Matryoshka (Everan)

Sitting at my desk at work I go through the drawers throwing out any outdated files. Someone whacks me on the head with a stack of papers and I look up, it's Lanriael. She leans down so she's not within earshot of anyone else “I think we might have a code red.” She whispers in my ear. I give her a puzzled look, as the comment was rather vague. She hands me a folded letter addressed to me with a small red square in the top right corner. “It's from Phillip. I think you should read it. But not here, somewhere private.” She steps away and gestures toward the hallway as if to signal me to go. “After you.” Closing the drawers and placing the files down I get up and the two of us walk into the hallway outside the field agents office. I sit on a bench and rip open the envelope. Scanning my eyes over the obviously handwritten letter as the hand writing is rather messy and angular, a trait Phillips handwriting has.

Ev-

I need you to meet me outside right when you get off work. Something came up that I have to talk to you about. I'll tell you the details later but here's the basics. Your dad, he's somewhere in the city. Sarah told me this morning (we were talking a few days ago about how it's almost your birthday and somehow got on the topic) so I showed her a picture of him (don't ask how I got it I'll explain later) and she said today she saw someone with a very similar profile today though they looked a bit older than the picture, which made sense as it's an old photograph. Anyways excuse my rambling and messy writing but I have to go finish an experiment in around five minutes so it's a bit rushed. I'll see you in a few hours.

-Phillip

My eyes widen and it feels like my jaw hit the floor. Lani looks over at me trying to catch a glimpse of the letter. “What's wrong?” I swallow and regain my composure all the while trying to hold back the tears that are on the verge of escaping. “My dads somewhere in the city.” I say softly not much more than a mumble. I stand and go back into the office, collect my things and put on my coat. “Where are you going?” Lani runs after me as I walk back towards the door. “I need to find Phillip, I can't wait five hours, I need answers. Now.” I explain and Lani nods, disappears for a second and comes back with her coat. “Then I'm coming with you.”

What did I do to deserve such good friends? 

...what did I do to deserve friends at all. 

No. Go away intrusive thoughts. I don't need you at the moment. If you want to come back to haunt my dreams, just not right now. Worries run through my head as we rush down the stairs. A supervisor asks where we're going but Lani quickly shows him a pass that we’re done for the day and we continue to walk. Outside the streets busy with mid afternoon foot traffic and a slight breeze blows, stirring up the falling leaves. “Where to now?” I tap my foot trying to think then go right towards the market. “How far are we from the Smith household?” I ask as we carefully make our way through the crowd, blending in with the bustling people and disappearing. “Around five or six blocks not too much. You looking for Sarah?” I nod and keep walking, Lani smacks me on the arm and points to a building top “up there.” two figures sit with their legs hanging over the side and seem to be chatting. It's Sarah and Carmen. We walk over and they look down at us waving. We get permission from the doorman to go up to the roof and meet them. Sarah hops up and comes towards us. “Did you get Phillips letter?” The two of us nod and she smiles a little bit and holds out a sandwich cut in two triangles “we had extra if you want it.” I take a triangle and bite into it. The bread is still a bit warm which is nice on a cool day. I had forgotten to eat lunch anyways, and while it's not much more than a slice of cheese on two pieces of bread it's quite good. “So I heard you saw someone who looked like my terrible father.” I ask sitting on the flat roof of the building next to Sarah who had sat down after handing me what was now my lunch. “Tallish fellow, short brownish blonde hair with a bit of grey, slightly tan skin with some wrinkles, solemn expression, long brown trench coat and hat carrying a briefcase, knee length black boots.” Sarah rattles off the description then pulls out a black and white photograph dated November 12th 3E 379 I would have just turned six years old two days before. Memories flash before my eyes, I remember the day this was taken. My grandparents were visiting for my birthday, it would be one of the last times I saw them. Leah would never meet them, she wouldn't be born for a few years. My grandmother was born to an Altmer family who lived in Morrowind, but she grew up in Skyrim, and liked to collect little Nordic dolls called Matryoshkas. I still have the one she gave me somewhere. Phillip likes a song with the same name, about a mad matryoshka doll and I had a music box of it when I was a child. The four of us stay up on the rooftop
 for a while until it begins to get dark. Lani decides to head home, Carmen has to go help paint a set and Sarah has a photography class. We split up, except Sarah and I who head down the same road. I hum the song as I walk barely audible to Sarah who walks next to me.

 “Ah, I'm about to crack and burst,
so I throw away all of my memories.
Ah, I want to know,
all the way to the bottom.
Uh, would you please dance even more?
Kalinka? Malinka? Just pluck the strings.
What should I do with this kind of emotions?
Won't you please tell me?
The signal reception is good, 5-2-4[1]!
Freud? Keloid? Just hit the keys.
Let's just laugh everything off.
Hurry up and dance, you group of fools!
Together let's clap our childish hands
to this intentionally deranged rhythm,
Surely, I couldn't care less about everything.
The world's temperature is beginning to melt.
You and I, having a rendezvous? A rendezvous?
Or maybe a unimaginable adventure (adventure)?
With a crooked stepping, 1, 2, 1, 2.
Ah, I'm about to throw up.”  

