Kyle:

We approached the house where Thomas was supposed to live. I realized in the back of my mind that talking to Tommy's parents would be an interesting experience. We needed information from them, but we couldn't give them any ourselves. We would have to play everything by ear. I also realized that Allen was becoming a Godsend in more ways than one now. He had provided us transportation, and now, he was the perfect cover. If all went according to plan, Jessica and I would not only get information, but DNA samples and a meal, and Allen was crucial to that plan. It needed to work too, cause boy I was HUNGRY!

We pulled up to the side of the road near Thomas's house. Jessica and I left our weapons in the car, instructing Allen to watch them carefully. She then dragged a pair of sleeping bags with clothes stuffed in them alongside us.

The house was one story and painted baby blue on the outside. It was surrounded by a worn wooden fence with evenly cut grass... why cut grass again? It's just grass.

One thing in the yard caught my eye, mostly because I couldn't figure out what its purpose was, not even a remote possibility occurred to me. A tire, like the ones on Allen's car, was hanging from a tree branch in the middle of the yard. Why in the world would you just hang a rubber tire?

Jessica got out and ran ahead of me. She knocked rapidly on the front door of the house, almost sounding like a woodpecker. I followed her, coming up on the door as it was opened by a woman. The lady was blonde, slender, and pale in complexion. "Is Tommy home?" Jessica asked. "Can he come out and play?"

The woman gave a half frown, "I'm sorry... are you friends of his?"

"Yea we are," I opted. "We sometimes wrestle... she always wins," I said, pushing a thumb in Jessica's direction.

The woman smiled. "Of course she does." I decided to just eat that one, Jessica really was stronger than me.

She folded her arms nervously and continued, "well, I'm afraid Thomas has gone missing." I waved two fingers at Allen behind my back, hearing his car start to back up. "You two really should be heading back to your..." The woman watched as Allen's car pulled away. "Isn't that the man who brought you?"

Jessica's eyes widened. She spun around. "DAD!" she shouted. She ran down the sidewalk leading from the house, waving hard at Allen in the car, but he just pulled off into the distance.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Yeah..." I started, "he said we could spend the night... something about wanting to be alone with mommy."

The woman smiled, shaking her head. She shrugged and stepped back, motioning me into the house. "C'mon in, I'm not leaving you two out there."

"Thanks," I said, walking in. Jessica suddenly appeared behind me- even without her powers she moved fast!

As the woman closed the door, she looked at me. I fumbled with my shoelaces, as though I had only just learned how they worked. As I finally just pushed my shoes off "in frustration" without fully undoing the laces, the woman spoke up. "It seems odd that you two wouldn't know about Tommy's disappearance."

"Why?" I asked, looking up at her.

"Well, the police were looking to interview all the children in his class... how old are you two?"

"I'm five!" I shouted.

Jessica ruffled my hair a little. "Yea, he's my little bro," she said. "I'm seven, he's five."

"Your names?"

"I'm Karen, and this is Titus," Jessica replied. I nodded.

"Well, I suppose you two are probably too young to have been in his class, maybe that's why they missed you." She turned away from us, heading back into the house. "Have you two eaten yet?"

"No ma'am," "Karen" replied. My stomach growled, my eyes lighting up at the mention of food.

"I heard that," said the woman. "Well, c'mon to the kitchen I'll get you both something to eat."

"Thank you!" I said, racing ahead of "Karen" at the mention of food. I wanted food now!

As I moved through the house, I suddenly remembered we were here for a reason. I slowed down and paid attention to the things around me. There were pictures on the walls. Some were of the woman and her husband, but most were of the young boy we were looking for in his various stages of life. My Dad's house would have been similar in that respect. He made sure to get a good picture of me every twenty years or less. He said it was just for memory's sake. I realized it probably also had a practical reason, a photo can make finding someone easier but... well mom always wanted me to dress up for those photos so I figured that kinda reduced their practicality for that.

