Discoveries | TMR | Three

4:1

"What game should we get for Chuck?"

"Uh... I don't know?"

For nearly thirty minutes, the two groups have occupied different floors, yet Adeline and Alby find themselves still lingering in the very first shop they entered: a quaint, old-fashioned toy store. Adeline is taking her sweet time searching for a board game for the young boy, leaving Alby puzzled by her leisurely pace.

With each passing minute, they lose precious daylight, time that could be spent gathering far more crucial items. Why is she dawdling so much?

"Oh, come on, there's loads to pick from," she exclaims, her voice bright as she glides down the aisle, her fingers lightly brushing against the colorful boxes lining the shelves. "I'm thinking something like..." She halts, snatches a box from the shelf, and spins around to present it to Alby. "This one."

"Kerplunk?" he replies, his brow furrowed in confusion as he stretches out the first syllable. His gaze roams over the box, taking in the ball with its myriad holes, the little sticks precariously balanced, and a tiny cluster of marbles at the bottom. "Doesn't it seem a bit... noisy?"

Adeline shrugs, pulling the box back to examine it more closely, tilting her head as she studies the front. "Maybe," she muses, her eyes darting back to Alby. "But everything else we have is pretty dull. Plus, no Cranks come into the Harbour at night, and even if they did, his boat is all the way at the end of the pier."

She can see the reluctance on Alby's face, and can already deduce by the way his eyes consistently flicker to the window that he is growing impatient and nervous about the impending darkness of the night sky that is gradually beginning to loom upon them.

She huffs and throws her head back; audibly groaning before throwing it forward. "Indulge me!" Her tone is loud. "Please!"

Alby's eyes widen. "Lower your voice!" he whisper-shouts. He yanks the box from her hand and roughly places it back on the shelf. "We are in a mall filled with Cranks and you're screaming like a banshee!"

Adeline rolls her eyes. "Hardly," she drawls. She picks the box back up and flings it into the empty basket tucked by her left side. "Nothing's gonna happen. No Cranks are gonna come. It's still daylight."

"Not for long," he scoffs.

"And plus," she smirks, ignoring his comment entirely as she turns around and begins walking up the aisle once more, "you're with me."

"Yea, like you're the shucking Crank whisperer," she hears him mumbling under his breath from behind her, and she cannot help but laugh.

"God, what is wrong with you?"

Alby crosses his arms over his chest. "Nothing," he mutters. "This place just makes me nervous."

Adeline, feeling unusually chipper, decides to try and lighten his emotions. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I lived here for months," she tells him, still walking ahead and still keeping her eyes loosely following the trail of games. "I know every inch of this place; even the lower levels. I know every nook and cranny, every hiding spot, everywhere that's safe, everywhere that's not, and I promise you, this part of the centre is safe."

He can hear the sincerity in her tone. "It doesn't make me feel any better." Though it does not ease his worries. "Something still doesn't feel right."

She tilts her head with a slow, theatrical nod. "That's reasonable." A hush envelops them, but it's short-lived as Adeline grabs another game and tosses it into the basket. "Do you remember the other night when we were talking about me sneaking out of the Warehouse? And how me n' Travis got stuck in that other shopping centre?"