This AU has me in a damn chokehold now. You can read the other two parts here and here. This is more of a little interlude, Maria and Shadow needed some time for a little breather.
Agent Margot had told her that the nearest town was to the west. So naturally the pair went east instead. Maria was glad for it when after about an hour of air skating through the woods (hopefully putting more and more distance between them and the agents) she started to see the outskirts of society spring up. Pasture land, barns, farm houses. Few and far between as expected for out in the country but notable signs nonetheless. But she could tell they were really getting close when she finally caught sight of a gas station, one with an attached convenience store.
Around the back of the building the bathroom door was wide open. It was easy enough to creep their way in while keeping out of sight of the couple of cars getting gas out front.
Maria shut and locked the door behind them. She barely stifled a gag as she took in the tiny space, dimly lit from above by a single light bulb. The absolutely foul stench of mold growing somewhere in the room invaded her senses. She suspected it might be growing in the puddle of mystery liquid that was pooled in the center of the concrete floor, the sight of which really made her hate the fact that her bare feet were touching the ground right now. Shadow also eyed the puddle warily, scooting impossibly closer to her legs in the already cramped space. There was barely enough room for the two of them to stand.
The porcelain on both the sink and the toilet were scuffed and scratched all over, and the water in the toilet was a foggy yellow-brown that she quickly averted her eyes from. She did not want to think about it. The walls were covered in stickers and graffiti from ceiling to floor, so much so that Maria couldn’t have figured out what the original paint color was if she tried.
There was a mirror over the sink. Grimy and aged and covered in dust, but Maria could still make out her reflection in it.
Gingerly, she took a big step over the mystery puddle and hoisted herself up to sit on the edge of the sink where there was just enough room to set herself down. Shadow similarly hoisted himself to sit on the toilet’s tank, and Maria once again pointedly chose to not think about how close he was to falling into the toilet, especially when he had put his shoe onto the seat to get himself up.
Maria put her feet into the sinks basin and leaned over awkwardly to study her reflection in the dirty mirror.
In all her years of hopping from base to base with her Grandfather, Maria had inevitably spent way more time around adults than with other kids. At its worst it was incredibly lonely, never getting to spend time with anyone her own age. At its best it was mind numbingly boring, because the adults were all doing and talking about adult things, most of which were of very little interest to her. But that was the catch, most things she heard the adults talking about were beyond her interest, but not beyond her understanding. But adults have a marvelous tendency to believe those things are one and the same, and so they sometimes say something quite interesting or quite useful without meaning to. Now usually it’s something like which key cards will give her access to areas she’s definitely not allowed in, but in her play acting Agent Margot accidentally dropped a pretty useful tidbit: Maria looked like a runaway.
In the mirror she could see the smudges of dirt on her face, the dark circles under her eyes from barely sleeping, heck there were even bits of grass stuck in her hair that she hadn’t noticed until now. She started to pluck them out, and found her fingers catching on tangles and knots that she idly started to pull apart as well.
Her night dress was covered in a mix of soot, dirt, and grass stains as well. The only clean article of clothing she wore were the jeans she had found on a conveniently placed clothesline before the ‘Diner Incident.’ And then of course there was the complete lack of shoes, her socks were long lost to the woods. That’s just her clothing, the cuts and bruises all over her arms and legs weren’t helping the situation either. Taken all together she very obviously looked like a homeless teenager, which she technically was now, she supposed.
She bit the inside of her cheek, thinking. Government agents aside, things were only going to continue being problematic like this. Sooner or later some well meaning good Samaritan was going to stop her on the street and probably take her to a police station, and the rest of the dominoes would fall from there.
She rolled up her pant legs as far as they would go and moved her feet out of the basin. She turned the tap, and to her surprise and relief the water that spluttered forth was clear. She tested the temperature with her palm, it was only lukewarm, but it was better than freezing so she’d take it. She set her feet back under the flow. She tried her luck with the soap dispenser on the wall. Liquid soap shot out into her palm. She pressed the button several more times until she had enough soap to build up a decent lather and she got work cleaning the cuts on her legs and the grime off her feet. The soap stung at her scrapes, but she hoped that meant it was working. The last thing she needed right now on top of everything else was to get sick from infection.
When she finished her legs she moved up to her arms, and finally her face. From his seat on the back of the toilet, Shadow pulled as many paper towels from the dispenser as he could and held them out to her when she’d completed her pseudo-shower.
