This chapter reveals a lot about Félix's past as well as one other thing ;) whoever wants to look for those clues
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"Fuko!" I glared at the spirit cat.
"I'm sorry!!!!" her ears drooped sadly.
"I can't believe this," I muttered getting down on the floor and laying on my stomach. I peered under the stove and to my dismay, it was pitch black. "Let me guess, my bad luck for today is getting to work late because some stupid cat decided to play with my keys and accidentally threw them under the stove!!"
"It really was an accident!!" Fuko insisted.
I reached under the stove and began feeling around for my keys. "Mon oiel!" I snapped at her. Thank goodness my mom had left for work early and left me free to talk to Fuko.
"I'll help you then!" she snapped back at me and squeezed under the stove.
"No! Fuko!" I tried blocking her with my arm already under there, "You'll just cause more bad luck!"
"Between the two of us, which of us has night vision."
"Fine!" grumbling unintelligibly, furiously, I also kept looking for the keys, feeling around with my hand.
"I found it!!" Fuko declared, and her voice was followed by a jingle.
Something hit my hand.
"AH A MOUSE!" Fuko screeched, next thing I knew, something sharp pricked my finger.
"Ow!" I recoiled my arm to me and sat up, examining my hand. My pinky had some teeth-marks on it, and little tiny beads of blood were coming from them.
Fuko came out from under the stove, completely covered in dust, but with my keys hanging from her mouth. However, upon seeing me, Fuko dropped the keys, "Oh no! That was you?!" She floated over and looked at my bite.
"Please tell me that you weren't the one who bit me..."
"Uh oh...."
I sighed, irritated, grabbed my keys and stood up. "Run it by me again then, since this is the first time this has actually happened, incredibly," I told her as I washed my small, but new cut with some soap.
"Run what by you?" Fuko watched me.
I walked to the bathroom, and I hesitantly peeked in. Ugh... I hated mirrors. As quickly as I could I grabbed the disinfectant and a band-aid and went back to the kitchen, "Uh, what happens if you bite me, you once mentioned it might make me sick right?"
"Oh! That!" Fuko remembered, "Right, um well, me being the embodiment of bad luck and all, if I ever bite anyone, I insert some of the negative energy that's inside of me into them. And well um... Others' bodies aren't as suited for negative energy like mine. Even just a small amount of it is hard to adjust to. Remember when you first put on the ring, you had a high fever for a week?"
"Considering I was unconscious because of it, no, no I do not," I spat out bitterly while putting away the first aid kit.
"Oh right... that was when...." Fuko cleared her throat awkwardly, "Your brother... Right, ahem. Moving on..."
I left the apartment with Fuko on my shoulder.
"Well luckily, your body is a lot more accustomed to negative energy now, and you might only get a little sick."
"How much is a little sick?"
"I dunno. But I doubt you'll have a high fever all week. Maybe it's just like a couple days or something."
"Spectacular," I groaned.
*******
"Ah Félix! I was beginning to wonder where you were!" Mme Dubois greeted me as I walked in the library.
"Sorry, I dropped my keys under the stove," I told her while shooting a hostile glance at Fuko discreetly.
"It happens to the best of us!" She tried cheering me up, "Come! I have a lot of books that need to return to their shelves!!"
I set my bag and water bottle down in the back. I sighed internally, dismayed at the sight of all the bookcarts that were overflowing with books. I already felt tired at the mere thought of sorting all of those.
"Well, I'll just get to it then..." I sighed, and grabbed the nearest cart. It was nice of Mme Dubois to already leave the books on the cart semi sorted. They were all books from the same aisle.
I rolled out the cart to the aisle it was supposed to be in. Before I could even start filing the books away, I heard a soft sound.
"What on earth is that noise?!" I snapped, hearing some music playing behind the bookshelf. I stormed over there.
It was none other than Paws, and another boy who seemed to be his friend. Mme Dubois showed up too.
Paws' friend looked up and saw Mme Dubois, "Oh sorry, is this too loud? I wanted to show my bud Adrien this new mix I made and we couldn't hear it in the courtyard."
Mme Dubois shook her head and smiled, "Well, there's no one in the library right now, so for the moment it's fine, and it was very quiet!"
