📚Right where you left it

Arael and Beck narrowly make it out of a sticky situation, only to find themselves in another unique one.

Characters: Arael, Beck, Bogey, Lara

Warnings: N/A

Wordcount: 1,714

Vibe: diners to have a breakdown at 2am to

part of me isn’t suuuuper sure if i was able to totally revise this, but honestly. when has that ever able to stop me.
this one takes place during the nightmare diary arc! aka the follow-up to violet detector. yes i know i’ve said practically nothing about either outside my head but like. don’t worry about it.

dont worry about diana and isa im sure they’ll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine

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Faster, faster, just a little bit more, don’t fall behind…

Lock, load, and…

Arael and Beck tumbled out of the wormhole onto the dusty ground. Quickly, it closed behind them, leaving the two in the darkness of the night.

It took the two a few moments to collect themselves and gather their senses.

Arael was the first to break the silence.

“Holy shit.”

“That sure ain’t an understatement, jeez…” Beck mumbled in between her panting.

“Shit, where are we? Did you even know where you were gonna get us to?”

“I… don’t know? I was vaguely aiming to get us back to the Craterlands…” Arael started, as she paused to look around.

“I mean, it seems like we made it. But the Craterlands are sure full of… nothing, outside of the main city, huh?”

“Really?! Couldn’t you have at least like, gotten us in an abandoned ranch for the night, or something?” Beck groaned.

“Ugh, I don’t have pepperspray, even. If a pack of meandering poyote find us, we’re fucked.”

“Well I’m soooorry!! Maybe YOU should try being the one to think clearly when we’re being hunted by some kind of FUCKED UP MONSTROSITY!!”

Arael’s outburst was followed by silence, as Beck didn’t seem to have any kind of rebuttal.

It was a… unique situation.

Suddenly, a noise broke the otherwise silent night.

…A vehicle on a roadway.

“…Did you hear that?” Arael asked, her tone much different now.

“Yuh, I have ears.” Beck nodded, as she moved to brush herself off from the dust and dry grass more.

“Look, there’s the headlights. It shouldn’t be that far, reckon?”

“Any idea what road it is?”

“Nah, just because I live here doesn’t mean I know everything.” Beck shook her head.

“But there’s a chance we could hitchhike?”

“Are you SERIOUS?” Arael scoffed in response.

“You’re just begging to get us in another bad situation.”

“Well, I can only hope that some driver in the middle of the night ain’t as bloodthirsty as… whatever that was back there.”

Arael sighed, and nodded without further verbal response.

Arael was able to manifest a small orb of light to act as a flashlight, as the two waded between the dry grass to meet the side of the highway.

It was quiet, and no additional cars came by… but by the time they had gotten out of whatever ditch they’d tumbled into, there was something more intriguing visible from the side of the empty highway.

“Beck, look!” Arael exclaimed, pointing her larger clawed hand over to a building that was on the other side of the highway, in a truck-stop like enclave.

Its lighting definitely seemed dim, but not dim enough that it was advertising itself as closed or abandoned. It appeared to be a diner, though not one that was a part of a chain – as Beck didn’t recognize the name as being from one.

“Well, well… speak of the devil, I guess.” she huffed.

“Maybe they gots a phone in there?”

“…Who would we call?” Arael asked.

“It’s not like we can call… shit.”

It seemed that Arael’s realization bled over to Beck.

“You thinkin’ the same thing then, huh?”

“Diana and Isa are still up there…” Arael mumbled.

Beck moved to put a hand on Arael’s shoulder.

“Ain’t nothing we can do about it now… those two know what they’re doing, I’m sure they can hold their own.” she said with a nod.

“Right now, we need to do what we can. And the first step, I think, would be getting ourselves out of wherever the hell we are now.”

“Right, okay.” Arael huffed, perking her posture back up and swiping Beck’s hand off her shoulder.

The two made it over to the diner, and it did seem to be open. There was a jingle as Arael propped open the door for Beck, and the two were greeted by an empty crane game machine in the entrance way.

The carpet was dirty – in fact, the whole building definitely had an essence of dinge to it.

Please wait to be seated.

The faux-wood sign presented itself to Arael and Beck, next to an empty waiting staff station.

While Beck was content to wait, Arael was not. She looked around, and didn’t see anyone else… save for a single person wearing flashy clothes looking at a menu in the corner.

“Should… should I call for staff?” Arael whispered to Beck, who shrugged in response.

“I mean, I wouldn’t doubt if they had only one person on staff right now. Give ‘em a minute.”

Arael groaned in an impatient manner, but stood by anyways.

Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to wait too much longer – out from the kitchen came a middle-aged woman, carrying a tray of food over to the person in the corner. She noticed Arael and Beck, and signaled that she’d be over soon – she just made sure to hand off the food to the other customer first.