The place was warm, with white walls and a small couch in the living room. I moved into the kitchen. "I'll make you two some sandwiches," the woman said. The kitchen had a round table in the center with three chairs around it. As I walked in, there was a stove to my right and a series of cupboards on my left, next to a large... I think it was called a "fridge". The woman took out a brown jar and a red jar from one of the cupboards as well as some bread from the fridge. Behind me, Jessica spoke up.

"When did Tommy go missing?" she asked.

"About a week ago," said the woman taking out some bread. Naturally, I was watching her with the food like a hawk... yes my stomach sometimes took over my higher functions.

I moved over to a chair at the table and pulled it out clumsily. I started trying to climb up onto the seat, having to take my eyes off the food to get up while pretending to be a clutsy little kid. The woman chuckled behind me. "Oh dear," she said. "You need some help there?" I tried climbing up again, not quite seeming to have the strength to get on the chair. (Sure I was milking the act, but why not?) The woman picked me up around the chest and planted me on the chair. She then squeezed my ribs, forcing me to laugh as her fingers tickled down my flanks. (Okay, that's why not.) The woman started tickling my stomach as I turn on my back on the chair and started squirming to fight her, squealing in laughter.

"Je- Karen help!" I shouted, mistakenly believing Karen would be directly on my side.

"Of course Tity!" she said. The woman stood at my legs, me laying on the chair. The woman was holding my legs down with one hand, but I could still fight her with my hands- that is until Jessica grabbed them and pulled them up, making it so all I could down was laugh, scream and eventually beg for mercy.

"Alright let him up," the woman said after a few seconds. They both let me go and I sat up, thankful to be able to breathe again and still chuckling. The woman put a sandwich in front of me.

Jessica spoke up. "Ma'am, what's your name?"

"Janet," the woman said. Janet gave Jessica a sandwich as well setting a napkin at the seat next to me.

"Thanks, Jan." Jessica said with her mouth full, taking her seat again. "So where did people see Tommy last?"

I tried a bite of my sandwich. I then poked Jessica. "This really isn't too bad," I whispered. I then promptly scarfed down half in two bites... quite a feat when the sandwich is half the size of your head.

"Peanut butter and jelly- at least something hasn't changed," Jessica whispered back.

"I'll tell you this much," Janet replied. "I'll have trouble letting him go that far from my sight again. I suppose not many adults were around when he was taken... but don't they watch the children at..." She looked at me and Jessica. "But again, there's nothing you two can do. Don't worry your little heads about it, I'm sure Tommy is just fine. The police are looking for him right now, and then you can come over later and play with him after they find him," she said with a nod.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Yeah but... we're just... curious," I said. "Where was he seen last?"

"I know what you're trying to do," said Janet. "You two are too young to be trying to chase after a lost friend... Karen, you really should be more concerned about your brother getting lost himself if you try."

Jessica waved at the woman as if waving off her concern. "Oh, he gets lost all the time. In fact, I'm sure he's lost in his head right now." I glared at Jessica. I had my food, I wasn't lost anymore! "Still, you'll take whatever help you can get right?"

Janet sighed. "I would children," she said, leaning on the counter, looking at a picture of her family over the sink. "But I'm afraid of you two putting yourselves in danger looking for him. I wouldn't want to put your mother through this." She folded her arms, her shoulders down. She then looked over at the fridge. "Say... would you two like some strawberries?"

Jessica shrugged. "Never really tried them."

"Never tried strawberries... in seven years?" The woman opened her fridge and took out a small see-through box of red berries, each shaped like cones, rounded on the top and on the edge. On the outside of each, I could see several black pieces that looked like seeds of some form.

Janet set the box in front of us and I noticed it had a red bow on it. "What's this for?" I asked.

"Oh, that..." Janet said. I untied the bow and opened the box, taking one of the berries to try. "It was going to be a gift to Thomas, a surprise I had planned before he disappeared." The woman looked at the berries, shaking her head. A berry in hand and mouth open, I paused, not sure if I was really hungry for them after all. My stomach was kicking me for it, but another part of me was kicking at the moment. Jessica grabbed a few and set them on her napkin, immediately starting in on them.

