by Lan Dang
Chapter 3: Burglary
When Eric finally arrived home, he saw that it was empty. His mom had already left. There was a note on the refrigerator. It read:
Eric,
I have to take an extra shift at the hospital today. They just called me this morning about it. I don’t know how long I will be gone but if you are hungry, there is some money in the drawer to order take-out. Sorry I didn’t have time to cook dinner yet.
Love,
Mom
Eric read the note and shrugged his shoulders. He was used to his mom being away most of the time, even the weekends. She was rarely at his games and there were always notes on the refrigerator and money in the drawer as she was too busy to cook or clean. Eric was grateful for this growing sense of independence and trust from his mom but there were times when he wished she would just stay home and put him in front of her job.
Since Dad left, Mom took it upon herself to pay the bills and to rely on these extra shifts to make ends meet. When Dad was still here, she usually only worked part-time and she always devoted herself to him. Now, it seems as if there was this growing distance separating the two apart and Eric felt he was losing his mom. After his dad’s departure, the only person he still cared about and loved was his mom and he couldn’t afford to lose her too. He even told himself that he would give up playing soccer again for the rest of his life if it meant that his dad would return and everything could be normal again. They could become the loving family they were before. But that just couldn’t happen now.
Eric sighed. He had learned to accept his dad’s sudden departure. The feeling of rage and bitterness he harbored against his dad had dissipated and all that was left was sadness and disappointment. He had forgiven his dad but he just thought he deserved an explanation as to why his dad had left in that manner. He never understood grown-ups and how they solved their problems. If he was someone’s father, he would never leave his son or his wife and run away from whatever problems he had. It was so irresponsible for his father to do that, to just leave his family like that. His mom was a strong woman and though she pretended to smile in front of him, he could tell she was hurting inside just as much as he was, maybe even more. He often heard her sobbing in her closed bedroom at night and notice her eyes well up with tears at the sight of anything that belonged to Dad.
Eric shook his head to clear these dismal thoughts away. All he could think of right now was to clean his bedroom. Maybe straightening and organizing his room would help him control his emotions. Eric was normally not emotional by nature unless he was provoked. Coach Wilkins even nicknamed him “a human rock” because he showed very little emotion during the game. This was because as team captain, he felt he had the responsibility to keep the rest of his team members in check and that meant he had to be calm and sensible. He couldn’t let his emotions get in the way and so it was with absolute determination that Eric learned to stifle his emotions and keep them under lock and key. His own mother would often look at him with surprise at how calm he was given his age and how he coped with their situation and even occasionally, she would count on him to be the family’s decision maker.
Eric walked up the stairs and opened the door to his bedroom. It was just as he left it: a messy pigsty. He picked up his books and video games off the floor and threw away all the wrappers. He often ate snacks in his bedroom, especially when he was vigorously studying and though he attempted to toss the wrappers in the wastebasket, some of it missed and landed carelessly on the floor instead. When the floor looked relatively clean, he went downstairs to the closet to retrieve the vacuum. After vacuuming the floor, the room looked much cleaner. He also made his bed and started to dust the shelves and his desk.
It was then that he noticed the fingerprints on the table where the dust had been displaced. He peered closer and examined the fingerprints carefully. They were definitely not his fingerprints or those made by his mother either. These fingerprints belonged to the fingers of a large grown-up. Eric imagined they would belong to a man but he did know some women who had large fingers so he couldn’t dismiss that possibility. The size of the fingerprints themselves seemed to pinpoint that this was a rather large and built person.
Eric opened the drawers and checked everything. He was curious as to why someone would want to search his room and what were they looking for. Nothing seemed to be missing but it did look like someone had removed his belongings to look for something and realizing it wasn’t there, they had hastily returned everything back in a disorganized fashion. Things were out of place, some of the items were misplaced into different drawers and moved from the top of the pile to the bottom of the pile. It was all very strange. He started to ponder about the burglary. What would a burglar want with his belongings? They were more likely to take valuable items like the television, stereo, computer or jewelry. Eric thought about his mom’s jewelry and instantly went into his mom’s room to check her drawers. Nope, her jewelry was still there. Eric felt a sense of relief but then another thought came to him.
He questioned himself aloud. “That’s strange. What was this burglar looking for? It seems like maybe this isn’t an ordinary burglar. And obviously if the burglar hasn’t found what they were looking for yet…that means they would come back again.”
