Mr. Forgettable #Wattys2016

23

After their brief conversation in the park, Larkin took Greta home. She knew that Mrs. Avers would still be pacing relentlessly in her kitchen, no doubt wondering why she had let a sixteen year old girl convince her to not call the police. So Larkin anxiously dragged Greta out onto the streets, and mercilessly left Finn without speaking to him or acknowledging his existence. Greta wouldn't understand why Finn had assisted her in the search. This was necessary to maintain her secret.

After Larkin told Greta to just "go inside because your mother will kill me if you stand out here all night" she opened the door and simply pushed her best friend through the door. There was no doubt in her mind that Greta would receive a warm welcome, even if she was grounded for going missing. Mrs. Avers loved her daughter too much to be angry at her.

Larkin retreated back to the sidewalk and listened to the exclamations of joy coming from Greta's house. She smiled, knowing that everything would be all right for Greta. Her family loved her. They cared about her; they actually would notice if she went missing.

Feeling melancholy, Larkin knew that she couldn't go back to her house just yet. She thought she could hear one of her parents still awake inside, and knew that she wouldn't get off easy if she showed up at home around midnight without explanation. However, if she went home when her parents were asleep, she could sneak into her room and tell her parents in the morning that she didn't actually go to Greta's and instead came back home and didn't tell them.

Deciding that the best way to spend the night would be as a hero, Larkin put on her suit and went back to the main part of town.

Almost instantly, she could sense a discombobulation around the storefronts two streets over. To her, it didn't feel as if someone was in trouble; it simply felt off. The shattering of breaking glass only confirmed her suspicions that something was going on over there.

She quickened her pace, running towards the origin of the commotion. She hoped that whatever it was wouldn't be too serious because she was tired. She was tired and grumpy and couldn't agree more with Finn that sleep was something that should not under any circumstance be disturbed.

However, before she made it to the scene, the offness of the situation disappeared from her senses. She froze in her tracks, feeling that there no longer was a problem for her to solve. It was very resolute and almost repelled her from the location. But Larkin was stubborn, and she needed to know what was happening. Conflict did not resolve itself.

Larkin forced herself to walk in the direction she had been going. Despite her head telling her that there was nothing there to see, she kept going because she knew that there was.

As she turned down another street, she saw the first broken window. She walked further and saw that another window two buildings down was also broken. Apparently, the window-breaking had been going on since before she could hear it. She went further, and counted a total of four broken windows.

She halted, deciding that whoever was doing this wasn't trying to break in. The places with broken windows were a bakery, an empty office building to be leased, a mom-and-pops-coffee-shop, and a law office. Usually, the criminals would go for banks. The cash registers of restaurants held significantly less money than them.

While stopped in front of the law office, the last of the four victimized buildings, she saw something rather concerning.

A man, dressed head to toe in a ragged grey super suit sauntered out of an alleyway next to a McDonald's. Did he break the windows?

Larkin involuntarily gasped, causing the masked man to shift his attention to her. Their eyes met, and for a split second, Larkin thought that she recognized those eyes. There was something akin to shock in his eyes when they met with hers, but their contact was broken when the man turned tail and ran down the street.