Who: Ethan and Jules When: Early evening, Friday, March 9th Where: Sweetbriar Bridge and then Moxie's Status: Complete
Jules had spent most of the week wondering if this was a good idea or not. Deep down in her gut she knew it probably wasn’t, but she also told herself that she wasn’t going back to Witcham Road to try and reopen that doorway. This would be different. Maybe. It was very possible that she would open some terrible, horrible gateway again and the entire town would be swallowed whole by some tentacled monster. Why was she willing to risk that for Ethan and not Caius D’Onofrio? Maybe because this was more than a hopeless rescue mission. This was an opportunity to see if having Ethan there would make the process easier. Maybe he was right and there were other worlds out there that could help people here. Maybe she could control this and not feel so shitty afterward.
Jules still wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing, only that she was determined to do it. She had texted Ethan to meet her at the Sweetbriar Bridge, along with directions on how to find it. It was in the woods, sure, but nowhere near Witcham. Or the school. Or Overlook. And it was a place where they could try this without being seen. If something went wrong? Well, then she supposed they were fucked. And maybe that was what she deserved after everything.
With the sun setting, it was pretty cold so Jules bundled up and told her mom she was meeting Vic and some friends at Moxie’s. Her mom didn’t question or protest, given it was the first time Jules had left the house voluntarily. She drove out to Sweetbriar, relieved to see Ethan’s car already there. Or what she assumed was Ethan’s car as she had never actually seen it before. But it was highly unlikely that anyone else had come out here, even to jog. It was too cold and people tended to avoid this area for hikes and the like when it was getting dark.
Jules parked behind his car and took a deep breath before turning off her car and climbing out. “You didn’t get lost, so… that’s a plus.” It was a stupid greeting, but she was having some mild anxiety about this whole thing and she just wanted to get it over with.
While Ethan was familiar with Point Pleasant, he'd always stuck to the more touristy locations and Sweetbriar Bridge wasn't on that list. He left his house early just to make sure he could find it, but Jules's instructions were spot on and he didn't have any issues. Once he was there, his nerves returned and he wondered again if this was a good idea. What if the only door Jules knew how to find was the one that led to some terrible place? What if one of them got hurt? They were in the middle of nowhere and no one knew they were there, not even his uncle. He'd kept his word and kept this between the two of them, though he hoped it was the right decision. He supposed if he got them both killed, at least he wouldn't have to hear about it.
Ethan hopped out of his car when Jules pulled up behind him, all bundled up against the cold. It was unfortunate they couldn't do this some place warmer, but he understood the need to get away from people. "You gave good directions," he said. "Any reason why you chose this place?"
Again, Jules was struck by how tall he was. She didn't know why that was the first thing she focused on but it was. "No one comes here," Jules explained as she reached up to tug her hat down a bit more over her ears. "Not in the winter, anyway. The road has been closed for as long as I can remember. We can walk through the bridge and there's some clearing back there. Basically, I just wanted somewhere I knew we wouldn't be seen. I hope it's okay. I mean, I know it's creepy and everything, but pretty much everything is creepy after dark." She supposed she could try to find somewhere else if he wasn't comfortable with this, but given what they were going to try and do, this was probably their best option.
“It’s fine. I was just wondering. I didn’t know if you had some feeling about this place or if it was just a good location where we could be alone,” Ethan said. “I guess I thought that portals were in specific locations, but I have no real proof of that. And you’ve opened several, so wherever you think is good is fine with me.” He didn’t like touting his inexperience, but in this case it couldn’t be avoided. She was the only one who’d done this before, so he was going to have to let her take the lead. Ethan zipped up his coat and pulled his gloves on, then looked towards the bridge. Maybe it was a little creepy, but it was also exciting, at least for him. He smiled over at Jules. If he was going to have a companion in this, he was lucky to have one as pretty as she was. “You ready?”
"I haven't had feelings about any of the places where it's happened. I mean, the woods near Witcham Road was different. That's a really long story." And she wasn't sure she wanted to tell him all about it tonight. "Honestly, I think this entire town is like, a specific location for this stuff. I haven't been outside of Point Pleasant a lot since it started happening, but it's never done it anywhere else. My mom even took me to a specialist to try and figure out why my hands had been hurting so much. That was super pointless." Jules started to lead him towards the bridge. "I'm totally ready though." Hopefully she sounded more confident than she felt. "So did your uncle interrogate you after I left the other night? I kind of feel bad for asking you to lie to him, but I just don't know what I'm going to do about all of this yet."
