Chapter Text
There was a soft knock on the door of the Henderson household.
While Claudia was fixing them something to eat in the kitchen, Dustin had been doing his homework in the kitchen counter, or rather trying to. The new kitten, affectionately named Moo by his mother, was playing around with the pencil the kid was using to write a book report.
“Mom, I give up. I think the best course of action here is to not turn in my assignment,” he said, looking over to the door and getting up from the chair. His mother let out a soft laugh and shook her head.
“Just answer the door, honey. I’ll get him out of your way as soon as I’m done here.”
Dustin walked over to the door and opened it, not in the least recognizing the person standing on the other side. The girl in front of him, who had been nibbling on her bottom lip, opened her mouth to speak but seemed to have lost her voice. She stared at him dumbfounded.
“Uh, can I help you with something?”, he asked, noticing the stranger who appeared in front of him. An unruly-haired teenager, she was wearing black Vans, dark jeans and a Prince t-shirt. Dustin thought she may have been 16 or 17 years old. A large duffle bag hung on her back.
“Yes,” she said, finally. “This is Claudia Henderson’s house, right? I’m looking for her.”
She was looking for her. Never had a sentence been so true in her life. She was looking for Claudia. She had been looking for Claudia for months now. Months.
“Yeah, hold up,” he said softly, then turned around and shouted: “Mom! There’s someone here for you!” Dustin took a step back and let her in, giving an exaggerated courtesy that almost made the girl laugh. If she had been in the mood for it, she might have found it adorable too.
“Dusty, honey.” They both could her distant voice nearing as she left the kitchen. “What have I told you about screaming inside the hou—”
Claudia let out a yelp. That’s how the girl knew she knew.
The wide-eyed middle-aged woman in front of her stopped dead in her tracks, taking a shallow breath. Dustin looked from one to the other, suddenly feeling cold. He looked at the door and realized he had not closed it, though he didn’t dare move now.
The girl cleared her throat. “Um, you’re Claudia Henderson, right...? I’m—”
“I know who you are,” she hastily interrupted the girl, stealing a quick glance at Dustin, who just looked confused. And that’s how the girl knew he didn’t know. “I... How did you...”
The question hung in the air. How did she, what? How did she know? How did she get there? How did she find out? How did she find her?
But neither of them spoke, and the kid couldn’t take it anymore.
Here comes this person, this strange-looking girl, who shows up at his house out of nowhere and causes such a reaction on his mother. After everything that happened in the past year, Dustin knew now how to recognize a threat. Not that he wasn’t curious, but the last time he had been curious, he had befriended the very definition of a threat, a cat-eating definition of a threat.
Standing in front of him, in his living room, was another threat.
“Mom, what’s going on?” He asked, approaching her and giving her a side hug, pressing her arm ever so slightly. He gave the girl a threatening look. “Who is this girl? Do you want her to leave? I can kick her out.” He then let go of Claudia and made his way to the girl. “Ok, I don’t know who you are but you have to go right now. I may not look intimidating, but I have fought things much worse than you, so I think I should be—”
“Kid,” the young girl interrupted him lifting her hand, trying to look at him softly. She could understand where he was coming from. “It’s fine. I’ll leave.” She looked at Claudia, who was still seemingly frozen, her feet pratically glued to the end of the orange carpet. The girl opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out, so she just sighed and turned around. When she reached the threshold of the open door, thinking she would shut it behind her, she heard this plea, barely above a whisper.
“Wait.”
The young girl witnessed the woman take a deep breath and face her son. “Dustin, honey…” She paused, closing her eyes. Getting ahold of herself, she sighed and said: “That’s your sister.”