Liam almost trips on his way to Theo’s room. It is the longest two minutes of his life.
When he reaches Theo’s door, he hesitates. His palms are sweaty. His heart is about to jump out of his chest. There is an unexplainable tightness in his gut at the thought of Theo being dead.
He can hear voices from the living room. Argunts. But they are background noise to him right now.
His shaky hand reaches the door handle and settles there for a few seconds.
Liam takes several slow, deep breaths, trying to steady his pounding heart.
He exhales loudly and opens the door.
Darkness greets him. It takes a couple of seconds for his eyes to adjust. A thin light filters in through the window.
The room is cool and still.
Liam’s heart drops. His breath catches.
He looks toward the bed, half expecting to see Theo lying there with his eyes closed and his hands clasped on his abdon.
But the bed is empty.
Liam blinks. It’s empty.
He rushes to the bed to check for himself.
It is.
He quickly scans the room and finds Theo on the floor on the other side of the bed, which is why he missed him when he first ca in. He is sitting in a ditation posture, eyes closed.
Liam’s knees buckle. He grabs the bedfra to keep from going down. His breath cos out shaky, and he is close to tears.
He tries to hold himself together and not disturb Theo, but he is too shaken. He makes his way to the bed and sits on the edge, his back to Theo’s back.
He leans forward and covers his face with both hands, trying to stop the tears from falling.
It takes a few minutes before he is calm enough. When he finally takes his hands from his face, he gasps loudly.
"Jesus Christ!"
Theo is standing right beside him on his left, looking at him.
"Thea, don’t do that! I almost had a heart attack." Liam exclaims automatically.
Theo only blinks. "Are you okay? Were you crying? Why are you sitting here in the dark?"
Liam scoffs helplessly. He lifts his head and looks at Theo. "Now. Now I’m okay."
He chuckles lightly and nods. "Yeah. I’m okay now."
He glances around the dark room and chuckles again. He had deliberately not turned the lights on, because he was afraid of what he might see if he did.
He is about to say sothing when he notices Theo sway slightly. He gets up imdiately and steadies him.
"Are you okay?" Liam asks, guiding Theo down onto the bed.
Theo grins and nods. "Yeah, I am. I’ve been practicing walking without losing my balance and falling. When I get tired, I rest for a bit, then get back at it. I was ditating, trying to talk to myself, and when I finished, I found you sitting here with your face covered. I was worried you were crying. But before I could ask, you saw ."
Theo is not lying. He had been trying to speak to ’Thea.’ But she did not answer.
Liam barely registers Theo’s explanation. He is still absorbing the fact that Theo is alive. Then he frowns.
"Why did Julian say that?" He mumbles out loud.
"Say what?" Theo asks.
Liam takes a seat beside him. "That you’re dead."
"What? Who said that?" Theo blinks, confused.
"Julian." Liam says.
"Really? That doesn’t sound like Julian. Maybe, since I never co out of my room, he joked that I’m dead. Now that sounds like Julian." Theo tries to find a plausible explanation, while quietly wondering why Julian would say sothing like that at all.
Liam shakes his head. "No, he wasn’t joking. Not at all. And he was strange. Actually, now that I think about it, everyone was strange."
His eyes go distant, replaying what he saw and heard when he entered and left the living room.
He frowns. Now that the panic has passed, his brain is catching up on fragnts of the argunts he heard on his way to Theo’s room.
"They were all arguing. Julian, Arthur, and Maeve. When I walked in, the atmosphere was already off. You could feel the tension the mont you stepped inside."
Liam goes on and walks Theo through everything, piece by piece. Theo’s frown deepens with every word.
"...sothing about how Alicia doesn’t know the Thea that died." Liam finishes.
Theo’s heart skips a beat. Thea that died? Why would Julian say that? Did Maeve tell him? No, she would have told first. And those three arguing like that? That’s not normal. Sothing is going on.
He turns to Liam. "Liam, is there anything else going on out there? I’ve been so focused on my own grief that I never thought to ask for updates on the real world. Tell . Besides the argunt that is apparently still going strong out there, what else is happening?"
Both of them can hear raised voices drifting from the living room, and Theo’s unease grows.
After a couple of seconds of silence, Liam tells Theo everything.
Theo’s frown deepens. He looks out his window. The sky is still gloomy, rain pouring steadily, lightning and thunder playing tag without pause.
"How long has the storm been going on?" Theo asks, without looking at Liam.
Liam hesitates, unable to answer right away.
Hearing nothing, Theo turns and finds Liam looking at him with a confused expression.
He asks again, gentler this ti, speaking more slowly. "Liam, how long has the storm been going on?"
Liam frowns, opens his mouth, then closes it again.
"You don’t know, or you don’t rember?" Theo presses, his tone still gentle.
"I rember. I just can’t believe it’s only been five days. It feels like it’s been going on much longer." Liam answers.
"Okay. That makes sense." Theo nods.
He extends his right hand toward Liam.
"I’ve stayed in here long enough. Help get to the living room. I want to see what those people are screaming about."
------------------------------
As Liam and Theo slowly make their way toward the living room, the overlapping voices grow louder with each step.
They exchange a glance and pick up the pace, as fast as Theo can manage without Liam having to carry him.
What they find when they arrive is four people who are supposed to be good friends, family even, shouting over each other and pointing fingers. Their tones are cold, harsh, and dripping with accusation and malice. They are practically spitting at each other. If a stranger were to walk in, they would think these people were arch enemies.
Theo’s sharp eyes move quietly over everyone in the room. Beside him, Liam is stunned.
His confusion turns to fury in an instant.
"What the FUCK is going on?!"
Silence falls in the next second.
Four heads snap toward him and freeze.
"What the hell were you doing? Yelling at each other like that? Since when do any of you have this kind of hostility toward each other?" Liam asks in disbelief. His mind cannot wrap itself around what he just walked into.
Theo lowers his gaze. He feels a subtle shift in Liam through the contact of their hands. He steals a glance at Liam’s face, then flickers his eyes across the four frozen figures in the room.
He notices it imdiately.
They all share the sa glazed look, as though a clouded lens has been laid over their eyes. The thickness varies from person to person.
Liam’s is the thinnest. Then Alicia. Then Arthur. Then Maeve. Julian’s is the thickest, though Maeve runs a close second.
Theo is certain now. Sothing is actively ssing with their minds.
"Well? Why are you all silent now when you were shouting at each other just seconds ago?" As his anger rises, Liam’s grip on Theo’s hand tightens, causing Theo to wince and tap his lower arm.
"Ouch." He says.
It seems to have so sort of calming effect on Liam. He faintly jerks, and his eyes snap clear. He looks at Theo, worried.
Theo only glances down at their connected hands. "Too tight." He says it lightly.
"Sorry." Liam loosens his grip but does not let go. His hand stays, still serving as Theo’s walking stick.
The other four watch them in silence.
Theo sweeps his eyes across all four of them.
"Hi guys. Haven’t seen you in so long. How are you?" He greets them lightly.
No one responds.
"Nice to know." He chuckles. "Well, in case you didn’t know, I’m not okay. I lost my mana. So right now, I can’t do magic at all. And I seem to have lost most of my physical strength as well." He continues in the sa light, teasing tone.
"I can’t go anywhere without help." He lifts their joined hands so the others can see.
He drops the news deliberately, wanting to see their reaction. Under normal circumstances, they would all be over him imdiately, worried and fussing.
And if they are not, then sothing is very wrong, and Theo is in no condition to do anything about it.
Silence.
Theo’s heart skips a beat. He can feel the color draining from his face.
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