They Rely On Hope. What Do I Rely On? - Tommyinnit Adoption AU

Chapter 103

Eret POV:

After Sally and Foolish, people kept arriving, each as distraught as the other. It felt as though the world was collapsing. The whole group was here, except Sally, Wilbur and Techno who were still upstairs, but yet there was no playful banter. There was no funny stories. There was no joking, no laughter, no smiles, barely any talking. It was numb, it was painful.

Everyone around her was hurting and Eret didn't know what to do to fix it. There was a hole in their group, and even Foolish was here. The three upstairs weren't the hole though. It was Tommy. Tommy who had found his way into all of their hearts straight away. Tommy who rarely said so much as a word, yet still felt so vital. Tommy who, a few weeks ago, they had never met. Tommy who was scared all the time. Tommy who was gone.

Ranboo stayed with Eret unconditionally, leaning on her like she was his lifetime. Eret didn't mind, in fact he secretly appreciated the comfort it brought, so she didn't mention that part.

Everyone in the group was sitting in the living room, some on the couches, some on chairs and some on the floor. Each face was stained with tears, each heart filled with grief.

As one, all of their heads shot up when the doorbell rang. There was none of them left to arrive, and that meant 1 of 3 things, 1, Puffy was here, 2, the police were here, or 3, (and they all knew it wasn't 3, but they could hope) Tommy was here.

Phil was the first to move, slipping through the group towards the door, motioning to them to stay seated.

Eret heard soft talking in the other room, but he couldn't quite work out what they were saying or who they were. He did know it wasn't Tommy. Phil would've made more noise. Plus it wasn't possible, and he knew that. He had known that. It hadn't stopped him hoping.

After a few moments, Phil returned with two police officers behind him.

"They would like to question you each one at a time, to get as much knowledge on the situation and Tommy as possible, both to find him and also make sure we don't scare him when he's found. I'll talk to them first, then we will go from there," Phil said, without room for argument, not that there would be any.  The police officers followed Phil into a different room, and the living room descended into silence once more.

"I'm scared," Ranboo admitted, his voice soft, barely audible, his face buried in Eret's shoulder, "I don't want to go alone."

"It's ok, you won't be alone," Eret replied softly, hoping to comfort Ranboo somewhat. Ranboo'd had one bad experience with policemen already. It was only one person, but that didn't mean that he trusted the rest. Ranboo understood that police weren't all like that, but he was still stressed about it and Eret didn't blame him. If they had gone through the same thing, they wouldn't trust police either. Who would?

One by one people came in and out of the room. They seemed to have all been asked fairly similar questions, "What is Tommy like?" "Did you ever meet Dream or XD, if so what were they like?" "Did Tommy tell you anything about them?" "Is there anything Tommy was especially scared of?"

So, when it was Eret's turn, and Ranboo was safely being looked after by Foolish, Eret knew vaguely what to expect.

"Hello, what's your name?" The first officer asked.

"Eret Herobrine."

"Did you spend much time with Tommy? What was he like?"

"He was scared, constantly. He flinched away from any contact, never spoke unless he had to,  never asked questions. He was also hurt. Badly. He hid any physical sign of injury from us, but there was a day where he came in to school and he was in so much pain he could barely move. He didn't say anything about it, even when asked. That was the day after Techno and I drove him to visit his brother's grave. It was the anniversary of his brothers death."