"She couldn't help thinkin' that there
Was a little more to life
Somewhere else

After all, it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to"

"Your total will be eight dollars and seventy-five cents. Ma'am?"

"Eh? Oh, yeah, right."

She reached into the pocket of her sleek black leather jacket and pulled out a pastel-pink wallet, adorned with tacky flowers made of tiny fake plastic jewels. Flipping it open with one hand, she smirked down at the face on the driver's license inside, protected by a thin film of plastic.

Luisanne Parker. What a shame.

Finely-combed golden hair flowing behind her, kept healthy with the priciest conditioner and products on the market. Vibrant yet cool jade eyes from behind a pair of dark-framed and rectangular high-brand name glasses, giving off a strong air of "business." What a shame.

Skin smooth as silk, pale, yet slightly sun-kissed from the occasional healthy sunbathing on the beach during longer vacations or on her rooftop on weekends. A masterfully hand-crafted navy-blue jacket as part of a pricey three-piece suit, fitting her form perfectly. A strict vegetarian diet to keep her body fit and skinny, so that she would not need to get her expensive suit re-fitted. What a shame.

She had her life together. A personal secretary for a big-shot CEO, or the head of the Human Resources department for a massive insurance company, or working in a large law firm. She would never have to worry about missing a meal, or sleeping in the cold or the dark from failing to pay her bills. Her children, if she ever decided to have any, would live wealthy and successful lives, and so would her children's children.

She was perfect. She was whole. What a shame.

What a shame, that Valleri Crowes would never be perfect like the woman she swiped this wallet from.

Valleri reached into the wallet and flipped through the bills, looking for a ten. Couple twenties, a few fifties… Even some Franklins. Damn, she struck good with this one. Finally, she pulled out two fives and forked them over to the cashier.

July, 1990. Summer in L.A.

In the summer, the days seem to blend together, as with the weeks, and the months. But there was at least one way to tell the date, and that was the heat.

June heat was uncomfortable. It settled over the city, weighing heavy on the air like a blanket that was far too thick, making everyone's shirts wet with sweat just by standing outside. It was a firm, yet steady heat. But June heat felt less hot so much as it felt heavy. It dragged everyone and everything down with it, making the knees want to buckle as you fell to the floor and melted in the pavement, seeping through the cracks and dripping deep into the Earth.

July heat, on the other hand, was sharp and active. It kicked the soul into high-gear, everything just seemed to move faster. Maybe it was the thought of August creeping up and the summer soon coming to a close, but everything had more life with the July heat whipping down from above.

All the action was draining, though. She could use a cool-down.

Which is why she was using the large sum of money in this stolen wallet for buying ice cream.

Double-scoop cookies-and-cream with mango sorbet, drenched in a thick helping of caramel sauce. As much as she would like a cone, the July heat would not allow it, so the concoction was kept in a paper cup to at least keep it contained as it inevitably melted into mush. Valleri supposed she was still a child at heart as she took the large paper bowl from the vendor.

Delicious.

She took to devouring spoonful after spoonful, relishing in the taste as she went on her way. A good treat to beat the heat as she went about her business. It really was great ice cream. Even if she had essentially stolen it.

Valleri was a person who lived as a leech from others. Almost everything she had owned was stolen. Either she stole it, or paid for it with stolen money. Food, bills, rent, tickets for public transport, the clothes on her back. The only exception she could think of was her black biker's jacket, which she had, in fact, worked for and paid for herself, legally.

She didn't own a car or bike. Too big, too easy to track, too hard to get away with. Which was fine. She could get anywhere she wanted just by walking.

The streets were more crowded than usual today. Probably some dumb city event. Plenty of fat bigwigs and pompous women in expensive furs. Valleri wasn't dumb enough to try stealing from people with that kind of power, but God, would she love to. She'd always hated the rich and powerful, people who saw themselves as superior for the number in their bank, or the brand of clothes they wore, or their fancy job title, or how many friends they had in government. People who acted like their shit didn't stink.

Whatever. Those people had everything to lose. All she had to lose was her jacket.

