HT100 Challenge #28 - Lost and Found: Little Girl Lost
Well, the instant this idea popped into my head I knew I was giving myself a big, fat plotbunny...
*shaking head in realization 100 word limit will remain eternally elusive*
~Little Girl Lost~
“What’re you doing in here, Beecher?” McManus said, giving him a suspicious look as he went over to one of the urinals.
Toby held up his hands, sticky with the remains of a melted Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. “Got a little messy during playtime,” he explained, turning on the tap and scrubbing his hands clean. He cast an anxious look over his shoulder at the door, knowing Holly would be perfectly fine in Officer Howell’s care, but just the same … He scrubbed and rinsed quickly, grabbing a paper towel.
He was rubbing his hands dry as he went out, a cold pit opening up in his stomach as he spotted Howell yakking with another hack, but no sign of his daughter. “Where’s Holly?” he demanded, striding up to Howell.
The hack gave him an irritated look, saying, “She’s sitting right over…” she pointed at a bench, empty now, “there. Oh fuck.”
And Toby thought he knew what terror felt like, the taste of desperate fear, but everything up to now had just been a hint of the screaming blind panic that tore through him in that instant, knowing his daughter was lost, somewhere here in hell.
***
Singing quietly to himself as he stowed away another monitor, Chris groaned and stretched against an ache in his back. He was definitely going to see if he could talk McManus into giving him a new work assignment ‘cause this one sucked - What the fuck?
He turned, scanning the shadowy storage room as the tiny voice spoke up again, just one word, “Mister?” and then he spotted her, a little girl standing over there by the door, blonde hair done up in braids and blue eyes wide with fear.
What the hell was a kid doing… Oh fuck.
“Holly?” he said, crouching down and trying to look as unscary as possible.
The sound of her name must have helped a little because she pulled up a trembly smile and took a couple steps toward him. He let out a sigh and raised his eyes to the ceiling, skyward, wanting to ask why the fuck this had to happen to him.
~finis~
358 words
*sigh*
*shaking head in realization 100 word limit will remain eternally elusive*
~Little Girl Lost~
“What’re you doing in here, Beecher?” McManus said, giving him a suspicious look as he went over to one of the urinals.
Toby held up his hands, sticky with the remains of a melted Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. “Got a little messy during playtime,” he explained, turning on the tap and scrubbing his hands clean. He cast an anxious look over his shoulder at the door, knowing Holly would be perfectly fine in Officer Howell’s care, but just the same … He scrubbed and rinsed quickly, grabbing a paper towel.
He was rubbing his hands dry as he went out, a cold pit opening up in his stomach as he spotted Howell yakking with another hack, but no sign of his daughter. “Where’s Holly?” he demanded, striding up to Howell.
The hack gave him an irritated look, saying, “She’s sitting right over…” she pointed at a bench, empty now, “there. Oh fuck.”
And Toby thought he knew what terror felt like, the taste of desperate fear, but everything up to now had just been a hint of the screaming blind panic that tore through him in that instant, knowing his daughter was lost, somewhere here in hell.
***
Singing quietly to himself as he stowed away another monitor, Chris groaned and stretched against an ache in his back. He was definitely going to see if he could talk McManus into giving him a new work assignment ‘cause this one sucked - What the fuck?
He turned, scanning the shadowy storage room as the tiny voice spoke up again, just one word, “Mister?” and then he spotted her, a little girl standing over there by the door, blonde hair done up in braids and blue eyes wide with fear.
What the hell was a kid doing… Oh fuck.
“Holly?” he said, crouching down and trying to look as unscary as possible.
The sound of her name must have helped a little because she pulled up a trembly smile and took a couple steps toward him. He let out a sigh and raised his eyes to the ceiling, skyward, wanting to ask why the fuck this had to happen to him.
~finis~
358 words
*sigh*