Now, if only slightly cleaner than she was, Maria observed her reflection again. Her clothes and shoes were a bit more of a solvable problem, those she could probably scrounge for in a church donation box (it’s Oklahoma, there’s probably churches everywhere, right?). But has she always been so… baby faced?
She can’t help but think it’d be a lot easier to go unnoticed if she could pass for older than she was. It’s nobody’s business if an eighteen year old wants to wander around wherever, but with the soft layer of baby fat still clinging to her features she could maybe pass for sixteen. Yeah, people were still going to look at her sideways trying to believe that.
Maybe it’s all just in the attitude? She thought.
She sat up a little straighter, squared her shoulders, and tried to look down her nose in a way that said, I’m way more mature than you.
… Yeah, no. Not working even a little bit. She slumped and started to idly work her fingers through her hair again to work out a few more knots.
Alright, she probably wouldn’t be able to pass for any older than fourteen, but the people looking for them knew what she looked like, soooo maybe she could put together some kind of disguise? She twirled a lock of hair between her fingers, considering her options.
“What do you think I’d look like with green hair?” she asked out of nowhere.
“What?”
“Green hair, as a disguise. What do you think?”
“Won’t that just make you stand out more?”
“Exactly, they’d probably expect me to dye it brown or something, so they’d never see green coming. Maybe I could cut it too, maybe that’d throw them off our trail….”
“Speaking of our trail, we probably shouldn’t linger here for too much longer.” As he said it, he had one hand cupped over his nose, probably to block out the smell, Maria couldn’t help but agree. “We’re still not sure if they actually followed us or if they started tracking us west where they told you to go. We could be a couple hours ahead of them or as little as thirty minutes. And we only have so many hours of daylight, so if we want to find someplace to hide out for the night we should probably start moving again.”
Shadow had a point.
“Alright, I can probably find a map inside the store, we can figure out where to go from there.”
“Do you need to borrow my shoes again?” he asked.
Maria shook her head.
“This’ll be a quick in and out, and maps are free, the clerk won’t have time to care if I’m wearing shoes or not.”
Shadow looked thoughtful for a moment.
“And… what about food? For you?”
“Just ate an hour ago- that turned out well.” she scoffed.
“I know, but who knows when you’re going to have another opportunity to eat again. There’s food in the store.”
“Same problem as before, no money.” she shrugged. “Hopefully this guy isn’t a secret agent too, but even if he’s not, this time if he catches me stealing it’s going to be an actual problem. He’ll call the police.”
“Hmm,” Shadow grunted, turning thoughtful again. “I’ll take care of the cashier, then you can grab what you need, good?”
It was as good a plan as any.
-*-*-*-
Maria positioned herself by the ice machine just outside the convenience store. She peered through the window from her hiding spot, waiting for Shadow’s ‘signal.’
The store clerk sat behind the counter, a pimply-faced young adult with a shaggy flop of brown hair atop his head and a scraggly attempt at a goatee growing on his face. He flipped through a magazine looking like he wanted to be literally anywhere else. Maria honestly started to wonder if they really needed to do anything elaborate at all, he looked like he’d barely notice if she robbed the store blind.
But he definitely did notice when the overhead lights flickered and the air crackled-
-fzzzzzzz pop!-
Shadow suddenly stood on the counter, hands raised above his head with his fingers curled like claws.
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
The cashier promptly fell over, unconscious. Shadow looked over his shoulder toward Maria, he flashed her a thumbs up.
Maria burst through the door.
“That was your plan!?”
“It worked.” he deadpanned.
“Oh God,” Maria groaned. She leaned over the counter to make sure the poor guy really was just unconscious. He was breathing, but he’d probably wake up with a pretty bad headache.
“We probably only have a couple of minutes,” Shadow reminded her.
Well, it looked like they were doing this. They were robbing the convenience store.
Maria grabbed a novelty tote bag off a rack and started shoving things in. Map, first and foremost. Next went in water bottles from the fridge, next bags of trail mix, then corn nuts, then granola bars, a couple of bags of gummy bears.
She paused her frantic movement to look back at Shadow, still on the counter.
“Do you want anything?” she asked. He seemed surprised at the question.
“I don’t need to eat like you do,” he said.
“I know that,” she replied. “You eat because you like to. So do you want anything?”
He looked down at his shoes for a moment before he cast his eyes around the store. He stopped at a specific counter.
“... Can you grab the coffee beans, please?”
Maria happily tossed the coffee station’s entire supply of coffee beans into her bag.
By the time the store clerk was groaning and sitting back up again, unsure of what the hell he just saw, the store was ransacked and the two were long gone.
