The Day Before

The rooftop of Silver Peaks looked like the top of an old-world castle.

The elevator let out at the bottom of a stone stairway, which led up to the center of the open roof; much of the space was wide-open, though along the edges were long, narrow walkways with chest-high walls of stone, complete with tall, seemingly empty turrets on every corner. On the far end, behind the opening containing the stairway, was the watchtower, with a narrow rounded staircase inside it that led up to its rounded enclosure. Along the back side of the rooftop was a long sheet of metal, a platform with three separate stands on it, two of them occupied by Azarias Pods, one of them empty. The open space was comprised of stone, as was the rest of the structuring, patches of snow scattered across random portions of it all.

And at this moment—Osric was sitting on the narrow walkway on the front of the building, his back pressed to its wall, in a mostly-laying position, gazing boredly out at the world from behind his goggles, staring into nothing in particular.

Oliver was hovering beside him, hardly talking for a while, and repeatedly running scans on the inside of the lodge—checking the footage, searching the systems, and keeping a vigilant eye on everything from semi-afar.

“Oh. Sir,” Oliver suddenly said, turning more toward Osric. “It seems Mayor Byers and his daughter have just arrived for their month-long stay. I suppose he still intends to use his reservation here… and… behave like your brief little spat with him the other night simply didn’t happen.”

“Of course he is,” Osric murmured. “He’s a politician. Keeping face and pretending to be cordial is just second nature to a person who’s completely manipulative and self-serving to the core, and who likes to gorge himself on baseless positive public approval like a great big overfed pig…”

Oliver was quiet for a second.

“You’re in a pleasant mood today,” the bot muttered.

Osric merely sighed, sinking deeper to the cold stone floor.

Evony emerged at the top of the stairway, shivering and glancing around at the spaciousness of the rooftop, seeing nobody at all. She turned around, gazing up at the watchtower, almost stepping toward it—until she heard familiar voices echoing from somewhere else.

“Why so glum, sir?” Oliver asked, gently poking him in the shoulder with his tiny metal finger. “Stop it. Be happy.”

“Go,” Osric grumbled. “Away.”

“I’m only doing what you programmed me to do, sir,” Oliver told him, continuing to poke him. “You’ve no one to blame for this but yourself.”

Evony narrowed her eyes at the back of the small stone wall along the front of the building, marching toward it.

“I will drop-kick you off this rooftop,” Osric mumbled, turning away from him as if he was lying on a bed. “Shoo. Be gone.”

“And what are we to tell the others, sir?” Oliver inquired, jabbing his hard fingers into his master’s back. “You did promise to appear in their little web show today.”

“I can’t leave without getting ambushed ,” Osric growled. “The media’s already in all of their sniper positions.”

“Then take a pod out, sir.”

“If they see the pod, then they will follow it.”

“Then take it around the back , sir.”

“Do I look like I want to fly a pod over the Black Cove and through a million trees just to be allowed to leave the property? Shut up and go away.”

“And what of Evony, sir? She should be here by now. Are we simply to leave her downstairs all by her lonesome?”

“ Evony is allowed to travel freely , Oliver. And she also doesn’t work on weekends. She’ll probably just go off to record that little skit with them. Because she can .”

“Hey, shit-head.” Evony suddenly leaned over the stone wall, staring directly down at the inventor. “I resent that.”

Osric twisted around and gazed up at her in surprise.

Oliver faced her as well, letting out a laugh. “O-hoh… you’re in trouble now, sir.”

“Wha… y… uhmm…” Osric scrambled to his feet, quickly adjusting his hat and facing her from the other side of the stone wall. “Where did you come from…?”

“My house? ” Evony laughed. “The convention starts tomorrow , Oz—and you said I could stay here for it.”

Osric gaped at her for a second, seeming lost for words.

“I believe our beloved and slightly delusional genius suspected that you’d go off with our mutual friends today instead of coming here, Miss Evony,” Oliver explained. “So he’s chosen to pout alone on the rooftop all morning, utterly stricken with grief over being left out of all the fun—”

“Will you just—be— quiet! ” Osric shouted, grabbing the bot butler and throwing him off the rooftop with all his might.

Oliver whizzed over the edge with an echoing series of chuckles following him the whole way.

Evony choked out an astonished little laugh. “Jesus…”

Osric turned back to her, sighed, and fixed his hat again, leaning on the stone wall and remaining silent for a moment.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t like feeling grounded,” he muttered, waving loosely over toward the edge of the stone wall behind him. “They’re all down there like vultures… and I feel trapped here when they do that. I don’t care for it…”

Evony stared at him thoughtfully for a second.

“Well… you handled them fine the other day,” she shrugged.

“Yes, but…” Osric sighed and nodded sideways. “Now there are more of them. It’s really hard to get away from them when they hunt in packs like that…”

Evony hesitated, turning around and gazing over the rooftop, then facing him again. “Don’t you have any blasters here?”

