The Forest

-17-

Nica had neglected to tell Sydney about their visitor. 'Daniel's friend'. She shrugged it off, thinking 'he'll be around some other time'. Why Daniel had told him to come up here from the City was something she wondered about for a while. If it was help with a project that he needed, why wouldn't he just ask Sydney? She peered into his office out of pure curiosity and could see nothing amiss. Boring as ever. What was the grouchy creep up to now? He drove her nuts and had been since they were at school together, the way he sulked about the place, permanent storm-cloud over his head. Resmungão. And on that note— how was Daniel, who had the personality of a wet rock, supposedly friends with Cain Connors? Didn't make sense.
And then she put her headphones in and forgot all about it.

With the microscope set up, Nica therefore appeased, and everything else in a stable state of chaos, Sydney was left with little to do. If she ignored the other glaring problem, that was. And she wasn't sure how long she could ignore it for. The phone call was digging under her skin and gnawing at her head like an agonisingly persistent mouse. She had enough to think about without adding her little brother's shenanigans into the mix...

But too many questions had been left unanswered. Where was Lucius? Who was Lucius? Who was he really, beyond her brother's lame excuse of 'just a kid'. Who was his friend, where was his friend? And how did the two of them know Michael? How did this mysterious friend know about the little ones— the questions never ended. Someone was telling an awful joke and nobody was bothering to explain it to her. If she didn't do something, this was going to keep her up all night. And that was a privilege she reserved only for coffee.

The woman was in her office. Frost decorated the window in spindles of icy wonder. The door was shut, the lamp was turned low, and her desk was in its usual state of disarray and discord. Sydney gnawed at her nail while she listened to the phone ring. Hang up before he answers. It wasn't too late to stop. Every trill as the phone dialled through to her brother left her more and more certain that she should just ignore Lucius and his friend. Michael desperately needed some normality in his life; he needed to grow up, act grown up, and that started with taking responsibility of things, like finally cutting off contact with his no-good friend Samuel, and sending this Lucius boy away.

The phone clicked.
Old music droned in the background. A baritone voice with a purely English accent made Sydney wince. Mercifully, Michael turned it down a notch a moment after picking up the call. Less mercifully, his hello was an awful rendition of the song, straight into her ear.
"I'm not in the mood, Michael." Sydney snapped. He was at home again. Doing nothing. And she had put up with enough overly loud music for one day.
"Alright, grumpy." Mike laughed.
Sydney leant on her elbow and rubbed one hand against her eye. Getting the Facility up and running was proving to be far more tiring than she had initially thought, and this extra stress wasn't helping. He must have heard her sighing, or more likely detected her emotions through the silence in a way only family can. 
"What's wrong?" He instantly became serious. The song went dead and it was just his voice, clean in the quiet, "Are you okay?"

Sydney opened her sore eyes. No, Michael. I'm not.
"I've just received the strangest phone call from some unknown number— a boy who was trying to call you, claiming..." Hesitation still lingered. If she repeated what the boy had told her, that Lucius had been arrested, what would that be getting Michael into?
"Claiming... what?"
Quiet, still. This was trouble and Sydney knew it. She felt it. How could she knowingly involve her brother?

"Is it Lucius?" Mike's tone changed again. The concern doubled. She thought for a moment she misheard him— How he could have possibly guessed that, she didn't know.
She cringed. Then, "Yes."
"Something's happened?" There was a scraping sound as he shot up from a chair, "Is he alright?"
"According to this boy, he's been arrested."