Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What do you mean he was already picked up?!” Natalie yelled unrestrainedly.  

This could not be happening, her little brother, Henry, her entire world , had apparently been picked up halfway through the school day by his uncle. 

The issue?  

The siblings had no uncle. 

The elderly secretary cowered in front of her behind a wooden desk and a plastic barrier. That wouldn’t stop Natalie tearing into her. It probably wasn’t the secretary’s fault, but the young woman couldn’t bring herself to care.  

“There was no one but me,” (her voice raised to a higher pitch here) “-on his guardian list. Why, ” she continued yelling, “-was a strange man permitted to pick up my 13-year-old brother!?”  

“I-I’m not sure, the vice headmistress allowed it herself and saw them off... Her office is through-” The secretary raised her hand to point, presumably in the direction of the office. 

Natalie, not waiting for the older woman to finish her sentence, stormed down the hallway towards the goddamn idiot who let a stranger waltz into a school and take a child. 

 Her Henry.  

This day couldn’t get worse. 

... 

Natalie had woken up extra early on Monday, marking two weeks since they had arrived in Idaho, and hoping to replicate her mother’s iconic Tater Tot Breakfast-Pizza. Her mom... God was it difficult to support their tiny family since her their mother’s death. She was only 19 herself, for heck’s sake!! Now she not only had to figure out adulthood by herself, but support a child too. He was worth it, but was it still difficult? Yes.  

But it was alright, she had thought, the hope of life gradually easing into comfort with the ebbing of grief, and the new start in this town, was supposed to be a new start.   

The start of the rest of their lives.  

Henry, who she knew had been struggling without a parental figure, could maybe distract himself with making new friends at his first day of school. According to Henry, he was already making friends outside of school, but she was doubtful. The boy could be lying to her, to spare himself the embarrassment or to keep her off his back- which, she wasn’t sure.   

Either way, if he was having difficulties, she had hoped the pizza would help.  

As the delicious smell of Tater tots filled the kitchen, she heard footsteps coming down the hall. Henry, she thought, opening the oven to reveal the mouth-watering creation.   

...  

After Henry had left, Natalie had frowned to herself. Oven-mitted hands resting on her hips. He seemed ...distant, she thought. And not for the first time. Even within these two weeks alone, Henry had increasingly been distracted in conversations, barely talking to her; if he did, it was usually mentioning an old ...games shop? Something along those lines. Called... Over the earth? Natalie winced to herself, feeling bad that she couldn’t remember.   

She looked at the clock realising she needed to get to her job soon and grabbed her keys and phone before dashing out the door.   

When driving towards her job (as a social media manager at a Potato chip factory of all things) she ruminated a bit more about the teenager’s sudden attitude change.   

Henry had always a quiet boy, but his shyness and awkwardness increased even more since mom’s death 6 months ago. That was to be expected. She was still struggling to put a brave face on for both of them! Though, she thought he was getting better...  

 Since their move here he reverted to be quieter and also distracted. In fact, he seemed tired a lot of the time. She often caught him yawning when she was at home. This was combined with a drastic change was in his social energy. The 13-year-old always preferred to remain in doors, curled up in his bed sketching, or at his desk inventing. Safe to say he was an introvert.  

 Or he had been.   

Shortly after moving here, her brother began staying out far later than he ever had. Coming home just in time for her thrown together dinners after being out all day. The two changes seemed to oppose each other greatly and Natalie couldn’t work out what caused them, nor did she really have the time to.   

Natalie felt bad that her job began two weeks before his school did, so that she wouldn’t be there to hang out with him. She supposed that Henry staying out all day was better than him just sitting inside on his own. In fact, she originally encouraged it. But she hadn’t expected it to continue. A turning point was 5 days ago; Natalie had to ground Henry for attempting to sneak out in the middle of the night. When she caught him, it had been a surprise to them both. The punishment even more so, since this was the first time Natalie had to be the one to set consequences for Henry.   

It had always been their mum doing it.   

Originally, she tried to get Henry to tell her what he had wanted to do. However, he just shifted from foot to foot, playing with his shirt sleeve and saying he wanted to hang out with his friend – only after his excuse of ‘wanting fresh air’ had failed. She gave up, despite the obvious lie.   

