Tobi’s brother’s words rose from the depths of his mind. It’s all right, Tobi! he’d said. Then came the sound of cars—a traffic light off in the distance turned red, and his brother spit out a breathless Dammit! before spinning around, as if to retrace his steps.
Most likely, it hadn’t been just one person chasing them, or even two. A whole group had been after them.
“Freeze!”
A voice rang out—a man’s. Not now, though. This was back during Tobi’s flight with his brother. But as the memory hit him, Tobi reflexively ground to a halt. There was something unsettling about this. Why could he remember everything in such vivid detail? Tobi had been clinging to his brother at the time, and he’d clamped his eyes shut. But the moment the man shouted—his words both a command and a threat—Tobi’s eyes snapped back open.
His gaze fell on the man. He was holding something—pointing it at Tobi and his brother. A moment later, a tremendously loud noise rang out. It was like an explosion. Like the sound of a solid object slamming into something with intense force. What was that sound? Tobi hadn’t been able to tell at the time, but looking back, it was easy to imagine a gunshot.
That’s it. That man had a gun. He shot at us.
Tobi’s brother grunted and staggered forward. At the time, Tobi hadn’t even considered the possibility that his brother had been shot, but something had clearly happened to him. That much, Tobi had understood.
Whatever it was hadn’t been enough to stop his brother, though. He’d kept running, holding Tobi as tightly as ever. He now moved with a distinct limp—one of his legs was obviously hurt, and he seemed to be in terrible pain.
How long did he keep running? It was more than a few seconds, or even minutes. It must have been almost an hour. Maybe longer.
Eventually, Tobi’s brother fled down an alleyway between two large buildings. He’d set Tobi down just before. That had been at Tobi’s request—he remembered asking his brother to let him down. But even after, his brother had kept a firm grasp on his hand.
The alley they’d ended up in was damp, slightly pungent, and filthy. Air-conditioning units jutted out from the buildings overhead, forming a sort of half roof above them and filling the air with a mechanical clamor.
Suddenly, Tobi’s brother threw open a nearby door and pushed Tobi inside. “Hide in here,” he said.
“But Big Brother…,” Tobi protested weakly.
“Just stay there until I tell you it’s all right to come out. Do you understand, Tobi? I need you to promise me that. And don’t say a word, no matter what happens.”
Tobi’s brother moved to close the door, leaving Tobi inside while he stayed out in the alley. A sense of anxious dread came over Tobi. If he stayed put and didn’t make a sound, just like his brother said, he’d be left all alone. He couldn’t take that. He didn’t want to be alone. He wanted to stay with his brother. He couldn’t stand the thought of being separated…but his brother was hurt. He looked like he was in terrible pain, just barely managing to push through it. Surely, he was at his limit. He couldn’t go any farther.
Tobi was holding his brother back. He was only a burden. And so, however much he feared being alone, however much he hated the idea of being separated, he couldn’t disobey. He had to stay.
“Okay,” Tobi said with a nod.
“Shh!” his brother replied, pressing a finger to his lips.
Tobi couldn’t see his brother’s face that well—in fact, he could barely see it at all. Still, he got the sense his brother was smiling.
This time, Tobi didn’t say a word. He nodded silently, and his brother shut the door, leaving him in pitch blackness.
Tobi remembered that blackness all too well. It wasn’t ordinary darkness. It felt like Tobi could practically touch it. It had a presence—a weight. It was more than a lack of light. No, it was like the darkness itself had blindfolded him. It stifled his eyes, his nose, his ears, and even his mouth, leaving him almost unable to breathe. It penetrated him, eating its way into him.
Tobi felt like the darkness might drive him mad, and in desperation, he pressed his ear to the door and listened carefully to what little sound filtered in from outside. The rumbling of the air conditioners came as a relief. The blackness, it seemed, hadn’t completely stolen away his hearing just yet.
Soon, Tobi managed to make out another sound—footsteps, most likely, followed by something loud and violent that he couldn’t identify. Then there was a voice. Someone was shouting—maybe his brother, maybe someone else.
Tobi wanted to step outside. His hand was already wrapped around the doorknob. Over and over, he resolved to twist it, only to abandon the idea the moment before he followed through. After all, his brother had ordered him to stay hidden. He’d told Tobi to promise him, and Tobi had nodded. Tobi would never break a promise he’d made to his brother. He couldn’t.
