Chapter 8

Laundromat Break

Could this morning have been a whole lot more comfortable if she had decided to keep her mouth shut last night and quietly retreat back into the van? Yeah, probably so, Cora had figured by now, but then again, she just had to know why the hell Darby would be skateboarding outside in the early hours of the freaking morning. How in the world was she supposed to know that this simple question was going to tick him off so much? Looks like she still knew so little about him after all…

Darby must have decided at some point later on that he had been skateboarding enough for now (which must have happened at the same time where Cora was fast asleep once more, since she hadn't been awoken by the sounds of him reentering his vehicle/home) because when she woke up a few hours later thanks to the first rays of sunshine shining upon the van's front window (and the rising temperature that come along with it because, after all, the end of summer seemed to be nowhere in sight), she had seen the blonde ghost hunter lying on his mattress in the back, still sleeping; he would wake up not too long after Cora did. He did appear to be in a slightly better mood upon starting a fresh, new day, but only to the degree of being willing to mumble a little 'good morning' to his temporary traveling companion upon waking up. It was almost like he had forgotten about the fact that he had angrily snapped at her last night for merely asking why on Earth he was skateboarding in the dead of night, or, like Cora had assumed, chose not mention it. Sure, his mood might have slightly improved today, but it didn't make that awkward feeling that had been pooling inside the pits of Cora's stomach any easier, since she hadn't forgotten about how pissed he had suddenly gotten at her. It had shaken her up for a bit, honestly. Had he seriously been that angry because of her unintentionally interrupting him skating around the freaking parking lot? Or was there another reason? Had her fighting techniques been so horribly clunky during her first night of her temporary career as a ghost huntress that it ticked him off somehow? Yeah, she admitted is, she was still a total rookie, but in the end, they had gotten the job done, right? That could also be a reason, but Cora still too uncomfortable at this point to ask him any questions, worrying that it might piss him off again.

No bagels and coffee were had for breakfast this morning; the two ghost hunters started off their day with waffles coming straight out of a box that had been lying in a corner where more pre-packaged food could be found, heated up on the electric cooker. Aside from him having briefly greeted her a mere hour earlier, Darby hadn't said anything to her while they were eating, and Cora still felt too awkward to say anything to him, even having the suspicion that he was still mad at her. The backdoors of the van had been opened wide during their breakfast to prevent any more heat or an overly sweet odor building up inside, and yeah, they sure must have been a bit of a sight for the locals of Green Pines who just happened to decide to go to the supermarket to buy their groceries that very morning; a young guy donning clothes that perfectly balanced between goth and punk fashion and a girl with a fair number of tattoos on her body, with their legs dangling over the edge of the van's back and quietly munching on waffles.

Not too long after they had their breakfast, the van's engine was switched on and the small, sleepy town of Green Pines was soon far behind them in the rear-view mirror, with one vengeful ghost less to pose a threat to any innocent, unsuspecting bystander who just wanted a peaceful late evening stroll in the local park. But even now that they were driving on the highway where traffic was surprisingly calm for this time of the day, the atmosphere in the van felt still has uncomfortable as it was earlier.

Either Darby was still ticked off at her for interrupting him last night or he was perhaps feeling just as awkward as she did, because all he had done throughout the ride so far was staring straight ahead to the road ahead of him, his sight entirely glued to whatever was going on in front of the van and not speaking one single word, not even offering the young woman sitting next to him as much as a glance. Unlike him, Cora would often glance into his direction, silently wondering about what must be going on inside his head right now. It was almost funny, really… Even though he had bestowed her with the vast knowledge about everything you needed to know about ghosts and how to hunt the particularly angry ones, there was still so little she knew about Darby himself. At least she had made the effort of sharing some of her own past back at the park last night, allowing herself to lower her guard for a bit since she had felt like telling him about it was the right thing, and yet he had yet to take off a few bricks from the wall he had seemed to build up from the very start, with the only small gestures of what came close to kindness the facts that he had bought her breakfast and took the time to properly train her. To think that he would get mad at her for simply asking him what he was doing last night… just what in the world was going on inside that head of his?

