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vanoincidence · 23 days

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Z for Zinnia! || Van & Thea

TIMING: april 18. LOCATION: the common. PARTIES: @notstinky & @vanoincidence SUMMARY: van runs into thea after buying zinnias (and leaving her message on read), which most definitely are not for her! CONTENT WARNINGS: none!

It was easier to pretend that her whole life hadn’t exploded upon impact rather than to let the feelings and thoughts about it fester. She wasn’t sure if going out was a great idea considering the cabin had acted as a safe haven, but she was beginning to grow stir crazy, and she wasn’t sure how many more card games she could play with Snickers (and lose) before she’d totally go off the rails. So against her better judgment, Van left the cabin and made her way into town. A couple of days after the situation, she had gone to pick up her car from Regan’s apartment, but not before inspecting it carefully for any tracking devices. It didn’t seem like the banshees were technologically advanced enough for something like that, luckily enough.

Work was still off the table, and surprisingly enough, Rocky was kind about it in regards to both herself and Jade. Van still felt guilty, and her money was burning a hole through her pocket, but what she went on to do today was worth it, wasn’t it?

She stared down at the carriage of flowers, a myriad of colors to create a rainbow. The greens and yellows stared up at her with the promise that these were the right ones. After purchasing a small bouquet, Van weighed it out in her hand suddenly feeling silly. Thea had left because she needed to, and Van was going to apologize (for nothing– okay, maybe the ghosting) with flowers? To a friend? The idea that Thea was just a friend was fleeting, and the heat that rose to her cheeks as she noticed that Thea was there across from her in the common now with somebody… else?

Oh god, this wasn’t happening. Couldn’t be happening, actually! Because this only happened in stupid movies where the girl always got the guy, but Van didn’t care about getting the guy, and there was no guy in this equation, there was just the star seeker Thea with her smile and round head, and–

“Thea! Um, hi– I– my house blew up. I’m sorry I’ve been like, MIA.” That was smooth, totally smooth.

She didn’t smell like marinara; it was more like wood, sweat, and something tangential to Dr. Kavanagh though less dead-body overall. Thea could pick Van out of an ocean of people—her scent had a way of pricking her. She’d lived with her long enough—just a few months, but it was enough—to know Van like her own asterism (she’d liken her to The Summer Triangle but maybe that was just her fondness for those stars). Van was more like a galaxy, anyway; too far away and too great and there was no way Thea would ever get the chance to look at all of it. Van had left her on read, which in this climate, meant that she totally hated her. So, she smelled her first, down the length of the common. Her body reacted by sweating and her legs felt numb and her throat dry and her friend (it was one of those one-sided friendships) did not want to turn around. They kept walking and the scent drew closer and closer until the Van-shape (not like the car) on the horizon was right in front of her. With flowers!

“Are those zinnias?” Thea asked first, completely glossing over the thing with the house. Gardening was more her dad’s hobby, but she still recognized a few things. “Oh, sorry, this is…” Thea gestured to her side, to her friend. The woman with waves of fire-red hair and grass-green eyes was older than them both by several years. Pollenina, Polly to her friends and Thea, was exactly Van’s height and when she looked at her, she was unimpressed. Then her gaze fell to the bouquet and she scoffed. “Sorry,” Thea apologized for her, “Polly thinks cutting flowers is murdering them. Which it is! Technically.” Polly scoffed again and moved on, but Thea stood there, nervously picking at the threads on her sleeve.

She should move on; that was the sort of thing a person did when their friend kept walking and the friend who didn’t like them much was there and she had flowers but they couldn’t have been for Thea, because Van didn’t like her enough to read her messages so she couldn’t have liked her enough to get flowers. The sweet floral notes of the green and yellow zinnias lifted into the air; Thea’s nose twitched. Did Van have some other friend? Some other friend that she called cute? Some other friend that she would be buying flowers for? Some other friend that watched her gamble on her phone for anime girls? Some other friend that she was playing Halo with even though she said she would play it with Thea but no, of course that was a lie. “Sorry, your house? That’s…” Terrible, obviously. Something similar happened to hers and that was terrible too, but Thea couldn’t stop herself from smiling. God, the blown up house was probably code for ‘and I was hanging out with my cool other friends who aren’t sad and don’t make weird metaphors’. Or maybe: ‘I was playing Halo with my new best friend who isn’t you and never would be you’.

Thea sniffled, she didn’t feel good; it must have been allergies. “…great,” she said, “it’s great about your house. I mean, terrible. I mean, what are the flowers for?”

It didn’t seem like Thea’s company was keen on sticking around, because after her gaze bore into the bouquet that she held, she was walking off, leaving behind the real reason that Van had left the cabin to begin with. “I guess.. I mean, it is, yeah.” She suddenly felt bad for buying the bouquet to begin with. Maybe she should’ve gotten Thea an actual plant. Then again, she wasn’t trying to impress Polly, and Polly didn’t matter. At all. Thea mattered here, and she thought that Thea liked flowers. Did she? Van hoped she did.

Specifically, Van hoped that Thea liked the flowers she got her. Did Polly get her other things? Things that weren’t dead, or reminded her of the way that people just took and took? Van didn’t want to take things from the world for Thea, but she’d capture the stars for her in an instant if asked. It wasn’t possible, she knew, and so she would need to get the glow in the dark stars, maybe the pink ones, or green.

“Um.. yeah, it was…” Now was probably not the time to tell Thea that there were banshees after them, or maybe it was. Maybe secrets weren’t good anymore, and maybe she was cruel for wanting to keep this one from Thea considering the banshee in Regan’s apartment had mentioned Thea, too. But Thea was safe now that she was no longer staying with Van, right? There was a disconnect there, and Van hoped that it would keep Thea safe. “Out of nowhere, I guess.” That wasn’t necessarily a lie. Van hadn’t anticipated that her house would be blown up, either thanks to the monster she dragged from the depths of the earth, or the banshees’ screams.

Van’s brows furrowed as Thea seemingly stumbled over her words. “Great…?” Maybe it was great. Maybe Thea knew that deep down, Van had wanted to get rid of that house for as long as her grandmother had left back to New York. Maybe Thea could tell that every time Van spoke about her house, there was a thick layer of contempt in her voice. Maybe Thea could see things that Van couldn’t. Then again, maybe Thea had just said the wrong thing.

“The… flowers?” She looked down at the green and yellow bouquet, realizing it suddenly felt heavier than before. Like it might exhaust every muscle in her hand to keep it upright. Would Thea even want them now that she was out with somebody else? Van shrugged, “I… just thought they were nice, you know? Um, got myself flowers because my house got blown up and stuff. A consolation… or whatever.” That would make sense, right? She could skate by on that lie, because obviously Thea didn’t want her stupid flowers. She was here with the pretty redhead and Van was here alone buying flowers for… well, the girl with stars in her eyes. “Do you um… want to smell them?”

Relief sparked through Thea; the flowers were just for Van. She didn’t know what was wrong with her. Clearly, a lot of things were wrong with her, but in this particular instance, she didn’t know what was wrong with her. Van was a friend, Van should be allowed to have other friends. Shouldn’t she have been happy that Van had other friends? Instead, she was happy in some strange, giggly way, like she’d just had one glass of wine, but emotion felt distinctly artificial. It had to be; Thea was rarely happy at all. But she had been—the place her mind went now when it chased the emotion were the innocuous moments with Van: the anime girls, the half-asleep conversations, the ease she felt in following Van’s wild trains of thought just as Van followed hers. “Right. The house. I heard a house got…” Thea choked on her words; the flowers were oddly pungent. She cleared her throat. “I heard about something like that. I was worried but I didn’t think…I thought if it was something like that…” Van would have told her. Was it her fault for not checking in first? Thea made it all the way to Sly Slice before the marinara overwhelmed her and the only thing she could really do was try to accept the fact that Van wasn’t all that interested in her.

“Smell them?” Thea pushed up on her toes, trying to look over Van. Polly was gone, so far down The Common that Thea knew she’d never catch up. She frowned; Polly was her ride. Was she just going to walk back to Winter’s? Thea sighed. “Sorry, the flowers?” She finally turned her attention back on to them. “They are really pretty.” But she didn’t need to lean in to smell them. Her gaze darted between Van and the flowers and a fist curled in her stomach, punching up her throat; she swallowed uselessly over the lump. She pulled her hat from her head and held it tightly. Her hair was growing in nicely though she thought she looked like a fuzzy peach. Habitually, she tucked away a strand of hair that didn’t exist and leaned in. The flowers were awfully close to Van’s face, she thought—soft, pink features, full moon eyes and ocean wave lips. She was awfully close to Van’s face. Thea closed her eyes and took in a nose-full of green and yellow zinnias.

Up close, Thea realized the zinnias themselves smelt like nothing much, instead, the smell was overwhelmingly of cut grass; the floral notes she’d picked up seemed to come from around the flowers: the paper they were wrapped in and clinging to Van’s clothes. How long had Van spent looking at flowers? If they were just for her, would she have cared so much? Those flowers had smelled so strong just a moment ago when her attention was on Van. Did it matter? She was so happy Van was here! And that Van was okay! Even if she was a liar who totally had a new, cute friend that she was going to see. Thea pulled her head out of the flowers, opening her eyes slowly. “These aren’t actually for you, are they?” she asked, her voice hard as the lump crushed into her throat. Then, as though she hadn’t been so serious seconds ago, she broke into a wide smile. “You were staying with someone else while your house was blown up, right? Are these for them? That’s so…” Thea swallowed, perking up. “…great! Who were you with when your house blew up? It’s so wonderful that you’re getting them flowers! The sun’s so nice today. It would be such a beautiful day to walk with someone cute! Like, oh, I don’t know…a new friend.” Was Van going to meet them? Van was totally going to meet them. Who was it? Did Thea know them? Why didn’t Van tell her that she’d been replaced?

Was Thea disappointed that she hadn’t told her what happened? Van had a lot going on, between the almost getting murdered and the fact that her childhood home had blown up while she and Jade rode the motorcycle away like some kind of low budget spy flick. However, was that any excuse to leave her (totally cute) friend on read? She wasn’t sure. Van had read Thea’s last message over and over again, committing the fact that Thea never wanted to be called anything but Thea to memory— though, the reasoning made Van’s stomach churn. She wanted Thea to be Cynthia again if she wanted, but knew it was harder to accept the fact that things had changed if she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. Van wanted Thea to love Maine because Van loved Maine, and Van wanted Thea to love the things she loved, in her own way. It was selfish, for sure, and maybe love was too strong a word, but as she looked at Thea standing in front of her, all Van could feel was relief that she hadn’t been in the apartment that night; that Thea hadn’t been in any kind of danger, as it didn’t seem like the twins had tried to seek her out after the fact.