Maybe she should have pushed more, she fretted, looking at the grey road Infront of her. However, this was new territory for them both, she didn’t know how to parent a naughty kid, and Henry? He had never tried to sneak out or anything of that nature! The most he had done so far in his life was accidentally blow up their garden shed. Ok maybe that was worse, but it has been an accident while having fun, not trying to escape his house without her knowledge, at night, in a still new town!   

He was barely even a teenager for heck’s sake!   

Maybe a rebellious phase was bound to happen, she wondered unhappily while pulling into the factory carpark. With being in a new town, Henry’s transition from child to teen and (of course) their mom’s death.   

The stress of being the new employee at work (one of the reasons why she didn’t have much to time to focus on Henry) soon forced her to put a pin in her turmoil for later.  

... 

Natalie’s converse slapped an angry pattern into the ground, warning people in her path, not to mess with her. 

 Using the strength fear for her brother’s safety bestowed her, she threw opened a shiny wooden door which read: 

‘Vice principal Marleen’  

It ricocheted off the wall, startling a blonde who looked to be in her late 50s.  

The sight of her sitting contentedly in her plush office chair fed the flame of her anger, even more than with the secretary. This woman essentially let Henry be kidnapped, and her she is, chilling, doing nothing? 

“Where is my brother? Who took him?!”  

The woman smiled calmly. Her entire face scrunched up in greeting and her eyes were barely slits, despite Natalie’s less than polite entrance.  

“Well, who would your brother be?” she asked, patting her perfect golden up-do.  

“Henry!!” she screamed 

“Ah yes, he was picked up by “The Garbage Man”, Garrett Garrison, a total hunk.” She sighed, leaning down to rest her face in her palm, “Really dreamy”  

Natalie was monetarily stunned  

“Well, I didn’t know you were lucky enough to have him as an uncle but-” 

“We aren’t” she answered coldly 

When the woman only smiled at her, slight confusion gracing her features, the 19-year-old continued.  

“We aren’t lucky enough to have a garbage man as our uncle; we have no uncle. Which means you let Henry get taken by a stranger.”  

“Oh, I’m sorry honey, are you sure it's all that bad? Hot Garbage, well, he’s a well-known man, very attractive... I would let him take me to the curb any day...” 

“Is there a point in this?!” Natalie felt like she was going insane.  

“Oh yes, well as I was saying... your brother Henry went with him quite happily. In fact, he was the one who called Garratt to pick him up in the first place, after that unfortunate jet pack incident. Really dangerous” The woman seemed to grow more serious, “Could be grounds for expulsion you know.” 

The young woman almost staggered, slamming her hands down on the desk to stabilise herself (and startling Muriel a second time)  

Henry went willingly? How did he know this man? 

Henry had the adult man’s phone number?  

How? 

When did this happen?  

How could she have missed this?  

Then a thought occurred to her.  

Natalie had been suspicious if Henry really had any friends, he certainly never wanted to bring them round to their house in the last 2 weeks of vacation. She knew something had been up. What if, this entire time, the person Henry had been meeting was this...Garrett? 

All those days alone.... anything could have happened... 

No, she forced herself to momentarily think positively. What if it’s a totally normal adult-helping-a-kid-out relationship?  

He could literally just have given Henry a lift home. 

But then, nagging realisation came, a normal adult wouldn’t have just gotten a kid's number. Would have gotten hers, the guardian’s. Then, would have called her if he picked Henry up- to prevent this exact panic. God's damn it was basic knowledge for her , when she was barely an adult. He had no excuse.  

No, the entire thing was horribly, not a random good deed. It was all too suspicious.  

Her concluding whirlwind of thoughts brought the next pressing matter to her attention.  

Jetpack? 

Henry’s possible expulsion? 

What!? 

Deciding the vice principal wouldn’t know why Henry had a strange adult's number, instead she asked “What jetpack incident? What happened?” 

“Oh well, he built a sort of jetpack, and it blew up the potato chip factory. Yeahhh.” she drew out her voice while nodding, “Real awful.” 

“What?! that was Henry?!” she growled. 

For the first time today, she felt anger towards her brother.  

Seemed this day could get worse. 

Her little brother was the reason her new job, the reason they moved here at all, was in danger? Since they now had to focus on construction, which was expensive, they may let the unnecessary staff go. Which would be: Her. A social media manager.  

If they found out it was her brother who caused the destruction, she would be finished! Goodbye job, goodbye new beginning... 

