Chapter 7 Wren #2
He closed his exhausted eyes and prayed for sleep even though he knew it wouldn’t come, thinking of Fix’s words that he hoped he could finally rest.
Fix didn’t know that once, he had.
Even while he was fighting, there was a place he would always slip back to, a nook his head fit perfectly into and arms that cradled him softly in the confines of whatever space they had decided to make their den.
A sad chirp had his eyes fluttering open, a blurry blue shape coming into focus as teardrops fell.
“Don’t cry. Can’t sleep.”
“Yes,” Wren said, exhausted, letting Blu hop up on his finger. “I’m so tired.”
Blu rubbed his head along Wren’s dirty thumb.
Sniffing, Wren shuffled over to a tree trunk and rested back against it, Sable coming to lie at his side.
He kept his eyes trained at the horizon, where the shadow of another city lay, and swiped his useless tears away with the back of his hand before they could drip off his chin.
The familiar buzz broke through his miserable reverie, and he numbly pulled out his phone.
Unknown: Thought you’d be interested.
There was an image attached, and Wren clicked it open before he even thought to reply. They were used to this unknown person meddling in their cases by now. They were always there.
Lurking.
All the digging into who they were led nowhere. They were too good to be found.
Wren didn’t trust it. They knew too much about the cursebreakers not to be related to Nexus in some way. And whatever that way was, it was enough for Wren to want to stay away.
But he also envied them. Just a little. To be able to stay hidden that well. To be able to run and never be found. They were living Wren’s dream.
The grainy photo loaded and Wren felt a familiar pang of anger ignite fires in his chest.
It was the inside of a drab gray concrete room, no discernible location markers. No way to find it.
And Wren wanted to find it more than he wanted anything else, because the room was filled with cages stacked on top of one another, rusty and cramped.
Holding countless animals hostage.
Wren: Where?
Unknown: Arcstead.
He was on his feet before he could control himself. A decision born out of anger. A scale tipped because of suffering. He was home in a flash, barely aware of the trip there.
All he saw was pain.
All he wanted was justice. Revenge.
And secretly, deep down, all he wanted was to see Teddy again.
“Wren?” Fix called as he bolted past the happy couple on the couch and toward the stairs, his animal entourage following like his faithful shadows.
He burst into his room, walked to his dresser, and pulled out the only drawer that wasn’t housing an animal. He grabbed his threadbare clothes and began piling them into a backpack, pausing when his fingers touched familiar fluffy fabric shoved right into the back recesses.
Slowly, he pulled it out, staring at the chocolate brown fleece material that held so many memories within its fibers. He moved his fingers over the rounded ears and button eyes, remembering every single moment.
“Wren?” Fix said from the doorway. When he looked back, Wren could see Liam peeking worriedly from behind his shoulder, his honey blonde hair hanging over his shoulder.
He knew what he must have looked like. Eyes swollen and red, with heavy dark circles underneath, covered in dirt and mud with no shoes or jacket. Wild. Feral.
“Will you look after all the animals while I’m gone?” Wren’s voice was nothing more than a croak. “I don’t know how long… I don’t…”
“Yes, of course,” Fix said. “Just like any other time you’re away on a case. Which is what this is, if anyone asks.”
If Nexus asks, went unsaid.
Wren’s hands shook and he clenched them into fists. “Yes.”
“All your instructions are written on the family board already, and we’ll call you if anything happens,” Fix said.
“Don’t let Black do it unsupervised. He means well, but sometimes he’s not gentle enough, and his fascination with the curses—”
“We know, Wren.” Fix cut him off softly. “Midas usually takes the lead. He knows what he’s doing.”
That comforted Wren a little as he looked around the room at every face that needed him, questioning everything. “And—”
“Wren,” Fix said. Wren’s mouth snapped closed. “Just go. Everything will be here just the same as you left it. I promise.”
But maybe I won’t be, Wren thought.
He had never not tried though. Not once in his life.
He picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, lifting his chin bravely.
“Um…maybe shoes?” Liam suggested gently.
