When the Clouds Fell

Chapter 17: In Which Their Utopia Shatters ~Act 3~

Noah was exactly how Hayden remembered him, but also not quite the same. There was a new sallowness to his face. It looked dark; weighed down by months of being alone far too much for a person who secretly craved company. And it was slimmer, raising a question somewhere between the blurry lines of is he getting older or is he getting skinnier?

There was this thing about him as well. Something unsettling. His eyes looked much the same as they had in the kitchen on that terrifying night. Like a black sky cradling two golden moons.

"I am happy to see you again, Hayden." Noah grinned, very unlike himself.

Something else bothered Hayden but he could not put his finger on it. "Yo," he said warily.

They faced each other inside a dim boat shed. A single small vessel bobbed in the water, disrupting the surface with sporadic ripples. Or perhaps that water was rippling to match Hayden's erratic heartbeat. Piles of frayed ropes laid on the ground, coiled around thick posts. The musty smell of rotting wood filled the air between them, along with the tang of moss.

Not far from them, Sebastian leaned against the wall. Hayden wondered what the hell he was doing here, and also where the hell Vince and Karen had gone.

Noah took a step closer, drawing his attention back. "How have you been lately? I trust you have been well?" he said.

Hayden found himself leaning away. Right now, something was very, very not right. "What's wrong with you, Noah?"

Noah—or 'Noah'—titled his head. His eerie eyes bore into Hayden. "Nothing? I am just the way I used to be?"

"No, no, no, you're not." Hayden was sure this time. He needed a one-way ticket straight to Nopeville. "Noah doesn't talk like that. Noah doesn't," he gestured with his hands, flinging them every which way, "that. He doesn't do that."

"What do you mean, Hayden?" Sebastian said from his place by the wall.

"And who was talking to you?"

Seb looked abashed. He sunk into himself, cheeks turning a funny shade of pink. In any other situation, Hayden would have doubled over and laughed. But, the deranged version of Noah was a priority right now.

Hayden felt himself slipping to his rising uneasiness. The water responded by gurgling at its edges, splashing on his shoes. "So, do you mind telling me who the (heck) you are, and what (heck) you've done with Noah?"

'Noah' shrugged, far too cocky to be himself. "I do not know what you could be on about."

A bit of frost crawled from Hayden's toes into the water. It slowly inched across the surface, creating a thin layer of his irritation in physical form. He was not sure why this was getting him so worked up.

He was Hayden McLeod, for crying out loud. The entire world was a goddamned joke to him. Nothing actually mattered that much. But he was also this: the only person who knew that on the night Noah left, he left in tears. The only person who bothered to sit with him at lunch time on that lonely school yard. The only person Noah truly opened up to since his own siblings started ignoring him at some vague point in time.

Hayden knew Noah. And this was not him.

"You have one more chance to answer it right," said Hayden.

'Noah' cackled, sending a shiver down his spine. "All right. The ruse is up, I guess." Blooms of darkness formed at his fingertips, swarming up his arms. "You were far sharper than that little girl, I will give you that."