“Someday I hope you’ll tell me,” Ethan said, but he didn’t push about Witcham Road tonight, aware of more than she probably realized. He’d gone out there once, with his uncle, but if she’d been there then they’d been too late to catch her. He could feel something in the air that night, that hair raising feeling that he associated with a portal, but there was nothing he could do about it. He’d also seen the cars, the remains of a fire, and the blood on the snow. And the vomit. He assumed that was hers. He hoped tonight would be better, now that they were together. He hoped her hands wouldn’t burn. “He had questions, but I knew he would. We’ve been looking for you for a while, you know? And it’s not so much a lie as just not telling him.” At least, not yet. Ethan hoped that after tonight he could tell his uncle some good news, or at least that they were planning to see each other and talk. Talking could always lead to more.
Jules had no idea if she would tell him about Witcham Road or not. They were still pretty much strangers and she had no real reason to trust him. Then again, if that were true why was she walking with him through the covered bridge to try and open another potentially deadly doorway? Jules exhaled softly. Now wasn't the time to start questioning her choices. "Omitting the truth is still a lie," Jules pointed out, but she flashed him a faint smile. "I've done it a lot myself, so I'm not judging. I'm glad you didn't tell him. I've had enough of dealing with grown ups for a while. They don't understand." It felt kind of weird to know they had been searching for her, even though they hadn't known who she was. "Last year at this time? I had a hot boyfriend and I was cheering for the basketball team. I was just counting the days until spring break, you know? My biggest worry was waking up with a pimple on my chin, or failing a geometry test. That feels like a completely different life now." She sounded amused, even if it wasn't funny at all. "How were things for you? I mean, you knew about all of this your whole life, right?"
Grownups not understanding was a kind of universal truth for kids their age, no matter what the situation was, but Ethan suspected it was even worse when it came to having unexplainable powers. He wondered why Jules’s mother never said anything if she was aware of what they’d done to Jules, but maybe she didn’t know the details. Or maybe she was just being the sort of adult that kept things from kids because they wouldn’t understand. It was an excuse that Ethan would always roll his eyes at. “Things were pretty normal,” Ethan said. “I was a senior in high school, played football, did my thing, and graduated last May. I went into the Institute occasionally for testing, but they couldn’t find anything and I was used to it. Honestly, I’d kind of gotten to the point where I didn’t think anything would come of it. Like, maybe whatever they were trying had failed and I was just normal.” He supposed that would have been fine, but it was harder to accept when he’d been told he was special. “So you’re not looking forward to Spring Break? What happened to the hot boyfriend?” Those things still mattered to Ethan, even though he wasn’t in high school, and he thought maybe they could matter to Jules again too. Having special abilities shouldn’t be the end of the world.
Jules would love to be "just normal" again. She thought Sebastian being a witch was cool, and yeah, what Neil could do was pretty impressive and everything. But Jules didn't want any of that for herself. It made her feel like a freak, like some kind science experiment. Ethan had obviously dealt with a lot more of this than she had, especially if he had gone for "testing" before. And so far he seemed pretty put together, like someone she would have probably been friends with had they gone to the same school. "Well, I mean, I'm looking forward to spring break because I won't have to go to school for a week. But after everything that's happened, I can't even like... imagine going somewhere and trying to have fun." Parties, the beach, her friends... all of it felt wrong. Jasper should be there with her and he wasn't. Having fun or feeling any kind of joy after what she did to him felt like a betrayal of some kind. "And the hot boyfriend of last year turned out to be gay." She barked out a soft laugh, mostly because of how it probably sounded. "I had someone else but he's... gone. I don't know. I don't really want to talk about it right now." She didn't want him to take it personally but thinking about Jasper made everything hurt inside of her and she needed to focus now on not opening some horrible hell dimension. "What about you though? I mean, do you have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend? Do they know about this?"
