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 Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 1:33 pm
Sunny found the book on her wanderings, a receipt still wedged inside the front cover. The name was familiar to her: Heliodora Winters, who could forget it? Heliodora. She tapped the slim volume of mythology against her lips as she walked, ignoring the stares she garnered. It was her usual: kin recognizing kind, kith, a dead clade walking. The background noise of her existence. She opened the door to the bookshop and stepped inside. It was quiet, homey; the fog rolled up thick against the windows; she could imagine it must feel like a cocoon to its owner, a bulwark against anything outside. Within these walls, she imagined he would think, nothing can reach me. It seemed silly to her, but humans were strange. "I'm looking for Professor Mixlin," she said to the human at the counter. She put the book down between them, cover and title facing up.
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:17 pm
"You found him." Algie was behind the counter, butt perched on the very edge of a stool and head on his hand. He seemed to be browsing through an illustrated history of world military uniforms. The greying man regarded her with very green eyes over the tops of his glasses which seemed to be forever sliding down his nose. He didn't seem overly pleasant, nor severe, but a 'business level' of perfectly measured manners that most in a retail position seemed to adopt for customer service, "Can I help you?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:24 pm
Sunny favored him with her very best human smile, the one that showed only slivers of her teeth. Humans had an endless variety of teeth, but hers seemed to spook them for some reason. (She was fairly sure she had the right number of them? But she'd never bothered to count.) "S'this yours?" She tapped a black nail on the water-warped cover of the book. "My friend Heliodora wanted me to bring it back to you."
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:42 pm
Algie leaned, adjusting his glasses as he reached for the book. He recognized the cover, and it was hard not to know the missing girl's name with a reward now on the table. But there the book was, the receipt, and as naive as it may have sounded- you didn't expect someone like a serial killer to waltz in holding a piece of evidence. Well, perhaps in one of his books but..."Heliodora?" Algie opened the cover and brushed a finger over the receipt a moment. There was an unintended conspiratorial drop in the volume of his voice, "Do you know where she is??"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:48 pm
Sunny lowered her glance, thick dark eyelashes hiding the direction of her gaze. "I know where she isn't," she said. She leaned in, eyes back on his face. "Have you ever wanted to know something so bad you'd do anything to get answers?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:14 pm
There was a huff from Algie, the vague response entirely unsatisfying. Her question made him think though. He should have been thinking 'Who the hell is this woman and why does she have a missing girl's book?' but instead he was actually thinking about his answer. Perhaps sometimes he got too caught up in the story.. "Anything?" The professor was a cautious man by nature and had very little he held dear besides his preciously fragile globe of personal comfort, "I'm not sure I'd do anything.. for anything." His fingers drummed, bringing him back to the book and his brows furrowed to be distracted from the topic at hand, "Where is Heliodora.. and who are you?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:28 pm
"I'm Sunny," she said. "Short for Ascencion." She leaned against the counter, chin in her hands. "She's... gone."
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:56 pm
Sunny was fishy as hell. "Gone where?" The book was pressed shut under his hand and he watched her carefully. He should be calling the cops- a voice in the back of his head told him to- but his cautious side said she'd run and a selfish irresponsible desire to be the detective, or at least get helpful information for Jeremiah, reared it's ugly head. "Did she want to know something badly?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:17 pm
"She wanted to know if it was real," said Sunny. "The things I showed her. But she asked too many questions." There was real regret in her voice. "I showed her to make her stop, but she wouldn't. And now she's gone to the other ashdown."
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:34 pm
The regret seemed genuine but Sunny seemed crazy. He liked to think himself a sensible person but the things she was saying were vague and difficult to grasp. He wasn't sure what was literal or figurative. What he did know was that she'd seen the kids, done something with them and possibly to them. The book itself was the evidence. It was concrete, unlike anything that slipped from Sunny's lips. "Where is the other ashdown?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:36 pm
Where was it? Better question: Where wasn't it. "That's a terrible question," Sunny said. "You might as well ask where air is."
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:55 pm
He felt a frustrated string of curses rising in his chest but stamped them down because she had something to do with this and she knew where they were."Perhaps I wouldn't ask terrible questions if I was more informed." He didn't let go of the book, or leave it on the counter. Algie tucked it under his arm and moved out from behind the counter and towards Sunny. "Maybe I'm also interested in answers..." Hopefully he wouldn't have to promise everything to get them.
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 8:12 pm
Sunny narrowed her eyes at him as he approached, but didn't move. "I'll answer three questions in exchange for a promise," she said. "And a pack of cigarettes."
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 8:31 pm
Three questions? What was she a bloody genie?? Still, three was better than none. A dark shifty look passed over Algie's face a moment and he went back behind the counter, fished low until only his hair bobbed in view, androse again with a pack of cigarettes. His secret stash. He also kept a pipe box in the back room on top of the refrigerator where no one ever looked. Yes he was a secret smoker and it didn't matter what. It was the act of smoking. It was soothing and helped him write. "Cigarettes. But I never promise anything before I know what I'm in for." He came back around to join her and offer the pack, "But that isn't a no."
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Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 8:39 pm
Sunny accepted the cigarettes and tucked them into her hoodie pocket without looking at the brand. "Thanks," she said. She rolled her questions over in her mind, and settled on one. "I want you to promise to take responsibility for whatever happens. Whatever you do with the answers I give you, you must promise that you'll own it." Sunny narrowed her eyes at him. "That seems fair."
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