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“Here you go.” Riz passed a box full of linens over to Jawbone, who shoved it into the corner of his storage space deep in the basement of the Strongtower Luxury Apartments.
“Thanks, kiddo. I really appreciate the help as I get all my stuff sorted.”
“Sure thing.”
The werewolf dusted off his hands and stood up. “I thought I could handle it on my own with the girls gone for the weekend – and I’m sure I could have – but to have a second pair of hands really makes the work go by quicker.”
“Well, since mom is out of town and I have no cases to follow up on, I really had nothing else to do, so I’m glad I could do something meaningful this weekend.”
“What, all done with your homework already?”
“Hah, I had it done yesterday before school even finished!”
“Atta boy, Riz!” Riz shyly looked away at the praise; he didn’t get much from people outside of his mom, and the tips of his ears burned with unabashed pride.
Jawbone locked up his little storage cage and turned around. “Well, it’s just about noon; how about we go grab a bite to eat before we continue moving stuff down here?”
Riz froze, recalling their nearly empty pantry and the stack of quarters he was going to use to buy some peanut butter crackers from the vending machine for dinner. “Oh, uh… I wasn’t really planning on eating lunch,” he said. “You go ahead. I’ll just… meet you at your apartment in like… forty-five minutes? And we can continue moving stuff.”
“Riz, are you skipping meals?”
“What? No…! I just… I’m still full from breakfast.” His traitorous stomach let out a little gurgle – he’d only had handfuls of dry cereal straight out of the bag along with his black coffee about six hours ago and was starving.
Jawbone narrowed his eyes at the goblin and Riz looked away.
“Right… Well, I happen to have too much leftover chicken parm that needs to be eaten before it goes bad and was hoping you could help me out.”
Riz salivated at the thought of real meat and a fresh, home-cooked meal. “I… I mean… If it’ll go bad otherwise…” he stammered as they began to cross the basement to the heavy double doors that led to the stairs and elevator.
As they did so, the hairs on Jawbone’s back bristled and he ducked down.
“Something bad’s coming, kiddo. Get down!” he warned, crouching low and covering Riz’s body with his own. Mere seconds later the building rumbled and shook as an earthquake rolled through the area, causing the basement lights to flicker and bounce. A loud THUD and a few heavy clunks sounded from around them and the counselor held the teenager protectively to his furry chest. Just a few seconds later the shaking receded and the hazard lights blinked on, bathing the room in an eerie red glow that highlighted the shadows of the basement.
“You OK, kid?” asked Jawbone, looking Riz over for any damage.
Riz backed away, uncomfortable with the attention. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. …Are you alright?”
“Yeah, not a scratch on me.”
“...Good. Uh… thanks for protecting me.”
“Of course, kiddo. Now, let’s go see the damage caused by that tremor.”
They turned a corner of the basement only to see the double doors closed. Jawbone jogged over to them and pushed the handles. They didn’t budge.
“Uh-oh… that’s not good.”
Riz came up behind him. “What’s wrong?”
“Door’s stuck. I think it got wedged during that earthquake.”
“Maybe if I helped?”
Jawbone glanced over at the scrawny goblin who wasn’t even four feet tall; he probably weighed sixty pounds soaking wet.
“Sure, let’s give it a shot.”
They both pushed against the door with all their might, Jawbone switching to an even wolf-ier form to get the extra muscle behind his push, but still the doors remained shut.
“Uh… This doesn't bode well, kiddo,” he told Riz as he shifted back to his usual form. “I think there’s something wedged behind the door.”
Riz took a slow, deep breath. “Alright… we’ll just… find a window and I can squeeze out through there and get help.”
“That’s a great idea, but I hate to break it to you: we’re all the way underground. There aren’t any windows in this basement.”
“Shit. –Oh, sorry.”
“No, it’s alright. Now’s the time to let it out.”
“You… have your crystal on you though, right?” Riz hazarded, his voice pitching just a little high as he asked.