In her thoughts, Valleri wasn't watching where she was walking, and accidentally ran straight into someone in the middle of a crosswalk.

The light-up sign still had the white walking figure.

Valleri tripped and hit the ground, the remains of her ice cream splattered across the pavement. Damn. Well, she could always buy more. She glanced up at the man she bumped into.

His face was obscured by dark sunglasses, and his hair was disheveled and dirty. He donned what once might've been a beautiful snow-white three-piece suit, but the pure colors had since faded into a repulsive yellow and brown from years of wear. It was also heavily stained across the chest in orange, brown and white from Valleri's ice cream.

"S-shit," she stammered. Just get out. "Sorry, I can, ah…" What the hell were you supposed to do when your food spilled on someone else's clothes, anyway? She didn't have anything to dab it up with, and that wouldn't clean it off, either. Was she supposed to pay him or something?

The man said nothing.

The crosswalk signs turned orange.

50 seconds.

"Hey." The man's voice was like a devil's. Warm as fresh-baked bread and soothing as a warm bath, yet with the grittiness of a smoker and the edge of a butcher's knife. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"A-ahaha," Valleri laughed nervously. Of all the people she could've bumped into, she was lucky it wasn't someone who'd kill her over it. "S-Sorry, anyway, er… can I pay you back, or…?"

"It's nothing, really. It's nothing at all."

The man smiled, and Valleri had to do a double-take, because her ice cream had vanished from the man's suit, not a trace left.

"Believe me. It's nothing. Don't even worry about it."

The man reached into his coat, giving Valleri a view of the butt of a handgun.

It was a beautiful gun. A large revolver of stainless steel, clearly cared for and articulately maintained. The July sun glinted off of its polished silver sheen, locking her in place. She was barely even able to draw a breath, completely in awe and terror as the man leveled the gun's barrel straight at her.

There was no getting out of this.

30 seconds.

"No, trust me, I swear. It's nothing. There's nothing. It's nothing at all," The man kept droning, face expressionless. Was he insane?

She shakily raised a hand. "H-H-Hey, t-there's no need for that, r-" she gulped. "R-right?"

He cocked the gun's hammer with a petrifying click.

20 seconds.

Valleri looked around. Nobody was looking. Even the cars just a few feet away, waiting for the crosswalk timer to be up and the light to turn green didn't react to the scene of her being held at gunpoint by an apathetic individual.

Was he insane? Was she insane?

15 seconds.

Valleri's fight or flight response kicked in, and of course her arrogant ass had to pick "fight".

She shot forth from her crouch on the burning pavement and went to tackle the man's legs. Her ears rang when the man fired the gun off, but missed. He and Valleri went falling back onto the pavement again, and in his surprise, his grip on the revolver loosened.

Valleri reflexively grasped it, feeling the warm butt of the gun in her palm.

10 seconds.

She scrambled to her feet. The man tried to follow her.

5 seconds.

In terror, adrenaline rushing to her head, she raised the gun and fired.

Bam.

The lights turned green as the pavement was painted red, and none of the cars felt like moving.

A child stared in curiosity and fear, before a terrified mother screamed and covered his eyes. A grown man stopped where he was, dropped his suitcase on the sidewalk, and vomited. A man in a car picked up his bulky phone, and judging by his panicked tone, had called the police. Some people were running. One car panicked and floored it, screeching through the intersection to flee, nearly hitting Valleri.

Valleri's eyes lost focus as they tried to flicker back and forth between the gun in her hands and the body on the ground.

She'd just shot someone. In broad daylight, in the middle of a busy intersection.

As much as she was every bit a master thief, the last thing Valleri had ever expected to steal was a life.

The next thirty minutes were a blur in her mind. She was drunk off of adrenaline, her body and mind refusing to think clearly. She'd ran, pointed the gun in someone's face, and got inside of a car. She'd driven somewhere, breaking speed limit after speed limit. Somewhere out of the city, somewhere far away, somewhere she'd never have to think again.

Into a forest. Into the dark.

A dirt and gravel path.