Osric raised his head slightly, then pushed off the wall and straightened up, shaking his head. “No, I… don’t. I suppose I should. That’d be the ultimate getaway vehicle… and the warehouse isn’t far from here. I could probably have one shipped and delivered here by tomorrow…”

“Yeah… and until then, we can just borrow one,” Evony smirked. “Thomas can just fly right up here and kidnap you… or they could just fly up here and film their skit here.”

Osric gazed off to the side, suddenly staring into space again. Then, he looked back to her.

“I didn’t think of that,” he said softly. “Why didn’t I think of that? I should’ve thought of that…”

“You would have if you hadn’t chosen to wallow in pity all morning, sir,” Oliver remarked, just after reappearing from behind the stone wall. “ Or if you had simply asked —”

Osric turned and planted his hand to the bot’s screen—launching him off the rooftop a second time.

“Why didn’t you ask?” Evony wondered. “You could’ve just asked us to come here.”

Osric faced her again, then looked down for a moment, sighing and making a halfhearted shrug.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled. “I don’t really like to make people go out of their way…”

Evony stared, her eyes narrowing.

“You just assume people wouldn’t wanna do that, don’t you?” she guessed. “You know everybody loves hanging out with you, right? They were pretty much gushing about how big of a deal it was for you to come hang out with them. You probably wouldn’t even need to ask. If you told them the problem, then they’d probably just show up here ten minutes later.”

“I concur, sir.” Oliver floated up from behind the stone wall once more. “You must communicate these things to your friends in order for them to be resolved. Your antisocial nature is directly affecting your communication skills here—”

Osric threw him off the roof again.

“You can keep throwing him off the roof… but he’s not wrong,” Evony snickered.

Osric turned back to her, huffed out another breath, and tossed up a hand, shaking his head.

“I don’t usually have… real friends,” he told her. “I’m not used to this. That’s… that’s all…”

“Well… me neither,” Evony said, leaning over the wall and flicking his goggles, making him reel slightly back. “But if I have to adjust to it, then so do you.”

Osric stared at her, then looked down, biting his lip and nodding. “All right. You’re right…”

“You want me to ask them?” Evony offered.

Osric raised his head again. “Would you…?”

“Yeah. Hang on a sec…”

Evony turned and began pacing atop the roof as she pulled out her phone and texted her friends. Within two minutes, she laughed and wheeled around, holding up her phone.

“Yeah—they’re on their way here,” she announced. “See? I told you. I didn’t even have to ask. I just told them the media was blockading the front doors—and here they come.”

Osric chuckled at this, Oliver slowly emerging from behind him yet again.

They all waited patiently—and not even ten minutes later, the loud and rapid sound of a blaster arrived from somewhere up high, the vehicle descending and making a landing perfectly in the center of the open rooftop.

Evony strolled over to it, greeting her friends as Thomas, Javari, and Cally all hopped off of the vehicle.

Osric watched from afar, leaning on the stone wall and smiling calmly at them all.

“Oh. Um. Sir,” Oliver uttered, tapping him once on the shoulder very gently. “Before you throw me to my doom again—I’ve just seen that you have a text from Dr. Walker.”

“I don’t care,” Osric murmured, still gazing across the roof and watching as his friends talked and laughed.

“Would you like me to read it aloud, sir?”

“No…”

“Would you like to see it?”

“I don’t care about it right now…”

“You’ll care about this one, sir.”

Osric swallowed a groan and rolled his neck, turning to the bot and preparing to say something snidey—but then, he fell silent, staring into Oliver’s screen and seeing Levi’s text message displayed on it.

The message read;

Evony is running a temperature of 102. I found her lying against the wall half-asleep in the hallway just a short while ago. Keep an eye on her today.

Osric squinted at it from behind his lenses, his brow hardening.

“What…?” he breathed in slight disbelief, facing forward again and watching as Evony laughed and chatted with the others. “She doesn’t seem like she’s even…”

He trailed off, eyeing her from a distance and falling silent for several seconds.

“She’s likely just trying her best to… how you say… ‘walk it off,’ sir,” Oliver remarked. “Seems she wanted to be here more than you thought.”

Osric continued gazing across the roof quietly.

“Shall we go and bother her, sir?” Oliver asked. “We could annoy her into resting until she finally relents.”

“No, I…” Osric uttered, making a slight shake of the head. “I think it’s better if she’s out here, at least for a little while. The cold can help to break a fever. But…”

He turned to Oliver.

“Would you run into my room and grab a couple of waters from my fridge?” he asked. “She ought to stay hydrated.”

“Of course, sir.”

Oliver floated over the stone wall and soared away, dipping down into the stairwell that led back inside.

Osric watched him go, then turned back to everyone else, Evony, Cally, Javari, and Thomas, all standing around the blaster and talking with one another. His eyes landed on Evony, and simply stayed on her, his mind somewhat blank.

Then, he straightened up and sighed.

“I’m being childish,” he mumbled to himself. “And not in the fun way…”

Osric grabbed his cane and leaped briskly over the stone wall, landing on the other side and quickly catching his hat before it could fall off his head. He then sauntered over to everyone else, giving them a wave and a smile.

