Displacement

A void of darkness, that was all there was. Pure, endless nothing. A suffocating and tiresome visage that almost convinced him that it was all that was ever there. He couldn’t remember when the last time he saw something different was, or if what he thought that could’ve been was nothing more than an illusion that his mind came up with.

Not even the sound of his own breathing existed anymore.

How long had he been like this? How much time had passed?

He felt like there should’ve been more, something else, but….

“—er.”

What was that?

Something was different, something was flashing in and out of his sight.

Something was there.

A flash of light, a twinkling speck of something.

A change.

One that Harry welcomed and embraced.

He wasn’t sure exactly how ended up in a police station, despite the numerous times officers has asked, nor was he sure exactly who he was.

His name was Harry, yes. That he knew. How old was he? What was his last name? Where are his parents or guardians? Where did he live? Harry could only stare blankly as each question was fired after one another. He didn’t know.

He knew… he was supposed to be somewhere. He was needed. For what, or where? Well, please refer to his previous answers.

“This child is impossible; I can’t tell if he’s just being stubborn if he actually has something wrong with his head? I mean, his clothes are too big, for one—”

“Shush! Don’t let the captain hear you, he’s pretty invested in the case and has a soft spot for kids. I think it’s cause his wife had a miscarriage last year, so he’s— Oh! Captain!”

The sky was cloudy, much like the mood that hung over the building. Harry idly wondered if it had anything to do with him.

“Alright, champ. I have a few different questions for you here!” The captain, the man the ladies were discussing, sauntered into the ‘interrogation’ room. Really it was just a room with a few chairs and a coffee table off to the side, but whatever made them happy he guessed.

The captain, a middle-aged man with soft, brown locks, and wrinkles that seemed to soothe his aura instead of making him look stern, pulled the chair next to Harry and sat in front of him.

“Alright, do you know today’s date?”

Harry shook his head.

“Do you know where you are?”

Another shake of his head.

“…Are you in any pain?”

Harry paused, staring into the man’s eyes. They were a pretty hazel, a sharp green mixed in with a mellow brown. They were also full of life, a wonder and content for the world around him but also with a grinded edge about them that was a mark from seeing the horrors that humanity and the universe could hold.

“My head hurts.” It did, a soft knocking like pain. It wasn’t pounding, per se, but it felt like when someone was at the door for a visit or just to stop in and say hello. It wasn’t annoying at first, but because Harry wasn’t answering, it was just continuing on. “It’s cold too, it shouldn’t be cold, but it is.”

The man leaned back, he had a nametag with the name Howard on it, but Harry wasn’t sure if that was his last name or first. The captain seemed contemplative, as if he could solve all the wonders in his head if he thought about it.

Harry hoped he didn’t. They weren’t wonderful.

It looked like it was going to rain.

“This is a tough one, I’m afraid.” Captain Howard, that was the name Harry finally settled with, hummed. “The doctor that looked at you earlier said you didn’t have any head trauma, thankfully, but suggested that you possibly blocked out everything else due to trauma. We don’t really have any leads at the moment, no missing child reports that match your description, at least any recent ones, we’re going to have to look at missing babies if we want to find a match with those; nor is there any evidence that could lead us to any sort of crime. Not to mention, it was like you just showed up here out of thin air.”

Harry sipped his water. The nice officer, Madrich? Manders? Muffler? It was something that began with ‘m’, gave him some after he noticed how dry Harry’s throat sounded.

Green eyes closed as a sharp pain bounced around his head. A scene playing out in his mind. Someone was going to knock on the door.

Two knocks, they had news.

True to what played out in his head, someone did knock on the door.

“Captain,” It was one of the many officers that tried to question Harry earlier, “We still haven’t found a match to any of our reports, but social services are here to pick him up. Apparently, an orphanage is willing to house him until a foster family steps up.”

Captain Howard nodded, standing from his seat and smiling at Harry, “Seems like our time is out for today. We’ll come find you if we find anything, alright?”

Harry watched the man walk out of the door; he didn’t think he would see him again. It was a shame, he had such pretty eyes, but at least his kid was going to inherit them. What a persistent soul.

Wools Orphanage, Harry wondered why that sounded so familiar or why he knew that was where he was going.

Ms. Cole, Harry decided, was a vile woman. She shouldn’t have kids of her own, let alone run an orphanage. He questioned whoever saw fit to let her be in charge of such a place, especially with the stink eye she gave him after the social worker left her contact if Harry needed her.

“You’ll live in room four,” Ms. Cole sniffed, her hair was thin, stringy even, and pulled into far too tight of a bun. “At least until you can’t bare it anymore, but you’ll just have to push through. We don’t have anywhere else to put you at the moment, so just wait it out.”

She continued on like that, as if doing Harry a favor by trying to sympathize with him.

“If Tom, the boy you’ll be rooming with, does anything, anything at all, do let me know. I’ll set him straight for a bit.”

A twisted smile for a twisted woman. It suited her.

“Tom!” She smacked her hand against the door before immediately pushing it open, “This is your new roommate, Harry. I’ve already warned him about you, so don’t try any of that charming fakeness with him, understand?”

She didn’t even wait for a response before spinning on her heal and marching off to who knows where.

Brown eyes locked onto Harry’s. He could see why most people could dislike the boy, he was shrouded by the darkness that haunted the world, causing his life to be filled with misfortune and his thoughts to be clouded by vileness. Harry liked it though; it was a calm against the too bright world around them.

