Rion allowed Noa to lead him out of the living room while the others followed. Noa let go of his hand the moment they reached the stairs and went up first.

Rion was disappointed. Noa’s hand felt so warm and real in his. He didn’t want to let go. Even though he could feel the roughness of the old scars on Noa’s palm, reminding Rion of the heat and fire and smoke…

Noa was right in front of him and Rion was walking through the Murphy home. Jesse, Danny, and Celeste were all here and it was…nostalgic.

The whole situation was strange to Rion, feeling so wrong and completely right at the same time. Just like Noa, who was both the same and different from what Rion remembered.

Rion could see that Noa had matured quite a bit since they’d last seen each other. His features were shaper and less boyish. He was more mature and masculine…maybe even handsome. But he was still Noa, still Rion’s best friend, still somewhat awkward and shy.

But there were changes too. Something about the look in Noa’s eyes was lost. He was more closed off than before, quieter somehow. Rion noticed how everyone seemed to focus on Noa too, paying extra attention to him.

Rion didn’t know what it meant. He wasn’t sure that he cared either. Noa was Noa and he was here and he was real.

They reached the top of the stairs and headed down the familiar hallway.

Rion felt an immediate stab of dread. He stopped, standing still, frozen.

As happy as he was to go to Noa’s room, Rion remembered belatedly that Amber’s old room was just a few doors down from Noa’s. The thought alone was an unpleasant shock to his system. He was instantly paralyzed, afraid of getting any closer.

Rion wanted to turn around and head right back downstairs. He sucked in a sharp breath and jolted when Jesse brushed past him.

“Peter, what ended up happening to Amber’s room?” Jesse asked, looking towards her door. It was closed. “Did you…? I mean, your family cleaned it out, right? I know you gave most of her things away…”

Rion leaned into the wall, pressing a hand to his chest while the others passed him by, equally interested in Amber’s room. Rion swore he could feel his aching, pounding heart shuddering beneath his fingertips. He tried to keep his breathing steady, not wanting to make a scene, not wanting anyone to notice him.

A shoulder pressed against his. Rion glanced to his left and saw that Noa was leaning against the wall next to him, pressing close. Their eyes met.

Noa knew.

If anyone else shared that same look with Rion, he would have flown into a panic. But this was Noa and Noa understood.

Rion’s eyes stung. He looked away, fighting back relieved tears again.

Noa understood. He knew. They were in this together. Rion wasn’t alone.

He reached out with his left hand. He wanted to hold Noa’s hand again but found himself hesitating. His fingers twitched, knuckles brushing Noa’s. Instead of taking his hand, Rion shifted to pinch the cuff of Noa’s sleeve, like he had before. Less contact felt safer.

“It’s a guest room now,” Peter was saying. “Well…more of a storage room, to be honest. We thought about turning it into a computer room but that felt…wrong.”

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “I get that. Would it be weird to ask for a peek inside?”

“That’s not weird,” Celeste said. “I would like to look too if it’s okay. I know there’s probably nothing to see but…”

“You don’t need to explain,” Peter said. “Even I take a look sometimes. We keep the door closed so it can feel like everything is still just…there. Does that make sense?”

“Perfect sense,” Danny assured him. “It probably has something to do with not seeing it a lot, right? Like, you remember how it was and not how it is because…your memory is stronger or something.”

“Something like that, yeah,” Peter said. “But we can look. There isn’t much to see…”

Rion heard the turn of a doorknob and felt Noa’s whole body go rigid next to him.

“Don’t!”

Everyone jumped and turned sharply when Noa raised his voice. Noa was wide eyed and stiff, looking at them like they’d been about to set the house on fire.

“Don’t open it!” Noa insisted.

“Oh, uh…right,” Peter said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Noa thinks the room might be…haunted…I guess.”

“Oh, Noa,” Celeste said, unable to hide her pity.

Danny winced and Jesse’s expression was pained.

“Amber… She wouldn’t haunt you guys,” Danny said. He tried to smile but it wavered. “She wouldn’t want to scare anyone. She wasn’t like that.”

Noa shook his head adamantly. “The door opens by itself. I hear things…”

Peter’s smile was strained. “Noa hasn’t been…comfortable around Amber’s room since she passed away. I, uh… I haven’t noticed anything weird about it myself, but… Yeah.”

“We don’t have to take a look,” Jesse said. “It was just a thought. Not trying to make you feel uncomfortable, Noa.”

“Don’t open the door,” Noa insisted. “Please.”

“Okay,” Danny said, holding up his hands. “That’s fine. Right, Peter? We don’t need to take a look.”

“Right,” Peter agreed, stepping away from the door to Amber’s room. “You wanted to show us something anyway, right Noa?”

Rion couldn’t tell if Noa was staring at them or Amber’s door. He didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned and headed into his room, his sleeve slipping out between Rion’s fingers. Rion quickly followed him, and he heard the others just behind him.

It had been six years since Rion had stood in Noa’s room. It was a long time ago, but Rion remembered it too clearly. The day of the funeral…

Rion forced the thought aside, focusing on the room.