Jawbone made a show of patting the pockets of his cardigan and jeans. “Really sorry, bud, but it looks like I left it upstairs.”
Riz frowned.
“What about you?”
Riz pulled his ancient crystal out of his pocket and checked it: just as he thought, no signal. He told Jawbone as much.
“Bummer.”
“Yeah. …How long do you think until someone notices we’re gone?”
“Your mother comes home tomorrow night, right? So do the girls.”
“And how long until they think to check down here?”
Jawbone winced. “Well, hopefully they notice the boxes and put two-and-two together. But it looks like we’re stuck down here for the weekend, kiddo.”
Riz sighed. “Perfect.”
“I’m sorry, Riz. I’m not pleased about the situation, either, though I don’t think I could ask for better company.”
“Oh, yeah, same here!” Riz said quickly, hoping that he didn’t hurt Jawbone’s feelings. “It’s nothing personal; I’m just not looking forward to being trapped down here, that’s all.”
“You and me both. Well, on the plus side, I’ve got access to those linens so we can make ourselves a little more comfortable while we sleep, and we can go a day or two without food and water. Won’t be fun, but we can do it.”
Riz nodded. Once or twice he’d gone a day without eating (and lying to his mother about it) to help stretch their money, so this shouldn’t be too difficult.
“Yeah, when Adaine returns and sees your crystal and the boxes she’ll figure things out right away. We’ll be out of here in no time.”
“That’s the attitude we need!”
Jawbone stretched and sat down against a wall. “But in the meantime, we might as well get comfortable.”
Riz followed suit, picking a corner where he had eyes on the door and hunkered down, his back against the wall. They sat there, Riz nervously chewing his claws while Jawbone leaned back and closed his eyes. This lasted for a couple minutes until Riz popped up and began to walk the room, holding his crystal up in the air.
“Whatcha doing, bud?” asked Jawbone without opening his eyes.
“Trying to get a signal.”
“Oh. Sure.”
Riz’s circles eventually devolved into merely pacing back and forth, his crystal returned to his pocket as he wrung his hands and chewed his lip.
“Kid, you’re going to wear yourself out if you keep that up,” called Jawbone from his place on the floor. “And with no food in you, you’re just going to make yourself hungrier.”
Riz flicked an ear back at that comment. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
Jawbone hummed disapprovingly but said nothing more.
After about half an hour of pacing, Riz’s stomach growled angrily, protesting his activity without putting more fuel in it, and he gave up and returned to his corner and they both sat in silence.
Eventually, Jawbone was the first to break it.
“How’s your mom doing?” he asked.
“Huh? Oh, um… fine, I guess.”
“I heard that she’s being stretched pretty thin at the precinct.”
“Well, yeah… but she should be back to merely seventy hours a week pretty soon.”
“(Seventy? Yeesh.) Well, that’s good. …At least the paycheck’s nice, yeah?”
Riz sighed. “I wish. She’s on salary.”
“...Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Riz blinked a couple times as he realized what he was divulging. “A-ANYway,” he stuttered. “Yeah. Mom’s busy.” He bit off the last word, a definitive end to that conversation.
Jawbone nodded, and Riz could see him taking mental notes. “Well, how’s school treating you?” Jawbone asked. “Easier being a sophomore than a freshman, yeah?”
Riz glowered. “I know what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?” he replied, voice placid.
“You’re trying to get me to open up so you can pick my brain. You’re trying to counsel me.”
Jawbone gently lifted up his clawed, furry hands in defeat. “You got me, kiddo. I just figured that since you never come to me with your problems-”
“I don’t have problems.”
“Mm-hmm. Your… stressors, then. Since you don’t come to me, this was a perfect opportunity to talk things out with you.”
“No offense to you personally, but I’d rather it were a full moon right now,” said Riz bitterly. “That I would be more comfortable with.”
“None taken,” Jawbone continued coolly. “What makes you so uncomfortable with opening up?”
“Uh-uh. You’re not going to get me to talk.”