It was impossible to piece together what had happened to Jules without all the details, but Ethan was starting to understand that whatever had happened had seriously disrupted her life. He didn’t know how she’d managed to open portals on her own, or why she would have kept doing so when it was so painful, but there was a negative association there that he hoped to change and it all hinged on how tonight. It made him wish he had a little more experience, rather than just theoretical knowledge, because if things went wrong he doubted he’d ever get her to open another doorway again. “No girlfriend. Not right now. And guys aren’t my thing. There was one girl, but she left for college and we didn’t want to do the long distance thing. She didn’t know about all this, but there wasn’t much to tell her. For me it was like, I might have these powers, but so far I don’t, so… it’s a lot to get into, especially for people who don’t believe in anything they can’t see for themselves. It’d just make me sound crazy.”
"I know what you mean. Some people know about all of this, but most of my friends don't and honestly I feel exhausted just thinking about trying to tell them. They'll have so many questions that I might not want to answer and what if they think I'm a total freak?" Which she was, but she didn't want to be told that. They came to the clearing Jules was thinking of and she stopped, turning toward Ethan. "You didn't want to get out of here and go to college somewhere else?" Westbridge probably wasn't as batshit crazy as Point Pleasant, but she knew it was still a rather small town. Jules had so many friends who were eager to get out and explore the world on their own and college was the first step to freedom.
“I don’t think you’re a freak,” Ethan told her, though he doubted his opinion carried a lot of weight, since he was like her. In his head, freaks were people who abused their powers, who let themselves go off the deep end mentally. Jules might not be normal, but there had to be something in the middle of the spectrum that was a little more fitting for them both. “I want to get out eventually, but college is expensive, so I’ve been trying to get some of the basics out of the way by taking online classes instead of in person. It lets me stay close enough to intern at the institute a couple days a week. I figure if I go away next year I can get the same college experience, but be a little bit ahead of the game.” It was more his mother’s and uncle’s plan than his, but he was on board with it because he had to be. It wasn’t his money to spend. If he was going to work for the institute, he would probably need a lot more than four years of school, so couldn’t blow his whole college fund up front.
"That makes sense." Her college applications had been sent but school was the last thing on her mind now. Jules wondered if Ethan would come back and work for his uncle. She wondered if Wilkes had been telling her the truth about AIR. He had certainly given her more information than Jane and Neil had. Maybe they had just been young and scared and hadn't understood what AIR was doing for them. She didn't really know and it was a source of frustration for her. Jules didn't feel like she was knowledgeable enough to choose a side and thankfully no one was making her. She just wanted to know what her abilities meant and she wanted to get them under control. Screw everyone else. Her breath puffed white into the chilly night as she exhaled. Tugging off her wool gloves, Jules slipped them into her pockets. "I don't know what's going to happen, or how this is going to work. I've only been able to do this on-demand once, and it's always been painful. I know this sounds super lame, but... do you think we should hold hands or something?"
"Maybe. It's worth a shot," Ethan said and began to tug his gloves off. Considering the way their hands responded to one another, it seemed like a decent idea to him, but then maybe he just wanted an excuse to hold her hand again. He wasn't sure if that feeling would return, but last time it had been almost electric. "When I tried to do this on my own, they would always tell me to visualize a doorway, that my focus and intent would be enough to make one materialize. That never happened, of course, but maybe together it will work." Or maybe they'd just stand there holding hands in the snow. In any other circumstances, that would be nice, but tonight it would be a huge disappointment. Ethan offered out his hand, his heart beginning to race. No matter what happened, he hoped for something rather than nothing.
"I only visualized a place once," Jules explained. Her pulse was racing, her stomach churning uncomfortably. But she had to appear confident and maybe like she wasn't as scared as she was. "But that was because I kind of already knew what I was looking for. The other times it happened, I wasn't expecting it. I don't really know what to think about, but I just don't want to think about anything dark or gross or full of fog and monsters. So, just something nice." Jules huffed out a soft laugh. "You're probably expecting something more informative, or like... complicated? I'm still figuring this out as much as you are." She reached for his hands, not entirely surprised to feel that soft hum of electricity run up her arms as soon as their palms touched. Jules looked up at Ethan and took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. "Ready? Just... close your eyes and go with whatever you feel. If something bad starts to happen, close it. You're the key so... I think maybe this is more instinctual than anything else."
