To Louise’s delight, the detective wasn’t there to track her down for running away from that officer days ago. To Davis’s delight, the detective also offered to give them a ride home.

His car was a few decades old, but still decently kept. The body was still well painted, no obviously visible dents or scratches. The interior was pretty clean as well, still smelling fresh, courtesy of a tree-shaped car freshener. Davis was slumped over, fading away to sleep as Louise stared out the window, looking into the endless darkness of the passing fields.

“Is urban exploring really popular with kids nowadays?” Gold spoke back, still keeping his eyes on the road.

“Yup yup. Well, actually, I don’t know too well about others. But Davis and I like it a lot.”

Davis wheezed. “It takes way too much out of me…”

The detective chuckled. “At least your friend there was willing to carry you out! A little bit of

exercise every day never hurts for endurance.”

Davis shrank back into the seat as Louise rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’VE been telling him!”

“See, you got a good friend there kid. Anyways, back on topic, you sure others your age haven’t been goin out to places around there?”

“Nope, not that we’re aware of. Sometimes I see people online posting pictures of abandoned stuff, but no idea if they’re our age.”

The man sighed. “Well, if you do, tell them to at least not do it anymore. The same goes for you two.”

Louise clenched her fist, grimacing to herself. “We’re not doing anything illegal though!”

“Well, what you were doing is against the law, but there’s something a bit more to it. You wouldn’t know anybody who’s disappeared recently?”

Louise tensed up further. “No, not really?”

Davis nervously shifted in his seat, looking away.

“There’s been quite a few. An abnormal amount in the past few months. I’ve been hired by a few folks to see if I can find anything about their missing kids, and in my investigation, that opened up a whole can of worms to a plethora of missing person cases around her.”

Davis gulped. “H-how many people are gone?”

“The details don’t matter. The only consistent found between a few of them is that they were last seen wandering around the outskirts of town or the woods. So either there’s a serial kidnapper, a very stealthy mountain lion, or something else entirely. But as long as you stay at home and stay safe, you all should be fine.”

“Well, don’t worry about us! We’re a very capable team! Plus, I’m sure soon you’ll find some big break in your case!”

He raised an eyebrow, still focused on the road. “What do you mean by that exactly?”

“It’s just, hoping for the best.” Davis interjected. “I’m really worried for those people too.”

“With how things are looking for me, I guess a little bit of luck doesn’t hurt. I’m not gonna get paid until I find some lead to where those missing kids ended up.”

Several minutes later, the detective’s car pulled up in front of Louise’s home. He put it into park, turning back to the two teens.

“All right then, here we are. You two just, take my advice, all right? I say this outta compassion: I really don’t want to add you two to my case file.”

Louise nodded vigorously. “We’re not gonna go anywhere anytime soon!”

He smiled. “All right, but I WILL be talking to the police again if I see you two out there again, all right?”

“We won’t, I promise.” Davis chimed in.

The two got out of the car, Louise waving as the detective drove off into the night. Davis stared at Louise’s home for a few moments, realizing he forgot to ask the detective for a lift to his place.

“Uh, shoot.” He glanced down the dark street, barely lit by streetlamps. His thoughts briefly went back to the monster that stalked them in the factory.

“I think I should walk home, I don’t want to be a bother-”

Louise grabbed him by the arm. “Are you seriously going to take such a huge risk going home alone?”

“N-no. It’s just that I don’t want to cause any problems-”

“Nah, don’t worry! My parents might be home, but they won’t mind! I think.”

“You think-”

Louise tugged him along to the front of her home, unlocking the door. Davis’s skin turned white as she slowly opened the door, peeking in.

“Hey, uh… anyone home? I’m back…”

There was nobody near the entrance, though a light was on in the living room.

“LOUISE!” A feminine voice cried out. Louise recoiled. She slowly walked in, head hung low. Davis still stood just outside the doorway, shaking and staring at her.

From the living room came Louise’s mother. She put her hands on her hips, staring down at the teen with a stern expression.

“Where have you been all night? Did you check your phone at all? I was worrying so much I’ve got more gray hairs!”

“Well… I was kinda…” She looked down at the floor.

Davis ran through the door. “We were doing some urban exploration and stuff, checking out abandoned buildings and… things. We’re safe, we didn’t get in trouble or anything, please don’t be mad!”

