strings that snap | larry

six

"tell me how i'm going to feel less secure when i look at you."

Get up. Make coffee. Grab medicine. Lay on the couch.

That's how Louis' routine usually was after a party. Not today. Everyone was heading back home and he always volunteered to help them with whatever they needed. It's not like he had any time to lose.

Most people refused his help. Louis took pride in being quite stubborn so he usually got his way.

Get up. Make coffee. Get dressed. Leave the house.

That was his schedule for that particular morning. He was quite proud of it too. He knew the dangers of leaving without a place to go. Jeanine had scared him out of that bad habit a while ago.

Louis is fiddling with circuits on the floor of his living room. Open or closed? He always had a hard time deciding what kind to build. Sometimes his hands would shake so hard that he'd be too scared to mess with the wires but today was a good day.

Mostly because his mother let Jeanine come over. She was never too fond of the idea because of all of his sisters. They absolutely idolized Jeanine and Jay was a little embarassed. Louis didn't get his persistence from his mother. It never took her long before she gave in.

Jeanine was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. They both appreciated the silence. 

"Did you see this, Lou?" She says, folding the paper over for the sixteen year old to see. "Told you that you shouldn't be wandering, now didn't I?"

It's an article, no pictures. It's a missing ad for a missing girl from a wealthy family in their district. 

"I don't get it." He says plaintively. 

"People don't just disappear, Louis." Jeanine leans over and smooths down his hair. "They have to be heading somewhere."

He'd go bother Beetee and Wiress first. They're closest in the hotel down the block. 

Turning off all the lights and making sure all the power switches are flipped, he grabs his jacket before heading out the door. He knows he has time to kill. All the others weren't just sitting and waiting for him. In fact, they were probably still in bed. He gave himself the privilege of taking the stairs.

The stairwell is far different than the elevator he usually takes. When he tilts his head up, it seems as if the stairs never end. His footsteps echo and the coffee in his hands spills a bit.

"Dammit." He mutters as the hot liquid hit his hand.

The staircase was mundane compared to the lobby of his building. It was far too fancy. There was a man who had the job of opening the door for him, an avox dressed in red.

They didn't have his pity really. Criminals, the lot were. Maybe their punishment was a little cruel and unusual, but what punishment wasn't? He nods to the man anyway, acknowledging his prescence. The man isn't allowed to nod back.

The city was different in the early morning. It seemed as if the people walked with more purpose. The sky was clearer. No lights. Louis thinks it's a good kind of different. 

When he get's to the hotel, it looks so different than he remembers it being. He doesn't pay too much mind to it, but it nagged at him for a moment. He opts for the stairs this time.

He has a list of their room numbers crumpled in his pocket. Louis precariously balances his coffee while digging for it.

The door he knocks on has a 34 inscribed. It doesn't take long for the door to open and Beetee to appear.