None of that mattered! 

She shook her head resolutely and rid herself of her anger. What mattered most was Henry’s safety! When she had him safe in her arms, then she could chew her little brother out.  

She turned to question the intensely pink woman in front of her again.  

“Where does the garbage man work...does he had a garbage truck?” 

“Oh no, she laughed, that’s just his nick name. He’s also known as hot trash, the trash bag-” 

“So, he’s not actually a garbage man?” 

“No no, that hunk is a stylish ex-video game star. A shame a hot man like him is struggling now...” 

“Does he have a job?”  

Natalie decided the best way to get information was to relentlessly ask questions, like a detective, and ignore the vice principal opening lusting after a literal kidnapper.  

“Oh yes, he runs an adorable little shop called: The Over World” 

... 

After finding out that the kidnapper’s shop was called ‘The Overworld’, the same shop Henry had been talking about (turns out it wasn’t called Over the earth) her exit from the school was a blur. 

All she remembers is getting into her car on wobbly legs- where she parked an age ago, where she still thought she was about to see Henry again in a few short seconds. A voice in the back of her mind told her she wasn’t in a fit state to drive, but she didn’t hear it over the roaring of her self-hate and concerns. 

She should have pushed the matter when Henry snuck out 

She should have found out where he was going every day 

She should have dropped him off at school this morning, maybe he would have felt that he could call her to pick him up?  

A new environment + a dead mom surely meant Henry was going through it. 

She should have supported him more 

Oh God, what if he hadn’t wanted to bother her because he saw how stressed she was. 

How little time she had for him? 

Was that why he sought out this grown shop owner to befriend? 

Was Henry the one who approached him first, or was it the other way around? 

She should have been there for him. 

Chapter Text

Endless questions swirled through Natalie’s brain, turning into a hurricane which swallowed her whole. She was in the eye of the storm, watching flashes of Henry hurt, in a dark cellar, or cut up in a forest, touched and forever scarred in an underground parking garage. All things which could possibly go wrong flitted through her mind like prophecies warning of the future. On the drive back home, she was surely a danger to others on the road, if she any of her senses actually registered with her, she would have been grateful for the town’s small population (compared to the damage she would have done is a heaving city street)  

When she finally blinked out of her mental turmoil, Natalie realised she was pulled up in front of their little bungalow. Honestly, she was surprised that she made it back without injuring herself or anyone else.  

She relinquished her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel then stumbled out of the car. Suddenly Natalie stopped in her tracks as a thought hit her full force.  

She could just call Henry.   

She berated herself furiously, this entire time there was a which way to check he was safe! It’s the whole reason mom got him the phone last year. How hadn’t she thought of that?  

Furiously she pushed loose strands of her behind her ear and promptly whipped her phone out of her pocket to pressed call. After the rapid typing, the young woman worried her lip till she tasted blood.    

The phone dialled, each buzz sending a jolt of panic to her heart. Finally, they stopped and anticipation to hear Henry’s sweet voice filled her heart, she was going to realise he was fine, and this was all for nothing... he was-  

“Sorry, the number you calling isn’t currently available, try again later.”  

The monotone automated answer had never sounded so gut-wrenching.   

Henry wasn’t answering.  

A lead weight sunk within her chest.   

She tried again. Fingering frantically typing out his name, before she jabbed call again.  

Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz  

“Sorry, the number you are calling-”  

Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz  

“Sorry the number you-”  

Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz  

“Sorry the-”  

 ...  

Of course, his phone hadn’t work, Natalie berated herself, shivering from the cool air caressing her hunched body. She attempted to curl further in on herself for warm, the car she was leaning against doing almost nothing to shield her from the surprisingly harsh winds.   

After calling Henry’s phone was a bust, because of course it was, what kidnapper would just let the kid keep their phone? (‘Oh yes just call your trusted adult to tell them you’re ok, totally fine with me’) Natalie had attempted to call the police with trembling hands.   

They left her more hopeless than ever.  

“911 what’s your emergency?”  

“M-my brother, Henry, h-hes been kidnapped!” she stuttered and gripped the phone like a lifeline. Maybe to Henry, it was.  

“Ok mam when was he last seen? “  

“This morning when he went to school.”  

“How old is he?”  