Her mother’s face suddenly changed to surprise with the appearance of Davis.

“Oh uh, I haven’t mentioned him yet. This is my friend, Davis.”

He sheepishly waved.

“His house is kinda far away, and it’s already pretty dark out. Is it okay if he stays for the night?”

Her mom sighed. “Honey, you could have at least called if you were going to drag along a friend. Now I have to get some place set up for him.”

She turned to Davis. “You can go and have whatever you want in the fridge, I’ll get an inflatable mattress ready for you. Hurry along, I need to have a quick word with Louise.”

Davis nodded and went to the kitchen. With only the two women left in the entrance, her mom focused on Louise with a hawkish gaze.

“First of all, if you’re going to be out this late, PLEASE at least send me a text or something. It’s happened too many times already, and every time I’m seriously worried for you.”

“Yes mom…”

“And second… You used protection, right?”

Louise’s eyes widened and face flushed straight red. “WHAT?”

“Come on, you can’t fool me. You meet a new boy without telling me about him, and not coming home until late at night over and over? Plus, urban exploration? Who even does that?”

Louise looked away, waving her hands in front of her. “NO NO NO MOM IT’S NOTHING LIKE THAT, PLEASE! WE ACTUALLY ARE JUST DOING SOME URBAN EXPLORING AROUND TOGETHER AAAAUGH.”

She buried her flushed face in her hand. “Godddd why did you have to bring this upppp…”

“Really? Then why all the secrecy with him?” She grinned. “Are you afraid your mom is gonna embarrass you in front of your new boyfriend?”

“Mom PLEASE we’re just friends!”

She continued to grin. “Fine, fine, as long as you two aren’t doing anything illegal, or too dangerous. You’ve got tetanus shots and everything, but you still gotta watch for broken glass, pipes, rabid wildlife-”

“Trust me mom, we’ve been fine. If I get seriously hurt, I’ll let you know. I promise!”

She smiled compassionately. “That’s good to know then. Now come on, get something to eat. I wanna hear more about your ‘friend’.”

It was a new, very early morning, the morning mist still present in the air. From the northeast of town, a river ran down from the foothills, pooling into a lake further down the line. There was a small rowing club set up at the shore, where both students and adults could take out a boat to row on the lake.

Every morning on the way to School, Kirino would refuse to be driven by her parents or housekeeper, and instead opted to walk all the way from her foothill home to the nearest bus stop. If only she could do the same when it meant traveling to the lake early in the morning..

The week had been harrowing, so taking time in the morning to row would at least help burn away some of the anxiety.

She went into the boathouse, changing into a unisuit and taking out one of the single sculls. She carried it down to the water, setting up her oars, and pushing off. She began rowing towards another one of the single sculls, occupied by an oranged haired boy. With a big grin on his face, he waved at the approaching girl.

“Yo Kirino!” He yelled across the quiet lake. She smiled slightly at him.

Despite all her discipline, even he was still on the water earlier than she was.

She lined up her boat next to his.

Scott Williams was a good friend of Kirino’s. She typically was a coxswain for a school rowing team, but she would constantly see him on the water, typically alone on a single scull. He approached her randomly one day, and the two became friends. Though for Kirino, there was one deciding factor that secured their friendship.

“So, how about some simple warmups for this morning? You ain’t lookin too good, so we should relax-”

“I’ve warmed up enough. I want to race.”

He shrugged, still keeping a smile on his face.

“All right. Let’s make it simple, first one to the end of the lake. Count down from three, aight?”

Kirino stared in front of her, focusing on the distance ahead. Her vision locked, tensing her muscles.

“One… Two…” She inhaled. “THREE.”

She started with a powerful stroke, pulling the oars back and accelerating the boat. In seconds, she could feel the air blowing against her face and hair.

She put every muscle into stroke after stroke; Arms pulling as hard as she could, legs shoving, and back leaning back as much as possible. She wanted to completely exhaust herself, and kept pushing herself harder and harder.

Even with her entire mind dedicated to rowing and winning a simple race, her failure from the night before still wormed its way between every stroke.

She grunted harder to herself, rowing harder and harder. The wind was blowing so hard in her eyes she began to squint.

“You’re never going to beat me with form like that!” She heard scream across the lakefront.

