The first thing Beth wanted to do when she got home was check up on her friend. The journey back she’d worked herself up into somewhat of a state but she had obligations as minimal as they were so like the dutiful daughter she sometimes pretended to be she checked on her mother first. However she wasn’t dutiful enough to stick around for very long. Instead she gave her mum a quick kiss and with a promise to give her an update later rushed back out of the church. She rushed to Pete’s home and knocked on his door, then she knocked again, then again and again. But she was met with complete silence. She kicked the door and swore under her breath when one of the passers by shouted across to her. Turning around Beth was suddenly aware she’d made quite the scene.

“He’s not here honey.” the woman, said calmly.

Francis Sanna, why did that name seem familiar. Suddenly it hit her. This was Pete’s father. He’d mentioned his father of course. He spoke too much for it to have never came up but he kept those stories to a minimum always steering away from his family to discuss his apprenticeship or some other aspect of life in Leeds. Beth hadn’t really noticed it at the time it was only now she was confronted by the man she knew to be Pete’s father that she was aware Pete had avoided taking about him. Even after they had moved back to Leeds she had never been introduced or had Pete mentioned visiting them.

Beth walked over to the man. “What do you mean he isn’t here? Is he still on a Trial? How long has he been on it, are you sure he’s okay?”

The large man chuckled. A guttural thing that contained only mirth and suggested no concern for his supposedly missing son.

“No he’s not on a Trial. Well he might be but he won’t reappear here anytime soon. He’s fine though.” Francis said.

Beth was feeling at a loss, This man was missing and the whole town was seemingly unworried. “Well where is he?” She demanded.

“No idea,” Francis replied matter of factly. “He’s fine though, he does this sometimes, runs away for a time always comes back though. Sometimes its weeks sometimes it’s months. It hasn’t been more than a year so far.”

“And you just let him leave? You don’t chase him or anything?”

“Well why would we, he’ll be perfectly safe, he often feels the need to leave. I was worried the first time but now we are use to it. He’ll be back soon enough mark my words.”

The crowd had dispersed by this point and Francis similarly took that occasion as an excuse to walk away leaving Beth in the knowledge that Pete had abandoned her.

She went home feeling dejected. Was she doomed to have everybody leave her? At least he’d return at some point. Why would he leave, why now. Well she resolved, if he doesn’t need me then I certainly don’t need him. I’ll head back to Newcastle tomorrow, from the sound of it all the worrying was for nothing and he is perfectly safe.

But she didn’t leave the next morning, she made excuses for why she had to stick around. The same the day after and the day after that. To the point where even her mother rolled her eyes when Beth made excuses why she was waiting around. She was obviously still waiting to see if he would return.

She spent the week pointedly trying to not think about Pete, she walked the long way home to avoid the house and generally pretended it didn’t matter where he had gone. It should have been easy after all the rest of the town were very much acting as though he never existed. Not in a pretending not to know who he was, kind of way but more in a didn’t mention him or even seem to miss him kind of way. Eventually she couldn’t do that anymore } she asked around she ended up asking around ot get a bit more information on the previous occasions. Apparently it was fairly common, he’d leave for a couple of months every year or so then would reappear and act like nothing had changed. Similarly the rest of the town wouldn’t react all that much either, it was just one of his gimmicks. It wasn’t like he had a partner or family waiting for him. Nor did he have all that crucial of a job.

In doing some basic reconnaissance Beth quickly came to realise Pete had been on one of these escapades when they had met. Which explained why he had been so on board with her scheme. No matter how hard Beth thought she couldn't remember the reason Pete had given for leaving at the time but she was sure he hadn’t worded it as running away. The other thing that became apparent was that nobody had ever bother to chase him. Not even the first time. They just got on with life and prayed for his return. Beth couldn’t help but be a little heartbroken at that. Conveniently forgetting the fact nobody had chased her when she ran away from Livpul. At least nobody she was aware of.

She realised she had been willing to do the exact same thing. Chasing Pete hadn’t been at the top of her mind. It was clear she would have waited around for him to return. Well she refused to let that happen again and resolved to chase him and bring him home. She was confident she would be able to convince him to come home, surely just seeing that familiar face would be enough. Unfortunately nobody knew where he was going or could even say definitively when he had left. All they could offer was that it was probably around two months ago. But even that was more from cross referencing a bunch of people’s memories than anything else. With the kids of the town being much more useful than the other adults in that regard. Something that again broke Beth’s heart a little bit.

