Chapter Text
Natalie had never been to Marmot Lake. She wasn’t sure why she would have- Toby had mentioned it here and there, but it hadn’t been important to him, so it hadn’t been important to her. Hell, even if he had truly cared about it, even if it was the most important thing in the world to him, she probably still wouldn’t have cared. She hadn’t been a very good girlfriend.
Marmot Lake, for all intents and purposes, was a very sad little town. It was, as the name suggested, next to a lake, and that lake was all it had going for it.
Standing in the tiny, deserted parking lot of the town’s dentist office, Natalie looked out at that lake, hands on her hips, and wondered, absently, if Toby was down there.
It was unlikely. Police said they doubted he was dead. He probably just ran away from his old life, returned to his home- his real home, because (and they didn’t say this part) it was well known that the shitty tiny town you grew up in, that you hadn’t liked much, was more of a home than the apartment you’d lived in for the last three years in the city you’d always wanted to live in. Everyone had seen the Hallmark Movies.
Natalie had grown up in a small town too. She knew how it felt, thinking the city folk were all vain, cocky bastards who didn’t understand what it was like to live somewhere everyone knew everyone. They never knew community, she’d thought, while the neighbor boys told everyone she was a slut, and everyone knew exactly what they meant, because Natalie Ouellete was the only twelve year old in the town to wear a two piece swimsuit in the summer.
She lit a cigarette, sighing. She wasn’t entirely sure what the game plan was: figure out where Toby went, yeah, sure, but what else? How was she even planning on doing that? She wasn’t a detective, she was a high school drop out with attention issues and a tendency to get in fights.
Then again, she had something the police didn’t have: a real mystery. A two word message that she’d gotten from Toby, three days before he’d officially been declared missing. The last anyone had heard of him at all. The cops had barely glanced at it, but Natalie knew that something was up. Something was different.
Who unblocked their ex girlfriend just to say “it’s done,” anyways? What was done? What the fuck was wrong with him?
The sun was setting. She probably had to find a hotel.
She wondered, absently, irritably, if there even was a hotel in this town: there couldn’t have been more than two thousand residents, but she pulled out her phone, checking Google maps. One motel, up the road, around the bend.
The motel, aptly named “Little Lake Inn” was a dilapidated looking cluster of buildings: the check-in office and the inn itself were separated by a shitty parking lot with no clear lines. There was one other car in the area, one which probably belonged to the poor soul working the desk.
She waited in her car for a second before getting out, wasting a moment staring into the woods ahead of her. There was a faint glitter through the leaves of the setting sun on the lake. It was kind of beautiful, she thought, begrudgingly.
She put out her cigarette and got out of the car.
The old man behind the desk looked up in shock when she walked in. He blinked at her four or five times before speaking. “Hello?”
“Hi, I’d like to get a room.”
He looked even more amazed at that: she’d been right, this place definitely didn’t get many guests. He checked her in, still glancing up at her over his glasses regularly as if he didn’t know if he knew what he was seeing. When she said she’d be staying a few nights- four, and she’ll extend it if she had to- she thought his eyes would bulge out of his skull.
As he handed her the key to her room- Room 1, for convenience- he paused. “There’s a man who hangs out in the lot sometimes, I gotta warn ya. Don’t know what he does, don’t know why he’s always out there, but… I feel like I gotta pass it on at the least.”
She hesitated, squinting out the windows towards the building. She didn’t see anyone out there. Then again, the sun was far enough past the horizon that it made it hard to see anything.
“Thanks,” She smiled at the man, trying to look friendly. “I appreciate the warning.”
Her room was tiny, and she was pretty sure she could taste the mouse droppings in the air, but she figured it was better than trying to sleep in her car. November chill was creeping in fast, and she wasn’t particularly excited about the concept of spending more time in the shitty vehicle.
She didn’t sleep very well, but she did sleep, eventually, waking up around seven to take a cold shower and mourn the absence of a complimentary breakfast- although she kind of got it. There was a total of one employee on shift at a time as far as she could guess, and cooking a buffet for one guest was a bit ridiculous.
She loaded everything back into her car, not sure she trusted this place enough to leave her things in the room.
As she crammed her suitcase into the backseat, she heard footsteps, and looked up.
The man approaching wasn’t… exactly what she’d expected when the clerk had warned her of the stranger in the parking lot, but, at the same time, he fit the concept perfectly.
He was broad shouldered, with long greasy dark hair and piercing blue eyes that were narrowed at her. He was wearing a black coat over a white sweatshirt and black jeans, torn converse and enough jewelry to put a Claire’s out of business. He was shorter than her, she noticed, and maybe even a year or two younger. She tried very hard not to snort at that, instead turning to face him with a possibly-too-sarcastic smile.
