This story is provided for free by H.S. Kallinger as part of the Lost Humanity universe.
Timing: years after the end of World of Lost Souls
Content Warnings: angst
Leandra
I looked up from my book, startled by the pounding at the front door. I turned to Freyja automatically. We were the only ones home. Her blue eyes met mine before returning to her own book, unconcerned, as I hopped up. The pounding repeated, prompting me to call out, “Coming!”
“Is Lea in there?” Ann's voice barely carried through the door, but she had to be screaming for it to have done so. I rushed to the door and opened it.
“No,” I said while Ann hurried past me into the house. “It's just Freyja and me.”
“Have you seen her?” Ann spun helplessly, and I stepped forward to catch her arms.
“Not today or yesterday,” I answered, picking up on her fear immediately.
“I haven't, either!” she cried, pushing away to run back out the front door. I followed as far as the doorway and stopped. I turned back inside.
“Freyja, have you seen Lea?”
“Not since she left here the other day,” Freyja said, staring at the open door while chewing her lip, her book forgotten on the floor. I wanted to follow Ann, but I couldn't just leave Freyja, so I gestured at her to come to me and knelt down so she could climb onto my back. Ann was already in the woods, calling for Lea. I ran up and caught her arm.
“She isn't going to hear you,” I pointed out. Ann jerked her arm away and balled her hands into angry fists. “I don't smell her out here, and I don't feel any humans close by except you and Freyja. Can I check your house out to see if she's hiding in there?”
“Why does this have to happen when everyone's gone?” she cried instead of answering me. Still, she made a beeline back to her house, and I followed closely behind. I really hoped that this was just a teenage angst episode and not a real emergency.
“Everyone but me being gone on a Sunday is weird enough on its own,” I said. “You've already made sure she's not with her papà, right?”
“I... No, I didn't want him to worry,” she said, pulling out her phone as we reached the stairs. I bounced Freyja higher up as I went inside the house and then ran from room to room as she clung tightly. The finches stopped beeping when I ran, but as soon as I stopped in the living room, they resumed. It felt pointed, like they were chewing me out for scaring them, and I apologized to them. Their cat, Boots, rubbed against my legs as she came out from under the bird cage to greet me. I leaned down to rub her head before I hurried back out of the empty house.
“Any luck?” I asked, knowing there wasn't from the loud Italian blasting out of her phone. Tony was scared and angry, and the memory of him coming home during the child abductions forever ago popped into my head. Ann still shook her head at me. I stepped close to her, raised my voice, and called to him in Italian, “I'm here and helping to look. Stay calm. Use our resources to find out if anyone in the city has seen her.”
His reply wasn't polite, but I ignored it. I wasn't the friendliest when my kids had gone missing, so I wasn't offended. I'd rather he railed at me than the guards. Ann started crying hard enough that she looked in danger of dropping the phone, and I realized that she didn't need to hear his bullshit, so I plucked it out of her hand with the arm not balancing Freyja and then hugged her with that arm, pressing the phone against her back. I could still hear, but she couldn't now.
Finally, the phone went quiet, and I lifted it up to talk into it. “I hope you have that out of your system, because that is the opposite of what Ann needs right now. Call back if you find anything.”
I hit the end call icon before he could reply and slipped the phone back into her pocket. It took a few minutes for her to cry herself out, and it was hard for me not to get antsy and try to hurry her along.
“Did you already call her siblings and River?”
“Called them all first,” Ann rasped. I nodded. “How could I not notice she hadn't been around all weekend? What the fuck is wrong with me?”
“When was the last weekend since she and River started dating that she was home on a Saturday?” I pointed out. Ann shrugged. “We'll find her.”
“I didn't get ahold of River,” Ann said. “Aiden said she'd been holed up in her room, blasting awful music since Lea left on Friday. That was the last day anyone saw her. She never made it home that I know of. I've called all of her friends, and no one has seen her.”
“I...” I didn't know what to say. A chill ran up my spine, and I tried to dismiss it. I needed to stay calm and objective for Ann, but goddammit, I loved all of those kids, and the thought of anything happening to any of them...
“You're growling, Daddy,” Freyja whispered, making me stop. I had pushed back the fear fast enough, but the ensuing anger was harder. I knew how to fight. But I didn't know how to track.
“I'm sorry,” I whispered back as I let go of Ann and stepped back to tap my watch. “Call Garret.”
