2:49
I woke up to a breeze; I never shut the door.
I looked in the refrigerator, nothing.
3:28
I sat looking at the wall clock.
Tick, tick, tick, indefatigably it marched on, toward some ultimate conclusion.
Humbly, I listened, waiting...never mind for what.
Pantry, empty...
5:01
I stared at the handle of Izuku's door.
I thought about ordering food, but I left my phone in the cab.
I shamelessly eyed the cake. I couldn't find any forks or spoons in the cabinets; I never stocked them.
I tried to open the lid carefully, but a chunk of smeared left side instantly dropped on the counter; It was waiting for me.
I scooped a bit of the counter smear onto my hands and immediately regretted it.
There wasn't any actual, just glazing.
Only I could fail at eating savagely.
By 6:01, I had made no progression; I was convinced, much against the evidence of the indefatigable ticking, that the world had paused simply for my humiliation.
I wasn't used to the dreading quiet.
Everything I did, only I could witness, yet it seemed like this same dreading quiet had martialized itself no— 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘴 into a group of passive observers.
I could feel them watching me; They were watching me from the shadows.
They were waiting for me to acknowledge them first, like well-mannered patient house guests.
Observers of what context I could never confirm; They watched on with a thoughtless curiosity, I could tell. I had first imagined that they had a child-like nature, but then, I came to realize they were watching me in the same sense a bored adolescent might watch two stray dogs maul each other over a scrap of bone, thoughtless curiosity.
Silence.
7:21
The sunrise peeked through the shut blinds; finally, there was some noise.
The ant trail that took advantage of my cake blunder had grown to a small army.
Born with such fleeting significance, and yet so sure in their every action.
It was strange. It reminded me of him.
I wish I could tell you more, but the truth is everything I knew about him I knew about because it had something to do with me.
I silently marveled at their tenacity.
Silently.
Then it dawned on me".
Inko opened her eyes.
"In all my anticipation, in all my rage, in all my selfishness, I didn't even realize that In the 8 hours, 22 minutes, and 48 seconds I'd been here I hadn't heard a whimper, a pant, a snort, a cough, a sneeze, a fart, a yawn, or a snore.
How could a child go several months without utensils or food?
Even after I gave the nanny money to buy all the supplies she could need??
Even if they forgot to restock, why are there no items in the pantry????
I didn't even realize that I never unlocked the door, just pushed it open.
I rushed to Izuku's room.
"HONEY, wake up its time to go to school, you can ignore me but please don't ignore your schooling, how else are you going to get into UA!"
"....."
"IZUKU MIDORIYA!"
I started banging on the door, I banged and I banged and I banged and I banged and I banged and I banged and I banged and I banged and I banged, I banged so hard my hand, knuckles, palms, and wrist turned red, I banged till it started to cave in reaction to the pounding, I banged so long I must've thought with enough repetitions I could shake the dreading feeling creeping up my spine.
I started to kick the door and finally the hinge gave in, the nuts flew from the handle, and the door fell.
I couldn't believe it.
It hadn't changed even a bit; the sprawling action figures sporadically laid across the minted carpet, the cubbies filled with every single collectible I ever bought him.
The Allmight-themed bed, the Allmight-themed posters, even the Allmight-themed cookbook never once opened, hung in a sealed cover.
I had no choice but to admit utter insanity.
The ungrateful monster I painstakingly conjured through my years of mental gymnastics simply burst into a billion-trillion-gazillion particles of ash set from an explosion of fantastic proportions.
Even the silent figures, determined to maintain their presence in the shadows, couldn't control themselves.
In all my wonder, I came to the stunning revelation that he was just a kid.
I even saw a picture of his dad and me at the Santo Carnival, the same picture I thought i burned.
But no Izuku.
The rotting feeling reared its ugly head, this time, in my stomach
I swung the closet doors open, completely empty.
I checked under his bed.
I ran towards his sheets and threw them off, like he could've been hiding under the air gap. I checked the dust accumulation under his window to see if it was opened; the nanny wasn't paid for deep cleans.
Despite this fact, it was spotless with a faint hint of minty orange.
When I tried to pull it open, it felt super-glued shut. It was only after I hinged all the body weight I could at an angle against the glass did it flew open, sacrificing my fingers as they hit the top of the framing.
I was met with a conservatively estimated 11-meter fall; the wind flowed in the opposite direction of the dumpster below.
I wasn't thinking, of course, a 10-year-old didn't jump off a building, even to avoid me.
But if he hadn't............".
Inko started to pan towards the floor.
