Monthly Bonus Content #1: 'A Fading Light' (Alek and Waitress Version) (Patreon)

[Alternate Text: An image of a lonely lamppost with a light that fails to illuminate much of the immediate surroundings. There's a sense of eeriness but also mystery. ‘A Fading Light' acts as the title with soft rounded edges; it's the same faint yellow as the weak light source.]

[Sidenote: I realized just how difficult it is to write in Mal's perspective due to spoilers, so I've swapped a few things. This piece is about Mal and A's dynamic as told from A's POV with Mal heavily featuring in it to provide hints/mystery. I have a different post for their birthday. 🏍

I also didn't want to have too many duplicated writings due to the gender switching, so I stuck with Alina/Alek plus the Waiter/the Waitress. Alex is owed one when A is in a future piece. 💛 This writing assumes a positive past history between the MC and A; they looked up to the MC as a kid. :D]

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"Stupid curfew."

The pinecone Alek is kicking around with each step forward is quickly losing its more spherical shape, large pieces of it flaking off.

"Stupid rules."

Another kick, although this one's far rougher, forcing him to skip a little to keep up this game.

"Stupid meet-ugly."

That wasn't a kick so much as a well-aimed punt; the abused pinecone sails through the air to land elsewhere in the recreation park. It rolls to an area that's 'out of bounds' because he isn't going to directly worry Jane by venturing into the woods all alone. They were supposed to go together! You were supposed to be there too, like one of your old adventures, except that didn't happen. There's nothing 'meet-cute', or technically 're-meet cute', about rejection.

What's worse is Jane did the rejecting…

Maybe she's too caught up in your return home, but they can totally share time with you, even Verner got a chance to go searching with you.

Alek has nothing else to petulantly kick on the way to his bicycle, which only helps the honest disappointment overtake his frustration. He continues walking further from the volunteer area to retrieve—

Ring, ring, ring. Ring ring. Ring, ring, ring.

Wait, that's not just any random bike bell. It's his, a jaunty, extra high-pitched one that Jane bought him to avoid accidents. Who's touching his prized bike on an already sucky night? Alek adopts a much faster pace, almost running, as he cuts through the side lot of cars, taking the more desolate shortcut to find where he leaned his bicycle up against a tree.

It's still there.

The lampposts around the edges of the main recreation park create pockets of light, but he's in between two of them near the lonely outskirts. He didn't have a bike lock on him tonight; he knows Jane would be scolding him for being so close to the forest after dark when it's not their property—their land. Trees line the area, rising up just behind his bike. What could've messed with the bell? His eyes bore into the shadows that are made darker by the flickering light trying to illuminate them.

Of course, the old lampposts had to start slowly strobing now of all times. It's perfect.

Alek bites back a weak laugh at the cliche timing until a twig sharply snaps followed by a louder noise just off to the left of where he's standing. Wood cracks as if an entire branch fell down in a way that can't be rationalized as a squirrel, or it would need to  be an army of pudgy squirrels congregating on a single branch. He unfreezes, reaching for the handlebars right when a ring sounds, forcing him to jerk his head away from the woods to see that a hand rests itself near his, fingers on the little lever.

Ring ring ring.

"What the—Shit?!" Alek half-exclaims, nearly dropping his bike, though Mal steadies it. His heart is racing despite being used to how she can appear out of nowhere. "You can't do that when Milton's missing! That's illegal, bad Mal."

Her smile doesn't hold any trace of sympathy, but her laughter includes him in on the joke.

"That's a double negative, so I'm technically good," she smoothly retorts. "I meant to sneak up on you, not scare you. What's wrong?"

"Did you hear that? The cracking?"

"I've heard all kinds of creaking noises tonight," Mal admits after casting a hard look at the woods. "The recent rain must have loosened the roots of some trees. They're only falling."

Alek follows her gaze, unable to appear even half as intimidating as they both stare into the forest. It'd be impossible to know for sure if a tree fell considering the density of them unless he went in there to locate the downed tree, which isn't worth it. "I guess," he concedes.

"What's dimmed your shine?" Mal asks, taking over walking the bike for Alek after indicating the lit area with a tip of her head. "Or is it a who? And do they have a name I need to know?"

"You've already met all of them…"

"[Name]'s little gang?"

His eyebrows briefly draw together at the word choice, unsure how that applies. He's tempted to say 'clique' but swallows down that remark that isn't exactly fair to you. His feelings are simply hurt. "Well, yeah, sort of," Alek hedges. "I wanted to use this"—he brandishes the mystery glow stick with flair—"while searching the woods with them. Jane called it a night."

"Trade?" Mal asks.

The two of them swap the bike for the glow stick.

"I'd recommend you hold onto it," she suggests, tapping the thick plastic against her palm to feel its heft. "Let me guess: you want to know the color?" Her smile lengthens into a grin at Alek's narrow-eyed look of warning. "I get it, but you never know when you'll need a light, and this isn't a toy or for a rave. It's one of those professional ones. It's like a flare."

"Okay, cool, but is the flare neon orange, hot pink, some lame cyan? That's even cooler."

"Maybe it'll be enduring crimson," Mal jokes. "It's a to-be-continued mystery—your own personal one." She tosses the glow stick up in the air, letting it twirl a few times before snatching it with ease to present it to Alek.

"Show off," he teases her, but he's smiling once again. "Can I come over?"

"Your sister isn't driving you back home?"

"I doubt she'll actually stay the night." A flicker of something crosses Mal's face that he can't fully parse out aside from how her eyes skirt to the food station area, pensive. "It's okay, if—"

"Unfortunately, serving is what's in the cards for me this evening," Mal interrupts him. "Plus, I don't want you biking over with a kid gone."

"He's missing," Alek knowingly asserts. He is definitely more optimistic. "Don't get all dark. Jane will find him, or he'll come back soon."

"Okay, with a kid missing."

Mal's dubious emphasis on the word isn't lost on either of them, although they don't take the debate any further when Jane's truck comes into view. She's stiffly standing near the opened truck bed rather than sitting on it. Alek sighs at the sight, glancing at Mal to see her smile is back in place that's unshakably pleasant, if only her gaze didn't hold some measure of caution.

"I have somewhere I need to be," Mal shares, offering a quick wave to Jane despite her voice being lowered to a murmur. "I'll see you later. Try not to wander off into the woods until then. Our search party would be very dismal."

"If Milton really is lost, you're going to feel so bad about these jokes later on…"

"That was advice, Alek. Heed it."

Her smile falls away when she turns from Jane to face him with an uncharacteristically intense expression before walking to the food station.

Mal moves as silently as ever, sticking to the shadows before rejoining the other servers beneath the light. He watches her go for a moment. Everyone must be on edge because of looking for a missing person, if it can even shake Mal's disposition. Maybe he needs to cut Jane more slack for being stressed out.

Alek stuffs the glow stick deeper into his pocket, resolving to act amicable for his sister's benefit on the long car ride home. It isn't easy to shove aside the disappointment where she's concerned; perhaps, it should be after the recent distance caused by your grandfather's case. Your return to town makes him remember the time after the sudden departure—a time where Jane pulled away.

Will it repeat itself after you leave again…?

He'll just have to make his own adventures.