Decades Later
The date was Friday January 27, 2023 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The morning had started to phase out within the city of Brisbane for the day as a helicopter flew towards the city while the sky began to change and the sun fully showed itself. The day now transitioned to the afternoon, showing a bright sun and beautiful blue skies accompanied by beautiful weather as both humans and bipedal dogs went on with their weekly routine.
It's the same as any other day, workers began to leave and head on their lunch breaks, adults were going into or leaving the local stores and shopping malls, parents were dropping their kids off at school along with teenagers who have cars parking in the parking lot of their high school, and finally the sight of construction workers, who were hard at work constructing some new buildings for the city, today couldn't have been as normal and busy in some places as any other day could be. However, out of all the places in Brisbane that would be busy on this beautiful day, an orphanage within a small part of the city was pretty much on par with being busier than usual.
"Next!" A female caregiver working in the orphanage yelled out, she was calling for the next kid in line to step forward and speak to her as one proceeded to do so, walking over to her casually before being asked a few questions by the caregiver who sat behind a window inside of a room while writing information down about the kid she was asking questions too.
They were all waiting in line patiently for their turn, but out of all the kids in line to be surveyed, one of the kids that was third in line, a teenage boy to be exact would standed out the most, with a backpack behind his back and a luggage next to him, he was playing a videogame on his smartphone, it made him stick out like a sort thumb compared to the others.
His appearance is a fair skinned human with black hair that's styled in a hairstyle that's known as bald fade, along with that he wore a gray t-shirt with a cool looking astronaut helmet on it, a blue jacket that was unzipped showing the astronaut helmet design on the shirt, blue jeans, and lastly he wore white sneakers with purple and black outlines. He looked like someone that was currently on vacation or had just come back from one.
"Next!" The caregiver yelled again, calling for the next kid in line to come see her. The human was in line waiting for his turn while listening to some music using his wireless earbuds as he played a match of Street Fighter: Duel on his phone.
He was in the middle of a battle, trying to beat his opponent only to cut off guard when he heard the caregiver's voice once again. "Next!" The caregiver yelled once again, this time it was now the human's turn to speak with her and to no surprise, he wasn't prepared for it.
"Oh shoot." He said as he sprung up in realization that it was his turn. He quickly paused his game before grabbing his luggage and stepping forward, there he would see the caregiver in front of him writing information on some papers.
"Sorry for the wait, but I'm here now." The human said to the caregiver while taking out his ear buds and putting them back in their charging box.
However, after telling her that he's now there, the human didn't receive a single response from the caregiver, she just sat there with her head down while continuing to write information down on a paper document. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he did notice one thing, her appearance.
She's a female bulldog with fawn fur aside from her black nose and a white muzzle along with tan brown ears. She wore a simple black habit, the long tunic going down to her ankles, a white coif that framed her face, and over it was a black veil which covered her head, but still revealed her face. Around her waist is a thin rope belt that's cinched around the tunic, and lastly she wore practical black shoes that completed her look. It was obvious she's among one of the nuns working in the orphanage.
"Uh.. Hello?" The human said to her in confusion, but unfortunately he still didn't receive any response which made it clear to him that he was being ignored right now. He then stared at her desk for a little bit, and eventually noticed a name plate that had her name on it, her name is Avery Patel and he began to wonder of an idea until a light bulb lit up in his head.
"Um… Avery?" He said, wondering if saying her name would get her attention.
To his luck his approach would actually work as she stopped what she was doing and looked up at him, her facial expression though was slightly grumpy. "Huh? Oh, didn't notice you there." Avery replied in a grumpy tone of voice, she finally saw him standing there waiting.
"Hopefully I'm not late or anything, I might have forgotten to pay attention to the line." He stated, hoping his tardiness didn't cause any trouble with her work on the documents she was writing information down on.
"You're fine kid, first name, middle name, and last name." Avery said, clicking the pen she's holding and waiting for him to tell her his name and last name so she could write it down. "First name, middle name, and last name?" He then asked, mainly just wanting to know if he was hearing what she said right. Avery proceeded to make a sigh in response.
"That's what I just said." Avery replied back in a gumpy tone of voice.
