Chapter 8: Lamp

Summary: Simon accompanies his friends to see Kez.

Simon watched Min-Gi tap his foot anxiously as they waited for Ryan to return. The door swung open, and Ryan came back inside looking rather unfocused.

“Everything ok?” Min-Gi asked, standing up as soon as he spotted him.

“Yeah, just… working out a few details,” he said. He sat back down with Min-Gi on the bed. “Are we ready to go?”

“We were waiting for you,” Grace said, swinging her legs over the bed and standing up. “I’ll call my ride over to take us.”

With that, she strode out of the room. The group soon followed her outside. Simon noticed Ryan trailing behind them, Min-Gi then turning to check on him. He couldn’t quite make out what the two were talking about. Min-Gi’s furrowed brows told him that whatever it was, it didn’t sound good.

They all piled into the car once it drove up. Grace took shotgun, so Simon was stuck essentially third wheeling Ryan and Min-Gi in the backseat. Surprisingly, neither of them seemed to be talking much despite them being as close together as ever. Ryan’s head rested on Min-Gi’s shoulder while one leg crossed over Min-Gi’s lap.

He glanced through the notifications on his phone. Several missed calls from his mom, some from Joanne (whom he never recalled giving his phone number). Aside from his mom chewing him out last night, he got to help himself to the leftovers Susan snuck over to his room. Then he spent the rest of the night talking to Grace over the phone until she fell asleep on call. He luckily managed to avoid much interaction with his mother or Joanne this morning.

The car pulled up in front of a two story house.

“Sometimes our parents brought us over to Kez’s house for the night whenever they needed to travel… or just get us out of the house.” Ryan said with a chuckle.

“What about your siblings?” Simon asked. 

“They usually spent the night at a friend's house. My parents couldn’t find someone to take all five of us at once,” Ryan answered, climbing out of the car. “Riley used to be in charge until she got caught sneaking out on her bike to hang out with some kids at school.”

Simon couldn’t help but whistle in admiration of the large house and the towering columns framing it. Ryan gingerly leaned in and knocked on the door. A tall, dark skinned woman with curly hair answered. 

“Uh…hi?” Min-Gi stammered. The woman scowled, placing a hand on her hip.

“And… who are you all? And what are you doing on my porch?” the woman asked.

“We’re… uh…”

The woman scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“Well, if you’re not going to tell me, I’m going to have to ask you to leave before I call the police-”

“Wait!” Grace stepped in. “We’re looking for a young woman named Kez! We found out she was living here. We were wondering if we could talk to her. It’s important. Please.”

“She’s my daughter. If you’re looking for her, she’s not here.” Her tone sounded strangely dismissive. “She probably ran off to her cousins’ place.”

“Well, can you tell us where that is?” Grace asked, leaning on a nearby pillar.

“If it’ll get you four to stop bothering me…” the woman hastily wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to Ryan.

“Just one question,” Ryan said, looking up.

“...what is it?” she sighed.

“Did you know anything about a mysterious train? Maybe Kez mentioned it to you at some point?”

“I don’t care for whatever nonsense she got into,” the woman said, turning on her heel. After she closed the door, Ryan turned back to the others.

“She’s meaner than I remember,” Min-Gi mumbled. “Maybe she doesn’t remember Ryan and I.”

“Why doesn’t she even care that her daughter went missing on this weird train that’s apparently been going around kidnapping people? Are those kids gonna be stuck on the train as long as Kez was?” Ryan asked. “Mom told me Kez went to live with a relative out of the state these past few  years… I never thought she’d be on this train of all places…”

“Well, she’s back now, at least?” Min-Gi said. “We’ll talk to her about the train, see how we can find it, and get the kids off the train in time for our audition.”

Min-Gi spun Ryan around a little, pulling him under his arm and giving him an encouraging kiss on the forehead. Ryan mustered up a crooked smile to his boyfriend, but it looked forced to Simon. Like the kind of smile Joanne gave him wherever his mother was around. He decided not to pique his curiosity and sat back in the car quietly as he popped his headphones in.

The house they arrived in front of was much smaller and less fancy that Kez’s home, but felt warmer in a sense. The group scrambled out of the car to make it to the front door. A dark-skinned girl with coily black hair tied with an orange scarf answered the door. Her eyes widened, scanning each person at the door rapidly. She visibly relaxed when her eyes landed on Min-Gi, but then stiffened up yet again when she set her sights on Ryan. She held her fists close to her chest.

“Hey, Portia,” Min-Gi says awkwardly. “I…didn’t realize you lived here.”

She gave him a crooked smile. “Well… yeah, I do live here!”

Min-Gi turned to Grace. “I think Kez’s mom gave us a wrong address to get us to leave her alone, we need to—”

“Wait, did you say Kez?” Portia piped up. “ What’s going on?”

“It’s uh… “ Min-Gi trailed off.

“That’s none of your business,” Simon cut in rather curtly. “Where’s Kez?”

Portia narrowed her eyes at him, her gaze growing more and more suspicious as she looked at  the group. She eventually shook her head in confusion.

“I’ll… see you at work, Min-Gi,” She said, closing the door.

“Wait!” Ryan moved forward, stopping the door with his foot before she could react. She stared at him, waiting for him to continue. “I know this is all really sudden and you’ve got so many questions but it’s really important we talk to Kez. Please.”

Portia continued to stare at Ryan for a while before she eventually opened up the door completely again.

“She’s in my room,” she said, leading the group inside. “How’d you guys even find out where I lived?”

“Kez’s mom gave us this address and I guess it led us here,” Min-Gi said. “I didn’t know you guys lived together. Are you roommates?”

“She’s my cousin,” Portia said plainly before stopping at her door. “Just give me a moment to let her know you guys are here. I don’t want her to feel ambushed. You’re just going to talk to her, not stage an intervention.” 

“Got it,” Ryan said with a nod.

Portia entered the room alone and closed the door behind her. 

“Cousins, hmm?” Grace mused. “I can definitely see it.”

Ryan turned on Simon as soon as Portia was out of earshot.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he hissed.

“We’re here to talk to Kez, not to catch up with friends,” Simon scoffed. “I didn’t see any of you trying anything else.”

“Well when we get inside, let me and Min do the talking. Before you scare Kez off too. Then we’ll get nowhere with this whole thing,” Ryan grumbled. As soon as he turned back around, Simon rolled his eyes at him.

Portia quietly came out of the room.

“Ok, she knows you guys are here. Please don’t overwhelm her,” Portia warned, leading them inside. She sat on the bed next to a slightly older woman who Simon assumed was Kez. The woman in question practically lit up once she spotted Ryan and Min-Gi and ran over to them.

“My favorite corpses!” She exclaimed, scooping them both up in her arms. 

“We missed you, Kez,” Min-Gi said, tenderness in his voice as he held her.

“You guys have gotten SO much bigger since the last time I saw you. I remember when I was able to haul you two under my arms like sacks of rice because you two decided to play dead when I was trying to get you to sleep.” Kez giggled as she ruffled Min-Gi’s hair. “Love the new cut by the way.”

“It’s good to see you again, Kez. Properly this time,” Ryan said.  Kez sat back on the bed behind Portia, a box of hair supplies in her lap.

“Soooo… Portia tells me you wanted to talk to me?” Kez leaned forward and finally looked at Simon and Grace standing there awkwardly. Portia sat on a stool between Kez’s legs as Kez continued to work on her hair. Ryan brushed past Simon briskly, causing the latter to roll his eyes.

“Look, do you know anything about.. I dunno…a magic train or whatever where people have numbers on their hands?” he asked, pointing to his own palm.

Kez blinked, her grin fading by the second. She coughed and looked away from the group, focusing on brushing Portia’s hair. The younger girl yelped after a particularly rough tug, to which Kez profusely apologized.

