John and Emily were eating outside at a rest stop. Lost in their own little world, neither of them took any notice of the couple who pulled in after them, who were heading right towards them.
All Lucky cared about, was, from behind, Emily looked exactly like Skylar in the distress message. And, despite the scene looking calm, idyllic even, thusly John was a human keeping their child from returning home.
Emily straightened as the footsteps came near enough she couldn’t ignore them, and John looked at the couple approaching.
The woman with dark hair blowing across their face as a breeze kicked up snarled at him. Their companion flinched. Suddenly, this woman, this slightly chubby, short woman sprang into the air, leaping above Emily’s head, her ponytail flopping over the top of her head for a moment before settling back behind her.
Thud.
The woman crouched on the table, knees bent and wide, palms pressed to the wood tabletop between them, still snarling as they stared at John.
“John?” Emily squeaked.
“John!” The woman roared, their mouth wide as they did so. John leaned back as he saw rows of sharp serrated teeth burst through flesh inside their mouth. The roof of their mouth, cheeks, even their tongue now covered with teeth dripping their own blood.
“Run Emily!” John pushed himself away from the table, butt and legs sliding off the bench, kicking his feet at the woman, or whatever she was, on the table before he landed on the ground.
“That’s right!” The woman placed her hands on the bench John had been on, leaning forward, “Let my child go and no harm comes to you!” A little distracted by the words and the teeth John sat there for a moment, heart pounding.
“I’m not your daughter!” Emily screamed. “So let me go!” The man held Emily’s arm, while she was trying to pull away, he wasn’t actively trying to completely restrain her. “I’ll hit you!” She flicked her wrist and her cane extended. “I’ll hit you both if you hurt us!”
“Lucky!” The man let go of Emily and held his hands up. “What happened to just talking to them?”
“They have the distress signal!” The woman turned and John breathed a quiet sigh.
“Hush Lucky. They look like kids; I doubt they are holding Skylar hostage.” Raymundo held out a hand, but John didn’t take it.
“John?” Emily’s voice shook.
“I’m not hurt.” He said quickly. “Just… how do you know Skylar?”
“Well,” the man gestured to the table, “it’s a long story. Why don’t we all sit calmly, and talk about it?”
“John?” Emily asked, holding her cane out like a sword.
“We should hear them out.” John looked at Lucky. “She’s clearly a Qwotarian.”
“Like that’s supposed to comfort me.” She scoffed, but she slowly walked back over to the table.
The pairs sat across from each other, and after Raymundo prompted Lucky, they started telling their story.
Word count: 494
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