“Only 13...” Natalie gasped  

“What makes ya think kids been kidnapped, and not just around a friend’s house?” the gruff officer sighed.  

Natalie shook her dead disgruntled, she had to keep it together, despite the rude officer.  

“He wouldn’t be at a friend’s house; he’s got no friends. Well, he says he does but I’m pretty sure that hes just been staying out late with this grown man ...who is the guy that k-kidnapped him.”  

“Did you witness the kidnapping?”  

Why was there not a note of urgency in this man’s voice?  

“No but I went to his school, and he wasn’t there, they told me he had already been picked up by Garrett Garrison, who owns The Over World, y’know the store?”  

“Oh Garret,” recognition flooded the officers voice, also drawing out the kidnapper’s name on his tongue, however not in the same tone the vice principal had. The man chuckled  

 “I wouldn’t say your brother is in any trouble mam.”  

“Excuse me? My brother is missing!!” Her terror spewed out as rage, she needed the threat to be taken seriously. Henry’s life could depend on it!  

“Yeah, but I’m sure he’ll be back soon, you said he stays out late? Well, he’s probably playing games in Garret's store. Like a shitty, overpriced version of Disneyland for teens.”  

“Listen you aren’t taking this seriously enough, I don’t even know Garrett-”  

The police man interrupted, “Ok I hear you miss,” annoyance creeping into his tone. “But really Garrett may not be the most responsible son of a bitch, lord knows how much debt he is in, but all the years the towns known him he’s never kidnapped nobody-”  

“I don’t care; there’s a first time for everything!” the girl persisted.  

“You’re new to town, aren’t you?”   

Not for the first time, Natalie had noticed the condescendence in the man’s voice through the tinny phone line. It was getting harder to hear him over the return of insistent roaring in her ears.   

She blinked rapidly “What!? I-I mean, yes? H-how do you know?”  

“Small town,” he stated “hardly any new people, especially easy to recognise folks when the kid blew up the potato chip factory. News also spreads fast in smaller towns.”  

“He didn’t mean to, y’kno- ugh we are getting off topic, send officers to search for him now!”  

A deep sigh came.  

 It was decidedly getting on Natalie’s nerves.   

Anger bubbled deep in her chest.  

“I would but currently but the few officers we have are checking out the factory site, making sure folks are alright and securing the place, dealing with a burglary across town, or helping with a high-speed car chase between our town and the next. Got hardly anyone to spare, ‘sides, this is hardly a top priority case.”  

“He’s just a kid!” The girl begged, hardly more than a kid herself.  

“-Who’s probably having the time of his life playing some old game with Garrett, who will bring him back to you soon.”  

“I’m telling you-” Natalie started,   

“Call back if he hasn’t returned tomorrow, he’s only been gone a few hours anyway. Goodbye.”  

Click  

...  

After the disastrous call Natalie had slid down the cool side of her car, before curling into a ball. Both hands resting on her bent head. One clawed at her short fluffy hair, the other simply held her useless phone against her head.   

There the girl lay in a state of panic, the sun setting, and casting long shadows on her lawn, and her body- still being huddled into the side of the car. Panic clawed its way up her throat and spewed out her mouth in sharp bursts. It crawled down her chin and ensnared her shaking limbs. Finally, piercing her chest and making itself home between her lungs, not satisfied until its roots burrowed their way into the vital organ, extinguishing her breaths.   

She couldn’t breathe.  

…  

“Girl, I got your call, what the hell happened?!” Dawn yelled.  

The slam of her car door roused Natalie from her icy stupor. On wobbly legs, she staggered to her feet, only succeeding by using her car as support. The aftermath (of what she assumed was a panic attack ) still had an affect on her. Weakening her body. Natalie took a few steps in the older woman’s direction. Luckily Dawn met her halfway, managing to cross the lawn in a few large strides. Natalie was grateful that at least one person in this town was willing to help her.

She didnt mean just for her useless body, but her useless brain.

Maybe Henry stood a chance with Dawn aiding in his search. 

“Natalie, girl? Are you ok? Wheres Henry?”  

Dawn gazed worriedly down at the young woman in her arms.  

“I don’t know!” She wailed.  

 Some of the feelings which had been stewing in her head gushed out of her mouth, finally having a willing listener. 

