Hey again everyone. I want to say thanks for your encouragement and support to continue the story, readers and reviewers alike. I whipped up this chapter unexpectedly fast for you guys to read. Maybe I did it to prove I'm sticking with this, maybe I did it because I wanted to - IDK really. It is a little superfluous, but still critical for the story to progress, so if you want the tl;dr version I'll leave it at the bottom for you to decide.
Okay then, bye everyone! :)
A loud ear piercing screech echoed an entire parking lot with the opening of a metal door. *Clunk* the door went upon being pushed open from the mall's interior. Out stepped Darwin, stepping a little more into the parking garage and stopping just as the door closed behind him. "Alright, the post online said he would be on level 4, section B. This is the 4th floor." He looked to his left and saw a giant A hanging from the top of the 5th floor platform. He scanned the right and could barely make out the B down the column from the A side. He began walking again to section B. As he looked around for whatever it was he was searching for, he began having second thoughts.
"Maybe I should have told Gumball the truth. Maybe it wasn't right of me to come alone to do this." Despite sounding like he was trying to talk himself out of his predicament, he continued forward looking left and right as he went. He could see the other end of the parking garage where the B was, and just at the corner of the other end, hidden behind some grey SUV, Darwin found what he was looking for. He started running for only a few seconds to get a better look at the hidden vehicle. All he saw at first was a sliver of red that stretched high above the ground, but with every step he ran closer, he could make out more of it. From the box shape and wide panel doors on the back, it was going to be a red van. He could see yellow highlights that became a decal grafitti'd on. Apart from the makings, it was looked like any other type of van, but everyone knew that in Elmore, nothing was ever normal. Darwin knew exactly what this van was; none other than the infamous Awesome Store. A place where only a select few and chosen bought magical items, good and bad. A place Richard Watterson frequented more haphazardly than he should have. But most of all, to Darwin, this place was like another kind of home. This was exactly what Darwin was looking for, but being here now, actually having found it, it left him with chills. He felt uneasy, a little shaken. He wanted to knock on the side of the van, but his own paranoia kept him from doing it. His fin shaking as he held it near the side. He almost didn't think he could go through with this.
Almost. Regardless however, Darwin had every intention. He asked Nicole to bring him hear. He blew off Gumball to come here on his own. This was what Darwin wanted. "I can't back out now," he said, trying to encourage himself to knock already. "This might be my only chance. If I don't do this..." He still couldn't knock on the metal frame though, not until he used his other fin to push the one held up onto the door. A single loud *clank* was made. Darwin could not believe he had done that. But seeing as how the knock happened, he continued on knocking normally, knowing he had passed the point of no return. He hit his fin on the side a few more times and took a step back. He waited for about five seconds before the door pushed forward. *Clunk* the side door went falling down a few centimeters. Darwin didn't flinch, but he did hold his arms up in front of himself in some worry. The red and garfitti'd door ever so slowly rolled to the back side of the van. Darwin could see nothing and no one inside. However, smoke did come out, falling from the floor of the van and on to the pavement. By time the door had finally opened all the way, Darwin could still not see anything inside. The interior was pitch black and void of light. This only made Darwin feel worse. What set him nearly over the edge however, was the sound of a raspy, whispering voice that came from the van.
"Welcome," it said heavily. The voice sounded like a man, and Darwin figured it had to be the owner. What made it scary however was that there was no sign of him inside. But just then, out of the intense darkness appeared a large pair of eyes without any pigment or color. Under normal circumstances, this would frighten even an adult possibly. But strangely enough, when Darwin saw the eyes, he suddenly felt more comfortable. The voice and eyes continued on but stopped almost immediately after seeing Darwin. "to the-hmm?" The pair of eyes shot up in surprise. "A child?" By this point, Darwin felt he had to say something.
"Uhh, H-hi sir." He began rubbing the back of his head with some embarrassment. "I'm, I'm sorry to bother you, but is this: The Awesome Store?"
"What? How do you know-kno-no-I uh, I mean-wh-wh-what Awesome Store? I-I have never heard of this place." Darwin could tell the obvious BS was obvious, getting serious for a moment. He wouldn't have if he didn't feel compelled to coming here in the first place.
