MARLEY // Max Mayfield

Danger! Danger!

They had agreed to meet at Mirkwood, the old fenced off road Will took to get home, littered with signage, warnings and vague threats that nobody took seriously. Patrol cars stopped watching that area quite some time ago, so they would be unseen, relatively safe within the darkness of the night. And though that was the agreement, Marley found herself rolling up to the Wheeler Residence, riding down the bank that led to their basement door to knock on the old wood thrice, twice and then thrice again.

It was an identifier, a secret knock specially made for her, the entire party had their own sequences so that Mike could decide whether to let them in or not based on who it was. He was petty like that.

"Wheeler, come on, let me in," Marley grumbled, butting her head against the glass frame of the door lightly. "Wheeler!"

"Yeah!" The door swung open and Marley walked inside, ditching her bike at the side of the house.

The basement was disorganised, more so than ever, the remains of their DnD campaign from the night prior now tossed haphazardly across the basement floor, books, boxes of donations and old clothes were piled in places they should not have been. It looked the state of a barbarian home and while normally Marley would not bat an eye, tonight was a different story, tonight it was worse and Marley suddenly had that itch to clean she dearly hated.

She picked up an old broken figurine, something from their early days of campaigning and sighed, placing it upon a nearby table carefully.

"You should be more careful with your stuff, Wheeler," she said and grimaced at her surroundings, "and you should clean your little boy cave every now and then too, not...whatever this is."

"I can't find my flashlight!"

"Right...and from the smell of things you've been shitting viciously for the past four hours," Marley said upon taking a whiff of something absolutely evil. "Cause goddamn Frog Face, you should get that checked."

"Can't you be serious for once, Marley? Our best friend is missing," Mike hissed.

"...he's just lost somewhere," Marley muttered, eyes narrowing.

"And that's not missing!?"

"Look, we'll find him. We will...we have to -- just," she leant down, picking up Mike's flashlight that had rolled against her foot some time ago, "let's get going."

Mike stopped and stared, mouth pulling to a thin line as he grabbed his backpack and moved over to her, hand clasping around the flashlight held to him and taking it gently. "Yeah...sorry for snapping."

"You want to find Will," Marley nodded, smiling softly and fiddling with her fingers, pressing into the joints between each knuckle, "and...I do too, sorry if it didn't sound like I did."

"No, no, I know you do, Mars," Mike reassured, zipping up his backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. "So, how about we go and do that?"

"Yeah," Marley grinned, readjusted her own pack and pulled a headtorch over her head, clicking it on, Mike grimaced at the brightness as it hit him full beam in the face. She smirked and pointed it away, jogging out of the basement to grab her bike, "I'll meet you out front."

"Alright," Mike nodded. Marley ran up the bank and stopped on the main road, taking in the cool night air. She let out a breath, the puff coming out in a cloud of white as she rubbed her hands together. It was evidently going to rain, well, more like pour, that night and she was looking forward to it. She loved the rain.

"We're really doing this?" Marley murmured as she heard Mike roll up beside her. Though her eyes remained on the darkness, some odd expression falling over her face.