"I rushed to the landline and frantically tried to call his school, but it told me that if I wanted to use it, I would need to pay an extra fee.
I slammed the door open, nearly hitting the neighbor I didn't see, I sprinted through a common residential neighborhood, a Christian preparatory board school, towards the downtown shopping center barefoot, all in revealing, caked, stained clothing.
The adolescent sunrise colored Musutafu city in a brilliantly golden hue.
I finally ran into someone, an older man in a light-green apron.
He was holding his keys in one hand, and his phone in the other; by the time he saw me I was already in his face.
I begged, pleaded, and kowtowed for no more than a minute with his phone.
He tried to shove me out of his way on 6 separate occasions before eventually snapping:
"Ugh, get off me, maudlin whore! I'm not looking for any sex; it's 7 in the morning!"
I continued to ceaselessly beg.
The conversation caught the attention of one of the heroes patrolling the area; his name was Hawks, I believe.
I turned to him and tried to perform the same routine, but he stopped me halfway through the performance and simply said:
"I understand, let's get you some help".
He couldn't have understood my incessant ramblings; he must've just felt bad for me.
He took me in his arms and flew me to the police station.
He stayed close to the ground and slowed to the speed of a gliding seagull in response to my occasional groans and shrieks.
They refused to listen to a word before I took a proper shower, had a fresh change of clothes, and something to eat.
All of which was provided to me.
"So, miss," Said one of the police officers.
"What can we help you with?"
"By then, I had learned my lesson. I told them anything they could want and everything they would need in greater detail than I'm recounting now, the figures surely had their day.
They could only stare incredulously, though their professional obligations kept them from visibly reacting. We seemed to collectively agree on keeping silent for a moment after I finished explaining.
"This is how they get them".
Said another officer.
"They find kids in an isolated environment and promise a remedy, or more".
The officer stared at me, gravely.
"Wha-?"
Hawks cut in.
"We've had a 38% increase in child abduction rates over the past 4 years".
That 'dreaded feeling' finally broke free and seeped into my diaphragm; it was no doubt originally seeded by those child-like clandestine figures.
The place where this 'dreaded feeling' had contained itself was my stomach, which, at this particular moment, could more aptly be called ground zero.
I began convulsing.
"We shouldn't jump to conclusions; let's start where we can. Mitsuki, you get a hold of whichever school he goes to, and da-----------l------------------so we ha---------------------------------fl-------------------------...".
"----but------------".
"-----------------when-----------------".
"My ears had betrayed me, swearing allegiance to the war path of the rotting feeling".
"My eyes had saturated".
"I could feel my chest rapidly pulsate".
the 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 chose to resume, only satisfied by my absolute dismay".
"-------------iss.....MISS".
"I- i- *sniffs*."
"I turned into a bumbling mess. My heart, in an attempt to escape from the dreaded feeling, tried to jump out of my chest.
"Y....yeah?" I said.
He offered me a frown, this flavor being pity; certainly more than I would have offered to myself.
"....Could you tell us the nanny's name?" An officer inquired.
"Um..-uh yeah, his nanny's name— An American name; I think....Fredrick, but he insisted I call him Fred".
"What did he look like?"
"...Tall, dark-toned, hazel eyes, He claimed he had a mutation quirk, but he never showed me".
"Where did you find him?"
"Off this...one company— argh; I don't remember".
The officer dropped his clipboard on his desk, the thud invaded my ears and rang throughout my skull".
"You don't remember who you placed your son with?" The officer said impatiently, as you can imagine.
"I-... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
Hawks cut in: "That's okay, you might remember later, Alright?... We'll do all we can here.
What I recommend for you is a week or two of rest; We may call for more details, Miss....."
"...Midoriya Inko ...and his school is called Isaac Academy".
"That's great! Imagine what you could share with some rest. C'mon; I'll call you a cab".
"...no".
"no?"
"no".
I stood up from my chair and walked past the officers.
I walked out of the precinct.
I walked through the downtown shopping center, I walked past a Christian preparatory board school, I walked through a common residential neighborhood.
I sat....Somewhere.
Then I got up and I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked and I walked.
I walked so much that my feet, ankles, and shins turned melted from exhaustion, I walked so far that I traded the dazzling city lights for the vast rice paddies on the rolling hills, I walked so long maybe I thought I could just walk away from it all— since running towards it didn't work.
I'm not fully convinced I was thinking at all.
By then, the dreaded feeling had claimed everything.
I woke up in Izuku's bed, covered in his shining symbol sheets, curled in a ball.
Much against the protest of the shadowed figures, I had already gotten used to the quiet".