t ever introduced to him…”
“I’m still a bit lost on what’s really important about it,” Lynette admitted. “It’s still just a rumor. Unless you’ve met him before?”
“I’ve never met him, actually,” Loraena mumbled nervously.
“You are the one person I know that would be this worried over him,” Ragnis remarked. “You know, rumors have been circling around that he’s dead since his mother died. No one’s seen him since then and the few attempts of concerned neighbors to check have always turned up with nothing.”
“This—this is a bit different, I swear. I… could sense his desires, usually—the kinds of thoughts and feelings that sirens are supposed to craft into their songs. I knew he was in there, somewhere, and I knew that he was still alright. Maybe… confused, but fine. People could see him watching festivals from a window, too. But he wasn’t standing by the window last night and I couldn’t sense anything coming from the estate, so when I heard what they were saying…”
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“She got me up at what felt like three in the morning and demanded that we come talk to you,” Ragnis said, earning a glance from Loraena.
Lynette, then, concluded, “So, you think something might have happened to him. But you know practically nothing about him, and the only thing you have to go off of is some siren thing? And what do you want us to do? Knock on the front door and ask if he’s home?”
“I’ve… wanted to try to talk with him for a while, knowing he was all alone there. But I never worked up the courage before and I hate the idea that I lost my chance…” Loraena shook her head. “I wanted to bring the three of you with me in case something happened or there was more going on. It’s usually only polite to show up with just yourself when you know a person, so… I also came to see if Nana still had those cookies she made. I have some bread at home, too, but I didn’t grab it. I don’t know what he likes, but I figured he needs something to eat…”
Regind continued to be the most enthusiastic of the three, for any number of reasons. “Well, I think it’s a great idea! It seems kinda wrong that we haven’t met all of our neighbors, right? I’ll ask Nana about the cookies. You stay right there so they don’t think they can say anything non-cookie related.” She darted back into the kitchen and, though she made her objective clear to her grandparents, a hushed conversation still followed.
“While we’re waiting to continue this little rumor-believing…” Lynette began. “What happened to spending the day cleaning up? It still looks like there’s plenty of stuff to do. Probably not nearly as much of a waste of time, either…”
Ragnis shrugged. “I still plan on doing it. I don’t think this’ll last very long. Just long enough for Loraena to realize she really didn’t need to wake me up this early in the morning.”
“It’s a perfectly decent hour,” Loraena pointed out.
“And I was out helping the stalls get packed up much later than you were.”
“Sounds pretty self-inflicted to me. I don’t think any of them would’ve blamed you if you wanted to sleep. You set up half of it. You’ve done more than anyone else already.”
He shrugged. “Just saying, if Astyu’s dead, getting there sooner isn’t going to change that.”
“Oh, please don’t say that out loud…”
Just then, Regind came back with a small container and handed it to Loraena. “This is all that Nana had left, you think it’ll be enough for him?”
Loraena nodded. “Even if it’s just enough to let him know that we don’t have to be strangers… it’s more than nothing.” She stopped away from the door and started walking through the streets, the other three following. “I just want to get the bread from my house. Do you want to meet me at the estate? Without abandoning me, since apparently you all think this doesn’t matter?”
“I believe you!” Regind said. “We’ll go and wait around the estate. I dunno how weird it might be if we just stand by the front door, so we’ll be close, but not that close.”
Loraena seemed to be alright with that, and they went their separate ways when it was time to do so.
Ragnis was completely casual when he asked, “So, let’s circle back around a little here—what did your parents want from you?”
“The usual,” Regind mumbled. “The kind of stuff I don’t really want to mention in front of Lynette. You know how it is—they don’t have a daughter.”
“Good luck. Sounds like you need it.”
Lynette never said anything, but she slowly gathered what Regind hadn’t wanted to say in front of her. So, she gave a reassurance just as vague as the rest of it; “I don’t care, you know. I like you like this.”
Regind honestly seemed surprised by it, though she was quickly smiling again. “Thank you.”
“N-no need for that.” Lynette felt like she was blushing. Oh, gods, why was she blushing in the middle of the street? “I mean it. Nothing more to it than that.”
To make it worse, Ragnis casually whistled and walked a little faster to give the two of them some space. It didn’t work—they both looked just as awkward and neither said a word until they were a street away from the estate and decided to wait there for Loraena. At least Lynette had the hope it may not have been so one-sided.
Loraena came back with a carefully-packaged loaf of bread and announced, “Alright, I think that’s all I wanted to take to Astyu. Are you all ready?” She started to lead the way up to the estate.
Regind nodded enthusiastically.
“If I get nightmares of a decomposing body, I’m blaming you,” Ragnis said with a shrug. He was the one closest to the door and seemed ready to knock on it.
Lynette couldn’t quite muster that level of nonchalance as she pointed out, “I just want you all to know that this is how every horror play starts. And trust me, there’s a pretty good chance that all of the kids die in the end.”
“Nothing bad is going to happen,” Loraena remarked. “We’re just here to check on him. Hopefully this is some kind of misunderstanding and we can be assured that he’s fine.” Still, she looked anxious when she glanced at Ragnis and requested, “Can you knock on the door? My hands are full.”
He knocked to find it opened slightly at his touch. The door wasn’t locked—it wasn’t even closed all the way.