“It’s okay,” Ethan smiled nervously. “I don’t think there’s anyone out there that can really tell us how to do this.” It was a little daunting, but he was hoping they could figure it out together. The soft hum between their hands was enough for Ethan to know they were on the right track and he took a deep breath before closing his eyes. He knew she wanted some place nice, some place safe, with no monsters, no danger… Ethan could feel a pull, like a string tied to his center and he swayed forward, mentally reaching as forces beyond his comprehension turned and snapped into place. When it clicked, there was that spine chilling feeling that he always associated with a doorway and he gasped, squeezing her hand as he whispered. “It’s here.”
Jules felt something surging through her. That familiar feeling that she wasn't completely in control of herself. But she shook her head when Ethan spoke, opening her eyes to tell him it hadn't worked. It couldn't have. Her hands hadn't burned, her stomach hadn't turned cold and queasy. But it was no longer pitch black in the woods and her eyes were drawn to the space beside him. Jules stared, her lips parting in surprise. It wasn't like anything she had seen before. It wasn't gray, devoid of color. There was no fog, no puddles of blood. It didn't even look like Point Pleasant anymore. The trees that had been there were gone, like a curtain had been pulled back, revealing a place she had never seen before. It was dusk, but she could see pale, purplish streaks in the sky, and small, bright lights that she assumed had to be stars. Water ran down large, gray rocks into a pool surrounded by flowers and she could smell them, floral and inviting. Glancing down, Jules could see where the doorway met their world. One step would be all it took to cross over from the dark, dirty ground covered in broken branches and dead leaves, into something that looked like a painting.
"I can't believe this," Jules murmured. "Every doorway I've opened always looked like Point Pleasant, just... different. This looks like... I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before."
Ethan opened his eyes a moment after he spoke and then all he could do was stare. The land on the other side of the portal looked like nothing he’d ever seen before, like something not of this earth. The air was warm and fresh, reminding him of springtime, and everything looked so vibrant and alive, so vastly different from the forest around them. Ethan instinctively reached out towards the edge of the doorway with his free hand and when he took hold of it the frame between the two worlds became solid. “This is incredible,” he said softly and hedged closer to the edge. “Do you wanna go in?” he asked, a smile tugging at his lips. It could be some horrible trap, but he wanted to know if it was real, if they could really walk on that grass, pick the flowers, and touch the water. He wanted proof that it wasn’t some kind of illusion as it looked far too good to be true.
Jules blinked at his question, momentarily drawn out of her shock to look at Ethan. Did she want to go in? The other times she hadn't had to go in. No, that wasn't right. The school had changed all around her. But the woods... they always seemed to just open, like a doorway. She still had no idea how this all worked. Surely there had to be some rules, some rhyme or reason to it all. If she and Ethan had been inside somewhere, trying this, what would have happened? It was something to think about later, or even as Mr. Wilkes, if she felt comfortable enough doing so. Right now though, she walked up to stand behind Ethan looking into the place that they had created. Or maybe not created but... they found it. "I think I do," Jules admitted. "But just be careful, I mean, those could be flesh eating flowers for all we know. Just because it looks pretty doesn't mean it's not terrifying and eager to kill us." Closing her eyes briefly, Jules took a breath and stepped over into the doorway. The grass beneath her shoes was soft and she could hear the waterfall more clearly. "I can't believe this. Do you think..." Licking her lips, Jules looked over at Ethan again. "I mean, you're the key right? Should I try to close it on my own now? Can you close it if I don't? We should at least try and see how this works."
Ethan knew that his uncle would throttle him if he found out he’d done this without him present and that was exactly why he planned on keeping this particular moment to himself. This was his chance to explore without being under a microscope, to truly get a feel for what he could do, and later he could ask all the questions he wanted because he had thousands of them, just like Jules. He followed her in, then looked back over his shoulder at the portal from the other side. It stood open like a doorway between worlds, just one step between them. “I don’t know,” he said, suddenly unsure. He had a good feeling about this place, but he was as new to this as she was. What if they shut it and couldn’t get it back open? This place was beautiful, but he didn’t want to be trapped here. Then again, how would they know if they didn’t try? Getting here had been relatively easy. Simple, even. Getting back home to their own world should be even easier. “If you can’t close it, I probably can. Or maybe we both can when we’re together.”
