Lost Again

Skylar, that's wrong.

Skylar's mind kept shouting at it constantly. He lay his head on the table, listening to the hum of noise in the classroom.

He had just closed his eyes, but all he saw there was Neil's body lying helpless in an alley. Skylar instantly also opened his eyes wide and sat stiffened. It must have been a hallucination, Skylar thought. The shadow of his fear where Neil was not within Skylar's reach. But how could he suddenly imagine such a way?

Skylar cleaned the items on his desk and put the origin in the bag.

"Where is Skylar going?" asked Faiz suddenly intercepting Skylar who was about to leave after carrying his bag.

Skylar clucked impatiently. "I want to go find Neil."

"The bell is still a long time, Skylar."

"I don't care." Skylar ignored Faiz's call behind him as he continued to run to the back of the school through a gap in the broken fence. Not caring if people would see him escape, Skylar still ran towards the alley around the school.

Skylar knew that the shadow of Neil, which had come within Skylar's mind, was an inconceivable thing. But with all the possibilities that could have happened, Skylar could only hope and try.

His feet treaded on the muddy ground that littered his black pants, Skylar's eyes going around looking for something he could find. Skylar searches and explores, although he doesn't know for sure what he's looking for.

As Skylar looked down he found something familiar just below his feet, a photograph. Skylar picked it up and rubbed it with his palms getting rid of the patches of soil from the surface. Not to be mistaken, it was a photo of himself and Neil as a child first and Skylar found it here right where Neil disappeared.

Skylar impatiently reached for his phone pressing the number that was always on top, Skylar waited, he now understood it took two calls to Neil. When Skylar called a second time, Neil immediately picked him up.

"Hello, Skylar?" Skylar's heart was pounding so hard that it felt like jumping from his throat. Skylar always prayed that her brother would be fine there.

"What happened to you, in the alley near the school?" asked Skylar impatiently, one of his legs resting on the other foot tapping on the wet ground, right hand massaging the base of his nose waiting.

Neil silently drew a sense of anxiety in Skylar's mind. "Neil replied, maybe I can find you quickly."

"How do you know I've been there?" asked Neil.

"I found a photo, I know it's yours. Neil replied, how did you get there?"

"Someone pulled me there, they hit me for no reason, I fainted. When I realized they didn't exist any longer. I looked at myself in the mirror there, I was sick and felt dirty so I hit him until it broke. I've been here."

Every word that came out of Neil Skylar's mouth was heard well, he felt his chest as if gripped firmly and his ears were buzzing in disbelief.

"What else are they doing?" asked Skylar, who could be heard quivering in his voice. His eyes became hot and restless where he stood. However, in the appeal, all of Neil's subsequent sentences destroyed Skylar to pieces in the form of regret and anger.

"They raped me." The phone line died that second as well.

Skylar's world collapsed, he felt an invisible crack slashing his chest. His colorful world faded leaving a deep gray that began to litter his life.

Skylar's legs are like a jelly that will slide freely to the ground with a limp. Skylar's breath seemed to be forcibly snatched from her life. Skylar was still frozen where it stood like dozens of nails sticking firmly in the legs.

It's all happened, time can't turn it around. All Skylar could do was regret his absence to prevent anything bad that would happen to Neil from being dashed. Gone.

How could he not feel what his twin was suffering from? What kind of brother is he.

Skylar's eyes blurred, a few drops of water falling into his still-floating hands holding a shabby photo of himself and Neil, Skylar looked up to make sure it rained. But it turned out that no drizzle came, only water coming out and coming down from his eyes.

Oh!

Skylar rubbed his wet cheeks with the back of his hand, not realizing he had slid from behind his eyelids.

That second also Skylar's eyes were glued to a mirror that stood firmly among the piles of trash. He shuddered slightly as he recalled Neil's words that he had just heard. Could this mirror be what Neil meant?

Skylar took his breath and exhaled it violently. He stepped steadily towards there his eyes did not escape from the mirror, with Skylar's breath hunting down.

But even Skylar hadn't reached the mirror yet, his steps stopped distilled by the ringing sound of his phone that he was still holding in hand.

Skylar quickly looked at him to find Faiz's number listed there. For once Skylar looked at the mirror back and shifted his focus to the phone call.

"Hello,"

"Skylar?"

A gasping voice was heard at the other end. "What's wrong, Faiz? Where are you?"

"Skylar? Me-," Faiz called him looking like he was terrified.

"What's wrong?" Without realizing it Skylar was screaming anxiously.

"Me, I almost killed myself from the school building."

"Don't joke now, Faiz," Skylar can't wait.

"How can I joke about death, fool," shouted a frustrated-looking Faiz. "One more step I will die if I am not aware."

"What are you talking about." Skylar stared wildly in all directions as he sensed the familiar thing that had happened to Faiz.

"I'm talking nonsense," Faiz said sarcastically.

"How did that happen?"

"If I knew I wouldn't call you." The Faiz that Skylar knew had never been angry like this. That means he's not okay.

"Where are you?"

But there was no answer, Skylar looked at his phone which turned out to be dead. Skylar quickly ran to return to school, no matter if the class was still going on or had ended. Skylar didn't realize he had been here a very long time.

People were pouring out of the school, the bell had ringed loudly. Skylar quickly ran through the crowd. He ignores the people he accidentally hit, his mind has been in turmoil since he found out the truth about Neil. Skylar felt a bad feeling surrounding him.

"Skylar?" Michelia's voice calling behind her back stopped Skylar's move. He turned around, to find Michelia standing stiff with reddened eyes.

"Not now, Lia."

Michelia began to say tremblingly. "I saw your friend Faiz, my cousin."

"What?" Skylar went one step forward, approaching Michelia to hear her more clearly behind the vibrations of her voice.

"This may not make sense to you, but I saw him disappear for myself. He disappeared like he had been sucked into a mirror in the warehouse."

Skylar's legs became limp. What's this?