~Broken Family~

Broken Boy

It reminded Gwen of Stranger Things, of when Will had gone missing. There were bright searchlights that stung her superhuman eyes, a few S.H.I.E.L.D. or police agents calling Harley's name that shredded through her superhuman eardrums, and then there was Tony.

Tony reminded her of Joyce after Will had gone missing. He shouted Harley's name and searched every dark corner of the streets at who-knows-what-hour of the morning, but he was losing himself. He was jittery, flinching at the slightest sound, fingers grasping at something that wasn't there.

"He still cares about you," was what Tony had said. "He'll listen to you."

Gwen wasn't so sure.

She had a flashlight of her own and joined the search, barely caring that she was in Tennessee. She'd never been in the state before, but she did notice the difference in the air. It was warmer, and smelled a little sweeter. She could see why Harley missed it here.

"Harley!" she screamed into the night, waving her flashlight up and down the street. She and the rest of the search party fanned out starting from the house and splitting down the road in two different directions. Some others split off from the group to check the woods, and a few others, like Gwen and Tony, ambled about aimlessly, shouting his name in desperation.

This is pointless, she told herself, feeling hopelessness choke her. She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to shut off all of her other senses, and opened her ears.

Nothing. Of course. Why did she think this would work?

Groaning, she walked back to where Tony was desperately shouting his son's name into the void.

"Tony," she called. "Think! Where could he be?! If anyone would know, it's you!"

For a moment, Tony's face continued to remind Gwen of a toddler that wasn't getting their way and was about to throw a tantrum, but then his eyes lit up and he straightened like he'd heard a gunshot.

"I think I know where he'd go."

***

He'd told Gwen to go alone. Tony, Pepper, Natalie Lynch, who was beside herself, and Happy waited inside a van parked down the street, not wanting to scare Harley out of hiding. If it turned out he wasn't there, Gwen was to come back as soon as possible.

If she did find him, though, she was supposed to come back with him. And that was the part that scared her.

She stared across the street at a ramshackle house with one of the front boarded-up window shutters dangling off like a hangnail. A bloodthirsty bark sounded from somewhere in the backyard behind the broken chainlink fence, and the mailbox had long been knocked over. It was leaned against the detached garage, which had a single light overtop of the cracked side door.

Harley's old house. The garage where he'd first met Tony.

Taking a deep breath and holding it there in her chest like a comforting object, Gwen started across the street and approached the door. It was red, metal, and very imposing. The singular square window was shattered, and the doorknob looked very rusty. She could imagine Tony kicking his way in there, half-frozen to death and dragging his bedraggled suit behind  him.

Hesitating, she put a hand to he knob and pushed the door open. The extreme volume of the creak it let out sent shivers down her spine. It was dark inside, but with her enhanced vision and a lot of fumbling, she managed to find the lightswitch.

It wasn't as bright as she would have liked. Shelves of random junk was directly to the right of the door. A small wooden desk sat towards the side of the room, across from a couch that looked too shabby for Gwen's grandmother. An old car sat sleeping half-covered by a tarp across the garage with old, rickety-looking stairs next to it leading up to a gaping black hole in the ceiling.