[PRP] Far-away (Sunny & Jeremiah)

[shibrogane]

The news about Zac Bantock broke, and it was only a few hours later that Jeremiah's personal phone rang.

When he picked up, he heard, as if from far away: "Where are you?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah had just parked his car in the alley of the bookshop, about to head in and talk with Algie. Start making plans, start something, because this was no longer working.

Three teens and now a college student? He had to find Sunny, other ashdown, whatever. Aleksy warnings still rang in his ears but they didn't matter.

The door to his car was shut as his phone rang. "Alg, I'm right out-" he paused, the voice distant sounding and grainy. Like an old rotary phone. Not Algie.

He growled and answered.

"Outside Bibliophile."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

With a sudden, wrenching twist, Jeremiah was quite suddenly not outside Bibliophile any longer.

Now he stood on the beach. Nearby, Sunny held her hand up to her face like a child playing Telephone, thumb and pinky extended. The light mist didn't seem to bother her; her hair clung to her face either way, silky and wet. "I need you to keep your promise," she said.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah's stomach lurched, his skin itching at the sensation and from one blink to the next.

He was on the beach.

"I need you to stop taking children, Sunny." The man was dressed for work still, neat and orderly, and blue-green eyes focused on the not-a-young-woman.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I didn't," she cried. "I didn't touch the first three, I didn't!" Sunny shook her head. "I showed them, like I showed you! But I need you to keep your promise now because I can't get him out. It's stopping me. It wants him there."

She grabbed Jeremiah by the arm. "So I'm calling in my chip! You have to get them back!"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah's ire did not abate, not even the face of what looked like remorse. Sunny could not be trusted. That much was clear. Still, she was trying to get help and he would never not help. There were three missing children, now Zac Bantock (and never mind the voice in the back of his mind that hissed she had gotten Algie involved).

He grabbed her back out of reflex. "What is it? Who is keeping him there? Do you mean Zac Bantock?" He paused, took a breath, thinking past the anger (it simmered beneath the surface). "What do I need to do? I can't get them back if you don't tell me what I need to know to do so."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"It's it," Sunny said, speaking almost too quick to understand. "It's keeping him there. It's been there as long as I have, maybe longer, it's--part of it all--I don't know how to explain it!" Her grip on Jeremiah's arm was tight enough to bruise now, white-knuckled. "You need to go after them. Maybe it won't trap you. You need to go in there and pull them back! You promised you'd bring them home. We can't let it have them."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I need more than that," he growled, ignoring the twist of pain because Sunny's grip was far more powerful than it should have been for a girl her size. Another helpful reminder she was not human.

Jeremiah still had his holster on, his gun was still in place and visible because his jacket had been left in his car. Not that he was sure that mattered, not when the things in other ashdown did not play by the rules he did.

A promise was promise, however, and the detective would do everything in his power to bring the kids back, to bring Zac back as well. "You have to explain something," he hissed, "you can't just drop me in a place and expect me to know what to do. I need to know something," repetition, maybe it would get through to her, "anything that will help me bring them back."

A deep breath, his hand shifting and covering hers (gently trying to pry her hand off). "I promised I would help and I will but I can't be more blind in this than I already am."

shibrogane

also just wait for him to get back to the WAIT YOU TOUCHED ZAC? train of thought.

 

[shibrogane]

Sunny tightened her grip. "Stop DELAYING, you unbelievable WANKER!"

With an incredible tug, she pulled Jeremiah from one reality to another. The mist had become a downpour, and the tide washed in dark and angry (but still salt water).

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I'm not dela -" Jeremiah didn't get the words out before he felt like he was wrenched from one place to another again. The world was wetter, darker, and suddenly so very much the stuff of his dreams.

"Jesus ******** Christ, Sunny," he growled. Again the man did not jump, his hand still covering hers and fingers locked on as much as he could. This was not what he had planned, not what he had in mind. Blue-green eyes glanced around, trying to take it in, before he settled back on her.

(Algie was going to be so, so mad at him.)

"What's changed? What happened with Zac? You took him, not it." His free hand was raised to rub at his eyes, clear the rain some. Zac wasn't just anyone, Zac worked for Algie. Zac who he played chess with on occasion. That was decidedly more personal than he had already made it. The detective's nerves were rattled but he needed some kind of answers.

Especially now that she had brought him to other ashdown. "Why bring me here now?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I felt it watching him," said Sunny. "I knew it was there. I thought if I, if I put him somewhere safe, he wouldn't disappear. Not like them. But I think I, I put him here and he didn't stay. He should've just stayed where I put him!"

She let go of Jeremiah and shoved her hands in her pockets. "You promised you'd bring them home. That means him too."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I'll bring them all home, Sunny, Zac too." Jeremiah sighed, hand held out and then dropping. There really was no point. Not with him where he was, not with his clothing getting wetter by the second (the recipe for heart he started to carry out of spite getting ruined).

"Where did you leave Zac, Sunny?" Maybe finding Zac would be easier. Zac wasn't caught with whatever it was. Jeremiah was resolutely not thinking about the fact he had no way out of here beside the not-a-girl in front of him. "Can you show me?"

The detective was a man with a one-track mind at the moment because all the other tracks? They were really ******** terrible.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I left him where I found him! Here! On the beach!" Sunny gestured, the swing of her arm encompassing the waves. "He kept finding me and asking questions and look, it knows I'm here and it's going to look, I have to go before it sees you, too!"

She took a few hurried steps away. "You better find him," she said, "you better, you promised."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah stepped after her, then paused, because whatever it was he wasn't sure he wanted the attention of. Not if it was going to get him trapped; make it where he couldn't try and do something. Finding anyone in this place hinged on him not being trapped himself.

"... you have got to be ******** kidding me." The detective was back to angry, back to where Sunny did not quite get that things like this? They did not work out well. Her track record was worthless. Her ideas terrible. "********, Sunny," he growled, "I'm going to find Zac and then I am going to find the other three and then you and me? WE ARE GOING TO TALK." There was that authority voice that broke no question. Not that it would necessarily even work on Sunny but he, at this point, gave zero ******** promised the three. Not Zac. You owe me one. You hear me? YOU. OWE. ME. ONE."

Not that he wasn't already going to try and rescue Zac anyway but that was beside the point. The deal they shook on? Didn't include a fourth.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

There were a thousand sassy comebacks just begging to be made. Instead, Sunny yelled, "MAKE ME," and vanished into the misty rain, as if she'd never been.

azuredreams

enjoy this being of infinite power with the attitude of a teenager