"I know this is The Awesome Store, alright. I have even seen you before when I was with Gumball." The store owner could not think of anything to say, feeling backed into a corner, literally and mentally that is. He released a bitter sigh of agrivation.
"Okay, yes, this is The Awesome Store, but I don't sell my wares to anyone under eighteen." Right after saying this, the eyes became dilated in shock once again. "Hey wait a minute. How did you even know where to find me? I only give my location out to customers; any newbies have to get permission from me and the customers I have shopping here." Darwin did not hesitate to answer.
"I saw your post on from my dad's Elmore Stream."
"Oh I see. So you managed to hack into your father Elmore Stream account to find my location and track me down? Bravo."
"Actually, I just saw it, but I know of you because of him, Richard Watterson."
"Wait, what?!" The pair of eyes disappeared into the sheath of darkness. Darwin curiously rose his head up some and try to see what was going on inside. All he heard was the voice though. "Oh no. Oh no no no! I forgot to set that post as group only and made it public! Now everyone will know where I am!" Without seeing it coming, the eyes charged out of the blackness and darted right at Darwin. "Listen kid, you finding me was a mistake. I don't sell my products to minors. Come and find me in about a decade or so and then we can do business." Out of the dark, a shadowy hand grabbed hold of the handle of the side door. Without hesitation, pulled the door back into a locked position.
"Wait, Mister," Darwin cried out, collapsing against the side of the door. "It's not like that. I didn't come here to buy anything from you." The sound of the car engine turning on caught Darwin's attention. He ran for the driver side door, seeing the misty figure and pair of white eyes only slightly better. The eyes looked down at him as the window rolled down.
"Then whatever you are trying to sell me, I'm not interested kid." The man set the van in gear.
"No, it's not like that either. I don't want to sell you something." Before he could finish, the van began driving out of the corner. It proceeded to make a break for the entrance 3 floors below. Seeing it pull out scared Darwin more than anything. He couldn't let it get away, but he didn't know how to stop him. Even though it was the last thing he wanted to blurt out, he felt he had no choice, and just at the last possible second the van was going to turn, Darwin screamed at the top of his lungs as loud as he could.
"I WAS SOMETHING YOU SOLLLLLD!" Suddenly, the van's back lights glowed red and the van came to a stop. Darwin couldn't believe it worked. A smile came over him seeing the van not leave. It began to reverse back towards Darwin's direction, stopping right alongside the orange fish. The smoky figure with the big eyes put the van in park and gave Darwin a look for the ages.
"Come again?" It was all he could say in the shock of hearing something so perverse. Darwin didn't care though, he was just glad the man had stopped when he had.
"It's true," Darwin blurted out with some awkward glee. "In a way, I belonged to you many years ago." The eyes just grew to be concerned.
"I think you must be confused or something. I have never in my entire life sold a child to anyone. The only people who do that are criminals and the government, and I'm not associated with either of them."
"No, really. I mean, I'm not the same as you might remember, but I haven't changed that much." The man was silent, not saying anything. Darwin was beginning to get a little depressed. "Do you really not remember me?" The eyes didn't answer right away.
"Well I've seen you around town with that blue cat before, but how could I possibly…" The longer he stared at Darwin, the weirder the shadow figure felt. He could feel a strange sense of déjà vu coming to him, but he didn't let that interfere with him. "Maybe you can give me some clues to better remember?" Darwin was still upset the man didn't recognize him, but he figured that if it helped, then by all means he'd tell him anything he wanted.
"Okay, sure. Back then, I was just a regular goldfish. I didn't have legs."
"An ordinary goldfish?"
"Right!" The figure held up his black smoked hands, forming a stock frame with his thumbs and index fingers. He centered it over Darwin enough to show only his body and arms. He could sense a strange resonance from the boy, like maybe he did know Darwin after all. He almost started to beleive Darwin might be telling the truth. Still, no dice.
"Hmmm, I'm still not recalling. Can you tell me anything else?"
"Well, do you know a guy named Richard Watterson? He's a pink rabbit, wears a tie, very nice to everyone." The eyes looked up at the ceiling for a couple of seconds trying to recall.
"Is he a fat one?" That was the last thing Darwin wanted to say, but undoubtedly, he did say yes.
"Yeah, he is, but he was the one who got me from you about eight years ago. Does that help?" The shopkeeper still kept a stock frame on Darwin as he talked.