When Noa was a kid, he kept his room immaculate and orderly. Rion remembered that Noa had even arranged the books on his shelf alphabetically by author name. He said that his parents always had him clean up after himself, even when he was little.

The room was mostly in order. Noa didn’t used to have posters or anything up on the walls, but now there was an overfull cork board with all kinds of pictures, postcards, and magazine clippings pinned to it. There was a stack of papers, sketchbooks, and pencils on his nightstand and his bookshelf was packed full, not just with books but with several models on the top shelves. The models were impressive, the kind you’d find in kits, painted and put together exactly right.

Noa’s desk, which had always been cleared off as a child, was overflowing with all kinds of things. There was a set of paints in one of the corners, along with glue and scissors–

They were a different pair of scissors than the ones Noa had as a kid. They were bigger and the handle was blue, not yellow…

Rion tore his gaze away, focusing on the other items scattered across the desk. It looked like Noa had been paper crafting. There were folded, glued-together papers that were drawn and coloured, made to look like animals or trees and other things. It looked like he’d been doing some things with clay too, having sculpted a couple different animals. It looked like he’d been comparing them to his paper crafts, lining them up together.

Noa had also spent some time…maybe a lot of time…creating hands.

Rion saw several sketches of hands in various poses on loose papers that were stacked on the desk and nightstand, but there were also papercraft hands and sculpted hands. There was a lot, in various sizes and poses. The room was littered with drawings and crafts of hands and even the cork board had several pictures of hands stuck to it.

For as much as Rion adored Noa, even he couldn’t deny that it was just a little creepy.

Noa’s bed was made, the laundry bin was empty, and the floor was spotless. Rion let himself be comforted by the fact that some of the old Noa was still in there somewhere.

“Whoa-ho!” Danny remarked, looking around with wide eyes. He focused on the models. “Did you put those together yourself, Noa?”

Noa nodded, standing back to make room for them.

“They look like they’re right off the model kit boxes,” Jesse commented. He was smiling but it wavered as he looked around the rest of the room.

“Noa has always been creative,” Peter said. “He kept improving with practice. When he gets his hands on pencils and paint, he goes wild.”

“It’s really impressive,” Celeste said, looking around. “Noa, what’s the cork board for? Is it just pictures you like or…?”

Noa glanced back at it. Rion followed his gaze. It looked like a random collection of images were stuck to the board. There were a lot of places and scenery in the postcards and clippings, but there were also animals and people. Rion couldn’t see any relation between any of the pictures.

“Reference,” Noa said, turning back to them. “Looking at things helps me draw them better.”

“Ooooh! That makes sense!” Danny said with a grin. “Cool! And, uh…should I ask about all the…you know…hands?”

Noa blinked at him, then shrugged.

“Hands are interesting,” Noa said.

“F-Fair enough…? I was never good at drawing them myself,” Danny said with a small laugh. “Man… It’s kind of different in here.”

“There’s something you wanted to show me?” Rion said with another glance around. “Was it just your room or…?”

Noa went to his dresser and pulled the top drawer open. Everything inside was neatly folded, and he had to reach down, digging underneath his clothes to find what he wanted. He pulled out a full binder and held it out to Rion, who accepted it. This one was newer and in much better condition than Rion’s old scrapbook.

“What is it?” Rion asked, hesitating.

Noa nodded to it. Rion must be meant to look for himself. He opened the binder and found himself blinking. He remembered this…

Noa had been drawing since before Rion met him. Even when they were kids, his art was better than anyone else in their grade. He had only improved with time.

When Rion and Noa had gotten close, they’d talked about all kinds of things, including stories and ideas they had. The end result of their ideas, combined with Noa’s artistic talent, was a comic.

The binder that Noa passed to Rion contained their old comic, the pages removed from the old sketchbooks they’d been working in and placed in page protectors. Rion was able to leaf through the binder, a smile tugging at his lips as he skimmed the contents.

It was a dumb, cheesy comic obviously put together by kids. It didn’t always make sense and the characters made a lot of stupid, bathroom humour jokes. It was a fantasy story about a group of adventurers who were friends. Rion felt strange as he looked through it, remembering how they used to talk about it all the time.

“Oh, hey! That’s that comic you guys used to work on, right?” Danny said as they crowded around for a look. “Oh, wow! That’s awesome!”

“Yeah,” Rion agreed, paging through it gently. “It’s all here… Noa, it was a great idea to put it together like this.”

“I redrew it.”

Rion looked up at Noa, blinking. Noa reached out, flipping through the pages for Rion, going to where the comic had originally ended. There were new pages, ones that had been redrawn with a more skilled hand. It almost looked like a real comic…except the content and story was still the same, still immature, childish.

“Wow,” Rion laughed. “Wow, Noa. That’s really… I’m impressed. How long did that take you?”

“I added onto the story too,” Noa said instead of answering.

“You did?” Rion said, more surprised by that. It wasn’t like the original story was any good. He didn’t see the point in continuing it now that they were older. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to,” Noa said. “It felt good. I understand if you don’t like it…”

“No, no! It really doesn’t bother me,” Rion said. “You can do whatever you want with it. It’s fine.”

