December

Dear Journal,

Hello new pages! An unmarred page is one of my favorite things, and it only improves upon my marring it. I don’t know what that says about me as a person, but there it is. I was getting antsy for a new journal, but I held myself back until after Christmas. I knew Victor would almost certainly get me one, and I didn’t want to spoil his limited ability for gift giving. He has such a large heart, but he is truly awful at gifting. He got Joey tickets for a baseball game one year (you would probably remember this if you had the ability to see into the pages of my past journals, but you can’t [you are inanimate after all] but suffice to say that Joey’s face was hysterical upon opening the card and Avi gave Victor such guff).

Lysander turned five years old this month already! Where does the time go? He’ll start school next year, be a proper kindergartner. I looked in the mirror the other day and saw that I was, indeed, getting older too. I never feel like it, especially when Victor, Joey, and Avi keep me on my toes. That’s what friends are for, and I have the best ones. Though I could do without Joey’s brother, but that’s been my eternal complaint since we were just kids growing up together and Tony was pulling my hair and trying to persuade me to eat bugs and just generally being insufferable. Sometimes I feel a little guilty for always excluding him, but he doesn’t make it easy to enjoy his company. This year, at our annual Christmas party, he gatecrashed and confronted Victor about our new initiative to include more land in the proposed Barrier. Tony is very much of the mind that such a thing would be too taxing for the Barrier technology as it is, but I’ve heard some good results from the tests in Boston, which gives me hope for our little city. He doesn’t want to risk it, but he’s never been the most altruistic person alive to begin with. The argument got so heated that my poor husband had to chuck Tony out of the house. I felt so bad for Joey. I know Tony’s behavior has been weighing on him lately, especially now that their father is gone and Tony is out of the house at college. I’ll just have to be there for him, as I’ve always been!

This year is shaping up to be the beginning of everything with the Barrier getting erected and Joey scrambling to figure out how resource management will work under the new restrictions. We’ll be living in a bubble, essentially. It’s crazy, like something straight from The Giver. I’m scared and hopeful all rolled up into one, and I’m glad to have you with me on this adventure into the unknown.

Stay posted for updates on how it all goes!

Reading the journal made the fine hairs on Lysander’s arms stand on end. From seeing his own name mentioned to the baffling realization that his mother called Joseph Campbell ‘Joey’ of all things, the whole thing seemed like it came from an alternate dimension. His parents had been close friends with the Campbells, which he had obviously known, but the depth of that friendship came as a surprise to him. Even after only one entry, he could hear the affection that she had for not only his father and Joseph but also Avianna and himself. The information about Anthony surprised him not at all, however. Seeing behind the curtain of their feud was enlightening though. He had obviously been too young to understand the animosity there, so it felt good to finally have even a small insight into that relationship.

Lysander would have to read this in small sprints. Amidst all the other things he had going on, it would have to take a back seat, but hearing about the past from his mother’s lens was something he needed too. Retying the strap around the journal, he tucked it away in the corner of his desk. He would allow himself an entry every night before sleep, like a reward for good work or something. Any port in a storm and all that.

The first part of his shift at work that day went by relatively peacefully. The gentle ticking of the wall clock resounded between him and Miria, both of them scribbling away at a brainstorming sheet for how to fix up the proposal before presenting at council. After lunch, a knock sounded, interrupting the easy rapport they had created.

“Come in!” Miria shouted from her seat. She nervously smoothed her hands over her skirt, visibly collecting herself for the intrusion.

With a click, Anthony Campbell allowed himself into the room, barely glancing at Lysander as he passed his desk to stand in the center of the room. “You rang for me, Miria?” he asked, folding his hands behind his back.

“Yes! Thank you so much for coming! I was worried that my note wouldn’t get to you before the end of the week! BP headquarters is so confusing. I don’t know how anyone gets anything done in that maze,” Miria effused.

Chuckling, Anthony replied, “You’d be surprised! You always find what you’re looking for eventually.”

Shaking her head, Miria chided, “You don’t have to be so cryptic all the time, Uncle Tony.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

With a roll of her eyes, she continued, “Anyways, I asked for you to come because I had something I wanted to see if you could help me with?”

“If it’s in my power to do so, then consider it done.”

Everything Anthony said sounded genuine enough, but it made Lysander’s stomach turn regardless, something in the tone coming across as almost greasy. He wanted desperately to push the other man from the room and consider the venture a loss, but Miria wouldn’t understand his reticence. Steeling his nerves, he continued to sit silently and listen to the exchange.

“Right! Well, Lys and I have been trying to revamp a proposal that Dad had for a new city ordinance. We thought it might help sway the council to at least extend the time limit for the Barrier shutdown. What I wanted from you was to see if you would be at all willing to back me up at the meeting? Just to show I have your support? It could go a long way to convincing them if they already believe that the head of Barrier Patrol agrees with me,” Miria explained.

Lysander had no way of seeing Anthony’s face from his point of view, but he watched as his fists tightened the longer Miria spoke, the knuckles whitening as he gripped them together.

“I see. And I take this to mean that you are against the shortening of the Barrier?” Anthony asked.

“Of course! How could you even ask me that? All those people, y’know?” Miria rebutted. She seemed under the misconception that her uncle was questioning her moral values instead of the truth, which was that he wanted to be sure she didn’t share his own motivations. Lysander understood it though, and his heart picked up speed.

“You’re a good egg, Mirianna. I just wanted to be sure your heart was in the right place,” he began, “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you send me the proposal once you’re finished and we can meet again to discuss it?”

Miria smiled brightly, “Sounds great! We should be finished revising it by Friday. If you don’t mind working the weekend, we could meet again on Monday to talk about it?”

