“And now we go live to the Left Manor, where Mr. Left’s secretary will be making a statement.”

  “Sydney!” I hollered. “Get in here! Your boyfriend is about to be on t.v.!”

  Sydney poked her head around the wall. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  “Yeah not with that attitude he’s not.” I rolled my eyes at her. Two whole months had gone by since the night Mr. Left disappeared, and Stenway hadn’t taken Sydney out on a date since. She was getting pretty down about it.

  But in more important news, it had been two months since the night Mr. Left disappeared, and until now, none of the population of Dalton City even knew he had gone. The fellows had asked a few questions, to see what, if anything, people knew, and no one had seemed to know anything had gone down. Mom and Dad were beginning to get curious, because Mr. Left usually showed up at the lab at least once a month, and he HAD missed the unveiling ceremony of their research project (there had been a paragraph in the newspaper about his “unfortunate illness” on the day of the ceremony.)

  Sydney plopped down on the couch beside me. “I wonder what he’s going to say.”

  On the t.v. screen, Stenway adjusted his tie and shuffled a piece of paper between his hands. “We, the Left household, would like to thank you for all of your kind words in the past few months regarding the success of this monumental project, and we’d also like to thank all of the staff who worked tirelessly to make the technology a reality.” He cleared his throat and looked directly into one of the cameras. “Mr. Left recently received a letter from an engineering lab in Switzerland who is interested in acquiring some of the technology that was created here in Dalton City. As you all know, Mr. Left is a generous man, but thorough, so he took the lab up on their offer to examine their facilities and assess the potential use of his technology. He left three days ago, and his return date is currently up in the air.” Stenway paused as a murmur ran through the crowd. “We do expect similar requests from other facilities and of course, he will want to examine them in person. The research wing of the hospital will remain functional in his absence, under the guidance of…”

  He continued to speak as Sydney and I looked at each other excitedly. “Mom and Dad will still be working there!” I grinned.

  Sydney smiled more calmly. “I didn’t expect them to get laid off immediately, but I did wonder if it was coming. This is really good news, Ty.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I shut the t.v. off and looked at Sydney out of the corner of my eye. “Want to come help me feed the cats later?”

  Sydney flushed. “I don’t want to… I mean if he wants to see me…” She got up to leave the room.

  “It’s kinda creepy over there, all by myself though.” I shuddered. “There’s just no one there, Stenway never says anything to me, even if I see him.”

  Sydney sat up at this. “That sounds alright. I’ll go with you.”

  I couldn’t figure out why she and Stenway had stopped talking. I don’t think she knew either. He was always too busy to talk to me, too. I mean, I know with his boss gone he probably had a lot going on. But we hadn’t even talked about what happened that night.

  We put our coats on and walked over to the house in silence. As we arrived, we saw the last of the reporters was packing up and getting ready to leave. We waited around behind the hedge, even though we weren’t going in the front door. Finally we heard a motor rev up. I pulled my key out of my pocket and unlocked the door, pushing it open for Sydney. She didn’t move.

  “Syd? Let’s go. We gotta get this over with.”

  “I haven’t been over since that night, Ty.” She stared at me. “I hated that. Hated it.” Inside her gloves she cracked her knuckles.

  “I promise, I’ve been here and nothing has happened. It’ll be fine. I’ll go first.” I pushed my way into the kitchen. It was cold and dark, the ovens and lights turned off. I knew Stenway only came into the kitchen to make himself dinner; sometimes when I came in the afternoon, one of the ovens was turned on and the hall light was on. “We’re fine, Syd. He never comes down here anymore.” I paused, glancing at the small pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

  Sydney took a step inside the door and stared around the quiet, dark kitchen. “It’s so different. It’s… sad.” She frowned, pulling her jacket tighter.

  “Yup, that’s what villains do.” I started to make my way back to the feed bowls, and slowly Sydney followed, our footsteps barely making any sound.

  It was quiet up until I filled the last bowl. “But Tyler, it was Ms. Higley who made that kitchen warm and cozy. And Mr. Left hired you in the first place. That doesn’t seem so villainous.”

  “Are you trying to rewrite what happened? Because we know who the bad guys are. They did ruin all of this.”

  “It’s just hard. They weren’t all bad, were they? Could they have been? I mean, Stenw… other people were good but not always straightforward with you, you know?”

  I jerked the door shut and we started back towards the kitchen. “But in the end, they were all bad, and Stenway helped get rid of them.”

  “I know that, but all of the things that happened along the way…” We had made it back to the kitchen, talking louder, and pushed open the door. I jumped and Sydney slapped her hand over her mouth to keep back a scream. The figure sitting at the table looked up.