"These are really good!" Jessica exclaimed. Janet smiled.

"You guys have your fill. Those don't last very long. I'm going to do some cleaning around here... Karen, you keep an eye on your brother alright?" Jessica nodded, mouth full again. Janet stifled a laugh at her. "Oh, and Tommy's room is down the hall." Janet pointed down a hall on the other side of the kitchen. "You can sleep there when you're done if you're tired." She headed out the opposite way, back into the house.

I shook my head as the woman left. Checking behind myself to make sure the woman was out of immediate earshot, I spoke quietly, realizing she was actually purposely staying in range to hear us. "How can you eat those?... They were a gift." I said to Jessica.

"They still won't keep Tity," she replied. "Go ahead and eat. I think the woman gave these to us kind of as a substitute for giving them to her son. So just don't be rude." I really didn't want to eat the berries, even less with that in mind, but I tried one anyway.

Taking a bite my eyes lit up. "These really are good!" I exclaimed. I half did it so Janet would hear, and a half because they really were that good. We had pretty decent food on Triad, stuff that would really wow anyone, but this was... different. A flavor I had simply never had, completely unique. After a hundred years, that really was something.

Jessica spoke quietly again. "Yeah they are, you haven't eaten till you've eaten earth food. We've only got so much fruit on our world, just what our ancestors farmed after bringing it from their original nation on earth. I don't think strawberries grew in Egypt."

I shook my head. "What are we gonna do about this though?"

"Do about what?"

"No one will talk about things to us for our own good," I said, surprised she wasn't having the same thoughts. "Unless Thomas just happens to be within two miles of his room, our trail on him could go cold in just a few days. We don't even know where he was last seen."

Jessica grinned. "Didn't you hear? The boy was far away from his mother at the time, with "those people" who were supposed to be watching him, but might not have been."

And for me, that registered... nothing. "In other words..." I said, waving at her for her to continue.

"Put it together-oh right, it's your first trip to earth." Jessica shrugged. "My best guess is he disappeared at school. At Tommy's age, they usually don't let kids far from their parents, unless they're someplace where others are pledged to watch them. Now, on this world, they go to school when they're young. They're supposed to be watched by adults, but sometimes, during something called recess, they're all let out together to play. Now keeping an eye on a couple hundred earth children playing together... that can be quite a chore and you'll probably lose track of one or two."

"So he was lost during recess at school?"

"That's my best guess." Jessica finished off another berry, having eaten five, myself having only eaten one so far. "Go ahead and eat... if it makes you feel better we'll get some for him when we find Tommy."

I shook my head. "That's not the point of a gift... at least not for the giver," I pointed out with a sigh. I really did want to have my fill of them, but I could only enjoy them if my conscience was quiet.

"I'll figure something out," Jessica said back.

I decided that would do and took out a few more.

"So where is this "school"?" I asked. I knew what schools were essentially, but on our world, they were learning institutions with no emphasis on the age of the attendees.

Jessica paused. "No idea really."

"Are kids on this world supposed to get there by themselves?"

"Sometimes. However, usually, they're taken there, especially much before ten years of age like you and me supposedly. So I don't think we can just ask how to get there, since no one will see any point in telling us. Besides remember, we know the kid already from a place where his mother never would have met us, hence we're his friends from..." She waved at me to continue.

"His school," I finished. "So we would be asking directions to OUR school."

Jessica sighed. "Another roadblock."

I opted quickly, "Allen has a kid."

"Little Jady is too young to go to school."

"Do you really have to nickname everyone... Jady... seriously?"

"Of course, Ky," she replied.

"Point," I conceded.

"In any case, talking to folks isn't the only way of finding information. I'll put these berries back in the fridge over there and let's take our leave in Tom's room. Remember, part of an investigation is also building profiles of the people you're investigating. Probably have more privacy in there anyway, at least for a while."

Finishing, I walked down the hall to Tommy's room. Jessica soon followed. Walking in I said to her, "you sure Janet didn't hear any of our conversations?"

"We talked quietly, but really, she could have heard every word and would have just thought we were playing some game."