“Of course. I’ll stop by the Estate Friday night and pick up the proposal from you then,” Anthony said. “If that’s everything, I’ll see you later.” With that, he turned and waved to her over his shoulder. The movement also brought his eyes to Lysander’s face at last. “Ah, sorry about that Lysander, didn’t see you over there! Good to see you!”

Then he was gone, the door closing firmly behind him.

“Awesome! I think he’s amenable, at least,” Miria cheered after a moment.

“Do you want me to come with you on Friday?” he asked. He couldn’t help it. The idea of her alone with Anthony Campbell unnerved him. He still didn’t think the other man would hurt her or anything like that, but he feared that Anthony would spill poison to her in other avenues.

Surprised, Miria said, “I mean, you’re welcome to join me, but I should be able to hand off a document on my own, at least.”

“Sorry, you’re right. I just thought I’d offer,” he added lamely.

Shaking her head, she continued, “Well, anyways, let’s keep at it! Are you done with that page?”

Nodding he handed it over to her, and she swapped him for the one she had been marking up. They continued to work, but the silence no longer sat comfortably between them.

-

The first sign Lysander had that something was wrong when he got home was that Lexi and Noah were conspicuously missing from his living room when he unlocked the door. It looked as though they had never even been there, in fact. All of their personal belongings had mysteriously vanished, and it jarred him to see the space so empty after days of cohabitation.

As he stood gazing slack jawed into his apartment, the fine hairs on the back of his neck rose and tiny pinpricks of gooseflesh swept down his arms. Rocketing around, he found Anthony Campbell staring at him from across the sidewalk that ran between the apartment buildings, leaning back against the dark gray siding of the adjacent row.

“I admit I’m a bit disappointed. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of something a little more heinous when you opened your door,” Anthony called out, uncrossing his ankles and beginning to stride toward Lysander. “Though I don’t recall you being so messy.”

Every ounce of blood evacuated Lysander’s face and retreated to somewhere in his core. “O-oh that? I was, uh, cleaning my attic,” he lied. The sad state of affairs was that he could lie easier to his best friend than to the man standing across from him. Surprise and foreboding made it difficult for him to think clearly, thoughts swirling around his head in chaotic patterns.

“Uh-huh, neato. Looks like you just brought the mess to your living room, but who am I to judge?” Anthony shrugged. “Anywho, I stopped by to check in on you, y’know since we’re family and all.”

The statement echoed the one from just weeks ago when Anthony had bombarded Lysander in his office, and it did much the same to his emotional state as it did then. Sweat coalesced on his hairline and behind his knees, his heart working overtime to convince him to run away. But he had nowhere to go. This was his safe place. “That’s nice of you.” He had to almost physically stop himself from adding a question mark onto the statement.

“Yup,” Anthony responded, his mouth popping audibly on the ‘p’, “I’m a caring guy, especially with family. Hey, speaking of family, I thought I might have heard through the grapevine that you’ve been spending time with some shady sorts. Personally, I hate rumors, but these ones are sounding more and more convincing by the day. Would you know anything about that?”

“No, nope,” Lysander immediately blurted, too fast to be convincing. If Lexi was here, she would probably beat his ass just for sheer bumbling stupidity.

“Well, that’s weird then,” Anthony affected, his finger tapping against his lip, “I wonder how I would have gotten that idea then.” At this, he lifted his finger away and pointed at the sky like an idea had just occurred to him, “Oh! Maybe it’s all the video proof I have showing you wandering around with Ramon Martinez. I know he’s a fence, but damn if he ain’t a good one. Can’t find proof to save my life.”

“Oh, that?” And this reaction was, again, entirely genuine. Among all the things that Anthony could have confronted him with, this was the least of his offenses. “Ramon is my friend. Didn’t realize that was a crime now.”

“Mmhmm, it’s not, you’re right, silly me,” Anthony conceded without any signs of actual chastisement. Then, in a moment that absolutely stilled Lysander’s heart and tensed every muscle in his body, Anthony’s face wiped perfectly clean of any and all levity that usually warped it. Lysander had always known that the other man liked to give off a vibe of playfulness, similar to a cat playing with its meal–a purely malicious act that only served to entertain the tormentor. But now, all of that was gone, and it was worse than the affectation because at least that was familiar, known like the dark places under the bed or in the basement. This was something else, entirely, and Lysander came very close to sprinting away . “Now, I’m getting tired of playing games with you, Lysander. It’s been a real gas watching you run around and trying to figure out what you’re up to, but it’s old, now, and I’m ready for the next stage, ya get me? So let me just leave you with this, I know it’s you pushing Mirianna along on this little hero quest, and if you don’t cut it out, I will find every excuse to get rid of you.”

“You-You’re threatening me?” This seemed wildly outside of how Lysander had pictured this going down. Usually Anthony, like he said, played a game with him, circled around menacing without touching it, but this was an overt vocal threat, and damn if it wasn’t effective.

“Yes, Lysander, I’m threatening you,” Anthony confirmed, giving Lysander a full body visual scan, “I’m sick of Badeauxs getting in the way of what I know is right for this city, and I have a million and one ways to make it look like you, or even your new friend, just left of your own volition. So, keep your childish sensibilities out of Campbell business from now on, fair?”

Lysander had a crazy moment where he pictured a different version of himself punching Anthony Campbell straight in the mouth, but the reality was that he stood frozen, unable to open his mouth to reply or do anything productive at all.

Neck creaking, he nodded at last. Anthony paused, watching him, then closed his eyes and when he opened them, the mask was back, and he chuckled. “Excellent! Good lad,” he said with the same patronizing cheek taps as from the day back in his office, and then he strode away, relaxed and unhurried.

And Lysander slunk into his apartment, sliding the deadbolt into place for the first time since he had moved in, unnecessary and archaic as it was.

He was officially out of time.