Before Dawn could question her more, she continued:  

“I have so few connections in this town, I called everyone I know! First the stupid police, who were no help,” she muttered darkly for a few seconds before ranting “Then the only neighbour I know, the neighbourhood watch, even my boss who may fire me, you, and the police two more times.”   

The last time, the officer hung up after barely a few seconds, threatening to fine her if she called again.   

After Dawn coaxed more of the story out of her, she exclaimed that one of her hustles was being a camera footage reviewer for the police. Apparently, it paid little and was mind numbingly dull, but it gave her an income where she could also work on her other hustles in the quiet of the empty screen-filled room. You could look at it as being payed for two jobs while doing one!   

Natalie wasn't sure about the morality of this but wasn't in a state to voice her doubts. If Dawn could help, she would be eternally grateful. Never mind petty thieves probably escaped arrest when it was Dawn’s turn to take watch.   

“Come with me! We will find him on those cams for sure! Henry will be fine in no time!” she chuckled “ha I rhymed...”   

Apparently, Dawn’s feeble attempt to cheer Natalie up. She appreciated it but obviously, nothing other than Henry being within her grasp again, could possibly cheer Natalie up.   

She nodded and allowed Dawn to usher her into her crammed car.   

In a jolly tone the woman warned Natalie to not get on the llama's nerves. Because there was a llama in the backseat. Right! According to Dawn, it was part of another hustle. Really, she was in awe of the woman. How could she possibly survive with 15 hustles? Not in any space to complain, just grateful for help (something she has been craving since her mom’s death) Natalie squashed herself between the aggressive animal and the sticky car door.   

Natalie hoped she was enroute to seeing her entire world, once more.  

Chapter Text

On the way to the police station, Dawn’s workplace, she called over her shoulder to Natalie. While sitting in the backseat, with a llama to her right, stacks of cardboard packages at her feet, and job advertisement flyers everywhere, scurrying like mice to the jolt of the car, the girl now sympathised very much with tinned sardines.

“Hey, shouldn’t we head over to The Over World? Or have you already done that?” Dawn questioned.

Naturally, the optimistic woman had managed to weasel more details out of Natalie. It hadn't been hard actually, once she came back to herself (after staring morosely out the window) since any information given to Dawn could be information used to save Henry. Dawn now knew: how Natalie found out Henry was missing, who kidnapped him, where Garrett worked, and her own suspicions on how Henry and the man had met.

Natalie’s words bumped into each as her scrambled mind attempted to formulate a sentence. “No, ye- I mean, no I haven't done that...” she took a deep breath and calmed down her thoughts, “-yeah lets go.” She finished quietly, her cheeks reddening.

“Alright, en route” the older woman chirped.

 Dawn turned the wheel slowly, now heading toward Garret’s shop apparently from memory. Makes sense she would know, Natalie thought, considering she has lived here for years.

Once again, Natalie felt like smacking herself.

Why hadn't she gone to Garrett’s shop? Sure, she didn't know where it was, but google maps surely knew. Really, that she could easily do without the police... Why was she failing to do the most logical, simple things to help find Henry?

“I can't believe I didn't think of that” she muttered

She began picking at the dead skin around her nails, distracting her mind.

“What was that?”

Dawn raised her voice over the hum of the motor. Her head moved in Natalies’s direction while keeping her eyes firmly on the road.

“I said I can't believe I didn't think of that! It’s like, the first place any logical person would look!” the young woman’s frustration became evident in her jerky voice, “If you know where the kidnapper works, that’s a clue. A clue I missed!” her hands slapped her thighs, emphasising her point. “Or a possible hiding place if he owns the building at least...Why can’t I do anything right?”

Suddenly Natalie was thrown against the car door, a smell of animals filling her nostrils as the llama slid to her side of the car with the sharp turn the car took. Her heart immediately began throwing itself into her throat. Fast as a whipped horse, it veered from the isolated road, driving up pale dust in its wake. The screech of tires drowned out Natalie’s worried voice.

“What the hell?!” she screamed.

The car was humming, in a pseudo-parked position, at a completely irregular angle just off the side of the dry concrete road -which led out of the suburban area to the cluster of stores a little while away. Burnt rubber filled her nose, coming from the abused car tires.

In utter shock Natalie clutched at the car door, with the stinking llama practically in her lap. Her heart was still beating wildly; did they nearly just crash?