"Do normal human children really live half their lives in a fantasy world?" I asked.

"Not really, but they do play a lot, and they don't have much perspective on when it's time to stop."

"Kinda like you," I commented.

"I know, isn't it great?!" Jessica shouted. She wasn't wrong. Jessica looked around the room. I did too.

It was a small room, maybe twenty feet wide by twenty feet across. In the middle was a large bed with a giant red comforter. Toys were everywhere. Most of them were the creatures humans thought went extinct before the modern age. "Dinosaurs" they called them. Course my people knew many were actually once called "dragons" and lived alongside humans. Some of my people were alive in person to see them before they were hunted to extinction.

I picked up one of the dinosaurs with three horns. "Hey, Jess remember these things?"

"Who?" asked Jessica.

"Oh right... Karen, do you remember these things?"

"Margons!" Jessica proclaimed. "I remember we had one as a pet back home once," she said, taking the toy. "Didn't have him for very long... aren't they supposed to have fur?"

"Dinosaur means "terrible lizard,"" I replied. "They don't have any creatures like this here, so they have to make assumptions on what they looked like before they went extinct here. Besides," I said taking the toy back and setting it back on a dresser near the door. "They don't really grow much fur until they're at least fifteen, and they stopped living that long even on our world a while ago outside of captivity." Off hand, I had studied some earth science. It was laughable for someone on a world of people who live to be over a thousand years old, like the musings of children. Still, if nothing else, I had to admit, human science was creative.

"Oh!" Jessica almost shouted. She ran over to the bed and picked up a small stuffed bear. "Isn't this adorable?!" she asked.

"Yeah... cute," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could, which wasn't much for something to just be "cute". I took the bear. I noticed how worn it was like it had seen quite a bit of use. On a feeling, I took the small DNA scanner out of my pocket. I opened the compass-like device and pushed a few buttons on the lower flap. The upper half lit up with a green computer screen. I scanned the bear. "This thing has a lot of DNA on it," I said with a nod. "Wait..."

"What?"

"It's all from one person... almost no one else ever touches this thing." I chuckled to myself about just how ideal this toy was for our needs.

"Well it's Tommy's right?" asked Jessica.

"Most likely," I replied, sitting on the bed. "I mean it was on his bed in his room." I reached back and scanned the white pillow at the head of the child's bed. "But really, it has a higher concentration than even this pillow. Like it doesn't get washed as often, but he still sleeps with it every night."

"Every night?" Jessica asked. "Why would you do that?"

"I don't know," I said, scratching my head. "Lucky break though." I pushed a few buttons on the tracker and programed in the samples from the bear. Jessica took the bear back, gently playing with it, pretending to make it walk. I heard approaching footsteps and quickly put the scanner away.

"I see you found Jacks," said Janet, now standing in the doorway to the room.

"Jacks?" asked Jessica.

"The Teddy bear," Janet said, pointing at the bear Jessica was playing with.

"Well is its name Jacks or Teddy?" I asked. Janet paused, looking very confused, which I couldn't help with because so was I. "What?"

The woman shrugged. "Jacks is what Thomas calls him," the woman said. She sat by us on the bed. She offered her hand to Jessica. "Can I see him?" Jessica nodded. Janet took the bear. "You see Tommy has had this little guy since he was four." She smiled. "I don't think he's slept a single night without him since... well until recently of course." She looked saddened on that last statement. She breathed deep and continued. "I assume your father will be here tomorrow to pick you two up, right?"

"Yep," Jessica said with a nod.

"That's good... you guys want to play a game?" the woman asked.

I knew if we wanted to keep planning, we needed to get this woman out of the room. "Ya know... actually I'm kinda tired," I said.

"Really?" Jessica asked, "I'm wired... fine stay here and doze." She looked up at Janet. "Betya can't catch me!" she ran off back into the house. Janet smiled and went quickly after her. I shook my head, listening to the giggles and screams that soon resounded through the house. Well, at least Jessica was distracting Janet right? I set to work on the next stage of our mission.