Opera in Underland

11. ... And Into the Fire

Junior was not proud of himself for stretching the truth, and telling his mother that he was going to cousin Billy's for the afternoon. But he couldn't really think of another way to accomplish what needed to be done.

His father still hadn't returned from "business", as he had called it. And by that, he probably meant going after Opera. Junior had seen the look in his eyes when he discovered the girl missing. It wasn't a good thing to get his father worked up into such a state. So for the sake of his new friend, Junior had set out on his own to try and get his father to come back. At the very least he figured he could talk him down and make him see reason.

There were a lot of possible routes to navigate between their home and the Underworld, and Junior was going to have to check them all. Luckily he moved pretty quickly, and had already traversed the first of the paths. His father was nowhere to be found yet. He would have to check the exit and then turn back on one of the other routes.

The exit, as fate would have it, was no easy place to check. He had emerged in a transport hub for the Underworld, one of several such places for supernatural beings to make their way between corners of the world. It was basically a glorified train station, on the scale of Grand Central, but with mostly foot traffic. All sorts of people were constantly coming and going. His dad may be an easy person to spot, but everyone had limits to their perception, especially in crowds. Junior sighed to himself. Better start looking.

Extending his tentacles and pulling himself up a column, he rested on a gap in the deteriorating stone and surveyed the room. Most of the members of the crowd were pretty standard, walking corpses scattered among what humans would probably deem "monsters" of various types.

Junior personally took issue with the term. As a hybrid, half human and half... well, half not human, he had more than his fair share of poor treatment from both camps. His father was not exactly a respected member of the Underworld community; Junior suspected, although his father never said directly, that he had been cast out somehow long ago, before meeting his mother. He certainly avoided the topic as though that were the case. The stigma applied to him, wherever it came from, apparently extended to Junior as well.

As for the human world, the children at the school he attended with his cousin either treated him like he was invisible or like he was worthless. Their favorite not-so-affectionate term for him was "freak". He didn't dare show any of them his true form. If he did, he imagined it would get him burned at the steak.
He couldn't pretend any of it didn't affect him, but he tried to deal with it as best he could. He and his father both were always trying to put on brave faces.

Actually, thinking about school... he saw a short blonde figure that looked rather familiar. Squinting his eyes and adjusting his glasses, Junior tried to be sure he was seeing what he suspected. Sure enough, there was no mistaking the sculpted, devil horn-like hairstyle of Mandy making its way through the crowd. And some yards away from his classmate, Junior noticed another familiar head of hair. An inky black ponytail against a shockingly pale face, both the same shade as his own, was searching the crowd, asking unheard questions to random passerby.

Opera...

Several different emotions were fighting for control of Junior at that point. But what demanded his attention most was that Mandy was making a beeline for the runaway. That child was a terrifying force, and whatever she wanted with Opera clearly couldn't wait.

Again using his tentacles to scramble down from his perch, Junior made his way across the floor towards the two girls. He knew better than to approach them directly, so he hung back and decided to watch for a while. He pressed himself against a column, aided in hiding with its shadow, and tried to listen in on their conversation.