CHAPTER THREE: WILL
Will trudged down the dark alleyway, hands stuffed in his pockets, randomly kicking pebbles away from him. After successfully evading half a dozen searching police cars, Will was beat. His temper was slowly rising, almost at boiling point.
'Why the hell hasn't Mary called me?' he thought angrily. 'If she doesn't call soon I'm going to have to make a happy little camp out here in this beautiful little ally.' He muttered sarcastically to himself. Kirjava slowly walked up next to Will, licking her paws.
That was the plan. Everyday. Will would leave bright and early, and look for those charity things where they gave out free junk to the homeless. Only problem is that there usually tend to be police, and they usually don't give stuff out to teenagers. So while Will swiped, Mary guarded all of their things with a twelve gauge Will had managed to swipe from an old man who'd croaked. Will had to be extra careful when he came back because the police had a vague idea of the stretch Will and Mary covered each day.
Will dropped down suddenly, against the wall and propped his knees up against his chest as he drew out the walkie-talkie that thudded against his thigh when he walked. Making sure he had placed all the controls in the right place, he gave up with a resigned sigh. He dropped the walkie-talkie to the ground and laid his head on his arms. Kirjava jumped on Will, nestling herself warmly, as Will stroked her absentmindedly.
What seemed like hours to Will passed by. Will started to grow a mixture of concern and fear for Mary. It wasn't usual for her to make Will wait so long. But then again Mary had her little tendencies ever since she and Will came back to their own world. And watched painfully as Lyra slowly merged with her world, and Will with his. Will died inside each time he thought about Lyra. He died inside each time he saw someone remotely like Lyra. He died each time he saw a Coca Cola ad or smelled omelets in the morning. The list went on.
His depressing reminiscing was cut short by a seemingly deafening burst of static from his walkie-talkie.
"Errr... Will everything's okay. Nothing suspicious.." came the garbled voice of Mary Malone. Will quickly snatched the walkie-talkie.
"Why the hell took you so long?!" Will spoke angrily into the walkie-talkie.
"I uh- I- Oh god this is embarrassing... I umm- I fell asleep. Sorry," Mary mumbled silently. Will let out a long sigh of frustration.
"Thanks," he said seething. Mary did not respond. Will stood up abruptly sending Kirjava yowling. Even after two years, Will and his dæmon hadn't really felt like they were one, like Lyra and Pantalaimon. 'Oh god..' Will thought sending his train of thought back on Lyra as he jammed the walkie-talkie into his pocket and trudging slowly back to Will and Mary's usual hide out.
Will finally got to their shelter and approached the dingy door, and preformed the secret knock.
Slide, knock, knock, knock, slide, pause, pause, slide, slide.
Will personally thought the whole thing was a heaping pile of junk. But Mary insisted in keeping it. A few moments later, a sleepy eyed Mary appeared and gave Will an apologetic smile. Mary had aged a lot in the two years with Will. She grew frail. Will however grew strong, and exactly the way Lyra had imagined him as an adult.
Mary fingered her gigantic shotgun and apologized nervously
"Look I'm sorry... I swear, I have no idea what got over me, I was wide awake, then like, two seconds later I was—"
"Just stop. It's alright anyway..." Will interrupted. All he wanted to do was sleep. Ironically. He walked to his bedroom and before flopping onto his bed, he checked all of his belongings. Most of what would seem worthless to other people, but priceless to Will. He quickly checked through all his things, since Mary had fallen asleep he needed to make sure that all was there. Hidden under all of Wills little trinkets was possibly the most important of all. A cheap wooden box made of rummaged plywood Will had found here and there. Its contents held the shards of the Subtle Knife. Will slowly opened the box and his eyes spread in fear and horror. The shards were missing.
A/N Damn it took me a long time to write this thing, x.x Made a nice little cliffie there. Even though its so incredibly obvious who took the shards. =P Anyway please review and, errr.. Enjoy!