Eric pondered over this and paced back and forth across his room. He knew his mom was busy as it was and she didn’t need to worry about their safety on top of everything she already had. Besides, the burglar had not stolen anything as far as he could tell and if he informed the police about it, they would wonder why it took him so long to report it. But then again, he didn’t know when the burglary took place, having only discovered the fingerprints today…but maybe it was the same day that the door was left open. Eric shook his head to dismiss the thought of calling the police. He didn’t want his mom to know about it and worry about their safety, although he didn’t like to hide any secrets from her, but this was one secret he had to keep to himself. He had to know why the burglar would come to his room and look through his belongings when they were obviously of no particular value, certainly not monetary value anyways.
It was just too bizarre. Eric could not possibly imagine what he had in his possession that was even worth stealing in the first place. Imagine the risk of being caught breaking and entering into someone’s house…that must be a severe crime, but apparently, a risk the burglar was willing to take to find something. But what could that something be? Eric was perplexed and found himself asking more questions than finding answers. He decided to finish cleaning up his room before his mom came home.
He opened his closet and sorted his clothes into neat piles and placed his dress pants and shirts on hangers to prevent any wrinkles. Eric was not the type to iron his clothes so he preferred to keep them as unwrinkled as much as possible. He continued to sort his shoes and roll his socks into its corresponding pair. He found some single socks not matching any of his other pairs of socks and threw those into the wastebasket.
The rest of the closet appeared to be organized and he smiled proudly to himself. “This should pass Mom’s inspection and that’s all I need.”
He decided to dispose of the trash in his wastebasket and tied up the bag and went downstairs. He discovered that his mom had not disposed of the trash from this morning. There was still the empty bottle of syrup and the box of pancake mix and numerous other spoiled foods that his mom decided to toss away when she was cleaning out the refrigerator. He collected that bag as well and exited the house and headed towards the trash can. It was freezing cold outside and quite dark, as the moon was not visible tonight. His next door neighbor had their front porch lights on but Eric preferred to have their porch dark to conserve electricity as much as possible. He deemed it wasteful to turn the lights on when no one was outside.
Eric stood outside for awhile, breathing in the fresh cold air and watching the stars above. He remembered during the summe
rtime, when it was too hot to sleep inside, how he and his dad would stay outside watching the stars. His dad would pinpoint the many different constellations and even planets, if the sky was clear enough. Eric remembered one time when he asked his dad about the possibility of life on other planets and his dad had only laughed. He never answered his question and it made Eric believe that there was life out there. He didn’t like the feeling of being alone, that the planet Earth was the only planet that had life. Surely, as large as this universe was, there had to be other life forms out there.
He remembered how his dad would tell him stories just to make him feel sleepy and even carry him back into his bed when he felt too tired to walk back to his room. Eric felt a pang of loneliness as he realized how much he missed his dad. It would take a long time before he could become used to his departure. Eric stood in the yard, staring up at the sky and admiring how beautiful the stars looked, especially when it was as dark as tonight. A cool breeze broke his thoughts and he shivered. He had to get back inside the house before he got sick. It was chilly outside.
He sighed and decided to head back to the house. He didn’t know how long he had stood outside but it must have been awhile. That was when a sound startled him and he looked in the direction from where the noise originated. A pair of shining light green eyes looked back at him and it purred.
Eric let out a deep breath and said, “Darn cat. It must be a neighbor’s cat.” He peered closer. “I never saw this cat before….it must be a new one.”
He stared at it for awhile, admiring its beauty, as the fur was a golden, soft color. The eyes looked familiar to him but he didn’t know where he had seen such beautiful eyes before. He shrugged and dismissed the thought as he walked back. He noticed that the door was left wide open and as he closed the door, he heard voices emanating from his bedroom. Eric decided to quietly climb up the stairs to hear what the voices were saying. There seemed to be two men talking to each other, arguing about something.
“We looked everywhere before. We checked his drawers and the closet and we still can’t find it. Where could he have hid it?”
“Don’t ask me, ask the kid. If we can’t find it, then we have to take it by force. We have to kidnap him and make him tell us where it is.”
“But our orders were not to hurt him and not to alarm him. If we kidnap him and make him tell us where he’s keeping it, then he would know someone is after him.”
“Well, how else can we get it from him? It’s not like he’s going to waltz in here and hand it over to us without a fight. Screw the kid, I say we kidnap him.”
“But he’s just a kid. Besides, I heard he’s quite powerful. Don’t underestimate him. He just doesn’t know how to use his powers yet. He can be dangerous.”
“Are you afraid of a little boy?”
