Ordering the Right Food In Front of Family Is Important

Walking down the streets of Leeside, Morrigan led the way and stopped to open the door for the two of them and then entered in last as the two headed to the empty counter with a young-looking cashier in uniform and little paper hat in tow.

"Hi, welcome to Darian's. What can I get for you guys today?" He asked.

All of them took a brief moment to look up and read the menu, thinking about what they wanted to order.

Rambone, always ready to speak up first: "I'll have a buffalo chicken."

"At least it's not a meatball sub," Luca thought to herself. "He's always gotten those the few times we've been here before."

"They would've killed me if I ordered a meatball sub." Rambone thought to himself, sighing through his nose.

Luca went next. "I'll take a B.M.T. wrap, please."

"Seriously, you're ordering a B.M.T? You're dedicated to making yourself look best as you can to mom." Rambone was appalled by the thought. "I thought she's never had a wrap in her life, too."

After moving out of the way, Luca positioned herself in a way as to hide her momentary sodding deadpan face from Morrigan. "Shit. I don't like wraps."

Rambone, managing to catch a glimpse of her face, shot her a look of shared embarrassment, now both knowing they just ordered food in a way that wouldn't make them look like slobs in front of Morrigan.

And next for her order: "I'll take a meatball sub."

Their deadpanned faces now renewed and their embarrassment worsened.

"And she ordered the messiest sandwich on the menu?!" They collectively thought. "Oh. My. God."

Morrigan then paid for the food (along with ordering water for them all) and Luca walked them over to a booth window seat. It wasn't fancy or comfy, but it wasn't particularly awful, either. It would be a few minutes until their food would be ready.

They fumbled around and looked around while waiting for it to be ready and then getting it.

"Hey, mom, how long until you have to be back from your lunch break?" Rambone asked.

"About an hour."

"That's not that much time, isn't it?" Luca interjected before he got to say it.

"Kind of, an hour is more and much less time than you typically think." She replied, looking outside through the window.

"I mean, yeah. I woke up pretty recently and it feels like I've been up for ages," Rambone said.

"Oh, why's that?"

Luca swiftly gave him a 'don't tell her look' yet again.

"I've been... uh... I had a pretty intense and a great morning workout," Rambone said through bites.

"That's great."

"How's work been since you were transferred?"

"Been more fun than actually productive, I'll be honest," she joked and chuckled to herself. "One of my co-workers keep jamming the big printer we have there and then she hits it and somehow that fixes it."

The two of the friends smiled at it.

"It's funny how those weird things tend to work," Luca commented. "being not gentle to fix something broken just seems counterintuitive.

"God, I sound so fucking ridiculous right now." She scoffed in her head.

"I know, right! Sucks though that the higher-ups don't have a sense of humor whenever that happens." Morrigan frowned. "I'd have a blast working there if they did to that and all the other funny things that go on there."

Her phone vibrated her back pocket multiple times.

"Oh, looks like a friend called. I can't introduce them to you right now, but whenever they call me it's important." Luca moved out of the booth for a moment to make room for her to get out as she headed to the women's restroom to take the call.

"Why is your mom so damn formal?" Luca asked. "Feels like her soul got sucked into her bank account."

"I know! She barely feels like my mom anymore!" He replied.

"She's just so icky, I just can't bring myself to like her, man." She said, flashing a brief grimace on her face.

"It's gonna be awkward if she discovers about what's happened today while living at my place."

"And what am I supposed to do if we do that then? Forget about Pat?! Yeah, let me just forget about that!" She stated, clearly now angry as she slammed down on the table with a fist.

"Well, the police will catch 'em eventually. They'll eventually be brought to justice.

"WELL, did YOU catch them?! No, you didn't! So shut the fuck up." Her anger was growing as much as the amount of body language she was using.

"What else can we do?"

"Oh I don't know, catch them? You ever think of that?"

"I did."

"Like, for real this time."

"We don't know what place they might be at."

"Perhaps the one left in the note, dipshit! That's our only chance! You're the one who always dives in first, so why are you the one who's scared to take the chance right now."

"Alright. After we're done eating, we'll head over to the police station and ask for help." Rambone said, giving in to her demands.

"Finally, thank you!"

The two swiftly finished eating and left to head to the police station, leaving Morrigan to clean up the mess they left behind.

Ten minutes passed. They opened the door and went in, heading over to a spot there to talk to the closest police officer.

"What are you two kids here for today?"

"Hearing today is going make me sick if I keep hearing it." Luca thought to herself, somewhat jokingly.

"We were wondering what this might mean," she pulled out the note and handed it off to the police officer. "and if you guys would know that."

The police officer nodded and scratched the back of her head. "First of all, I'd like to know where you two found this."

"Uhh... we found it on the ground so we picked it up," Rambone answered. "probably not the best idea, but yeah."

"You probably shouldn't have picked it up. Either way, I think it's talking about the underground place out of the town to the west of here, probably a mile out. It's dangerous to go there, so let us handle this case."

"What kind of case do you think this is, then?" He asked.

"Missing person case. Could be anything under that umbrella. Kidnapping, disappearance, and anything like that."

"Alright, thanks."

"You two have a good day and stay safe." She waved them off as they left, and talked over into a walkie-talkie to prompt an investigation into the incident.

Now out of the police station, Luca pointed them straight west.

"So, over there?" Rambone asked.

"Yes, stupid. I know my directions."

"You better be right with that."

The two of them headed off and about half an hour later of getting over there to the spot they ran to an odd-looking clearing in the woods about 100 feet away. There was a metal green sign nailed onto a huge oak tree. The sign had the name of the trail they've been on: Grande Trail. Despite this, they knew they only told which trail you were on right at the beginning of it.

"Looks like Winnie The Pooh's house."

She groaned in response. "It's a spot. Probably THE spot, but I don't know. I doubt it's someone's house, though."

"No, definitely Winnie The Pooh's house."

"Shut up, I'm trying to be a detective here. Let me think." She thought while feeling around the tree. Rambone shadowed behind her.

"How about you think about THIS?" He shouted as he pushed her down to the ground, faceplanting onto a small bed of leaves.

"How about YOU th-" Luca tried to argue while getting up but was stopped by a noise of something moving nearby.

They looked over towards the noise. It came from within the door.

She dusted off herself and promptly punched him in the shoulder.

"Think about that!"

"I don't think that's what I want to think about right now."

He walked over to the spot where the noise had come from. A spot in the tree had opened, showing off what looked like a staircase going down. He couldn't see too much, due to it being a little cramped and very dark.

"You just opened a door! Thanks!" He announced to her, in a semi-sarcastic tone.

"Wait, don't leave without me!" She protested, running over to see for herself.

"Oh, that's something."

"This might be it."

"No shit."

"Are you ready?" He asked.

"I was about to ask you that myself." She replied, smiling. "Let's go."