Arcade's Dungeon

Hunter Hero 16: Promise Me

The longer time that passed, the more I realized I was processing that far too calmly and that I wasn't freaking out enough. Just speaking matter of fact, just going through the motions.

     Ed must've hit the breaks on his truck and smashed my head harder into the back of his seat than I thought.

     Because my brain fog only started clearing up the moment I got food in me, looking down at the jalapenos painted red around the rim of the plate Nita slapped my next quesadilla on. Thinking more about what I said, about what I'd done.

     "Ed," I breathed scarcely, retracing my steps mentally. "Where's my bag?"

     "Your bag?"

     Then I looked up at him sitting at the dining table across from me, seeing the quizzical look on his face.

     Realizing that he'd never gotten it back from Selinker.

     "Oh, hell," I sighed, dropping the quesadilla and letting my head fall into my hands. I wanted to say so much more than that while squeezing my eyes shut and praying that Selinker didn't open it. I told him one week, and surely he heard me, right? It was the only reason he let us go. But for that one week, maybe I really did just need my bag for school work.

     "What? What's wrong?"

     My buzzer.

     "Nothing," I shook my head, peeling it up eventually from my palms. Grease and sour cream covered my fingertips. A stray hot sauce bottle stood off to the side where I'd ignored it. Tapatio was only acceptable for one dish in my mind, and if it wasn't in front of me, I wasn't using it. "It's fine."

     That woman would probably be sitting outside the recently-sold house again, watching my family. Her patterns weren't consistent and she was always gone before it got too late, but if I left early enough I could probably catch her and search the car for it. If it wasn't the same car, I could just shake her down, and if not, it wasn't too hard to hold someone's head still for facial recognition. Selinker would definitely be surprised if I gave him a call.

     Wait a minute.

     There was something I was forgetting. Something about my buzzer. Not only was I missing it, but I was also-

     I let out a groan, dropping my quesadilla right back down to where I'd picked it up.

     "What?"

     Nita turned around from the stove to hold the spatula and shake her head at me. My distorted expression no doubt made some waves as she left more food to cook and came to lean over on the chair on front of me. "What's wrong?"

     "I just...remembered some things."

     "What things?"

     "Nothing relevant to you."

     "Clearly, it is, if you want to be eating these quesadillas in a minute."

     "My bag had something important in it and I missed an important meeting. That's it."

     "It had best not be with a kidnapper."

     "No," I snapped back on her as she turned back to the stove, crossing the tiles. "The opposite, actually."

     "And who would that be?"

     "None of your business as well."

     "Fine. So long as it's none of my business, these are also none of your-"