“I was going to tell you, but then… the news article released.” In Van’s defense, she hadn’t told anyone before the article released. Well, besides those in Ireland. She felt like they needed to know, because obviously this was all connected, especially if the twins had named Regan specifically. But Thea didn’t need to know all of that— she could be kept out of harm’s way if Van didn’t breathe a word of it, right? Still, it felt wrong to keep it from her. Thea deserved to know the truth just as Nora or Wynne did. Cass was an outlier here, too focused on keeping her at arm’s length; something that Van still hadn’t forgiven her for. Maybe that was selfish, too. Maybe Van was just incredibly selfish, but as she looked at Thea, she wanted to grow out of that. She wanted to share these things with her.

“Smell them,” Van echoed, pushing the flowers forward. They could’ve been prettier, Van thought. She could’ve gotten something better, but now that Thea had caught her in the act (while on somebody’s arm who, in Van’s opinion seemed totally jealous in the way she sauntered away), it felt like these were the right kinds of flowers to get. Van waited for Thea to move in, and when she did, she realized that it was like, really close. She could see the light dusting of freckles that ran themselves over Thea’s nose— could see the depth to her irises. Had her eyes always been so pretty? Van was pretty sure they always had looked like that, but this close it felt different. She nearly said something about them— nearly told Thea that she had beautiful eyes, but she was closing them and Van was left to stare at her (totally cute) friend as she smelled the flowers that were totally not for her. Van wanted them to be, though. She wanted to find the courage to tell Thea that these had been purchased because she felt bad, and because she wanted to give Thea something nice because it’d been fairly obvious she was stressed about things, right? That was what was going on?

Van waited a moment, mouth forming the words, but they were taken from her the moment Thea’s eyes snapped open and her accusations poured between them. “What?” Had Thea pinpointed that they’d been for her? Was Thea about to make fun of her for not being honest?

No, that wasn’t what was happening. Thea thought they were for somebody else. For… Jade? Right, Thea didn’t know that it’d been Jade who she’d been with. “Um— at Regan’s apartment, and then we went to my house.”

Thea was acting weird, and Van wasn’t sure why. She’d never seen her like this. She seemed insistent that Van was spending her time elsewhere, when in reality, all Van wanted to do was spend her time with the girl ahead of her. “What? No! I was with Jade, and she’s like, pretty much my sister at this point, but I’m not sure if that’s true because I’m an only child so I don’t even know what having a sister feels like, but I think that’s what it feels like, being friends with Jade.” The words came out in a slur as she pulled the flowers back. She wanted so badly to close some distance, to take Thea’s hand and put the bouquet into them, to insist that these were for her, because they were. Van wanted to be honest— wanted to be true to herself and her feelings she wasn’t sure she was allowed to have. Because what if what happened to Diana happened to Thea? What if Van wasn’t strong enough to endure another heartbreak and it all fell apart because she couldn’t control the magic?

“They were for you,” Van snapped, after a moment, overwhelmed by the feeling that she was being misinterpreted. “I got them for you. I felt bad for like, leaving you on read, but there were things happening, and I wanted to get you something nice, but you’re here with—“ She looked in the direction Polly had taken off in, but Van couldn’t even see her anymore. “They were for you.” She tightened her grip around the paper, the sound of it crinkling and snapping the delicate stems making her feel even more guilty about what was transpiring. “They are for you.” Heat rose to the back of her neck as she looked away from Thea. “My house blew up, and all I wanted to do was get you flowers. How stupid does that make me?”

It all came back to Jade. Thea knew there was something fishy about her. Jade (the gem) was beautiful and Jade (the person) was also kinda pretty but deep inside there clearly lurked an ugliness. The kind of ugliness that would usurp Thea’s spot as Van’s…friend. Her very normal friend. Jade, the friend usurper, was close enough with Van to be a sister. And where did that leave Thea? As not a sister—which did fill her with peculiar relief, she didn’t want to be Van’s sister. Sisters couldn’t…hold hands! Which was exactly what Thea had been thinking about and absolutely nothing else, nevermind her rather intense gaze localized exclusively on Van’s lips; she was a mouth reader! But despite the assurance that she could still…hold Van’s hand…she couldn’t excuse Jade completely. Thea never considered herself to be a possessive person, she liked when things were hers as much as the next anxiety-ridden human being, but she had never felt a longing desire to be the only thing that mattered to someone. Not like she did now. If only she could be sure that Van’s eyes were for her only, in a normal platonic way. She wanted Van to see her, beyond her skin and bones and inside to her spinning black hole heart—but, like, in the normal way that regular friends would look into each other’s souls. Somehow, this was all Jade’s fault; maybe it was because Jade had hair and she was bald.

Her thoughts were tangled like the overlapping braids of a cable. For as long as Thea had any awareness of herself, her mind had always been that way: one thing knotted into the next, tied to something else, bent at all the wrong angles, shot into space and gaining a mass big enough to have its own gravitational spin. If she’d been someone else, she might have asked herself what she was so jealous of. If she had ever learned how to untie one thread from the next, she would’ve realized that Van and her were talking around the same thing. Unfortunately, she was only Thea, the girl who had been a coward for much of her life and couldn’t change now. She’d told Van that she wanted to be done with pretending things were normal and okay and done with inventing new realities to soothe herself, but she wasn’t. Quietly, in the darkest place of her skull, she knew she’d never be done with that. It was always easier to run away. It was always easier to pull a new thread instead of detangling the one she had. This one said that all she was feeling were completely normal and rational platonic feelings for her cute friend Van and Thea held it tight and knew that anything else would terrify her. She was happy pretending like no other thoughts existed.

And so, it was like that that Jade really did seem like some gargantuan threat to their friendship, as if Van couldn’t have more than one friend. Despite Thea’s smile, her eye twitched. She’d have to eat Jade for this. She needed the friendship competition to be as thin as possible because she didn’t offer much. And then Van said they were for her; Thea almost missed it. With the blood rushing to her face and her heart pounding in her ears, she almost missed it. “What?” Thea’s shoulders slackened; the fog that had settled over her yarn-ball thoughts cleared out like a blown out candle. “What?” Asking again didn’t clear anything up. She blinked rapidly. Her breath turned heavy. She was happy in that way that made her sick to her stomach, in that way she felt when she watched Van get excited when her gambling on anime girls paid off (paid off in the sense that she finally got the anime girl she wanted, not that Van was actually getting any value back). Or when she smelled marinara coming from under the door and knew Van would be walking through any minute now. It was the kind of happiness she didn’t know what to do with; the running in circles, rolling in the grass kind.

“I..” Thea trailed off. “Not..” She swallowed. “Not stupid at all.” And she’d been the one being so weird that Van couldn’t even look at her. And she’d been the one so worried about Jade usurping her slot on Van’s friendship roster that she hadn’t bothered to comfort her friend at all after the loss of her house. Which she knew, more than anyone else, really fucking sucked. “Hey.” Thea slipped her hat back on her head and moved her hands over Van’s, trying to relax her tight grip. “Thank you. Really, thank you. You’re so…” Sweet? Nice? Kind? Cool? Amazing? Cute? Pretty? “So…much…a good friend.” She wasn’t even sure that made grammatical sense. Thea moved closer, closing her eyes and she leaned in and pressed her lips to Van’s temple, in what she was sure was a very platonic gesture, despite how she lingered. When she finally pulled back, she grinned brilliantly again. “I can’t believe you didn’t get purple flowers, for anime-girl-Grimace.”

It seemed like Thea’s mind was working against something, and suddenly Van wished she’d been born with mind reading abilities. Then again, she would then have to hear all of the terrible things people definitely thought of her, and how would that make living life? Not well, really. So after a moment about fantasizing about being able to figure out exactly what Thea was thinking, Van was glad that she couldn’t. What if Thea thought she was stupid for getting her the flowers? The mind panned to the redhead and her long, flowing hair. Van was almost positive that if Thea had hair, she’d want Polly’s and not hers. Van didn’t really want to give up her hair, but she’d definitely be offended if Thea took Polly’s hair over hers.

But something shifted, and it was like everything fell into place. The stupidity that she felt melted away (the ground was stable beneath her for once, so this was just a feeling and not an action— wow!)

Van watched from the corner of her eye as surprise dotted the edges of Thea’s features, watched as her earlier snarl had dissipated, replaced by something kinder. Something that stirred the butterflies in the pit of her own stomach. Her skin was vibrating as Thea seemingly heard what Van had said. It was all out in the open now, and there was no taking it back. If she pretended, if she acted like it was a joke, then what good would that do? It’d do nothing, and they’d be back where they were moments ago. She shouldn’t have been here, begging for Thea to take the flowers she had purchased. She should’ve been talking to the bank about her house, or calling her grandmother (who definitely wouldn’t pick up), or something that mattered in the moment, but all Van wanted to do was be with and near Thea. To give her something after so much had been taken from the both of them.

She had thought about how being in public after being hunted by the banshees could’ve been considered dangerous, but Jade wasn’t confined to the cabin, so she refused to be. Van stood across from Thea, gaze moving slowly over the other girl’s hand as it came to close over top of hers. The tension she’d been holding in both her shoulders and jaw relaxed as soon as the pads of Thea’s fingers smoothed over the back of her hand. Van loosened the grip on the bouquet, not enough to let them fall to the ground, but to keep from crushing them any further. The embarrassment she felt morphed into something else— or maybe it was still embarrassment, just a different flavor. This one felt like kicking sand on a playground during the send off from a swing set and not making the landing on your feet. It was better than the embarrassment of the black hole sucking her to the depths of the earth, that was for sure.

Thea moved closer before Van could process it. The feeling of the other girl’s lips at her temple sent static cascading over her skin. The hair at the back of her neck stood on end in anticipation for what might come next, but it was nothing— so much a good friend. It made perfect sense. Van could decipher it. That was Thea telling her she was a good friend, and that was what she was. Was Polly looking at them now? Would Polly yell at Thea after this? Tell her that she was giving Van too much hope? Hope for what, though? Van couldn’t rationalize what she wanted from Thea, just that she wanted the bald girl who talked about stars and constellations to take her stupid flowers and look at her like she was worth something. But that’s what was happening, right?

Disappointment colored Van’s features as soon as Thea moved away, only to be replaced by minor annoyance. “You know why I didn’t. It’s because of that.” She pointed at Thea with her free hand, swallowing down the embarrassment as it rose in her again (black hole style). Her heart hadn’t quite calmed down, and Van was almost positive that she could still feel Thea’s lips at her temple; could commit it to memory. Wanted to, even. She desperately clung to the feeling and the thoughts it brought with it, warding off the black hole embarrassment and vying for the kind that would make her squeal into her pillow later.