“Great, I should’ve known today was going to be shite with how cloudy it’s been. It’s bloody July and looking like a down pour, now I’m stuck with a sniveling brat.” Tom sniffed, tucking his legs closer to himself as he leaned back on his bed with the book he was holding, “I don’t care what that woman said or what her so-called ‘warnings’ were, but your bed is over there. Keep to your side and don’t bother me.”

The darkness spiked with the boy’s irritation. Tom wasn’t happy.

Harry couldn’t blame him; he was chosen to be corruption. That didn’t mean that his choices weren’t in any way his own, if only a slight bit more vulnerable to become that much darker than anyone else’s, after all, just because someone had a thought of pushing another for talking too much at some point doesn’t mean that they would actually have pleasure from doing so.

The smaller of the two boys, Harry, shuffled into the room, peaking around. It was clean enough, as clean as it could be really. It felt off though, something was there that wasn’t showing itself. Harry narrowed his eyes, his head clicking onto one spark in particular until a snake shimmered into existence. It was resting in front of their window, soaking in the small rays of light that sneaked past some clouds.

It was awfully pretty, glittering, blue scales with a white underbody. He wanted to see how much prettier their eyes were.

“What’s their name?”

Tom looked up from his book, seeing that Harry was pointing at the snake and nearly looked as if he was trying to break his own neck as he snapped his attention solely on the other boy with confusion and near anger filling his eyes.

“You can see her?” The brown-haired boy tossed his book aside, no longer interested in reading when something far more deserving of his attention had presented itself at his doorstep. Well, doorway. “How can you see her?”

Harry blinked as the other boy towered over him, arms crossed, demanding answers. A smile appeared on the shorter boy, different scenes playing out in his head.

“How can I not? After all, she’s right there.”

Emerald eyes filled with amusement as his new roommate puffed up with a newfound emotion. Frustration. Harry ignored it, however, and walked over to his side of the room, dropping the small bag of clothes that his worker had provided him with. It wasn’t much, two outfits plus the one he was wearing, a pair of socks, and three pairs of underwear.

“Are you like me?” Tom followed after him, intent on getting answers. “Can you do things like me?”

“I guess you could say I’m like you.” Harry nearly giggled, his entire being alight with mirth. “I’m a boy with no parents or background, in an orphanage with a head that seems more intent on focusing on alcohol more than the children under her care.”

“That’s not—!” Brown eyes nearly bled into red as the taller boy was filled with an indescribable anger. “Very well, you seem intent on not answering my questions almost as much as Ms. Cole is with her drinks. I will get those answers, however, eventually.”

Harry had to stop himself from laughing out loud as Tom threw himself onto his bed and continued to read. He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to rile the boy up, perhaps to give him a challenge that many of his peers would never be able to, or perhaps to even bring the need Tom felt to harm focused on him, or even for some other unknown reason that Harry couldn’t fathom just yet. All in all, it was very entertaining.

“Who is this, Tom?”

“Go back to sleep, Medusa, he’s no one important.”

Medusa, a Greek myth. A suitable name for a snake.

It soon became night, despite the intense glares that Tom would shoot Harry every hour or so, and Harry was glad that he had something to eat at the Police station since it appeared that dinner had already been given out before he arrived.

The only problem Harry had at the moment, however, was that he couldn’t sleep. He didn’t feel an ounce of any indication of tiredness. It was strange. Still, he kept his eyes shut, but that didn’t stop him from seeing. Despite his eyes being closed off from the world, and his physical body tucked into bed, it seemed as if his consciousness had wondered. At first, he thought he was just imagining himself staring down at his body, but then he started to move around.

Watching himself was boring, so he glanced at Tom. Whenever the other boy moved or sniffed in his sleep, how would hear it as if it was really happening. To test the theory, he waiting for Tom to turn on his side before opening his eyes and seeing that the boy really did turn.

It was a weird experience, opening his eyes even though he could see, but he decided to use this strange power to explore as he let his body rest.

He first looked around in the halls, occasionally poking his head in a room to see if it was interesting and then quickly backing out when he realized it was just another bedroom. Then he traveled further down and made it into different sections of the orphanage, finding classrooms, libraries, the dining hall, all sorts of rooms.

Finally, he stumbled upon two workers doing patrols for the night.

“Speaking of rowdy children, I’ve been noticing that some of the kids are picking on Tom lately.” A younger lady sighed, “They’re teasing him about the poor boy’s mum of all things!”

“Oh, hush now, Sicily.” The older of the two workers waved off the younger’s concerns. “You know how kids can be, they’ll work it out themselves. What are they even teasing him about?”

“They’re just saying that the poor woman abandoned the boy to run off with a man, even worse—a German refuge! It’s not true, though, ma’am. I was there when that woman gave her poor life to give birth to Tom, holding him lovingly even in her final breath.”

Harry sucked in a breath. That was the horrible fate of those blessed by the world. It was always going to hell before they even saw a hint of solitude. Although, depending on their actions and attitude, they may never even come across such a thing.

“Ah, that one. You know, I heard some awful rumors about that lass. Heard she hooked up with a rich bloke, but he claimed that she did something dreadful to the poor lad. Made no claims for the boy, either. That family, none of them turned out right.”

Harry heard enough; it was nearly daybreak anyways.

He had a rough idea of what to do now. He only wondered if that old man that kept appearing in his head was going to be an obstacle or an ally.