Looking up at uncle Argyle’s property James couldn't help but feel as though they weren't meant to be there, despite his older brother Harry’s assurances to the contrary. Several kilometers from society as well as phone reception in general, high in the Queensland stretch of the great dividing range the “house” was more or less a massive rusted shed, complete with a trio of roller doors built more-so for trucks than cars. As he was Lost in thought looking up at the old building, he wondered how someone could survive so far from a convenience store.

These thoughts however were quickly cut off as James was brought back to reality by a pair of snapping fingers in his face.

‘Hey bud, c’mon’ Harry clicked, ‘remember why we’re here. If you see anything valuable looking, slap one of these bad boys on it, alright?’ offering a blue square of ‘Harry’ labelled sticky notes to his young brother.

‘Seems a bit disrespectful’ James muttered, moreso to himself than Harry.

‘Oh come on bud’ Harry retorted, ‘the old fart’s dead, it’s not like he’s using any of this stuff. And besides, our uncle was loaded with more cash than you can imagine so at least some of his junk’s gonna be worth the big bucks’.

Grumbling something unintelligible James snapped the sticky notes from his brother before making to leave the silver four-wheel drive Harry had rented out, hearing something along the lines of ‘thataboy’ from inside the vehicle as he slammed the door shut behind him.

Speaking of vehicles, James noticed a second one parked up closer to the house. Although he wasn't much of a car kid James could tell it was some kind of Jeep, and a well worn one at that, its orange paint somewhat visible underneath the smear of caked mud over the… Well, everything.

Hearing Harry exiting their car James went to ask if they were expecting anyone else here when his brother answered him preemptively.

‘Ah, that must be our cousin’. Harry said, walking past James to the car before calling out to the man in the driver's seat. ‘Hey Dimitri! Come out and say hi’.

So that’s whose car it was, Dimitri. James had never met this cousin, though he had heard the occasional word from his brother. From what he had pieced together the man was a bit of a nobody, or at the very least the family didn’t care for him all that much, only using his name as a comparison for any particularly bad performance; ‘it’s ok, you could have done worse.’ usually sounding like ‘it’s ok, you could have done like Dimitri.’ Oddly enough, there were quite a few points where James related to Dimitri, often hearing the man's interests and flaws scoffed at by his grandparents while he himself secretly both enjoyed and suffered similar things, after all is it really that bad to enjoy illustrated fantasy? Was finding people challenging really something to be looked down on for?

Needless to say, after all the whispers and odd-mentions he’d heard of Dimitri, James was a little concerned about meeting the man. Would he be as relatable as he hoped? Might he be as bad as everyone thought?

Then he stepped out of the Jeep.

Of all the things James had heard about Dimitri, a physical description was never one of them. So, given his interests in gaming, reading, as well as his antisocial behaviours, James was expecting a skinny, pale basement dweller with terrible acne and a few scraggly tufts of facial hair. It would appear however, that the person walking towards them was anything but.

Dressed in a set of khaki cargo pants and long sleeved shirt with what James could only assume were steel-cap boots the man before him looked like some sort of Outback explorer. Paired with his sunglasses, a thick beard, and his wide brim hat and it was near impossible to read the man.

‘Wow’.

Ignoring James' little surprised comment, Harry quickly crossed the distance to hug Dimitri, an act which made the big guy just sort of freeze up a moment before accepting it, his hands hovering around Harry, as he started doing his best impression of a statue.

At that moment James had never felt more pity for another's plight.

‘How have you been, my man?’ Harry began ‘I haven’t seen you since we were what, twelve?’

Cautiously nodding to this Dimitri gave an audible sigh of relief as his cousin let him go, something which Harry chose not to notice.

‘Anyhow’ he continued ‘how about we head inside, start looking at what our dear old Argyle’s left behind?’.

Staring at Harry for a moment, Dimitri hesitated as if thinking before finally responding.

‘...Sure, sounds like a plan’

—

Although Dimitri had intended on finishing ‘The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe’ before his cousin got around he had not expected Harry to arrive early. He also hadn’t expected him to bring a kid along.

Judging by the kid’s dirty blond hair and prominent ears Dimitri assumed that this was James, no… Johnny? He felt bad for not knowing the kids name, but in his defence it had been a few years since he’d really spoken to any of the family, after all Dimitri had always found them a bit judgemental. Outside of Uncle Argyle of course.

So, that would be today's goal, speak with the kid and figure out his name. Only problem? That would require them to hold a conversation. Truely a dreaded thought.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

But that could come later, the first issue on his mind was Harry, a guy he felt less intimidated talking to simply because of his lack of respect for the man. After all, despite all the masks Harry wore around his family and friends Dimitri had managed to see this slip enough times to know the man's real personality:

A judgmental, egotistical rat.

If you didn’t know about his true nature then the way he dressed would seem functional, yet stylish and luxurious as he was dressed casually, aside some obvious pointers of wealth like his Rolex, designer jacket, leather shoes, and even how his nicely combed back hair. Indeed the image he had put together seemed like it had some thought and effort behind it, but not enough to particularly stand out on a crowded tram.

But Dimitri knew that this was intentional, down to a T, his cousin having cultivated the perfect look to absolutely reek of humble success, an image Dimitri knew that he had carefully cultivated over several years. Why? Well of course because it was the image people reacted best to., it was the image that maximised his charming potential.