It was a really stupid idea, and Jules knew that. They could potentially get trapped in this place. But Jules didn't want to try it with one of them inside and one out, because maybe Jules couldn't open this place again without Ethan. Maybe his uncle would be able to figure out all of the answers but for now, she was running high on adrenaline, surrounded by something beautiful for once instead of scary. It was so hard to let that go. Jules couldn't remember purposely closing a portal before other than Witcham Road when Neil had zapped her into doing it. But even then it felt like something was helping her. The other times, it was just luck, she was sure of it. Blind, panicky luck. But now Jules tried to focus, breathing in the fresh air, listening to the water nearby. She thought of Point Pleasant, of the bridge, of the chill in the air. But nothing happened. Her hands still felt tingly, but she couldn't feel the change in her body the way she had before. "I can't do it," she told Ethan finally. "I mean, I feel something, but it's kind of faint, like I'm trying to get an engine to start and it just keeps making that grinding noise, you know? You try now."
Ethan grinned and laughed softly at the comparison, finding it appropriate. He could almost feel her trying, which was a weird sensation in itself. Scientifically, he wondered about all the variables in the equation and how they needed to be arranged—which ones of them could open the door, which could close it, did they need to be touching, was it just their hands—but operating on the fly he did what felt natural. “Okay,” he said, and rubbed his hands together as he looked back at the door. He focused on it getting smaller and smaller, visualizing it until it actually happened, and almost instantly the portal shrunk in on itself and disappeared. “I did it,” he said, finally taking a breath. Ethan grinned and looked back at her. “You wanna try and re-open it, just so we know we can?” He wanted to look around a bit, but he’d feel better doing so knowing that they had a way home when they were ready for it.
It just seemed so easy. Almost too easy, really. Jules was waiting for the downside, for the consequences. There had to be some. She didn't even feel like she needed to throw up, the way she had before. She had odd sensations in her hands, but they weren't hurting her now. Looking around, she waited for something, anything to rise up, claws and teeth and blood. But it seemed to be just them and the air smelled fragrant and warm. "I feel like I'm dreaming," she told Ethan, a breathless sort of laugh escaping her. Since he was there with her now, and she knew what she needed, Jules walked over to him to take his hand in hers. He didn't seem to need to touch her to close the doorway but she was afraid to try and open it without him. What if it was painful again without his help? Jules didn't want to find out. So she clutched his hand and focused, feeling that warmth spread through her again as the world parted in front of them. She could see the covered bridge in the distance, illuminated in the dark by the moon. Jules laughed again, her cheeks turning pink as pleasure surged through her. "Holy shit. This is so crazy. It's just so different than what had been happening to me. I can't believe this."
There was a spike in Ethan’s adrenaline when Jules took his hand, but he knew in his core that the door was still there. He could feel it himself and when it appeared again he whooped with joy. “This is so fucking cool,” Ethan laughed and pulled her to him in a little half hug, unable to help himself. This was everything he’d hoped for and more, the opportunity he’d been waiting for finally here. It was going to change his life. “It’s gotta be ‘cause we’re together. You must’ve been feeling sick because you were trying to take it all on yourself.” That wasn’t how it had worked for him—he couldn’t do anything without her, but what did he know? You could force a door open without a key, but a key did nothing without a door, so it kind of made sense in his head. It was always going to frustrate him that he couldn’t do anything on his own, but now that he’d found Jules it didn’t matter as much, so long as she wanted to keep doing this. And with a world like this to explore, he couldn’t imagine she wouldn’t want to.
Jules didn't mind the brief hug, even if he was still mostly a stranger to her. Sharing something like this sort of erased all the potential awkwardness that came with getting to know someone. Ethan was right though. Maybe she had been sick and in pain because she was forcing something to happen without him there. Though it wasn't like she had been trying to do it, except for when they had been on Witcham Road. There were so many unanswered questions lingering in her mind but those could wait. Jules turned away from the dark night of Point Pleasant to look back at the water and flowers. Pulling away from Ethan, she started walking through the flowers, just to get a better look at everything. This looked more normal than the other doorways had, tough she was still mindful that looks could be deceiving. "I wonder if any of those could survive if we took like, a flower with us back to your uncle." Jules glanced over at Ethan. "Unless you think we should keep this part a secret."
