Everything you can't see || Malum

Chapter 4

Calum's POV

"We have a problem." I sleepily looked up from my breakfast to see Ashton standing in the doorway.

"It's too early for problems," I groaned. Next to me sat a little girl playing with her food instead of eating it. Annoyed, I told her to stop, and as a reply she threw her eggs at me.

"Oh, by the angel", I said, trying not to swear in front of a five year old. I heard a snort coming from the doorway and when I looked over Ashton was covering his mouth, obviously trying to contain his laughter. I pulled my egg-stained shirt over my head and threw it at him at the same time as I called for Brenda, who had just left the room, to come back here.

"Dude, I'm serious. I really need to talk to you." he said while Brenda walked in. I got out of my chair and catched the balled up shirt Ash was throwing back at me. I lowered my voice as I reached the maid. "Please take care of the little fucker for me, she's annoying as hell."

"Easy there, Cal, she's just a kid." She laughed and patted my back. Then she seemed to realize I wasn't wearing a shirt and blushed a little. "Of course I'll handle her, go talk to Ash" she said and quickly moved past me and towards the table. I sighed.

"Now what do you want?" I asked as soon as my friend and I had made it out of the kitchen.

"It's been over a week, and we haven't heard a word from them. It's worrying." I rolled my eyes. That's what this was about?

"Just contact them! It's not that hard."

"What do you think I am, stupid? Of course we've tried that. It won't go through, or they won't respond, either way there's no way to reach them."

"...oh" I said once I had realized the problem. "But I mean, I guess there's nothing we can do about it? We just have to keep the Institute running and wait for them to come back..." I tried not to think of Mali, or my parents. Were they still alive? We never got any details on this "emergency situation", but if they're not available... maybe it was something really dangerous but they didn't want to worry us? I shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess so." Ashton agreed, before changing the subject. "So did Michael tell you anything yesterday? About why he's been acting so weird?" I shrugged. That wasn't anything I wanted to talk about right now. I still couldn't believe that there was something he felt like couldn't talk to me about.

"He said he was meeting some friend of his."

"That's it? He didn't say anything else?"

"Um...no? Do you know something I don't?"

"W-what? No of course not, I just want to know what he's been up to lately..." He started fidgeting with his shirt, making it even more obvious that he was lying.

"Wait, you know? Does Luke know too? Why won't he tell me?!" I crossed my arms over my chest, ignoring the hurt feeling spreading through me. I was his best friend, too, wasn't I? Ashton looked down at the floor for a moment before looking back up at me.

"I shouldn't have said anything. Look, he has his reasons." He bit his lip. "Just forget about it."

"Fine. I'll forget about him. Tell him to give me a call when he wants his friend back, yeah?" And with that I turned and walked to my room. He'd told me that the only difference between him and this "Eddie" kid (what kind of name is that anyway?) was that Mikey was a shadowhunter. But if that was the case, wouldn't I be able to understand him better than some stupid mundane? This whole thing didn't make any sense. When I reached my room, I laid down on my bed and plugged in my headphones.