“Hey kiddos! Wow, you both look super scuffed – what brings y’all here at an hour like this?”

Arael wanted to take initiative to speak, but as she often did, she found Beck to speak over her first.

“It’s a long story, haha…! Was wonderin’ if y’alls got a phone we can use, is all.”

“Hmm, I guess we do, but I think the boss would prefer if y’all ordered something first.”

Arael groaned.

“This sucks. Can’t I just wormhole us again back to civilization?” she whispered to Beck.

“Man, if I have to go through one of those again, I’m going to get a migraine and throw up. I can work with this.” Beck sighed, before picking eye contact back up with the waiting staff.

“Works for us!”

The woman on waiting staff smiled, and led Arael and Beck over to a booth – semi-sticky laminated menus already laid out.

“Just go ahead an’ ring that bell once y’all’ve decided!”

Once the woman got confirmation from Arael and Beck in the form of nods, she went off back into the kitchen.

Arael quickly glanced through the menu, tapping her claw anxiously on the laminate table… before groaning and collapsing into a frustrated heap, face buried in her arms.

“Fuck dude. There’s a chance everything is going to exponentially get worse, and that Diana and Isa are in critical danger, and its all my fault…” Arael moped.

“I got too cocky and got caught off guard, and because of that…”

“Hey, hey Arael! Chillax!” Beck interjected.

“We all make miscalculations, it’s ok…”

“But a fuck-up this grand… ugh.” Arael continued.

“…It’s like when I screwed up the last time I got into a scuffle with Diana. Except this time, more people are going to get hurt…”

“Don’t say that…! We’re a team, ain’t we? Give some credit to Diana and Isa…” Beck sighed.

“Even if we’ve been split up, I’m sure they can get a handle of things on their side. What matters is that we’ve gotta get a handle on our side, too.”

“I guess… if it’s all we can do…” Arael mumbled.

“I’m just tired of pretending like I know what I’m doing.”

“I understand… but you ain’t alone in this, ok? So no need to be acting like you are.” Beck responded.

Beck let Arael have a bit of a moment to herself in silence, as she looked around and examined the diner a bit more.

It would seem the other individual wasn’t alone – a child was sitting with them, who was previously obscured from the angle… and she seemed to be staring intently over at Beck and Arael.

Beck tried to avoid eye contact as best she could – but as her gaze unfortunately matched the one of the child’s, the young girl called out.

“HEY!! Do I know you?”

The shrill voice pierced through the otherwise dreary atmosphere of the empty diner combined with Arael’s doom and gloom, and though the girl’s parent seemed to quickly shush her, Arael perked up almost instantly.

She made sure to wipe her face enough to clear her tears, before turning to the direction of the voice.

“Lara?? Is… that you?”

And not a moment after Arael has gotten up from the booth to peek over, was she practically tackled by the girl.

“It’s been forever!! Where’ve you even been?! I missed hanging out with you!” Lara exclaimed.

Though her adult supervision seemed a bit concerned that their daughter was keen on randomly tackling someone, it seemed they recognized Arael at least somewhat as well – and their stance relaxed a bit.

“I’ve just been busy! Doing, uhh… grown up stuff!” Arael snickered.

“It’s, uh, pretty boring grown up stuff. Not the fun dangerous kind.”

“That sucks… Lottie and Mona aren’t nearly as fun to play with.” Lara sighed.

“Even if I’m a big kid who doesn’t need a babysitter now like my mama said, I still miss having one sometimes…”

Arael gave Lara’s hair a firm ruffle, before standing back up – to face Lara’s parent.

She did recognize them, after seeing them more clearly, but Arael mostly had contact with Lara’s other parents as opposed to them.

“Hey! Uh, you’re… Arael, right?” they asked, their tone a bit baffled.

“I don’t think we’ve properly met before? Name’s Bogey! I’m, uh, one of Lara’s parents.”

Bogey gestured to shake Arael’s hand, which she gladly took. Meanwhile, Beck decided to move in from the sidelines where she was watching.

“Hey, howdy! I’m with Arael, too. Name’s Beck!”

“Oh, nice to meet you too!” Bogey smiled.

“…Makes me wonder, though. What on earth are you two doing out here, this late in the night?”

“I mean, I’m sort of wondering that for myself.” Beck shrugged.

“Oh, you must not know – I run freight in my truck out there! Lara likes to tag along sometimes, haha.” Bogey explained.

“We were just wrapping up here, and were gonna head over through the main city here to the Highland’s transport distract.”

And like that… the lightbulbs seemingly lit up simultaneously.

They scrambled to speak on top of each other, but ultimately, Arael was able to speak first this time.

“We’re kind of stuck here, can you take us with you?”

Bogey looked a tad puzzled, but shrugged it off and smiled.

“Sure, I don’t see why not!”