Chapter Text
Terry Jr. walked out of the bar feeling a headache already coming. He pulled out a cigarette and flicked his lighter a couple times. It didn’t spark and he smacked it against his palm. After a number of failed attempts to get it to light, he gave up.
As he was about to put the cigarette away, his wife came out. She walked up to him and smoothed the front of his shirt. “I think I’m gonna head home, are you going to stay a little longer?”
“Yeah, I think just until the game is over. I can probably get Grant to give me a ride back with the others.”
Veronica smiled and kissed him. “Text me once you’re on your way okay.”
“Will do.” He kissed her on the forehead.
Before she turned to leave she nodded her head toward the bar. “Nick probably has a lighter for that.”
He looked down at the cigarette still in his hand and sheepishly smiled.
Terry watched as Veronica got into her car and drove off, waving one final time while she could still see him. He then made his way back inside sidestepping servers with loaded trays.
Getting back to the large circle booth he slipped in next to Lark, deciding to wait a minute before asking Nick for that lighter.
Their wives and Marco had already left the bar. Grant had come separately from work and agreed to drive Nick home. Then Lark, then Sparrow. And now Terry.
The large group of eight usually met around once a month. During the group grief counseling they had gotten quite close and despite everyone being mostly back up on their feet, still liked to catch up. Sparrow’s twin, Lark had also joined the small group, being good friends with Nick.
Nick probably had it the hardest. His son was the only body the police found in the search.
The bus had flipped, the driver got a concussion and students were either knocked out or too in pain to do anything. Their kids disappeared, probably trying to get help. Taylor was found down the river a couple days later.
Nick was currently leaning back, laughing at Grant. They watched the soccer game with decreasing enthusiasm as their favored team began to fall behind.
Terry drained the rest of his beer, and flagged down the server for the check. The boys began their weekly argument over who was paying as Terry quickly slipped his credit card to the server. “One of you will get it next time,” he said smugly.
The group walked out of the bar (except for Lark who stumbled over the doorstep, declared he wasn’t drunk, and began walking more slowly) and quickly got into Grant’s minivan.
Nick slid into shotgun and immediately took over the radio. The ride to Lark’s apartment was fairly short so they were heading there first. As they were arguing over music choices, they felt the road go bumpy. Grant, previously distracted by Nick’s button pressing shot right to attention.
“Was there a pothole,” Lark slurred out, turning his head to look behind them.
Grant shook his head. Peering out the front window everything began to darken. Grant slowed down and played around with the high beams but it had little effect as darkness around them allowed for no vision.
“What the fuck,” Nick said under his breath.
Before the car could come to a complete stop, they were blasted with pure purple. Everyone closed their eyes and could feel the car being lifted and shaken around. Terry tried to grab onto anything around him and opened his eyes slightly. Purple static seemed to seep into every part of his being. His eyes, his mouth, his skin. As soon as it began to overwhelm him it stopped and they crashed.
Opening his eyes was no easy task. Every part of his body hurt and protested at any movement. But feeling the sunlight on his skin made him finally crack them open. They had crashed in the woods, which was the first odd thing because he was pretty sure they weren’t anywhere near any. Then he noticed the giant duck that walked into the area. It blinked at the vehicle and walked away most likely to find a body of water.
What. The. Fuck.
…
Scary looked away from the orb and stared daggers at Taylor. He wouldn’t make eye contact with her, instead choosing to stare at a broken tile.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Her voice was calm but the amount of venom behind the words made the boys cringe internally.
“I just wanted to tell dad I was alive.”
“So you brought all our dads here?”
Link spoke up. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to.”
“I’m not talking to you Link!” She stepped closer to Taylor, an unhappy grin appearing on her face. “All our fathers were garbage, that’s why we were happy to stay here. The condition as to why all of us get to stay here is that we don’t contact our fathers. Not a hard thing! If our great grandfathers find out they’re gonna kick us out!”
Normal uncomfortably shifted in his seat. “We could tell them we just wanted payback.” He turned his head to Taylor, the gems on his crown glimmered as he moved. “Although you’d have to be willing to do a lot of damage before Willy even begins to believe us.”
Scary thought for a moment, and turned to Link. “Is there a spell to get them sent back?”
“I think we just need to reactivate the portal they were originally sent through, but we’ll need the proper spell components.”
“Good, get those. And send some mercenaries to rough them up and make sure they stay in that area. Either they get through quick enough or we make it so that we are messing with them enough that Willy believes Normal’s idea.” She paused and thought for a moment. “Make sure the mercenaries use poison arrows”.