Page 140 of The Sound of Him

It’s fine at first. Perfectly safe and calm.

Nolan and Maison are in the kitchen, making dinner. It involves a lot of rinsing and chopping and seasoning. I watch on the monitor for a bit, trying to figure out what they’re doing, maybe even see if I can pick up some pointers in case I ever get the courage to attempt the endeavor again.

Then I’ve got an alert and my attention is pulled. Another loose-end mission is finished, a 22 year old woman and a 25 year old man saved. I download their photos and get them ready for the printer so I can add them to my collage of survivors on my wall.

The printer is just starting to warm up when I notice that Maison is alone in the kitchen.

Maison is alone in the kitchen and he’s pressing buttons on the oven, the food nowhere to be found.

I watch carefully, my stomach filling with unease.

Nolan shows up looking freshly showered, all smiles, and they head outside together.

Nothing bad happens.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Maison is learning. Maybe Nolan could teach me how-

Then I notice the smoke. It’s hard to see on the camera feed at first, looking more like the illusion of moving air than smoke, but I’ve seen fire on my video feeds. I’ve seen the way the smoke builds, just like this, always right before-

And, sure enough, the alarms are going off.

Fuck me.

Travis is at the oven before I reach it, the door already open and the fire extinguisher in hand. I start to say, “Wait, is it actually-” but he sprays the food before I get the chance to see if it’s actually on fire, or just burning. Burned food can be saved, sometimes. The burnt stuff can be scraped off.I think?

Who knows.

The meal isn’t salvageable anymore either way. I can’t even tell what it was supposed to be, beneath all that white foam.

I’m suddenly feeling very validated, remembering how judgemental Maison had been when I had attempted cooking.Smug bastard.

The alarm is still going off despite the source of the smoke being extinguished and Nolan and Maison having rushed inside to wave towels in the direction of the sensor. Maison looks at me and shouts, “Can’t we just unplug it?”

Ew.Unplug it?He knows I handled the tech of the house by myself and he thinks I’d fucking - “I didn’t install a system that can be unplugged. It’s the 21st century, Maison!”

“Make it stop!” Bryce shouts. I turn to find him standing in the opening of the kitchen, his arm around Matt by his side. Matt, who looks afraid. Or at least worried.

“We’re trying!” I tell him, hating that I have to yell to be heard. It feels too much like I’m yelling at them. At survivors. AtMatt.

Jake is enjoying himself far too much, laughing harder than he’s working. He at least gets the idea to open the sliding glass door to get some fresh air, though, so he wins points for that. Even if Bryce shrieks at him to close it because the weather today is much closer to winter weather than fall.

“For fuck’s sake, Ace!” Maison yells. “Can’t you disable it with a fucking computer?”

Which -duh.

Yes.

Obviously.

“Oh yeah. Shit, I-” but my apology comes to a stop as the alarm does.

There’s blissful silence, only interrupted by Bryce’s, “Finally.”

Jake grumbles something to himself, something about how it actuallyistoo cold to have the door open, and closes it. I’m more focused on Nolan, whose face has fallen, shoulders slumped, as he surveys the damaged meal and declares, “That’s… not fixable.”

Travis inches away from Nolan, looking guilty. “I’d say not.”

“I don’t know what happened,” Maison mumbles, looking guilty too, but also perplexed.