"Oh, I'm Shane, Shane Arthur McKinley. A police officer who works at the police station dropped me off here, said something about me needing to speak with someone named Rosemary regarding a place to stay, so i don't have to stay at the station, does she work here by any chance?" Shane said, telling her his name as she wrote it down on the document while he asked her about somebody named Rosemary, a woman he's intended to go and speak to.
"Rosemary? Ah yes, I know who you're talking about, I will call her up as we speak, and she'll be here in a moment." Avery replied while she pointed her finger at a photo aside of her to her right of the woman Shane was talking about.
She then pressed a red button to the right before continuing on with the document. "In the meantime I need your age and native origin." Avery added, asking for more additional information on his background.
"I'm sixteen years old ma'am." Shane told her nicely, to which she wrote that down.
"Ok, how about your native origin?" Avery then asked him.
"Vancouver, British Columbia, it's up north from the United States, if you're familiar with that area." Shane answered, her eyes widened in surprise while writing that down.
"Canada huh? A long way from home I see. How did a kid like you end up in Australia?" Avery asked in disbelief, wondering how someone like him ended up far from home.
"It's complicated. I'm not very comfortable with sharing that kind of information, in fact it's probably not appropriate to talk about it here, especially with everybody around." Shane stated, not really in the mood to discuss his reason for ending up in a country far away from his home.
"Understandable, forget I asked you that, let's move forward ok?" Avery suggested. Shane gave a slight nod and so she moved onto the next question. "So anyways, what's your date of birth-" Avery was about to ask him, but then she held off when both her and Shane saw a female bipedal dog walk over to them.
Her dog breed is a Shiba Inu, wearing a black suit jacket and a pink dress underneath it. She wore golden earrings on both of her ears along with a silver necklace around her neck, and lastly she had on black high heels that made her look slightly taller than her actual height. Shane started to predict that this must be Rosemary, the one the police officer told him to speak to.
"Ah Shane, it's good to see that you have arrived. My apologies for everything being unorganized around here, and making you wait in line with the other children. We're currently going through some cleaning and fixes within the building, along with some reorganizing, we gotta make sure our information is up to date of course. I remembered you were coming here, but I thought you would have arrived much later in the afternoon. I hope you didn't mind the wait." Rosemary said, while her hands were pressed together as she looked down at Shane, and explained her reasons for him waiting for her to appear.
"It's fine, besides I wasn't doing much anyways." Shane jokingly replied. Avery then looked at Rosemary who was clearly her boss, she must've had something to say to her judging by her face, and she was now holding up the document with Shane's information.
"Do you still want me to write his information down, Rosemary?" Avery asked, prepared to do whatever her boss tells her to do with the document.
"Nah, don't worry about him, I'll handle it, just focus on the others alright?" Rosemary answered, advising her to let Shane go with her, and she can continue assisting the other kids.
"You got it Rosemary, you can go now kid." Avery said, commanding Shane via hand gesture to head forward and go with Rosemary.
"This way McKinley, we have much to talk about on the way to your room you will be staying in." Rosemary said as she began to walk straight ahead to where his room is.
Shane immediately followed suit, holding onto his backpack and grabbing his luggage as they walked together down a long dark brown wooden corridor while Avery continued with her current job, and dealt with the other kids in line, Shane kept himself optimistic as he walked with Rosemary to see the room he will be staying in.
Shane continued to walk alongside Rosemary to his room, it's been exactly one minute since they left Avery and the other kids as they were now closer towards Shane's temporary room. While Shane was walking by he gave himself a chance to look around, instead of them being a long corridor like before, they were now in a long hallway with the same color palette as the corridor prior, both to his left and right had multiple colored doors each painted by hand with a different color like blue, red, green, yellow, brown, and even orange, they looked as if they were painted beforehand and have gotten slightly darker due to aging over time.
Shane then saw a paint brush on the floor along with a bucket that had blue paint inside of it, perhaps Rosemary or her staff might be planning to repaint the doors soon or later as a part of their reorganizing, however as of now Shane's theory is only that, a theory. Continuing to look at the doors some more, there were small whiteboards attached to each of them, all with different first names and even last names on some occasions. Shane also theorized it's most likely the names of the kids that live here and the reason their names are on the doors are to make a note of who was staying where within the orphanage.