“Hey,” She said, glancing at the office building, wondering if she would get in trouble for knocking this guy out. “What’s up?”
“Who the fuck are you?” He snapped. “You a cop?”
She paused, looking at him incredulously. “No?”
“You have to tell me if you are.” He said, pointing in her face. This close, she wasn’t even sure he was an adult.
“That’s a fucking myth.” She slapped his hand away, irritated. “Cops don’t actually have to tell you shit, especially if they’re undercover.”
He huffed, taking a step back.
He was definitely a kid, she decided, definitely no older than seventeen. She turned away.
“You here about the Rogers guy?”
She froze at that, staring into her trunk, before slowly turning to look at him, trying to gauge anything from him.
“You are, then?” He asked.
“How do you know about Toby?” She asked, slowly.
“Cops showed up,” He said. “Came by my place, asked if we’d seen anything. My brother was in his grade in school.”
“Your brother, does he know anything?”
“You sure you’re not a cop?” The kid huffed. “Nah, I don’t think so, he seemed kind of freaked out though.”
She paused. She needed help- or at least an ally. “I’m Natalie.”
“Oh.” He looked kind of surprised. “I’m Jeff.”
She wasn’t really sure what to say next, so she just shut her trunk, leaning against the car.
They looked at each other for a moment before Jeff sighed. “You want help? Finding your- what, your boyfriend?”
“Ex boyfriend,” She corrected him, but she was so glad he asked. “And... fuck, yeah, probably.”
“Okay,” He turned on his heel, starting to march off towards the woods across the lot. “Come on.”
His house was, apparently, a ten minute walk through the tiny forest, on the shore of the lake. It was a tiny thing, but had a charm, like the rentals Natalie’s aunt would have paid a hundred bucks a night for. Jeff marched up, slamming open the apparently unlocked door, whipped his shoes off, and almost immediately got tackled to the ground by a huge husky.
Natalie stepped back as the dog howled and barked, slobbering all over the shouting teen.
“Get him off, fuck!” Jeff yelled, as the dog sunk its teeth into his hood and started whipping its head around, trying to shake the boy like a rag doll.
Natalie tentatively stepped forward, only for footsteps to thunder down the stairs, whipping around the corner.
The young man who darted in was freakishly large enough that he had absolutely no issue scooping the dog off Jeff, holding it under one arm like a football. He had long brown hair and a face dotted with acne scars that the dog happily licked at, its tail thwacking against the wall.
He didn’t say a word to either of them, although his eyes did linger on Natalie for a second as he brushed past her, grabbing a leash off the wall as he did.
“Fucking dick,” Jeff muttered. “Dude.”
“Was that your brother?” Natalie’s eyes were glued to the man’s back as he put the dog down, letting it sniff around as he attached the leash to its collar.
“Yeah.” Jeff groaned as he got to his feet. “You wanted to talk to him, right?”
Natalie didn’t answer, just stepped back outside, leaning against the railing of the porch. “Hey.”
The man glanced at her, and then at Jeff, hovering right behind her. “Hey.”
“You knew Toby Rogers?”
His eyes widened for a second, but the dog saw something and almost yanked him off his feet, and by the time he’d recovered, he’d gotten his face under control. “Yeah, we went to school together. Had a few classes together.”
“Were you friends?”
“Friend of a friend,” He shrugged a shoulder. “Why?”
“He’s missing.”
“I heard.”
She squinted at him. “Do you know anything about that?”
He glanced past her, at Jeff, who shrugged. “You a cop or something?”
“No,” She sighed, frustrated. “He’s my ex, and I think something bad happened.”
“What gave that away, the fact that he’s missing?” The man snarked. She glared at him, and his expression softened, but he didn’t say anything else, just shook his head.
“Tell her,” Jeff hissed. “Liu, tell her.”
Liu rolled his eyes. “He’s not the first to have gone missing.”
“...He’s not?”
“Two others have vanished in the last couple weeks. Both of them had left town, both were living good, normal lives. And then bam, they’re gone.”
She stared at him, in shock. “Any connection that you know of?”
“They were all friends in school, as far as I know. Or at least knew each other.” The dog was done pissing and sniffing around, and Liu tugged the leash until it turned to jog up the porch steps. The man paused, looking down at Natalie. He looked older than he should. “Your boyfriend must have gotten in a lot of shit.”
And with that, he swept inside, swinging the door shut behind him.
She stared at the door, almost oblivious to Jeff talking beside her.
Something was happening that she wasn’t really sure she understood, and, for the first time, she started to feel genuinely scared for Toby’s safety.