Paws seemed to have noticed me and was glaring at me warningly. Oh please. There was only one glare in the entire world that scared me witless and that was my mom's. His didn't even come close to the word scary. It was a rather humorous attempt at trying to be threatening.
"So did you like it?" the friend asked.
Mme Dubois nodded, "I think you're very creative! What do you think Félix?" she looked at me. Paws' friend stiffly looked over his shoulder to see me. Ah so my reputation has spread throughout the school then. Why hadn't Mon Damocles or Mme Dubois fired me yet then?
"It sounded like a cat had a child with a pigeon and it got run over by a Lamborghini," I stated flatly.
"Hey, that's a little excessive don't you think?" Paws was quick to jump to his friend's defense.
"Oh don't take him seriously, Félix is quite the jokester!" Mme Dubois snickered.
I shook my head disapprovingly. "Look, music isn't just sound and rhythm. It's not just something you can tap your foot to. Music tells a story, and conveys emotion. What you just played had none of that. It was flat."
"Oh Félix, you sound like you're a musician," Mme Dubois commented, "Are you? Or a music-admirer?"
"Sure," I consented. I looked at Paws' friend, "You've got the ear for this," I informed him, "but try finding a muse before you just throw a bunch of sounds together and call it good." I went back to filing books.
To my discomfort, Mme Dubois followed me.
"Félix tell me! What do you play? Or are you a singer?" She asked me as I went to the cart.
I started sorting the books on the cart by their numbers so that I could place them on the shelf faster. "I can sing, but I prefer playing cello."
"How long have you played?" Mme Dubois asked eagerly. Why was she so excited about this?
"All my life," I blinked out a momentary fuzziness from my eyes. Maybe I hadn't slept enough. Then I started putting three books on the shelf.
"So you must be very good!" Mme Dubois commented.
I shrugged, "That's what a lot of people said..." They even liked using the word prodigy at times, not that that meant anything to me. It was such an overused word. There was something off about the books. "But I haven't played in years so it doesn't matter anymore."
"Félix," Fuko was looking at the books, "You just put cook-books with the sci-fi books."
How could I have made that mistake?! I pulled them back off the shelf.
"You should play again..." Mme Dubois noticed what I was doing, "Is there a problem?" she asked.
"I just misplaced the books," I muttered, I searched the cart to see if it even had any science-fiction books.
"You never misplace books," Mme Dubois tilted her head, "I must be distracting you, I'm sorry..." She had a strange look on her face, as if a detective had found a clue for the mystery that contradicted previous discoveries. "I'll be at the desk alright?" And she left.
Paws and his friend left the library, I assume they were heading off to class. Sighing I went to the other side of the aisle to where the cook books were and placed them in their correct places.
"Félix, maybe you should go home," Fuko stated, "because it's negative energy, it won't affect me, but that doesn't mean I can't tell how you're feeling."
"I'm fine!" I hissed at her and went back to the cart. I sorted out the art books by their number on the spine.
About two hours later, I still hadn't finished the first cart thanks to accidentally repeatedly misplacing books, and only noticing after I had placed all the books on the wrong shelf.
I crouched down to get a book from the lower level of the cart since the upper level was now finally cleared. Determined not to make another mistake, I made sure that I checked each book, before grabbing one that would be next on the fantasy shelf.
When I stood up, a wave a severe lightheadedness made me stumble backwards into the study table. I closed my eyes and waited for the dizziness to fade, but a small portion of it remained, threatening me.
Fuko hovered worriedly near my head. "Maybe you should sit down for a little bit," she suggested.
I ignored her, and gave myself a small shake before placing the book on the correct shelf.
"Félix, are you alright?" I heard Mme Dubois. "You're looking a little pale there."
I looked in the direction of her voice. She had her hands behind her back, as if holding something. "I'm fine, I just stood up too quickly and got lightheaded, that's all."
Mme Dubois frowned, worried, "Félix I've been watching you from the desk all day, I can tell you're not feeling well. You're moving slowly, misplacing books, making mistakes. You're usually very diligent and very fast. On a normal day, you would've been on cart three or four now if I hadn't given you a different task. If you're not feeling well, why don't you go home for today? Especially since it's Wednesday and a half day, it shouldn't be of much consequence."