It took her a moment to realize she hadn’t said much else, and Van was left to clear her throat, tucking her hair behind her ears that burned bright red. “So do you um, do you— want them? Or…” She looked down at the flowers that had lost their weight— all of the weight from the situation had gone to her head, causing the right side of her face to grow numb. It was like her skin was trying to absorb what had happened. “If you don’t, I—“ Would Polly make her throw them out? “Who’s Polly? Is she…” Van looked past Thea to where Polly had disappeared to. “Is she waiting for you?” Couldn’t I be waiting for you instead, Van didn’t finish, holding the words like a capsizing boat at the back of her tongue.

Something strange happened then: Thea didn’t want to stop touching Van. Though she should have moved her hands away, she kept them on Van’s. And though she’d just touched her lips to Van’s head—she wasn’t going to use the k-word, it was too heavy—she wanted to do it again. She felt like she’d just crawled out of a blanket on a cold night, every muscle told her to go back in. She couldn’t lip-touch her forehead again—don’t say it, don’t say it—so she lined up an array of other gestures that were almost it, almost the thing she was thinking about. Thea nudged Van’s bicep with her elbow—don’t let go of her hands, you won’t be able to take them again. “Teasing is my love-language, Van. You should know that by now,” Thea said, coating her words with the lightness she felt in her chest. Then that word—the L one—sunk down into her throat and tightened like a hungry snake. Love-languages were bullshit anyway, and whatever, so what? She didn’t mean anything by it. But it also wasn’t entirely true; teasing had been Cynthia’s love language.

Cynthia was the one that teased her friends, because expressions of affection felt wrong on her tongue and she was always too awkward to make them work anyway. It was that bite no one expected from her; the thumbs thrust into an orange, juice spilling out. Peel back the skin and there’s the girl who liked a good joke when she wasn’t worried about being annoying, who could demonstrate how well she knew someone by their mundanities—pithy and fleshy. Thea didn’t have a love language; that would have implied she was deserving of the big L thing. Maybe Cynthia would’ve had something else to say, but Thea didn’t. And whatever, she really didn’t mean anything by it; it was another dumb thing in the galaxy of dumb things Thea said. Pay no attention to the dumb words behind the curtain, or something. Forget the tangled web of Cynthia that sat inside Thea’s writhing one. Though Van had already done it, Thea reached out and tucked phantom hair bachind Van’s burning red ears. Spring allergies were a real menace! They certainly made Van blush a lot. Her hands returned to their place on top of Van’s.

“Polly?” The mention of the red-head jerked Thea; she glanced over Van’s head. No, Polly was well and truly gone. She knew it was generous to say she was Polly’s friend, and in the interest of being honest, she couldn’t tell Van that she was. “Polly’s a…” But it was kinda embarrassing to say that Polly definitely hated her, and tolerated her for some unknown reasons. She regularly said things like ‘I’m going to turn you into plant food’ and ‘humans are temporary, plants will be forever’ and ‘to be clear when I say I’m going to turn you into plant food I mean I’m going to kill you’ in that quirky, Polly way of hers; Thea didn’t exactly get her sense of humor. “Just someone I know.” She shrugged. “We, uh, hang out sometimes. Y’know, do…things.” But she also couldn’t tell Van that Polly mostly just drove her around, because then Van would offer her car and sweat trickled down her back at the idea of being in a tight space with Van. “A-adult things.” What she meant was that she did Polly’s taxes and laundry and helped her pay bills, as though these were all things that were completely new to her, but in the interest of honest dishonesty, Thea didn’t consider what it sounded like.

“I do want the flowers,” Thea said. But if she took them, then she’d have no reason to keep holding Van’s hands—don’t let go. So despite saying she wanted them, she kept them in Van’s hands. “She’s not waiting for…” But if she said that, what would they do? Would Van stay with her? Could they take the day and turn it into something good? Or could she, for once in her stupid life, be actually responsible? She’d had a reason for thinking moving out of the apartment was a good idea and it wasn’t so she could be selfish now. She’d been given a very reasonable escape; yes, Polly was waiting for her—say it, say it. The tiny black hole inside of her, always spinning, was getting hungry. One year since the bite and she knew well enough what happened once it grew. All she had to do was say it and shouldn’t it have been so easy? A coward was her default classification. But she was happy, and it was hard to turn away from something so rare.

Releasing one hand from its place on Van’s, Thea brought it to Van’s face again. This time, she rested her palm against Van’s warm cheek. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed down a different conversation. “She is,” she said, “and she’s not very patient.” That part, at least, was true. “So, I should probably…” Thea dropped her hand from Van’s face and scooped the flowers into her arms. “It was nice seeing you and I’m so glad that you’re okay and…” Her throat bobbed again. She lifted the zinnias up. “Thank you for these, and thank you for…” How many times was she going to shove different words away? “I think I like it more like this,” she said, “flowers and wood and honey and amber—when you come back from a shift, the marinara is overpowering. I think I like it more when it’s mostly Van. When it’s all Van.” She held the flowers tighter to her chest. “I think I like Van. I think I like Van a lot.” She swallowed. “The smell, I mean.”

What did that really mean, though? What did a love language mean when it came from Thea? Van stared at her, not quite sure what to say back. She wanted to say something. Knew she should say something, but no words came out of her mouth. Maybe she should have teased Thea back, should’ve told her it was hers, too, and this was all a big joke. The cherry on top would’ve been the flowers that both her’s and Thea’s hands were closed around. Why wasn’t Thea letting go? Maybe she felt guilty about being upset by the idea that they’d been for somebody else, and maybe Thea just felt bad that her house blew up. Van wasn’t sure why Thea wasn’t letting go, but she really didn’t want her to. She wanted to feel Thea’s hand on hers, didn’t want her to let go, but knew that she should– knew that she would, because Thea had finally understood her as a person and decided to leave. That was what happened, right? It had been her? It had to have been. “Okay,” Van stammered out, the words slipping like oil over her tongue. It wasn’t what she had wanted to say at all, but it was all that’d come out when in a reflection to Thea’s love language. Maybe it wasn’t that serious, and maybe Van was thinking too much into it.

Thea touched her again in a way that mattered, and Van felt the blush deepen, could feel it scatter over the bridge of her nose. Her breath got stuck in her throat, and it wasn’t until she looked away from Thea’s eyes could she remember how to do so. Why was she acting like this? Thea was just a cute friend who paid attention to her and nothing more. There was nothing here, not in the way she wanted. However, Van wasn’t certain that she deserved to want to feel anything, especially within proximity of Thea. The last time she had cared for somebody like this (which she wasn’t even sure was real!), an argument had drawn that person to the depths of whatever hellish creature she had reimagined. Would the same happen to Thea? God, she was so toxic; pulling up demons to take care of her problems for her. She really needed to learn how to control it. Not just for Thea, but for everyone who might succumb to the power she held within. The last thing she wanted to do was open up another portal on people who didn’t deserve it.

Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly? Polly?

Van took care to listen now, to pick apart the cadence of Thea’s voice as she spoke about the redhead who hadn’t cast a second glance back after leaving the two of them to argue over the (unjustly) murdered flowers. Van still felt bad about that— that she had killed something (again), even if she hadn’t pulled them from the ground herself. She’d be more mindful about flowers from now on, that was for sure. As soon as Thea began to explain who Polly was to her, the wires crossed themselves, tangling into an unrecognizable, festering snake. Y’know, do things. What did that mean? Did Polly play Honkai, too? Did Thea watch over Polly’s shoulder as she tried for her favorite characters that came back into rotation? Would Thea cheer her on, too? Adult things? Van’s mind could’ve gone to something slightly less safe for work, but it sprang over to the idea that they got meals together; cooked together— even cleaned the apartment while blasting Olivia Rodrigo together. Was this who Thea was staying with? Had she been so easily replaced? Of course she had been. Her grandmother probably found some new grandchild, too, that she hadn’t even known about. One who didn’t cry and didn’t have magic and didn’t talk back. Of course Thea would do the same. Of course.

She hadn’t realized it, but she was holding her breath again. “Oh, she sounds… nice.” That was the opposite of what she wanted to say. Horrible, she sounds horrible. But Van didn’t want to be mean, didn’t want to be the jealous— jealous, what? They were just friends. Good friends! Cute friends! She definitely didn’t feel anything for Thea. No way! This was all just a weird friendly misunderstanding, interwoven with jealousy and… something else. Embarrassment, most definitely. “I’m glad you get to um, do adult things together.” She thought of Olivia Rodrigo blasting through Regan’s apartment as she knelt down with the dustpan as Thea navigated the broken bottle of vanilla into it. She bit the inside of her cheek, pushing the thoughts away. What did they clean up together? Polly looked like the kind of girl who liked kale shakes. It was probably that. Did Thea hate that? Or did she like it? Maybe Van should drink kale shakes.

Her mind snapped from the make believe kitchen to Thea who was speaking again. She needed to talk more, too, didn’t she? God, Thea must’ve been so bored standing in front of her. She was probably thinking of all the conversations she could be having with Polly right now, and instead she was stuck here.

Suddenly, the flowers held a weight of their own and Van felt her hand sinking slightly, Thea’s still enclosed around it. She’d help support it, wouldn’t she? Even if the embarrassment engrained itself in her muscles and made her incapable of doing these kinds of things— like holding up a bouquet of flowers for the pretty girl with the pretty smile and the peach fuzz hair. Did Thea know she looked good bald? Van wanted to tell her. “You can take them, I already um— I already said that they are yours.” The words came out naturally, surprisingly enough. They didn’t slur together, mixed messages splintered across each single vowel. Instead, it was what she actually meant! She wanted Thea to have the flowers! God, she was so good at this talking thing.

Thea’s hand came to plant itself against her cheek, and Van’s mind scrambled again. Could Thea feel the heat that was radiating off of the side of her face? Would Thea think that she was sick? Would Thea try and take care of her? Thea couldn’t come to the cabin, no way— it was full of weapons, and Snickers, and Jade was still hurt. I’m not sick, by the way. The words didn’t manage to slip from between her lips, because Thea was talking again, and the way she spoke made it seem like Thea was going to leave her. That was okay! Friends left each other all of the time, didn’t they? Cass had left her, too, standing outside of her cave with an arm full of comics. Well, she hadn’t left her, but it felt like it that day.

Van was almost positive that even after Thea had dropped her hand, she’d still be able to memorize the way she pressed each pad of her finger into her skin. She’d try to recreate it with her own hand once she was home, but her hands were much smaller and stubbier than Thea’s and she knew it wouldn’t feel the same. But that’d be weird to do, anyway, because they were friends, and friends didn’t do that kind of stuff. But, at least Thea took the flowers. Thea took the flowers, and Van watched her do it— and in that moment, she realized she looked a lot more beautiful with them than she had imagined she would. Would Polly make her throw them out? Probably. But at least Thea had taken them! That was a win for her, wasn’t it? Her friend had taken her flowers, even after the misunderstanding. Only her flowers, and nothing else! Not her heart along with it!