"So you live in Vancouver I heard, pretty fascinating to meet a foreigner like yourself, to be honest with you I've never been to Canada myself or with my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean I'm not familiar or understand how far it is to travel somewhere like here." Rosemary said, breaking the silence between the two which led Shane to snap out of his thoughts to look at her.
"Yeah, I will say though long plane rides kind of suck, don't get me wrong traveling the world is fun and all, but man does sitting in plane seats for hours on end really makes you uncomfortable, my back is still sore, and I arrived here in Brisbane four days ago." Shane replied, mentioning to Rosemary about his experience on the plane, and his experience getting to Australia.
"Sounds like a real pain huh?" Rosemary asked him. "It sure was." Shane answered back to which after he pulled out his phone. The two became silent, pausing their conversation for a moment before Rosemary began to change the subject and talk about what happened earlier.
"Again I apologize for making you wait in line, if I had known you arrived as early as you did, we would've gotten you settled in sooner." Rosemary said, apologizing to Shane again about her cluelessness to his arrival. "Was I supposed to have her write my information down or..." Shane replied in response, wondering if he was supposed to have Avery write down his information or not.
"No, you see, you'll only be staying here for the time being, until we can get a hold of your parental guardians. Unfortunately they aren't exactly aware of your current situation, but hopefully we'll get in contact with them as soon as possible. I promise you Shane you'll be home with your family soon." Rosemary told him with a calm and understanding tone of voice, she replied to him honestly with no hesitation, and tried to give Shane a positive outlook despite his current situation. Shane in response put his head down slightly as his facial expression became a look of sadness, what she said reminded him of the reason he was here at the orphanage in the first place, he wasn't sure what to say to her, but he soon chose to simply say something brief.
"Yeah, I'm really missing my mom and dad, if only this trip to my grandparents could've gone better." Shane said, his voice sounding lower pitched with the way he spoke being quieter than usual which Rosemary noticed as she looked at him with concern for how he felt.
"Is everything alright?" Rosemary asked him as she stopped walking to which Shane did the same.
He then noticed a window next to him, and went over to it and looked out of it seeing buildings, signs, inhabitants, and cars going down the street, it reminded him of his home back in Vancouver.
"Not really, it's just… I didn't want any of this to happen. I came to visit my grandparents for a couple weeks. My parents usually have me pay them a visit every single year. I thought it would be fun and a nice change from Vancouver, but then I got to their house… my heart shattered. I wanted to call my parents, a few times actually, but my phone couldn't get reception, all I can do is just play my games, however it only helped me forget about what happened for so long, before my mind finds a way to remind me about it again, it reminds me of what I saw." Shane explained while staring out the window and then up at the bright blue sky. The hallway around them then suddenly became white, he started to remember back to when he was on his way to his grandparents' house.
Four days earlier, January 24, 2023
Shane sat in the middle seat inside of a bus. He rested his head back with his eyes closed while listening to some music using one of his earbuds as the bus passed by different houses within the outskirts of Brisbane otherwise known as the suburbs. After two more minutes of the bus driving past houses the bus finally arrived at a nearby bus stop, it stopped as the bus driver took a deep breath before opening the bus doors and turning around to look at the remaining passengers on board the bus, however there was one on the bus he was mainly looking at.
"Shane McKinley." The bus driver called out to Shane. Shane opened his eyes before taking off his earbud to which he looked up from his seat and saw the bus driver, wondering what was going on. "We're at your stop, kid. You can go now." The bus driver told him, telling him that he was at his destination and that he can get off the bus now.
"Oh really? Hold on." Shane said, standing up from his seat and grabbing his backpack along with his luggage next to him as he made his way to the front of the bus before stepping outside being greeted with the sight of a bright sun and blue skies that combined with a dash of a small breeze that felt nice to Shane compared to how the inside felt on the bus.
"Ah fresh air, you love to see it." Shane said, feeling the breeze flow pass himself. After a couple seconds the bus driver proceeded to close the doors before slowly driving off as Shane watched the bus drive away. "Thank you!" Shane yelled, thanking the bus driver while waving his hand. He would then stop and look at his phone, opening up the GPS app.