Still recovering from the unexpected hug, Dimitri almost failed to process Harry’s words entirely. But after a second they clicked ‘how about we head inside, start looking at what our dear old Argyle’s left behind?’.

Taking a moment to regain his bearings Dimitri looked down at his cousin for a moment, now slightly irritated as he assumed the man was going into the shed with a cold-hard ‘Items 4 Cash’ mentality. If it was up to Dimitri, none of his uncle's possessions would be lost. But in the end, for whatever reason Harry was also in the inheritance and had a right to Argyle’s belongings. Regardless of how disrespectful his intentions may be.

‘…Sure, sounds like a plan’

—

People liked Harry, and that’s just how Harry liked it. After all, what’s there not to like? A confident, self-made man who single handedly manages his small company whilst raising a child-sibling on the side? Now that’s a good man right there. Of course, not everyone liked Harry, Dimitri here being a good example. But then again, Dimitri was Dimitri, so what if he didn’t like Him? It’s not like the hermit had anyone to share these feelings with.

That being said, there was no reason to act uncivil around the man, in fact if he could win him over then that would be another nice chip in the belt, no?

So, with his most charming grin on his face and a spring in his step he waltzed up to Dimitri, gave him a hug, and started talking.

Of course, Dimitri was having none of it it would seem, so attempting to hide his annoyance Harry quickly moved on to the subject of the Shed, casually asking his cousin if he’d like to head on in and check out what the weird old nobody had left them. With better wording of course.

‘...Sure, sounds like a plan’ Dimitri replied, making his way to the door. ‘You still have the keys?’

Ah, the keys.

The keys to the Shed, the keys Dimitri had inherited, the keys Harry had taken for safekeeping… the keys in his safe at home.

That set of keys.

—

James saw the expression on Harry’s face and with a sinking feeling immediately recognised it to mean one thing: he had done something wrong.

Of course, most of the time James didn’t do anything really wrong, it was just that Harry usually needed a scapegoat, and he was the most viable candidate. James really despised it when his brother would pull this act, because people tended to believe him. Afterall what kind of asshat would shift the blame of their actions onto a kid? Certainly not good old Harry.

James could almost swear he heard as the gears in his brother's head clicked into place, an evil idea forming in Harry’s mind as he turned to his younger brother with an innocent smile.

‘Ah, right. The keys. James, could you grab the bag from the boot? The one with the satellite phones and the spare chargers. We need the keys out of the… front zip’.

‘Oh’ James replied ‘sure, just give me a sec’.

James knew he’d forgotten to pack the bag, he knew that Harry knew this as well. The only reason they didn’t go back inside for it when they were still in the driveway leaving home was because they both silently knew that there was nothing in the bag they'd probably need for a one day trip into the mountains.

And there certainly weren't any keys.

After pretending to shift through the car for a bit he ran back up to Harry, nervous of revealing the mistake they both knew he didn’t make.

‘Hey…’ James called out sheepishly, lightly jogging back up to his cousins ‘I, ah, forgot to bring the backpack’.

This quickly earned a false frown from his older brother and a quiet look of contemplation from Dimitri, though you couldn’t make out the latter's face through the beard and sunnies.

‘James, James, James’ Harry began, looking disapprovingly at his ward ‘we really have to work on your memory, especially for important things like this’. Turning back to Dimitri with an apologetic expression Harry went to say something along the lines of ‘looks like we’ll have to go back down and meet up another day’ when he noticed his cousin had already walked off to his filthy looking car, looking for something in the backseat.

‘It’s fine kid’ Dimitri quietly spoke up ‘we all make mistakes sometimes. And besides I left the keys with your older brother, not you.

This earned a small, quiet smile from James and a deep frown from Harry. Not that Dimitri noticed either, he was too busy looking for his tools.

—

If Dimitri was one thing, it was prepared. After a few minutes looking through his car he quickly found a solution in the form of a small satchel. With a satisfied smile he quickly crawled off of the backseat and made a light jog to the door. Curious to see what his older cousin was doing James quickly followed behind with an irritated Harry close behind.

‘Whatcha got there?’ the kid asked curiously, looking over Dimitri’s shoulder.

‘A few things, ‘he replied ‘a flare gun…my knives… ah, here we are; lockpicks…’ he replied quietly, pulling the tools from the bag. ‘..you wanna see how they work?’

This earned some attention, James’ face lighting up with excitement as he went to reply,

‘Yes plea-’

‘No he does not’ Harry butted in. finally having made his way over. ‘I’m sorry but I wouldn’t really appreciate you teaching him how to break into houses’ he said, almost apologetically in tone, ‘it’s just not a good skill to grow, particularly in a kid like James’.

Dimitri grunted in reply, continuing to work on sorting through his picks while thinking pitifully about the young kid, poor guy was probably suffocating under Harry.

Anyhow, he’d have to show him how to pick locks later.

After fiddling with the lock for several seconds he managed to undo the lock, pushing the door open to a small applause from James, quickly cut off by a glare from Harry. Doing a quick bow to appease the kid Dimitri offered the open doorway to whoever wanted to step into the darkness first. Without hesitation, Harry walked through, enveloped by the darkness beyond.