( @rageistruth ) -- the first encounter
Sundown. Naturally, everyone else in her little beach town took this as a sign to head home and do as normal families do. Charlie? Sundown meant an adventure opportunity. Less people out, relief from the summer’s heat? This was prime time to go where she pleased. She stands and watches as families pack up their beach picnics, surfers wading on the waning tides. A small smile builds as she takes in the quieting serenity.
She enjoys this settlement for a few more moments before hopping off the bridge and into the sand, trekking her way across the beach and towards the tree lines. Further down into the brush of trees was a cut off for an old dealership warehouse. It’s almost been picked clean, but there were still a few scraps left Charlie knows she can use for a motor bike project she’s got in her garage.
It was refreshing having the only sounds be the crunching under her boots and the distant waves, birds chirping quieter and quieter as the sunlight dimmed. Flashlight tugged off her duffel, she readies it for the inevitable dark. When something catches her eye a little ways off the path, the flashlight is clicked on anyway. After all, nothing was a true investigation without a flashlight, right? Straying from her course, Charlie veers off to the side, pushing past tree branches
to see a metallic figure statued in the middle of a clearing. Like a beacon flame drawing her to it like a moth, the unidentified curiosity shone in the last lights of the setting sun, and off her flashlight. Charlie nears only a few more steps before stopping, admiring. What was it? She dares a few more steps, stopping short of touching it. Her palm hovers over the sleek surface, eyes roaming the entire of the build. There’s no way she could just leave it there in the middle of the trees.. but there was also no way for it to fit into her duffel.
Charlie bites onto the end of her flashlight and hoists the duffel behind her, sling turns across her torso. Reaching under the figure, she attempts to lift, a groan of effort as she does. It was heavy, but it wasn’t impossible for her to carry to her bike by the beach path. So up it goes, cradled carefully against her weight as she traces her tracks back down to the beach and beyond.
Minutes later and she’s riding home, pedaling with greater effort thanks to the extra weight towed. It doesn’t take long until she’s home and prying open her garage, slinking in and closing it shut behind her and her discovery. Hands brushed off, hair pushed out of her face, Charlie circles around the figure, stopping with her hands against her hips.
“ .. What are you .. ? “ she breathes.