WHO: Blaze Wolfe and Sofia Rojas WHEN: June 8th, 2018 WHERE: Fall City Cemetery, for the most part. SUMMARY: Blaze recruited Sofia to help him find a place to hide Eddie's gifts, because she's the best at hiding in Fall City. WARNINGS: None. It's just cute.
It wasn’t exactly surprising that Blaze would consult her about the best place to hide something. Sofia had gotten herself lost in town on more than one occasion. Frequently. Probably too frequently. But it also meant that she knew every place there was to hide. She was an expert on getting lost. (Ha!)
She’d eventually texted agreement and went off on her own, trekking through the town, until she reached the Lynch property. It was unlikely they would look for something there. It was large--but Ted. Hm.
Instead, she circled back toward town, stepping through the mud and the grass until she realized she knew exactly where to take Blaze.
[1] Figured it out. [2] Meet me by Dr. Marple’s office?
A few seconds later, Blaze texted…
[1] See you there.
If anyone could find the best place to hide a treasure chest, it was Sofia. Blaze had a few ideas, but he didn’t trust himself to pick the spot, because sometimes Eddie could just look at Blaze and read his thoughts. The Ark needed to be put somewhere Eddie wouldn’t think of and no one else would disturb it. Blaze knew that was a tall order. But this year, especially, it was important.
He saw Sofia standing near the door when Blaze arrived. “You figured it out?”
“I think so,” she said, moving from her lean against the building to straighten at his approach. “I’m not going to say it out loud. Spies, et cetera.” She waved him over to follow her. “We’re close enough.”
Blaze was intrigued, if a little perplexed. His footsteps fell in pace with hers as he followed close behind.
She led him past the vet’s office and down the street. As the pavement led to an embankment, she hopped onto the grass, climbing up the hill until it leveled out. She didn’t check to see if he was still there. He’d catch up. Actually, it was almost better if she lost him. At the realization that her plan could be improved on, Sofia opted to lose Blaze, taking off at a dead sprint once she’d crossed the hill into the trees that rested near the cemetery.
He was fast, but she hoped her decision might’ve taken him by surprise. Enough, if so, to give her a tiny second advantage. And as she glided through the trees, back into the cemetery, she located the door to the mausoleum, and climbed inside.
Blaze had no trouble climbing up the hill with her, but he definitely wasn’t expecting the sprint. He lost a good few seconds staring after her, before he ran after her. Running was something that Blaze was good at, but the terrain wasn’t exactly even. As much as Blaze would have liked to sprint fast enough to catch up to Rafiki before she found a stick or finished her pond show, this was a really bad time to trip and hit his head on a rock.
Still, Blaze wasn’t too far behind when the running stopped. Blaze definitely wasn’t going to run in the cemetery either. It seemed disrespectful. “Okay,” Blaze called. “But I come out here a lot. My dad would probably think to check here.”
[1] Sure, but is he going to look everywhere in here? [2] How far is he willing to go?
He heard his phone go off in the empty graveyard and looked at the texts. Blaze’s life had just turned into a teenage thriller/horror movie. Worse, a teenage thriller/horror movie that was based around cellphones. Blaze wasn’t even a teenager anymore. They weren’t supposed to still be able to come for him.
[1] If I can’t find you in half an hour, we have a winner.
Blaze started looking.
Meanwhile, Sofia had hidden inside the structure. Most people wouldn’t dare to open the door to what was essentially an above-ground grave. But curiosity was a dangerous thing. Coupled with inebriation, she’d figured out the secret a while ago.
She settled inside, brushing away the cobwebs, before taking a seat on a bench. The doors were inscribed with the names of those who were meant to be inside.
The tricky part was that no one had been buried there. It was empty. Some family had bought a mausoleum and never filled it with their dead. Instead, it had a bench. A vase filled with flower dust. A bust of some dude that she didn’t recognize—but it was empty. And harmless.
So she waited in the dark, not daring to flip on her phone, just in case he would see the illumination and find her.
Fall City was a small town where nothing bad was supposed to happen, but it also had a lot of generational families and old people. Since the Ark was going to stay in its hiding place for a few days, Blaze didn’t want it out in the open where the weather or a tourist could get it. He figured Sofia would have to hiding in a mausoleum. A lot of the oldest families in town had small ones. The Henley crowd anyway.
It wasn’t a bad idea. A crypt would be very Indiana Jones-esque. Blaze would have to get permission from the owner, but he knew a lot of the old families. Most people liked Eddie. They’d promise not to disturb the dead.
Then again, having his father’s birthday hunt end in a cemetery….
After his stepmom had just left...
He looked through the mausoleums until he eventually found Sofia.
“Nice,” Blaze said. “Hey, do you want to help me check out the caves?” He bet they could add skeletons.
She sighed as the door opened, crawling back into the light. “Should’ve known,” she hummed. “You’re smarter than that. But I totally want to check out the caves. Lead the way!"