They had parked in front of a normal middle-class looking house, maybe on the upper-middle-class scale as it screamed ‘Tory’ to him. Baskets of flowers hung next to the door and a bike was parked on the porch, which was just asking to be stolen. As it was the evening, the sun had set, and Tommy had to admit that the little neighbour looked pretty in this light.

“So, where are we exactly?” Tommy asked as he exited the car.

“Snowchester.” Noticing the lack of snow, he frowned at her. “Historic name, it has nothing to do with the weather.”

“Don’t tell me this is another small town with its own lore,” he groaned, not wanting to be recruited into a cult again.

“I wouldn’t describe a Civil War during the 16th century as ‘lore’ but… yes, this town has an important history.”

“Isn’t that an Avenger’s movie?”

“Tommy stop stalling and come with me to the door.” He muttered very incriminating things under his breath but reluctantly followed Linda to probably his last destination during this lifetime. “Remember, be on your best behaviour.”

She knocked on the brown door and the silence disturbed him. Usually, Linda would carry on with her irritating speech about him not misbehaving, but for once, her mouth remained shut. If only she had been this way from the very beginning.

When the door opened, it took everything in Tommy to not burst out laughing. At first glance, the man behind the door looked like he’d beat the shit out of you if you breathed the wrong way. The dyed pink hair and glasses favored the ‘I’m an anime antagonist’ vibe Tommy got from them. But the Minecraft pig slippers on the man’s feet destroyed any fear Tommy felt for one second. This wasn’t an anime antagonist, it was just a buff nerd.

“You’re not an Amazon package,” the man said in the most monotone and American voice he had ever heard.

Tommy blinked at them, stumped. “You couldn’t fit me in a box anyway.”