“Yeah, you should totally go and catch up with her.” Van’s throat felt scratchy and she tried to get the words out in a way that wouldn’t allude to the jealousy or embarrassment she felt. The flowers were gone from her hands, though, and the feeling was dimming down. Maybe because Thea had finally taken them, and that was a signal to something. “You’re totally welcome!” She was saying totally too much, but it was sort of her catchphrase at this point, wasn’t it? “I’m glad I’m— you’re okay, too.” She smiled, and this time it felt real— less like she was being pulled at by a fishing hook, but that the muscles in her own face had cooperated into giving her something real. Thea kept speaking even though she should’ve been leaving, and Van was left frozen with what the words could’ve actually meant. Surely she meant the smell! Yeah, that made more sense. Thea liked to smell things— always talked about it! Liked to talk about all of the soaps she had, and Van could always see the soaps she had in the bathroom at Regan’s.

(She was always careful not to use Thea’s soaps, because she wanted to smell Thea when Thea was using them, not—)

“Yeah, I mean, they like, most definitely make um, car air fresheners in Van scent, I’m almost positive of it.” At that moment, she had referred to herself like the car, but it didn’t matter. Thea told her she smelled good, and she liked it better without the marinara, and Van was glad. Van was happy! She stood across from Thea, marionette strings pulling her to put a hand on Thea’s shoulders. “I hope you enjoy Polly, and the flowers!” That wasn’t what she meant. She only wanted Thea to enjoy the flowers.

“But um, I’ve gotta— there are insurance people I gotta talk to. Gotta get my bag, you know? So I’ll uh, see you around, Thea!” With that, Van turned around, red in the face to saunter off to anywhere but the insurance people.

#para: z for zinnia!#para: thea #wickedswriting

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wickedsrest-rp · 5 months

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Gaslight, Gatekeep, Gooboss | Group Thread

TIMING: Current PARTIES: Ariadne (@ariadnewhitlock), Jade (@highoctanegem), Mack (@realmackross), and Oliver (@arustysnake) SUMMARY: Ariadne, Jade, Mack, and Oliver are at makeshift shelter volunteering and helping people displaced by the goo. The building rattles and the lights shut off as the goo they were trying to hide from starts to leak in. Despite Jade's earlier attempts to stir the pot, the four of them have to work together to get out and to make sure everyone else gets to safety with them. She finds the stairs to the roof and Ollie helps her shuffle everyone along. Ariadne reluctantly goes first (but not before accidentally mentioning that Mack is a little bit dead). Things look dire as the goo continues to rise. Mack isn't fast enough and gets engulfed by the goo. Luckily, the "screaming moose" came to the rescue and screamed everyone to safety, shattering the goo and freeing everyone stuck inside. CONTENT WARNINGS: None

The goo had taken over just about everything inland, but Mackeznie had been safe in her home near the sea at Harborside. No worries so far. However, that didn’t mean that things weren’t a struggle for most of the town, and she had never been one to shy away from helping when there had been a crisis. It’s why she was now standing in the middle of one of the makeshift shelters trying to organize mass chaos and help prepare meals for those who had lost so much to the goo already.

Luckily, she hadn’t been alone in her endeavors. Having Ariadne with her seemed to make things better. A familiar face was always nice. Of course, there had also been Jade - the food delivery driver who had oddly wanted a tour of her house, but that was in the past. Now, they were facing a situation that had become grave for so many, and that’s what had truly mattered.

“Hey, um…Oliver, right? Can you pass me that towel?” There had been another person assigned to their group though that Mackenzie didn’t recognize. He had seemed nice enough, but for some odd reason, she had gotten the feeling that he didn’t like her very much, and she didn’t know why. Mack had been used to people not liking her. She had gotten plenty of comments online from those who despised her work or thought she was spoiled. But her favorite had been the ones that claimed her to be an ugly, privileged bitch. It was definitely nothing new, and she had opted to just handle his distaste with a smile and kindness.

—

Ollie had tried to go home after the school kept-calm through that early dismissal; well, to go back to the house, anyway. To the cats, who were probably - they’d be fine! They would. Really! He was deciding to believe, just for the moment, that the O’Rourke place was every bit as blessed as his family had always said. So it would be there, as much in one piece as it’d ever been, safe and sound from the zinnias to the weathervane, when Wicked’s Rest… dealt with whatever this fresh heck was.

Like he was deciding to believe that no, the lady who’d just sent him startling out of the wash-rinse-repeat daze of dishwashing definitely, absolutely was not who he’d thought she was, at first, wide-eyed, dry-mouthed glance. Couldn’t be. She was too normal. Not at all like that glazed-over, greyish, hungry horror show that’d gnawed through the meat case and his shoulder. (Which was also fine. Or would be, when it stopped - it would be fine.) This was just some total stranger. Who couldn’t be what Inge had said she was.

What Inge had said the thing that tried to eat them was. Which was not this lady.

“Yes! Of course! No problem…” Ollie pulled the tea towel she’d asked for off his shoulder - that shoulder, the one she obviously hadn’t bitten - and handed it over. Might be the last clean one left; they were already running short on everything. “You’d think we’d - they’d have more of everything put aside, emergency-supplies-wise. Given all the, ah, emergencies, around here…” A nervous sort-of laugh skittered away from him as he dug back into the sink, looking over the shelterful of people this not-zombie wouldn’t rip apart the moment they ran out of sandwiches. Obviously.

She didn’t like the goo, even if she did still feel somewhat bad about disliking something that didn’t seem to have been caused maliciously. But then again, Ariadne didn’t know about most any of those things. (Other thought patterns were pushed out of the way in favor of focusing on the present moment. Well, that and the fact that she so desperately wanted to text Wynne and give away the small surprise she’d gotten them (it wasn’t much, but she’d found an old and used record player for them, and figured it would just be a bonus extra belated birthday present. She had a feeling they hadn’t gotten lots of gifts throughout their life).

Volunteering felt nice, though, something tangible and good that she could do to help people in the town. People none of whom, thankfully, she recognized from having given them nightmares.

Plus, Ollie was here, and that always made Ariadne feel better about most everything. Mack was here too, which she was also excited about, except for the fact that she didn’t know if Mack knew that she knew that Mack was also dead.

“You’d think that, but I dunno, I guess our stuff is normal, so maybe we don’t have it ‘cause of that?” Ariadne scrunched up her nose. “That made no sense, and I’m aware of that, sorry.” She pulled out a bag of Sour Patch Strawberries and put a few in her mouth, offering the bag to the woman near her, “do you want any?”

Full disclosure? Jade had no clue she’d stumbled into a shelter. Like, she saw a little crowd gathering around the building and her nosy senses kicked in. She thought there was a thrift shop type thingy going on at first. And then well, there was a pretty cute guy with incredible dimples volunteering and he was super friendly, so Jade figured she’d get his number by the end of the day. She stayed around. Helping was like, second nature to her anyway. The goo sure had fewer fangs than what she usually tackled in order to keep everyone safe, but helping humankind was helping humankind in any way that mattered.

Normally Jade would’ve tried to lighten the mood, throw a little joke here and there. Admittedly, it was slightly uncomfortable doing so when her skin thrummed with the alarm of undead in the vicinity. She couldn’t pick up on vampires particularly, but someone was out there, missing a heartbeat. When they ended up drifting into groups, Jade was able to find out exactly who was keeping her on edge. The first one, Mack. She knew about her, had like, a whole past together. The other was a blonde girl, unfairly tall for how young she looked. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen anyone so young in the undead team. Jade had to shake whatever stirred inside her at the image, cause it wasn’t like she could grab the knife she had concealed inside her jacket and just go on a stabbing spree. People were bummed out already, she could read the room. The third member of their group didn’t feel threatening, though he was a little grey-faced for whatever reason, so she was slightly sus of him.

“Look, this is literally the worst place I’ve ever lived in” Jade chimed in, when she heard the exchange between the man and the girl. “But like, to play devil’s advocate…who’d have a contingency plan for this?” And that was the nicest she’d ever be about this little town from hell. She glanced at the blonde girl, eyes dropping to the bag. She wasn’t sure about fraternizing with the undead. (Without ulterior motives, at least). “Um… I’m good babe, don’t worry about me. Maybe Mack wants some. Or, uh…Oliver was it?” That’s what she’d heard, at least. “I’m Jade by the way, don’t we make a kick ass team?” she faked a big smile. Just cause she knew about the undead vibes, didn’t mean she had to be like, rude or anything.

“Thanks.” Mackenzie reached out and took the towel, “I agree. It’s like this town is one big horror movie, and we’re just the unlucky ones stuck living in it.” Folding it over, she began drying off the counter she had just wiped with a wet, soapy cloth. With more sandwiches to make of a different variety, she wanted to make sure any residue of peanut butter and jelly had ceased to exist. But Mack couldn’t stop herself from noticing Oliver’s nervousness, “Hey, are you okay? I know this goo situation isn’t ideal, but I think we’re pretty safe inside.” Maybe it was the fact that the town was in a state of emergency and not so much that Mack was the culprit of his nervousness, but she just wasn’t entirely sure.

Finishing what she was doing, Mack sat the towel aside and returned the peanut butter and jelly jars to their rightful place, “Have you eaten anything? I can make you a sandwich.” In fact, she had wondered if Ariadne or Jade had even eaten. “Hey, Ariadne, Jade, do you guys want me to make a sandwich for you? I’ve got PB&J, Nora’s favorite…Ham and cheese, and turkey and cheese.” Knowing she was working on turkey, ham, and cheese next, she pulled out all of the ingredients from the industrial sized refrigerator and carried them over to the counter.

It made a Wicked’s Rest sort of sense. Ollie wanted to give Deeny a point for that; this was only slightly above the average level of freakish by the standards of this nightmarishly quaint corner of Americana they were both unfortunate enough to have sprang from, yes - but to actually say so seemed like inviting some new, horrible twist of bullshit. Better not.

He glanced between that unfamiliar face, Jade, to Mack; the first had a smile that might’ve unsettled him, somehow, if it weren’t for the maybe man-eating one right there, to compare. Ollie found a near-grin of his own, for Ariadne. “You keep ‘em, Deeny. More for you.” Like this was just another night of baby-sitting after a rough day at dance class, and loading up on sugar was the fastest way to fix it.

