Maybe I'll Stay

Part One: Breaking in and Nice People

“This is a terrible idea.” Archie whispered. “Yeah, no shit! But I literally haven’t eaten in weeks, and magic can only sustain me for so long. We get in, get out, and everything will be fine.” Douxie whispered back. They were on the dark streets of Arcadia Oaks trying to break into a grocery store.

Douxie was trying his hand at lockpicking since his magic wasn’t exactly working right now. The reason they were in this situation was quite a simple one, they were broke. Douxie was 900 years old, but he looked about 16, so it was pretty hard for him to get an actual job, and the fact that they moved around alot made it even harder.

They never stayed in one place more than a couple months at most. With all this, they were both used to being hungry. Especially Douxie. “Honestly, I don’t understand why we can’t just go into the woods and hunt some animals! No crime needed, and magic would make it far easier.” Archie suggested.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Archie, I’m vegan! No animals! Plus magic isn’t exactly possible right now, otherwise I would be using it instead of trying to lockpick, because obviously I’m bad at it!” Douxie honestly couldn’t believe how often Archie manages to forget that he doesn’t eat meat. Douxie was trying his best to break into the store so that he could, hopefully, find some food to eat.

Honestly, this whole situation was making him uncomfortable. He didn’t like doing things like this, and was lucky he rarely had to. He always found one way or another to get some food, and he made up for the time he didn’t have it with magic. He could give himself some extra energy and get rid of some of the hunger pains with magic until he managed to get some food, but magic in itself relied on energy.

Douxie had been honing his magic for so long that it took a lot to drain him, but he hadn’t eaten any food in weeks, and he was quickly finding magic of any kind extremely difficult to perform. So, here he was, breaking into a store in a quaint little town he had stumbled across. He had never been here before, and he hated that this was the first and probably last thing he would do in this town, planning to hightail it out of there the second he got what he needed.

He shook the guilt from his head as he finally managed to open the door, patting himself on the back as Archie sighed. He stepped into the store, letting his eyes adjust to the even darker inside, and made his way around.

He had finally found some vegan food and then some cat food for Archie when suddenly the door was kicked open and two police officers came barging in. “Put your hands behind your head!” One shouted as they advanced on him. Douxie dropped the stuff he was holding and put his hands up. Shit. He had been so hungry and sleep deprived that he had completely forgotten to check for cameras or alarms.

The officers stepped behind him and handcuffed him, giving Archie a weird look but continuing with their work. They marched Douxie out into their car and started driving off. Douxie was panicking, but he was happy they at least let him keep Archie.

Eventually they got to the police station and Douxie was ushered out of the car, his wrists still bound in cuffs. He was sat in a cold metal chair in an empty room with one of those one way windows at the front. ‘Isn’t this a bit much for robbing a grocery store?’ He thought, but then again it was a fairly small town, so things like this probably didn’t happen too often.

Eventually a cop came in along with a woman in a pantsuit. Not good, women in pantsuits terrified Douxie. The cop took the handcuffs off of Douxie and then sat down in front of him and began to speak.

“Alright kid, here’s the deal. You’re about 15, right?” The cop questioned. “16, actually. 17 in a couple months.” Douxie corrected, that being the age he usually told people. “Right, 16. So, since you’re a minor you wouldn’t get in too much trouble anyway, plus the store owner decided not to press charges so you're off the hook. But, you still broke into a store and stole food, and, no offense, you don’t look the best. So this is Mrs. Danning, and she’s a social worker. Whatever situation you're in, she’s gonna help you out. I’ll be going now, so just answer whatever questions she asks you.”