“Dawn what the hell was that? W-was there something on the road or-or…?” it was doubtful, she hadn’t seen anything, but she was trying to comprehend what just happened.

To answer, Dawn whipped around from the driver’s seat, a fiercely intense expression on her face which dug deep into Natalie’s soul, forcing her to sit up straight and push the woolly animal on her lap, away. The look was more terrifying than any principal’s she could ever remember.

“Now you listen, and you listen good, girl.” The woman had leant around in her seat to better make eye contact with Natalie in the backseat. She had a painted nail pointed in her direction.

She nodded, unsure, and a bit scared.

“You are doing amazingly; hell, you're basically just a kid yourself-”

Natlie raised her eyebrows. Firstly, a pep-talk was not what she expected the dramatic swerve in the middle of the road to be about. Secondly, yeah, she was young, she thought so often herself, but she wasn’t-

“-now don't interrupt me,” Dawn continued seamlessly, having somehow recognised what Natalie was thinking. “You know you're young- for the hand life dealt you, you're doing your best looking after your brother. From the sounds of it, you had no way of preventing what happened today. Maybe you could have been more attentive, big deal! Do you know how many actual parents don't ask their kids how their day was? Mine never did; never supported me a day in my life. It's why I have to work so damn hard. But you? I can see the love you have for him, know all you do for him, so when you're in my animal-transport-vehicle-slash-taxi-slash-delivery-car, you won't talk down to yourself like that. Understood?”

She raised her eyebrows intimidatingly.

“Understood.” The girl nodded meekly.

“Amazing” The woman nodded satisfied to herself, then pulled the car out of the wonky position before continuing down the road towards Garrett’s store.

She sunk into the sticky seats. The creature which was her mind began calming its scratching claws. What Dawn said was…really nice. And…she wanted to believe it, although she felt like the overworked woman was giving her too much credit. Yeah, it was hard, but it was her job! Well, not job, she corrected herself while peering out the cloudy window. She loved Henry, he was her whole world, it wasn’t some chore to take care of him but… sometimes ….well maybe what Dawn had said was true. Should she be giving herself more credit? It made the creature in her brain screech ‘heartless’, ‘why do you need attention for looking after your family?’, ‘its your fault Henry’s gone!’.

However, Dawn’s words, shooed the creature aside with warm hands. The sulking beast was still there, licking its paws. However, those hands comforted her in a way which had grown unfamiliar, even before her mother’s death. Not that she ever blamed her mom. Whenever she thought of her, her chest filled with pangs of longing. It was nobody’s fault that Natalie had become caretaker of her young brother and terminally ill mother at 17. So…perhaps she shouldn’t beat herself up that much?

 …She could focus it more after she knew she wasn’t a failure when Henry was at her side.  Perhaps, after Henry was back (because he had to come back, he had to) she could let herself get closer to Dawn.

 It would be nice to experience the warm comfort of care, again.

Chapter Text

The asphalt surrounded by yellowing grass was slowly replaced by smoother pavements leading to store fronts. Most closing up for the evening. Apparently, that was normal for towns further out in the country, with population only in the thousands. Dawn would know, considering she has probably worked in them all at some point.

“Ok Nat, here we are!” She chirped.

The old car came to a far gentler stop than 20 minutes before. It pulled neatly into a space next to another car, right outside a flower shop with a swinging painted sign -a neighbour to ‘The Overwold’.

Natalie craned her head around the headrest in front of her; from her limited vision she could see that the windows were dark and the front door shut.

Not promising.

Her heart began to speed up again. There was another door of possibility shut in her face. With the shop closed it could mean the dickhead Garrett and Henry were already far away. Out of her reach.

A deafening cluck slapped Natalie out of her thoughts. Her heart audibly beating, she whipped her head around for the cause of the noise, only to realise (with a short burst of shame) that it had been the shutting of the car door. Dawn was now standing on the curb and looking up at the store with hands on her hips.

Natalie wasn’t eager for Dawn to see her like this again, how many times in the last hour had Dawn seen her panic? Admittedly the woman had been nothing but supportive. Especially after that heart-attack inducing intervention on an empty road. She really appreciated it; however, she didn’t want to seem too incapable.

She worried that if people found out, she couldn’t take care of herself…

Henry could be taken away from her.

It had been a constant fear for her as soon as she gained guardianship over her little brother.