"But then you'll be handling the library all alone," I protested.
Mme Dubois smiled, "Your concern is touching! I think I can manage for the remaining few hours! And if I do get behind, I'm sure you'll be able to get me back on track after!" She pulled her hands to the front and I realized she was holding my satchel and water bottle.
"Alright, Mme Dubois," A part of me felt extremely relieved, "Thank you."
******
I sighed as I opened the door to the apartment. I dropped my things off at the table. The walk home had been tedious! I was so disoriented that I began turning on the wrong street every time there was a new turn.
I dragged my feet over to my inflatable mattress and threw myself onto it.
"Félix, your shoes are still on," Fuko observed.
"Don't care," I mumbled through my pillow, closing my eyes.
"Félix, I'm really sorry..." Fuko sat next to my head on the pillow.
"Duszzn't matter now," I muttered, before falling asleep.
********
The hallway went on forever. There were doors that lined the hallway as well, but there was something off about they way they were all shoulder to shoulder with each other. I had this overwhelming urge to find my brother. He had to be here somewhere. Maybe he knew what was going on.
I opened the nearest door, hoping to find him in there. There was only a broken alarm clock, continuously going off. I closed the door and went on to the next one. A bunk bed.
"Adrien?" I called for my brother hopefully. No such luck, it appeared that the beds were empty.
I went to the next door. There was a single poster of Gérard Depardieu on the back wall. I remembered that poster. It had been a time Adrien and I tried out acting and starred in a play for our theater. They were absolutely thrilled to have actual twins onstage to play the role of twins instead of needing to find two look-alike actors. They said we showed real promise, and while acting had been fun, we wanted to try more things.
The next room had an art kit: colored pencils, charcoal, paints, graphite, watercolor, scratchboard, chalk... As well as various sheets of paper with drawings. Art had been fun until people started bossing us around on how we should be doing things instead of just letting us have fun and develop our own techniques.
"Adrien?" I called my brother's name again in the next room. There were two horses casually standing there, all geared up and ready to ride.
I kept going through the doors, and finding weird things. Planets, mummies, motorboat, a scale model of Tokyo... There were also plenty of random objects in every other room, ranging from two videogame controllers, skateboards, water-skis, carpentry kits, two pairs of tennis shoes, basket balls, fencing uniforms, martial arts uniforms, two piles of rocks...
I realized I was sweating. The hallway was getting unbearably hot! The need to find my brother was beginning to feel more and more urgent.
"Adrien?!" I kept calling for him, checking room after room after room of useless randomness.
It suddenly dawned on my that the hallway and all of its rooms were now on fire, and I was standing amidst flames. Still, I had to find my brother!
I frantically began opening and closing any doors I came across. He has to be in one of them!! A litter of kittens. I have to find him! Some cook books. I have to!! Some PCs. Where is he?! Four small potted cacti.
Wait! I ran back down the hallway, four or five doors down, jumping over flames, and dodging dislodging support beams. I kicked the door down in panic. There were three kittens mewling helplessly.
"Wasn't... wasn't there a person here?" I murmured, and I picked up the kittens and held them in my arms. I shook my head, feeling disoriented, and went back out to the hallway. "How many more doors are there?" I panted asking the kittens.
I kept opening doors, even as the hallway around me began crumbling away into space, as if it only existed in some pocket dimension. "Adrien?!" I called out for my brother yet again.
Panic flared in my chest when there was only one door left at the end of the hallway. I slammed it open, "ADRIEN!" I was fully expecting to see my brother standing there since it was the last room. Instead, there was just a violin and a cello.
The roof caved in on top of the instruments and shattered the floor. I barely had a chance to even register what happened when the floor crumbled beneath me as well and I fell through the void.
I woke up with a jump.
"It's alright Félix," I heard my mother's voice, "You were dreaming."
"Mom?" I croaked. It occurred to me that I was sweating and that I was shirtless. Had I taken my shirt off? I know for a fact I hadn't taken off my shoes but they were off as well...
"I came home during my lunch break because I forgot something, and I saw that you were running a fever, so I called my boss and told him what was going on. He said I could work from home to keep an eye on you." She was leaning against the wall with her computer in her lap. She had various notes spread around her.
