"What do you recommend here?" Raymundo glanced over the top of his menu. John lowered his own enough to look back at him.
"The garlic burger is always good." The young man answered before ducking back behind the laminated paper.
"It's not for the faint of heart." Emily added. She sat next to John on the red vinyl bench, no menu at all. She was folding the little scrap of paper that once held the napkin around the silverware.
"Why does this herb garlic come in so many forms? Minced, powder, roasted, and mixed into this aioli topping thing for the burger." Lucky placed the menu on the table. "What purpose does this food serve?"
"Flavor." Emily shrugged. "And keeping vampires away." She smirked a little.
"Those are human myth, are they not?”
“Well, alien shape shifters turned out to be real.” Emily leaned into John while Lucky tried to shush her. “Why not vampires?”
“Settle down.” Raymundo muttered.
“I did not-” Lucky started to protest until their waitress stopped by. Everyone ended up ordering the garlic burger. “Start it.” Lucky mumbled after the waitress’ departure. They huffed and then faced John as he took a sip of his coke. “Do you know any of the whos who have taken Skylar.”
John slowly blinked. Glancing at Emily, who held her arms crossed in front of her, he sighed. “Well, kind of.”
“Kind of?” Emily hissed. “You’re dating his daughter!”
“Dated.” John corrected with a scowl.
“Whatever. You know the man’s name, and where he lives.” Emily pointed towards Lucky, the edge of her hand sending the tiny folded square partway across the table. “The shape shifter could easily follow him and find Skylar.”
“That is not a bad idea Emily.” Lucky smirked. “So give me his name and address.”
John looked down, running his thumb along the condensation on his glass. “You don’t plan on hurting anyone right?”
“I can assure you, I plan to do this as peacefully as possible.”
“Stop stalling.” Emily sighed. “I promised I wouldn’t do anything reckless. If you continue to debate whether telling Skylar’s parent how to find them is the right thing to do, I will hit you with my cane and then follow Hannah’s father myself.”
“Good luck with that.” John mumbled, earning him a swat on the arm from Emily.
“Fine. Robert Schular. Works for the government. Used his daughter Hannah to lure Skylar into a trap of sorts.” John unrolled his napkin, silverware clanging against each other and clattering on the wooden table. He took a pen from Raymundo’s shirt before the man could react. “Here’s his address.” The ink soaked into the uneven paper, perfectly disguising John’s handwriting.
“Thanks.” Raymundo took the napkin and his pen back.
“Just, try not to invade Earth once you end Qwortar’s famine.”
“Promise.” Lucky smiled. John didn’t look, but he would have been happy to see it was a perfectly normal smile, no extra teeth in sight.
Word count: 494
