The figure stood stock still in the doorway, holding a cardboard delivery box in their black-gloved hands. Upon seeing me as an unfamiliar figure, they slowly turned towards me. 

Not knowing what I should do or say, I remembered seeing a knife block on the kitchen counter. I decided to edge closer to the kitchen, so in case this situation got hostile I was prepared to not give up without a fight. I wasn't going to be the weak one. Not this time. 

Although their hood hid their face in shadows, their voice had sounded like one belonging to a young boy.

‘Who are you?’ The figure then asked coldly, his calm voice from mere moments ago replaced with an icy tone. I halted my progress to the kitchen  and weighed up my responses with my head bowed in thought. 

Deciding to wear my most convincing expression of indifference, I raised my head to meet his gaze- or his hood, really. ‘My name is of no concern to y-’

Suddenly, the surprisingly loud sound of a flushing toilet came from the bathroom, ruining what hope I had of appearing intimidating. The bathroom door opened to reveal Altonio, who peered out from behind the door.

‘Hey, what’s with all the noise? Did I mention that it’s best not to touch the bookshelves? They tend to-’

He saw my expression of shock and sidled his way out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him without looking behind or turning around. As he turned to see the hooded figure still standing in the front doorway, I expected that he might yell or pull out a weapon to disarm the intruder. Instead he folded his arms and smiled to my great disappointment.

‘Ah, I see you’ve met Octavius! He’s my assistant,’ he declared.

I gawked at the man and pointed to the figure, who had now deemed it appropriate to shed his cloak and hood to reveal a pale silver-haired boy. With extreme emphasis on boy.

‘But he’s just a little kid!’ I exclaimed. ‘How many other children have you kidnapped?’

‘I am not trapped. By my own will alone did I come here,’ the boy said coldly, as if I had offended him.

Altonio sighed and shook his head. ‘Octavius is a child of the Moon.’ The way he said it made me seem like idiot in the room. 

‘As if that answer solved all my questions!’ I said irritatedly. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

‘Not the Earth. The Moon,’ the boy scoffed. ‘You humans are so slow, you can never accept what’s in front of your eyes.’

'Just what is a "Child of the Moon?"'.

Octavius rolled his eyes. 'A person who comes from the Moon.'

'So you're saying you were born and lived on the Moon?'

'Naturally,' he said with a sigh. 

I was grasping at straws here. None of this was making sense still. How could there be life on the Moon? There hadn't even been any recent human explorations into space, let alone a trip to the Moon in this century!

Altonio elaborated. 'Although you may find it hard to believe, there has been life on the Moon for a very long time. They've been living there just as long as humanity has on Earth. Children of the Moon can change their appearances at will to become their older or younger selves. Octavius here is…?’

‘Thirty years old, Master.’

I took a step back. ‘T-thirty?! But you look younger than me! You look like you’re thirteen!’

‘Age has nothing to do with his capabilities,' Altonio said. 'The fact that he may look younger than you does not matter in the slightest. He is an excellent assistant and a dear friend to me.’

‘Thank you, Master!’ Octavius replied admiringly. His whole face changed into something much more pleasant than what had been directed at me. ‘That means so much to me!’

For some reason it just seemed wrong to me that a supposed thirty year old in a boy's body was deriving happiness from the words of a twenty-something looking man. Calling him "Master" was also strange. 

‘Master,' Octavius then said, turning to Altonio. 'Did Boss say anything about keeping him locked up? If his fragile mind can’t even handle me then there will be a problem when we hand him over.’

Altonio frowned and I took a few steps back.

‘Tavi, don’t be so rude. He’s a guest here, and if he doesn’t learn of things now then he’ll never adjust when Boss wants him.’

Altonio took a step towards me, his face calm while I was descending into panic. ‘Look, whilst you were unconscious a lot of things changed down on the ground. You’ll see it for yourself one day, but for now it’s best to simply say that it’s not the Earth you used to live on.’

'Well what does that mean?!' I was outraged. 'Not the Earth I used to live on? What happened to it?!'

'Like I said, you'll see it for yourself in time. Even if you saw it now, there's nothing you could do to change it. That's just how it is.'

Behind my outrage I was picking over what they had said so far. "A lot of things changed down on the ground." So we were somewhere high up after all; a high-rise apartment was probably a good assumption. If the Earth, and by using the word "Earth" and not "city", meant that it wasn't just Sydney that was affected by some mysterious event, then something very powerful must have occurred to change the whole world. They also intended to pass me on to some other person who was their leader, or at least someone they worked under. 

If this apartment wasn't the end goal and Altonio did not intend to keep me here, then I had a purpose to fulfil somewhere. For what purpose though, I could not begin to guess. Even after wracking through my brain the only thing I could come up with was that I was a decent long-distance runner. What use that would be to someone I had no idea. 

‘Now listen carefully,’ Altonio began. ‘You two will be working together to complete tasks for me, for as long as I say so.’

Octavius nodded eagerly. ‘Of course! As you wish, Master! We could never send this child to Boss without training him first.’

I couldn’t believe it. This was all too crazy for me.

‘So,’ Altonio began, turning to me. ‘What’s your name?’

‘Jonathan…’