Jesus. Mack got an actual twitch out of him, just asking. “Oh, I’m -” Ollie let out a clearly very okay sort of scoff between dishes. “Fine!” Seeing as they were totally pretty safe. Inside. Right. “I mean, it’s only been a century and change since the last time something almost exactly like this went on, and that was, probably, the worst single thing that’s ever happened around here. Just, by sheer volume of…” death? property damage? goo? He shrugged right into a wince, not especially wanting to dwell on just how bad this newest mess might get. Before any zombies got involved. “Have you eaten anything, Mack?” The question snuck out quick, earnest. Ever so slightly strained. “You’ve been doing so much for everybody, you - you should eat, definitely.” Just in case.

“Could I just have jelly? Um, if you don’t mind!” Ariadne chirped over to Mackenzie. “But I’m actually kind of all good, so you don’t have to.” The last thing she wanted, in the middle of what could clearly only be described as a total disaster, was to be a burden, and especially since she didn’t technically have to eat, and did always carry candy around to help satisfy the whole sweets craving thing, she wasn’t about to put anybody out.

“Oh – yeah, I can have them, if nobody else does.” She looked down at the floor for a moment, briefly dejected, though she figured only Oliver would be able to spot that, because she’d only known Mackenzie for a few months, and this Jade lady was totally new. Absolutely super movie-star pretty, but totally new. Ariadne nodded, looking over to Jade again, “have you lived in a lot of places? I’ve – well, I was born here.” And died here. “So I’ve only ever lived here for my whole life, but it’s always amazing to hear about people living elsewhere. I think Mackenzie did, too, um, right?”

“I’m all good” Jade reiterated, on the prospect of having a sandwich. (And like, who was Nora, by the way?). She figured it was better just to leave the food for the people in the shelter anyway. She’d get one of the volunteers to buy her dinner after. The sour patch kid (Ariadne, apparently) addressed her again, and Jade shook her head. “I lived in California for most of my life, actually. But then, I went on a little road trip around the country,” chasing an elder vampire and its progeny but, details. She still ended up in all different places. None like Wicked’s Rest, that’s for sure.

Listening to the rest of the team chat, Jade lined up more slices of bread on the tray, with a degree of perfection that shouldn’t matter when they were about to be filled seconds later. (But whatever, she liked things neat, alright?) It was kind of a bummer that everyone already knew each other, while she was the outlier. (Story of her life). But that meant, she could bring the element of surprise. Her eyes sparkled with mischief, knowing what she had to do. “So…I’m sensing some tension here” she looked up, wiggling her eyebrows. Truth was, she wasn’t sensing much tension other than her own, but it would be fun to see what came out of her vague statement. Maybe it would distract her from her own feelings. The man, Oliver, was acting all kinds of sus, anyway. Like he was the slayer getting all the uncomfortable undead tingles right now. Her gaze danced between Mack and Oliver. “Did you guys bang? Is that what this…” she gestured between them, “is? I’m sure we can all put that aside to help here, can’t we?” Her eyes wrinkled in amusement, glancing at Ariadne with a conspiratory grin. She hoped she would enjoy this just as much as Jade did. Kids loved tea, right? “Just like I totally forgave Mack for stealing my boyfriend when I was 22!”

She truly was over it, really. And if it helped fix whatever was going on between those two, then Jade was doing them a service by sharing her story. What was she, if not in service of humanity? The cocky grin spreading across her face faltered when something eerily like underground vibrations reached her ears. Her hands held the tray in front of her in place, though nothing shook. “Huh, did anyone hear that?”

“Jelly it is!” Sliding two pieces of bread over from where Jade had neatly lined them up, Mackenzie began spreading on the sweet gelled consistency all over the bread while she listened to everyone talk, “And yeah, I’m good. I ate before I came over here, but thanks for asking.” She looked at Oliver with a smile not really picking up what he was putting down aside from more awkwardness. What’s with this guy? “I’ve lived in California most of my life, but I did move around quite a bit for work.” She looked back towards Ariadne and continued to listen while she made good use of her time, until she heard Jade ask if she had banged Oliver.

Putting the knife down she was holding, Mackenzie narrowed her eyes at Jade, before looking back at the man standing next to her, “Uh, no. We haven’t banged…Kind of a personal question, don’t you think?” She looked back over at the woman that she had only known from getting food delivered to her house. That was highly inappropriate and weird. Mack was used to rumors spreading around about her in the tabloids. She had been watching a shitshow of how the media ran wild with theories of her and Brody for months now. But the words out of Jade’s mouth had smacked her upside the head like a ton of bricks, “What did you just say?”

Grabbing the other piece of bread, she slapped it down on the sandwich frustration clearly starting to come through, “I didn’t steal anybody. Brody mentioned having a girlfriend previously, but thought it was best to end things.” It was taking a lot for Mackenzie to hold back the anger that was starting to boil inside of her, especially the undead side of things. But remembering there were other people in the room, she grabbed the jelly sandwich and put it on a plate passing it over to Ariadne, before she felt the same shift that Jade was talking about.

“Great,” Ollie half-hummed, wishing he believed Mack as much as he’d really, really like to. Logically, though - if believing in zombies set your bar for logic, which, apparently, his should - if you could avoid being a ravening, hangry monster by snacking on whatever her equivalent of a Snickers might be, you would. And that was, oh, God, absolutely all the thinking he wanted to do about that. He’d have happily sunk back into the calming(ish) routine of clearing the dishpit. Too bad Jade got curious, for some reason. Nothing better to do, he might’ve thought. If they did not, in fact, have so many better things to do. Loads! Shitloads, even.

Mack spared him wracking his wrung-out brain for a passably clever comeback to that, at least. (He’d have thanked her, really, if not for - well, she’d got her quarter pound of flesh, already.) So Ollie left his answer at the gayest stare he could drum up after a long, long… half-year, and went back to scrubbing cutting boards. Listening along, obviously, as Mack bit down - aha - on that second scrap of bait Jade had thrown out. So they knew each other. Over very different stories about a boyfriend. Or from the boyfriend? He could’ve chimed in, having also definitely never stolen a boyfriend, but. Nah. Seemed like they had some stuff to work out. It’d be more fun to watch. So long as Mack didn’t literally rip Jade’s head off, anyway.

(Super funny. Christ. He had to get out of this whole place.)

He’d just done his best to sneak a tired, totally not frantic smile Deeny’s way when something like a… bassline, real low, deep, rumbled right up his spine. Ollie blinked, unclenching his jaw with a grimace as the - sound? faded. Shaking that off, he frowned down at the cheap rec center tiles as Jade wondered the same thing he was. How wouldn’t somebody feel that? “Yeah…” The sinkwater rippled as another rumble, almost a groan, shuddered through the place. Enough for everyone to startle, out at the tables. Not just them! Confirmed. So nice to know.

She offered the woman – Jade – an awkward grin, because any weird talk about Ollie felt bad, but Jade also seemed cooler than cool, and Ariadne didn’t want to disappoint her, either. Which was a fair bit of a conundrum, but nothing she couldn’t handle (or so she told herself) (and, after all, in the past year she’d gotten exceptionally excellent at lying to herself). She knew Mack, and knew Mack was more like her than not, but that also didn’t seem good to tell the other people, because it was a private matter, and she didn’t know if Mack liked it, like Inge seemed to, or if she didn’t, like Ariadne still felt, even if she was trying to come to terms with it.

Taking the sandwich, Ariadne didn’t even have time to bite it before the building shifted (or something), and she dropped the plate, wincing as it clattered, tensing up again at the shift. “Something’s happening, yeah.” Genius deduction skills on her part, surely. Brilliant. It wasn’t like everyone else had already pointed that out.

“I – I don’t think we were due for an earthquake…” her voice trailed off.

Jade smiled, which felt all kinds of villainous really, but it was a genuine, delighted smile. The first one since she got here, actually. Sure, she was making everything messier by bringing up old, forgotten tea, but at least they were having fun now, right? Well, she was. Mack on the other hand, didn’t look too pleased. She waved her hand, her posture relaxed. “It’s all in the past babe, I’m just trying to get you two to put whatever you got going on behind. We’re really knuckle deep if I have to go all…voice of the reason”. Wasn’t that weird? For someone who claimed to have no fault in the whole boyfriend stealing debacle to get all defensive? Jade sure thought so, but also knew not to provoke further. It was about being the right amount of menace to shake things up.

Speaking of…

Jade had experienced more than a few earthquakes in her lifetime. All things considered, when they weren’t like… absurdly destructive they were fine. A little fun, even! The underground rumbling beneath them sorta felt like one, but like… the movement wasn’t there. Seriously, she’d been in beds with frames that shook harder than it just had. So, yup… fully in agreement with the Sour Patch kid, it was very unlikely to be an earthquake. (Anything could make those noises, basically). She released her grip on the tray, deciding to go about her business, lining up more bread slices. “I’m not like, a science person… but I bet we have like… underground gas from the mines” she nodded, pursing her lips like she had said the most brilliant thing ever spoken. She slid the tray to the girls, but before she could stir the conversation towards conspiracy theories, the lights went out. Nope, they like… fully exploded above them. At the same time the ground shook, for real this time, the building trembled along with it.

And then, it was like something hooked her stomach and they were sinking, plummeting as the force sent them all to the floor.

It was like The Tower of Terror, in a lot of ways. But better. (The one from Disneyland by the way, not Disneyworld) (She’d never been to Florida). The adrenaline rush gave Jade two seconds of absolute bliss before she understood the severity of the situation. (They fell… into a hole?) (How were they still alive, actually?) It wasn’t over. And it wasn’t safe. It felt like the building was readying for another drop, as it slowly slinked into sludge. Or maybe, actually, it was going to fully collapse. “Sh—oot” she blinked, her vision adjusting to the complete darkness. Enough to spot the food they had been working on spilled everywhere, and, at the distance, black goo dripping from the shattered windows. (Ooooh). “Y’all okay?” Before she could hear much of anything, chaotic screaming broke out at the table.

Mackenzie so greatly wanted to strangle Jade at that moment. No. Better yet. She wanted to let the monster inside of her take over and make Jade her own personal meal. The brains of the woman who finally proved the zombie’s gut feeling right. She had known since the day Jade had stepped foot in Mack’s house to deliver food and wanted to take some random tour, that there was something off. And now she had gotten her answer.

Oliver seemed even more embarrassed, and she didn’t know what was going through Ariadne’s mind. All she wanted to do was take this outside and finish their little discussion in private, but before she could, Mack felt the floor shift. And then watched as the lights exploded above them. Great. That was the last thing she had needed, since her eyesight was crap in the first place.

