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The waiting room office smelled weird.
That was all Wilbur could focus on as he sat with his hands folded in his lap, kicking his legs back and forth since they didn’t reach the ground. He took a sniff, scrunching up his nose at the perfume-y smell of the air freshener that hung heavily in the air.
There was no one else in the waiting room, save for the secretary who was typing rapidly onto her computer and not paying attention to him. His mum had disappeared into the office a while ago, leaving Wilbur with a book and a direction to not go anywhere until she came back out.
The book sat in his lap. Surf’s Up, Geronimo! was written across the cover in bright blue letters, a drawing of an orange mouse getting his tail pinched by a crab sitting below the title. He’d been reading the book for the past fifteen minutes, but he couldn’t help but be curious about what was going on behind the office door.
It’s your fault we’re here, Wilbur said, glancing up from his lap to the space where Techno was floating right beside him.
Techno, who Wilbur could only see a faint outline of on the other end of the shimmering tether that connected them, huffed. Not my fault.
Wilbur narrowed his eyes. Yes it is. It’s because of the snowball fight.
That kid was hurting you, Techno pointed out, as if it was obvious.
He was just shoving snow in my face!
You were screaming for help.
I didn’t want you to choke him.
There was a beat of silence in their head as Techno stared at him. Wilbur wasn’t sure how he knew Techno was staring at him since he couldn’t really see his face, but he just felt Techno’s eyes lingering on him. Skimming over his expression, like he was puzzled why Wilbur was reacting this way.
After the snowball fight—and the encounter with the monsters in Wilbur’s room that left deep scratches on his arms, currently hidden by his sweater sleeves—Wilbur’s mum had told him she was going to take him to a doctor. He’d been to doctors before because of Techno, and they’d made him take gross medicine that made his head feel fuzzy. Techno wasn’t affected by the medicine, so none of the problems went away, and Wilbur eventually stopped having to take it.
He wondered if this doctor was going to be any different, or if he’d just have to take pills again. He didn’t like the pills, especially the ones that made him sleepy. Plus, he didn’t understand how taking pills was going to make Techno behave. It wasn’t like he was the one taking the pills, but the doctors always promised the same thing. The medicine would make Techno go away.
It never worked.
Suddenly, the door to the office opened, and Wilbur perked up in his seat as his mother walked out. She knelt down in front of his chair, giving him a small smile and resting a hand on top of his own.
“Go on in there and talk to the doctor, Wilbur. He wants to ask you some questions.”
Nodding, Wilbur handed the book to his mother, before hopping off the seat. Techno trailed alongside him as he made his way to the door, opening it up fully and peeking his head inside.
The office was small, with beige walls and grimy carpet. All along the walls, boards with complicated-looking graphs and papers that had lots of numbers Wilbur didn’t understand on them were pinned up. There were a few newspaper articles as well, with headlines like Local woman claims to see dead husband still lingering in her home and This toddler can move things with her mind.
There was a desk in the center of the room. It was covered in lots of papers and a large computer. On one side of the desk, there were two chairs. On the other side of the desk, there was only one chair, with a man sitting in it.
He wasn’t as old as most of Wilbur’s doctors were. Blonde hair fell to his shoulders, with part of it pulled back into a loose ponytail like Wilbur’s mum used to do to his hair before his dad made her cut it short. When Wilbur met his eyes, the doctor smiled at him, and gestured for him to come in.
“Hi Wilbur. You wanna come sit down?” He asked, his voice warm.
Silently, Wilbur shut the office door behind him as he walked over to the desk. He settled himself in one of the chairs, while Techno continued to hover just above his shoulder.
“I’m Dr. Craft, though you can just call me Phil. Your mother came to me because she said there’s been some strange things happening with you, and she wants to get you some help,” Phil explained, folding his hands in front of him. “Do you know what strange things she’s referring to?”
Wilbur folded his arms over his chest. “She’s talking about Techno.”
Phil nodded, his smile staying in place. “Yeah, your mum mentioned something about Techno. Is he the cause of the strange things that happen?”
