Chapter Text
They met in summer, when the weather was warm and happy in a way that was hard to describe.
Jim was almost opposed to say winter was better, the cold wash of brittle air and snow. Ideas of cozy mornings sipping coco as he and his mom bunched together on the couch watching festive movies. When snow did happen to fall from the bland, dry sky. He and Toby would make snowmen in the front yard, funky and loose shapes that somehow resembled circles.
“No, see look now he’s perfect!” Toby often declared as he shoved a carrot on either side of the snowman’s head, giving it the flimsy resemblance of horns.
Barbara would take them sledding on the hill near the old park to the east of town after they were done. Because Nancy didn’t need to be out in the cold for so long.
Three plastic sleds packed into the back of the car and they’d spend hours racing.
Jim had been hiding amongst the crowd, sticking tightly to his mom’s side as she spoke with her coworker’s, a hospital fundraiser.
Bummed Toby hadn’t been able to come along.
“Yes, can you believe it? Just right in our backyard, mongrel broke through the fence and everything. I’m so glad that it was nothing too serious.”
The woman talking to his mom said admantly.
Jim thinks she’s on the city council, or part of that branch. There’s something formal and to the point about the way she speaks.
“It was only a few stitches right?” Barbara questions. “I heard a little of the story from Dana.”
“Well it was a bit more than a few unfortunately, and a course of rabies shots, thankfully that’s behind us,”
“We tried to contact animal control to see if they could find that thing and put it down, who knows what else it’ll go after.”
“Javier even had to fix the fence! I’ve never seen a dog do that much damage before.”
“I’m glad to hear she’s okay though.” Barbara murmured softly. “That sounds horrible.”
“She’s alright. Aren’t you Claire?”
The girl that’d been standing idly beside the woman nodded slowly in response. Tugging on her sleeve, hiding the remnants of gauze, clearly and blatantly noticing his staring.
Jim looked away, embarrassed.
“Why don’t you both go talk for a little bit?” Barbara offered, putting a gentle hand on Jim’s back.
“Yes, I think that’d be good.” Ophelia agreed and Claire stepped away from her side quickly.
Jim swallowed, but felt relief pool in his chest when she began walking, leading. He wasn’t exactly opposed to follow.
They ended up in the hallway just outside where the fundraiser was taking place, sitting together on a bench as sunlight streamed in from the courtyard.
“Hi.” He said awkwardly, kicking idly at the floor with his sneaker.
“Hi.” Claire repeated with the same uncertain tone of voice.
Stuck at a strange sort of impasse and the silence seemed to stretch with no end in sight.
“You like music?” She asked suddenly, looking away from the window.
“M-music?” Jim fumbled out.
“Yeah, I snuck in my iPod.” She slipped the small device from her skirt pocket.
He watched as she unraveled the earbuds, sticking the metal jack into the device.
She held out an earbud for him and he carefully took it.
“You got a favorite song?”
He pursed his lips, “Um..not really.”
“That’s okay, I’ve got plenty on here.”
They spent the rest of the time on that bench, switching through the abundant playlist of songs.
When the time came to part he was reluctant to do so, his mom calling for him at the end of the hall to the left. Both hesitated, as shades of the sunset outside barely touched the edges of the window behind them, but they said quiet goodbyes.
They met again, officially in first period of sixth grade.
Jim had been a bundle of nerves the entire morning, eyes bouncing around the room, foot shaking under the desk. It wasn’t exactly scary, just a new situation, middle school.
Toby didn’t share this class with him, so he’d chosen the safe route or at least in his head it’d been. Hunkering down at a table in the back of the class near the window, dark and quiet.
He wished Toby was with him, when they’d gotten their schedules Toby boasted about how awesome this school year was going to be. Then his face fell when he realized they didn’t share all their classes, which was unlikely but it was something they’d both been hoping for regardless.
Someone sat down to his left, their backpack hitting the floor with a soft thump. Jim turned and they just stared at each other for a long moment.
Then Claire spoke. “Hi, again.”
Jim smiled, feeling the simmer of nerves ease slightly at seeing a familiar face. “Hi.”
That’s how it began, sitting in the back of class together. With lots of packets and free time in particular so they always had space for conversation.
Claire would tell him about all the classes she was in and projects she was working on, books she’d read from the library, how her parents let her adopt a kitten at the shelter.
His name was Sombra and he was very feisty apparently. Jim would just sit there content to listen to her talk.
Eventually though, she pulled words from him, simple ones at first, questions that were easy enough to supply. His favorite color, favorite class, best friend.
“Colby?” Claire said unsure.
“No,” He laughed a little. “Toby Domzalski.”
“Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “I’ve seen him before, short, red hair right?”
“Yeah, but don’t call him short to his face, he’ll get all snippy.”
Claire snorted. “Noted.”
It was the beginning of August, the cusps of the dry heat when he started to notice, like really notice.
She sat down beside him, giving a little nod in greeting but her demeanor just seemed tense. Hands absently ghosting over the arms of the sweater she was wearing and Jim wasn’t sure why, it was still hot outside. The AC blasting in the hallways.
It was hot as any day, even Toby complained about the blatant heat when they played basketball at recess.
Everyone else seemed completely unaffected by this mysterious ‘chill’.
This chill as he began to dub it kept appearing, the occurrence wasn’t constant at first. A few happenings that could be brushed away, under a rug, into the darkness. Whatever it needed to be called to prove that something like this was normal.
But it wasn’t.
And he knew that.
It became even more strange when they’d eaten lunch together a few times, like the entire week Toby had come down with a terrible cold.
He’d looked up for the third time as Claire sorta squirmed in her seat, she’d barely touched her food all lunch.
“Are you alright?” He finally asked, setting his sandwich down.
“I’m fine,” She affirmed quietly, then pointed down at the contents of her lunchbox, “It just doesn’t look appetizing.”
Jim tilted his head. “So you’re not hungry?”
“I am..I just-“
She opened and closed her mouth several times.
“I’m not hungry for this.” She finally decided upon.
“Do you want some of my sandwich then?” He immediately offered and his face fell when she said no.
They both had separate classes to attend in the afternoon, so they parted ways after lunch and as Jim stood at his locker he couldn’t shake the feeling of wrongness that crept up his spine.
August bled into September and by then it’d become almost impossible not to question it.
She said it was a really bad cold, nothing major but her shivering looked painful. Jim could constantly hear her teeth chattering. Her skin was warm though, as she’d brushed her arm against his, reaching out for a folder one day, the heat had felt near feverish.
Toby said it sounded contagious when he brought it up.
But that was the thing, he hadn’t gotten sick the entire time, the past two months-nothing, not even a sniffle. He felt completely and utterly fine, even when he’d snuck the thermometer down from the medicine cabinet in the kitchen, using a stool to boost him up.
There was another in the bathroom upstairs but he’d had time to actually use this one before school as his mom got ready.
He didn’t want her to see him it and worry he was actually coming down with something.
By the time Barbara had gotten to the kitchen he’d already put the device back up and was whisking away at the bowl of pancake batter.
“Looks delicious.” She said.
Jim just smiled as his mom ruffled his hair but silently, he couldn’t get rid of the weird agitation that stuck with him about the situation.
His temperature was normal, which meant he wasn’t sick. So why wasn’t this adding up in his head?
Jim tried to push it aside as September quickly rolled over into October. There was excitement in the air, plans getting put into motion for Halloween costumes, the school halls were being lined with the little banner’s of ghosts and pumpkins. Doors decorated to the max by those teachers who celebrated each and every holiday.
Everyone he saw seemed absolutely enthralled, except one person. It’d gotten so bad he started offering up his jacket for her, however that didn’t seem to help, at all.
She sat there, wrapped in her own jacket and his, but the shivering continued.
“You can..keep my jacket if you want.” He eventually said as the bell rang, still trying and hoping to help.
Claire seemed content with the idea, and promised to return his jacket after the last bell rang.
Which she did, Jim found her standing at his locker with the jacket slung over her arm. She held it out for him after he’d slipped on his backpack.
They walked together, to the hall where students were awaiting pick up. His mom should be around some time soon, her shift ended a little after he got out of school.
Her parents didn’t seem to be in the initial line of cars driving up to the curb so both stood there for a long moment, searching but not finding what they were looking for.
She was the one who shuffled away from the window.
And so they sat.
Jim counted the people as they walked by, as a way to pass the time.
“Hey Jim.”
Claire finally broke the silence, it was then he realized almost all the other students had cleared out.
Leaving them practically alone in the hallway.
“Yeah?” He pulled on the straps of his backpack, throat feeling dry.
“I don’t think I have a cold.”
Dread curled in his gut.
He swallowed. “You don’t think so?”
Claire was looking down at her hands, frowning. “No cold lasts two months.” Then she paused.
“I don’t..feel right.”
“Are you hurt? Because if something hurts you should probably go the doctor, my mom could help.” Jim rambled off, he could ask her as soon as she got here, it’d be no problem.
“No.” She mumbled. “It’s like-under my skin, I can’t explain it.”
“Under your skin?” He reiterated trying to keep his voice steady, in all honestly the conversation was kinda freaking him out.
