June 19, 2018 · 1:39 PM
Late afternoon and he was about as far out as he could comfortably bring himself to go, already thoughts on his mind of turning around and going back home.
But the tiger bid him to stay a moment, and he was a bit afraid if he defied that simple wish he was liable to end up stripes out and up this particular shit creek without even a shit paddle.
Wallace had a long list of things he'd neglected. Topping it out was Reina. He had... literally no idea what had happened to her. She had dropped off the face of the planet at some point he couldn't even pinpoint now, and in his own state of avoidance and general selfishness, he'd not noticed until it was far too late to be proactive about it.
Maybe he should have brought Felix out on this... but some things you just do alone. Reina had always felt like his responsibility, something he had to try and take care of on his own. Maybe it was penance, maybe he was wrong, but he was still alone as he stood just into the woods on the side of the road near the spot where they'd first gathered to shift with a brand new tiger moons and moons ago.
Earlier in the day he'd gone to her apartment he'd last known about. Not the one in the Cordova--they never went to Cordova anymore--but the one she'd taken up after Christmas. But she hadn't been seen there in weeks, according to her landlord and... It was puzzling. Troubling. He'd thought for certain she would have just holed up again like she was prone to do. He understood that sensation.
But now it just seemed like she'd... vanished.
This had sparked a renewed worry in Hobbes, and since then it had been a bit of a search. Not that they knew where to search, really. Wallace didn't know where Reina went when she needed to blow off steam. Maybe she'd left town. Gone to live with family. Did she have family? Did she have friends?
Wallace began to think he should get Andy in on this. File a missing were report with were cop, maybe. But Wallace was a terrible investigator on his own. He kept Felix updated so she wouldn't worry, but continued to insist on handling this. Not that there was much to handle. All he really found himself doing was going to the spots he associated with the woman. The diner they'd stopped at on the way to her first shift. Then... well, here. The afternoon light was a little too warm and the tiger was restless enough that Wallace was almost certainly permanently violet-eyed right now. He tested the air and shook his head at himself.
What was he even doing out here? Tempting a shift of his own, undoubtedly.
Wehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh