//------------------------------// // Chapter 33: Furloughed // Story: Child of Mine // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Kyle was silent and still as Edgar left, still feeling the invisible weight of his presence remaining in the room with them. She kept still, fearing that any second might bring him back to hear everything they might say. He still might be listening. There are probably cameras everywhere. But even if he did plan on watching them eventually, there had to be something they could do to talk privately. Kyle did remember a few symbols for sound in her instructions. But that would have to wait until she got her book back, or the laptop. Oh god is Grandpa going to go through our stuff? Why would he care what we brought? She started hyperventilating, rapidly exploring a nightmare in her head where Edgar found everything she’d learned, destroyed her magical notes, then tracked down Monday and shot them for good measure. Fay squeaked from over her shoulder, nudging her nervously. A polite reminder that she wasn’t asleep after all? You were just waiting for Grandpa to leave, weren’t you? Kara was apparently thinking along the same lines, because she settled onto her haunches directly beside Kyle, lowering her voice to a whisper. Maybe that meant they wouldn’t be overheard, or maybe it would just make for a little more work with a parabolic microphone.  “What do you think, bro? Is all this here because he cares about us, or is he just hoping we’ll keep quiet and not fight while he gets… is there anything to gain by helping us?” Kyle nodded weakly in response, lifting Fay off her shoulders and onto the fake grass between them. Now that Edgar was gone, she roused quickly, spinning to take in her new environment. The low separating walls between each section were tall enough that she probably couldn’t see much between them. And even if she did, what did privacy even mean to a baby? “This is weird. You only watch someone because you’re afraid of what they’ll do. But I guess if he thought we were going to be barely above animals it might make sense. Dangerous aliens living down here might hurt themselves, or might fight to escape.” Kara groaned, resting her head briefly on Kyle’s shoulder. It was the closest thing to a hug they could easily manage anymore. “Guess we don’t have much of a choice, do we? We were going to end up somewhere like this sooner or later. Either one of our neighbors called CPS because we went missing, or…” “Grandpa has always cared about the family.” Some of that was genuine belief—some was more because she thought they were being listened to. Let him overhear this. “Mom and Dad didn’t want to do what he asked. But if living down here is what it takes to find a cure, I’ll take it.” Kara rose suddenly, following Fay as she wandered towards their accommodations. The baby stopped every dozen steps or so to look up, where a vaulted ceiling that might’ve once held rocket-launching apparatus was blocked off by a sturdy metal net. The lights were all mounted in front of it, making it impossible to see unless you really focused. I’m going to have to stop her from flying into that, aren’t I? “If we’re stuck here, then we might as well make the best of it,” Kara said. “I’m gonna grab a soda while we wait for our stuff to get down here. Want one?” “Sure, yeah. You know what I want.” She could watch Kara experimenting in the kitchen while she wandered over to the movie room with Fay, prodding at the controls. Nothing too exciting, but at least there was a Netflix subscription down here. That means there’s internet too. We can talk to Monday. She could even get another download of the guide to magic from her email client, assuming she could find a way to access it without being seen.  The foal seemed more interested in climbing over the seats and trying to balance on the low wall between them. “I wonder if you’re old enough to even care about movies. Maybe I could buy a little more time to practice while you’re watching stuff.” Fay answered with her usual babbling giggles, apparently oblivious to any problems with their new situation. But how long until you feel trapped down here, and want to go outside? It was hard to say how much of her desire to get out came from her being a horse, and how much was just a baby sick of being in the same few small rooms. Maybe these new quarters were big enough to stop her from getting bored. Despite their fears, Mom and Dad did call several hours later, using the “gaming” setup Edgar had put in their cell’s version of a home office. They appeared inside a little beige room, like something Kyle would’ve expected from a modest hotel. Without any windows, but… at least there weren’t any security guards near them, or paper hospital gowns. “We’ll visit as soon as we can,” Dad promised, after a few minutes of pretty standard exchanges of sympathy. “Grandpa didn’t say anything about a quarantine. But we’re not far away—just down the hill.” “How is it?” Mom asked, leaning in to look at her screen. “It seems, uh… I must not be seeing this right. Are you in a plastic box?” “Basically,” Kara answered, rapping one of her hooves against the plastic dividers. They were as sturdy as the fence keeping them inside. Basically impenetrable. “It’s a very comfortable box. Plenty to keep us busy. But you can see