Endings, Beginnings
Breanna was sitting at the kitchen table, laptop in front of her while listening to the soft chatter of Nana on the phone when the world went to shit.
She turned when the sound of the phone clattering to the floor startled her out of her computer-focused haze. Behind her, Nana stared in equal parts bafflement and horror at the space where her hand used to be.
Because it did used to be there. But now there was just some dust floating in the air where it was supposed to be.
She locked eyes with her pseudo-mother/grandmother, unable to make words come out of her mouth because what was happening? What’s going on?
“Nana?” And only then did Breanna realize that her five-year-old foster brother Adam was sitting next to her, taking in this odd and concerning sight just as much as her.
The older woman stared right back at them, brown eyes worried and confused. “I don’t understand.”
Breanna would never be able to imagine what she was feeling because her body was turning to dust in front of their very eyes.
Adam jumped from his seat beside her, reaching out for their parental figure, but by the time he made those few steps into the kitchen, the woman was gone.
She wished she said something more. Anything. Even if it was just calling out her name like Adam did, because now Nana was a pile of dust on the floor and Breanna can’t even remember the last thing she said to her.
She’s shaken out of her haze by the sound of Adam dropping to the floor and screaming for Nana. Her anxiety spikes when she hears the shouting voices of some of her siblings upstairs. Something in her gut tells her that what happened to Nana happened to more than just Nana, and she was afraid to go up the stairs and find out.
She stood shakily, blinking owlishly at the scene in front of her. Maybe if she blinked enough times, Nana would be standing there again and the last minute and a half would be a fever dream caused by her drinking one too many orange sodas.
But it wasn’t.
She took Adam’s hand and hauled him up off the floor, eyeing the pile of dust as she carefully maneuvered them around it. “Adam, I’m going to go upstairs. Can you be a big boy and call Hardison for me?”
Adam eyed the phone that Nana dropped only moments before, still sitting on the ground and emitting a dial tone. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and handed it to the younger boy. “Here, use this. He’s number two in favorites.” Under Nana’s number.
She let go of his hand and took a deep breath before taking her first step on the stairs. Whatever she was about to see, she knew she wasn’t going to like.
***
In the end, Eliana, James, Eddie, and Sarah were gone. Nana, too.
Hardison was there obscenely fast, which made her wonder if he’d taken a helicopter or private jet or something to get there as fast as physically possible. She wouldn’t put it past him. Especially with the extremely manic look lingering in his eyes when he pulled up their driveway.
Three rental cars and a dozen or so first-class plane tickets later, they arrived at the Bridgeport Brewpub. They were past the kitchen and into an office-like space that had been converted into a large makeshift guest room.
There were some things about the room that immediately dinged her brain as off, like the rigs in the rafters that Alec I-Hate-Heights Hardison would never dare touch, or the punching bag hanging under the stairs that she knew he would never use.
Other people lived here, she was sure. And there was also a nagging feeling at the back of her head telling her that what happened to Nana happened to whoever lived here, too.
Alec didn’t bother to spin them a story about how he happened to own a brewpub and managed to be some bigshot at a software company that allowed him to own the entire building. Honestly, with how tired he looked, she didn’t think he had it in him to lie. And after everything that just happened, maybe he didn’t want to.
So he came clean about the work that he did.
He was a criminal.
Now, some of her siblings had put together that their brother was living on the less-than-legal side of life. All the expensive gifts he sent and how he always offered to pay for their summer camps and schoolings like it was no big deal didn’t go unnoticed. Even if he was a big-shot at some software company, there was no way he was making that much disposable income in legal spheres.
So some of them figured he was some sort of criminal. She was one of them- probably the first one.
After all, Hardison had introduced her to the world of hacking when she was first brought to Nana’s home at the ripe age of eleven. She was angry at the world and closed herself off. He gave her something to focus on, and there was nothing better to engage her brain than miles of code blinking back at her on a computer screen.
Hardison had been staying at the house that week, helping Nana with some finance stuff that she couldn’t understand. He found her one afternoon sitting on her bed in the room she shared with two of her girl foster siblings, Eliana and Caroline. She had been reading a book about computers that she checked out at the school library. He took one look at the book in her hands and smiled at her- a big, genuine one. One of warmth and welcoming, familiar and friendly.
“So you like computers?” He asked her, a glint in his eyes suggesting nothing but good-natured mischief. She didn’t really know him at this point- she’d only been at Nana’s a month and a half- but something in his expression made her want to lower the walls she’d put around herself. Someone was trying to reach out to her through something she liked, and she desperately wanted somewhere that she belonged.
That was the first night that Haridson spent teaching her the basics of hacking- one of many over the years.
Eventually, having Hardison spend time coaching her on computer codes and htmls became sort of obsolete- he said she had a natural talent- but she enjoyed the quality time all the same.
So it wasn’t a big surprise when Hardison revealed that he was basically a modern-day robin hood living his best criminal life. He talked about the team that he’d had with a fond smile, but not one of the kids missed the fact that he was the only one in the welcoming party.
For whatever reason- one most of them could guess, if recent events were anything to go by- his team was gone.
Breanna looked around, cataloging her brothers and sisters carefully before locking eyes with Hardison. We’re all that’s left.