“Calling Garret,” my ear clip chirped at me. I had a vampire model that didn't go into my ear canal and, thus, didn't block my hearing.
“Hey, marra,” he greeted me.
“You busy?”
“Just about to go into a bar for food, why?”
“Lea's missing. Haven't seen her since Friday,” I explained.
“I'll be there in two minutes.” The call ended. I tapped my watch again.
“Call Bonnie.”
“Calling Bonnie.”
“Hola,” she greeted me.
“Have you seen Lea?” I asked.
“Uh, no? Is she not with River?”
“She left River's on Friday and hasn't been seen since,” I answered. The call end sound played, and I turned to find Bonnie standing next to me, as I expected. Ann yelped, clearly not having expected it.
“Dammit!” Ann swore.
“Sorry!” Bonnie hopped from foot to foot, her face apologetic. “I didn't want to waste time.”
“No, I appreciate it,” Ann said, shaking her head.
“I'm going to fly from here to Aiden's and back,” Bonnie said.
“Garret's on his way if you want to wait for him,” I said. She shook her head.
“It's better if we aren't flying together. We'd just distract each other's senses,” she pointed out before flying off down the road.
“I'm going to call my stepbrother and let him know what's going on,” I told Ann. She nodded, and I gave my watch the command.
“Hey, Zack.”
“Aiden, can you please ask River if Lea was upset when she left?”
“Sure. What's going on, though?” he asked.
“She never made it home.”
“What?” he shouted. Thankfully, my clip had a feature that kept the volume the same no matter how quiet or loud the other person was. I could still hear the emotion behind it—and the sudden stomping of his feet as he ran up stairs. “River!”
“Dad! You can't just barge into my room—”
“Was Lea upset when she left?” I couldn't understand River's reply. “I'm not—I'm trying to find out why she never made it home.”
“What?” River's voice was as loud as her dad's for a moment. “You're not serious!”
“Why would I joke about this? Was she upset?” The line was quiet for what felt like a small eternity before River answered.
“No, yeah, she was. I mean, we'd just broke up.”
“River says they broke up,” I told Ann.
“I forget how good your hearing is,” Aiden said quietly while Ann asked why. “Sorry for shouting in your ear.”
“It's fine, my clip moderates volume. Can you ask River why they broke up?” I waited while he did, and the answer was as bad as I was afraid it would be, given that this was River. I closed my eyes and repeated her to Ann. “River was bored and wanted to move on. She said Lea was too clingy.”
“I'm so sorry,” Aiden said, and I heard what sounded like a door shutting. “If I'd known, I'd have offered to drive her home instead of letting her take the bus.”
“It's not your fault. You know how teenagers are about this shit,” I said, staring down the road as though I could see the bus stop next to the VU station.
“Indeed I do. Kaylee wasn't this dramatic,” Aiden said, his voice tense.
“I'll let you know when we find her,” I promised.
“Thanks. Tell Ann I'm sorry.”
“I will. Talk to you later.”
“Bye,” he said. I tapped my watch to end the call.
“He says he's sorry. Hey, did you already check the bus stop for her bike?” I asked.
“No...” Ann looked down the street like I had a minute before, and I looked up in time to see Garret falling from the sky. Ann looked up and squinted, but it only took a couple seconds for him to land. It was long past the days when it startled me.
“Okay, Ann, you take Freyja for me. Garret, you do a fly over around the neighborhood? I'm going to run down to the bus stop and see if Lea's bike is still chained up. While I'm there, I'll ask the VUTs if anyone's seen her.” I swung Freyja off my back and into Ann's arms as I spoke.
“Gotcha,” Ann said, hugging Freyja to her a little desperately. Freyja, always happy to cuddle, nuzzled her head against Ann's shoulder and hugged her back tightly. Ann buried her face in Freyja's red hair.
“It'll take me maybe four minutes,” Garret said. He gave me a quick kiss and patted Freyja's back and Ann's shoulder before taking off into the sky.
I ran down the street as fast as I could. It didn't take long for me to reach the station and pass it. I could see Lea's yellow bike chained to the bike rack and didn't need to go any further. I continued around to the front of the station and into the open bay. Immediately, VUTs were hopping up, waving and calling out to me.