There was a slight pause. “I’m afraid of what he is capable of. You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
As Eric leaned closer to the wall facing his bedroom, his heart beating loudly in his chest, he realized that one of the voices sounded familiar. It sounded like the clerk at the video game store. The other voice was muffled and he had a hard time making out the words. Eric listened quietly, too scared to move any closer or to breathe too loudly either. He was afraid the two men would catch him and force him to give them whatever it was they wanted. His forehead was sweating bullets and a part of him wanted to run out the door and yell for the neighbors to call the cops but another part of him was intrigued and wanted to stay to listen to them talk about his powers. As he stood in a crouched position on the staircase, pondering about what to do next, the front door below opened. Eric saw Janet and her dad downstairs in the living room.
Eric thought to himself. “Oh great. What if they get captured too? Then, we’ll all be in trouble.”
He decided to go downstairs to warn them about the two men upstairs but it was too late. Janet’s dad had seen him but continued to whiz past him as he leapt upstairs leaving Janet to check on Eric.
She looked anxiously at him and asked with great concern and fear in her voice.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
Instead of responding, Eric stared at her pair of light green eyes. His mind instantly went to the cat he saw earlier while he was taking out the trash. No wonder those eyes looked so familiar, it looked exactly like Janet’s eyes. Eric gaped at her in shock, unable to utter any words.
Meanwhile, Janet’s dad had knocked open Eric’s bedroom door and the two men had already vanished.
Both Janet and Eric heard him comment, “Too late. They’re already gone.”
Janet’s dad went back downstairs and informed them that nothing had been taken from the room but the two men had escaped. Eric seemed to be in shock, for although he opened his mouth several times, no words would come out. Janet looked at him with worry, the wrinkles on her forehead crinkling up and her mouth tightening at the corners. Janet’s dad also stared at Eric.
“Are you okay, Eric? They’re gone now. I’m afraid I came too late to stop them. But you’re safe now. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”
Eric just looked at him blankly and nodded his head in comprehension.
Janet’s dad glanced around and said, “I guess your mom’s not here. She’s probably still at work. It’s not safe for you to be alone in this house, not with the possibility that those two men might come back since they obviously didn’t find what they were looking for.”
He paused and asked, “Do you know when your mom would be back?”
Eric just stared at him and shook his head.
Janet’s dad immediately took charge and told his daughter to take Eric upstairs to get some rest while he patrolled downstairs. Janet obeyed and led Eric back to his room and told him to get some sleep.
She whispered, “I’ll be right next door in your mom’s room if you need anything. Get some rest, you look tired. Good night.” She squeezed Eric’s shoulders a bit and closed the door behind her.
Eric went to sit on his bed to think things over. How could Janet be the cat? It wasn’t even physically possible but it must have been her. How else would her dad know to come rushing over to help him? She must have told her dad. Nothing made sense to him but he could confirm that the cat he saw was no ordinary cat and Janet was no ordinary girl. He wondered what she was doing outside his house tonight. Maybe to protect him but why? He had so many questions to ask Janet but he felt tired and he wasn’t sure Janet would answer his questions.
One question in particular, above all the numerous questions, lingered in his head and he asked himself over and over again. “Who was Janet after all?” She apparently wasn’t who he thought she was and she was hiding so many secrets that Eric felt he had only touched the tip of the iceberg.
Eric felt his head spinning and he laid on his bed. He was so exhausted that he fell asleep almost instantly. It was the same vivid dream, the same masked prisoner who was hidden behind a dark cloak. He was still tied, with heavy chains that wrapped around his entire body, to the same wooden chair. Except this time, he was much weaker. His large green eyes were not as alert as before, he seemed to be on the verge of passing out. His breathing was slow and deep and even the fireflies that surrounded him, were less numerous than before. The only thing that seemed to be louder and more frequent was the soothing sound of water trickling by. There was also a pitter patter sound like water droplets hitting something. But where was the water coming from…maybe a leak in the ceiling? Eric was curious and he peered around but it was still very dark, even with the dim lights emitted by the fireflies.
A strange thought came to Eric and he wondered if maybe the prisoner could sense his presence, especially if this was no ordinary dream. It would signify that this was a desperate call for help sent by this strange prisoner. Eric could only see a faint outline of the prisoner, very little details coul
d be seen of his face, which was covered by the cloak. There was no remarkable feature which could be used to recognize him. Eric surmised that his vision may be blurry because the prisoner was growing weaker if it was indeed real. He had heard of psychics being able to locate people who were captured and held for ransom. Maybe he could be a hero and get his name on a news article. He smiled in spite of himself.