It was the great plunge that happened that caused Mackenzie to drop what she was doing and grip the countertop as tight as she possibly could though. All anger had left her body in that instance and her concern had fallen on her teammates (including Jade) and the…now screaming people in the other room. Unfortunately for her, being in the dark with her fading senses didn’t help, except the smell, she knew that smell and the sound of busted pipes that weren't actually busted pipes…the goo. The thing they were supposed to be safe from and it was starting to leak inside, “Fuck.” She glanced between Jade, Ariadne, and Oliver, before looking back to the panic stricken room full of people, “Anybody got any ideas on how we can get out of this mess?” She figured they didn’t, but it would at least give her some time to think of something, hopefully…

Deeny had that right; Maine got more earthquake drills than earthquakes. Still, Ollie found himself leaning into the counter, weirdly off-balance, just off - vibrating with something other than nerves, now, enough that the clatter of Ariadne’s plate had barely registered. Like whatever they had going on? Is that what she’d said? Seemed like he was the only one who knew. Mack would have to be a hell of an actress to play this cool about a whole attempted (cannibalistic) murder. But - it was her, wasn’t it? Sans the dead-doe glazed-over eyes, those gory, gaping teeth…

Christ. How crazy was he?

Shaking it off, or trying to, anyway, Ollie bent to clean up the floor sandwich, the plate. Only to drop both all over again as everything hellevatored down. Hard.

The landing was… unsettlingly sludgy. He opened his eyes on near-total darkness. Too many somebodies were screaming, crunching wildly through what sounded like an awful amount of broken glass. A couple frantic phone flashlights swung through the gloom. With a hiss, Ollie peeled away from the cupboard he’d braced against - bad shoulder first. That hungry-mouthful of arm throbbed, furiously; he snuck a few fingers under his collar to check the dressing as he stood, slow, finding his footing on tilted tiles. That were tilting a little more by the moment, more like a loosely moored wharf than a building with what should be a solid, steady foundation. Amazing. Fantastic! Wicked.

And now what? Ideas. “Roof access?” He winced, gripping down on that chewed up shoulder as one of those creeping, crawling shivers ran through it, cold and itchy. “There should be -” Ollie turned, took a quick breath, and projected over the panic like they were all in goddamn gym class. “HEY!” Well, that - that’d worked better than he’d expected, actually. “Thank you,” he seized the lull, then chunked the instructions, quick, clear. Just another (not) drill. Totally. “We need. To get. To the roof. Does anybody know the easiest way to do that?” It was a community hall they’d wound up in; not a place he was familiar with, but there had to be someone in here who was from the neighborhood. Probably? Hopefully…

She yelped when the lights exploded, and in turn again when they fell, and Ariadne knew this wasn’t the time for her to feel all sorry for herself or anything like that, but she couldn’t help but feel at least a bit ashamed given… all of this. Given how she should’ve been able to hold it together and be braver, rather than a disaster.

Ariadne could hear people screaming and she wanted to cry for them, because they had to be good, and they didn’t deserve this, and Mack was asking about how they could get out of the mess and all Ariadne could focus on, for a moment, was how Mack was dead just like her, except not just like her, but that was semantics and really wasn’t what she should’ve been focusing on at the moment.

Thankfully, Ollie seemed to have a decent handle on things, and between him and Jade (and Mack, too, Ariadne had to admit), they had responsible adults here who actually knew what they were doing, and what a relief that was. What was less of a relief, though, was that there were a lot of murmurs of ‘I don’t know’ after Ollie asked his question. “Um, we – maybe if we stack some stuff on top of each other?...” She looked around at her companions, realizing that now, in the dark, her eyes had to be taking on something of a crimson glow. Well that was fun.

“Let’s save that idea for when we have no other option” Jade replied to the blondie. (The younger one) (Sour patch kid was getting a little repetitive). Hopefully it wouldn’t come to them playing jenga with the kitchen objects while trying to reach the ceiling. Or an even worse alternative: Stacking themselves on top of eachother like some sorta human pyramid. Her cheerleading days were long gone, she didn’t have it in her. She looked around, just like the rest of the people in the room, searching for options. The windows wouldn’t work, obviously. Not only were they busted, but currently the main source of goo leaking into the building. The fire escape was probably ruined too, so that didn’t leave a ton of options.

A booming voice managed to quiet all the panicky murmurs in the hall, and Jade raised her eyebrows at Oliver. “That was so hot of you, babe,” she winked at him even though the darkness didn’t allow visibility. For him. She could see pretty freaking well right now. And not only did he manage to get everybody to shut up, his idea was even better. “To the roof, yup. Listen to the guy”. Considering they were like, sinking into the sludge, that had to be a goo free zone, no? She wanted to imagine that at least. With impeccable timing, the building slid again, rumbling underneath them. Ugh. “Stairs,” she mumbled, mostly to herself while Oliver and everybody else on the other side tried to communicate.

Jade had been told before she wasn't a particularly great leader (lies). Apparently? Cause she always wanted things done her way, or whatever. (True)(And the correct way, mind you). So she wanted no part in sorting out the mess of discussions between volunteers and those displaced by the goo. Her three teammates were being rockstars about it. She figured what they needed now more than anything, was someone nosy enough to go looking. So that was exactly what she did. She sauntered by the storage room toward the corridor. Some of the emergency exits were still illuminated. Right. Follow the little colored arrows, how hard could it be? They should go through the one door with “roof access” written on it, but that was like, totally a hunch. She spun around, strolling back to the kitchen to share her findings.

Meanwhile, the volunteers in the sheltering area were doing the job of keeping everyone as calm as possible post slump. And honestly? They were flopping a little. A few of them succumbed to the panic too. Jade stood between Mack and Oliver, in case their sexual tension was ready to explode. “There’s a neat door in the corridor that we should open. My guess? Stairs to the roof” she nodded, lips pressed into a smug smile. “Even if that’s like a total bust, we should start moving these people. They’re gonna keep freaking out if they think we’re in the latest Final Destination” she clasped her hands together, as if this was some sort of school excursion. “SO! Up the stairs we go? Yay!” She was the first out of the kitchen cause like, if this were the Titanic, she should’ve definitely had the front seat. But something bigger than her froze her after she walked through the frame. She watched as people came over from the shelter side. (Ugh) She was like, a volunteer or something… so she had some responsibility or whatever. It wasn’t her brand of protecting people, but it counted too. It did. She knew this.

“Roof access. That’s good. Good call.” Mackenzie looked between her partners and out into the sea of people in the other much larger room. How had all of this fallen on their shoulders? Ariadne was just a kid. Oliver looked like someone who had lost their favorite toy AND stepped on a lego multiple times. And Jade…well Jade was just Jade. But the one thing she had going for her was that she did take initiative, so Mackenzie did appreciate that. And what was even more of a win? When the food delivery girl returned with a solution. But Mackenzie still wanted to have a few words when this was all said and done, because she was not a boyfriend stealer.

Seeing Jade freeze when the crowd of people started to make their way towards the kitchen, Mackenzie stepped in. She had dealt with massive amounts of people before. Mostly with security around, but this was a literal matter of life and death. And to make herself more noticeable, she climbed onto the counter and stood up, so they could all see her through the large open window area of the kitchen, “HEY! If we all want to make it out of here, we’re gonna have to single file it up the stairs. And NO pushing! We want to make it out alive and safe right? And we want our fellow neighbors to do so as well!” She motioned towards the door leading to safety, “Go through that doorway over there as quickly and safely as possible, and again, no pushing! We don’t want a back up on the 405!” You could take the girl out of California, but you couldn’t take California out of the girl.

Hopping off the counter, she had hoped they would listen and not push and shove, and as the last of them followed through the doorway, she turned to her fellow volunteers, “Ariadne, you go first, since you’re the youngest.” She wasn’t going to watch her friend succumb to a gooey death. She refused, and honestly, if Oliver and Jade had wanted to go before Mackenzie as well, she had no qualms. Mack was already dead after all.

Jade was saying something; what, Ollie couldn’t sort out. Not with his head rattling this hard. (Vertigo? He’d never had vertigo. Panic attack? He wasn’t panicking.) She was probably just making it weirder. Had a real gift for that. The power had really gone out, out; gone, leaving just the bluish haze of those phones, the low, red glow of a couple signs, and… he stopped, staring into the blackness at the red glow of something else, something horribly like -

His eyes unfocused, that red scattering as he swayed through another rumble that juddered right from the soles of his feet to the back of his skull. The floor took another tilt, settling lower. Deeper, more accurately. Deeper in that crap that was gurgling in.

Thankfully, Jade also had a gift for finding actual exits. So they didn’t die a couple of truly Wicked’s Rest-grade deaths. And Mack had the crowd control thing down, which shouldn’t have been so surprising, seeing as she wasn’t a deranged cannibal. Wise, throwing in the no pushing; the startled watch-outs and heys that followed the pile-up as they singleish-filed their way upstairs had made it pretty damn clear they’d needed the reminder. Just like tenth graders on a field trip. Totally just like that.

Still unsteady, Ollie followed the counter - that hand he’d checked his shoulder with were tacky against the formica. Blood? Something worse? Nothing good. But fine! It’d all be fine. “Yeah, Deeny - go on,” he agreed, easily, head spinning. Not just because he was trying to keep an eye on whatever the hell he… maybe saw, glaring out of the dark. Jesus. Like they didn’t have enough problems; now he was “seeing” new ones. Ollie shook it off as a loud shove-creak echoed down that packed stairway, followed by sighs and cries that slid between relieved and urgent. All those footfalls scrambled harder, higher. “Sure sounds like a way out, hey?” He tried to squint back at those broken windows and the sunk-low corner where the goo must’ve started to pool. And where it had to be flowing from, as the building pitched again, violently enough to send tables dragging across the floor and chairs crashing. “Up -” Ollie started, following his own frantic directions onto the kitchen island. “Up, everybody up!”

Roof access made sense. It made sense in very much the same way that reminded Ariadne just how glad she was that she wasn’t the only person in charge of solving this problem. Or really, the person in charge at all. Because she’d help, certainly and without question, but being in charge wasn’t something she was even remotely comfortable with. Having to choreograph something gave her enough anxiety as it was, and she wasn’t even in charge of life or death at that point. “Right, yes, of course,” she nodded at Jade, before turning towards Ollie and Mackenzie.

“I – why – I don’t need to –” she felt her stomach turn in a sense of guilt. “Just because I’m youngest doesn’t mean I need to go first, that’s – I can move quickly, and I don’t want Mack to die, like, again or stuff?” Ariadne pressed her hand quickly against her mouth, unable to believe that she’d just said what she’d said. “I mean, like, ‘cause she’s died in movies she’s been in, right? And we don’t want – that would be very bad if it happened in real life.” She wanted to sink into herself, hoping maybe nobody else noticed. Because she wasn’t supposed to say stuff like that, and she felt sick to her stomach. “I can – whoever wants to, can go,” she tugged at her bracelet.

