Umbry closed the door behind her and held the doorknob, silently locking it.
“Don’t turn on the light,” came a small voice from the other end of the room.
“I won’t.” Umbry’s response was soft and reassuring. She slid down the door until she was sitting against it.
They sat like that for a long time while Umbry’s eyes adjusted to the light, which was practically nil. The only window was tiny and had a thick black curtain covering it, so it was almost impossible to see. After a few minutes of sitting in the dark, she could just barely make out the shape of her partner across the room. Julia was sitting against the opposite wall, holding her knees to her chest. Umbry couldn’t even really see her face – in the dark of the room it looked more like a mask. Julia’s expression was usually easy to read, almost transparent for Umbry – but under this mask of darkness, it was like trying to read a book written in a dead language. Umbry picked herself up and crawled, slowly, across the room, waving one hand in front of her so as to avoid any obstacles. She crawled under the desk and didn’t stop until she was next to Julia, and then she collapsed into her arms. Julia rested her head on Umbry’s shoulder and they sat together in the dark for another long time.
“You know, Umbry,” Julia whispered, “we’re not twelve anymore. I’m not afraid of the dark.”
“I know, Julia,” Umbry whispered back. “But did you ever think that maybe I–”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of it now.”
“…Yeah.” Umbry looked a bit sheepish, glad in a way that they couldn’t see each other. She leaned back and started running her hands through Julia’s hair, careful to avoid the eye covered by her partner’s beautiful locks. “It’s not like it hasn’t happened before.”
“Let’s not talk about our past, okay?” Julia said, pressing a warm hand against Umbry’s cheek. Softly, she lifted the long black hair and kissed it, careful not to let the darkness touch that precious covered eye. “We have Francesca now, and Clay too,” she whispered, running her fingers through Umbry’s straight black hair.
Francesca. The reaction that name induced in her was… confusing. Still, she nodded to Julia and their visible eyes met, and Julia smiled at her the way she smiled to brighten things up when there was a bad mood going around. Umbry knew that smile well, and it had been used on her effectively countless times in the past, but just this once it didn’t stop her heart from sinking. So she rested her head on Julia’s shoulder and closed her eyes, and in the mask of darkness even her beloved partner couldn’t deduce her feelings.
“Look, if you’re not happy with those boxes, you should have done it yourself. I spent three months doing the most boring desk job ever and I am not going back there.”
Lindsay leaned against the edge of the sofa, slightly out of breath from all the travelling he’d just done. He figured he sounded pretty badass just then, but he still kept his line of sight strictly on the ground, not even casting a glance upwards at his boss. In fact, he realized as he heard the squeaking of a computer chair that his hands were shaking, just slightly.
There was a long, drawn out sigh, and then, finally, words.
“They’re empty.”
“What?” Lindsay thought back, and realized what must have happened. He punched the arm of the sofa in frustration. “That bitch! I knew it was too easy…”
“Well, I forgive you. You’ll get their contents back. I sure of it.”
“And how do you expect me to do that?” Even then, he couldn’t look up, even when he felt a searing pain. Curiousity killed the cat, some people like to say. But maybe now curiousity would have saved it.
Lindsay looked down and felt warm blood on his stomach. He held his hands to the wound and collapsed on the floor in shock.
A crowd of men flooded into the room, hearing the thud, but saw only a figure as it sat at the computer chair.
“What do you want us to do, sir?”
“Take him out. I want to see what they do when they find him like this.” A smirk.
They obeyed without question, like the good men they were…
The two little bronze boxes sat, closed, on the table. Their engraved symbols glittered in the harsh light of the computer screen. Long fingers reached out and placed a third box next to them, and together the three boxes sat, once again after too many years. The insignia on the third box didn’t glitter in the light, but seemed to absorb it – a perfect spiral, culminating in one dark spot in the very middle.
A black hole. Fingertips just grazed the edge of the boxes one by one, and came to rest on this dark spot, lingering there for a sweet second before returning to their home on their owner’s lap.
“It’s been a long time, girls, but don’t you worry. I’ll be seeing you soon.”