Wren looked down at his feet and wiggled his dirt- and grass-stained toes.
“Not a requirement for Wren, honey,” Fix joked. “But it would be a good idea. It’s a long-ish drive and car pedals aren’t exactly soft.”
Wren conceded the point, getting on his hands and knees to search under his bed.
Most of his shoes were being used as chew toys or houses for fluffy friends.
He petted a pair of hamsters curled up in his left boot before finding one half of a pair of sneakers and another half of a pair in another make.
Shrugging, he crawled back out with them and shoved them on before jumping back to his feet. When he looked up, it was to find an affectionate and amused smile aimed at him. He blinked in surprise, not really sure what had elicited such responses.
“We’ll walk you out,” Fix said, leading the way down the stairs, arm in arm with Liam.
Wren began to follow before pausing, doubling back, snatching the hoodie from the drawer, and pulling it over his head.
When he rejoined them, they didn’t say anything much. They probably didn’t know what it meant.
“The hood’s cute,” Liam commented.
Wren only hummed, fighting the urge to bury his nose in the collar. The scent had long since faded, replaced by the must of age, but Wren had never been able to bring himself to wash it.
He could imagine it was just the same this way.
Wren let Sable climb up into the SUV and Blu fly to his house before climbing in after them into the driver’s seat, shoving his backpack into the back. Fix held the door for him, watching with eagle eyes as he got settled.
“I know this is something you need to do, but…be careful? We can’t protect you way over there,” Fix said, mouth downturned with worry. “Not everyone will understand or even try to accept… And we don’t know the PUMA force over there or their Nexus representatives—”
Wren laid a hand on his arm to stop his words. “I just need to know. And I have information about the case.”
Fix drew in a breath, squeezing Liam closer to him with his other arm before he nodded. “Call when you get there.”
Wren nodded back and then the door was shutting, leaving him with his decision.
He started the car, knowing he couldn’t have made any other. This person who ran away and hid to lick his wounds wasn’t someone he recognized.
Rolling down the drive not knowing what was ahead of him, he was confident that the soft den behind him would remain.
As the distance passed, he chewed his lips and fingers until they were sore. He ignored the turning for the sanctuary after taking one look at Sable’s stubborn gaze, feeling guiltily happy to have both him and Blu with him.
Not that Blu would be anywhere else. He was like another limb independent of his body. A piece of his heart flying free.
If he could have picked up all his darlings and taken them he would have.
Soon enough, Arcstead loomed in the distance, lit up against the night sky, so different to Slatehollow though the distance between them was small.
Arcstead was a newer city and didn’t have half the history of Slatehollow.
The buildings and structures here were all sleek and modern and it had none of the smoke or fog that clouded Slatehollow skies.
Many people had moved out of Slatehollow to settle here, mainly the upper classes and casters.
There was a lot of wealth in Arcstead that was mainly fed by the industry in Slatehollow factories.
None of them wanted to live among the pollution they pumped into the air, but they would happily profit from it from a safe distance.
Cars were also fully available here, no working permits required.
With no giant metal beast ferrying people across the city through the skies on tracks, Arcstead took a more “sophisticated” approach.
Wren knew he was entering a foreign land as he crossed into the city, driving past golf courses and spa retreats.
The offices and apartment buildings were all built in strange, unnaturally architectural shapes made of glass and the houses followed suit—white, glass, modern, cold.
It made Wren shiver just looking at it, and he tried to picture Teddy among it all.
Teddy was a chameleon and always had been, but Wren had always thought he looked best in the branches of a tree, or lying out under the moon and stars.
Wiping the images from his mind, he grabbed his phone, pulling over to view the address that had been sent to him.
He plugged it into the navigation and made his way through the city, pulling up on the east side to a house that looked nothing like his.
It blended in with its counterparts—palatial and expansive while not containing much of anything at all. It had no story to tell and no character to interpret. It was just a building. A roof and four walls.
Wren didn’t know what he had been expecting.
Teddy had always had so much to say, but this said nothing at all. Wren couldn’t find a single hint of him in any of it.