"Mom, where's Adrien?" I asked as she set her computer down on the floor and reached for a cup of water.
"You were just dreaming Félix," she told me gently as she helped me sit up. "It's okay."
"Where's Adrien?" I repeated. We always got sick together. Where was he?
"Just drink some water," she told me and brought the cup to my lips.
"But Adrien-," I protested before I started drinking.
"He's not here right now," she finally answered me, and stroked my head as I drank.
"Where did he go?" I finished.
"He's um... with... Zara! That's right! Your guys' friend, Zara? He's with her!" She put the glass down, "There, feel better now?" she asked me while I laid back down. "Anything I can get you?"
"A blanket?"
"I'll give you your pajama shirt if you're cold, but I don't want your fever getting worse," She replied handing me a fabric.
It suddenly dawned on my that the window was dark, "What time is it?" as I put on the shirt.
"Six at night," she told me, still stroking my hair. "It's early for dinner, but would you like to eat? I think you should really rest as much as possible, so the sooner you eat the sooner you can get back to sleep."
I shook my head. I felt extremely nauseated at the moment and couldn't even imagine eating. "Wait, where are we?" I realized I wasn't in my bunk bed, or even in my room for that matter.
"In our new apartment, in Paris," My mom's tone was patient.
"We live in Aixe, why are we in Paris?"
"We're visiting an uncle."
"Oh," I closed my eyes, hoping to fall back asleep. "Wait, you're an only child..." I dimly realized.
"Silly me, I meant your grand-parents!" My mom gently placed her hand over my eyes, as if encouraging me to rest.
The sound of cars passing were slowly lulling me to sleep. Not even the realization that my grandparents lived in Spain was enough to tempt me to stay awake.
*******
Why was I in a maze of mirrors?! Mazes weren't any fun alone, and I absolutely despised mirrors. I turned left and the next corner, and then took a right. Why did I have a rock in my hand? Where did I even find the rock?!
Why do they all have his face?! I thought furiously to myself.
I was forced to pick between left and right. In my haste, I walked smack into a mirror. I backed away furious.
Scowling I went down the left instead. Getting my face smacked into a mirror every other turn. I began to run. Why couldn't I get out of this maze?! Why did it go on forever?!
I slowed down to catch my breath. I was still carrying the rock with my right hand. The mirrors simultaneously shined blue, as if mocking me. I growled at them, and picked a random path to continue on, and ran down it.
I reached another fork, and as quickly as I could I turned left, only to run into the mirror so hard I stumbled backwards and fell down dazed. I couldn't even tell if I was going in circles! I gave myself a shake, and jumped to my feet glaring at my reflection.
Why?
It glared back at me.
WHY?!?! I pounded with the rock against the mirror repeatedly. How dare it look like me! Chink! How dare it look like him! Chink! Creeeee. Why did mirrors have to exist?!
The mirror shattered upon the third blow, and the pieces of the broken glass tinkled gently like bells to the stone floor as if wind chimes.
As I panted angrily, I rested my hand and my rock against the steel, grey, stone wall. My hand was trembling, but I couldn't tell if it was from anger or from repeatedly pounding a mirror until it shattered.
Wait, that was it! That's how I could tell where I'd been!
I calmly walked down the hallway, and every couple mirrors or so I would bash the rock into them. As disturbing and disorienting as it was, looking at my broken reflection was somehow less antagonizing.
This continued on, for what seemed like hours. Walk, smash, walk, smash, walk... I took to staring at the ground. Only looking up to check whether I should go right or left, or to check if I had already gone down a certain path before.
Exhaustion was beginning to wear on me. All my body wanted to do was to sit down in a nice comfortable chair. My brain was beginning to ache with all the optical illusions and distorted reflections cause by the broken mirrors. The hand that held the rock, was bleeding, from various mirror shards occasionally flying out upon collision. It was becoming harder and harder to find a path I hadn't taken, until finally, there was only one left.
It twisted and turned, but the path did not split, or merge. For a moment I thought I saw the end. There was a person standing there, in the way. As I approached, I thought maybe it was another mirror. A dead-end, like so many my face had begrudgingly become very familiar with.
