+ 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐠𝐨 + Tommyinnit x OC

+ Prologue +

Tommy sighed, hot air sinking into his skin and sending throbbing into his skull. The blistering heat, 25 degrees that seemed to light his very lungs on fire with discomfort and dehydration. Clammy hands reached into his pocket, and he pulled his phone out of his jeans.

No battery.

"Fuck."

Tommy cursed, looking up and around him. Not a single building around him looked familiar at all. Not in the slightest. The only thing he knew in that moment was that he was in Chicago, Illinois. That was about as much help as a wooden frying pan.

Icy blue eyes looked around frantically. People walked past without a care in the world. What on Earth was he supposed to do?

He hummed nervously and decided to walk around in an attempt to find someone, anyone, that would be willing to help him out. Nothing seemed friendly at all. From the weather to the people-

A leash-less chihuahua jumped at his ankles with as ferocious of a snarl as it could possibly muster with its small size.

Even the animals.

Eventually the owner of the chihuahua came by, scooping up their vicious little bean and scoffing at Tommy. She muttered something along the lines of 'Tourists...' and stalked off, clutching her dog.

Why was Tommy in Chicago, you might ask? Well, he was supposed to have a connecting flight to go to California, to visit some friends. However, the connecting flight got cancelled, and the airport didn't have any replacement flights to take him to California. 

So, he was left, stranded, on the opposite side of an entire fucking continent, with absolutely zero idea of how on Earth he was going to make it out of here to California, or even back to Brighton. 

His feet carried him off in some random direction. He glanced at passing shops, but most of them were closed. It was Sunday, after all. And this was America. Most of the stuff that was open didn't have service. He poked his head into one shop that was selling goods.

"Hey, I was wondering if you guys had a phone I could borrow. Mine's dead."

Tommy asked in a nervous tone. The woman at the counter just scowled at him with annoyed look on her face.

"Look, I don't care if you're faking a British accent to seem like a tourist, or if you've dyed to pretend to be a blondie. You and your scams can go fuck off and bother some other business."

The woman snapped in a harsh tone of voice, shooing him out of the store. Tommy just sighed, shaking his head and continuing to walk down the street. He asked locals for help, but nobody ever really responded, they just looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language and continued walking.

He peaked into a few more stores, and every single time they assumed that he was a scammer looking to steal someone's phone. The scorching heat was starting to feel worse and worse as the sun continued to rise higher and higher into the sky. Who would've thought that a city so far North could get so uncomfortably hot?

Eventually, he set his sights on a small perfume shop at the end of this little market square. He jogged over to it, hoping and wishing that it would be open.

Clammy hands reached out and grasped the metal handle of the shop door, and he opened it to be greeted with a blast of cold air. Air conditioning.

He shut the door behind him quickly, hearing the friendly tintinnabulation of a little bell as it rang from the movement of the door he had just opened. A woman's voice echoed from behind the counter.

"You're welcome to look around! I'll be back on the floor in a few minutes to help you if you need me!"

Great... this girl didn't sound terribly friendly either. She sounded just as snappy as every other local he had run into so far. But she was also kind of his last hope. He didn't really have an idea of where to go if this girl turned him down.

Looking at perfume never hurt anyone...

Tommy thought, walking over to the men's section. It smelled better than he expected. It was organized rather well. 

Citrus Heights, Coffee Shop Hopper, Old Timey Blimey-

That one earned a snicker-

But the second that really caught his eye was called "Ghosts of Chicago".

His gaze scanned over some of the kinds of bottles that were stocked on the shelves of that section. They were in a rainbow gradient, which was nice to look at.

"Big Red" which smelled like oil, metal, and like how the train stations smelled back in Britain.

"Orange Wine" which smelled like a sourer kind of beer or cider.

"Yellow Fall" which was probably his favorite. It smelled like fall. It had warmer hints of pumpkin, yet at the same time had this smell of oncoming snow and slight hints of dust. 

"Chicago River" The bottle of it was bright green, but not exactly a good green. It smelled vaguely like street food and sort of like the smell of a river. Not the greatest...

"Lake Michigan" Was a more relaxed tone of blue, it smelled almost exactly like how the beaches smelled in Brighton. It was familiar, sharp, cold, and a little bit less salty than Brighton's beaches.

"The Bean" Was so grey it almost wasn't even purple. It smelled like... well... it was hard to describe. It smelled like a new memory foam pillow.

"Are you needing anything in particular, or are you just glancing around?"

Tommy jumped and almost dropped the bottle he had in his hands. When he turned around and glanced down to see who was talking to him, it was the same young woman from behind the counter.

She had very light brunette hair, and sharp green eyes that looked like they could cut straight through diamonds without a problem.

"Oh- Uh, hi. I was wondering if I could have your phone?"

Tommy, you are a fucking idiot, why did you word it like you were robbing her-

He internally cursed himself.

The girl raised her eyebrows and squinted at him. Not like she was offended, but more like she was concerned for his mental well-being.

"Excuse me?"

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Very short prologue completed. I promise normal chapters will be three times as long, but this prologue had a very specific idea for it, and I didn't need that many words to make it into what I wanted it to be. Expect a 3000-word bare minimum for most of these chapters.

Word count: 1086

I'm excited to see how this fic is going to turn out.

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