Embers and Icicles

Chapter Sixteen

Unbeknownst to Frank, he wasn't exactly home alone. Sure, Helium, Jenny, Slate, and Daniel were all off in some place they had avoided telling him too much about, and sure, there was no one else in the apartment but him. But using discreetly set up cameras, Slate could still monitor Frank's every move as if he was right there.

Frank made another restless lap of the apartment, pacing from one elegantly furnished end to the other. He wasn't exactly sure what to do–Helium said he had free range of the apartment while they were gone, but Frank wasn't dumb enough to believe they would just leave him here alone without some failsafes.

If they really had been monitoring him all these years, they knew he could be reckless. Certainly too reckless to be left alone.

Maybe even reckless enough to mope around for a while, taking care to throw on one of Slate's sweaters that covered his face and form. So impulsive he didn't give a second thought to ordering from a food delivery service, tipping the delivery person three times the cost of the food to convince them to make the trip up eight stories and bring the delivery right to his door.

Frank watched his delivery app count down the seconds as Nick drove through the city. He was slow–too damned slow–and Frank could hardly sit still as he waited. Every red light was like a shot of caffeine in his veins, making it harder to seem normal for the sake of the cameras. He bounced in his seat.

After too many minutes masquerading as hours, Nick arrived. Frank buzzed him up and stood to greet him at the door.

The gaze of the several prying cameras scattered throughout the apartment lightened off his back as he let the door shut behind him. Nick was young–he didn't look a day older than eighteen, with his cool blue eyes and the half-curled hair flopping into his eyes. Despite his age, his build wasn't too different from Frank's. If he kept his face covered, it could work.

Frank laid out his idea, as well as a healthy amount of cash, and let Nick make his decision. He took one look at the money and seemed to decide the risk was worth it.

A few minutes later, Frank was down one sweater and a bit of cash, racing through the streets in a borrowed car.

When Slate found out what Frank had done, he wasn't going to be welcome back. Luckily, Frank had no plans of returning anyway. He was once again a man on the run, the clothes on his back his only companion. After the taste he had of people, he wasn't sure being alone was such a bad thing.

He glanced at the navigation app on his phone, carefully following along as it instructed him to make another turn. He tightened his already knuckle-whitening grip on the steering wheel–he wished he didn't have to do it this way.

If he had put the geo-tracker on Slate, or even Helium or Jenny, he wouldn't feel quite so bad. Something about using an innocent kid shook him. He was thankful for the feeling. It reminded him that he was still human–that he wasn't Silver.

He was lucky he had even gotten the tracker. When he found it tucked away in a fold of his shirt, he knew that a more experienced person could have hidden it so well he would never find it. Helium, clearly, was not that person. The betrayal stung–another bullet point on the list of people he thought he could trust, but shouldn't.

Since Slate's group had no reason to check the tracker–for all they knew, he was still in the apartment, sulking on the couch–he was fairly confident they wouldn't realize he had hijacked it. Not until it was too late.

By then, he would be twenty miles away with a vial and a dream.

Silver knew that Frank would be back. Maybe when he realised the serum was a dupe, maybe when he found out that Silver hadn't been the only shadow at his back all these years, maybe just because of the cord Silver could see in his heart, tugging him ever so gently towards the dark–whatever the reason, Frank wouldn't be able to stay gone for long.