Chapter Text
Mercedes Oak-Garcia had lost track of how long it had been since she’d watched her husband and sons, her world, get into that van. The van that stole everything from her. According to the calendar that was hung up on their fridge next to the drawings her sons had made, it had only been a couple of weeks but to Mercedes, it felt like centuries. She’d been stuck in this endless cycle of talking to the police (who were doing absolutely nothing), obsessively checking her phone to make sure she hadn’t missed any calls, hoping and praying that all of her hoping and praying would do something , and talking to the mothers of the other kids that had been in that van.
Carol Wilson and Samantha Stampler had been a great support for Mercedes to fall back on, they were going through this together and had grown quite close as a result.
It had been Carol’s idea to get the police involved, but as Mercedes had correctly predicted, they were no help whatsoever. These people dressed in a tacky uniform would come into their homes and tell them that this was a hopeless case. At some point it had been suggested that their husbands had kidnapped their children and ran away but Mercedes knew her Henry, she knew he would never do anything like this. He would never have taken their beautiful boys away. Mercedes remembered sitting in Carol’s family room when Carol had quite literally slammed the door in the investigator’s face when he’d even so much as suggested this. She’d scoffed and wiped her hands on her shirt before sitting down on the couch and promptly breaking into tears.
The police continued their investigation but something about this felt wrong to Mercedes. It was almost like the van holding her whole universe inside had disappeared off of the face of the Earth. Mercedes could practically sense that something otherworldly was going on but Carol and Samantha just looked at her with sad expressions when she brought it up.
On this particular day, Mercedes was brewing a cup of tea, her radio set to a local news station just in case . She watched the kettle bubble up as she clutched the quartz crystal in her necklace in her hands, twirling it between her fingers. She found her gaze wandering to one of the crayon drawings the boys had decided their kitchen cabinets needed when they were younger. Her and Henry had decided they didn’t want to stifle their boys’ creativity by telling them it was wrong to draw on the furniture. As her eyes traced the lines of what was most likely a flower… or maybe a tree? Mercedes’ mind wandered.
Mi amor where did you go? I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Where did you take our boys? When will you come home? Why did you-
The shriek of the kettle shook Mercedes out of her brain’s never ending train of questions and she jumped, startled for a moment before pouring the water into the cup she’d grabbed. It was a mug that one of the boys had made at one of their art lessons, it looked like some kind of animal so it was probably one of Sparrow’s. She felt tears building up in the corners of her eyes for what was probably the thousandth time that day.
She was pulled out of her misery once again, this time, by a knock on the front door, loud and forceful. Mercedes practically ran to open it. Her heart was swelling with hope that she’d be greeted by the smiling faces of her boys again, but instead she was greeted by the two (non-smiling) faces she’d become oh so acquainted with these last few weeks.
Carol and Samantha stood in her doorway, Carol was wearing a t-shirt that Mercedes could only assume belonged to her husband seeing how awkwardly it fit the smaller woman and Samantha looked like she had just gotten done with a shift at her office.
“Oh! Hello ladies, I wasn’t expecting you to-”
Carol held up a hand to cut her off, “we’re leaving Mercedes. We’re going to find our goddamn kids.”
Mercedes was taken aback and confused, she turned her gaze to Samantha who just nodded, a small complacent smile on her face.
“Wh-what..? What do you mean?”
“You’re seriously going to make me repeat myself?” Carol rolled her eyes, “I said we’re going to find our goddamn kids! The police are useless, just saying that our kids were kidnapped, it’s all bullshit. So we’re going… and then we’re gonna have a long talk with our dumbass husbands!”
“How exactly do you plan on doing that? Because I am so ready. I just need to know the plan.” Mercedes chuckled nervously, unsure of just how impulsive this decision was.
“We’ll just follow the path they took to get to the soccer game. Darryl had it all mapped out in advance.” Carol sighed.
“Okay- just give me one second. I’ll go grab some things that might be able to help us.” Mercedes quickly ran upstairs and grabbed her bag, shoving as many crystals and essential oils she could fit into it before running back downstairs to where the other two remained standing in her doorway.
Carol looked Mercedes up and down before a small smile spread over her face. “Let’s get going then.. We’re finding our goddamn kids and dumbass husbands!” Carol exclaimed, her voice practically echoing across the whole neighborhood.