“Oh, you guys have been hearing those rumors too?” She said, twirling a strand of hair in her finger. I didn’t think my little blog would cause this much of a stir in town.”

“Blog?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah,” She laughed. “It’s uh… a kind of story I’ve been writing. Like an ARG of some sort I’ve been writing since I was gone!”

“I didn’t think you were this much of a writer, Kez,” Portia said curiously, looking up at her. “Or that you had a blog to begin with.”

“Well, I wanted it to be a surprise!”

“But then… how come they know about it? And why are there rumors?” Portia frowned. Kez looked away from Portia’s gaze.

“Kez,” Ryan interrupted before she entangled herself even further into a lie. “You acted kinda weird when you saw One-One last night. And he claims he’s seen you before. And he says he’s from that weird train with numbers!”

Ryan turned and brought the little robot ball out of Grace’s bag and held him out to Kez. Portia’s eyes widened at the new revelation, and her eyes rapidly darted between One-One and Kez.

In one moment, Kez sat perfectly still. In the next moment, two of the young adults practically lunged over to keep her from crushing the little robot with the boot she wielded in one hand. One-One split into two, skittering between her legs. The floor was littered with the now fallen hair supplies. One-One  came back together soon after.

“Easy, Kez!” Ryan held onto one arm of hers while Portia wrapped an arm around her waist as she struggled to break free.

“Yeah, what did One-One do to you?” Min-Gi asked.

Kez didn’t answer, still swiping her heel at One-One. The little ball split into two again and started to scramble in different directions. This only served to set Kez off even more, as she struggled even more to squish the two domes like roaches. Eventually, Portia and Ryan managed to get Kez back on the bed. The door swung open, and a gorgeous woman with pink voluminous hair stormed inside.

Her eyes swung across the room until they fixated on Kez on the bed, still held down by Ryan and Portia.

Before the woman could open her mouth, Portia jumped up.

“We’re fine, Judy!” She said suddenly. “ Kez probably thought one of my specimen displays escaped and freaked out. We’re… looking for it now!”

Judy rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I’m… not even going to entertain that obvious lie. Kez, what happened?”

“I…” Kez’s gaze remained frozen on the ground. Neither half of One-One was anywhere to be seen. “I thought I saw a wasp get loose? You know I’m super allergic to those things!”

“Kez.” Judy’s voice of concern was turning into that of irritation. “What are these people doing here? What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing, Judy,” Kez said, gripping the hem of her shorts and fiddling with it.

“I don’t know what’s going on, and I will ask you about this again later, Kez,” the woman warned. Then, she turned her attention to Simon and Grace. “As for the rest of you, I think you guys have upset her enough today. You should leave.”

She opened the door, beckoning for the group to exit. Simon was the first to leave, Grace following close behind. Min-Gi came right after.

Ryan finally trailed behind with a weak “goodbye” to Kez. It was only when they found themselves outside Portia’s home that Grace sighed. One-One popped out of Grace’s bag, back together.

“She seems really mad,” he said plainly.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Grace asked. “She looked like she wanted to kill you.”

“She probably would’ve if that lady hadn’t come in and kicked us all out.”

Grace groaned. “She’s our only lead right now. We’ve gotta talk to her again.”

“Judy doesn’t seem keen on us being here right now,” Min-Gi said, crossing his arms. “Plus we should maybe wait until Kez calms down a bit. Seeing One-One triggered something in her. We should approach this carefully.”

“Ryan and I are gonna see her again in a few hours. Maybe she’ll be more willing to talk if there’s less people in the room,” Grace asserted.

“And when there’s no One-One in the room,” Ryan added with a nod. “Simon and Min-Gi can question One-One back home."

“I don’t think I can take One-One home again,” Simon said. “Joanne’s still pissed about the party, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be her little lapdog again to get him back.

