She is not bad

Chapter 72 : Search

Jane's search seemed endless. Hopper and Joyce were waking up from another night in the city in the hotel they were staying in. Both were struggling to sleep at night, sometimes they were continuing their search when they couldn't fall asleep.

Now, another day was beginning. They both barely slept. They grabbed some pieces of toasts and returned in the streets. They tried many places welcoming homeless people, but none of them had seen Jane. So, now, they were trying in the streets directly. They had covered the half of the city and were beginning the other half. With a bit luck, Jane was there. Sadly, most of them were not very cooperating. They refused to answer them and even yelled at them to go away. But they didn't give up. After two long hours, a man agreed to help them. When Hopper showed him the picture, he recognized her.

- "It's Jane, yes."

- "Do you know where she is?" Joyce asked, feeling hope again.

- "No. She was here two weeks ago. She was crying, so I gave her a little bit of my soup, to warm her up. It's hard to sleep outside with temperatures like that."

- "Yeah, um, we're sorry."

- "This is not your fault. Jane stayed here a few days. She didn't really talk. She just said that she did something bad. I don't know what it is."

- "Do you know where she could be now?"

- "No. She just left one day. She was spending some time in the public toilets of the park. This is where teens deal their drugs. She was probably finding her happiness there."

- "Okay. Thank you."

- "Hey, um, whatever she did, go easy on her, okay? She is young and scared; I don't think a punishment will help her."

- "We just wanna take her back home."

Joyce and Hopper walked away in direction of the park. Joyce really hoped Jane didn't find new drugs to be addicted to. And what did she do? There was nothing in her room except her broken night-light. Maybe it had something to do with her months in prison. Maybe...no, no, Jane was innocent, she wasn't feeling guilty for that. It had probably had nothing to do with that.

The couple went to the park and followed the signs to find the toilets. They went downstairs and entered the boys' toilets. The place was dirty, and the toilets were broken. They didn't stay, not supporting the smell, and entered the girls' toilets. It wasn't better than the boys', but, at least, the toilets were not broken. Hopper opened the three doors, but there was no one here. Hopper punched a door of frustration before giving the picture of Jane to Joyce and wetting his face to calm down. They found themselves back at square one.

- "Are you okay?" Joyce asked with a concerned tone.

- "Yeah," he sighed, looking at his reflect in the mirror.

- "She is not far. I can feel it. We can't give up now."

- "I'm not giving up. I'm just...tired."

- "I understand."

Joyce rubbed her other half's back, feeling sad too. They were about to continue when a man entered the girls' bathroom. He froze and frowned before wide opening his eyes when he saw the picture in Joyce's hand. The man tried to run away, but Hopper went after him, grabbed him by his jacket, and brutally threw him in the girls' toilets before blocking the door behind him. He grabbed the man by his collar and blocked him against the wall, placing the picture of Jane close to his face.

- "Do you know her!? DO YOU KNOW HER!?"

- "I don't want problems!" the man answered with a panicked tone.