At first, only Brian noticed the window which appeared with a shy face pressed up against it. He waved encouragingly but Nick shook his head in silence. A.J. noticed next and elbowed Howie. (They were both a little weirded out by the consequences of that as A.J. saw his elbow go *through* Howie, and Howie who still percieved himself as an observer rather than a participant, felt a phantom nudge against his ribs.)
Both of them stared long and hard at the small figure watching them sing. He looked like something out of Dickens, a malnourished, mistreated youth who saw something that reminded him of happier days. Howie focused on Nick's face, trying to see his eyes, but the more he tried, the more Nick seemed to shrink away from him.
Suddenly he felt Brian's hand on his shoulder. "Don't push it, D. You're scaring him."
"Scaring him?" The four part harmony, already struggling, broke down. "But I'm not doing anything."
"You're approaching him," Kevin pointed out.
"I am?" He looked from Nick to Kevin and back again. He *was* closer to Nick, who was now cowering back from the window. "I guess the 'zoom' button means 'walk towards'," he joked weakly.
"It's okay Frack," Brian reassured the child gently. "You know them. They didn't mean to hurt you." His words had no effect. Nick remained frozen, a deer in headlights.
"Y'know the window doesn't look that strong," Kevin offered. " I could probably break it. We could yank him out."
"No." Brian was firm. "He has to want to come out."
"How do we convince him to do that when he's terrified of us?"
"Kevin, *chill*." A.J. ordered. "Look in that room, man. The only good thing about it is that no one can get in at him."
"Which right now, is all he wants."
"What he really wants is love," Brian argued. "You saw his face when we were singing. He wanted to be part of it."
"Not enough."
"Are you giving up?" Howie challenged him. "'Cause if you are man, just say so. Don't make us waste our time if you're not going to be part of this."
"I..." Kevin's gazed flicked over to Nick, who seemed to be tracing something in the floor of his prison with a toe. "I just don't know how we can help him."
"Hey, it's not hopeless yet," Brian comforted his cousin. "We've still got time, we just have to think."
"How did you get him to trust you?" A.J. wondered. "You said he was afraid of you too at first."
"Yeah... Remember that song of his? The new one Kev hates?"
"The drum solo?"
"Yup. I started tapping it out on the window."
"I couldn't remember that to save my life. Or his."
"Bone!"
"It's true D..." A.J. crossed his arms across his chest. "Now if we had some spray paint..."
"Sure," Brian decided the last statement was one of those 'if we all lived in A.J.'s brain we'd get it' things. "But we don't."
"So let's find the door."
"Huh?"
"The first time, there was a door," A.J. reminded him patiently. "He's in a room, the door must be attached to it."
Brian blinked at A.J.'s transition from complete nonsense to utter wisdom.
"How?" Howie wanted to know. "With all this mist..."
"Just 'cause we can't see walls doesn't mean they ain't there," was the reasoning. "We'll feel 'em."
"Worth a try," Kevin conceded. Howie decided he was getting the hang of moving independently from the group and might be able to handle this idea. He nodded.
"Rok, you go first. That way when we hit a corner we can go ahead and turn it without letting go."
"Why don't we split up?" Brian suggested. "Faster that way. As long as I'm a little ahead it shouldn't matter which side of the thing I'm on. And the less time it takes..."
A.J. nodded, "How are we for time?"
"Okay, I think," was Howie's uncertain response. "I've never done it like this before. But no headache or anything yet."
"Let's do it. If you find something, yell for me." Brian walked right up to the window, put both hands against it, and drummed a little of Nick's song. When he was sure he had Nick's attention, he told him, "We're going to get you out of here Nicky. Try and help us a little, ok?"
Nick gave no sign he understood. Brian sighed and slid his hands down the window into the orange mist. They disappeared from view, but he could feel something under his hands, fuzzy and hard, like mossy stones. "You were right Aje. Kev, you follow me. See you at the door, guys."