"I know the guy. I have sold him quite a bit of stuff over the years." He focused in on Darwin more, trying his best to recall the fish. Darwin gave him a small hopeful smile, managing to squish his cheeks out. The man talked to himself quietly. "Eight years ago? To him? And just a fish?" The more he stared at Darwin, the more he was beginning to believe him. The man did not know how, but he believed what Darwin was saying. Seeing him as a regular goldfish did bring back something from long ago. It took him a while, but eventually, his memory caught up, and when it did, it hit him like a bag of bricks. His eyes open wide and he gave out a surprising gasp. As soon as Darwin heard him and saw his eyes go up, he became immediately ecstatic.
"You remember now?" The man didn't answer right away for the second time in a row due to shock. He just stared at Darwin through his finger-made frame. The memories of Darwin came flooding back to him all in an instant.
"I… I do. I can't believe it's actually you!" His voice did not sound enthusiastic like Darwin, which did concern Darwin a little. He didn't have time to say anything as the man continued on. "I thought it was just coincidence, and overtime I accepted that, but it's really you." He pulled his hands down, looking at himself below. "I should have known you would one day come back, but I never thought you would be so young." Darwin's smile was gone, feeling as if the atmosphere had changed all of a sudden. This was not the kind of reaction he was expecting when meeting the guy.
"What? Is it bad that I'm here?" The shopkeeper did not look up at Darwin, continuing to stare at himself from behind the comfort of his door.
"Why are you here?" It was a simple question, but Darwin didn't know how to explain it. He couldn't believe how depressed the eyes sounded when saying it. He could swear something wasn't right in his voice. It made Darwin a little unsteady himself.
"Uhm, well I, eh-hmm, I came because I wanted to ask you some questions about my... my..." The eyes turned soft as they looked up at Darwin, no longer antagonistic or intense.
"Let me guess: your parents?" Darwin couldn't believe he solve it so fast. Was it really that obvious why he came? Still, he was right.
"Ye-yeah. How did you know?" The eyes stayed focused on Darwin, careful to not sound so threatening like before.
"Educated guess, and I always believed one day, you might come back. I just wished you were older when you did." He sounded so sad, and feeling it only made Darwin sad. This was not how Darwin imagined it would be.
"So… you said you knew them?"
"Ei, that I did." Hearing this lightened Darwin up to a degree.
"Well, then great. I figured since I was adopted from here, you might be the last person to see and tell me about them? I want to know if you knew what they were like, and maybe why they couldn't keep me and stuff."
"But why? Why are you doing this?" Darwin was not expecting to hear him ask why, but he did have his reasons, and wasn't afraid to share it.
"I... It's just… it's something I always wanted to know, simply to know. Sometimes, I just think about why I am here, the way I am, and I guess a part of me would just like to know more about my birth parents for… for closure, to put it all behind me."
A short silence stood between them, and all the man said was "Fair enough". He started his van and put it in gear. "Alright kid, you really want to know the truth? Then meet me at the east alleyway of the mall in ten minutes. I'll answer any questions you have then."
"Wait, why can't you just tell me now?"
"Everyone knows where I am, and I've made a few enemies in my life that I try to avoid. Plus…" His eyes looked up beyond Darwin's scalp. When Darwin looked behind him, he saw a CCTV camera looking right at them. Darwin turned his head back to the Awesome Store owner. "It already looks bad enough me talking with you for so long. I don't want anymore trouble than I am already borrowing if you catch my drift". Darwin didn't understand the 'drift', but he didn't want to argue or ask what he meant. The point was: He had already succeeded in getting the owner's attention. The last thing he wanted was to ward him off and miss this opportunity.
"Okay. The east alleyway in ten minutes?"
"Right. I'll see you then." With that, the van drove away down and turned a corner to no longer be seen anymore. Darwin kept watching it until it had disappeared from his field of vision.
"I guess I should go meet him there." Darwin walked back through the garage and into the mall. The journey had ended, but the story has only just begun for the little orange goldfish.
Tl;dr: Darwin enters the parking garage to find The Awesome Store and confronts the owner about him being sold by him. Depressed and somewhat guilty-sounding, he reluctantly agrees to tell Darwin what he wants, but must first meet somewhere more secluded.