Chapter Text
“You can’t go out there!”
Luke’s sharp cry rings out through Clive’s head. He stands at the window, frozen. The spectre, a dark monolith, fades away into the mist, leaving destruction in its wake, but all Clive can hear is Luke’s panicked voice, and his own rapid breathing.
It’s funny how he’d never thought of himself as empathetic before today, before meeting Luke.
It had frightened him, almost, when he and the professor had solved Luke’s puzzle and entered the boy’s room earlier today. He’d never expected to see his younger self inside that room, staring through him, with that same dark expression, and those same hollow, dead eyes that he’d used to see staring at him whenever he looked in the mirror.
He’s a far cry from that boy today, isn’t he? He and the professor have done so much together, and he’s learned so much. And yet, hearing the crumbling of the wreckage outside, and Luke’s anxious cries, and the professor’s even voice, it’s almost like he’s there again, that day…
“...to be calm and rational, alright, Luke?”
The professor hadn’t been calm and rational back then.
“...Clive?”
Clive blinks, looking down. Luke’s grasping his hand, determination behind the tears in his eyes. “We’ve got to stay calm, alright?