It hadn't been long until you arrived at your old house. It was odd, looking at the creaky floorboards of the porch and the shifting roof tiles that your Father had promised to fix one night and never did, earning the irk of your mother who made him sleep on the couch.
You hoped she would receive you well. You kept in touch often, but in recent years you'd fallen out, if only because you'd just gotten your life together.
Maybe she wouldn't. Maybe she would kick you out onto the streets with little to no care.
But your Mother loved you. Surely she wouldn't..
..It wasn't like you could turn back now.
Shine's carrier in hand, you gently knocked on the front door. At first nothing happened, and you contemplated if she was even home.
But suddenly, the door opened, your mother right in front of you. You couldn't help but cry seeing her again, how long it had been since you left her for Denver, left everything behind.
She was so proud of you, how much you had grown, even if she was a little miffed you hadn't mentioned anything of your arrival beforehand.
You didn't know how to explain all of..this mess you were in, so you simply told her you were stopping by and had business elsewhere in Waterside. You said nothing of Newt County, of that place of ghost stories and forgotten tales by the campfire. She'd probably try talking you out of it if you even mentioned a whisper or murmur of it.
So you said nothing of it. She didn't need to concern herself with it.
She was safer here than out there, close to that horrible edge of empty plains that carried a dark secret to anyone foolish enough to enter.
..Or yourself, you supposed. You wondered how you would leave once you found Toby (or what's left of him) and helped Shine, but you didn't want to overcomplicate the matter in your head.
You asked her where Dad had left his gun before he died. She was a little worried by your question, but couldn't bring herself not to answer. After all, perhaps you wanted it as a keepsake.
..You noted that to yourself for when you were done with all of this.
His gun was in the attic, in the old safe. He'd put it there knowing well enough that he'd never take it out again, and left a note on the code. You were frankly glad it stayed up here for so long, seeing as the code to the safe and the gun were just laid out for everyone to see.
..Or maybe it was just for you. He always had a way of knowing when things would happen.
You look outside the window when you reach down to open the safe. There's fog, which wasn't expected on the weather forecasts.
Oh well. You'd deal with that later.
The gun was still pristine after so long, having been a prized possession of your father. It would come in handy if you would be going to Newt County. If those....things everyone had told you about were true, the beasts, the monsters, whatever was lurking there.
Then of course, you remembered the "Cryptid".
Earlier, on a whim, you'd asked Shine about it in the car. You didn't expect an answer obviously, but her reaction had been frightened. It was likely she knew of it, and probably knew as much as everyone on that strange blog had told you.
..You reckoned it was time to go find it.
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