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“Julie!” Frank called out as he raced down the empty dark street. He knew something was wrong when she had left and hadn’t come back, she had been gone for hours at this point. Frank wanted to believe that she was just at her home but she hadn’t been answering any of their texts or calls. Frank tried to dig through his memory of where Julie frequented.
His panicked steps took him towards the town’s small music store. Skidding to a stop he stared at it. Frank stood panting in front of the shop, staring into the inky abyss that was the inside. Closed, of course, it was closed it was almost 1 a.m., what shop would be fucking open at 1 a.m. Frank shook his head and took off running again, trying not to slide on any ice or snow.
His next stop was the small cafe the younger three frequented. But as he figured...it was closed too. “Where the fuck else would she go,” Frank huffed, running his hand through his hair. He couldn’t think of anywhere else, she wasn’t at home, not at the music store, not at the cafe, she was fucking nowhere.
Frank paced around the barren road, fiddling with his knife as he tried to think, getting progressively more worried and angry as he did. Frustrated, he kicked a chunk of ice sending it spinning down the road.
His head snapped up when he heard footsteps running his way. He felt his heart leap in his chest when he saw the familiar short blonde hair that belonged to Julie. Frank stumbled for a second before running towards her, "Julie!" He called out, frowning when he saw her dip into an alleyway.
He slipped as he tried to turn into the alley, landing on his side. Frank hissed in pain pushing himself up. He looked into the alley and frowned, she wasn't there. How could she not be there, it was a dead fucking end. Julie can't fucking climb walls.
Frank stumbled into the alleyway, looking everywhere. "I saw her, she was fucking here!" He muttered to himself. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get a hold of himself. He didn't need to be seeing things when he needed to be finding Julie and make sure she okay. Now was not the fucking time to be crazy.
Frank stumbled again, holding his head. He pressed his hand against the wall and held himself up. A harsh throbbing starting to pound against the back of his head. He took a step forward before dropping to his hands and knees his vision blurring before going black.
When he opened his eyes he was facing a fireplace, heat radiating off the flames within it. Frank frowned, moving to sit up only to be gently laid back. He looked to the other side of him, his eyes locking with Joey's.
"Hey man...you feeling better? We spent the whole night looking for you after you took off suddenly," Joey said.
"I didn't run off, we were looking for Julie, Joey, and we should still be," Frank snapped, sitting up again.
"Frank, Julie is upstairs with Susie. She's been with us the whole time, I promise. I don't know what happened with you if it's something personal, but right now you just need to rest. We found you collapsed in an alleyway for god's sake. If it makes you feel any better, I'll go get Julie and have her come sit with you for a bit, alright?"
Frank nodded, his face scrunching up as he flipped back down trying to understand what the fuck Joey was saying. The more he pushed back into his memories the more blurry and indecipherable they became. Frank huffed and closed his eyes. He really let himself go, he thought to himself. Unimpressed with his lapse in lucidity, and frustrated with himself for doing it in front Legion.
He lifted himself up when he heard light footsteps approaching, watching as Julie smiled lightly at him and sat down by him, "You okay, Gramps?"
"Did you just call me Gramps? I am not that fucking old," Frank snorted, swatting at Julie.
"Yeah, but you are senile, "She said, chuckling as she patted his head. "So I heard you were looking for me,".
"I was…I don't even remember how I got to town, honestly. I just remembered having to find you because you had been gone,".
Julie hummed and ran her fingers through his hair, "We heard the chalet door slam and when we went to go see what's up you were gone. We figured you went out to smoke but your truck was gone. We found your truck parked at my house and you were gone. But we finally found you after hours of searching for your elusive ass. With the help of some drunk chicks, Joey found who saw you on the street, we found you before you froze to death,".
"Besides making it sound so dramatic, it sounds like the situation was actually reversed, huh?"
Julie smiled and nodded, "Alright old man, get some sleep, and try not to go running off into the night when it's the middle of winter.”
Frank smirked, "No promises."