Finder

I never realised my ability to find things was anything more than just being observant. I feel I’ve always had the ability, lost keys? Found within a minute. Neighbour’s lost dog? Less than an hour. For years it was just a thing, ‘yeah, Nathan is good at finding things,’ people said. Then puberty hit … that’s when things really changed. Other guys at school started showing off little wisps of chin hair or their slightly deeper voice. I went home one Friday how I’d looked for years. By Monday I had a full beard, and thick hair coating my arms and legs.

We saw doctors and specialists, no one could explain it, within a year I’d sprouted a tail, my ears had grown, and I was a strange human-dog hybrid … so I started being home-schooled, my dad left, and mum did her best, but people talked and made comments. However I got even better at finding things than ever before. I saw a news article about a missing child, and I found them within a week. No scent, I just thought about them, and instinct took over.

Last week after the big fight in the city between the hero Kismet and the terrifying Incarnate, who actually managed to hurt the city’s hero. There was a knock at the door, and a tall, Latina woman with short white hair, she was in a fine pinstripe suit, and smelled like lavender.

‘Nathan Tucker?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, keeping my hoodie up to hide my face.

‘I have a job for you, I need you to locate someone for me,’ she said. ‘We’ll pay you well, your code-name: Finder.'

She handed me a check, my eyes widened at the number.

‘Who?’

‘What do you know about that fatality at the subway last month?'