Royden stared at the door to Mr. Hofrora’s apartment. Nothing much could be done at the moment.
“I’m telling you it’s not him.” Mr. Parrow said nearby. “Go to sleep. We’ve got enough to go on for now. We’ll collect more information tomorrow.”
Royden sauntered back to his bed and collapsed onto it. A few seconds later he was fast asleep.
Sunday morning dawned cool and rainy. School started up again the next day. Royden could barely remember what school felt like. It seemed like a thousand years since he last went.
Royden sat at the table slowly eating his pancakes when Mr. Doble sat down beside him.
“Happy Easter, Roys.”
“What?” Royden said, unable to believe that it was Easter already. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, unless the calendar is wrong. So, you ready for school tomorrow?”
Royden groaned loudly. “What school puts Easter at the end of spring break?”
“That’s just the way they do things around here I guess. Oh, did you hear the news?”
Of course he hadn’t heard the news. “No.”
“Two more people are missing, and they’re right near here. You know that neighborhood across the street? The police showed up after neighbors heard screaming. Nobody was there when they arrived. The paper doesn’t even have anything on it yet. I saw it online.”
Royden shrugged. “That’s too bad.”
“I know you’ll be careful, but please do.”
“Alright.”
Mrs. Doble came out with little presents for everyone. Royden got a box of chocolates shaped as bunnies and a Polo shirt.
“Do you want to decorate some eggs, Roys?” She asked after promising Mr. Doble that his Polo wouldn’t shrink too much.
“No thanks.”
“But we do it every year.”
“I know, but I’m not really in the mood today.”
“Ah, nervous about school?”
“Yeah.”
It was going to be hard to wander the apartment with both parents home. Royden spent the morning trying to figure some way to get out. With all the people mysteriously ending up in a coma or vanishing it didn’t look good for him to get out. That all changed with a knock at the door. Mrs. Doble answered it.
“Oh, hello Mr. Hofrora.”
Royden had been sitting on his bed eating chocolate when he heard the name. He froze mid chew.
“Hello Mrs. Doble.” Mr. Hofrora said from the door. “Is your son home?”
“Did he do something?”
“Oh no. Last night I saw him in the hall and asked if he would help me figure out how to use a computer. I’m hopelessly lost with the whole thing.”
“Royden.” Mrs. Doble called.
Royden pretended not to hear.
“Royden!” Mrs. Doble called loudly.
Royden sauntered into the living room.
“Ah, Royden,” Mr. Hofrora said happily, “did you forget that you would help me? I want to send mail to my grandchildren to wish them a happy holiday. Can you show me how?”
“He would love to.” Mrs. Doble said. “He’ll be right over.”
Mr. Hofrora smiled and went back to his apartment.
“You know when we said you should make a friend we meant with someone your own age.” Mr. Doble joked. “But I guess a friend is a friend.”
“Do I have to go?” Royden asked.
“Yes, it was very nice of you to offer to teach him.” Mrs. Doble said.
“But I didn’t.” Royden explained.
“Royden, get over there and help him.”
The boy didn’t know how to tell his parents that he confronted their neighbor last night because he thought he was an interdimensional criminal who was making people vanish in nearby neighborhoods. So a minute later he stood outside Mr. Hofrora’s apartment and knocked. The door swung open and the bald man stood there smiling sweetly.
“Please come in.”
Royden reluctantly did as he was told. The apartment smelled strongly of incense. Several long incense sticks burned in a glass vase by the window; their smoke wafting elegantly into the air. The walls were painted tan and the furniture looked to be made of gold with jewels inlaid in them. Royden took a seat in an uncomfortable gold chair and Mr. Hofrora sat on a long couch with a thin cushion and several cylindrical pillows.
They sat there for a while staring at each other. They looked each other over suspiciously.
“I thought about what you said young Doble. You mentioned that I attacked you, is this correct?”
“A man in a black suit attacked me and a friend the other day. I ripped his helmet off and saw a tanned bald head.”
“Hmm. And you’re sure it was me?”
Royden was silent for a minute. “Are you the one making people disappear, Mr. Hofora?”
“It’s just Hofrora.”
“Are you the one, Hofrora?”
Hofrora sighed long and deep. “Does my name mean anything to you?”
“What?” Asked Royden.
“I mean does it sound familiar?”
Royden thought for a second but could not think of any time in his life where he heard the name Hofrora. “No.”
Hofrora looked sadly at the ground. “Let me tell you a story then.”
“I don’t want to hear a story. Were you or weren’t you the man who attacked us?”
“I can only tell you if I tell you my story. I will be quick I promise.”
Royden nodded for him to continue.
“Over three thousand years ago I became king of a very small but very proud kingdom.”
“Wait, you’re how old? Are you an alien?”
“No, I am a human just like you, and my kingdom is on this very Earth. I am now however a very unique human. As I was saying I became king of a kingdom named Hofrora. We ruled that area for many years. I was the tenth ruler since my own ancestor started the great kingdom of Hofrora.” He rubbed his arms and looked at the wall glumly. “One day an advancing army approached from a nearby kingdom. We put out our best soldiers, but they were not enough. Over the course of that day our soldiers were defeated and the advancing army began to seize our great city. As things grew hopeless and the army reached the gates of the temple where I hid our mystic took me to the basement. He warned me of the impending doom of our great society. You see we were not the strongest in army, but the strongest in mind. We had a very strong belief system with great gods who did us all miracles every year. The mystic knew that our gods would die along with us if we should lose, and it looked like we were about to. So he put a spell on me. One that shall never end. He made it so that I will live forever and carry on the word of our great kingdom. I shall never die, and so our history and our memory shall never fade.
“The army killed everyone and destroyed our cities. Erasing nearly everything. They tried to kill me as well, but seeing that I could not die they buried me deep in the ground. There I remained unable to move and unable to die for thousands of years. It was worse than any torture ever thought up, young Doble. And then finally one hundred years ago I was dug up. I immediately left and found my way here to a place where I could live with others who are deemed too strange for normal Earth society. And here I remain attempting to tell the story of my kingdom. Now forgotten except for me.”
He stopped and looked at Royden expectantly.
“Ok,” Royden said slowly, “but—um—what does that have to do with the black suit?”
“While living here I was visited multiple times by them. They promised that if I am to wear the black suit every night then the history of my great kingdom will be revealed for the world to know again.”
“Who’s them? Who is telling you to do this? Why are you making people disappear? Where are they going?”
“Young Doble, I cannot say who I am working for.”
“Yes you can I need to k
now. We need to stop them. You need to stop wearing that suit.”
Hofrora held out his left hand. A black ring glistened on his index finger. “This is the suit.” He said calmly. “I cannot take it off. Every night it opens and the suit engulfs me. I then awaken outside somewhere after the suit retracts. I have no memory of what I do when the suit is on, and I cannot take it off.”
“Can’t you cut if off?”
Hofrora shook his head. “The ring is impenetrable, as is my skin. If there is a way to destroy it I do not know what it is?”
“Then just tell me who made you wear it? Do they live in the building?”
“I cannot tell you. The suit has a spell on it. If I even think about saying their name then I will be sent into endless pain that would kill anyone else. I do not want to experience another eternity of pain, young Doble.”
“Can you at least tell me what they are planning?”
“I cannot.”
Royden tried to think of someway around this, but could not. He didn’t want Hofrora to have to deal with endless pain, but he feared that all of Earth might if he didn’t find out who was behind it. He suddenly got an idea.
“I have to go, Hofrora, thank you very much for your time.”
Hofrora nodded. “You will tell of my kingdom won’t you?”
“I will.” Royden promised.
Down on the first floor Royden knocked on the manager’s office door. It opened and Mr. Bringum let him in.
“I’m surprised to see you here on a holiday, Royden. How are things?”
“I know who the black suit is.”
“The person that attacked you?”
“Yes.” Royden pressed on. “It’s Hofrora, the bald guy on the fifth floor.”
“Hofrora? He’s a human, how would he have a dimensional crystal? You did say that this black suit followed you through dimensions, right?”
“Yes, he’s working for someone but he can’t say who it is. He keeps saying ‘them’. It’s a group of people but I can’t figure out who it is.”
Someone else knocked on the door. Mr. Bringum opened it. It was Mr. Tezera.
“Bringum, I need—” He suddenly stopped when he saw Royden. “I’m sorry, I’ll come back later.”
“No need, what do you want, Tezera?”
Mr. Tezera continued to stare at Royden. “I need to know if my family and I should leave for a while. I’m afraid somebody from the building is responsible for the disappearances. If they start doing it here I think the building should be evacuated. Is there any chance it’s that horrible monster in the pool?”
“No, no, Pooly would have just eaten them. But Royden here does have a lead on who might be behind this.”
They both stared at Royden. “It’s Hofrora from the fifth floor.” He repeated. “He’s working for someone, but won’t say who it is.”
“It could be anyone in the multiverse.” Mr. Tezera pointed out. “I think we would be better off going home.”
“Not yet.” Mr. Bringum said. “I don’t want people to panic here. We’ll have to keep Hofrora someplace safe tonight so he can’t get out . . . just in case.” He added quickly.
“The ghosts and I can try and find out what we can in the building. To see if anyone knows anything.” Royden suggested.
“Good idea.” Mr. Bringum said. “Somebody must know something.”
Royden went back up to his apartment. His parents decided they wanted to go to the mall for a while. Royden didn’t want to go at first, but decided that the break might be just what he needed before looking for whoever Hofrora was working for.
It felt strange being out with normal people again. It didn’t take long for Royden to be able to push all the weirdness from his mind. There were times at the mall when he actually felt that everything that had happened over the past week wasn’t real and he dreamed it all. He came crashing back to reality when he arrived back at the apartment building that night. Just the sight of the building reminded him that despite how bizarre everything had been; it was unfortunately all real.