dot.

48: Tiro Went to Boy Scouts

  Nimue and Tiro knocked on the front door of Felix's house, praying that they would be let in.

  "What if no one answers the door?" Asked Tiro, once they had knocked a few times to no avail.

  "Then I guess we'll have to force ourselves inside." Replied Nimue as she calmly knocked again.

  "You just, like, know his address?" Her boyfriend was still shocked at how quickly they had arrived at the place. A quick jump in the car and a five minute journey away from the hut and they were there, ready to reunite with Dot and Felix.

  Nimue knocked a little harder this time, getting frustrated at the lack of any sign of life from inside the place. "I know most of his personal information. I've got his father's phone number as well from when I told him about Felix's fake death, so if you don't want to break in we can try calling him instead."

  Tiro nodded, glad that she had noticed how he wasn't too keen on forcing his way inside someone else's home. In the lab, he could do things that weren't wholly legal and feel no shame, but out here the threat of having to actually face the law seemed a lot more imminent.

  "Come on, come on." Nimue muttered to herself, getting more and more irritated with each minute that the door remained closed. "Ugh. Should we just call him?" She spun to face her boyfriend, (who was currently on the lookout for CCTV cameras or anyone who could be watching them) to ask the question as she finally gave up on trying to get in the simple way.

  "Sure, I guess." Tiro wasn't entirely sure he even wanted to get inside- as far as he was concerned, leaving those two behind and skipping the country with Nimue as quickly as possible was the best course of action here. But still, he knew she'd never agree to that. Ever since Dot was born, Nimue had spent almost all of her time with him: asking her to abandon the boy now would likely get him dumped- and slapped.

  She brought out her phone and punched in the number, stopping briefly to check she had no typos before clicking call and putting the device to her ear as it rang.

...

  "Dammit- she's ringing now, what should we do?" James held up his phone as if he felt the need to prove the statement, displaying the screen to everyone that surrounded him as they all debated whether he should pick up or not.

  "You can't just pick up now, you've been ignoring the knocking for ages." Noted Leander, who very obviously didn't want to deal with people his brother considered to be evil at two in the morning.

  Nsia, however, had other ideas. "What if we pick up, then tell them we're not in? Hopefully then they'll just go away and leave us be."

  "You're too positive, mum," was Felix's input. "If we say that, they're just going to break in."

  They all watched as James' phone rang and rang until it finally turned off, then groaned as the infernal noise started again.

  This cycle continued for a few minutes until they heard a weird, scratching, fiddling noise coming from the doorknob.

  James only had enough time to squeeze out a quiet "What the-" before the door swung open and two sets of very frustrated footsteps stormed into the hallway.

  "When did you even learn that?" A female voice sounded, trying and failing to keep quiet.

  "Boy scouts, or something. I forgot I could even do it, to be honest."

  "Well it's good you can. Where are they, do you reckon? Are his family out? The car is still here, so they should be in."

  Everyone in the living room was frozen to the spot, honed in to the two intruding voices that rang out within their home.

  'That's them?' Mouthed Nsia to Felix, who nodded in response.

  While the two outside voices continued to explore their home, everyone that actually lived there was hesitant to do anything about it. Felix was sure he could take Tiro in a fight, but Nimue was more tricky than her boyfriend. He wouldn't be surprised if she was quite good at combat, in which case they had no chance.

  'I'm going to go out.' Nsia mouthed her words once again and crept out of the room. Felix let her, knowing that it was unlikely she would be attacked unless she showed any aggression. After all, Nimue and Tiro would need her to speak freely if they wanted to find out where Dot and Felix were.

  James, however, was less than happy about the arrangement. He stormed out of the space to chase after his wife, adamant that she wasn't going to venture out into the claws of two people that had already hurt his son alone.

  "Hello." Before James could reach or stop her, Nsia had already spoken up to confront the two doctors that stood in her entrance hallway.

  "Good... night?" The man, on the left, responded quickly (and awkwardly) while the woman to his right remained silent.

  Felix was right, Nsia thought- there's something inherently off about her.

  "Haha. Yes." Nsia clearly had no idea how to reply, and James felt the need to rest his head in his hands in exasperation.

  "Why are you in our house?" James stepped out from behind the shadow of the door to stand next to his wife, effectively breaking the awkward tension.

  Tiro glanced at his girlfriend, who stared back at him blankly. "Have you seen a... bat..." He said, trailing off at the end of the sentence as he realised how weird he sounded.

  "Oh, Christ-" Nimue flicked the back of his head in an irritated affection and stepped in front of him to take up the conversation. "My name is Nimue. This is Tiro. I take it you two are Nsia and James?"

  Nsia nodded, confirming her thoughts.

  "James, I'm sure you're already familiar with me. But that's not relevant right now. During the social experiment which your son, Felix, was involved in, he had to try and spend time with a bat-human hybrid. Unfortunately, said hybrid has escaped. We have reason to believe he is here. So where is he?"

  "He's not-" James managed to get out before she lurched forward and seized him by his collar.

  "I said," she spat, "where the hell is he?"