“Is there an emergency?” Feng asked, his expression neutral. He was the chief of this station, and he knew me better than anyone else, given that we'd worked together the longest—and were friends. Once I'd gotten over myself and the incident with Tybalt/Leonard, I'd apologized and worked to repair the damage I'd done to that friendship.
“I hope not. Have any of you seen Leandra St. John since Friday?”
“Wait, she didn't go home today?” Michaels asked. She frowned and jogged over to the nearest patient room. “Lea!”
“Lea!” I echoed, running to Michaels' side. Lea was curled into a miserable ball in the corner of the bed, crying. Her brown eyes met mine, and that anger shot back through me. “No, I don't care how upset you are, do you have any clue how scared everyone is, trying to find you—and you're just... I...”
I walked myself back to the bay entrance, taking slow, deep breaths. I pulled out my phone and texted Ann, Bonnie, Tony and Garret that I'd found her. I then shot off a quick text to my stepbrother that she was safe and found. My watch and phone started vibrating immediately, and I frowned at Tony's name.
“Sorry, Henderson. I didn't realize she was still in there.” Michaels' voice drew my attention away from the call I was debating on ignoring. She had Lea by the upper arm, and the teenager was wiping her face on her sleeve.
Finally, the anger drained away, and I held out my arm to her. Her face crumpled, and she ran to cry against my chest. I hugged her to me. Then I handed her my phone, swiping the green circle to answer the call just before it would have gone to voicemail.
“Hello?” Her voice was totally wrecked.
“Leandra! Are you hurt? Where are you? What is going on?” Tony's voice was so thick with worry that I was terrified of what he was going to do when he found out she'd been hiding at the VU up the street.
“Papà,” she cried into the phone, and I led her toward the bus stop so we could get her bike and bring it home with her.
“Yes? What is it, Tesorina?”
“I'm—s-so sorry I—s-scared everyone,” she hiccuped.
“Are you safe?”
“Si. Uncle Zack is here. He has me.”
“Where are you, Tesorina? What happened?”
“R-River...” was all she got out. She dropped my phone, but I caught it before it hit the ground. I tapped the button to switch over to my clip.
“River broke up with her,” I explained, tensing for the enraged swearing I expected to follow. “She was at the VU at the top of the street, hiding in a patient room.”
“Her heart is broken?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I answered, surprised at his tone.
“Thank you for finding her. Thank you so much, my brother,” Tony said. His voice was strange, and I realized that it was thick with emotion. Was he crying? Holy shit. He was.
“Prego. I was worried, too,” I assured him.
“I will be home very soon,” he said. “Tell her I love her, please.”
“Here,” I said, and switched the conversation back to my phone. I held it up to her ear. “She can hear you.”
“Ti amo, Tesorina. Papà will be home soon,” he said. “I'll bring your favorite ice cream.”
“Ti amo, Papà. Grazi,” she replied. I was thrown by the entirely unexpected response. I had a feeling that Ann wasn't going to be as sympathetic, so I was glad she had Tony on her side at least.
“Thank you again, Zack,” he said, and I switched back to my clip.
“Prego,” I repeated.
“I am so sorry for how I spoke to you earlier,” he continued. I raised my eyebrow in surprise.
“You were upset. I get it,” I assured him. “I'm just glad she's safe.”
“I must apologize to Ann as well,” he said.
“Yes. Yes, you must,” I agreed, and he chuckled. I laughed with him, relief spreading through me as Lea unlocked her bike. “See you later.”
The call ended, and I helped Lea with the bike chain when she dropped it. I put one hand in the middle of the handlebars and my other arm around her shoulders to help her home. She hugged me with one arm.
“I'm sorry, Uncle Zack. Thank you for helping.”
“I'm just glad you're safe,” I repeated. “I'm sorry about River.”
“Me, too,” she whispered. We walked a ways in silence before she decided she was okay to ride, and I jogged alongside her the rest of the way home. Teenage heartbreak was hard, even when it wasn't my kid. In the end, I was glad that I was the one who found her. It was further validated that everyone else was just as happy she was home safe.
I was relieved and full of love for all my family.
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| art by rinmaru |
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| This image was created with Picrew’s “[BAYDEWS' avatar maker!!] V2“!! https://picrew.me/share?cd=ZfxCNuQksZ |
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| This image was created with Picrew’s “character maker pt 2“!! https://picrew.me/share?cd=kQFx5IAM6w |
