Mari's return

Brighter

It’s a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like these. Kids like Mari. Should be enjoying a nice cup of tea outside.

Mari was currently sitting in her family’s backyard on a chair next to her where her favorite tree used to stand. Sure she couldn’t lay underneath its shade on the cool grass anymore, but its flat surface worked well as a table. Resting upon the tree stump was a fresh pitcher of iced tea alongside a book that Kel lent her. She was surprised that Kel even divulged in literature, but apparently, it was called a light novel. The novel had some ridiculously long titles that revealed too much of what happened in the book itself, but its themes appeared to be oddly familiar to Mari.

Regardless of what she was doing, Mari found the warm summer day in her backyard to be pleasant. Although she could be spending this time with her friends, Mari could use some me time, after all, that happened. After all, it was everything she ever wanted, to come back home, save her brother and friends, and relish in a world free of fighting. Just some nice peace and quiet.

But that didn’t last long. Soon, Mari could hear some rampant knocking coming all the way from her front door. Although she could teleport to it quickly, Mari decided to just walk to it. It was likely Kel who wanted to show her a cool bug, so there was no need to rush over.

As she entered the living room, the knocking suddenly stopped. Perhaps, Kel got too bored and decided it was best to visit later. That was what Mari thought until she saw the tan boy crash right through her window and land on his side.

“Kel, how many times do I have to tell you to not do that!” scolded Mari. She rushed over to the boy to tend to his fresh wounds, but as she got closer she noticed some bruises that wouldn’t have been caused by window shards. “What happened to you?”

Before Kel could answer, Mari’s locked door was soon pried open, and standing in the doorway was a pink-haired delinquent who looked even worse for wear than Kel. “Dammit, Kel. I told you to wait a bit longer for me to pick the lock.”

“Sorry,” Kel said weakly. “But we’re in a bit of jam right now.”

“Slow down,” said Mari as she treated both of their wounds. “What happened to you both. And, where’s Sunny? Wasn’t he with you two and Basil?” As a sour expression donned upon both of her friends, Mari’s stomach churned with worry.

“He and Basil were kidnapped,” said Aubrey. And like her window, Mari felt everything was coming apart. Kidnapped? As in taken? Taken somewhere far away from Faraway?

“W-what?” asked Mari in disbelief, as if what was happening was some cruel joke. But with how Kel and Aubrey looked, Mari was sure that it wasn’t.

“We were just hanging out at the park, then these thugs came out of nowhere and grabbed them. They even left this note,” explained Aubrey as she fished out a piece of paper from her pocket.

Mari took it and scanned through its contents. It was a ransom note, demanding an unbelievable sum of money for Basil’s release. The note didn’t mention anything about Sunny, so Mari wasn’t sure how he was involved. If she had to guess it was because the perpetrators were working with a vague description of Basil’s attire and took both boys to be safe.

“We tried to stop them, but there were too many of them for us,” continued Aubrey with a scornful look on her face. Mari could only imagine how upset she could be for not being able to protect Sunny and Basil. “I asked the Hooligans to find out where those thugs might be, so let’s meet up with them at the park.”

Kel and Aubrey brought Mari to the scene of the crime. There she found the Hooligans waiting for them, each of them looking just as injured as Kel did earlier. She approached each of them to ease their pain and hear what they had found.