I'll be there // Lisa Peterson x reader

02 ♪ Jorvik

"Excited for Jorvik, Y/N?" Your mother turned her head to face the backseat of the car. "Not really, ." I mumble back, looking out the window, "I'd rather do anything except this." "Don't be like that" My mom said, her tone hollow, "There's horses there, you like horses." "I don't like being a stupid diplomat for the stupid company-" "Don't take that tone, Y/N." Your father warned, "Or else we might not send you there." "Good, I don't want to go there anyway." He didn't dignify the taunt with a response, only a warning don't talk back to me like that-look.

"Got everything?" your mother asked you as your father handed you the last bag, something she could clearly see, but decided to fill the silence with meaningless strung together words. "Yes, Mother." You replied, swaying slightly at the weight shift of the last bag. "I'm gonna miss you so much." She spoke, a sad tone similar to that of a mediocre actor. "Could've kept me here and maybe you wouldn't miss me." I grumble. Her mask of sadness hardened as she huffed, "You're too busy being in your room doing nothing, we'll see you equally as much, at least here you can benefit the company, maybe even score us a partnership with a certain oil ri-" "Let's not get overzealous now, let Y/N take it at their speed.. although a deal wouldn't be disappointing your parents." Your father laughed, smacking your shoulder just a little too hard to make you drop your bag.

"Have a fun summer at Jorvik, Y/N" Your mother said, hugging you in the similar way she would her girl friends after having them over for dinner, a slightly firm, yet lacking of any warmth squeeze that lasted maximum 4 seconds. "Two months of independence will do you good." Your father added. "Do you remember everything?" Your mother inquired, "First night your horsie-" "Rosie" "-Rosie will stay at Jorvik Stables, and you will stay with a family friend in Jarlaheim, before you follow the marked path to Silverglade manor through Moorland." "Yes, Mother, you've said this a dozen times now." She huffed slightly, "Well with your head up in the clouds it's hard to know what you pick up and what you don't." You roll your eyes slightly, going unnoticed by both parental figures wishing you of to a distant unknown island.

You wave the pair goodbye as you head for the ticket booth. Sliding into a vacant booth on the boat near the window, you plug in your headphones and continue your playlist from where it had left off last time. It doesn't go long before the horn of the boat goes off and you both see and feel the movement. Your parent's car already gone. Not even five minutes since you left. The first fifteen minutes were spent messaging your few friends on the mainland, before you were too far out for service, and ended up staring off into the great beyond, effectively zoning out.

Who knows how much time had passed when you zoned back in, the sun, which had once stood high in the sky, was barely visible. A girl, no more than 11 jumped up on the cushion opposite you, catching your attention, "Dad! Dad! Look! Land! Is that Jarlaheim?" She spoke so fast, so fast a slow motion clip might be able to make out what she was saying. Luckily for the girl, she didn't need to be recorded and slowed to be understood, cause what I can only assume was her exhausted bean pole of a father heard her perfectly fine, "No, no, we're too early to be docking now."

Contrary to his words that was exactly what we were doing. "Why is the boat going to Fort Pinta?" A middle aged woman asked, smoothly pulling the girl out of my booth. Just in time, a voice spoke over the speaker system, "Attention passangers, Jarlaheim Harbor is temporarily out of service due to poor weather in the Harvest Counties, we'd like ot apologize for this inconvenience. The Fort Pinta owner has personally offered 50% off on your first night at any of Fort Pinta's rooms."

Well that's just lovely, isn't it? Alone, in an unknown area on an unknown island with little to no battery, your only way of transport (aka horse) kept in a location you know where is but not how to get there, a grumpy 80-year-old woman expecting youto be at her doorstep in 50 minutes, and a soon-to-be fuming mother for not showing up at the 80-year-old's house. Great. Just great.

The cold night air hit you as you exited the boat. The feeling of land beneath your feet was steadying, but also, not as steadying, considering the strange-unknown-mystery-land you had just set foot on. Following the sound of 70s music you found your way to the small (and sad) Fort Pinta disco, featuring 5 dancing girls and a DJ. Except for the sad millenial-rave going on, it was calm, grasshoppers were sounding and you could make out faint fireflies where there was a bit too far between lamp posts.

"Welcome to Fort Pinta, I assume you're one of the tourists led astray by the poor weather in Jarlaheim?" A kid spoke behind me, giving me a heart attack worse than that of Mark Twain's. "Who are you?" You looked at him, built similarly to that of a thuja with a cap, you squinted my eyes. "The name's James. I run this joint." Seriously? Him? Pipsqueak runs Fort Pinta? Sure. Well, this will be an easy rip off for a cheap hotel room, poor kid won't even know what hit him after you'd negotiated.

Or so you thought. The kid was a total ass, he was no newbie in the way of business that was for sure. 200 shillings a night not counting the 50% for the first one is a robbery. No way you'd be paying 100 shillings for a dingy hotel room, that's way too much... Or maybe it isn't, you made a mental note to check the conversion rates once you got to charge your phone. This did leave you with a major problem: nowhere to sleep. Were you really going to sleep on a bench outside? How much of your family's reputation would be ruined by that if they ever heard? It's bad enough you stood up an old lady, there was no need to dig your grave deeper, surely.

That left you with only one choice: walking into the dark.

1084 words