through the whole thing.” “Grandpa says he’ll swap the walls out soon,” Kyle added, though she didn’t sound particularly confident. Now that they were down here, she couldn’t be sure whether Edgar would do anything they wanted. She would have to wait until she saw whatever potential cures he brought to make a judgement. “I’ll talk to him,” Dad promised. “You two just stay strong in the meantime. Your grandfather isn’t always the easiest person to like, but he has our family’s interest at heart. He always has.” The call ended there, a little too abruptly to feel natural. Kara glanced up from the oversized chair, staring up at the ceiling of nets and lights. “Do you wish that Mom and Dad would’ve asked us before they decided to call Grandpa, bro?” Kyle nodded weakly. “I dunno if there’s anything else we could’ve done. They were right, someone was going to miss us eventually. I dunno, maybe if we’d just waited, we would’ve been found by the right people? Maybe we’d be on talk shows and the whole country would be talking about us. All the… new developments for science.” But you know that wouldn’t happen. Magic exists, and people already know about it. If they wanted to share it with the rest of the world, they would have. They would’ve stopped you. Kara rolled out of the chair, shaking out her mane. “Maybe Grandpa will use some of the money he used to buy all this silly stuff and get someone to make us some clothes? You think we could ask for that?” Kyle shrugged. Not being around other people had a way of pushing that to the background. Maybe it was the pressure of fur against her skin, making it feel almost like she was dressed? “You think you’d want to fight to get it on every day without any hands?” Kara stuck her tongue out. “Yeah yeah bro, you just keep bragging. See if you’re the one who feels a little silly when magic powers get you under the microscope for days at a time.” Their suitcases arrived not long after, carried by a few large men wearing masks. They arrived at the plastic barricade without introduction, opened it with a keycard, and deposited their belongings on the grass. “Wait, I wanna talk to you!” Kyle darted towards them from the living room, but she was much too slow. By the time she reached the exit, they’d already vanished up the ramp, leaving a pile of suitcases abandoned in the fake grass. Kyle levitated them both into the living room. As she left the outdoor section, the lights all faded, almost creating an illusion of a proper wall there.  Or more likely, they just want an uninterrupted view for anyone watching. The bedroom had switches to do something similar, though they had to press them rather than rely on any motion system.  But if it was dark enough for Fay to sleep, that would be good enough. “How much do you think they took?” Kara asked, taking a zipper with her mouth and opening her bag. Then she froze, confused.  Kara had packed an absurd assortment of things—textbooks and school supplies, along with at least one change of human clothes she couldn’t wear. Blankets and a few stuffed toys. But it was all folded. “Check yours.” Kyle did, though she didn’t touch the zipper with her mouth. “Did they take anything?” “No,” Kara said, voice disbelieving. “It’s all how I left it.” Kyle flipped her own bag open. She hadn’t packed it all in neatly, and the contents had obviously moved in shipping. The laptop bag was the only thing that really mattered though, and she levitated that out carefully. She checked the folio pocket first, and the thick printout was still there. She rifled through it, then put it back. She checked the computer next, and it booted to her usual password screen without any issues. Kara lowered her voice, speaking right up against Kyle’s ear. Close enough that her hot breath was up against her skin. Except now that she thought about it, Kara wasn’t warm. Her touch was gentle and alive, but no warmer than anything else in the room. “You really think Grandpa didn’t mess with our stuff?” Kyle considered her answer carefully. All around them were dark rooms, with spotlights shining on them in the gloom. They probably had Truman Show cameras and microphones monitoring everything they did. “Maybe he was testing it for contamination?” she suggested. Kara wrinkled her nose in frustration, and Kyle knew why. It didn’t make sense to check something for magical contamination that would just go right back into the contaminated area minutes later. Maybe he just didn’t get around to it? Despite appearances, maybe Edgar did have their best interests at heart. He could’ve thrown them into a dark stable and never looked back, but instead he’d obviously spent an enormous fortune building somewhere that was only useful for them. Kara reached down, taking the pamphlet in her mouth and thrusting it towards Kyle. “Same as back home, bro. This is your full-time job now. I’ll help with the baby so you can focus on fixing us.” I’m still going to spend time with Fay. Having some help was nice, but she wasn’t comfortable just handing her off to someone else to deal with. She lay awake in bed for hours that night, with her laptop on a proper desk and her guide to match clutched in her hooves like a toy.  Edgar’s “Lodge” was strange and uncomfortable, to be sure. But he was family. Maybe this was just the best way he knew to change them back.