Griffen was having trouble adjusting to the Hive. He had promised the others that he would remain visible. The girls in particular were especially creeped out when they thought he was invisible. Anne would move about, swinging her arms wildly through the air to make sure he wasn't there, threatening all sorts of violence if he was.
To say Griffin Oliver was a loner would be a gross understatement. The only child of two only children, he had been raised in quiet solitude.
Griffin was born on the eve of his parents 25th wedding anniversary, an unwelcome surprise. The two scientists had no interest in raising a child. A nanny was brought from Honduras and given complete authority over the child. Nana Alina was a kind, quiet, middle-aged woman, who raised Griffin until his tenth birthday.
There was no cake and certainly no party, but upon Griffin reaching the age of ten, mature enough in his parents minds, Nana Alina was let go and Griffin's room was redesigned as a studio apartment so he needed to interact with his parents only on the rarest occasion. Losing the only person he cared for left Griffin depressed and even more isolated.
He found it impossible to make friends. He had no idea what people talked about and when he tried to join in the conversation, it was so awkward he would break out in sweat and flee after only a few moments.
Soon after his sixteenth birthday, Griffin was typing on his keyboard when he looked down and saw nothing where his hand should be. He could feel his fingers, but not see them. He moved them across the keys. 'I am just a human being.' The H G Wells quote appeared on the screen exactly as typed. More curious than concerned he stood and went to the mirror that hung over his dresser. There he found no reflection of himself. He returned to his computer and began researching invisibility.
Griffin experimented with the phenomenon until he could easily control when he disappeared and reappeared. The day the cat showed up, he was not really surprised, weird things happen to weird people. He suspected the cat had something to do with his new found talent. Without regret he made himself visible to the cat.
"My fate is in your hands..paws." He was smiling as he disappeared, this time never to return.
"Okay, so, who left the milk out?" Ethan was finding it difficult to live with so many diverse personalities in such a small space. It took very little to start an argument. Yesterday Anne and Rufus, an unlikely pair to disagree, were fighting over the last strawberry yogurt. There was never a shortage of food in the Hive.
There had been no more missions since the mining accident and everyone was going stir crazy. Ethan and Rufus had decided at breakfast to confront Kate and Rudy this morning about giving them access to more of the Hive than just the two areas they were confined to.
Griffin overheard them talking and unsure how to broach the subject, he blurted out very loudly, "I've been outside." Five faces turned toward him,
Georgie was the first to speak. "Yeah, right." Sarcasm being Georgie's fallback emotion. "Whatever. "
The others quickly recovered from their shock.
"What?"
"Really?"
"Cool."
"Shh. Let Griffin speak." Ethan, always the voice of reason put a hand up. With an encouraging look he spoke to Griffin, "Tell us, please."
With everyone staring at him, Griffin immediately broke into a sweat. He fidgeted in his chair. "I go out when Kate and Rudy come in."
"Ahhh. That's brilliant." Rufus smiled his approval at Griffin's ingenuity.
The attention was too much! Griffin started to fade. "Hey, get back here. Nobody's gonna hurt you." Rufus demanded making Griffin even more nervous. And just like that Griffin was gone.
"Well, I'm not moving til he comes back." Anne settled into the corner of the sofa prepared to wait him out.
Ethan was the spokesman for the group. He swore that they could not stand one more day cooped up in their pod. Kate and Rudy exchanged glances, communicating in their silent twin language. The group waited anxiously.
It was Rudy who broke the news. "We have spoken to Mr. Christie and he has agreed to let you...settle down!" Rudy waited til they were quiet before continuing. "We will all go out as a group. You must stay together and not wander apart."
"Sounds like a kindergarten outing." Rufus observed. "Are you going to tie a rope around our waists."
Everybody but Ethan laughed.
Rudy waited again. "That's the agreement, take it or leave it."
"We'll take it!" They shouted as one.
Rudy's next cryptic words finally sobered them up. "It is only safe to move about in the day time so we will leave directly after lunch and return before dinner. You do not want to be unprotected and outside your pod after dark. Under no circumstances, and I can't stress this enough, are you allowed to take food into the common area. We don't want to leave a trail." Suddenly every one was very quiet.