Chapter Text
When Felix opens his eyes, the first thing he notices is that he's not in the forest anymore. The harsh concrete pressing painfully against his left shoulder and hip definitely prove otherwise, and for a moment the realization leaves him in a daze of confusion as he struggles to figure out where he is.
The second thing he realizes is that he's alone.
Panic grips his chest at the thought, and he scrambles to his feet, looking around frantically. He duly notes that he had, in fact, been lying sprawled in a gutter, but is more concerned with scanning the surrounding area for his friends.
No. No, no, no-- This can't be happening. We need to stay together. The restoring demon-- Alice-- his troubled thoughts come to a halt as the memories come rushing back.
"That's right," he mutters to himself. "The spell. We should be back home now. But, if that's the case… Where are the others?”
He picks up his bag from the side of the street, and double checks that his Book of Shadows is still inside before slinging it over his torso. As he does so, his knuckles brush against something resting on his chest, and he looks down.
"...The talisman?”
At this moment, Felix knows for sure that something went wrong with the spell. Last he remembered, Andy had the talisman -- why was it back with him now? And even more concerning, he still doesn't know where the others are, or if they even came back here with him, let alone where 'here' is.
He just hopes it's not another alternate dimension, because if the Unmaking Spell didn't work this time, he's not quite sure how he'll get everyone home.
First things first, he decides, the best thing to do is look for his house. His family's reaction to his appearance should be enough of an indication of whether or not he's in the correct universe, and if the others are here, it's the first place they'd look for him. The back alley he's in looks sort of familiar, and he's confident he can find his way to his house from here.
He'll worry about whether it's really his home once he gets there.
¤
By the time he manages to find his way back to his house, the sun is just starting to set and Felix is feeling well-familiar pangs of hunger. He sneaks in through the back gate and around his mother's precious garden, freezing in place when he sees Oscar sitting in the backyard with his sketchpad. His heart stops too, and his lungs feel small at the sight of his younger brother in his wheelchair. A wave of guilt crashes over Felix -- guilt for the initial accident, guilt for not being able to fix it, but most of all, guilt for the relief he feels.
He's home.
"H-Hey! Hey, Oscie! I'm back!" Felix calls out, but gets no response. For a moment his heart sinks, before he realizes that Oscar is listening to music through a pair of white headphones.
He approaches his brother slowly, hoping not to startle him, but Oscar doesn't even look up. Felix frowns, reaching out a hand to shake his shoulder.
"Hey, Oscie, it's me--"
His hand goes right through Oscar's shoulder, passing through the flesh and bone like it's not even there.
Felix scrambles backwards, feeling as though someone dumped a bucket of ice straight into his soul. There's no blood, no sign of what just transpired, and while Felix knows that, rationally, there's no way he could've actually shoved his hand through his brother's shoulder, he can feel the panic bubbling up under his skin like lava. Oscar never reacts, just keeps drawing, pencil strokes steady across the page in his lap
Felix is hyperventilating, he knows he is, but he can't stop. Oscar won’t acknowledge him -- can't , possibly -- and it hurts. It hurts more than in the alternate dimension, where his brother didn't even know who he was. At least there Oscar could see him, talk to him. Here there's-- nothing.
Nothing at all.
Distantly, he hears his mother calling for Oscar and he takes a few steps back, accidentally putting himself in line with the back door in his panic. When she comes out she walks right through him, going straight to her youngest -- only? -- son. They head back inside together once Oscar packs up his drawing materials, never sparing Felix a single glance as they leave.
Felix does the only thing he can think to do.
He runs.
¤
Hours later finds Felix sitting in Bremin Park, kicking at the sand around the swingset. He's discovered, since he left his house, that he can touch objects, but apparently not people. No, to everyone else, he was essentially a ghost -- invisible and nonexistent.
He finds an almost morbid sense of humor in the fact that he is -- for lack of a better word -- basically a poltergeist now. If he weren't so distraught over this fact, he'd probably be having a lot more fun with the situation.
Hell, maybe he'll go haunt Ellen tomorrow. She'd get a kick out of that.
He hasn't gone to see anyone else yet, not wanting to have to face the fact that he's alone in his own hometown. Jake, Sam, and Andy have yet to make an appearance, and Felix fears the worst.
He's messed up and ruined everyone's lives. Again.
Maybe it's best that the others aren't around , he thinks bitterly. This way they're safe from me .
He spends the night on a bench in the park, drifting in and out of sleep. His dreams are plagued by the thought of what might have happened to the others, and when the sun rises the next morning he's awake to greet it, feeling even more restless than the evening before.
With nothing else to do, Felix heads to Bremin High when it nears time for class, seeking out Ellen as a source of entertainment. He's almost grateful for his nonexistence as he walks through the crowded halls, simply letting everyone pass through him on their way to first lesson. He has a bit a fun while he can, reopening Ellen's locker every time she attempts to close it, but eventually lets her win after she almost slams his hands in the door and then she's gone too, off to class with everyone else.
Just as he's leaving the building, he hears something from around the side of the school and goes to investigate. When Felix rounds the corner, he sees a couple of guys in the school uniform, but one in particular catches his eye.
Tall and blonde, with a popped collar -- it's Jake.
"Jake!” Felix let's out a relieved breath; the others are here after all. "Jake, where are the others? We need to--"
Jake laughs, interrupting him. He reaches down and snatches a backpack from the ground, emptying the contents onto someone that Felix can't see. Whoever it is lets out a loud protest as their belongings are scattered, and Jake and the other two boys there -- who Felix now recognizes as Trent and Dylan -- walk away.
With them out of the way, Felix can see the person on the ground, although he already had an idea about who it would be. He watches as Andy begins to pick up his things, sighing under his breath. Knowing that it's probably pointless to talk to Andy, but unable to go without trying, Felix speaks up.
"Andy?”
As expected, the other boy doesn't react. With a sigh, Felix does what he can to help, gently nudging some of the further away objects back towards Andy. He can't resist stealing the apple out of his lunch, though, and leaves Andy behind with his meager breakfast in hand.
¤
Sam Conte is in first lesson, alternating his time between smiling flirtatiously at his girlfriend, Mia, next to him, and staring out the window, daydreaming. School has never really been able to hold his attention for long, and he much prefers these methods of passing the time, much to his girlfriend's exasperation.
While Mia is distracted by the teacher's talking, Sam turns his attention back to the window. He looks just in time to see a boy in a black jacket -- black everything, really -- walk across the parking lot and off the school grounds. He wonders who the other boy is, briefly, wondering about how he got out of classes, before the teacher calls on him and he's forced to turn back to the front of the classroom.
He forgets all about the unknown boy by the end of the class.