Sister

“Here’s your order, cowgirl! That’ll be nine-hundred ninety nine, ninety nine.”

Cheryl had deduced that the Large Fries at the local Fry Caravan had the highest price-to-calorie ratio in the whole park.

“And here’s your vita-pills.”

Saving the nutrients in an old canister, she stored the rations inside her cooler and walked on to find him. Work had been hard today. Yesterday was a frenzy- tokens coming in left and right, idiots lining up to try her aim- maybe everyone got the memo by now. Rumors spread fast with so many people around. Hell, she was probably the talk of the town after how many suckers she beat yesterday.

That’s kinda funny, she thought. But she shook the excitement out of her head in a second. She didn’t want to be famous. Nobody would bet against someone they knew they wouldn’t beat. Unless… she could market herself as some kind of challenge, someone you couldn’t win against no matter how hard you try. She was sure plenty of dumb guys would try their luck at that. A plan for another day, perhaps.

He wasn’t in the area she told him to be. Cheryl’s brother was small, but with her keen senses, easy to spot even in a crowd. If he was here, she’d know- and the boy didn’t disobey. So why wasn’t he here? What the hell else did he have to do?

She stopped in place for a moment.

Saint wouldn’t disobey. Saint wouldn’t leave here. Therefore, something had to have happened to him.

She bolted down the road. If only I had a gun, she thought. Cheryl wanted her gun.

People were pushed aside as she hurried to her first guess at where he might’ve gone, or been taken to. The crowds were heaviest up north this way and to the carousel. It was statistically vastly more likely that he’d be here than anywhere else in the park.

She skidded to a halt.

Cheryl finally breathed. Sure enough, he was there- on a carousel, just riding along. Only, he didn’t look right. Not how he normally does. The boy was smiling today.

Her confusion quickly turned to anger when she saw the woman beside him whispering to him. That dark-haired girl she’d seen last night beside the dumbass she beat was talking to her brother, leading him. Manipulating him.

Cheryl approached the ride. She picked up a pointy rock from the sand. Steady aim wasn’t only a skill useful for firearms. 

But before she could even come into range, a calamity broke out atop the attraction, just behind the little brother she’d so keenly focused on- a man, twice her size, leapt at the same blonde girl she previously outshot, instigating a chase that quickly led off the ride.

She turned back to her brother, but now he was looking back at her. No- not at her. Rather, the man chasing the girl. He looked terrified.

He looked terrified.

Cheryl stuck her leg back and twisted the rock through the air, watching it crack against the pursuer’s hairdo. He collapsed to the ground instantaneously, and the blonde was left panting.