With the summer sun now shining upon the window of the passenger side and thus increasing the temperature inside the van a little too much for Cora's liking, she suddenly felt the urge to roll down the window just enough so that she and Darby could stay cool for the rest of the trip, but quickly changed her mind when she worried that this too might tick Darby off, so she slowly moved her hand away from the crank handle and let out a soft sigh, now staring at the world passing them by behind the window, supporting her head with her hand. God, were they really going to spend this whole morning in awkward silence, if not, the whole freaking day? There was no way she wanted to feel so damn uncomfortable until it was finally time to catch some shut-eye, but then again, everything was going to be even more uncomfortable if she would somehow tick him off again… so as long as she would be careful with how she was going to break this silence, perhaps everything would be okay, right?

'I've been checking out what kind of stores they got in Wattson.' Darby suddenly said, causing Cora to snap out of her thoughts and make her look up, surprised about he turned out to be the one who decided to finally cease this awkward silence; his sight however still remained glued to the road ahead of them, which she thought was only logical.

'Apparently they have this laundromat over there, and it's been a while since I've washed my clothes. You can wash yours too, if you want.'

As she stared at her own clothes, it suddenly struck Cora. Not only were these the same clothes she had been wearing for what had to be three days straight now, but she had left her former home with quite literally only the clothes she had on her back. There was already a faint smell of sweat emerging from her shirt and she knew it was only going to get worse if she wasn't going to wash it along with her other clothes, but there was no way in hell she was going to sit in that laundromat in her birthday suit, praying to whatever holy deity was out there that her laundry would dry up and soon as possible while trying her hardest to shield the most intimate parts of her body from the stares of everyone else in the laundromat. Yes, she barely had any money left on her name, but if she would make the right choices, then…

'If you don't mind, I'd like to buy a few clothes before we go there.' Cora said. 'We can go to the laundromat after I'm done, I promise I won't take long. Is that fine by you?'

'Knock yourself out, sis. We've still got plenty of time.' Darby said; at that moment, he turned on his blinker before passing by a truck that drove a little too slow for his liking.

Thankfully the ride didn't last too long and sure enough, the traveling duo arrived in Wattson before the afternoon could come rolling around the corner. Perhaps it was just her, but if you had to ask Cora, the bustling town of Wattson looked way more lively compared to the sleepy, almost dreary place that was Green Pines in almost every way possible. The town's main street was chockfull of all sorts of shops, ranging from a small grocery store that sold the crops of farmers in the surrounding area for a fairly reasonable price, a bakery where the smell of freshly baked pastries would escape from the building each time the sliding doors at the front parted, to a store that offered modern items to decorate your home with. It was like the town had welcomed this summer with open arms, since baskets containing flowers in all sorts of bright, lively colors had been attached to the lampposts to add to the peaceful atmosphere this year's summer had brought along. Plenty of the town's local residents could be found here as well, either walking down the street in pairs or alone (some of those who happened to be here with a companion engaged in a conversation) to either visit one of the many stores this town had to offer, to simply enjoy today's pleasant weather or maybe even a combination of both.

Needless to say, Wattson seemed like a pretty nice place to live at, Cora figured as she looked around; if the prices to hire a home here were doable enough, then perhaps she could consider moving here once she would have saved up enough money in Autumnsfield. (And the fact that there was still a pretty big distance between her hometown and this place became one more good reason to move to Wattson, which was something she didn't think of at this moment, but would only realize later on) Not too long before she had started to explore these streets, Darby had spotted a fairly large supermarket a few blocks away from Wattson's center, which made him realize that this would also be a good opportunity to stock up on the food supply in the van, since there was not much else left but two boxes of waffles, three bananas and a carton of milk. So he and Cora had come to the following agreement: while she would go out on a little shopping trip with her limited budget, he would pay that supermarket a visit and make sure there would be enough food for the both of them for the rest of their road trip together and, after Darby would uphold his part of the deal of getting Cora to Autumnsfield, for himself. And after they both would be done, they would meet up again at the laundromat to wash their clothes, which, like most of the other stores, was located in the town's center. Cora was perfectly fine with this deal; she honestly didn't mind a little bit of me time while going out shopping, even if it would be a little tricky with the budget that she had. But if she would play her cards right and only get the necessary stuff, she could maybe pull it off, right? She sure hoped she would, because there are few things more embarrassing in life than standing at a check-out corner with a declining debit card and a long line of silently judging people behind you.