She broke out of her trance, finding that Scott was already waiting at the end. He was waving with that same goofy smile, barely looking even winded from the race. She huffed to herself, slowing her boat down to a stop. She looked down, staring into her reflection in the water.

“I’m just never gonna be able to outdo you, huh?”

He chuckled. “Not with that attitude. Even racing, it was easy to see what was up. Your form wasn’t exactly the best. You’re putting your all into every stroke, but not only were you rushing too hard, you were all out of balance.”

She looked up, listening to her friend.

“Like you’re pushing way too fast on the legs, a good amount of arm strength, but you were barely actually putting your back into it. I mean that literally. You were going too fast before you could get the most oomph out of it, you know?”

“I know that, I know the basics of rowing you know.” She snapped. “I’m no amateur when it comes to this.”

He sighed, cocking his head and still smiling. “Then you should be above these mistakes ya know. Come on, let’s just casually row up and down the lake together. I can help you with your form.”

The two had spent half an hour on the lake together, Scott keeping up and commenting on her rowing form. He constantly encouraged her, simply going “Come on, more to the back” or “Push your legs out more, you’ve almost got a good balance of everything!” and “Don’t forget, back, legs, then arms when rowing! You got this Kirino!”

She couldn’t help but feel like she was being patronized. Yet, every time she focused on him giving that dumb smile, all those thoughts washed away. He was simply better at her than him in rowing.

It was at least something she could afford being worse at.

After all that, the two docked their boats, carrying it back up to the house together.

“You really went crazy during that race, you know. This isn’t some movie or something where you can just grunt and power your way through everything.”

“Yes, I’m aware… Honestly, I just needed to relieve stress. There’s been some issues plaguing me as of late.”

“Really? What’s goin on?”

She thought to a few nights before. After a full debrief, her employer seemed understanding that it was inevitable that other supernatural elements would interfere. He even seemed intrigued in the artifact Louise wielded, and instructed her to steal it if at all possible.

To her, it was still a complete failure of her mission. The first one in several she had done.

“It’s… my job. I failed big time on an assignment.”

“You’re working a job too? Sheesh, how do you find any time to relax or anything?”

“I’m here rowing for a reason, no?”

“Fair point, fair point. But hey, you gotta chill out a bit. Mistakes happen and you can’t be perfect at everything.”

She clenched her fist. “This job isn’t something I can afford to make mistakes in. Especially since this screw up was- Nevermind.”

The two arrived at the boathouse, racking their sculls.

“Hey, come on. What exactly happened at your job?”

She thought similar thoughts from when she was with the twins. Scott was incredibly strong and talented, but even this job might be too much to get him involved.

“I can’t. This job needs to be my responsibility, and I need to work harder. I can’t afford to screw up here, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to do something historic.”

“What is your job even that’s so important? Isn’t college or that stuff more important?”

“I told you this problem should be something I need to handle alone. It might be too much for others-”

He held up his hand.

“You can’t just go like that, say this is something you need to handle alone and vent to me about it. You really need help with this work, don’t you?”

She stared at him, squinting her eyes. She inhaled, keeping a stern expression locked onto him.

“Maybe.”

“And you obviously want help from me, of all people?”

“You’re one of few I can talk to about this.”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure I can help with your burden. It’s no fun seeing you all worked up like this. You’re gonna die at 45 or somethin from a heart attack if you keep stressing out.”

She stared at him, thinking. He continued.

“As a coxswain, you should really learn to accept others' help sometimes. It’s like a rowing boat, you know? If we all row together, we all benefit. Kapeesh?”

She racked her brain. She thought about herself, her mission, the twins, her friend. She stood still for several moments as she let all the factors swirl around in her mind.

“Perhaps there is something you can do… If you truly want to help, get a lift from somebody after school today, and meet me at my home.”

She checked the surroundings around her. Nobody was nearby.

“We can discuss things further there. But what you’ll be getting into isn’t going to be any fun or games.”

Scott felt an eerie amount of pressure radiate from her, and his smile turned into a more focused expression.

“I do incredibly dangerous work, and your life will be at risk if you accept.”

He silently nodded, a grin sneaking its way back onto his face.