“The man of the hour!” Javari exclaimed, jutting his hands out at him. “Hey—you wanna hear something insane?!”

“Always,” Osric smirked.

“Well, this girl—this girl right here,” Javari yammered, leaping behind Cally and clasping her shoulders. “She did something freaking crazy , dude. Tell him!”

Cally sheepishly fidgeted with the straps of the backpack she was wearing, gnawing her bottom lip for a moment.

“I… hung out with Trisha and Bell a couple nights ago… at Bell’s house,” she murmured, slowly sliding the backpack off and holding it out to him. “And I… took… her dad’s laptop.”

Osric blinked and raised his brows at her. “You did what …?”

“Yeah… y’know, I was kidding when I threw that idea out there, but she really went and did it,” Thomas said, nodding and pocketing his hands. “She’s crazy. My sister is crazy.”

Osric took the backpack, looking down at it, then at her again.

“And… it’s… not his regular laptop,” Cally added. “His regular one is always sitting on his desk… but, that one was… under his bed. It’s super locked up, too. I couldn’t get into it when I tried to… but I thought… you could.”

Osric gaped at her, glanced down at the backpack again, and let out a breathless little laugh.

“Well. Then… you know what we’re going to do?” he asked, gently placing the backpack down. “If there turns out to be evidence on this laptop that we can use… then we’re just going to tell everyone we found it here in the lodge, because he ‘left’ it in the dining hall. All right?”

All of them laughed at this.

“Good deal,” Thomas said with a nod.

“And thank you, by the way,” Osric told Cally graciously. “That was very risky… but I really do appreciate it.”

Cally smiled and looked down, biting her thumbnail.

“Okay, so—the skit,” Javari said, clasping his hands together. “I was originally gonna do one at the Silver Hollow about how idiots dance on stripper poles—but I do not have stripper poles—and when we landed here, I just got a way crazier idea we could do. So—we have two options. Idiots on stripper poles filmed at the club—or idiots using blasters filmed here.”

“How are we even gonna do the stripper poles one?” Cally asked him.

“I was just gonna dance my fat ass around that big-ass support beam on the back of the stage,” Javari laughed. “Is that so wrong , Cally…?”

“Dude. Wow. Okay,” Thomas muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose and throwing up a hand. “There are so many things wrong with that, I don’t even know where to start.”

Osric glanced over at Evony, then back at the others.

“I’d vote for the one we do here,” he commented.

Evony turned to him. “Yeah…?”

“Yeah,” Osric affirmed. “I think we should stay here.”

Evony squinted curiously at him. “Why…?”

Oliver appeared from the stairway and flew over to them with a bottled water in each hand, giving them both to his master.

Osric took them, then handed one to Evony.

“Certain things are just easier to do here,” he said.

Evony gave him an odd look, then took the water from him.

“Drink,” Osric urged, waving his finger between her water and her face. “Drink.”

Evony shot him another strange stare before opening the water and taking a swig. Then, she turned back to the others, who were now lost to a discussion about how they would film the blasters skit idea.

Thomas was in the middle of speculating on how they could film an idiot taking off on a blaster in a comical way that wasn’t too dangerous—and Javari looked to the side while his friend was talking, seeming to stare at the bottom of Osric’s cane, his mouth drifting agape.

“WHOA!” Javari exploded out of nowhere, instantly rounding on Osric and pointing down at his cane. “What—in the fuck-nugget hell—is that shit?!”

Osric took slightly back, glimpsing down at the cane, then back at him. “The cane capper you gave me…?”

“ That ,” Javari said more pointedly, jabbing his finger directly at the bottom of the cane. “You don’t have the cap on! You’re just letting the barrel touch the ground, and water, and snow, and dirt, and shit! You know that thing is like a regular firearm , right?! The more you do that shit, the more you’re gonna have to clean the hell out of the barrel! You don’t want that motherfucker misfiring a shotgun round! Trust me!”

“I have been cleaning it… and it’s rust-proof,” Osric replied with a laugh. “Do you think I hadn’t thought of that? I know. I just don’t want to waste time pulling a cap off of this thing if I ever need to use it in a hurry… and that mindset actually served me quite well on the mountain, if you remember the story…”

Javari raised a finger and opened his mouth to rant farther, but then he suddenly stopped and fell silent, staring off to the side with a quizzical visage.

“Oh.” He lowered his hand. “Okay. Well. Never mind…”

Everyone laughed.

Eventually—after Thomas and Javari settled on how they wanted to film their skit, and after Osric and Cally both insisted they use the dome extension for it—everybody positioned themselves correctly for their part, Javari giving them their lines and filming their chime-ins in small, short segments that would be edited together later. The wildest and most exciting part of it all was when Thomas leaped aboard the blaster—activatd its dome extension—and sped across the rooftop, flying into the air and doing a rapid, haphazard barrel roll as he soared off the rooftop of the lodge.

The day became delightful, all of them laughing, joking, and horse-playing in between their filming of the skit. For one final afternoon—they all forgot about the Christmas Convention, the investigation, and the intense, important events that would follow tomorrow’s rising sun.