Jade got to do one of the things she loved most: Bossing people around. It was super fun to tell everybody not to shove each other and be patient while going up the stairs. Two things she would’ve totally failed at, had she been on the other side. But she wasn’t so, she got to live her dreams and keep people safe in the process. She tapped her boot, watching the line get shorter, wishing she was already at the top of the stairs (closer to reaching the exit), than at the bottom, with her whimsical team of volunteers in a building that kept tilting every second. But again, this fell under the ‘protecting people’ umbrella, so her conscience was clean. Confused by the sound of her boot no longer echoing against the tiles, she glanced down. Sludge splashed beneath her, and a thin layer of goo (at least for now) began spreading to the corridor too. Well, crap.

She whipped her head toward the kitchen, looking for the rest of her crew. She noticed the crimson glow in the younger girl’s eyes. Uh. Jade couldn’t ignore the thrumming underneath her skin anymore. It continued to indicate she wasn’t in front of a vampire. But… what if her spidey sense didn’t get reception down here, or the goo was intercepting it? She became increasingly aware of the knife inside her jacket. Just in case. If it came down to it, she’d have to make sure this girl didn’t hurt anyone. Her innocent act wasn’t fooling her. And actually, it was making a lot of sense how she kept insisting on staying with them. Planning to kill them, maybe? (Who said she wasn’t like every slayer?) (Emilio would be so freaking proud of her paranoia). She looked at Mack, curious of her reaction as blondie revealed what Jade already knew. She was also dead. Wait. Shoot. As fun as the tea was, they were sorta in the middle of a thing. “Um. Okay? We don’t have time to debate who goes or doesn’t go first. We’ll all end up getting there eventually, anyway”. And if the kid didn’t want to go up the stairs then, whatever. She was already dead. It sorta made the job quicker for her if she preferred getting encased by the Wish version of the Kid’s Choice Awards slime.

The building sank again, the hardest since the initial slump. The Powers That Be likely pissed about all this chit-chat. The room turned, chairs and tables dragged, screeching against the floor. Goo pooled under their feet, coming with more violence out of every broken window. Oliver commanded them to get on the island, but Jade knew that was like, smart only for so long. It could lead to them getting flooded by the sludge. “Unless we can surf on the island all the way to the roof, which… fun, I’ve been meaning to try that. Maybe we should like, skedaddle… actually” She gestured to the corridor and spoke specifically to Oliver, on account of… being the only other person alive in the room. If Mack and Ariadne wanted to follow, well… Jade didn’t plan on stopping them. For now. “But you know… feel free to... Yup”. Having evacuated most of the people in the shelter her only concern now was her own survival. She trailed up behind the last person on the single line (she was still serious about her duty), slowly walking up the stairs. She could hear people cheering at the top, so she figured… that meant they must’ve found the exit door, right? Great! Perfect. This would count as her biggest W. Who was a girl failure? Not her!

Something roared furiously beneath them, material crumbling as the building took another, almost final dive. Jade and the rest of the people still at the stairs, tumbled to the side, leaving them to climb up the rest of the way at an awkward angle. Desperate shrieks echoed from the top, and everyone seemed to give up any effort to stay calm. It had become a race to get out.

Mackenzie had been insistent that Ariadne make her way up first, but when the building started to shift again and Goo Girl in Real Life started to become a thing, she gave up on the effort. Well and because, “What…What did you just say?” A shiver shot down her spine. Not because of the imminent danger they were in, but because Ariadne had just, out loud, mentioned that Mack was dead. And the attempted coverup was only making it worse. Hopefully Jade, who was already causing enough problems, and Oliver, who had been skittish this entire time, hadn’t noticed. Never had she hoped and prayed that such chaos would cover up the truth about who she really was, but if they made it out alive, she was going to have a little conversation with Ariadne, because despite her being at the sleepover that night, word on the street was that she had been holed up in a room with Wynne the entire time making out. So someone had to have spilled the dead beans, and the young zombie wanted to know who.

While chaos continued on around them, Mack had started to spiral. Jade was already suspicious of her and Brody, and this might have just sealed the deal on that, but when she felt a stronger shift in the building, which sent her sliding into the side of the counter she had previously been standing on, with a thud, the twenty-five year old finally came back to her senses and the situation they were in. Shit, that hurt…

Pushing herself off the counter with a groan, she noticed the sludge forming under her feet. This was bad. Really fucking bad. And as Mackenzie looked up, she saw that Jade had started making her way up the stairs first. Of course she did. “Okay, a little tough love here, but Ariadne, Ollie…you both need to move your asses now, or spend the rest of your days encased in this crap!” She knew in good conscience that if she left them there alone and something happened, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. She was already struggling with that anyways, after all the death and destruction she had previously caused unknowingly. And while she wouldn’t openly admit it to herself (like she even had time to with the situation they were currently in), there was a part of her hoping that the goo would finally just take her to atone for all the harm she had already put out into the world.

Dodging dark sludge in a dark room would’ve been hard enough if Ollie’s world wasn’t lurching about as wildly as the whole damn building. As it was? He was just trying his best to keep down… whatever he’d eaten last. Something. At school. Hours ago. Before drowning in Wicked’s Rest had seemed so literally likely to be the death of him. God. Seriously?

Seriously? “Tough love? Are you - Deeny,” he refocused, back to… to where Ariadne seemed to be, which was where that freaky trick of the not-light was, kaleidoscoping the blackness with red. It was nothing. Nothing like how Mack had died in the movies, whatever that meant, whatever Ariadne already knew? (What?) Nothing he was going to be fucking paralyzed by, right now. (Except for how he couldn’t feel his legs, actually. Fuck. Maybe this was a panic attack, just a different kind, crawling through his nerves like that fucking ooze was sliming its way across the tiles.) “Ariadne,” Ollie insisted, gently, but insisting all the same. “You need to go. Your parents are out there. Wynne’s out there. Okay? So, you get up those stairs, and you go home, to them. Now, like the lady said. Go go go,” he tacked on, quick. Still not-tough. Old-babysitter-solid, that’s what he was aiming for. Hopefully, by the power of their assorted bullshit combined, Mack and him would get Deeny started - and Jade, if she wasn’t totally gone already, could keep her going, all the way away.

“I – nothing.” She wanted to sink into herself, because apparently Mackenzie hadn’t misheard her or just not heard her, and Ariadne hated herself for that. In a brief, fleeting moment of amusement, she found herself thinking that at least this was something new to hate herself for.

And now Ollie was full-naming her and she didn’t take it to mean anything like he was mad or stuff like that, but it did mean something was at least somewhat (really) serious and he was making good points about her parents and Wynne, and she really didn’t want to freak her parents out by dying for a second time. “I – fine, okay. I – I will, but only if all of you promise you’ll all make it out, and – I’m letting her go first,” Ariadne gestured to a woman who had to be around seventy.

The woman made her way up, and Ariadne turned around to the others. “Will at least one of you come on up with me?”

The concern and care that Oliver showed for Ariadne was something Mackenzie respected. Just like the zombie, he wanted her safe. Yes, she might have just outed Mack’s secret in front of two other people, but right now it was life and death for all involved, whether or not you were actually something other than human. Most everyone had left except for her, Ariadne, Oliver, and a little old lady who seemed to be trailing behind.

“I’m gonna go check and make sure there’s no one left. I’ll be right back.” Fighting her way towards the doorway leading out to where the cots were, Mackenzie noticed that with the shift, everything had moved and the floor was almost completely covered with the goo slowly inching its way closer to the kitchen area. Quickly turning back around, Mackenzie was just about to move towards the three remaining people and usher them forward, but before she could, she felt something stop her in her tracks; a resistance, before she felt it on top of her feet slowly starting to make its way up to her ankles – the goo.

“Ariadne, Oliver…listen to me right now. You grab that woman and go. NOW.” Mackenzie’s voice held a bit more panic, but she didn’t want to let the others know she was in trouble. However, the more she fought to move, the more it started to hurt and the quicker it crept up her legs.

Wasn’t that an Ariadne-brand promise to ask for. “Absolutely. Right - right behind you.” Ollie lied, like a liar, which he… had been being, a lot, lately. Practice! He bit down and took an unsteady lean out, off the far-from-level kitchen island, to try and tell the swirling blackness of all that ooze from the also-swirling blackness of everything else.

… and leaned right back, shuddering with the whole foundation, floor to ceiling. (Tailbone to the tip of his tongue, where he could just about taste the blood seeping through his shirt. Only, that was impossible.) His breath rattled out, fast, then rushed in, shallow. Ollie was working on the next one when Mack reappeared, a silhouette barely back-lit in exit-sign red. Like - like the horror show something-or-other she was. Shit. Did Ariadne know? (Insane. How would Deeny know about actual, real dead things that didn’t stay dead?) If she did, how was she so - okay? What the hell was wrong with him? She was going to be up there, with all those people, those edible people, and a zombie. And what could he do about that? Drag himself through the deadly sludge and hope Mack would come back for seconds instead of taking a piece out of somebody else?

Well, better than nothing. Deeny’s parents would still kill him if she got eaten.

“Working on it.” Fighting his sweater off over that burning, bloody shoulder, Ollie loosened the laces on his shoes and pawed around the counter for - there. Some cutlery; that’d do. Time to find some ooze. He slipped into the lee of the island and nearly hit the deck, his numbish legs half-caving under him. Only half! Deep breath. Dizzily, he lobbed a spoon just ahead, into the dark; a clank. Tiles. He followed it, unsteady, focused, doing his best not to throw up his far-off lunch or his hammering heart. A fork landed with a murky splat. A couple feet to the right, a knife clanged. Progress. Everybody was headed up, and out, and yes he was going to run out of spoons to drop but he lurched out of his half-tied sneakers as they stuck and threw down that sweater to stumble the last, sludgy steps to the stairs. And if he fell up the first few, palms and shins stinging, so what. Made it. Only to stagger wildly as they all kept sinking…

She didn’t know why she wanted to push back as much as she did, but Ariadne felt like maybe she still wasn’t supposed to be the one who got out when other people risked their lives. Except that especially with Ollie around, she wasn’t going to get around and off so easily. He listened to her though, which was more than she could’ve asked for or hoped for.

Not that him listening was unexpected (because he always listened, no matter what, always), but there was just a lot going on that made it hard for her to concentrate too much on any one thing. Even as the building shook, and as Mackenzie insisted on going back to check, and Ariadne wanted to go and help too, but she figured that if she tried to insist on that, she’d just up and get a heck of a lot more pushback than she was up for hearing.

Besides, her parents would want her to come out of this, and so would Wynne, and Cass and Alex too. If for nobody else, Ariadne figured getting out so none of them freaked out too much. That, and, if she thought about it much, being at home with hot chocolate and buried under a blanket, with the knowledge that she, Mack, Jade, and Ollie had helped people. The older woman started to make her way up the ladder. “Mack? When are you coming? ‘Cause I think just about everybody’s all out… Jade, you too, right?”