Still—he was scared. Tobi was so frightened he could hardly bear it, but all he could do was stand there in the darkness, holding his breath as well as he could. Eventually, he squatted down on the ground. He just had to wait. To wait for his brother. He’d be back for sure. He’d tell Tobi that everything was all right. That it was all over now. Tobi had faith. Faith, in fact, was all he had.
That pitch-black space Tobi had been sealed into was most likely the top of a staircase. He found himself sitting on a set of steps leading downward—down, and down, and down, into the blackness. Maybe it kept going forever. Maybe it would carry him into the bowels of the earth, if he followed it.
From time to time, Tobi thought he could see something shifting deeper in the darkness. Each time a flicker of movement caught his eye, he had to stifle a scream. He wasn’t supposed to make any noise, so instead he shouted internally, begging his brother to help him.
Big Brother.
Big Brother.
Big Brother.
Help me, Big Brother.
Come back to me, Big Brother.
Hurry up and find me, Big Brother.
Please, Big Brother, please.
Big Brother.
Big Brother.
Big Brother.
I’ll wait here. I promised, so I’ll wait. I’ll do everything you said. Big Brother…
Just how long had Tobi waited for his brother to return? How many hours had he spent shivering in the dark, nodding off from time to time only to jolt awake again moments later?
Had it been three hours?
Four?
Ten?
More than that?
Half a day?
A full day?
Two?
Even longer?
“Ah…”
Tobi gasped as, without warning, the doorknob turned with a click. Light streamed in as the door swung open, so blindingly bright it hurt Tobi’s eyes…though he hardly even noticed.
“Big Brother!”
Tobi sprung to his feet and flew up the few stairs he’d descended. The door really was open, and he rushed outside, only to be greeted by a dull, gutter-like stench. The alleyway’s cracked, pitted concrete had been stained red in Tobi’s absence.
Blood, Tobi thought. Whose is it? It couldn’t be. It’s not my big brother’s, is it? No. Of course not.
Tobi had been all alone in that pitch-black stairway, which meant that someone had opened the door from outside. Who?
“Big Brother?”
Of course. Tobi’s brother had opened the door. Who else could it have been? It was obvious. His brother had returned—he’d come back for Tobi.
Tobi started searching for his brother right away. He had to be nearby. If he was the one who’d opened the door, then he was surely still somewhere in the vicinity.
“Big—” Tobi began…but then he saw him. A man was standing in the entrance to the alleyway—but something was wrong. A shiver ran down Tobi’s spine. It wasn’t him.
That is not my big brother.
The man turned to face Tobi. He was tall, and he wore a hat. A top hat, to be specific. But at the time, Tobi didn’t have the foggiest idea what made one type of hat different from another, and the distinction eluded him. A scarf was wrapped around the man’s neck, and he was wearing a long, black coat.
The problem was the man’s face. To be precise, it was his eye. He had only one…or rather, one eye was all he had. That single eye comprised the man’s entire face.
His head wasn’t a giant eyeball or anything, of course. It was a regular eye—but it was his only feature. A single, staring eye that seemed to blink at Tobi. Part of him wondered if he’d simply imagined it. But if he hadn’t, that meant the man also had an eyelid, or at least something akin to one.
The one-eyed man was carrying what looked like a bag slung over his shoulder. That was all he was carrying, from what Tobi could tell. At the very least, he didn’t have a gun, meaning he wasn’t one of the people who’d been chasing Tobi and his brother. Tobi didn’t get the sense the man was part of their group. His single eye said it all. Of course, there was also a chance that he was something far more dangerous and far more terrifying—something truly strange and unknowable. His single eye, once again, said it all.
Suddenly, the one-eyed man shrugged the bag off his shoulder and thrust it toward Tobi. He seemed to be telling Tobi to take it, but Tobi immediately shook his head. The one-eyed man was obviously a shady character, and Tobi had never seen that bag before in his life. He wasn’t about to accept it without question.
After a few moments, the one-eyed man looked down. He leaned over and laid the bag on the ground. It did seem to be a bag…most likely anyway. It had a strap attached to it—the sort you’d sling around your shoulder to carry it on your back. It was also very large. For a moment, Tobi simply stared at it.
By the time he tore his gaze away from the bag, the one-eyed man was gone. Tobi hadn’t noticed him leave. He’d simply vanished, almost as if there’d never been a one-eyed man in the alleyway to begin with. That wasn’t the case, though. Tobi had proof: The bag was still lying there. The one-eyed man was gone, but he’d left a trace of his existence behind.