Ethan began to walk around as well, stepping over to the water and cautiously dipping his fingers in it. It was cool and refreshing, clear the bottom, and seemed completely harmless as far as he could tell. He kept expecting something horrible to happen, because there was always that possibility, but this place seemed safe so far, like their own little bubble of serenity. Jules's question required a moment of thought and he took a seat in the grass, running his fingers through it as he considered his options. "I think... if you're willing to do this again, then maybe it'd be better if he didn't know we've already done it. Just 'cause-- I'd really like to avoid the lecture about how dangerous this all is. But yeah, we should take something back, just to see if we can. Each dimension might be different, but it's worth a try."
Jules nodded, because she understood. She wouldn't want to be lectured either. This was something they could do. She didn't want someone else trying to control her or boss her around. Considering she had been dealing with this more or less on her own for months, she had no desire to suddenly become someone else's guinea pig. That didn't mean she wouldn't help them or let them ask her questions, but... Jules Cooper was no one's science experiment. Hesitating briefly, Jules moved to sit down next to Ethan. She pulled her hat from her head since it was warmer in this place and she reached up to make sure her hair wasn't all static-y. "I'm still just trying to comprehend what I'm seeing," Jules murmured. She set her hat down in the grass and reached out to finger one of the flowers nearby. It was a deep red, but didn't look like a rose. She wasn't really sure what it was, but it was pretty and felt soft against her fingertips. "This is dangerous though. We could have unleashed something bad. But I think I just needed to know I could do this without hurting anyone else. I know you said I wasn't a freak, but I've been feeling like one for a long time."
“Yeah, I mean, it’d freak me out too if I could just randomly do this and no one told me why, no matter how cool this place is,” Ethan said. “I imagine it’d be a lot worse if it was some place bad, like—like the place you’ve mentioned.” The portal out on Witcham Road. He knew that was what she’d been scared of, that they’d open a place like that. A part of him was curious, but he wasn’t stupid enough to go knocking on that door on purpose, not without some kind of insurance that they wouldn’t get themselves killed. There’d been a risk that they’d open that door tonight, but they’d been lucky. So far, this place seemed harmless. “You have any idea why it happened? Like… how did you shut it last time?” When they’d gotten out to Witcham Road the portal had definitely been shut. If Jules couldn’t do it this time, how had she forced it last time? Ethan realized she wasn’t going to be able to answer all these questions. He just wanted to understand.
Jules wasn't really sure how much she wanted to tell him tonight. There was a part of her that didn't want to talk about Witcham Road at all, or the school, or what she and Greg had seen. But Jules was coming to realize that Ethan was in the same boat as she was. He might have been a stranger, but he understood. "Like I said, it's a long story," Jules said. She started to pick idly at the grass beneath her, noting how much softer it felt than the grass in Point Pleasant. It was oddly comforting, feeling it slide between her fingers. "The first two times it happened, I didn't have any control. I don't know how I shut them, only that I did because... because I had to, or I would probably have died. And I had friends with me too, so I needed to keep them safe. Those were both pretty traumatic moments. What happened on Witcham Road was different. I knew I had to open that door, and I knew I had to close it. Did you hear about the fog that sort of shut down our town in December? That sort of played into everything that happened on Witcham. There's so much more to it, Ethan, but I don't really want to talk about it too much right now. A lot of people got hurt because of me." Her throat was feeling tight and dry so Jules swallowed, looking away from him to watch the waterfall. "I wish I had known about you earlier."
“Sorry, I don’t mean to keep bringing it up,” Ethan said with a small pang of guilt. He didn’t want to hurt her further just to satisfy his curiosity. His uncle had always said that there were things that happened in Point Pleasant that defied all reasonable explanation, at least as far as they knew so far. It seemed like that played a part what happened, at least as far as the fog was concerned, and maybe more of it. He might never know. “I wish I’d known about you, too. Maybe I could have helped. At least… I’m here now. And hopefully nothing like that will ever happen again.” He wanted to promise her everything would be better now, but he knew that would sound hollow. He doubted he could have stopped her from summoning whatever world she’d brought up on Witcham Road, but maybe he could have shut the door for her so it would stop opening unexpectedly.
