“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” No matter who you are, having someone lurking around and sneaking up on you in the middle of the night was definitely scary. However, Javian had no ill intent and instead wanted to hurry up so that he could get back home to his nephew and relieve the babysitter of her duties. “I’m just trying to find my kid’s stuffed animal.” There was no need to get into detail about how the kid wasn’t his actual kid– his mission was clear and precise. “You haven’t seen a blue octopus thing lying around here, have you? His sitter took him here earlier and I guess he dropped it?” With his iPhone’s flashlight shining on the ground, Javian felt helpless. “He can’t sleep without it.”
The noise that came out of Fran wasn’t human. It was too loud to be human—but hell, that scared the shit out of her!
She was still reeling. It was hard bringing herself to make eye-contact with the stranger who had just approached her. Not that she was at fault for jumping so far back—but it was embarrassing in the aftermath that the guy had a totally innocent request.
“A—a blue octopus?” Oddly specific. She adjusted the straps on her bag, and glanced around her general vicinity. As if that was the only effort she could muster.
“I uh… I haven’t seen it. Sorry,” and she felt that might have been it, but she lingered, standing still and watching the man with his phone flashlight out.
“Have you checked the uh—the trashcans?” she asked.