"Alright, so where do I go now." Shane said to himself before typing in the address to where he needed to go as an automated voice began to play. "Start heading left and then straight, ten minutes left before reaching Stafford along with your destination." The automated voice said, announcing to him that he wasn't far from his grandparents' house. "Alright, best get a move on then." Shane replied before walking away from the bus stop and following the directions to the location.
Ten minutes have now passed as Shane continues to follow the GPS. He's starting to get closer to his destination and before he knew it, he immediately halted as his phone started buzzing. "You have reached your destination!" The automated voice announced. He then turned to his right to see a white painted house in front of him. The house itself is painted white, except for the top and bottom having the color green around the edges of the house, and black as the color of the roof.
The outside interior looked nice and delicate, consisting of stairs leading to the front door, a flower garden on both sides of the stairs, and finally a small white wooden fence which was around the outskirts of the home. It's definitely a fancy looking house. Shane also noticed a mailbox next to the gate with the name McKinley on it, just by looking at it for a second he knew he was at the right address.
"Thank goodness, I'm finally here." Shane said to himself as he opened the gate and stepped inside, heading up the stairs and making it to the front porch and now being face to face with the front door. He took a few seconds to catch his breath before quenching his fist and knocking on the door. "Grandma! Grandpa! It's your grandson Shane, I finally arrived." Shane said, trying to get his grandma or grandpa's attention, however after waiting a couple seconds no one seemed to respond, not even opening the door.
"Huh? Maybe they didn't hear me." Shane said in confusion, before proceeding to knock on the door again.
"Grandma?! Grandpa?! It's me, Shane McKinley, is anyone home?" Shane asked while knocking on the door only to once again receive no response from neither of them which started to raise concern.
"That's odd, mom said they were here, but why is neither of them answering?" Shane asked, wondering what was going on. He then grabs the door knob and tries to open the door only for it to be locked. "It's locked, makes sense." Shane comments, he then snapped his finger, his mind began to remember something. "Oh yeah, there's a back door." Shane said, remembering that this house had a back door as he proceeded to walk down the stairs and head around the house where he found the back door. He then tried to open it just like the front door, only to receive no luck as it too was locked as well.
"Shocker." Shane said, not surprised the door was also locked just like the front door. Shane then looked around for any alternative ways to get into the house and eventually noticed to the left that a window was open. However, investigating it further he saw it was smashed open like something was thrown at it causing it to shatter which started to raise more concern as to what was going on.
"The window, why is it broken?" Shane thought to himself as he picked up a shard of glass and looked closely at it, whoever committed this act of vandalism must've done it recently, and it seems like no one had noticed it yet. The question was though, is his grandparents aware of this? "This isn't right, something is wrong." Shane said while taking a step back. He then heard the sound of a metal key which caused him to look down and see a floor mat that he was currently stepping on.
He quickly lifted the floor mat to find one of the house's emergency keys which made his instincts kick in as he used it on the back door, and to no surprise it worked. He then slowly walked inside the house. Going Inside the house, he found himself in a small hallway before going to the left and arriving in the kitchen, there he saw the place was relatively clean and normal with the only thing out of place being the dishes that were left unattended and unclean in the sink as water started overflowing onto the floor.
Shane proceeded to walk over to it and shut the sink off before making his way to the next room, there he saw he was now in the living room which unlike the kitchen the place was completely trashed. The coffee table was flipped over and the two fancy looking lamps his grandparents' owned were smashed in pieces on the floor, both the cushions and pillows from the couch including the photos and paintings that were on the wall were also on the floor with the paintings being smashed and ripped to shreds. Lastly, the TV was still in its original position, still placed on the TV stand, and it appears to be still on. The only problem was there's a huge crack on the screen which made whatever was on it unwatchable, however Shane could still hear something come out of the speakers, it was the sound of an eerie static.
"What, What happened here?" Shane asked in horror, confusion, and disbelief. He couldn't believe what he was seeing right now, he didn't know if he was dreaming this or not, his grandparents' house had been ransacked and ruined, and his grandma and grandpa were nowhere to be found, he was now panicking, fearing something bad had happened to them.
