Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Behind Closed Doors ❯ 13: lengthening shadows ( Chapter 13 )

13: lengthening shadows

Heero walks into a room filled with light, but sees only shadows. Wufei sits on the couch, unmoving. He hasn't eaten in days and Heero is worried, but does not know what to do. The laptop hasn't come up with anything all week, so they remain in the little shed where the last transmitter met its end, and they wait. There is nothing else to do.

So Heero watches Wufei. And Wufei watches the ceiling, or looks in the mirror. He doesn't say anything, doesn't move, eat, drink, sleep. Just stares as if all the answers of the world are written there and he is learning it all by rote. Heero tries to speak to him, when he thinks of something to say, but there is no reply.

I time, Heero returns to the laptop and there is a signal nearby, so he goes out to see it. He tells Wufei, but there is no reply.

The streets are bright, the sun hot, but Heero does not think the world a sunny place. He knocks on the door of the house at the coordinates and a middle-aged man answers the door. They look each other up and down and then the man passes him a cigarette. Heero looks from the fag to the man's face, turns and walks away. He keeps the smoke.

It's a slow walk back to the house. The sun's finally falling when he gets there. He opens the door and his shadow runs the length of the hallway. He follows it all the way to the back room where the sun is seeping out of the place and he looks at Wufei. Only Wufei is not there.

The chair is empty and the shadows are lengthening.