But when I got close enough, I realized, it wasn't a mirror at all. Maybe it was a glass screen, maybe I had finally gone crazy from running around in the maze for hours, but the person that was there, was not mimicking my movements.
He stood there relaxed, smiling at me, without a care in the world. Adrien.
Our eyes met, and we just stood there, staring at each other. I wanted to ask him so many questions, but we both remained completely silent.
I reached up with my hand to try and touch him, only to find some invisible screen blocking the way. Glass.
My brother tilted his head at my gesture with raised eyebrows. His eyes floated down to the rock I was holding. His smiled disappeared when he noticed the cuts on my hand. Then with his own hand, he reached out to where mine was, in concern.
Was he trapped in there? Did he need to get out? I tried reaching out to connect with him emotionally, and felt panicked when there was nothing there, like the other side of a phone call that had gone silent without either person hanging up.
I raised my rock and smashed it into the glass. My brother didn't even flinch. He stood there, completely unmoving, and unaffected. When I pounded the rock a second time, the glass screen shattered completely.
I could see my brother through the shards of glass as they fell, still in the same position, but once everything had settled, there was nothing there except a stone wall a meter away from where the glass screen had been, and he had vanished. Maybe he had never even been there to begin with.
I awoke to the sound of my mom talking on the phone. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He's been..." I stopped paying attention and sat up wearily.
"Your hair is a mess," Fuko commented, "but don't worry. It actually looks really good on you!"
Figures she would say something like that in a moment like now! Just behind Fuko there was a sleeping bag stretched out next to my bed. Wait, had my mom slept next to me?
I heard my mom hang up, "Well good morning," my mom said cheerfully, "How do you feel?"
"Like I was hit by an elephant-drawn truck transporting whales and two rocket-ships."
My mother smiled at my comment, "Well your fever finally broke so I'm sure you'll feel better soon," she walked over and knelt on the sleeping bag.
"Um, how long's it been, exactly?" I remembered coming back from work but after that it was a non-stop festival of fever dreams and feeling horrible.
"Well, it's about nine right now," she told me. Judging by the light outside the windows, I guess she meant in the morning.
"And I bit you accidentally at eight! Now we know! You'll get sick for about a full day or so!!" Fuko said brightly. "I'll be sure to remember that!"
"Oh brilliant," I sighed. "I'm going to be late."
My mom ruffled my hair playfully, "Oh don't worry about that, you're recovering."
"Did you sleep next to me?" I asked her.
"Only after one or two in the morning when you started shouting. How bad was your dream?" she asked gently.
"Maze of mirrors."
"Oh yeah, I can see how that'd be frustrating." She stood up and walked over to the kitchen, "Hungry? You wouldn't eat anything yesterday."
"Not particularly hungry, but it might make me feel better," I thought aloud.
"Smart!" my mom agreed. "So..." she casually commented as she pulled out breakfast foods. "You kept asking me where Adrien was."
"I did?" I genuinely could not remember that, "I'm sorry," I apologized. "I didn't mean-,"
"It's okay Félix," she assured me. "It's weird to say, but it actually made me happy to hear you be concerned for him."
I rubbed my temple exasperatedly. Why on earth would I casually just mention him?! My chest felt tight.
"Hey..." My mom walked over to me and gave me a hug from the side, "It's okay Félix. Really!" She transitioned herself in front of me, "Is there any reason you would be thinking about him lately?" she asked me.
"Well, it may or may not have something to do with Paws..." I muttered.
"Paws?" she asked me confused.
"Have you heard of Gabriel Agreste?" I asked her.
She pressed her lips together before nodding.
"His son, Adrien Agreste, goes to the school I work at, and I seem him a lot. I call him Paws to separate him from Adrien in my head. But it doesn't help that they look similar."
My mother gave a solemn understanding nod, "Got it," she sighed.
I studied her face, and I was surprised that I couldn't read it.
As she began standing up, she pulled my head towards her and she kissed it. I resisted the urge to pull away because it would hurt her feelings. After she stood she gave me two reassuring pats on the shoulder, she finished setting the table. "I already ate breakfast, so just help yourself alright? Oh, and the orange juice isn't optional." She disappeared behind her room's doorway.