Mercedes exited her house, leaving her tea completely untouched. She could clean it up once she had her boys back, she figured.
The three of them had piled into Carol’s Toyota Corolla, Carol was driving and Samantha sat in the passenger seat next to her, reading the directions that Darryl had apparently scribbled onto the map (that he didn’t end up taking with him?) out loud. Carol had some older rock album playing very quietly but neither she or Mercedes spoke. The latter pulled out her phone, checking it again to see if she’d missed any calls or texts but there was nothing. She hesitated for a moment before drafting out a text to send Henry. It went through a few iterations before she decided on something concise.
Carol, Samantha, and I are coming to get you and the kids. Stay safe my love.
She let out a sigh before putting her phone away and leaning back in the seat.
They’d been driving in silence apart from Samantha’s directions and Carol’s music for a few hours when Carol let out a quiet, “huh.” Before turning the volume on her car radio all the way down. “Mercedes, your husband is a geologist right?”
Mercedes’ heart swelled with pride at the mere mention of her husband and his career but she nodded, “he sure is. Why?”
“Do these rocks not look weird to you? Something about them seems… off. I dunno, the road’s all rocky outta nowhere too.” She finished before shaking her head and sighing, “it’s probably nothing- I’m probably just overthinking.”
Mercedes glanced out of the car window and her brows furrowed, there was something odd about the rocks. She was sure that if Henry was here he’d be able to tell what exactly was going on but right now she was clueless.
“It is… rather rocky.” Samantha shifted in her seat looking down at the map and then out the back window, “aren’t we on the highway? It seems so… un-highway-y all of a sudden.”
Mercedes found herself also looking out of the car’s back window, trying to figure out what was going on. It almost seemed like they’d been on this rocky road the whole time, but that couldn’t possibly be true. Suddenly, everyone was jolted forward as Carol slammed on the brakes, her tires screeching against the non-asphalt road.
“What the hell is that??” Carol yelled out as the car continued to roll despite her foot still holding the brake down.
Mercedes pulled her gaze from the road to look in front of them and gasped when she saw the swirling vortex in front of them. It seemed to dance as it alternated between every existing shade of purple. She wanted to reach out and embrace it as something about it felt so… welcoming.
“Holy fuck…” Samantha muttered under her breath, “is that real?”
“The car won’t stop- oh my god-” Carol was panicking, trying to swerve out of the portal’s grasp but it was all pointless, the car was seemingly no longer under her control. Fully at the mercy of this portal.
Mercedes continued to stare at the portal before the car was sucked inside. All of her senses were overcome by panic as something deep within her heart spoke to her.
Your family is in danger. You’re the only one who can save them.
And then everything went dark.
When Mercedes awoke again it was with a start. She was groggy but somehow uninjured as she remained in the seat she’d been in earlier. She climbed out of the car to gain a bearing of her surroundings.
“Mercedes? Oh- thank goodness you’re okay.” Samantha piped up and Mercedes saw that she was leaning against the side of the car, which strangely seemed to be undamaged. “I-I don’t know what happened- everything was all purple and then-then- My Ronnie and Terry Jr.. they’re in danger??” Samantha let out a shaky exhale followed by a stifled sob.
Carol then spoke up from somewhere behind the car. “Then we can go save them. That’s what we’re here to do right?”
“I-I mean… yes, but what… or I guess… where is here?” Samantha asked, taking in a deep exhale.
“That’s what we need to figure out. Then we can save our families..” Carol muttered, preoccupied with getting something out of the trunk.
That was when Mercedes saw movement out of the corner of her eye, inside of the car. The car that she had just been in. So she held up a hand to silence the other two. Samantha seemed to have noticed it too and her body stiffened a look of shock slowly making its way onto her face.
The three of them watched in silence as another woman slowly climbed out of the car, through the same way Mercedes had exited. She had dark hair, and was wearing a leather jacket. The woman let out a sigh of what was most likely relief and she looked to the other three, “holy shit- that was crazy.. Was that… like a portal or something??”
Mercedes was shocked when she saw, and recognized the face of the woman that had definitely not been in their car before, it was one she’d seen very briefly while she and Henry were doing their research into the other dads that would be going on that road trip.
It was none other than Morgan, Glenn Close’s deceased wife.