Where the treeline bent and warped like an animal's maw. Where there was no up or down, no left or right, either go back and face your crimes or go forward into the unknown.

Where nothing was real. Where nothing really mattered anymore.

Where all things in this world twisted,

turned,

fell,

until

they hit

a

vanishing point.

...

...

Lou was starting to hate this stupid job.

When he signed up for the guard, he thought it'd mean working in the city, with other guards, hunting down and catching criminals and outlaws. Instead, here he was, on the edge of nowhere at all.

Why did Hallownest need guards on its border, anyway? It wasn't like there was anything else outside of these borders. Nothing but mindless roamers and savages.

And this outfit. It was awful. The armor was heavy and clunky and his lance was so poorly designed. The blade was longer than the handle, so much so that there was no comfortable way to carry it. If he tried to rest it on the ground by its hilt, he'd be grabbing at the blade. If he rested it by the blade, he'd still be grabbing it by the blade, unless he reached his arm up uncomfortably high.

He sighed, and sat down on a rock ledge. The Howling Cliffs were so empty. The most interesting thing around here was that hick town Dirtmouth, where like, twelve people lived. He couldn't understand why more than zero people lived there; it was windy, it was cold, it was dark and bleak and dirty. The City of Tears was louder, yes, but it was just objectively better.

This place was quiet. Too quiet.

CRAASH!

Okay, maybe not that quiet.

Lou jumped in surprise from the noise of the explosion. What in the Wyrm's name was that?! He leapt up, wings on his back fluttering wildly as he shot up in the air to investigate.

Not too far away, he could see the orange glow of fire, and a large plume of smoke rising up from it. He shot towards it as fast as he could.

Or he would've, if this stupid armor wasn't so heavy-!

Lou froze. Slowly, he settled down to the ground, holding his lance as best as he could.

What… what was this thing?

Whatever it was, it was clearly broken. It was a large box of warped metal, with fire and smoke rising haphazardly from the front, where it had apparently collided with an old tree. Lou was no detective, but he guessed that it was some kind of machine for transportation, judging by the four metal wheels around the machine, as well as the very clear path of destruction it had waged across the wasteland behind it.

The machine had large holes in it, windows, he could guess from the remains of broken glass around the edges. Peering inside, he could see what looked like seats, covered in some unknown material. Looked pretty comfy, aside from the shards of broken glass dusting them.

What was this thing? How'd it get here? Maybe he could-

click

Oh. He'd opened it.

Apparently, that small silver thing on the side of the vehicle was a handle. Pulling it open, careful not to cut himself on the glass shards or torn metal, he peered into the darkness within the box, illuminated only by the warm glow of the fire.

The inside of the vehicle looked complicated. Something resembling a wheel, but other than that, he couldn't even begin to guess what the other parts of the vehicle were meant to do.

One thing was painfully clear to him, though.

The vehicle was empty.

Whatever or whoever had crashed it into this tree was gone.

Story name is a reference to Midnight Rider by Gregg Allman.
Chapter title and beginning notes are a reference to American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Other musical references in this chapter include:
Valleri by the Monkees
The Black Crowes(artist)
Lou Reed(artist)

Two days, two new chapters! How about that, after over a month of silence?

Some words from my co-author, Piston24:

"Heya! Welcome to Ethnoentomology's first (and probably only) side story! There isn't exactly much else to say on the matter, except that this story will be updated much less frequently than main one: maybe a new chapter for this one every once in a while, depending on circumstances and how far we are in writing the main story. Because after all, this story shares more with Ethnoentomology than just the name. Thanks for reading!"

As you can tell, this is a prequel to the main Ethnoentomology story, set while Hallownest is still standing before the Infection. It does have important ties to the main story, though we won't be revealing exactly what they are just yet!

This is a much shorter chapter than usual, but that's okay. There'll be much more to come! As Piston said, however, the main story will be our main focus, and we won't be updating this quite as much. Also, our ideas and plans for this story aren't quite concrete yet, so some things might move around or change as this goes on.

We're curious to see what speculation you might come up with for this story, and how it links back to the main story! Please leave a review, and thanks for reading!