Mackenzie watched as Ollie rather brilliantly made a path out of the kitchen for himself using the sound of objects hitting the floor. Even though she was currently caught up, and in a dangerous situation, she still found the time to be impressed. But more so, she was just glad that he was going and Ariadne was following suit. They would all be free, and she could sink up in the goo knowing that everyone would probably make it out.

As for her and the current predicament she was in, Mackenzie had found that the more she struggled the faster the goo rose up her legs, and at this point it had made it to her knees. There was definitely no getting out now, and instead of being a fictional film, Goo Girl was starting to feel more like a biographical piece. Thankfully, she had Ariadne’s voice to cut through the fear that was starting to well up in her, and as best she could, she remained calm not wanting to frighten the younger woman, “Yeah, I’ll be there. And, uh, I think Jade already went up. She was like one of the first ones to the top.” Cause you know, staying and actually making sure everyone was safe was too beneath her – at this point, literally.

Taking a useless, but well earned deep breath in, Mackenzie let out a long, quivering sigh. With her poor eyesight looking towards the bright red Exit sign, she watched as it flickered, knowing she was never going to make it out, and now was the time to start to say her goodbyes to those she loved in the world – her parents, Bixby, Winter, Taylor, Alex, Monty, Parker, Milo, and the other friends she had made, especially since coming to Wicked’s Rest. She thought about Brody and how, if there was an afterlife, that she had hoped she would see him again. And Elora. She thought about Elora and the possibilities she would be leaving behind, “Love you guys…”

Closing her eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks, she felt another hard shift of the building, which had caused the goo to spread up her body faster. And though she wanted to be brave, Mackenzie could feel her body shaking as the fear continued to rise making its way over her mouth, nose, eyes, and soon there was nothing, but a statue standing in the place where the zombie once was.

With the building, nearly into the ground and red Exit sign no longer apparent from the goo that rose up the steps inching closer to its next intended targets, it had just about proved successful until something happened. A loud, shrill noise had cut through the air. One that even caused the nearby animals to stop howling. Birds drop mid flight and anything in close proximity cringe and show attention to whatever thing…monster…Moose? That screaming moose that had run through Wicked’s Rest not too long ago. That had to be it. But no matter what it was. It was at the right frequency to cause a shift. To actually harm the goo. And the longer it went on the more the hardened, thick sludge began to crack and crumble.

A cement casing that had formed around everything just below the survivors, including a frozen in time Mack, slowly began to fall, which soon turned into more than just a few pieces here and there, but an avalanche of cursed ground and as the fault line made its way through the fallen building and its rooms, Mackenzie, who was surrounded by the darkness unable to move or speak for what felt like an eternity (though it had literally only been maybe like ten minutes) was soon freed leaving her to collapse to her knees, “What.. the…” She forced out the words, loosening up the goo that slid down her throat and into her lungs. And as she gathered her barings, she quickly clawed her way forwards over rubble and made her way up the remainder of the stairs as quickly as she could, until she could see light at what felt like the end of a long dark tunnel of goopy despair.

It wasn’t the breeziest of times. Nope. So not a vibe. This would totally make a terrible amusement park attraction. But despite the universe conspiring for Jade to have like, an awful time, she held onto the rails like her life depended on it (well…duh). Maybe it was her own hunter training wiring her brain differently than most people trapped with her, but she hadn’t freaked out yet. Why would she? She was a thousand percent confident they would make it out (killing her off would be like, so bad for the plot). Just like she’d been totally sure she could take on an elder vampire by herself. And sure, whatever… That one sorta backfired, but what mattered was being daring. That was the kinda attitude that got you to places. Places like, outside this building. One failure wouldn’t deter her.

And even though she could’ve likely gotten ahead of the line by batting her eyelashes or twirling her hair, she still lingered close to the bottom of the stairs. Her attention was on the team she’d left behind. (‘Cause she was nosy. No other reason). Like, what could they possibly be wasting time on? What was that clattering noise. Did they really wanna be stuck in the goo forever? It couldn’t be good for the skin.

Finally, two of them appeared in the hallway, and Jade rolled her eyes at them in greeting. “Took ya long enough, where’s…” she grimaced at Oliver’s nasty fall, whatever badly timed quip she had ready to go dying in her tongue. Alright, jokes later. She noticed the two were accompanied by somebody else. Not Mack. And… How did she miss this granny when she was lining up people at the stairs? Her heart beat with real concern. This was going to be a problem. Like sure, Jade had the type of core strength people wrote songs about and a deceptively powerful frame only hunter genetics supplied, but little ol' lady being pulled by Oliver and Ariadne? Not so much. She doubted she could hang from the stairs the way Jade was doing. But three young adults could totally work together to ensure one frail old woman got out of the building before them, right? Totes. “Okay, um… Give her to me,” she reached down, wrapping one arm around the woman’s midsection and trusting Oliver and Ariadne to work in tandem with her. “Hi, honey…” she offered a bright smile despite the darkness they were immersed in, hoping to soothe the frazzled look on the woman. “Let’s get you further up, yeah?” With Oliver and Ariadne’s help and the intention to join forces with those ahead of them, they would get the woman closer and closer to the roof access.

That was, until an unnatural screech pierced the air. The grip she had on the woman tightened, feeling Oliver and Ariadne work along with her. Jade felt the scream deep in her bones, rattled by it, but too shocked to sink into any feelings of despair about what the sound could be preceding. Were they about to go down for real? If they were doomed then… Okay, so…The vibration, at least, felt nice once…. It became a constant. If anything, it vibrated better than her… nope. So not the time. It sure was an excellent vibration, though. The walls shook, but it wasn’t the bricks that suffered from the sound. The sludge that had been pooling below them hard like a rock, collapsed. Then it disintegrated. Jade glanced down, locking eyes with part of her team, the same confused expressions mirroring back at her. The floor grumbled beneath, likely adjusting to the lack of goo. And was that… a good or bad thing? Probably better not stay long to check, right? Some celebratory shouts came from all the way from the top, and the line started moving faster. Whew.

Jade made sure to leave the little old lady in better hands before lowering herself to her team. She had a clear question in her mind, one that was answered even before she opened her mouth. A flash of blonde hair from her favorite arch-nemesis had Jade hooting. “That gang’s back! Now please, move your cute butts up.”

She didn’t like the idea of leaving somebody behind, but Mack was insisting and Jade was already on her way, probably, and Ollie knew Ariadne too well for her to pull any quick sort of move. Even if she wasn’t four anymore, he probably could grab her and further insist that she climb the stupid ladder if she tried to run. So, begrudgingly, she started to make her way up, helping the old lady, grateful that Ollie and Jade also both seemed eager to help her, too. Though there was no reason to have expected any other sort of reaction, because they both seemed like really excellent people.

“I - I’m gonna move, I promise.” Ariadne scrunched up her nose, then her whole face.

– didn’t really know what else to do, since words might’ve never been her particular forte, and certainly weren’t doing her favors right at this particular moment.

If it were possible for her knuckles to get any whiter, they were, now, as she gripped the sides of the ladder, only focused on why she was bothering to get out. She wanted to live. Or live-un-live, whatever she technically did. Wynne was out there, and so were her parents. Alex and Cass. Too many other people. She needed to go and watch a ballet in as many places as she could.

Suddenly, though, Ariadne was jerked out of her thoughts by a piercing scream, one that she couldn’t even fully cover her ears, given how her hands were holding tight onto the ladder. Except then she thought she heard Mack’s voice, and whipped her head around. “You – I – you got out!” She swallowed. “I – that’s good. That’s good. We really all need to go though, now, and now we can, ‘cause you’re here.”

Just-outlined by the downtown, late-night light falling in through that so-close exit, the old lady reached ahead to take the many hands coming through the door for her. Ollie had fallen a few steps behind Deeny and Jade, clinging to the stair rail all the way and darting looks back into the pitch black, gooed-up level they were leaving - entirely unsure if he was more or less worried because he couldn’t see Mack-the-maybe-probably-zombie. As if she’d come ripping out of the darkness, all bloody drool and grasping hands, a jump scare.

Mack, who’d helped get all these people out, when she could’ve absolutely massacred them. Except… monsters look like people all the damn time, Willa sighed, weeks ago. Act like people, too. Just look at you.

Fingers clenched a little tighter on that railing, Ollie wavered - eyes entirely on the still-sinking shadows far below them, now. Just look. She’d stood up and saved them. Where was she? He’d taken a step down, not letting go of the rail. Until a shriek broke his grip on everything, slapping his scraped-up hands to his ringing ears. It was - it had to be that kind of shriek, that kind of ringing, the kind that’d left him cold on the shore of Silver Lake. Dr. Kavanagh?

Whoever’s the first scream was, the second was his: a hoarse, frantic yelp as he unscrewed his eyes to find Mack charging up the stairs to meet them. Ollie choked that off, quick, heart hammering. “Mack! Hi! Hi. Are you - you’re okay?” Okay enough to keep not eating anyone? Ideally.

Mackenzie was grateful for whatever that high-pitched shrill scream had been. Being afraid of the dark had never been her thing, but after being enclosed and engulfed in goo, that and a fear of tight spaces wasn’t anything she wanted to experience again anytime soon. And never in her life had she been so grateful to see a friend, a stranger, and a creep (the creep being Jade) after what felt like an eternity of being alone (again, granted it was probably only like twenty minutes. Goo was no joke).

Letting her eyes fall on each of them, and the group still crowding towards the top, a relieved smile washed over her face, but when she went to answer Oliver, instead of words coming out like they had earlier, she started to choke and cough until goo oozed out of her mouth. Mackenzie, rather than holding up the line anymore, gave him a thumbs up, before motioning for them to follow Jade’s lead and move forwards, and as they reached the top of the building, fresh air and the sound of voices reached all of them. The survivors that the group of four had escorted up had started to scream for the attention of anyone that could help them.

It had been quite a while since the Earth had shifted under their feet, but it still wasn’t the most stable of locations to be and the roof seemed to be at an angle and one that Mackenzie had wished she could warn people to be careful walking onto, but had no voice at the moment. Instead, she kept an eye on the older people and moved closer towards the edge of the building looking down at the small figures on the ground. Then the idea hit her, pulling out her phone, she was just about to switch on the flashlight, when she noticed the screen and contents of the iPhone had been cracked under the pressure of the goo. But it appeared as someone near her had picked up on the idea and soon other people did, and before she knew it, everyone had their phones lit up as a way to catch the attention of anyone who could rescue them.

Ariadne, Jade, Oliver, & Mack had done it. They had gotten an entire group of people out to safety and now it was up to whomever was waiting below to finish the job.

#season 1 #group writing

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