So Someone Was There

It’s not constant, but I feel like I’m being watched as I head back to my dorm room from the party. A feeling I haven’t had in a few months. Or, more accurately, hadn’t had in a few months until around the end of summer break. I know it’s not random, it can’t be, which means I’m being watched for a specific reason. I scan my keys and push the door open, sliding into the dorm building. Instinctively, I open the door to the stairwell, but pause before taking the first step. Do I actually want to walk up to the fourth floor? I decide better, heading instead across the hall to the small, uncomfortable elevator. I press the call button.

It takes a minute for the elevator to descend to the first floor. The elevator basically only exists for compliance sake, and almost no one ever uses it, at least not this year. The occasional person who’s too drunk or sore or exhausted to walk up the stairs. Xavi joins me, having done the exact same dance, though he went far enough into the stairwell for the door to close behind him before he rethought things. “Toby,” he says, his eyes barely open.

I give him a nod. “Xavi,” I reply. And we both stare blankly at the closed elevator as it groans its way down and the doors jerkily slide open. We both step in, and press the floor buttons. Slowly, the doors close once more and the car starts climbing up, making the same racket as before. Slowly it climbs as we stand silently side by side. After what feels like an eternity, the doors open on my floor, and I step out. “Xavi,” I say with a wave.

“Toby,” he replies with a nod. The doors slowly start to close behind me. I don’t wait for them to finish. I have work to do before I collapse. I walk the hall to my dorm, unlock the door, and head inside.

The light is on. Asad forgot to turn it off before he left for his family thing. Shaking my head, I sit at my desk and open up my laptop. Turning on my phone, there’s a message from my little sister. ‘Somethings weird’ is all it reads. Not ideal. Means the feeling of being watched might not just be me. And if it isn’t me and isn’t random, we’re all at risk. If my sister knew and reached out to me, she’d have talked to my mom first. Checked to make sure it wasn’t just my mom spying on her kids. Which leaves the other three idiots. Haven’t seen them since spring break, when we all went to Canada to look into something. Mona’s text means she’s concerned about details over texts. Which means I’m going to need to find the three idiots. All three are hard to find, for different reasons.

Jason will be the easiest to find. He doesn’t need very much anymore, but his alcoholism means he will have consistent spending on one of his cards, no matter which city he’s in right now. Assuming he hasn’t changed his bank password, I can find out where he is. Byron, on the other hand, leaves no trail. But he’s not the sort of person who generally leaves his life of luxury. He’s at one of his four homes. I don’t know which one, but that’s beyond my scope. That’s what the third idiot is for. Vera. Who is basically impossible to find. Because she’s always on the move.

It’s the third card I try. Jason is currently up in Portland. I switch over to my homework, to finish the project due tomorrow. My window opens from the outside. Because of course she can’t be normal. “What now,” I say looking up.

It’s not my little sister. It’s Vera perched on my window sill. I look confused at her as she asks, “What do you mean?”

“Sorry, thought Mona was bothering me. What’s up?” I reply.

She nods. “We have a problem,” she states.

“That’s what Mona said,” I joke, then shaking my head, I add, “So you felt the eyes, too?”

It’s Vera’s turn to look confused. “Eyes?”

“We’re being watched again,” I explain, “What are you talking about?”

“The storm down south. Did you see the path?”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, so I open up the news and look through the weather section. Back, around the end of summer, there was a hurricane around Miami that veered off course slightly and died down quickly. “You think something hinky happened?” I ask.

The woman nods. “I know something happened. Because I was thinking about heading to Miami that weekend.”

“What did you do?” I ask, growing concerned.

She shakes her head. “Nothing. Because I saw the storm wreck the city and continue onward.”

“But it,” I begin to reply then realize what she’s actually saying. Something happened because it was going to hit full strength, until suddenly it wasn’t. Which means something else happened. “And you think someone was there?”

“Look at the storm data.” she replies, instead of answering, “Specifically the casualty to death ratio. Remind you of anything?”

I open up the news stories and read down to the details. Lots injured. As expected during a massive storm. But in the heart of the city, where the storm initially was supposed to hit, no deaths. Just like the earthquake three years ago. A circumstance that only happened because I was shutting doors. But I wasn’t in Miami a couple weeks ago. Our family was meeting with my grandpa in Montana. “Ulrich?” I ask.

“Went back to Holland,” Vera replies, shaking her head.

“And Persia died in that incident that definitely wasn’t the government,” I replied.

Vera nods. “That’s how we learned it was possible after the gifts.”

“Which leaves Jiho and Zayd.”

“Zayd’s impossible to track, but he swore he’d never return to America and Byron believed him. And last I checked, Jiho was in California. Never purchased any tickets out, so unless she’s been hiding some method of travel, she’s on the wrong side of the country. Which makes me think…” she trials off

I pick up her thought. “Something new opened there.” I look at the shared google spreadsheet we use to track likely cracks in reality. “Not as far as we can tell. The hot spots this summer seemed to be Madagascar, in the Tsaratanana Reserve, Alaska, in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. And out in the middle of the ocean, on the border between the southern ocean and the Pacific.”