"Mom and Dad said you were ok, I thought you guys were doing ok, I…" Shane said to himself as he started breathing heavily while panicking, he couldn't control the emotions he was feeling right now, the two emotions being sadness and anxiety, everything around him began to feel as if he was in slow motion as he tried to calm himself down. After a few seconds he would manage to calm down and begin to breathe slowly as he then quickly snapped out of his thoughts when he saw a trail of something leading upstairs.
He kneeled down to investigate what created the trail, putting his index finger onto it and found it to be white paint due to the paint being stuck on his finger and the smell alone making it obvious.
"No. No. No!" Shane yelled, he then looked upstairs to where the trail was going.
"Grandma! Grandpa!" Shane yelled again as without hesitation he quickly ran up the stairs while everything around faded to white.
Present day
"Shane I… I'm so sorry for your loss." Rosemary said, her voice sounding lower pitched, she felt upset after hearing what happened, and why Shane stayed at the police station for two days, and was now sent to stay at the city orphanage.
Shane proceeded to sigh before responding back, there was more he wanted to say and get off his chest. "While I was at the police station I couldn't stop thinking about it. I really wanted it to be a nightmare, just a dream I would soon wake up from, but I never woke up, everything I saw was real." Shane said while placing his arms on the window. Rosemary remained silent throughout as he continued to speak.
"They looked through and investigated every single thing in my grandparents' house, but while doing so they found something my grandpa used to wear all the time around his arm, they gave it to me hoping it would cheer me up." He explained before removing his right arm from the window. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a beaded bracelet, the design itself is gold and blue with a golden charm of a paw print attached to the bracelet. It's as simple as it gets, but a beauty to look at for sure.
"My grandpa's lucky bracelet. He once told me his spirit animal is a dog, which is why there is a charm of a paw print attached to it, by wearing it he stated it brought him good luck wherever he went. He hoped one day to pass it onto me and wear it wherever I go to remind myself of him and everything he does and did for me, it's a good thing I still have this to remember him and grandma going forward." Shane stated while the bracelet is in the palm of his right hand as he covered the bracelet under his fingers.
Rosemary after hearing his story felt bad for him, she felt it was needed to help him lift his spirits. She then walked over to Shane and stood next to him while looking out the window along with him. She did this for a moment before noticing the bracelet that's in his right hand, she proceeded to slowly take it out of his hand and put it around his right arm.
At first Shane was confused by what she was doing, but once he noticed the warm smile on her face he finally figured it out. "I believe your grandpa would've loved to have you wear it." Rosemary said in a supportive tone of voice. She wanted Shane to wear the lucky bracelet, just like his grandpa used to do, as a way to remind himself and remember his grandpa and grandma in a positive way, he couldn't help but give her a smile in response.
"I understand what you're going through Shane, losing loved ones is tough for a lot of people including dogs like myself. In fact I lost someone too, my mum passed away a year ago, I felt like my heart shattered into pieces when I heard the news, I was devastated, and I went through the same grief that you're going through now." Rosemary said while he looked out the window, staring at the sky. She then put her hand on his shoulder which made him turn to look at her as she got down to his level, wanting to talk directly to him.
"But even though times are tough for you, that doesn't mean you shouldn't give up or put yourself down, what happened wasn't your fault, it's just how life has to be, even if it's something we don't want or wish upon. I'm going to help you get through this, you will be home soon Shane, I promise you." Rosemary said, her voice coming off as calm and understanding of the situation. She knew what Shane was going through, and wanted to help him the best she could, especially if he was going to be staying in the orphanage for a while. Shane thought to himself about what she said for a moment before then replying to her with a kind thank you. "Thank you, your words mean a lot to me." Shane said back, returning with a warm smile of his own.
The Shiba Inu then got back up from kneeling down. She dusted herself off before turning around and looking down the hallway, she realized they should probably get back on track. Afterall she still needed to show him where he would be staying. "I think we should get going, come on now, let me show you your room." Rosemary said, commanding him with a hand gesture to follow her.
Shane nodded in agreement before they both started walking again down the hallway. Shane now had a smile on his face as he is not as upset as he was before, he is now intrigued to see what room he'll be staying in.