“Taking a page from your old man’s book, huh? Not giving in to interrogations?”
To Riz’s surprise, that touched a nerve. “What do you know about my dad?!” he growled, his hackles raising. “Don’t you say anything when you don’t know him!”
“I know he was a proud, brave man who was devoted to his family and country. That much was obvious from what I picked up that night.”
“‘That night?’ … Oh… I guess you did hear some stuff, huh?”
“I was stuck in a dragon’s mouth for twelve hours and sound carries in the gymnasium, kid. Plus all that stuff Kalvaxus was bellowing – hard not to listen.”
“...He was a secret service member. He was great.” Riz said quietly.
“I bet he was.”
Riz hesitated. He knew he was falling into Jawbone’s trap, but it honestly did feel good to talk about his dad to someone. This is another one of his counselor ploys, he reminded himself. Don’t get lulled into it. Divert!
“What about your family? Aside from Tracker, I mean.”
“Hm? Mine?”
“Yeah. You never talk about them.”
“Alright, then. Fair’s fair, I suppose. If you know anything about Tracker’s past, you can probably glean that I come from a religious background. My parents and siblings were devout Sol worshippers, though I never really felt close to the big guy. I always questioned the faith and was rebellious as a kid, eventually leading to me running away when I was a teenager. I made my way to Bastion City for a time, and got heavily into drugs before I pissed off someone while high out of my mind on Faerie Wingz. He bit me and you can figure out what happened after that. So, having nowhere else to go, I went back home, but my parents told me that it was my punishment for straying from Sol’s Light and shunned me. My brothers and sister, too. No one would help me get healed for my affliction, and so I went back to the only life that I knew; drugs and sex.
“Eventually I found my way to Elmville and eked out a living here, mainly selling drugs and as a bouncer. Shortly after my move, Tracker had her encounter with a werewolf and was similarly expelled from the family, so I took her in; I didn’t want her to end up like me.
“I haven’t seen or spoken to my family since they kicked me out all those years ago. It was tough trying to help Tracker, but I think I did a decent job raising her into the young woman she is today, if I do say so myself.
“...So that’s my story in a nutshell,” finished Jawbone. He folded his arms behind his head and leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes again.
Riz was silent for a moment before quietly speaking. “Oh… I’m sorry you don’t get along with your family. I know it’s just mom and me, but I can’t imagine what I’d do without my family.”
Jawbone scoffed… or was that a chuckle? “Just you and your mom? Don’t forget your extended family, kiddo. What would your friends think if they heard you didn’t include them in your family?”
“...They are, aren’t they? My family I mean. …I can’t imagine what it’d be like to lose them, either. …How were you able to deal with that loss?”
“I wasn’t. That’s why I turned to dealing and doing drugs and all sorts of degrading things to get more. And that’s why I want to be here for all of you kids, too; so you don’t go through what I did.”
“I’m not going to do drugs, Jawbone,” Riz said, rolling his eyes. “I’ve got no interest in having crazy trips or numbing my existence.”
“Not even if you lost your family?”
“If I lost my family I’d be spending all my time hunting down the one that took them from me, because I know that they’d never leave me and I’d never do anything to want to leave them,” he growled in a low, menacing grumble as he stared off into a middle distance, picturing the death of his enemies.
“You think you are impervious to people leaving you?” Jawbone’s voice was higher pitched now, and Riz glanced over at him. His eyes were dull, obsidian husks and Riz startled, backing up into a stand against the wall.
“You think that people will not find things they care about more than you? You think you will always be the most important thing in your life?” Jawbone hissed. Thick, black ink began to ooze out of his eyes and down his cheeks, causing his fur to stick together.
“What about love? What if your ‘family’ finds someone to love more than you? What will you do then??” questioned the counselor, getting to his feet and looming over Riz. Riz tried to move, but he found his legs wouldn't respond and he sank back down to the ground. As Jawbone reached out towards Riz, his fur and flesh began to melt away, revealing a skeletal hand. It grasped Riz’s neck, and he could feel the cold bones squeeze tightly.