Lucky for her, there were plenty of fashion stores in Wattson that offered clothing to her for a pretty good price, and she wasn't going to lie; each time the machine at the check-out corner accepted the money that was left on her account, her heart cringed a little with relief. In less than what turned out to be an hour or so, she was walking down the main street of Wattson with three pairs of socks, underwear, two pairs of shorts, one single pair of dark grey jeans, a toothbrush, three tank tops ranging in the colors hot pink, pitch black and electric blue, a black T-shirt with the design of a cartoony skull donning a cutesy pink ribbon on it, a black beanie, a hairbrush and one simple denim jacket with long sleeves. Right after she had paid for all of them, she had decided to quickly slip back into the fitting room for a short moment to immediately swap the clothes she had been wearing for three days straight for the shorts and black T-shirt, stuffing the former in the large shopping bag her new, neatly-folded clothes had been placed in, and she had to say, she was feeling a lot better about herself already.

Right after she had exited the fashion store, Cora also took a little moment to go ahead and enter a sports store to purchase a khaki green duffle bag that she planned to use for storage, not wishing to scatter her new clothes all over the van's back for the remainder of the road trip; she was certain she was doing Darby a huge favor with that. But as happy as she was with the clothes she had purchased, there was only one thing that did bum her out a little bit; even though the denim jacket was comfortable to wear and fit right into her budget, it did look a little too… well… basic, for her liking. All of the other clothes were perfectly fine to her, fitting right into the aesthetic of skater fashion that she had always been so fond off, but there definitely needed to be tweaked a thing or two about this jacket to make her like it a bit more.

But then, as if the universe had answered her question of how she could possibly pull this off, her eye on fell the local art store, located precisely on her right, the front window adorned with tubes filled with paint in all colors imaginable, brushes in various sizes, and all other kinds of materials any artist could use to create whatever their artistic hearts desired; instantly filled to the brim with inspiration, Cora went inside.

It was after she had exited this shop the rookie ghost huntress decided that it was finally time to meet up with Darby at the laundromat, which thankfully was only a few blocks away. She could already imagine the look on her traveling companion's face upon glancing at the full shopping bag and quietly praying for the wellbeing of her bank account, a thought which was apparently amusing enough for her to make a brief chuckle emerge past her lips. Immediately after she opened the laundromat's front door, she was greeted with a distinct but rather pleasant odor which consisted of a mix of smells coming from laundry detergent, fabric softener and coins. Rows of laundry machines and dryers were lined up against the walls of the building, some of them active and merrily tumbling away, either washing or drying the piles of laundry that were stuffed inside of them, others not. One sole, large flat screen TV had been installed above one of the rows on the right side of the building, obviously having been placed there so that waiting for your laundry to be washed and dried would be a bit less boring. It was quite funny, really; Cora had always believed that laundromats used to be a thing of the past, being one of those places that were more frequently visited in the 80's and maybe even the 90's too. To be honest, she was quite surprised that these places still existed in the present day. And boy, did she happen to be grateful for laundromats right now, given that she wasn't going to get many opportunities to wash her clothes during this trip.

'Hey Cora, over here.'

It wasn't that hard for Cora to find Darby Allin amongst the ten other customers who happened to be present in this laundromat, sitting on one of the wooden benches with his laptop next to him and a white, plastic laundry basket stuffed with primarily black clothing next to his feet; he had obviously been waiting for Cora to show up so that he could wash her clothes along with his, which she did appreciate.

Cora's clothes were tossed into the laundry basket, which was then emptied in one of the available washing machines, which so happened to be the machines near the TV. Darby had enough change on him to start the machine and as soon as it began to hum, followed by rhythmic thumping, he sat down next to Cora on the bench. Before she could even ask him if he wanted to see what she had bought in the main street, he had already grabbed his laptop and opened the lid.

'Looks like we've got another job here for tonight.' the blonde ghost hunter said, quickly typing in the address of the trusty forum that had helped him out so many times during his career as a ghost hunter. He didn't have to scroll down the long list of entries to find the exact case he was looking for, since it appeared to be a brand-new entry on the ever-expanding list of ghost sightings across the nation.

