"It's not here either," Yuri said. That boulder crushing his stomach and advancing on his ribs only growing as doubt had given way to way to the fullness of its prophecy as they got closer to the bench, in the once-crowded, now empty, thoroughfare. Empty now and no one milling about, no conversations, and the bench was sitting there empty in the street. The night closing on them quickly and he still hadn't managed to find where he'd lost Victor's bag of nuts.

He couldn't even remember exactly when he'd last seen it. Sometime earlier? Sometime before he was being poked and prodded and absolutely praying to melt into his shoes as people with measuring tapes measured parts of his body no one ever needed to have their hands on. Still. It hadn't been terrible -- even if Yuri had nearly choked at the price -- which seemed to only make it even more terrible and more fitting that he'd fail at something right after.

It hadn't been in the store anywhere near where the bags had been deposited, and not it wasn't here either.