“Riz! Hey, kiddo!” shouted Jawbone, kneeling over the unresponsive goblin. “Riz, are you alright?!” He grabbed his shoulders and gave them a soft shake, to which Riz replied with a weak hiss, though his unfocused eyes stared at nothing. Jawbone gently slapped at Riz’s face, trying to get him to focus on something, and Riz snapped at his hands and then withdrew further from Jawbone.
Jawbone looked around, worried, but there was no one else to help him. He sniffed the air around Riz but could detect nothing, which concerned him. By this time Riz was silent and still, so Jawbone picked him up and held him in his arms. He stood up, concerned that his hunch was right, and carried Riz around the basement as he searched.
And there he found it, hidden around a corner near the back: a pipe had broken and fallen against the wall, knocking a small detector off the wall. He got closer and his fears were concerned; it was a broken carbon monoxide detector.
Shit. The kid got hit first ‘cause he’s smaller and lower to the ground. Can’t sit back down or lay him out. Gotta keep him above it for as long as possible! But how long did he have before the gas reached him? He was tall, sure, and as a barbarian he was strong, but he also couldn't hold Riz above the gas forever. Jawbone rushed back to the doors and began to kick at them.
“Someone! Anyone! Help us!”
But no reply came.
Jawbone adjusted his hold on Riz, holding the unconscious teen piggy-back. He then stood as close to the door as possible (and far away from the pipe) and waited, keeping an ear out for any noise at all.
How long had it been? Jawbone wasn’t great at keeping track of the time, but it felt like hours. But maybe it had only been one. He wanted to pace, wanted to shout, wanted to release his anxiety, but he knew he needed to save his breath and keep Riz’s head up as high as possible. He leaned against the door, pressing his ear against it, and closed his eyes.
Clunk!
Jawbone’s eyes flew open and immediately he began to kick at the door again.
“Hello!? Is someone there?!”
“Jawbone…!” The voice was faint and sounded far away, but it was unmistakable.
“Gilear?! Is that you?! Help us! We’re trapped and there’s a carbon monoxide leak! Riz is unresponsive!”
“Oh no, he was with you?? Don’t worry, we’re working to get you free! I’ll call for emergency services immediately!”
“‘We??’”
“Hey, bro, you sound familiar!” came a gruff voice from the opposite side of the door. “Your name is Jawbone? Were you a bouncer at The Black Pit?”
“...Tyler?”
“It is you, bro! You live here? Small world!”
“Tyler, we can reminisce later!”
“Yeah, good point! Hold on, I'm going to smash this door in! Stand back!”
Jawbone backed away from the door and stood off to the side. A moment later a crash! echoed through the basement and Jawbone watched as a club-shaped dent appeared in the door.
Wham! Crash! Slam! Clank! Again and again the barbarian on the other side of the door came at it with his club until at last the heavy metal door swung off its hinges and fell to the floor, revealing a black, shirtless minotaur holding a club.
“Thank goodness!” howled Jawbone, running out of the basement. “Quick, let’s get outside! Riz needs fresh air immediately!”
The two rushed up the stairs and outside the lobby, where a crowd was beginning to gather.
“Don’t go down there!” warned Jawbone as Tyler pushed people aside. “There’s carbon monoxide down there! Make way!”
He laid Riz down on the grass and, confirming Riz was breathing normally, began to fan the air around him, hoping the circulation would help. A siren whooped as blessedly an ambulance drove into view, and Jawbone collapsed on the grass next to Riz, relief flooding his system; Riz was going to be alright.
After making sure Riz was on the path to recovery, Jawbone sat at the back of an ambulance, an oxygen mask fitted over his muzzle as he chatted with Tyler. He caught Gilear’s eye and waved him over.
“Gilear, I can’t thank you enough for coming when you did. And you brought Tyler! What a small world!”
“You know this young gentleman?”
“Oh yeah, we hooked up once while I was a bouncer at The Black Pit.”