“You can take it and read it,” Noa said. “You gave me your scrapbook and that was yours… This belongs to both of us so we should share it.”

“If you’re sure,” Rion said, hesitating. Noa nodded. “Well…okay then.”

“Hey, would I be able to borrow it too some time?” Danny asked. “It’s been a while since I read it. I remember it being really ham and cheese.”

“Rion can decide,” Noa said.

“When I’ve read it, I’ll borrow it to you,” Rion told Danny.

“I haven’t read it in a long time either,” Peter said. “It’s been years.”

“I barely remember what it was about, to be honest,” Jesse added.

“I think some of the characters were based on us, weren’t they?” Celeste said. “I remember Sarina wanted you to write her in as a fairy princess or something…”

“We made a character that was kind of like her but…not like her at all,” Rion said, not wanting to dwell on it. “It’s hard to remember all the details.”

He remembered them making an annoying fairy that tried to guide the group but usually led them into trouble. He was sure they’d named her ‘Serene’ after Sarina.

The two main characters were basically self-inserts of Noa and Rion. Most of their adventures had involved them doing cool stuff and fighting monsters. And some side characters were, of course, entirely made up. But their friends had been an inspiration in a lot of places. Even Amber had been written in…

“That’s really cool though,” Danny said.

“It’s awesome that you still have it,” Jesse added. “It’s a great keepsake.”

“Hey, Noa, maybe you could actually write comics,” Danny said to him. “Like, professionally! Your art is more than good enough.”

Noa tilted his head, considering it, but then he shrugged.

Downstairs, they heard the front door open and then close. There were muffled voices from below and it sounded like Mr. Murphy was welcoming his wife home. Their voices dropped to a barely discernible murmur.

“Sounds like Mom’s home,” Peter said. “We should probably head back down and have some snacks. We have some movies and stuff too. We can watch something and chill.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Danny said.

They filed out of Noa’s room. Rion hung back in the doorway. Noa lingered at his side, hesitating when he realized that Rion wasn’t following the others.

Danny was talking animatedly about how great it was that they were all together again. He was the last to disappear down the stairs. They hadn’t noticed that Rion and Noa were still in the bedroom doorway, leaving them both behind.

Rion spared a brief, uneasy glance at the door to Amber’s room before he turned to Noa. He was watching him, focused.

This was Rion’s chance.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the friendship bracelet. It was the one that was still intact, a weave of yellow and purple made by Amber herself. Rion held the bracelet out to Noa.

“Here. Take it,” Rion said, lowering his voice.

Noa stared at him and then looked at the bracelet in Rion’s hand. He said nothing. He did nothing.

“Noa, take it,” Rion said again, jerking the bracelet closer to his best friend. “Quick, before anyone comes to see where we are.”

Noa looked back up at Rion.

“No.”

Rion stood there, blinking rapidly.

What? Why? Why would Noa refuse?

He had to take the bracelet. He needed to. Rion had to give it to him. If Noa had a complete friendship bracelet, he would be safe. No one would know. It was already lucky that no one noticed Noa didn’t have his bracelet…or maybe someone had noticed but they hadn’t given it much thought? Either way…

If Noa took Rion’s bracelet, no one would suspect the truth.

“Please,” Rion said. “Noa, please take it.”

“No,” Noa said again. “I can’t. It’s yours.”

“I want to give it to you,” Rion said, lowering his voice further, eyes darting to the empty stairs.

Everyone was long out of sight. It wouldn’t be long before they noticed that Rion and Noa were missing. They might already know.

“Take it,” Rion insisted. “It’s yours now.”

“Amber made that one for you.”

“I don’t care,” Rion said, determined. He had to protect Noa. “Everyone thinks I cut up my friendship bracelet so if you take it–”

“I was the one who cut up my bracelet,” Noa said, expression pinched. “Yours is… You didn’t wreck yours. Why is everyone confused? Danny said that you told him you cut yours up but that’s not true… Why did you lie?”

“Because…” Rion began but he didn’t have time to explain.

When Rion was caught with Noa's ruined bracelet…when everyone thought Rion had cut his bracelet up…

They hated him.

Rion couldn’t let them find out that it was really Noa. He couldn’t let them hate Noa the way they hated him. And since they were just starting to be his friends again, since he was fixing things with Danny and the others now…

If Noa took Rion’s friendship bracelet – Rion’s real bracelet – he would be safe. No one could hate him. No one could blame him. It would protect him.

“Noa…” Rion began again.

“Hey, are you guys coming?”

Rion jolted, shoving the bracelet back in his pocket. He whipped around to face Danny who’d just come back upstairs.

“Yeah!” Rion said, his voice too high. “Yeah, we’re coming.”

“Okay, great. Because I’m really getting hungry and I could probably eat an entire platter,” Danny told them with a grin. “You’d better grab something before it’s all gone.”

Rion forced a smile. “Right. Yeah. We’re coming, right Noa?”

Noa didn’t answer. He looked at Rion, his brows lowered, his expression critical. He walked past Rion and headed for the stairs.