With his withdrawn younger sister.

Depending on how one looked at it, one could say that Leon and his 18 year old sister Jessie had no relationship whatsoever. There were family photos tucked away in a dusty album somewhere that showed them playing happily together when they were little kids with the whole world ahead of them, but those times were long gone.

During his early teen years, their lack of a sibling bond hadn’t bothered him much at all. He was going through the trials and tribulations of puberty and was so **** to fit in somewhere that his rambunctious little sister was the last thing on his mind. But over the past year or so, their missing relationship began to bother him. Until now he didn't have the confidence to try to do anything about it, but with the System at his side there was no better time than the present.

The first obstacle was trying to find her. Jessica flitted from place to place like a phantom, always waiting to appear until their mom was passed out and their dad wasn't home. It was a mystery where she spent those unseen moments, because she had no friends or boyfriends to speak of. In a lot of ways, her loneliness was a reflection of his own. So similar to one another, but perpetually separated by a wall of cold, clear glass. Now the Chronicle System would help him demolish the wicked glass between them and finally allow him to have a sister again.

In the small humdrum town of Navarre, Florida, there were only so many places she could go. The first place he thought of was right next door to the Fairchilds’ house. A tall chain-link fence there separated their culdesac from a public play park. The park was a novelty at best, because very few children lived anywhere near Navarre, and the unfortunate ones who did probably spent all summer avoiding the muggy outside air.

All he had to go on was one moth-eaten memory that lie tucked away in some musty corner of brain.

It must have been about ten years ago, when they lived in Iowa. Long before their big move to the Sunshine State. One evening, Jessie and their Dad had some huge argument that ended up sending her sprinting from the house in a salty rain of tears, swearing never to come back. Mom, Dad, and himself spent hours searching the neighborhood, worried sick that something would happen to her if it hadn't already.

Mom had already checked the nearby park with the small white gazebo, but when Leon stopped to rest under its painted white roof, he kept hearing the faint rustling of paper coming from somewhere nearby. Eventually, he crouched down and looked under the bench he'd been sitting on, only to find Jessica peeking out at him. Dried tears lined her little face, the paper noises he'd been hearing clearly coming from the Goosebumps book clutched in her hands. She put a finger against his lips, a signal not to tell anyone he'd found her.

Of course that wasn't an option, so he shouted at the top of his boy sized lungs for his parents so that Jessie wouldn't run off and try to conceal herself in an even better hiding spot. They heard him calling soon enough, and by the time their dad got there Jessie had started crying again. He hefted her up so she could straddle his shoulders, and spent the walk home trying to repair the damage of whatever fight they'd had with promises of a bigger allowance or prettier clothes. Leon, being the good child who'd dutifully found and ratted out his sister, got none of those things.

Well, it just so happened that this play park on the other side of the Fairchild's house had an old gazebo situated on the end of a small pier there. The salt of the sea had done a fair share of damage to it, but he wondered if her old habits might've led her there all the same. It was all he had to go on, so he decided to check it out. Staking out the hall and trying to catch her wraithlike appearances at home could take days.

He prepared himself before heading out, taking a shower so she wouldn't smell him coming, eating a quick snack in case he ended up looking around outside for her for longer than he expected, and slinging his camera case over his shoulder so he'd be able to register her to the Chronicle System, and headed towards the park just as night started to fall.