'Check this out.' Darby said as he pointed the cursor at a wall of text. 'Some people claim there's something going on at the oil field near Wattson. During day time everything seems normal, that is, until night falls. They swear they could have heard a woman crying near one of the oil tanks, but every single time, there's no woman to be found anywhere on that site, only the sobbing. And here's the thing… the air in the area around the oil tanks was much colder compared to anywhere else on the field.'

'So that must be a ghost, then…' Cora mumbled, her eyes fixated on the words on the screen. 'You think it might be in the Restless phase already?'

'I don't think so. The entry doesn't say anything about an attack, but I'm certain it's not going to last long before it might get frustrated. That's why we've gotta check it out tonight.'

The rookie ghost huntress gave him a silent nod, fully agreeing with what he said; because after all, how long would it take for a ghost to become frustrated enough to unleash its anger upon an innocent person? All of a sudden, the intro song of a well-known, local news station overlapped the tumbling and thumping, making Cora look up. Darby was still too busy studying the forum's entry to pay any attention. A male news anchor in his early forties, with slicked back, black hair and a neatly trimmed moustache a lot of men in this world would envy, and wearing an immaculately neat grey suit and a deep red tie, stared into the camera from behind his desk, his face expressing nothing but pure, professional seriousness.

'Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, this is the news of 12 PM, I'm Robert DeWitt.' he said. 'A week has passed since Lisa Young has disappeared from her home in Wattson, Michigan, and despite police having combed out the area near the lake and woods and a fair amount of tips coming in, no leads have been found yet.'

Right after he said this, a picture of a young woman appeared on the screen. She appeared to be no older than perhaps thirty-two, happily smiling from ear to ear to whoever was taking this photograph of her. Her long, sandy blonde hair had grown past her waist and was neatly tied into a low ponytail. The fabric of her lavender purple maternity dress fit perfectly around her pregnant belly, on which she lovingly rested one of her hands. The picture must have been taken on a day where she had been going out for a walk in the woods, since there were several trees with green leaves visible behind her.

Just like many other people who happened to be watching the news right now, Cora suddenly couldn't help but be slightly worried about this woman. Heavily pregnant and seemingly disappearing into thin air… there was indeed something truly unsettling about all of this.

'Lisa, an expecting mother who is seven months with child, was reported missing by a friend after she hadn't shown up for a lunch the two had planned in the afternoon of July 2nd.' Robert said. 'Her husband, Tim Young, claimed that she had gone out for a morning walk on that very same day. Ever since then, no trace of the pregnant woman has been found. The Wattson Police Department asks all locals and citizens from surroundings towns to keep an eye out for her and immediately contact them if they believe to have a clue of her whereabouts or seen someone matching her appearance. The house doesn't feel complete without her, according to her husband, Tim.'

The footage of the news station's studio was then abruptly shifted to a live scene of a man standing in front of a house somewhere in the suburbs of Wattson. The man was perhaps a little older than his wife, judging by the few grey hairs that were visible in his short, dark brown hair and his stubble. The line of text below the screen introduced him to the viewers as Tim Young, and a small microphone has been clipped onto his grey T-shirt.

Any husband who had a heavily pregnant wife mysteriously disappearing into thin air must be lying awake every single night, wondering where she and their unborn child were and what might have happened to them, have a complete lack of appetite throughout the whole day and try his hardest to keep himself together and not break down in an endless flow of tears… but Tim Young appeared to be in pretty good shape despite everything that had been happening as of late, not even showing a trace of dark circles under his eyes.

'It's so strange, it's so hard to understand what's going on…' he said, his voice though fairly soft, not at all fitting to a man who was this dangerously close to falling into despair after a whole week of not hearing anything from his beloved, missing wife. 'All I just want is my wife to come back. The house is so silent without her, it's unnatural. All that I can do right now is to hope that she's somewhere safe and that someone might know where she might be. She's my wife, she's carrying our first child… Please, keep an eye out for her. I just want her back home.'

Perhaps it was just her, but Cora could feel in the very pits of her guts that there was something off about this guy; after all, he was acting way too calm for someone whose pregnant wife had been missing for a week.