Chapter b Reflex

"Wait!" She held out her hand as if she were going to fly across the room and catch him. "Help me! He's a full grown person-"

"Have you tried to lift him, yet?"

A hissing heat blistered through the back of Iggy's throat. "No… Don't. Touch. Me."

"He's only about one hundred and eighty pounds," Amare nodded. "You can lift him with one arm if you want to. So, pick him up and take him downstairs. Or else, he'll be here until Baine or Nansen finally find him, or until he dies." He chuckled under his breath and strode out of the room. "My bet is that he'll die first."

Emi huffed. "Fine then." She bent down. "Even though I'm a lady, and I shouldn't be forced to do the dirty work while in the home…" She lifted him upwards and flipped him over her shoulder. Over the background noise of Iggy's cursing, she amused herself, "ha! It only feels like you're about ten or twenty pounds. This is unnervingly easy."

She carried him into the empty hallway where they crossed paths with Amare once again, but this time he was in front of Nansen's bedroom door. He tapped his hilly knuckles fast against the door until the doorknob twisted and it creaked open.

A quick ruffle of clothing and a minute later, Nansen glared at them through the opening with a dazed look in his eyes. Creases engraved a suspiciously impatient expression on his face, until he saw Iggy dangling over Emi's shoulder. That's when a laugh burst out of him. It traveled the short distance down the hall, echoed in the lobby, and returned milliseconds later with even more mock. He whipped his door ajar. "You found him!" he hollered, holding his hands up. He rounded Emi and bent down close to the floor where he peered up into Iggy's grimacing dark face. "Ha!" he laughed, again and again. "I knew that you'd end up learning this lesson the hard way! I knew it! I warned you! Oh, I warned you!"

"I hate you…" Iggy hissed. "You're. Dead."

"I'll have Emi hold you back!" Nansen stood up and then all Iggy could see was the top of his feet. "He was missing for just a little bit too long. So, who has the details for me?"

Emi's unfatigued body turned to face him and she said smugly, "I found him."

Nansen lifted his eyebrows. "Well, where? In an unknown closet? Under the stairs? In the garden?"

"He was on his bed the whole time," she giggled, revealing her truly innocent age.

"He wasn't on his bed." Nansen's eyes narrowed. "I checked there no longer than an hour ago. Tell me-" he folded his arms and stood square toward her "-where'd you really find him?"

"I find your disbelief in me amusing rather than offensive. I did find him there. Perhaps, he was just a bit too difficult for you to see. A shadow amongst the night?" Again, her wisdom returned in riddles and a tone similar to a clever fox's. What a paradoxical young lady she was.

"Don't give me that," he objected. "It's impossible."

Her muscles tensed. "No, it's not impossible," she continued. "My father was difficult to see. He blended in with white backgrounds and bright lights without even trying. We lost him all the time. Maybe Iggy has the same thing, but with dark things? When I found him, he was lying on his bed with the black blanket. Even I walked past him once without knowing he was there."

Still, Nansen wasn't sold, and his hard expression showed it. Frankly, he didn't even want to consider such possibilities. "I don't agree with you. I think you're playing games and using him as a tool. It isn't good to treat people as entertainment, now is it? Especially when their health is at stake. If you've known where he's been this whole time without saying a word, then you will face punishment."

Lingering at a distance, Amare couldn't help but smile. He saw the beauty and bravery in her. An irresistible button pusher. Already, the rules were being bent because no one would've disrespected either Baine or Nansen, for their reputation of being a rash pair in justice wasn't a rumor, but there she was putting up her own argument. He couldn't help but wonder how much they were going to let her get away with. The only immediate Fenderson female. He found himself desperate to see how she would blend into the Fenderson family and how they'd blend into her. All ill will aside.

Emi's eyes became smaller as she accepted the challenge. "Say whatever you want, but nothing changes the fact that only an idiot wouldn't look in the same place they had left someone who is lost."

Nansen's teeth flashed. "I told you, I looked for him there. People don't just become invisible-"

"I'm not going to argue with stupidity. That's where I found him, and he will tell you right after we feed him someone."

They ventured into the part of the house that had always been strictly off limits to Iggy. It was called the basement. The basement was like a narrow corridor. Doors lined both walls. With each door, there was a row of three lights on top. The first was white, the second was blue, but when Iggy's eyes saw the third, he couldn't determine what color it really was. It was something that he had never seen before. It burned. It danced around the light in mystical waves. Wherever it reflected, it swarmed. It was like looking at the sun from the bottom of a swimming pool.

They stood in front of the door with this majestic light shining down on them. Iggy's mouth became dripping wet simply seeing it. He mumbled, "what… is that?"

"Just looking at it makes me thirsty all over again." Emi licked her lips. "That's what the color red looks like, now."

"Red?"

"Yes."