Through the Cracks - No Farther Seek His Merits to Disclose
#11 of Through the Cracks
This is a fic presented as if a documentary miniseries you're watching, is something I should say now that this has gotten long enough and the premise is involved enough. You should likely start with Part 1 here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/1795361.
The problem with building a story on theorycrafting, is that you never get to theory-confirming. It seems this mystery will remain... unsolved.
Rated Adult, not because of content, but because the source work is Adults Only. If you're under 18 you're not supposed to have read Echo in the first place.
Finally the titles say: Conclusion - No Farther Seek His Merits to Disclose
"There still remains the chance, the hope," the fox's voice does not sound like the voice of someone who believes there's the chance, the hope, "that everything we've seen could be explained. Maybe it was all mass hysteria. We know we're susceptible, have a history of it. Maybe bringing all of us together like this, it caused its own tiny hysteria, and that footage was the collective delusion it inflicted, maybe that! Maybe there's a possibility that this is all group-suggestion and pareidolia and misinterpretation, and Leo just took a vacation and changed his phone number and doesn't know anyone's been trying to get in touch. Just because I don't see a possibility doesn't mean it isn't there." She lifts her head, squares her shoulders, stares the camera down. "I understand that as much video, as much audio, as many photos of him as possible of him have been included in this edit. If you or anyone you know has any information on the past or current whereabouts of Leo Alvarez--Red Wolf, age 30 at time of this filming, Latino, Gay, He/Him pronouns, may be working as an auto mechanic--then please, use the contact info at the end of this project."
"There's always the chance," she says, no longer to the camera.
"I think I believe he's all right." The lynx looks confused to hear himself say that. "Someone had to send that video. Someone had that video to send. Someone knew we needed to see it, cared enough that we did."
"Either that's Leo, or someone who's both able to take care of things where Leo went and who cares enough to pass his last message on to us."
"I don't understand where he's gone or what he's done, but I can take that as evidence that he's some kind of ok."
"I always kinda wanted to go investigate the ruins of Echo," Devon looks embarrassed, like someone who's said something he genuinely hadn't known was offensive. "Do an actual investigation there, EMF meter, spirit box, the works. Everyone talks about it, but almost nobody ever goes. Guess I can see why, now."
"Yeah," Cameron agrees, "You wouldn't catch me within twenty miles of the place."
"Oh, I anticipate being very busy." Jacob folds his paws on his desk. "I'll be studying this video frame by frame, cross referencing it with other accounts and evidence from Echo. And I intend to see Lake Melakwa for myself. But that's once the case is officially closed. Until it is, the focus remains on him."
"What stays with me about Leo Alvarez," Jacob closes a file, taps its edge on the desk till the papers inside line up neatly, "is how he didn't get resolution. I took his case because it was a reason to find out more about the Black Hole Incident. But I found myself fascinated by him, himself. Every other survivor I've talked to, and this case is not the first time I've talked to survivors from Echo, they had some kind of closure, some kind of resolution, some grounds to say 'that was terrible, I'll never go back there, so here's what I'm going to do with my life instead.' And he didn't. Imagine having to still live in the house after it's been knocked down by the earthquake. He found himself with nowhere to go, after the incident."
"So nowhere, in a sense, is exactly where he went."
"So he's out there somewhere. Some place where the weird shit comes from." The camera zooms out, very slowly, from Micha's face as he talks. "If the boss is right, then him being there makes him every version of himself he ever coulda been? Every way his life coulda gone, it did go? Well... good for him, I guess. He gets what he wanted, if that's true. I get the impression he's the kinda bastard where, no matter how many pasts where everything went wrong he finds himself carrying, as long as he's got the person he wants to be with, he'll be fine. And there's gotta be at least one version of his life where he's still got-"
He glances up at the camera, swallows what he was about to say. "Hell. Maybe there's a version of his life that's got me."
"Not that we'll ever know. For us, on this side, he's just... gone."
The camera has zoomed all the way out. The sky the window above the couch is dark, streetlights visible, headlights and taillights trace a distant highway.
The credits begin by saying:
If you have any information
about Leonardo Alvarez, please contact
JRPandAssocInvestigat@hremail.ut,
or 1-888-362-7223.
They roll smoothly, silently, over footage of Micha taking off the lapel mic, standing, pulling on his hooded sweatshirt again and walking off screen, finally leaving the couch and interview room uninhabited. Eventually someone switches off the lights, and the credits finish over the unlighted, empty room.
And then the screen is dark.