“Well I don’t trust leaving him alone at my place,” Grace said. “If Maurice sees him, we’re screwed completely.”

Everyone turned to Min-Gi.

“What if my parents see him?” Min-Gi asked.

“They’ll probably think he’s some toy. Maybe a gift I got you for your birthday,” Ryan said. “C’mon, Min. It won’t be permanent. Remember, we’ll find the train, get One-One back to his train, get the kids OFF the train, and we can move past all this. Right in time for our audition.”

Ryan found himself in Min-Gi’s arms once more, the latter resting his head on top of his boyfriend’s. Min-Gi sighed and gave a small smile.

“Ok, fine.”

Grace pulled Simon aside, dropping her bag in Min-Gi’s arms.

“Ok, while we try to get Kez to talk, you and Min-Gi have gotta grill One-One for answers. I don’t know if he’s pretending not to know what’s going on or not, but you guys should figure this out.”

“Well, he has been presumably buried under dirt and leaves for months. Maybe we’ve gotta jog his memory somehow,” Simon suggested, looking through his phone to shoot his mom a quick text message about being with friends. “What do you think, Grace?”

No response. Simon looked up from his phone. Grace had a blank expression on her face, almost completely frozen. He waved his hand in front of her face.

“...Grace? Grace!” Ryan noticed the commotion between the two and walked over.

“Ah, geez,” he murmured. He looked at her and held her hands gently. “Back up, a bit, Simon.”

“What’s going on?” Simon asks, leaning in. “What are you gonna do?”

“Just move,” Ryan insisted with a scowl. “She needs space, not you hovering over us.”

"But-"

"-I'm not asking, Simon. I'm telling you one more time."

“Oh whatever,” Simon scoffed. “Just don’t hurt her.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and turned back to Grace with a softer expression. He squeezed her hands.

“What are you feeling right now? Can you feel my hands? Can you hear my voice? ” he asked. It took a while and a bit of coaxing, but Grace eventually blinked and slowly began to move again. She groaned and covered her face.

“Oh my god… did I…?”

“It’s fine, Gracie,” Ryan said, hugging her tight. “I’m just glad you’re ok. How often has this been happening?”

Simon felt his chest tighten a bit after hearing that.

“How long has what  been happening, Grace?” Simon asked, stepping forward. Ryan almost immediately took a step in front of Grace defensively.

“It’s nothing,” Grace insisted. It’s been a wild couple of days for us, I think I just need more sleep. You guys worry too much.”

She grinned, subtly leaning on Ryan’s shoulder for support as she ran a hand through her locs.

“Let’s get you some place to sit while we figure out what to do about Kez,” Ryan said. He linked his arm with Grace’s and walked off with her.

“You guys got this. I’ll have the chauffeur drop you off. Ryan and I will come back later. Bye!” Grace yelled over her shoulder. Min-Gi came over to Simon’s side with Grace’s bag as they entered the car.

The awkward silence between the two permeated the car. Min-Gi held the bag to his chest close, One-One slightly shifting around inside while Min-Gi tried to soothe him.  He shivered.

Once they arrived at Min-Gi’s house, Min-Gi entered first. He came back, beckoning Simon to join him.

“My parents are still at work. Take your shoes off before you come in here,” he said.

“It was one time!” Simon interjected.

“And that was enough for my dad to never let me hear the end of it about ‘my white American friend’. Which is you by the way. Don’t worry, he only means it in jest,” Min-Gi chuckled before leading Simon to his room. He turned the bag over and the notebook and One-One fell out onto the bed.

“Does he still call me that?” Simon asked.

“Well, we’re here,” Min-Gi said without answering the question. He sat in a chair near his computer.

“Grace asked us to grill One-One about the train so…” Simon turned around, grabbed a table lamp from Min-Gi’s desk, aiming it at the little robot ball. “What exactly were you doing with Kez before you ended up in the woods?”

“Simon, is this really necessary?” Min-Gi asked. Simon ignored the question.