“He knocks stuff over,” Wilbur said, slumping down in his seat. “He can break things if he gets mad, and sometimes gets mad at me for stupid reasons.” He paused, looking down at his lap. “If he’s really mad, he hurts people.”
“What makes him mad enough to hurt people?” Phil asked, sounding genuinely interested.
Wilbur shrugged. “Usually he only hurts people if they hurt me first, or if he thinks I’m being hurt.”
Phil nodded. “So he protects you?”
Grimacing, Wilbur shook his head. “Not really. He’s hurt me before too.”
If you’re talking about the book, that was an accident.
You threw that right at my head, that wasn’t an accident!
“Do you think you could draw a picture of him for me?”
Shifting his focus away from his conversation with Techno, Wilbur blinked, and noticed Phil was pushing a piece of paper across the desk towards him. He had a pencil on top of the paper, and Wilbur scooted his chair closer so he could properly draw on it.
Picking up the pencil, he sketched a stick figure of himself, drawing lots of swirls for his hair. Then, he drew the tether that connected him and Techno, before drawing Techno himself. Since he couldn’t see Techno’s face, he left it blank, instead just showing him as an outline with a head and a body floating in the air beside Wilbur himself.
Wilbur pushed the paper back to Phil, who picked it up and glanced over it with a soft hum.
“So Techno looks like a person, but you can’t see his face?” Phil asked.
“Yeah. I just see the outline of him, and it’s kind of fuzzy,” Wilbur explained.
“Do you possibly know how old he is? Is he tall, like an adult?”
Wilbur shook his head. “No. He’s the same height as me, and he doesn’t remember anything before me, so I think he’s the same age as me.”
Phil nodded, finger skimming over the pencil marks. “And there’s a chord between you two. Is Techno attached to you?”
“He is,” Wilbur said softly. “I don’t want him stuck to me, and he doesn’t wanna be attached either, but he can’t leave. It makes him really mad sometimes.”
Techno was silent beside him. This was something they both knew was true.
“Is that why he hurts you?” Phil asked, much quieter now.
Slowly, Wilbur nodded.
Pursing his lips, Phil set the paper down. “So he’s attached to you, and he’s roughly around your age. Is he a ghost of some kind? Or maybe a spirit?”
Wilbur shrugged. He had no idea if Techno was a ghost, and he was pretty sure Techno didn’t know either.
Sighing, Phil’s eyes darted around the room, before settling back on Wilbur. “You said he can break and move things, right?” Wilbur nodded. “Do you think you can ask him to move something in this office?”
Glancing to his left, Wilbur raised an eyebrow. Can you move something in here?
There was a pause.
Then,
Fine.
Techno floated closer to the desk, faint outlines of hands brushing over the different papers and paperweights scattered across it. After a moment, his hand landed on a book with a file on top of it, and he shoved it off the corner where the files went scattering across the ground.
Wilbur winced, ready for Phil to yell at him. But instead, after a few beats of silence, he beamed.
“Holy shit,” he whispered, staring at the papers in awe. “That’s amazing.” He glanced back up at Wilbur. “So you just- you can tell him to do something, and he’ll do it?”
Immediately, Wilbur shook his head. “No one can tell Techno what to do,” he said, wringing his hands in his lap. “Sometimes he listens to me, sometimes he doesn’t. Just like how he’ll protect me sometimes, but then he won’t. It’s just… whatever Techno wants to do.”
Phil pursed his lips, furrowing his brows as he stared at Wilbur. After a few moments of silence, his eyes fell to Wilbur’s arms. “Your mum mentioned that you had marks on your arms.”
Gulping, Wilbur pushed his sleeves up, showing Phil the scratches marring his arms. Phil winced, his frown deepening.
“Did Techno do that to you?” He whispered, like he could keep a secret from Techno if he spoke low enough. Like Techno wasn’t standing right next to Wilbur.
Wilbur shook his head.
“No. Those were the monsters.”