What Goes Unsaid

What Goes Unsaid

rating: +29+–x

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2024

12 October

Grand Cove: Grand Bend, Lambton County, Ontario, Canada


"Baba, look!" James, the eternal six-year-old, held his Switch up to his parent. The tram car they were on rattled slightly on the tracks. "I recruited Relicanth!"

"Very cool, buddy," Jay smiled, looking down at the screen as the Pokémon jumped for joy in-game. "Do you know what Relicanth is based off of?" They had recently picked up Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team GX for James in an effort to get him to appreciate story and narrative more by reading. They couldn't tell if it was working, but at least he was happy.

"Umm…" He retracted the Switch, tapping his chin with his other hand. "A fish!"

"Not just any fish. A coelacanth. Do you know what that is?"

"No."

"Coelacanths are a very special fish. We thought that they were extinct for a long time, but it turns out they survived and there's plenty of them hiding deep in the sea."

"Like a dinosaur?!" James' eyes were wide.

"Exactly. Coelacanth are as old as the dinosaurs," Jay winked.

"Whoah… that's so cool!"

"Just like you, buddy," they chuckled, leaning over with their only arm and fussing his hair. James giggled and kicked his feet, continuing his playthrough of the game diligently. This kept on for a few minutes until the Inter-Sectional Subway System came to a halt, with a robotic voice stating the name of the stop: 'Grand Cove.' The GoI Specialist got up, poking James as they did. "Come on bud. Let's go home."

"Okay, baba." James obediently put his Switch in sleep mode and slid it into his Gengar book bag, then followed after Jay.

As they emerged into the crisp October air, Jay reached into their pocket and produced their cell phone, shooting up a text message to their partner.

Ilse 💙💙

james and i are almost home. game night?

Hello.
That sounds lovely.

awesome, im preemptively banning trivial pursuit because you have too many phds, but we can still play parcheesi. james likes the critters.

Wonderful!
I appreciate you, Jay.
Yours
Ilse

<3



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Site-43: Lambton County, Ontario, Canada



All hell broke loose.




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Grand Cove: Grand Bend, Lambton County, Ontario, Canada



Jay and James were in Ilse's bungalow, watching TV when the breach klaxons started. Shortly thereafter, Jay's phone began vibrating with an emergency alarm. James immediately perked up and looked around, then turned to his parent.

"What's that sound, baba?"

They reached for their phone, hand twitching and sweat beads dropping from their forehead.


!! PRIORITY ALERT !!

CONDITION BLACK

CONTAINMENT BREACH IN PROGRESS

LOCKDOWN PROCEDURES IN EFFECT
SHELTER IN PLACE AND OBEY ALL SECURITY DIRECTIVES


"Baba?" James asked again.

Jay's breathing quickened. Their chest began heaving. Was Ilse okay? Were they okay? They were used to the September 8th stuff and had experienced a few containment breaches in their day, but Condition Black was unprecedented. It meant the Brothers Un had breached containment.

Is Ilse okay?

Is this somehow my fault? I interviewed them last year and they seemed normal.

What if Ilse gets hurt? Will her anomaly let her survive?

What if I'm somehow responsible for this?

Is this is the schriftsteller? What if Ilse gets hurt?

"Baba? Hello?" James continued.

Ilse. I need to message her.

I can't. The phones won't work during Condition Black.

Ilse is going to get hurt.

I don't know if she's invincible. She's immortal, but I don't know if she's invincible.

She's going to get hurt. What will I tell James if she gets hurt?

What if they come here and hurt James?

"Baba…? Baba? Are you okay, Baba?" his voice grew worried.

James is immortal.

Like Ilse.

I don't know if he is invincible.

What if they come here and kill me?

I don't care if they kill me, but please God don't let them hurt James or Ilse.

I don't want to die.

Not in front of him.

I'm going to die someday, it might as well be today.

I'm gonna go outside and wait for them.

What the hell am I even talking about, I'm not even at the Site.

I'm being stupid. I always worry. I worry about Ilse. I worry about James.

Ilse is going to get hurt.

James is going to get hurt.

"Baba Jay, you're scaring me!" Tears welled in his eyes.

I'm overthinking this. We're just dating.

Just dating.

Just dating.

I'm going to die without telling her.

What's the point. We're all going to die.

Jay's hand was trembling to the point their phone slipped between their fingers. Their face was red. Their body was shaking. They—

"BABA!" James' tear-streaked face broke through the trance Jay found themselves in as he tackle-hugged them.

"James," they stammered, breaking into a sob. "I'm sorry."


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Jay and James sat on the couch in Ilse's bungalow, the latter having long fallen asleep on the former's lap. It had been quiet for some time now. Their phone had stopped displaying the Condition Black screen a few minutes ago, which meant a status update wouldn't be long behind. Just as they were about to place the phone on the cushion, it vibrated in their hand.

Ilse 👩‍🎓

Hello. I'm fine. I'm sorry if I caused you any worry, but I'm fine. We suffered a good number of casualties, but I'm fine.

i need to talk to you when you get home

We will talk, then. But for now, there is work to be done.

anything i can do?
sorry i just had a really bad panic attack over everything in front of james and i made him cry because of it.
im sorry

Just rest for now. There will be a lot of changes occurring at the Site effective immediately, but for now I want you to rest.
And please, do not apologize. You did nothing wrong, and we are only human.

thats kind of what i need to talk to you about

Jay sighed. They couldn't tell her now. Besides, she probably didn't feel the same. Was it too soon? Time meant nothing to Ilse, so they had no way of knowing.

Ilse 💙💙

Oh?

sorry. i just am stuck on coelacanths.

The fish?

yeah.
like how everyone thought they were gone for years and suddenly, surprise, theyre alive.
i feel like a thought inside of me did that today.

I am afraid I do not understand, Jay.

oh, dont mind me. im off on another jay everwoodtm rambletm. i guess no game night tonight, though.

I guess not. Please apologize to James for me.

We'll talk. I need to go for now. Gotta swear Harry in as Director.


Yeah, definitely later, they thought, putting their phone down.

"Wait, what?" Jay asked out loud; the impact of Ilse's last message finally hitting them. "What happened to McInnis?"

James stirred from his sleep, opening his eyes and looking up at his parent.

"What happened, baba?" he asked, voice raspy.

Crap. How am I going to explain death to James?

"Oh, sorry to wake you, kiddo. Do you remember Director McInnis?"

"Mr. Allan? Yeah! His middle name is my first name." The boy wiped sleep from his dark brown eyes, sitting up.

"Yeah. Allan James McInnis." Jay sighed. It was almost ironically funny how such a great communicator like Allan would not struggle to tell James the truth, something they themselves couldn't bear to do right now. Despite their own struggle with mortality while surrounded by immortals, Jay would not tell them of this. "He uh. He's left Uncle Harry in charge of Site-43."

"Cool."

"Yeah. Cool," Jay exhaled sharply, doing their best not to break out into tears again.

"What's the matter, baba?"

"Nothing, buddy. Mama Ilse won't be here in time for game night, though. So why don't we get you up to bed, huh?"

"But I wanted to play Parcheesi!"

"James, it's late. Come on. Let's go."

"Okay…" the boy groaned.

A great weight bearing upon Jay, James would not learn what death was until a year later.













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