Days transformed into weeks and weeks run into months. He hadn't been able to talk to his father after the last time. The frequency modulator had left him almost empty.
That morning, Matt woke up to an aching voice in his head.
Find Sam... Find Sid...
When he awoke he was resolved to do what needed to be done.
He had been sitting at his window, watching the sky lighten, his father's words still echoing in his skull. Trust your instincts. The voice had been fading even as it spoke, stretched thin by distance and death, but the command had landed like a stone in still water.
Don't let anyone—
Anyone what?
He didn't know. But he knew one thing for sure, with a certainty that sat heavy in his chest, that the answers weren't in the castle. They weren't in Arne's careful smiles or Stanley's frantic researches or the endless, suffocating silence of his own room.
The answers were with Sid and Sam. He had not spoken to them in ages, he never thought he'd ever have to again.