“If it’s really that dangerous, all the more reason to extend out an arm to help ya. A little bit of danger sounds like it’ll spice up life too”

“Take this with careful thought before you meet. That is the very least I will ask.”

It was around 6AM when Davis was rudely shaken awake off the inflatable mattress. He cracked his eyes open to see Louise’s face. She was already dressed for school.

He turned to his phone, squinting at the clock.

“Don’t tell me you live an hour away from school…”

“Fifteen minutes away. Your home is fifteen minutes away in the opposite direction, however.”

He pulled the blankets tighter around him, turning away.

“Why do we need to go to my place…”

Louise tore the blanket off, revealing he had slept in the clothes he wore from yesterday.

“You kinda stink. The LEAST you could do is get a fresh set of clothes. Also, you need a uniform jacket too. ALSO, a place to put all your fireworks, unless you want to bring them to school. No, you can’t really put them here because I don’t really wanna risk my mom coming across them. She doesn’t have work today.”

He grumbled. “Fiiinee… just five more minutes?”

She opened the side of the inflatable mattress, letting out all the air. “Nope. Plus, when we get home we can make a quick report to the benefactor. I think we’ve done enough good that we can turn in our report.”

To double up on Davis’s dismay, not only was he forced to get up earlier than ever before, but now Louise was going to stick the strange USB stick into HIS computer. He didn’t have a desktop like Louise, but had a laptop that he’d typically keep in the garage. He only really used it when he had trouble building stuff, or for the occasional school project.

He had booted it up, and Louise grabbed the drive.

“Are you sure we couldn't, like, test this out on a library computer first or something? If this is a virus, you're going to buy me a new laptop.”

“Come on, the benefactor already gave me the gauntlets. WHy shouldn’t we trust them?”

“I dunno, what’s this guy’s name even?”

Louise shrugged. “Benefactor I guess. Well, I mean also, if he lied about the USB stick, then we’re kinda screwed in saving the town too.”

“Here’s hopin for the best then.”

Louise popped in the drive.

His computer screen glitched out, before turning to static snow.

A familiar computerized voice spoke out.

“Louise Palarick, Davis Foster, please state your report.”

Davis spoke up. “Well for starters-”

“We got a lot of good work done the past week! We’re on a serious roll! First, we managed to kill off both a wendigo and a giant turtle looking hydra. They’re also entrapped in place nobody can easily find them!”

“Very good. Is that all?”

“There was also this factory owned by G. Brand in the outskirts of town. We broke in, and it had some weird… extradimensional? I think that’s a good word for it.”

“If you have the address for this location, inform me of it.”

“Wait, there’s more.” Davis butted in. “We didn’t really do anything to contain or stop it, we couldn’t really do anything about it. It was a massive labyrinth, that like… physically didn’t make any sense. Not to mention, there was a kinda monster in there that disguised itself as a mannequin, and attacked me.”

“And don’t forget the giant brain at the end.”

The voice crackled. “Elaborate more on the brain.”

Louise tapped her chin. “Well, we didn’t get a complete look at it, since we were running for our life when we came across it. It was like, this big brain-like thing, with all sorts of wires and computer stuff plugged into it.”

“Strange. I do not recall the previous agent encountering this.”

Louise’s eyes beamed. “HAH! I knew we were destined for this stuff!”

“I want to hear more. Continue on about the factory.”

The two both took turns explaining the entire endless night they spent at the factory. The weird machines, the trucks, the strange warped space, and how they managed to barely escape the monster.

“That will be all. You two have made very good progress with your work. I look forward to your next report.”

“HOLD ON!” Davis shouted. “About that monster, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about it? Like, anything related? I get this suspicion that it wouldn’t let us leave the factory so easily…”

“I am unable to disclose any information. Doing so would risk my position.”

“But you can talk to us and stuff? Come on, we’re in serious danger.”

“There is nothing more I can do, I can only receive information you give. I trust in your capabilities to see this problem on your own, however. Now, I must disconnect. Good luck.”

The computer screen flickered back to the desktop, and Davis sighed.

“This is really a one sided kinda deal, isn’t it?” Davis grumbled.

“You heard her, and you should be more confident now. A wendigo and hydra are nothin to us. What’s the worst that cryptid can do to us?”

That was indeed a very good question, Davis thought. What truly was the worst that monster could do to them?