Unsung Requiem by C.L. Stone

Tempo Giusto

(In strict time)

Sang

After breakfast, those who weren’t dressed changed clothes. Victor put on a pair of what I thought might be Luke’s jeans and a plain white T-shirt. The jeans were a little long for him, given he was a few inches shorter, but the overall ensemble seemed to put him in a slightly better mood. It wasn’t often that Victor wore such casual clothes. Despite the situation with Mr. Buble, he smiled a bit more.

Did just changing clothes make him feel better? I hoped so.

“When should we expect to move?” Kota asked Mr. Buble as we followed him and Victor out to the town car he had parked in the driveway.

Mr. Buble smoothed down the black tie he wore and adjusted the pin that kept it together with his shirt. The transformation was from the casual Mr. Buble making breakfast for us, to the astute and meticulous Mr. Buble. Only slight differences really, but it made an impact. “Are we not ready to be on the move when needed? In this case, there is plenty of time to get everything and not have to return. We should be ready to move when housing is secured.” He turned to me. “That includes anything you find valuable to you at your old home.”

My parents’ house? I didn’t think I needed anything over there. Or did he just want me to be sure because I wouldn’t be back? I wasn’t sure what was left to take with me.

“Now,” he said, motioning to Victor. “I’d like for you to join me. We need to get acquainted and we can talk about housing options.”

“Just me?” Victor asked.

“For now,” he said. He turned to Kota. “If you’ll get started taking that inventory and making lists of items we’ll need to bring along. And let the others know that we’ll need a family meeting.”

Kota nodded slowly. “I’ll do that.”

We returned to the garage and Kota, Nathan, and I watched together as Victor and Mr. Buble got into the dark town car. We stayed together as Mr. Buble started his car and backed up into the road, to drive off through the neighborhood and out of view.

Quietly, Kota reached over, holding my hand.

Nathan had done the same, a stronger grip, on the opposite side.

I said nothing, only looking out into the neighborhood. My parents’ house was within view of the garage. It was a reminder of how much we’d been through, how far we’d come.

It was that moment that I realized our relationship, the special one I shared with Kota, Nathan, and the others on our team, was starting the transition. It was like we’d been warned about by others. Mr. Blackbourne had said we’d have to believe this can work and show we can stay together. Others would come. They would question us. The Academy… if Mr. Buble found out about us, what would happen?

Were we ready to talk to them about this?

“What should we do?” Nathan whispered, as if he could still hear us.

“We can’t let him know,” Kota said. “At this point, I’m not sure they’d graduate any of us if they found out.”

“They don’t judge us like that,” Nathan said. “It’s not what they do. I thought maybe we should tell him.”

“The Academy doesn’t judge people,” Kota said. “But it made it harder for Lily and Liam and their team to graduate. I’ve been talking to her. They delayed graduation until they are absolutely sure they could work together and not have problems as a team. I’d like for them to graduate us before letting them know. They can’t take it back after. We’re close… if we can just find that money…”

I breathed in deeply, letting the air fill my lungs and only releasing when they felt so expanded they’d burst. The school. The job. If they finished, how many favors did that earn them? Enough to graduate, it seemed. In one big job, they’d have recovered money and restored the school to normality, allowing those that came after to take our place to start from a clean slate and with funds to improve the school.

Had they lost too many favors to be able to graduate though? Circumstances had changed from the start of the year.

“Maybe things have changed since Lily and their team graduated,” Nathan said. “It’s been years.”

Kota shook his head. “I don’t know…”

“Maybe we should go talk to her.”

This seemed to shake Kota up. He nodded firmly before turning back toward the house, letting me go. “That’s exactly what we’re doing today.”

Nathan caught up to him, tugging at his elbow. “We need some people to stay here. Whatever he might find out, and whatever Lily says… maybe Mr. Buble is right. We need to go.”

It wasn’t like Kota to get so excited he forgot something as important as family safety. He paused just inside the door of the house, considering. “We’ve been putting off moving everyone, but he is right on that point. Your dad could come back, and they couldn’t really keep him away forever. Not from his own house. It’ll be harder to move you out if he gets back before it’s done.” He looked at me, the glint in his green eyes shifting. “Your parents… they could see you here at some point, call the cops when they wish to have you brought back. We’re still working with the lawyer about their divorce. They might have agreed to this for now, but let’s not take any chances. Out of sight, out of mind possibly…”

“What if Volto follows?” I asked.

“Volto’s already here. Moving might throw him off, or he might follow us, and at that point, we’d be leading him away from other people to focus on just us,” he said. He turned to the door inside the garage, opening it. “I hate feeling we don’t want Mr. Buble here. He’s one of us. He’s helping. I’m always grateful for help, especially for an outside point of view…”

He trailed off as he walked inside. Nathan turned to me, his blue eyes glinting a bit, a worried expression.

He was getting out, too. It was a big step. The way that Kota talked too, it was like he was already considering leaving as well. He had his mom and sister, but when it came to Volto, he might be right. It might be that moving some of us away, we’d lead him out to us and he wouldn’t be around to cause damage to families, people who didn’t know he was out there and could cause so much harm.

I could feel trepidation in my heart and in the way Nathan’s serious expression focused on me. He knew it, too.

Everything was about to change.