“Well… Oh right! We saw this old lady on our way out. I think she wanted to come with us!” One-One said. “She seemed really insistent on it, but there was this really bright light here and we couldn’t see anything for a while. By the time the light was gone we were off the train.”

“Ok… and what else?” Simon prompted, waving his free hand.

“Not gonna lie, this world’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. I’ve been kicked in the head, kidnapped, nearly trampled, kidnapped again, nearly killed, and now I’m apparently getting interrogated by some guy I barely know and the asshole who kicked me in the head,” One-One grumbled.

Simon scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“How was I supposed to know you were sentient? You looked like you were gonna attack Grace! We didn’t know what you were. And honestly up to now, we still don’t know what you are, and if you’re even telling the truth about being from the train.”

“Was Kez with you?” Min-Gi cut in.

“If you mean that lady that nearly killed us, then yes.”

“What happened?” Min-Gi asked, sitting on the bed next to One-One. “How’d you get off the train?”

“I just told you, it was too bright to see anything.”

“But what happened before that?” Simon pressed. The little orb made a motion with one of his legs mimicking a person scratching their chin to ponder. They sat in silence for quite a while until Simon got fed up. He straightened up and placed the lamp back on the table rather forcefully. He groaned, covering most of his face with his hand.

“Just give him a minute,” Min-Gi insisted. “And careful with my stuff, my grandmother gave me that for my birthday!”

“This is pointless,” Simon said. “We’re not gonna get anything out of him. Let’s just hope Ryan and Grace have better luck than we do.”

“Well, I am a bit hungry anyways,” Min-Gi said, standing up to stretch. “Mom prepared some lunch for me with the leftover shrimp Ryan got at the party if you want some.”

“...Fine.”

Simon followed Min-Gi to the kitchen and sat at the table. Min-Gi brought out two plates and placed their food on the table before sitting down to eat.

They ate in the same silence that hung in the air when they sat in the car, Min-Gi’s occasional coughing punctuating it. Simon decided to check his phone for any new messages and nearly choked when he saw the most recent one from his mom. Min-Gi got up to check on him.

“What’s wrong? Did something not heat up properly?” Min-Gi asked. Simon, still trying to recover, simply placed his phone on the table for Min-Gi to read the message.

“Right there…” he wheezed. “My mom and Joanne… They have a wedding date finalized.”

Min-Gi stood there with an eyebrow raised.

“Oh… no?” Min-Gi looked from side to side. Simon grew irritated.

“Joanne is marrying my mom!” Simon said, banging his fist onto the table.

“And… that’s a bad thing?” Min-Gi asked.

“You don’t get it… You saw what she was like at the party!”

“She seemed pretty stressed and on edge about running her goddaughter’s birthday,” Min-Gi said with a shrug. “I know it might be a huge adjustment, but I don’t think her and your mom getting married is necessarily a bad thing.”

“It is a bad thing. For me! She’s just like those evil stepmothers you see in cartoons. She’s gonna ruin my life even more until I move out.”

It made sense Min-Gi didn’t understand why he was so bothered about the upcoming wedding. Joanne came into his life while Min-Gi and Ryan continued to hide away from the world and they’d stopped talking with Grace and himself.

Min-Gi chuckled, infuriating Simon further.

“Listen, Simon, I understand it’s really difficult when stuff gets thrown on you before you can properly react. Trust me, I’m dating Ryan. But over time I’ve more or less learned to roll with the punches. It’s not always easy with certain things when you’re left in the dark but…”

Min-Gi trailed off, a wistful look in his eyes.

“...but?” Simon continued. Min-Gi blinked and sat up straight.

“But you’ve gotta keep pushing, or you’ll let yourself get trampled.” Min-Gi said, continuing to eat. “You gonna finish your food? It’s getting cold. I can heat it up again if you want.”

Simon sighed and pushed the plate towards Min-Gi, continuing to stare at the message on his phone.