4338.206 · July 25, 2018 AD
The Bunnings Run
A hardware store should be the simplest part of the day. Get concrete instructions. Meet your sister. Load the truck. Leave. But simplicity died hours ago with Joel. Now there's a clerk who won't cooperate, a sister who won't wait, and a man in the shadows who shouldn't be there. When he vanishes, the dread doesn't. And when Leigh's message arrives—urgent, demanding, cryptic—Beatrix realises the errands are far from over.
Bunnings. Concrete instructions. Two pages that become a battle of policy and patience.
By the time Beatrix escapes the special service counter, Gladys is gone. Already at the truck. Already behind the wheel.
Beatrix is about to argue—about to reclaim what's hers—when something stops her cold. A figure. Tall. Still. Watching from the corner of the building with an intensity that doesn't belong in a hardware store car park.
A van passes. He's gone.
Paranoia or reality? There's no time to decide. Her phone buzzes. Leigh. Not the meeting she expected. Something worse.
Package on your bed. Needs delivery. Address coming.
The shelves are loaded. The concrete instructions crumpled in her hand. But the day isn't done with her yet.
Not even close.