It was the night before the next Trial and Beth was working herself up. She was going to commit a mild crime. Well she felt it was mild, barely a crime really. If anything it was an act of good service. She was going to break into Pete’s house. He’d always talked about giving her a spare key but it had never quite happened. However Beth needed to find him and to do that she wanted all the evidence she could find. Most of that was going to be in his home.

It wasn’t hard to break in. It wasn’t a town with security on the forefront of their minds. Plus the streets were very empty most nights, at least in their area. Gaining access was easy and that meant that Beth could get on with having a good snoop. She felt the thrill of being able to go through somebody’s stuff without them being there but she was doing this for a reason. A good one too. She’d been there numerous times as Pete liked to host. He was basically never alone in his house outside of sleeping. Much like her he preferred to do his woodworking on the porch in full view of the rest of the town. She hadn’t though been in his bedroom before though, despite what the whispers around the town might suggest.

She headed in there slowly, almost afraid he would be in there ready to shout at her for invading his home. But it was empty. As she stepped in she almost tripped as something she stood on rolled out from under her. Fortunately she caught herself on the door before she made a crash. She had however realised the problem with her plan. It was dark in there. Really dark and the candle she was carrying wasn’t enough to actually illuminate the room. She momentarily entertained the idea of gathering a stack of candles to continue to explore but she quickly decided that was a fools errand and instead decided to properly investigate in the morning. She turned to leave but found herself hesitating in the main room of the house. Coming inside had reminded her of smells she hadn’t even noticed she associated with Pete but she did. They’d had good times and really understood each other. Or at least she thought she really got him. Now she wasn’t sure. She ended up settling herself down on a chair in Pete’s lounge not wanting to attempt to sneak across in the morning. Plus it was warm and the blankets smelled familiar. She fell asleep quickly having already felt tired from staying up later than normal.

When morning came she was momentarily confused as to where she was but her thoughts quickly caught up. She headed back to Pete’s bedroom and opened the door once more. The smell was the first thing to hit her and she was shocked she hadn’t noticed it the previous evening. Clearly she had been so focused on the familiar smells she wasn’t attracted to the unfamiliar. His room smelled of alcohol and not just a little bit either. It smelt heavily of alcohol. She felt some resistance opening the door fully, she peered behind it and quickly found what it was that she had almost fallen over the night before. There was a large pile of wooden recorders and other small wooden items. All of which were broken in one way or another. The damaged goods having clearly been discarded forcefully. Taking most of their damage when they had collided with the equally damaged wall above the pile. There was a thin layer of dust that had settled over everything that suggested he had left a not insignificant amount of time before. It was going through his closet that really alarmed Beth though. Everything was there. She checked the rest of the house quickly, but sure enough everything was there too. His kitchen like his lounge was clean and carefully tidied, everything clean and in it’s proper place. Nothing was missing, even his bag that Beth recognised from when they had met was hung near the door. That was not good, in fact it was really all together a bad thing. Ignoring the many alarming features of the bedroom, and Beth was choosing to ignore that whole mess for now, Pete had gone somewhere without taking any of his stuff. Something that would be more than stupid unless of course he couldn’t take the stuff with him. Beth pulled up the Credit store not caring about saving the surprise anymore.

Basic Credit Store

Current Credits: 500

Change of name within system

8 Credits

Sponsored Trial

Select to see more

On Planet Teleportation

10 Credits

Interplanet Teleportation (random)

15 Credits

Interplanet Teleportation (targeted*)

30 Credits

Trial Cycle Countdown

30 Credits

Guaranteed Sponsored Trial

15 Credits

Reset Trial Cycle

15 Credits

Trial Skip

5 Credits

Upgrade to Advanced Credit Store

500 Credits

Clue to unlock more options in the store

5 Credits

Beth’s eye drifted over the new options not feeling any excitement at the new options. Sure enough the option was right there. It wasn’t even that freaking expensive. Beth cursed the system for making it so easy for Pete to run away from his problems, whatever they were. 15 measly Credits for him to abandon everybody he’s ever known indefinably. Obviously he could come back, after all he knew which planet he was from and could easily target it to return even if it would prove pricey. Beth cursed again, fucking Pete, how could he be so stupid. She closed the screen and searched the house again. But there was no note, no indication of where he had gone. Not even an apology or explanation. She smashed one of the broken recorders further but got no pleasure from snapping it in two. One way or another though, she was going to find him and bring him home. Even if she had to drag him kicking and screaming.