“FENN!” Mylo yelled at the top of his lungs. His throat was starting to get sore as he called Fenn’s name out in the streets of Caskor. It was still dark, and it would be for a while. 

“People are trying to sleep here!” a woman yelled from her window. 

Mylo looked up to her. “Did a little boy, about 11 years old, with dark hair, run down this way?” Mylo asked her.

“No!” the woman yelled. “Stupid kids,” she muttered, slamming her window shut. 

Mylo shook his head, screaming Fenn’s name out again. A drop of rain landed on his arm. He stared up at the night sky to see a wave of clouds had rolled in. A soft rain started to pick up. The raindrops splashed on his face, rinsing away the salty remnants of his tears. Mylo figured it was a sign to head back. Fenn would’ve heard him by now.

He returned to his home. The wind and rain had started to become stronger. A real storm must’ve been brewing. He pushed in the wooden door of his house. His wet boots squished against the stone floor when he entered. He stood still for a moment, trying to process what was going on and what else he could do. 

His head turned to his mother’s bedroom door. How was Mylo going to tell her her son was gone? He looked away. She would just have to enjoy the last few hours of peace she had left. 

Mylo’s attention fixed on the narrow closet snuck in between he and Fenn’s bedrooms. The door was already cracked open. Mylo took a deep breath and headed towards it. He pulled it open. It creaked loudly as he did, and dropping to his feet was the wooden box of Humans v. Monsters. Mylo jumped back, still on edge. His heartbeat tried to rise in panic, but it was painful. It felt like it was contracting in his chest. He gripped his chest, groaning until his adrenaline ran still. He peered back over to his mother’s room. She thankfully hadn’t awoken from the loud noise. 

He stared down at the board game. Fenn must’ve tried to take it down while he was gone. He had to squeeze his eyes shut. He didn’t want to think about how excited his brother was for him to get home and play. Mylo reopened his eyes after he had shifted his focus to just in front of him. He could make out the cylindrical shape of a candle. He ran his hand over the shelf, trying to find a match to light it with. He located a box and struck one. He carried the flame to the candle and was able to see all the contents of the closet in the candlelight.

Buried behind a set of lanterns was an old box filled with books. They were his dad’s books. They were untouched since his father’s death. Reading them was simply too much of a reminder of his absence. He took a long, deep breath and moved the lanterns to the ground. He reached for the box and pulled it towards him. It was coated in what seemed like a centimeter of dust. He cradled it in his arm and took it over to the couch. Setting it on the table, he took out the first book of the bunch. He blew off the thick layer of dust and wiped it clean. Holding the candle over it, he read the front cover:

The Beginning of the End: The first days of the Upending

It was an old title his dad had rented from the library, and one often read at school. He set it to the side and picked up another:

Ecosystems of the Outside World

He opened this one up. Inside along with the original text were splotches of red ink where his dad had marked and crossed out lines and paragraphs. They were sometimes replaced with the father's own notes. He snapped it shut and set it on top of the other. 

He picked through the other books until there was a stack of them beside him. He huffed. There was one thing missing: his dad’s old journal. If there was any information on the red-eyed shadowlimb, it would’ve been in there, but where was it? He reapproached the closet, shining the candlelight over the rest of the shelves. It would’ve had a distinctive red cover with gold detailing. It wasn’t there, which meant there were two possibilities. Either it had been left where his father had died or it hadn’t been returned to them by the guard. If it was locked away in the capital sector, there was no chance of him getting in there, unless...

Mylo blew out his candle and threw it down on the table. He glanced out the window. It had started to pour outside, and the wind gusts were so large that they started to howl. It didn’t matter though. Mylo headed for the front door and unclicked the latch. The door slammed open, almost smacking Mylo in the face. He caught it just before it slammed against the inside wall. He struggled to pull it closed as he exited the house. He might’ve had an easier fight if his muscles still weren’t so sore and his heart didn’t ache in his chest with each effort. Eventually though, he managed to close it, and the latch clicked. It caused Mylo to stumble down the front steps onto the street, soaking his butt when he fell. He pulled himself back up despite all the efforts of the wind. He stared up the street, shielding his face from the wind and rain. It had become so strong that he could barely see a few meters in front of him. The rain felt like needles on his skin. Foliage and debris flew past him. He began to move against the wind. There was one person he had to get to if he wanted any chance of getting into Caskor’s capital sector: Karn.

Karn’s place was located on the outer edge of the residential sector, near the wall. Through the wind and rain, its towering presence only made a shadowy silhouette in the distance. 

Mylo turned into a narrow side street where he was able to catch his breath and escape the wind and rain under the jutting-out roofs. He could hear it whistling behind him as it soared through the streets. Karn’s place was only a few buildings down the street.

He approached the side window of his unit and hopped up on a wooden crate, conveniently placed, to reach it. He banged on the glass. He heard muffled scuttling inside, probably from a frightened awake Karn. Peeking out the window, he saw the light brown eyes of Karn.

Karn pulled himself up closer, giving a confused expression as he noticed him. He mouthed a question, which Mylo couldn’t make out. He unlatched the window and pushed it outward.

"Mylo, what the hell are you doing here?” He asked, fully alert after the sudden scare. "It's so late.”

Mylo jumped up onto the windowsill and tried to pull himself inside.

"Mylo, you’re soaked; what the hell are you doing?” Karn asked, trying to hold him back. 

“We need to talk,” Mylo replied, pushing his way through and landing on Karn’s floor. He wiped the water off his face. 

Karn closed the windows. "Ok, but be quiet; my family is sleeping,” he said, holding his bare chest, shivering from the cold air that had breezed into the room.

“Karn, my brother's missing,” Mylo choked out, “and I think it has something to do with what I saw in the drainage tunnel.”

Karn looked at him curiously and opened his mouth to speak. “What do you mean he’s missing, like he wasn’t there when you got back? Maybe he’s having a sleepover or something.”

Mylo shook his head. “No, I mean he disappeared after I went to sleep, and I could hear him in my dream, but he couldn’t hear me, and then I awoke on my living room floor like I'd been sleepwalking.” He was talking frantically as he recalled the event.

“So you sleepwalked and scared him off somewhere; he’s probably just hiding,” Karn replied. “I’d be freaked out too.”

“You’re not hearing me, Karn. The same monster I saw in the drainage tunnel; he was in my dream too,” Mylo replied. “I think it was controlling my body while I was sleeping.”

“Ok, ok,” Karn started, exasperated. “You mean to tell me you were possessed by a shadowlimb and it kidnapped your brother?” He took a couple concerned steps backwards.

Mylo nodded. “Something like that,” he said.

“This better not be some sick prank, Mylo,” Karn replied, fear starting to make itself apparent on his face.

“I swear to you, Karn, it’s not,” Mylo replied, trying to hold in his tears as he had to revisit what had happened.

“Oh god, Mylo, I don’t like this,” Karn replied, holding his hands up to his head.

“Karn, I think I know how I can get some answers,” Mylo started. “Do you think you could get another favor from that guard trainee?”