Side Effects

19 - Lost and Found

The sun was beginning to appear behind the clouds, but the air was still in its December coldness, creating a false deception of warmth. Tyche was used to this weather. It was the same weather which constantly hung inside Ursa's office.

Outside Ursa's office, in a meeting room that trapped the sunlight out in favour of electric lights, Tyche sat in a constrained manner. An officer next to him gave him scolding glares every now and then, and Tyche would then realise that he was tapping his fingers noisily on the table like a piano.

Lightly taking a sip of vanilla milkshake, his eyes followed and memorised Ursa's instructions. Normally to him, words spoke louder and better than actions, but he was so incredibly bored by the dullness of this meeting that his ears naturally switched themselves off.

Tyche's appearance to the meeting was a thing he dreaded, especially after the happenings within the Periculum Prison. The dark circles under his eyes gave away his lack of sleep since that tribulation - he had woken up various times in the night because of the memories haunting his every thought.

Somehow, the recollection only frightened him at nighttime, and ceased to bother him whilst the outdoors were lit by the sun. Light was a safety, and without it, Tyche would spark into a panic attack as he did the previous night.

Using his ability of foreseeing, the white-haired boy skipped two hours into the future to see what his parents were making for dinner that night. Great(!) Barigoule.

Suddenly, in came Lieutenant Reidle, clutching a pile of folders tightly to her chest and pacing quickly into the room with a trail of tapping beneath her feet.
"Chief Kirralain, if you don't mind I must announce something."

Bidding her to continue, Reidle took a deep breath and projected her voice to proclaim the news.

"Sir. Officers. Tina Petrenko is dead."

Tina Petrenko is dead. The words sang in Ursa's ears. As the rest of the meeting came to a silent pause, trapped in time, Ursa did something that Tyche had never seen before... she smiled.

"Lieutenant Reidle." The Chief gestured for her leave, and Reidle obeyed somewhat hesitantly. Once the door sounded a shut, adding a pinch of noise to the mute meeting room, Chief Kirralain continued. "I consider this a victory, gentlemen. One less rodent to capture."

Frozen in his seat, Tyche tried to remember where he had heard the name Petrenko before. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud creak of a chair as it was pushed back. Standing to his feet was Barnabus, staring at the other end of the room with a challenging conduct.

"What is it, Barnabus?" Ursa scowled at his manner.

"Petrenko may have been a criminal, Sir, but you have to remember that she was only a child." Barnabus replied. "Heck, she wasn't much younger than Tyche."

Tyche's heart murmured once the attention was brought onto him. The sudden, quick stress on his mind as he heard his own name felt almost as if an exclamation mark was popping out of his head. If he was not so pale, he would have blushed at the thousand eyes glancing at him.

"In case you haven't noticed, Barnabus, we don't waste our remorse on criminals here."

With that, Barnabus sat back in his seat, discomforting the already cold room. The room's attention was now fixated on the walls, as everyone's eyes scanned around, waiting for someone to say something.