What Happened In Praia de Luz? // tom harlock ✅

Section Three: Repression

The screen of Lilli's phone had only one portion left, right in the center, that wasn't cracked. If Tom had to guess, he'd say that it had been thrown out of the window of some car or van. The only thing he couldn't deduce was how long he'd laid in the middle of the dirt road, staring up at the sun that kept getting lower and lower in the sky, until a group of locals dragged him out of the way of an oncoming car.

When Tom finally regained his senses a minute later, he was in the back room of a bar. "Agua." Tom said, before he remembered that they don't speak Spanish in Portugal. "Does anyone speak English?"

One of the men who was standing over him nodded. "You want water?"

"Lemonade, actually." Tom said, and the man left for a moment, returning with a glass a minute later. Tom drank it in less than a minute, and then asked for more. Another man went and got it for him, and the man who spoke English stayed.

"What's your name?" The man asked.

"Tom Harlock." He said.

"I'm John." The man said. "Why were you in the middle of the road?"

"My niece was abducted this morning. I'm looking for her. Her name is Lilli." Tom got out his phone and showed everyone in the room a picture of the two of them. John spoke in Portuguese to the rest of the men, and they left, shutting the door behind them.

"I think I know what happened to her." He said quietly. "Dead End took her."

---

Despite the fact that Tom has done some sketchy things in his life, he never thought that he'd end up at a trap house looking for information on a gang who kidnaps children for their sex trafficking business. Tom didn't even know if he was supposed to call it a business. A sex trafficking ring? That sounds better. Business was too formal. That made it sound like they had a CEO and a crotchety secretary. To be honest, Tom would be the one working in the mail room, blissfully unaware that the organization that he worked for was really a sex trafficking ring.

Tom also thought it was weird that he was the only person in the house who probably wasn't doing drugs, and he made a mental note to call the police or something after he found Lilli. "What do you want?" Someone finally came up to him, as he sat on the cheeto-covered futon in his jean jacket, just now realizing that his camera has been in his pocket the whole time. "Oh my god, you're that British guy. The viner."

"No." Tom said, without realizing that this man was right.

"Yeah you are. You're a Youtuber now too. Man, you're huge in the crackhead community. Just joking, although it's most likely true." Tom thought back to all of the times that he had been called a meth head, even though he wasn't. That moment felt very similar to this moment. That guy then called over some of his friends, introducing them to Tom as if the two of them had been friends their whole lives.

Tom felt like a celebrity. He actually felt like that one meme, where it starts with someone getting ten likes on a selfie, and then them asking google where celebrities can eat free. Yeah. Tom felt like that meme.

"Let's go outside for a smoke." The original guy said.

"I don't do crack." Tom said.

"I mean a cigarette." The guy said, and Tom named him Leonardo in his head. He also pulled out a pack of cigarettes and the group pulled Tom outside, asking him questions nonstop.

"Why are you in Portugal?" Leonardo asked.

"Why do you speak English?" Tom fired back. "This is Portugal."

"We're a tourist town. Most of us work in tourist businesses. So we speak English. The language of the world, it seems. Why are you in Portugal?"

"To find Madeleine McCann, go to a Harry Styles concert, and now to find my niece because she was kidnapped this morning."

"Wait, really?" The guys all got silent, including the extroverted Leonardo.

"Yeah. I wouldn't joke about this. These guys at the bar told me it was Dead End. A sex trafficking group."

"Eek." Leonardo gasps. "They are bad news. Your niece is gone."

"Not an option. Seems like this venture was pointless, then. Going back to that bar now." Tom began to walk away, but Leonardo caught his arm, and they looked dead into each other's eyes.

"It wasn't pointless. We'll help you. As long as we get a shout out in your next video." The group confirmed Leonardo's statement, and Tom rolled his eyes.

Then, he let out a small sigh before continuing. "How can you help me, though?" 

A/N: Leave a comment if you're liking this so far, or vote if you're feeling so kind. Honestly I can't believe I wrote most of this in one day, and it's semi-decent so...

-Kate^-^