“Yeah.” She clearly didn’t notice his wide eyed and worried expression.
“That..sounds like something you should definitely go to the doctor for.”
Claire frowned again, her brow pinching up. This time in what was almost anger. “I tried to, my mom said I was overreacting. She didn’t believe me.”
“Why would she say that?”
“Because I don’t seem sick, do I?” She looked up at him questioningly and Jim studied her face carefully.
“No, not really I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have any reason to be sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” Claire apologized softly.
A car horn blared just outside. It was Claire’s dad, waving at her through the passenger window to get her attention.
He hadn’t even noticed she’d gotten up, moving away. Leaving the conversation so abruptly.
“Bye Jim.” Claire said, looking back just once as she pushed the door open to the parking lot.
It’d been a brisk, chilly Friday. That day, when he sat there alone waiting for his mom’s car to pull up. He and Toby had a sleepover that very night, sitting in front of the buzzing tv playing Go Go sushi.
The banter and challenge of trying to beat Toby, who was clearly much better at the game than him, took his mind off what’d happened earlier that afternoon.
So in the end he forgot, put it aside, just until the morning.
He woke up first Saturday, the news blaring. Yawning, as he crawled out from underneath their fort.
Toby dubbed it Domzalski castle last night but it was soon to fall apart, the edge of the sheet covering the dining room chairs they’d dragged in hanging on by a thread.
Jim padded into the kitchen, to retrieve a drink when he heard Toby’s sudden and very unnerved voice. He hadn’t expected him to wake up so quickly.
“Uh Jimbo.”
“Yeah Tobes?” Jim asked as opened the fridge. “Do you want a water too?”
“No,” And Toby’s voice trailed off, then it returned very confused. “I think you need to come look at this.”
He pointed at the tv, having lifted up the sheet of their fort to stare.
“As I said it’s still a very open investigation and we don’t have a lot of information to give out right now.” A reporter was explaining into the camera, a group of people surrounding a house that Jim could swore had been described to him in great detail.
Claire’s sixth grade school photo popped up on screen suddenly.
“If anyone has any information at all regarding the disappearance of Claire Maria Nuñez please contact local county or state officials.”
“She’s…gone?” Ice churned in his gut.
Just yesterday-when she admitted that something felt wrong, had that been her trying to warn him? To clue him in?
“Dude..” Toby murmured as more pictures flashed onscreen, the family home, two parents in absolute shambles.
It was as if the world stopped for a moment, just a single second, then returned to motion as if nothing had ever happened.
Early spring, they found her, well found is a fairly loose term. She was said to be knocking on her own front door like a neighbor asking for sugar.
There was no great crack in the case where the police found the missing girl or like those law and order shows Nancy and Toby watched all the time. With riveting story’s that captured the audience and held them by their throat for more information.
This was simple, in explanation at least.
Aside from being covered in dirt and looking like she’d been living out in the forest, she was unharmed with not a single memory to accompany her four month excursion.
The press called it a miracle, others said it was a ploy. Most people were just relieved the council woman’s daughter had been found.
Her parents had been in complete disarray the entirety of the investigation, it was their only child and she’d simply disappeared straight out of her room. Literal months had passed and no one had any answers at all.
The police never managed to pin point a suspect because Claire couldn’t give them a description or any leads as to what had happened.
A whole month passed before she was allowed back to school and days were chipping away, apparently she’d be doing summer school to cover the missing material.
Everything had finally seemed to calm down though, the reports, the frayed talk, accusations and denials.
Toby had his theories, of course. “Maybe she’s a zombie, who just appears covered in dirt like that? Or an alien wiped her memory!”
He’d begun to sound like Eli Peperjack.
“Tobes that’s mean, don’t say that kinda stuff.”
He huffed. “Fine but it’s still weird!” So he let it go, what reason would there to be keep bringing it up after all.
Jim kept anxiously looking up at the whiteboard, a messy number 11 scrawled in corner. That’s when someone sat down next to him, the chair that’d been empty for five months was suddenly being occupied again.
Claire blinked at him owlishly. “Hi Jim.”
Nobody else seemed to be paying attention though, he could recall the day prior the teacher asked the students to not cause an uproar about the situation.
Nothing about her seemed different or off. She looked like she hadn’t just disappeared for almost half a year.
“Hey,” He responded slowly, treading carefully. “You doing okay?”
“I’m great, why wouldn’t I be?”
“No reason.” It was such a forced answer, Jim could see it and he knew Claire could to. She cringed and directed her gaze down at the table, saying nothing else the entirety of class.
The remaining days of sixth grade carried out just like that, complete and utter silence.
