Lost and Found - Book 1

Chapter 10

Alfred was a notorious prankster. It wasn't unusual for him to cause trouble and today was no different. He had taken in fugitives and deceived his friends. When they gave themselves up, no one could really be mad at Alfred. This was just something he did.

Things took a change when Rex disappeared. Everyone searched the house from top to bottom, but she had vanished without a trace. They wandered back into the living room, any previous anger now replaced by a shared confusion. This wasn't a prank. She was gone. A missing piece that was itself, the entire puzzle.

*

Alm stared at the blank screen of the old TV sitting a few feet away from the couch. She hadn't bothered looking for the remote, but she wouldn't find it anyway. Judging by the dust on the screen, no one else had been able to find it in a while either.

Haruhi had already been at school for a few hours. Alm had woken up late for the first time since she'd arrived in this world. Waking up late felt like home. Without Kyoya to distract her, the combination of homesickness and loneliness was overwhelming.

She ate a bowl of cereal in the dark and searched the depths of her mind for any hint of how to get home.

She didn't find out anything new. She didn't even experience the sharp bursts of pain she usually felt when she tried to remember more of that fateful day. She found nothing. A kind of 'nothing' that was deeper and darker than any sleep she's ever had. It was worse than her black outs, because now she was completely conscious of this emptiness.

Alm couldn't finish her breakfast after that, and she didn't have the will to push herself to, so she just dumped it out into the sink. Over the sound of the garbage disposal pulverizing the leftover cereal, there was a very urgent series of knocks on the front door.

Alm glanced at the clock on the wall. Haruhi wasn't supposed to be out of class for another twenty minutes. Fear ran through her body and exited from the soles of her feet as she walked towards the door. As calmly as she could, she opened the door. Outside was Kyoya's mom, open palm raised above her head, about to start banging again.

"Mrs. Ootori! W-Would you like to come in?" Alm exclaimed, unable to disguise her shock.

"No time," She huffed. Alm joined her on the porch. Hair had fallen out of Mrs. Ootori's previously neat bun during her exertion of knocking on the door. She tucked as much of it behind her ears as she could in attempt to look a little less disheveled. "I'm sorry to just show up like this, but Kyoya won't talk to me."

Alm frowned. "He's not talking to me either."

"And that's his problem, he needs to." Mrs. Ootori slumped into a porch chair. "He's worrying me with how worried he is about you. He spent all night out in the backyard, just looking."

"Well," Alm sighed, rubbing her neck awkwardly. "He doesn't have to worry about me anymore."

"You're right, he doesn't have to." Mrs. Ootori leaned forward. "He just does anyway."

"I don't get it." Alm sighed. She sat down across from Mrs. Ootori.

"He cares about you."

"It didn't seem that way yesterday."

"He was confused, I don't know." Of course she wouldn't. Alm didn't even know what was going on between her and Kyoya. "But now he's worse. It's like he thinks it's his duty to help you."

Alm was beginning to get annoyed. She just wanted all this drama to be over. "It's not."

"You're right, again. But if he doesn't find a way to help you I don't think he'll ever stop being tortured by his failure."