A/N: Y'all I nearly forgot to publish this today but MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE hope you guys had a great day and lots of presents!!!
I don't remember what I wrote in this chapter but hopefully I edited it hehe
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"You got 20,000 dollars?"
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A whistle blew behind him.
"THERE HE IS!" someone shouted.
He pushed his feet to run faster. He had never been to this part of the city before. He had no idea where to hide. He just kept pushing his feet forward, hoping to find someplace to hide soon. He dared to look over his shoulder and his eyes widened at the sight of the canines running towards him, beginning to catch up.
Suddenly, he ran into a fence.
His eyes widened. He looked around, but this was the only way out. The cops were catching up fast. Without thinking twice, he began climbing the fence as fast as he could. Soon, he was at the top. He looked back at the cops behind him, barely able to make out their figures in the dark. They were aiming.
He ducked, jumping down onto the other side of the fence.
And then he ran faster than he had ever ran in his life. In the midst of his panic, he missed the sign hanging on the fence that read:
DANGER
Particle Physics Test Facility
KEEP OUT
The cops finally caught up to him, stopping by the fence. One of them cursed, shaking the fence in anger.
"You take the west side!" he shouted and the men scrambled, "You take the east! Go! Go! Go!"
Flint couldn't keep running anymore. They were going to catch him. He grunted, nearly losing his balance. He had to find someplace to hide through the night, just long enough for them to leave.
Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet disappeared and he was falling through the air for a second before he landed on something. In the dark, it was impossible to tell where he was or what the hell he had fallen on. He grabbed a fistful of it.
Sand.
"Where'd he go?" one of the cops said, shining his flashlight through the fence.
Slowly, he stood up, looking around. He grabbed his side, nursing a bruise. What the hell was this place?
Suddenly, a bright overhead light turned on above him. He flinched, covering his face. The light was so blinding that he couldn't see anything past it. And then, as fast as it had turned on, it turned off. In its place, a bunch of rod-like creations began to crackle with what looked like electricity.
Back in the control room, someone noticed a little change.
"Johnny, we got a little fluctuation on one," the woman told her colleague. He frowned. That was strange.
"There's a change in the silicon mass," he informed his superior officer. He shrugged it off like it was no big deal.
"It's probably a bird," he said, "It'll fly away when we fire it up."
"Initiating demolecularization," the physicist said, pressing the final button to start the process. No one thought to argue with a superior officer and let the change in mass slide. It probably was just a bird.
In the pit, Flint was beginning to get worried. What were these rod-like things doing spinning around so fast? And how could he get out of here before they started spinning too fast? They came down closer to him, rotating faster with every passing second. The sand underneath him began to rise, blowing around wildly.
Just then, his eyes locked with the grass atop the pit. If he could just make it past these rods, he could climb his way out of this pit and find a place to hide until morning. He tucked his arms into his side, waiting for the perfect moment.
Without thinking twice, he sprinted ahead, eyes never leaving his exit.
But he never made it past the rods. He ran into one and it threw him back into the sand. He groaned, closing his eyes as the sand began to fly faster. It was making his eyes burn. And if he couldn't see, how was he ever going to get out?
Suddenly, the sand began to spin so fast it made a wall around the rods. Wearily, he stood up, shielding his eyes with his hand. He looked around in confusion. What the hell was going on?
And then to his horror, something strange began to happen to him
He removed the hand shielding his eyes to properly look at it. His fingers had a funny feeling. He lost feeling in his fingers and the numbness only grew until...
His fingers were turning into sand.
More and more of him turned into sand, until he had completely lost feeling in his entire body. He shouted, trying to ground himself, but there was nothing to hold on to. It was going out of control. He fell to his knees, screaming in agony.
And by the time the cops had finally caught up to him, there was nothing in the pit but sand.
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"Excuse me?"
"Sorry Ella, but the central heating system is down until tomorrow morning," Don said, pursing his lips. Adelaide glared at him as if it was his fault.
She was in the lobby of all places, arguing with Don about the heating system which was, like Don, proving to be useless. It took every cell in her body to keep her from shouting bloody murder at the receptionist. He was lucky there was a countertop separating them.
"You can't be serious," she groaned, "It's literally 26 degrees outside!" It was just one of those days where Mother Nature had lost its mind and suddenly dropped the temperature in the beginning of September.
"There's nothing I can do," he shrugged, sounding way too cheery given the situation.
"Тупой, бесполезный гребаный мудак," she muttered under her breath (Dumb, useless fucking asshole).
"Layer up, am I right?" Don grinned. She wanted to slap his stupid grin off his stupid face.
"Shut up," she grumbled, snatching her purse off the countertop and turning away.
"Wait, Ella! I forgot to tell you something I found about Jeremy," he shouted after her. Adelaide grimaced.
Yup. He had named his mole.
She kept walking, ignoring him. With a sigh, she entered the elevator, too tired to take the stairs. It had been a long day at last night and she was absolutely exhausted. She was still wearing her pajamas from last night. The only thing she had been looking forward to was a nice, long, hot shower and now that idea was out the window too.
She was going to freeze her ass off by tomorrow morning.
Everything about this stupid apartment sucked. But she couldn't even even leave because New York was so goddamn expensive. And although Queens was a hell of a lot cheaper than Manhattan, she wasn't about to buy a penthouse with her deli salary anytime soon.
With a sigh, she opened the door to her apartment and dragged herself inside. As she tossed her purse to the side, she realized she had left the TV on.
"...Now, let's go over to Robert about the situation with the strange incident in the city last night..."
She decided to make toast as the tv kept running in the background.
"There have been reports of a peculiar sighting down by 20th avenue. Officials say they're unsure of what it is, but they have a few ideas of what it could be," Robert said, and the camera zoomed out, showing a man standing beside him. He looked drunk out of his mind, "Can you tell me what you saw, sir?"
"I saw a man. And then he disappeared."
Robert waited for more. But apparently, that was all. He glanced at the camera awkwardly and cleared his throat.
"Well, there you have it folks. A disappearing man is loose in Queens. Officials are doing a follow up on the matter and we'll keep you updated right here on News Channel 10. Now, back to you, Mary."
"He was real! I wasn't lyin', I swear!" the drunk man shouted before the camera cut to Mary.
"Erm, in other news, a giraffe escaped the Central Zoo in London. Let's see footage of him eating pizza from a tourist's plate."
Adelaide switched off the news. What a load of bullshit. A drunkard who saw a disappearing man? A giraffe on the loose?
It was days like this that she felt relatively normal, despite everything.
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"What's with all the layers?" Mr. Delmar asked as he walked past her with a bucket of pickles. He had eventually caved and ordered the pickles himself. Julio, unfortunately, was not fired.
"The heater in my building broke," she sighed, rubbing her forehead. Mr. Delmar winced.
"That's rough, kiddo," he said. She turned around, following him into the kitchen. He handed her a bucket of banana peppers and she busied herself with emptying it into the storage containers.
"Tell me about it," she said, opening the bucket.
"When's it getting fixed?" he asked, doing the same thing with the pickles. Adelaide looked at him, pouting.
"Tomorrow morning," she frowned. Mr. Delmar shook his head disapprovingly as if the heating system in her building had personally let him down.
Adelaide cracked a smile. This was why she could tolerate Mr. Delmar. He didn't give her shit like Don or her landlord. He was blunt and to the point.
"Well soon you'll be at school so it won't matter," he said, emptying the pickles into a smaller storage container, "When's your school opening, by the way?"
"Um...I don't know," she said, avoiding his gaze. She hadn't exactly told him she wasn't planning on going back to school. Granted, the plan was pretty stupid, but she just couldn't stand going back. She couldn't.
"You don't know?" he asked, looking up, "What school do you go to?"
Adelaide hesitated. Then she realized there was no fooling Mr. Delmar. She might as well be lying to an FBI agent.
"Midtown High," she said, standing up straight. She walked around the island to get a storage container from the closet.
"Really," he said, suspecting something. She avoided his deliberate gaze as she walked back to the bucket of banana peppers.
"And you're 16, right?" he asked, watching her.
"Yeah," she said, opening up the container. Mr. Delmar has halted all of his pickle action to give her his full attention and she wished he'd go back to his work to take the attention off of her.
"So you're 16 and living on your own?" he asked. Adelaide looked up.
"How do you know I'm living on my own?" she asked. Mr. Delmar cracked a smile.
"You've gotta be at least 18 to rent out a place around here. So you've lied about your age to your landlord and I'm gonna assume you lied to me too. You're what? 14? 15?"
Damn, he was good.
"15," she admitted, staring at the pickles.
"And you don't know when your school starts which means you're not going," he said. Adelaide had to refrain from looking at him with wide eyes.
"...No," she admitted.
"And why not?" he asked. Adelaide busied herself with the banana peppers again.
"It's complicated," she answered.
"I'll make it simple for you," he said, "You're going back to school whenever it opens."
"No, I'm not," she said, taking the storage container which was now full of bright yellow banana peppers to the back of the kitchen with the other vegetables.
"You are if you want to keep this job."
Adelaide turned around.
Keeping this job meant keeping her apartment. And without her apartment, she would literally be on the streets. In the cold. Homeless. She could not be homeless.
"You can't do that," she said, beginning to panic. Mr. Delmar narrowed his eyes.
"You're underage working here. I could fire you right now," he said. Adelaide swallowed.
"But you won't," she said.
"If you go to school," he said and Adelaide said nothing. Mr. Delmar sighed, wiping his hands on the rag over his shoulder.
"Look, kiddo," he said, pulling up a chair for himself, "You've gotta go to school, however complicated it is. Otherwise, you're gonna end up like me."
"But you make the best subs in New York," she said with a small smile, hoping the flattery would alter his decision somewhat.
"Yeah, well believe it or not, it's not exactly making me millions," he said, giving her a small smile, "Go to school. It's hell but it's worth it. I'm sure your dad or mom or whoever would want you to go to school too."
Funnily enough, the first person that came to mind when he said 'dad or mom' wasn't Henry or Ava.
It was Tony and Pepper.
And Mr. Delmar was right. They would want her to go to school. Even though Tony called it a hormonal prison. Adelaide smiled to herself at the memory, staring at the tiled kitchen floor. After the first month she had shown up at the Tower, he'd signed her up for Midtown Middle. Who knew how complicated it would get from then on?
"You convinced yet or do I have to give another motivational speech?" Mr. Delmar said, watching her. Adelaide snapped out of her thoughts, looking at him.
"I can't convince you to let me keep my job without going to school?" she asked, giving it one more shot. Mr. Delmar considered it.
"You got 20,000 dollars?" he asked, sliding off the stool. Adelaide scrunched her nose, reaching into her pocket. She emptied it into her hand, holding it out for him to see.
"I've got a 5 dollar bill and a pack of gum?"
"Good luck with school, kid," he said.
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A/N: Anyone else getting hit with the seasonal depression? No? Just me? Welp. Mine came with a free writer's block...