He met Mary and Darci in seventh grade, Claire introduced them as he stood beside Toby, displacing his weight between each foot awkwardly.
They all shared the same gym class.
It’d been a weird kind of luck they’d all gotten bunched together. Summer passed quickly, and Toby kept insisting he was going to spring up one day out of the blue during their break but he didn’t much to his displeasure, remaining the shortest of the five so far.
Jim hadn’t seen Claire all break, and he never spoke to either Darci or Mary on any occasion. But she had still smiled and waved he and Toby over from where they’d been standing in the corner of the gymnasium.
“Girls, this is Jim and Toby.” Claire offered as an icebreaker.
“I know.” Darci said suddenly. “Me and Toby were partners in history first semester last year.”
Toby smiled proudly. “See I knew you’d remember me.”
The five of them got along pretty well, all considering, it was a strange mesh.
Darci was a bit more easy going, she didn’t mind to just sit back and watch the chaos unfold, which is why Jim and her watched this latest endeavor as they sat in computer lab.
He was attempting to type out the rest of the paragraph for his reader response when Darci reached over and tapped his arm. He stopped, and Darci pointed over the top of her monitor to where the group was forming.
“I have proof this time!” Eli Peperjack insisted as he stood from his chair.
Mary and Toby were gathered behind him, staring at the screen.
“Come on Eli, this is ridiculous, what’s a bunch of snowy footprints got to do with anything?” Mary asked as she rolled her eyes but it was clear she was still inherently interested, as was Toby, who leaned on the back of the chair to get a better look.
“Seriously.” Eli insisted. “They aren’t normal footprints, who walks barefoot in the snow anyway?”
“Someone that wants to.” Toby joked and Eli scrunched up his nose.
“There’s more too, you remember those bear attacks a few years ago?”
“Bear attacks?” Toby sputtered.
“It was really small scale.” Eli waved off.
“Small enough scale that it might not even be true.” Mary rebuked and Eli shot her a look of displeasure from over his shoulder.
“Mare be nice, maybe he’s onto something.” Darci criticized from the other side and Jim was inclined to agree, he’d heard a lot of strange bouts from Eli but bear attacks sounded normal compared to the aliens he usually rambled about.
She laughed at that, but not in a condescending or mean way. “Yeah right. You know he’s just trying to pull our foot right C-bomb?”
Claire was focused on her monitor, staring emptily at the screen. Only halfway engaged in the conversation and somewhere else at the same time.
“C-bomb!” Mary waved a hand in front of her face.
“Huh what?” She shook her head, pulling away from her stupor.
Darci sat up a little straighter, eyes wide.“Are you listening girl?”
She blinked. “What we’re we talking about?”
“The pictures, did you even see them? Eli thinks he’s got a real winner here.” Toby questioned.
“The pictures right yeah, cool stuff.” But it was obvious she hadn’t bothered to glance over at Eli’s screen.
Jim was also introduced to his mom’s boyfriend around that time.
Walter Stricklander, which in retrospect Jim could look past the funky last name if he treated his mom with the utmost respect.
Jim remained guarded at first, because he didn’t trust the man. And he didn’t want his mom to be hurt again by someone that only wanted to take advantage of their family. It was slow, and Barbara tried to make sure he was comfortable with Walter being around.
They had dinner one night, just to break the ice. It was a start, and they ordered food because neither adult wanted Jim to be cooking in the kitchen and feel un-included in the conversation.
“So how are you enjoying school?” Walter asked as he took a drink from his glass. They were having wine, some old bottle from France, he could recall Walter explaining its age.
“It’s nice, my friends are cool.” Jim offered in return, pushing his dinner around on his plate as a way to fill the void of silence.
Walter seemed to notice and he smiled. “That’s good, Barbara tells me you’re doing fantastic in all your classes. She tends to boast about you quite often.”
Barbara smiled, the corners of her lips turned upwards proudly.
They spent the rest of the night talking, over dinner and then moved into the living room. Jim sat beside his mom as Walter took a seat in the chair across from them.
And his mom pulled him aside after Walter left. She seemed nervous. “I just want you to be sure Jim, if this is too fast or-“
“No mom, I understand, it’s okay.” Jim wanted his mom to be happy more than anything, and if she was then he was happy too. That’s how it worked right?
With time, a lot of it, because his weariness to extend trust would not just evaporate the moment one good opportunity presented itself.
Walter brought Barbara wine and flowers as gifts, spur of the moment type of things to show his admiration.
He was always polite and engaged in conversation no matter how fickle or silly. Brought over old vintage movies to watch for movie night and some of them were even in black and white.
They were always in perfect condition though. Apparently he was a history buff, Walter worked for a company that cataloged ancient artifacts, his job took him different places for a limited amount of time each year.
He traveled a lot, or so he said but somehow always ended up back in Arcadia.
Toby, Jim and Barbara would listen to him talk about a few close calls while being at work sites or rather precarious situations. Though Toby seemed more interested due to the geological bits, he’d gotten a bunch of tools for his birthday recently.
Walter even brought him a rock once from the museum, he knew someone who worked there, an associate of sorts. Ms Nomura was her name.
He called it Chalneg, the rock almost resembled a clawed finger. Strange name but Toby was absolutely enthralled with the prospect of the piece.
When they did have dinner again, Jim offered to cook, so Barbara and Walter took up seats at the counter, sitting in the kitchen with him.
“I must say you are quite the cook, wherever did you learn Jim?” Walter asked, but there was a joking tone as he shot a look of amusement at Barbara.
In retaliation, Barbara hit his shoulder lightly with her palm, taking another sip from her glass.
Jim sort of shrugged as he carefully diced up the ingredients on the chopping board. Not noticing the banter, too focused on the meal.
“Just a hobby Mr. Strickler.”
“Please, Walt is fine, we’re past that I would hope.”
Walt hoped, like he actually cared-and Jim came to realize he actually did.
They meant something to him, that kind of feeling was reassuring. In a way it felt like a promise he wouldn’t do anything to damage that tentative string of connection to Barbara and Jim.
Things went well, as if that had solidified his devotion.
His job happened to take him away for nearly half the year this time around, it’d been a rather somber goodbye as he explained it one night in early August, but Walter assured he wasn’t simply disappearing.
He’d text Barbara, send pictures occasionally of interesting artifacts.
Work, as he called it, was a hindering task.
There was much to be desired but rest assured that wasn’t the last time they’d see him.
The leaves on the trees outside were just beginning to turn an orangey yellowish hue, the weather becoming a bit brisker and icy to a certain degree but not unmanageable.
Jim eventually told the group about it at lunch on a chilly Tuesday, they’d all started eating together, corralled into a corner of the lunch room.
Due to the fact is was apparently too cold outside for some of them to sit at the picnic benches.
He didn’t say anything and the others didn’t bring it up with Claire either, none of them minded.
“Jimbo’s right, Mr. S knows a ton about history, like I wouldn’t be surprised if he lived it all.” Toby flaunted.
“That’s ridiculous.” Mary shot right back, pointing her fork at him.
Toby squinted at her from across the table. “Is it?”
Claire was leaned against Darci as she pulled the sweater she’d borrowed from her closer, lunch untouched.
Darci, rested a hand on her arm softly, “Claire bear seriously, why don’t you talk to your mom. Your teeth are chattering like you’ve got hypothermia or something.”
“Do we need to start bringing you a space heater? Geez.” Mary joked but her face fell when Claire frowned.
“No, it’s fine-I’m just..cold.” She seemed bummed out and tired, none of them could put their finger on it though, because she wouldn’t say exactly what was up.
Toby nudged Jim’s leg underneath the table and he turned toward his best friend.
‘Sick?’ He mouthed and Jim shrugged, a little helplessly.
It went on like that for days, weeks even and Jim was brushed with a sense of déjà vu. The little bits crawled back to him from the previous year.
But by the time he truly realized it they were already walking toward the bike wrack after school. He paused as his hands slipped around the rubber handles of his bike, a shiver ran up his spine.
Jim looked over his shoulder hesitantly and there she was. Right inside the door, Claire wasn’t exactly looking at him not truly-it was like she was staring through him.
Eventually though, her eyes did meet his in this glossy, and glimmering sort of way that confused him initially.
“You ready Jimbo?” Toby asked curiously and in the time he turned around to answer then whipped back toward the window she was already walking away.
Positioned toward the opposite door and heading for an unfamiliar, dark car parked away from the curb.
Toby took off down the sidewalk, but Jim felt compelled to stay still a moment longer, lingering.
He couldn’t see who was in the car, the windows were tinted and she was walking fast, her coat pulled all the way up to her chin.
She got in that car without saying a word, the heat within the vehicle rising into the chilled air when the passenger door was thrown open in a hurry.
No car should be that hot, like there was a fire within the interior, someone had cranked the heater to the max.
Jim watched the car pull away, take a turn east, off the street and disappear around a sharp corner. Toby called after him then, waiting at the crosswalk and Jim peddled away from the school, quickly after his friend.
That car had disappeared so fast, it was unnerving.
And come Wednesday morning they’d get the news Claire had disappeared too.