He decided to approach the prisoner. Regardless of whether this was a vision or dream, he knew he couldn’t get hurt. He walked closer but cautiously to the prisoner. He wasn’t sure if this prisoner was indeed innocent for he could be locked for safety reasons.
He asked in a loud voice.
“Who are you? How can I help you?”
Eric wasn’t sure if the prisoner had heard him but there was a distinct movement. The prisoner looked from side to side to see where this mysterious voice was coming from. It was so dark that had Eric been standing right next to him, the prisoner still might not know that he was there. But another thought came to him. What if the prisoner couldn’t see him but could only hear him?
He asked, “Can you see me?”
The prisoner sadly shook his head back and forth. Eric was ecstatic. This had confirmed his suspicion.
He continued, “Can you hear me?”
This time, he received a definite nod from the tightly bound prisoner.
Eric thought happily to himself. “Now, we’re getting somewhere.”
He asked, “So who are you? Why are you captured?”
The prisoner blinked his eyes. He appeared too weak to utter any sounds and when he attempted to open his mouth, no words would come out. Eric felt sorry for him. He empathized with the prisoner’s condition because the very same thing had happened to him just before when…he gulped remembering the haunting pair of light green eyes which was now both familiar and alien to him. He observed the prisoner closely. The prisoner had moved his head upward and his eyes were focused on the ceiling as if gesturing to Eric to do the same. Eric looked up and then, he noticed the fireflies. They were oddly moving around in some sort of orderly pattern.
He inspected them closer and it took awhile before Eric realized the fireflies were forming words. He read each letter out loud for the prisoner to confirm. The prisoner nodded his head after Eric read the letters one by one. “I, A, M, A, N, E, L, D, E, R.” The fireflies had stopped after the letter “R.”
Eric sounded the words out again. It didn’t make sense to him. What did those letters mean? I, A, M, A, N, E, L, D, E, R. Eric decided to put spaces between what he thought were words. Okay, so ELDER seemed like its own word but what was IAMAN? Was that his first name? It didn’t sound right to him so he continued with the spaces. Plus when he said IAMAN out loud to the prisoner, the prisoner kept shaking his head back and forth instead of nodding. The prisoner had nodded in response to ELDER so he figured he was on the right path.
He sounded it out more times to himself until he finally figured out it was a complete sentence and as he said out loud, “I am an Elder,” the prisoner looked up and seemed to give a weak smile as he nodded his head in confirmation.
Eric smiled back even though he knew the prisoner couldn’t see him, only just sense his presence. But what on earth did that mean? Eric didn’t think that was his name. It sounded more like his title but he had never heard of that title before. But then again up to last night, he didn’t think people could transform themselves into animals either. Eric shuddered at the image that thought conjured.
Eric muttered to himself rather sarcastically.
“I guess anything’s possible now. If he says he is an Elder, he really must be an Elder, either that or a schizophrenic. I mean he could be locked up in some mental institution for claiming to be this Elder or maybe this dream isn’t even real in the first place.”
Eric shook his head in absolute bewilderment but he was still curious and he didn’t want to give up. He decided to continue with the interrogation.
He asked, “What’s an Elder?”
The prisoner appeared to be growing visibly weaker by the minute. Eric knew he was exerting his strength to answer these questions, but he had to know who he was in order to help him. He must be somebody important to be captured and his identity may hold the key to his rescue. The fireflies started to form letters again: “T, R, I, A, D, O, F, E, L, D, E, R, S.” Eric said the letters out loud again but it was much easier this time.
He said out loud, “Triad of Elders?”
The prisoner nodded his head weakly.
It still didn’t reveal who he was but something told Eric that this prisoner was no ordinary prisoner. Why would someone go through such lengths to put all these chains around his entire body and lock him up in an isolated cell?
Eric continued with his questions.
“Where are you? I think I can get people to help you but I need to know where you are being held captive. Do you know where you are?”
The prisoner looked at him and though Eric couldn’t clearly see his facial expressions, his large green eyes looked sadly back and he shook his head in disappointment.
Eric bit his lips and he said to himself.
“I guess even he doesn’t know where they’re keeping him. It must be a really secretive place, somewhere that people don’t know about, an uncommon place. But this place must be heavily guarded or secured to keep such an important prisoner. But where?”
He paced back and forth trying to brainstorm various places that would make ideal prisons. But Eric felt himself drifting off and losing control of this dream. The sight of the prisoner became dim and blurry until it soon disappeared.