The iron fence lined with greenery and wrought iron gate barred entry, so Wren parked down the street, ignoring the sign that said not to.
He hopped out onto the immaculate sidewalk with Sable at his heels and Blu perched on his shoulder. He twittered nervously and Wren raised a finger to pet his breast.
“I know. A hospital is more welcoming, huh?”
Blu chirped an affirmative.
Wren made his way to the gate, knowing at once that he wasn’t ringing the bell and facing some stranger when he was already feeling so raw and vulnerable. Instead, he surveyed the edge of the property and found a trimmed tree overhanging the fence into the front garden.
He smiled and looked at his companions. “Let’s stretch our legs after that journey, shall we, darlings?”
He led the way, shimmying up the trunk and onto a low branch. Sable made it look easier than he did, following him silently while Blu cheered them on.
Wren slid along the branch and let himself hang by his legs for a moment, breathing in a moment of peace before gripping with his hands and allowing himself to flip over and land on the manicured lawn.
Sable looked at him strangely from the branch above.
“I have moves,” Wren stated. “Right, Blu?”
Blu chirped in agreement, doing a small circle before landing on his head proudly. A ten out of ten score.
Sable jumped down elegantly next to them, flicking him with his tail.
“Tough crowd,” Wren whispered to Blu, who chirped again.
Playtime over, Wren turned to the house, his heart beginning to beat faster.
What now?
Just like he wasn’t ringing the gate bell, he wasn’t ringing the doorbell either…so that left…
His eyes skimmed over the windows. He crept along the edges of the house, sticking close to the bushes. He just needed some sign.
He saw movement and ducked down as an unfamiliar but huge figure passed by a window, going through to what appeared to be the kitchen.
It seemed all the lower windows were for the communal areas, which made it difficult but not impossible to find a way in. Wren moved along the back of the house where a pergola was attached to the space above the back door, seats and a firepit built underneath.
He glanced upward and inhaled sharply.
There. A single bird feeder was attached to a window.
Wren’s heart stopped.
He didn’t second-guess the instinct, simply followed it. It took him up the pergola so he could reach the window, making quick work of breaking it open before hopping up and sliding inside past the closed curtain.
When he looked up, he froze again.
The room was empty of people, but so full.
Unlike the outside, this room spoke in thousand-page novels.
The warm honey and wood colors created a soft and cozy space that felt like a hug upon entering. There were bookcases and books scattered everywhere, clearly read, clearly loved, and a huge desk that was overflowing with thoughts.
A wooden bed with carved posts sat in the middle of the room, with hickory-colored sheets and a beige waffle-weave blanket draped over one corner. It was disturbed from the morning, a body print left in wrinkled impressions on the sheets and pillows.
Wren heard Sable and Blu slip in after him but could hardly concentrate as he got carefully to his feet, afraid to touch anything lest it disappear in a cloud of smoke between his fingers.
He kicked off his dirty shoes, feet sinking into the soft carpet underneath them, and took a lap around the room, drinking in every detail.
He memorized titles of books, feeling a stab of hurt at every new one and a dull ache at every familiar spine. He wondered over knickknacks, wondering if they’d been gifts or if Teddy had picked them himself and why.
Inevitably he ended up by the bed, drawn as if by a magnetic force.
The weight of his years of exhaustion crashed down on him at once. The insomnia that had replaced Teddy as his companion cowed by Teddy’s presence in the room.
Wren found himself crawling onto the bed, the pull too much to resist. Tears gathered in his eyes when he laid his head down on the pillow, and the scent he had been missing enveloped him as he curled his arms and legs up.
Just a moment. I’ll just lie here for a moment.
His whole body relaxed, the tension released after being wound so tightly and painfully for so many years. It left him completely exhausted, unable to move from his curled position. He felt Sable and Blu join him on the bed, but he could barely keep his eyes open.
For the first time in years he felt the tug of sleep, his body not fighting it, his brain shutting off.
Safe. We’re safe now. We can sleep.