“They call me ‘Thunderclub Tyler’ for two reasons,” said the minotaur proudly.
“...Charmed. Well, I’m glad you were available, Tyler. I shudder to think of what could have happened to young Mr. Gukgak if you didn’t answer when I knocked.”
“How did you come across Tyler, anyway, Gilear?”
“Well, after the earthquake I thought it was prudent to check up on the boy to make sure he was alright, but he wasn’t answering the door or his crystal. I then thought I’d check to see if you knew anything, and when I got to your apartment I found the door ajar and it filled with boxes. I assumed you must have been moving boxes down to your storage space and headed downstairs to check on you.
“When I arrived at the basement, there was debris stacked up against the door that I couldn’t budge and I couldn't get close enough to knock, so I set out to find someone who could help me move it. Tyler was the first person to answer the door-”
“Good thing I didn’t have anything better to do today!”
“Yes, thank you, Tyler. You’re a life-saver,” said Gilear dryly. “And we immediately returned and he began to move the debris.”
“So you had no idea if we were down there?”
“No, I did it all on a hunch.”
“Well, we were fortunate you did, Gilear. You and Tyler are heroes!”
“Woo!” shouted Tyler.
Gilear merely stammered and blushed. “Oh, no, no…” He sighed. “Well, I'd better call Sklonda and let her know what’s happened. I hate giving her news like this, but at least Riz is alright.”
“I’m going to go check on the kid while you do that, Gilear.”
Jawbone removed the oxygen mask and walked over to the back of the other ambulance where Riz was hooked up to his own oxygen tank and an IV. He blearily opened his eyes as Jawbone was given permission to enter the back of the truck.
“Hey, kiddo,” he said softly. “You doing alright?”
“Jawbone… Your eyes are normal again. And you’re not made of bones. I mean, you are, but at least you’re not a skeleton.”
“Oh boy, that stuff really did a number on you, didn’t it?”
Riz nodded, his thoughts muzzy.
“I… I don’t want to be alone,” he whispered. “I don’t want to lose anybody. I don’t want them to leave me.”
“Hey, no one’s leaving you, kiddo! I’ll stay here with you and ride to the hospital, alright?”
Riz shook his head slowly. “They’ll all find other people and leave me. Why can’t they stay with me?”
Jawbone frowned. “I think you need more oxygen and more rest, Riz. Let me flag down an EMT. As he poked his head out of the back of the ambulance to call for help, he noticed a lone tear roll down Riz’s face.
“I don’t want to be all alone…”
“Medic!”
As promised, Jawbone stayed with Riz on the ride to the hospital, where Riz was put in an oxygen chamber to force oxygen into his body. Once he was removed and put in a room, Jawbone stayed with him until the next day when Sklonda was able to return and Riz awoke, clear-headed but not recalling their time trapped in the basement.
With the doctors giving Riz the all-clear to leave the hospital the following day and his mother back, Jawbone decided it was time to make himself scarce so the Gukgaks could have some time together. However, as he stood up to leave, Riz beckoned him to lean over and whispered in his ear:
“Did I say or do anything weird while I was out?”
“I think you were hallucinating me as a black-eyed bone monster.”
“Huh. I wonder why?”
“No clue, though you kept going on about being left alone and everyone leaving you.”
“Oh.” It came out in a rather small voice.
Jawbone put a reassuring hand on Riz’s shoulder. “I don’t know exactly what kind of nightmare you were having, but I wouldn’t worry about it. No one’s going to abandon you. Your friends love you more than you will ever know.”
Riz smiled weakly. “Thanks, Jawbone.”
Jawbone winked. “And hey, if you ever want to open up to me-”
“I know, I know,” replied the teen, rolling his eyes, but the corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk. “Really, thank you.”
“Any time. Take care, Riz. I’ll see you at school.”
“See you at school.”
With that, Jawbone left the room and headed back home to clean up the aftermath of the earthquake in his own apartment.