That same evening.
Kieran’s Room
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The laptop screen glowed brightly, illuminating Kieran’s face. He was sitting on the bed with his legs drawn up. His fingers were tapping the keyboard with complete concentration. He had several tabs open. Some were social media and forums. Some were local newspapers, from which he’d learned nothing.
Kieran sighed; none of these things gave him any new information about Nox.
He finally opened a new tab. His fingers nervously typed a name into the search bar.
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- Nox Virell
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The first result was from some news site. Normally, he wouldn’t even glance at it. But something told him to open the article. The headline appeared before his eyes: Tragedy at local high school, teenager brutally murdered.
Kieran swiped lower, and his heart sank.
Beneath the short article was a photo of the boy. The same eyes. The same dark hair. The photo showed Nox. The same quiet boy he’d been talking to earlier today.
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“What the…” they whispered. His gaze remained glued to the picture of Nox on the screen.
“That’s… That’s impossible, he’s alive, I talked to him… He was sitting next to me… he was breathing…”
The boy left the bookmark, but another article caught his attention.
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A horrific accident leaves a young woman dead.
Kieran didn’t know why he opened it, but that one sentence from the article stuck with him.
“The woman who died in the accident was Clara Virell. A young guitarist and vocalist in a local band.”
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“Is that… His mother?”
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Kieran sighed and closed his laptop. He sat there in the dark room, his hands clenched on the sides of his head.
The only sounds reminding him he was in the real world were his own breathing and the soft hum of the laptop.
After a few minutes of silence, he lifted his head and looked out the window.
“Who exactly are you, Nox?”
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At Nox’s house
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Remir sat with the newspaper, though he wasn’t reading it anyway. He was focused on the quiet footsteps of his son, who had slipped into the kitchen like a cat. Two hours had passed since he arrived home, and only now had the boy left his room. Remir heard Nox scuffling, pulling a bowl from the cupboard, and setting it on the table. Then he heard the sound of the refrigerator opening.
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“He’s hungry…”
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Remir sighed, setting the newspaper down on the coffee table. Then he stood up and walked into the kitchen, slowly, so as not to frighten his son. He quietly stood in the doorway and watched as the boy poured some rice soup from the pot into a bowl. However, he froze when he saw his father standing in the doorway. Nox quickly dropped the ladle, which fell back into the pot, splashing soup everywhere.
“Sorry, Dad…I didn’t mean to cause trouble…” The boy’s whisper was so quiet that Remir himself almost didn’t hear it. Remir merely shook his head and walked over to his son, who was staring into his soup bowl.
“Nox, listen to me, you’re not a problem. Never.”
“But…”
“Shhh…You don’t have to say anything.”
Remir walked to one of the drawers and opened it. Then he pulled out a spoon, which he handed to his son.
“Thanks,” the boy muttered, sitting down in the chair. Then, without another word, he began to eat in silence. Remir looked at him for a moment longer, a hint of a smile on his face. “Relax, boy, no one will take that soup away from you.”
Nox merely muttered something under his breath, his mouth full and spoonfuls of soup already at his lips.
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It was then that something in Remir froze. It was then that he realized how terrified Nox was by all of this. That he had left everything familiar behind, and that whoever had done this to him would return. Remir knew he would return.
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It was that quiet moment that broke his heart.
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and then Add to home screen.