Late

Tavan pushed the plate across the table as dinner approached. He sighed and set the forks down beside each plate. He turned to see his son just walk through the door.

"Hey, dad." He spoke in his normal tone.

"Hey, Cal," Tavan replied as he returned to the kitchen.

He saw his wife and smiled at her.

She smiled back turned to question Cal, "Hey Cal, has Shirley returned home yet?"

Cal was silent for a moment until he abruptly replied, "No, the field trip is probably taking too long."

Tavan thanked his son and delivered a pan to the table, inside was meat, covered in tomato sauce, ready to be layered onto some steamy noodles.

Tavan then fetched the pot full of noodles and slipped it onto the table. He took a noodle out of the pan and tried it. He smirked and turned around to see Cal now assisting his mother cook.

Tavan's stomach ached when he turned his attention to the clock. He suddenly lost his breath as he realized, that the field trip was supposed to have ended 3 hours ago.

There was no way the buses could be that overdue. He suddenly found himself running to his wife to say, "I'll be back, please don't wait to eat, I need to go visit Leon and Reyon."

Before she could hold him for questioning, he rushed to the front door, put on his shoes and coat, and hurried out the door.

***

Tavan set the radio to the lowest volume and remained in silence as he drove down the highway.

Suddenly memories of the tornado in his town befell him and he suddenly started sweating.

He felt even more concerned for Shirley and began driving faster, beginning to avoid the speed limit.

***

Once on a dirt trail, he makes it to a dead end.

He stops the car and gets out, he then gradually walks a path up a large hill as he suddenly spots Leon and Reyon's house, which Tavan had always considered to be a mansion.

He approached the door and knocked.

Suddenly, as though he was expected, Rat opened the door and spoke, "Ah! Tavan! If Leon and Reyon were here, I'm sure they'd be pleased to see you!"

Tavan's face twisted into one of confusion. "What? Where are they?" He asked almost remaining calm.

"Well, they were taking this girl named Carly and a boy named Andrew home."

Tavan sighed and asked, "Can I come in?"

Rat nodded and allowed Tavan inside.

Tavan once inside sat down on the couch near the TV. He quickly stood up again and explored the main floor some more and even entered Leon's room, seeming to have no boundaries.

He picked up a picture frame with Reyon, Leon, and him, all grinning at the camera.

"Who took this one? It was so long ago I seemed to have forgotten." He said, putting the picture down, and leaving Leon's room, not even giving the photo a second glance.

He advanced to the kitchen, only now noticing that Rat was no longer in sight.

Tavan soon located an elevator. He knew he didn't have time to check it out, so he just sat down and soon laid down his head. He yawned and fell asleep soon after. He opened his eyes to notice it was now dark outside and Leon and Reyon had not been home yet.

***

He laid back down and almost passed out again, when suddenly the patio door slid open and Reyon and Leon walked in, they had two kids with them.

Tavan recognized the girl, since Shirley invited her over to her sleepovers and birthdays, sometimes even a combination of both, but he couldn't tell who the boy was.

Leon and Reyon greeted Tavan and explained the situation of Amora.

"Darkness? I only noticed a woman around Amora. Unless he..." Tavan looked confused as Amora explained that around others, he would make himself look like someone else, to evade detection.

He would also portray a person's personality, even without knowing how they act.

"Okay. Well, that's sneaky." Tavan said, Tavan then remembered what he came for and asked Amora,

"Hey, have you seen Shirley? When did the trip end?" Amora stared at the ground and said, "Well, a tornado came flying down and flipped the buses, everyone inside was gone. Andrew and I were the last two people there."

Tavan looked devastated as Leon abruptly says "Seems like before doesn't it Tavan?" Tavan looks at Leon and says, "Yeah. We gotta find those missing people then."

It's quiet for a couple of minutes as Amora and Andrew sit down and Reyon moves to the kitchen, Leon goes into another room and is also calm for several minutes. Tavan regards a page on the counter of the kitchen, he stands up and walks over to it, and looks at it. It seems to be a missing poster for a boy named Cole Peters. He is 18 years old and the image is of the boy beaming while staring at a place past the camera.

Andrew steps forward and gawks at the picture for a couple of seconds. His face becomes red with anger and he steps away fast. He proceeds to the bathroom and the door slams after him.

***

Tavan walks over to Amora and puts his hand on her shoulder, he can undoubtedly tell she feels regretful.

"Hey, it's not your fault. We will find her, okay?"

Amora abruptly begins weeping and she hugs Tavan, apologizing numerous times as Reyon glances into the room, she smiles weakly and then steps back into the kitchen.

After calming herself down, Amora stood up and walked to Reyon in the kitchen.

"Hey, um... Mrs. Akermota?" Reyon turned and coolly stated, "You can call me Reyon. You've done it before, it's okay, and yes?"

Amora smiled and replied, "I have no idea why Andrew would lie about my name, I'm thinking he doesn't trust you guys so much."

Reyon looked elsewhere and started chopping some vegetables as she says, "Well... I suppose he may loathe the idea of not being able to go home. Leon is currently attempting to contact the school to get him home unharmed. He may not have trusted us just yet." Reyon stopped as she accidentally cut her finger. Amora flinches and asks, "Are you okay?!" in a panic.

Reyon smiles and then frowns, "Watch this."

The finger abruptly recovered, Reyon grasped a washcloth, and cleared the blood off of the counter, and continued cooking. "We are rather fortunate for that ability."

Amora let out a sigh of relief and asked, "What was so extraordinary about Leon's healing? I remember people discussing it online, everyone wanted to identify it's 'special properties.'"

Reyon set the knife inside the sink and placed the pan on the stove. "Well, he can't really bleed out as we can, his healing is unusual because the blood travels back into the injury, even if it has to float back up to the wound, but lately his healing has slowed to the average speed, the blood doesn't do as much to go back to the wound." Reyon giggled and said, "I guess we are growing old."

Amora asked to assist Reyon with cooking and Reyon accepted. "How about rolling the beef into balls?" Amora acknowledged the instructions and began rolling the balls and putting them in a flat cookie sheet-like pan. Once perfected, Reyon inserted the pan into the oven, she turned up the temperature and Amora suddenly started wondering about something, she couldn't hold it in and suddenly asked, "What will happen to me? I mean, since Andrew is going home, where will I go?"

Reyon was speechless until Amora looked disquieted. Reyon smiled to pacify her and answered, "Well, Leon and I decided to watch over you until we locate your parents. There isn't much we could do... but please tolerate us."

Amora smiled brightly and thanked Reyon. As she strolled out of the kitchen, Amora quickly said, "You guys would've been exceptional parents."