Vera looks concerned. “Which means one of the prior hotspots went live and we didn’t realize it.”

I nod. “We need to figure out who and start tracking.” After a brief pause, I ask, “Why come to me?”

She smiles, shakes her head, and says, “Because your family are the ones who track all of this, and your little sister is terrifying.” A fair assessment.

I chuckle. “Tell you what,” I offer, “Jason is in Portland Maine right now. You fly off quietly, warn him and Byron we’re being watched, and I’ll go and talk with mom and Mona about finding out who was in Miami and caused all these problems.”

“Where’s Byron?” she asks.

I smile. “If I knew that, I would tell you. He’s in one of his houses.”

She chuckles this time, “Fair enough. Rich people.” Shaking her head, she steps out of the window. And she’s gone before I can blink. She’ll be in Portland in under three hours, then have found and communicated with Byron by the end of the day tomorrow. Which means I need to talk to Mona tonight. I enter our shared bathroom, knocking on the opposite door. Nate opens up, asking, “What’s up, Toby?”

“Figured I’d check, you guys good with me taking an hour long bath?” I ask.

Knowing Nate and Kevin’s hygiene, I already know the answer. Stifling a chuckle, Nate replies, “Sure, go for it.” I nod, locking the door and starting to run the bath. As it fills, I quickly half-ass the rest of my project. If I have time, I can make it good, but I need it to be done in case this whole thing runs long. After the tub finishes filling up, I lock the door back to my own room as well, just in case Asad returns before I’m back. Then, clothes on, I stand in the tub. I sit down. And I plunge under the water.

The world rushes as the water collapses into me, and flows through me, pushing me through and out. And taking a deep breath as I exit, I can feel the brisk September air in northern New York once more, as I’m sitting in the Erie canal. The quickest way to get to Buffalo, to my family home. I fall back into the canal, once again letting my body flow through the water, until I’m on the Frigid shores of Lake Ontario. Then, one more dive into the water, and I come out, with soaking clothes, at our house’s dock. The squirrels rush off to tell Mona I showed up. Shaking my head, I head inside the basement door. Sure enough, by the time I got up the stairs to the living room, Mona is coming down to greet me. “What’s up, dummy?” she asks, “I know I texted you the warning, but that doesn’t mean you have to waste the effort showing up here.”

“I know,” I reply, “And I didn’t need your text, I felt we were being watched already. And I know it isn’t random if it’s happening to me.”

“Brag much,” she complains. Then adds, “What is it? Do I need to wake mom up?”

“Yeah, probably,” I answer honestly, “Vera came to see me.”

Mona, believing me, does not miss the chance to make fun of me. “You sure it wasn’t just a dream? You are looking a bit wet.”

“Shut up,” I groan, then with a sigh, I continue, “She says she saw that hurricane hit Miami hard. And it missed. And the injuries were high, but very low death numbers.”

“Shit,” she says, “Like San Fran,” she instantly understands what I mean. Then, furrowing her brow, she double checks. “But Miami wasn’t a hot spot.”

“Hence the concern. So, we need to figure out who or what we missed. Ideally before anyone else does, and before whoever that is causes too many problems and ends up screwing us over by accident.”

Mona sighs. “I guess I’ll wake mom up,” she decides. She starts to walk up the stairs, but pauses. Looking back at me, she adds, “You probably want to change into something less soaked. Unless this is your new look.” I shake my head, and follow her up. I head into my old room, as she continues down the hall. Quickly, I pull off my wet clothes, and pull on my hoodie and sweats. Then, I head back down stairs to grab something warm to drink. Boiling the kettle, I wait for Mona to return with our mom. It doesn’t take long.

“Why do you need the scanner?” our mom complains as she walks down the stairs. She sees me in the kitchen, and immediately says, “What went wrong?”

“Someone in Miami moved a hurricane and prevented deaths,” I explain in brief.

She furrows her brow, looking between Mona and me. “How sure are you?”

“Vera saw it hit hard and planned accordingly, and the news reported it basically missed. So certain in that regard,” I answer.

“And Ulrich?” she presses

“Back in Holland,” I reply.

“And we’re sure it’s not the dogs?”

“Unless there’s a new dog, no.”

Mom sighs. “Then I guess we’ll need the device. Which one do you think we missed?”

“Don’t know. Figure Mona has a ‘friend’ she can send down to scan and see,” I reply, putting ‘friend’ in air quotes. “That way we don’t have to do anything that might draw attention or take time.”

Mona nods. “Franklin is smart enough to use the machine, and free this week.”

I look over at our mom. “Franklin is…?”

“Local drug dealer, I think, maybe a loan shark,” mom replies, “Her at the time not yet ex was in for a chunk of change with him. Mona chose to solve the issue in her own way.”

“You mean like a serial killer?” I jokingly ask.

Mona looks almost offended. “I didn’t kill him. If I’d killed him, I couldn’t control him,” she much less jokingly insists. She snaps her finger, and her bird appears in the house. “Go bring Franklin. We have business to do,” she tells her bird.