POKE. Poke. Poke, poke. Poke. Poke!

Lou slapped Tess right across the wrist at the insistent nagging, tossing and turning on the old couch to try and get back to sleep. Lou was grabbed by her wrists and hauled upright, squinting and blinking as her eyes adjusted to the light. Being a master of manipulation and all that, Lou had actually managed to bag herself a day off of school! ...With the exception that she spent the day under the supervision of Tess and Joel, but a win was a win.

'You got milk?'

'Excuse you?'

'Over at your place. You have any milk? I need coffee.' She repeated slowly and louder, bordering on the edge of mocking the girl that sat in front of her. Lou looked at her, frazzled, and Tess opened her mouth again, but she was shut up by the teenager standing up and shuffling towards the door of the apartment.

'Uhm, I'll check.' She said tiredly before flinging the door open and taking five steps forward to her house. She didn't even bother to close either of the doors behind her, because it was only going to be a short journey anyway.

Their apartments weren't much different. Joel and Tess's was a little bit bigger, had more space in the living room. It was good, especially for today, because Lou liked to move around a lot. She could never really sit still apart from when she was asleep, which was what she was doing before she was so unceremoniously disturbed.

She passed through the kitchen, opened the door to the fridge, and closed it again when there was no milk. She tried to remember if she had accidentally used it all for her cereal and paced towards the table as if the carton would appear magically. She squatted and looked underneath the table, the post-sleep haze still messing up her mind and making her do stupid shit. Right now, if you told her that fairies were real, she totally would've gasped Kevin-Mcallister style and asked where to find one.

She sighed and stood back up, at the direct end of the hallway that led to the rest of her home. Inside her usually empty, she had never paused the retracing of her steps, which led her back to the mental image of her dad paused in front of the door, clattering around with his keys, opening the door and then closing it behind him.

After that, Lou went into a deep spiral of consideration while she ate her cornflakes and barely noticed her dad reentering the kitchen and kissing her goodbye with the empty promise that she would be in school on Monday.

The only reason Lou hadn't realized her dad had entered the room again was because she didn't hear the classic sound of the bedroom door's lock clicking shut behind him, echoing throughout the space.

Dad had left his bedroom, the one thing he actually used all of those years of stealth and training to protect, unlocked.

'What a fucking dork!' Lou gasped to herself, taking the opportunity of a lifetime and not even hesitating to walk down the hallway and head to the door at the end of the narrow corridor.

It was when she stood in front of it that she began to have second thoughts. She glared at the piece of worn-down wood like it had done something to her, and stuck her foot out in front of her to push at it. The thing didn't budge, and that was when Lou stepped forward and placed her palm against the door handle.

It was cold and it made her flinch. She realized how much of an idiot she probably looked like right now, and decided to just go for it.

Much to Lou's dismay, it was a normal bedroom. Seriously. Like, painfully normal. This is what she'd been waiting fifteen years to see?

The carpet felt like carpet, the walls looked like walls, and the bed was a pretty normal bed. For God's fucking sake.

No problem presented itself, so, Lou began to search for one.

Surely there was something in here. She looked through his bedside table and shuffled through old magazines, winkled letters, and polarized photos.

There had to be something in here. She dropped to her knees and peered under the freshly made bed, only to be met with darkness and dust and dirt.

Lou would not leave this room until she found something. She tipped each and every individual boot upside down, hoping the key to a secret lair would fall out.

Tess could come and drag her out. She threw pillows across the room to check underneath them.

Joel could wave a gun at her. She raised a lampshade above her head to inspect.

She would not leave. She walked towards the closet.

Bingo!

At the back and bottom of the tight space, below the identical-looking shirts and the outfits that were only brought out for funerals, weddings, and birthdays, was a big, black, suspicious suitcase. Normally, Lou would've shrugged it off, but ever since she stepped in here, it was like every other sense of hers had been heightened.

Eagerly, she dropped to her knees and felt around for the handle. She was buzzing with excitement. This was probably the most excited she had ever been in her whole entire life. With FEDRA owning everything and anything, she was barely ever able to get into trouble on her own accord, without causing an uproar or being locked up.

She eventually found the handle and tugged it with all of her strength. A cloud of dust followed it as it dragged across the carpet, but she didn't have time to cough or splutter (even though she did it anyway), she just needed to investigate.

So caught up in her investigation, Detective Lou Holmes had completely ignored the sound of Joel Miller stomping down the hallway in those big, bad boots of his.

'What the hell are you doing?' He demanded, standing in the doorway and peering down at the girl on the ground. Although the suitcase that lay unopened in front of her had also piqued his interest, Joel was the adult in this situation. 'You're not meant to be in here.'

'It's my house, Joel. Leave me alone.' She swiped her leg out in front of her in an attempt to kick the door shut right in his face, but it was a weak kick and he was also a combat veteran, so it didn't exactly work in her favour. The snappy answer and failed attempt had made him focus less on curiosity and more on the annoyance he was feeling.

'Yeah, boo-hoo. Get up, come on.' He took a step towards her, but she leapt back like she was about to be burned and got to her feet by herself. Like she had said earlier, Joel was spooky. A scary, mean man who cared for little things. Lou knew damn well that she wasn't a part of the small majority that Joel favoured, and she wasn't about to work her way up on the list of people he hated.

She stomped down the hallway, her sneakers not having the same intimidating thump that Joel's boots did, clearly angry but not bothering to say anything in case he gifted her a bullet between her eyes.

Joel watched as Lou walked down the landing and back into the kitchen, giving him a glare over her shoulder before walking through the open door in front of her and continuing back into the apartment across the hallway that she just left, all but slamming the door behind her.

Once he was certain she wasn't coming back, Joel took a few steps forward and knelt in front of the little, black suitcase to zip it back up. He spun it around so the zipper was facing him, and reached for it.

In the process of closing it, he began to wonder why Lou was even in there in the first place. Then, he remembered that the very few times Tess and Joel were invited over by the antisocial man himself, Ralph, that door always happened to be locked. Joel wasn't the one to discover it, Tess was. She was poking her nose where it didn't belong on the way back from a trip to the bathroom and came to the strange realization that every door was unlocked apart from that one.

Joel had warned her about minding her business, even though he knew Tess would probably be alright without his advice, and didn't think about it ever again. Until now.

I mean, wouldn't it help to put Tess's mind at ease? To stop her from thinking that their sweet little single-father neighbour who always brought over cookies when he made them was a serial killer?

Also, maybe it could be a cool bonding initiative. Maybe this sketchy, dusty, eerie suitcase that felt like it was glaring at him was full of stuff pertaining to a certain interest of Ralph's and Joel could finally make friends with the skittish man.

Also also, maybe Joel was just nosey.

Hesitantly, Joel reached for the zipper again.

Woah.

Maybe Tess was right.

...

NOTES!
ralph what are u hiding u cheeky wee rascal

LOU IS SO SILLY I LOVE HER!!!
her anf joel r such a weird duo but i stilk love them

ELLIE IS INTRODUCED NEXT CHAPTER!1!!!!! HOORAAYYYYYY
cant wait for her and lou to be the best sister duo ever

and i cant wait for the Apocalypse Dads™ arc to finally begin!! joel and ralph r gonna be so cute when they start being nice to eachother!!!!!!

I HAVENT PROOFREAD THIS!!!
there r definitely gonna be mistakes but until i correct them, just pretend they arent there x

episode three is releasing tomorrow yipee!!

okah okay ill shut up now bye bye