She heaved the llama off her lap, it really stank. She probably smelled like a farm. She didn’t care much. Trepidatiously, she slid towards the door, stepped out, and shut it. She walked forwards Dawn who was waiting at the curb.

“Y’alright girl?” she said with concern.

She let out a deep breath, “Yeah, yeah don’t worry.”

She gave a quick smile.

As the woman turned back to the building, Natalie had a closer look at the overworld. It marked the corner of the road -a connecting point between places- not an actual destination. The walls were white and slightly dirty. Sagging on top a wide dusty-red (more close to brown) trimming of the roof, was a large sign. It too, lacked any evidence of recent attention. The retro ‘eighties style lettering hinted at a building very much past it’s prime. Leeching on the walls were stacked cardboard boxes, old televisions and an arcade machine. The entrance was a pale little door; a paper sign was attached to it.

Dawn pointed back to the sign.

“Looks like its closed.”

On the laminated paper sign, bold lettering read: CLOSED 

Natalie swallowed her panic and stepped closer to the building. First, she reached out for the door handle, and gave it a sharp tug -on the off chance it had been left open. When that failed, she decided to look through the windows for a sign of her brother or his kidnapper- however unlikely. Her hands, which were cupped against the grimy surface, helped create enough shadow to peer through. Her nose tickled with the disturbed window’s grime. Inside there were endless shelves and cabinets bearing piles of junk. Although The Overworld’s stock was supposed to be appealingly retro (based of the painted slogans on the windows and the massive signs on the roof) Natalie thought it looked more like junk. She strained her eyes through the dim musty air inside the shop when she spotted a crumbled flash of sliver.

It almost looked like…

"Dawn?" She raised her voice urgently.

Her eyes remained fixed inside the depths of the shop.

"Is there any way we can get this open?" 

The other woman who had been standing back watching Natalie walked forward and looked through the window over Natalie’s shoulder. Her eyes narrowed, attempting to peer through the gloom. She then took a step backwards to assess the door.

“Yeah, shouldn’t be hard.” She paused “You see anything interesting?”

“i-uh…maybe, I’ll see.” Natalie muttered, worrying her lip.

The ball of silver with white paper could be…

“Huh alright then,” Dawn took multiple steps back tip she stood at the very edge of the curb. Natalie turned her head side to side and flicked her eyes around.

“Are you looking for a key or…?” She let her voice tail off.

“Stand back” Dawn said in lieu of an answer.

The younger woman shuffled a little to the left, away from the glass door. She silently looked up at the other woman who was still analysing the door.

“Ok.”

Vocally appearing to find the door sufficient, Dawn ran forwards before pushing off into air. She flew forwards with her leg iron-strong and extended in front of her. Like ninja she collided with the door -which stood no chance. It swung inwards to the store itself with a sharp bang, startling Natalie badly enough to elicit a jump. The force of the karate style kick caused the dusty glass to shatter. Little splinters plinked as they bounced on the pavement and the floor of the store.

Dawn stood in the doorway of the shop, like an angel among the wreckage.

“So, what did you wanna check out?” Dawn queried casually.

As if she didn’t just reveal hidden martial art skills and literally  break into a store like a prophet answering Natalie’s call.

Natalie was left stuttering “You, you-” She burst out “I can’t believe you just did that!”

“Well, I gotta say I didn’t expect to break the glass, guess even I don’t know my own raw potential.” She responded with cheer.

She responded, chuckling, “You sure could say that wow…you’re seriously so cool.” her voice was filled with awe.

She stepped into the building and the glass crystals crunched under her shoes. The girl’s mood lowered from the brief elation of Dawn’s bad ass skills. The reminder of why she wanted into the shop sobered her instantly.

As she danced her way around boxes stacked onto of each other and groaning shelves of memorabilia the same silver glinting caught her eye. She hesitantly approached the front counter already knowing what she would find.

Now standing directly next to it, peering down at the surface she saw the crumbled mess of tinfoil and paper napkin which caught her eye. By itself? Unremarkable. But what was within the tinfoil, and the design on the napkin was what really made her heart stop.

Orange remainds of a crust.

The smell of tomato.

Mushed bits of potato.

Evidently the left-overs of a Breakfast tater-tot pizza.

The napkin.

Little unicorns and rockets drawn on.

Her own handwriting.

The name: ‘HENRY’ written in bold letters.