Eventually Sarah gets to the street she's to be on and we part ways. I walk cautiously the rest of the way to the college, Phillip still has work for a bit so I'll likely find him on the first floor of enchanting building writing a report. Moving quickly and quietly through the oncoming darkness I get to the university within ten minutes. Now to find Phillip. The main building is still dimly lit from the inside and the outside lights turn on as I walk by, turning left into the enchanting buildings courtyard I open the door marked with an enchanting symbol etched into the stone above it and walk inside. “Looking for Professor Evans I’d assume? Well he’s busy at the moment.” An older women says as I walk in, but does not look up as she speaks, or she would know, I'm not a student. I don't move and she looks at me, coming to the realization I'm not someone looking for help with homework. “Who are you?” She asks, I’ve never seen her either so I could ask her the same thing, but I don't. “I'm an uh...personal friend of Mr. Evans. He sent me a letter telling me to meet him around now.” She sets
down the stack of papers and points towards the basement door. “He’s downstairs but be careful as he was working with glassware earlier, so wear safety glasses of you go down.” I thank the women for
the information, grab a pair of sanitized glasses off the rack and head downstairs.

The basement is well lit in comparison to the basements and cellars of the other campus buildings, mostly because it has too. This is where most precarious chemistry experiments take place, thus it needs good lighting and to be cleaned regularly. I get to the bottom of the staircase to find no glassware or experiments in sight, instead I find Phillip sitting on the floor reading a book. “Were you..hiding, down here?” I ask taking off the plastic safety glasses and placing them on a lab table. Phillip looks up at me with a blank expression that turns into a grin “Yep.” I facepalm “What did we say about not doing that?” Phillip stands and walks over to me, places a kiss on my cheeck then hops up onto the lab table next to me. “I had a very long day and just needed some peace and quiet, plus I was actually doing stuff down here earlier but got distracted so I cleaned up and read instead.” He explains kicking his feet back and forth. “So I got your letter…” I trail off and he nods “Right. You saw Sarah earlier too?” He digs through his bag to find a rather battered notebook and flips frantically trying to find notes, or something of that sort. “He was sighted at west 47th and 3rd. At 11:28 AM from a market stall around twenty feet away by none other than our lovely friend Sarah Marx.” Phillip moves his finger across the text to follow as he reads aloud. “I live on east 66th street and park. You live on 92 and 5th. We should hopefully be able to dodge him should he still be somewhere around here.” By the nine I hope we don't run into him. I notice a stained image poking out from Phillips notebook and flip to it. The image is a drawing of a matryoshka doll in red and blue. “Anna sent me a picture because I was bored and wanted to doodle something more intricate than random test tubes.” I feel the bad memories start to arise and place it back and close the notebook abruptly. “Let's just get out of here.” Phillip hops off the table and goes to get his jacket. Now just to get my head to stop spinning.

The two of us begin to walk back to the Evans household, as it's closer than my apartment. The streets are mostly vacant, which is odd for a Friday night. We see someone up ahead walking, slightly hunched over, as if years of hard work took their toll. I squint trying to make out the figure in the low lighting, it's a man in a dark trench coat and a hat.

Wait a second.

Could it be?


Pffft no of course not, what would he be doing out at this time of night. But...I check my watch, it's
not even nine o'clock.

The figure begins to turn around after hearing a flock of crows fly off into the distance.

No. No no no.

 I grab Phillip by the collar of his shirt and with a hand over his mouth to quiet him pull him backwards and over a stone wall into someone's garden and recently trimmed shrubbery. Phillip sits up pulling leaves from his hair “what was that for?!” I put a finger to his lips “shush.” He shuts up and I point to the figure still standing in the street looking around with a scowl on his face. “That's my dad.” He looks over towards us and even though I know he can't see us I instinctively duck further behind the wall. Well I'm pathetic, ducking behind a brick wall from my own asshole of a father. Phillip stares at him with an expression I can't tell if it's anger or sadness, or both. But then he does something I don't expect. He jumps over the wall and walks towards him. “Excuse me sir, are you Joseph Thenath?” My dad scowls at him “Yes.” Phillip nods “thank you.” Then does yet another very unexpected thing. Spins around and roundhouse kicks him in the ribs, sending my dad flying. He signals for me to come out of hiding and the two of us run down the street as fast as we can before he gets up and turn the corner out of sight and out of breath. We run more until we get to Phillips street and are nearly positive we’re safe. Then in an attempt to calm our rapid breathing we walk until we get to his house. Lillian opens the door and we go inside and collapse in the living room. “What was that for and how did you even do that?” I ask Phillip who’s still breathing somewhat heavily. “He deserved it. And there's some perks to figure skating.” He pats me on the shoulder and pulls himself up. “I'm gonna go shower and go to bed. Goodnight Ev.” He wanders upstairs sleepily and the bathroom door shuts. I shower downstairs quickly and fall asleep on the couch the events of the day haunting my dreams, and the recurring melody of the mad matryoshka doll echoes in my head. “524 Freud Keloid just hit the keys… You want to dance more? What should I do wish these kind of emotions?” What do I do with these kind of emotions? What do I do with these kind of emotion? What do I do with these kind of emotions…?