Unfinished

?5?

"Cool. I'm bored." She came in and plonked herself on the bed.

"Do you want to play with us?" Piper tried asking, passing Finn a Lego block so he could make a bed in the corner of the fort.

"I'm too old for dolls."

Piper wrinkled her nose in confusion. She'd thought it was only her sisters who said they were too old for dolls. What age was too old? What if she was already too old?

"How old are you then?".

"I'm thirteen."

"She's a moody teenager," Finn whispered to Piper.

"Am not!" Elodie sat bolt upright.

"Mum says you are." He retorted.

"Ugh."

"Bella's thirteen," Piper spoke up, which piqued Elodie's attention.

"Does she have Snapchat?"

"What?" Piper stared at her like she was talking a different language.

"It's a teenager thing." Finn informed her, putting the finishing touches on what looked like a table in the middle of their fort.

"You're so annoying, Finn."

He ignored her, and wedged Spiderman and Batman opposite each other in the fort.

"Look Piper, they can all have tea parties after they beat up the bad guys." He grinned, and Piper immediately began searching for something to use as a tiny tablecloth.

"Enough with the tea!" Elodie glared at him.

Finn met her gaze, and answered coolly:

"Did you know, that green tea is supposed to be steeped between 175 – 180°, unless it's a specialty tea like Gyokuro, which should be steeped at 140°"

Elodie stormed out of the room, to Finn's giggling.

"180 degrees Celsius?" Piper looked bewildered.

"Yeah, what other degrees are there? You must have to blow on it a lot to drink it." Finn shrugged, and grabbed a dinosaur from under the bed.

"Why do you know so much about tea?" She asked him, trying to fit Wonder Woman into a small Lego car. It was achieved by having her legs sticking out of one window, and her head out another: a very impractical way to ride in a car.

"Elodie had a tea party, and she didn't invite me. So I'm learning everything about tea so I can prove I should be invited next time!" Finn declared with an air of smugness.

That was that, and they continued the epic battle of superheroes versus dinosaurs, even if Batman got stuck between the table and the wall and Wonder Woman had to fight whilst wedged inside a car.

━━━━━⋅⋅⋅ˏˋ • ˊˎ⋅⋅⋅━━━━━

As she trudged down the track to home, Piper found herself reflecting on the interview.

After their first crude interaction, Elodie had transformed into the very picture of professionalism. She'd apologized multiple times for what she'd said, and Piper had accepted them multiple times, if only out of politeness.

Once the initial embarrassment had faded, it hadn't been too awkward. It could have been worse: Piper could have been the one to make the incredibly wrong assumption.

The interview itself passed in a blur, up until Elodie concluded it officially. She'd asked Piper to wait, and squirmed in her seat.

"So, how've you been after all these years?"

The question had taken her off guard, and she spluttered out an 'okay'. They'd gotten talking, and Piper found Elodie much better company than she had twelve years ago. At least she made interesting small talk.

She almost didn't notice the man in the woods until he moved. 

Her head snapped around, and he took off running.

And like a fool, she took off after him.

He weaved around the tree trunks like some sort of weasel, hurdling over jutting out roots and dodging stray branches. Piper kept her eyes trained on his back, now convinced it had been the person watching the house a few days ago.

"Wait!" She cried out, before suddenly being struck with the absurdity of the situation. Why was she chasing him? What if he was dangerous? What if---

A large gnarled root sent her feet flying from underneath her, as the man she was pursuing turned sharply and disappeared amongst the trees.

Piper scrambled to her feet, looking for any sign of him, but he was far gone. She staggered forward towards what seemed to be the edge of the woods, dusting leaflitter off herself as she did so.

Instead of leaving the woods, however, she emerged instead in a clearing.

Her heart skipped a beat.

The place didn't seem like it was real. There was no wind, so nothing stirred the trees. There seemed to be no fauna either, as no animals rustled the bushes. A few green shoots had burst around the rubble, plastic bottles and cigarette butts were strewn haphazardly around the place.

Still, Piper had the all consuming feeling that she shouldn't be there.

It wasn't the pieces of shattered brick and the crumbling walls. It wasn't the fact that the site seemed so isolated it almost felt like someone had misplaced it. It wasn't even the melancholy air that surrounded the place.

What disturbed her the most, was how familiar it felt.