"It's okay," Jules said, giving him a small smile. "I know you're curious. I would be too. It's just, what happened on Witcham Road, it's like... it affected a lot of people. I just wanted to help and maybe I did, but in a way I made it worse." She couldn't bring herself to mention Neil, Nic or Carson. Carson was gone, and Neil and Nic didn't need to be drawn into whatever this turned out to be. In fact, if Wilkes was right and Neil took part in the part that killed her dad? She didn't want to ever see his face again anyway. "It felt out of my hands." Jules huffed out a small laugh and held her hands up briefly before lowering them back to her lap. "And I promise I'll tell you about it sometime, I just kind of want to enjoy this." This world. The flowers and warmth and pretty sky. It was nothing like the other worlds and she wanted to bask in the fact that there may be more worlds out there like this one.
“Me too,” Ethan said, giving her a small smile. “I almost…don’t want to show this place to my uncle. Like, I want to show him some place, but not this one.” It was so pristine and peaceful that he kind of hated to think of all the scientists coming in and trampling the flowers as they ran their tests. He didn’t like to think of that happening, but he knew it was part of the reality of the situation. AIR would want to explore the worlds they opened. He kind of wanted to keep this one to themselves. “I wonder how many are out there, and how we pick them. If where we are matters, or if we can enter one place from anywhere if we know what to ask for. There’s so much I don’t know. It’s kind of weird to think that no one really has the answers.” They would just have to figure it all out from trial and error.
Jules really didn't want to show Ethan's uncle any of this. While she wanted answers and a way to control it all, she felt weird bringing more people into the situation. The sense that she could become nothing more than a science experiment was still strong even if she felt a bit more comfortable with Ethan. "I guess we'll find the answers to those questions as we go," Jules said finally. "And... we don't have to tell your uncle about this. I don't even know if we'll be able to find this place again after we leave it. But if we can, we can keep this one for ourselves. They can have everything else."
Ethan smiled, pleased that she’d agreed, though he didn’t think she had any reason to argue. He knew she was skeptical about AIR, but he thought they were their best chance at figuring this all out safely. They’d been lucky this time, but there was always a chance they might open a world that was bursting with monsters. He knew that, for some people, the easy solution would be not to do it at all, to just let their abilities go dormant, but he thought the opportunities for scientific exploration and advancement made it worth the risk. “Thanks for doing this,” he said after a moment’s pause. “I know it’s probably not how you’d like to spend your Friday night, but… I’ve been wanting to try this for a really long time. I hope we can do it again sometime.”
Lifting her gaze to the sky, Jules couldn't help but laugh a little. "Lately my Friday nights have been spent hiding in my bed." And she realized how lame that made her sound, like she was some kind of social pariah, but Jules hadn't been able to care about her self-image lately. What did any of it matter? "I mean, besides school and my mom bringing me to your uncle's house, I haven't really left my room much since January. My friends think I've like, gone crazy or something. Which is probably way more than you needed to know." Jules smiled faintly at Ethan. "Anyway, yeah, we can try this again. Maybe the more we do this, the more we'll figure out." Jules paused. "Do you want to stay here for a bit longer? Or... we could get some food. I haven't eaten much today."
Ethan again wished he could have found Jules sooner, thinking that maybe he could have prevented some of the negative side effects of her abilities. All he could do was hope to change the course now, and hopefully steer her towards a brighter future. That shouldn’t be too hard, considering how awful she made things sound. No one should spend their senior year hiding away in their room, at least in his opinion. “It’s okay,” he said, shooting her a small smile. “Why don’t we pick a couple flowers, then go and grab dinner? I didn’t get a chance to eat before this, so I’m starving.” In all honesty, he hadn’t been completely sure that he wouldn’t feel the side effects of her nausea and hadn’t wanted to try this on a full stomach. The last thing they needed was them both vomiting.
Things were awful and she had no idea how to make any of them better. Jules knew she wasn't the best company and she wasn't exactly Jules Cooper right now, but she couldn't force herself to be happy, or to be someone else. Thankfully Ethan didn't seem to mind... probably because he didn't know the person she used to be. She looked over at the flowers and then nodded. "Yeah, we can do that." Getting to her feet, Jules walked over to pluck a couple of the pink flowers from their stems. They felt like normal flowers and yet... like something else. Something More, but not in a scary way. "Have you ever been to Moxie's? They have some good diner food. If you're into greasy stuff." She wasn't thinking about the fact that it was a Friday night, and some of her friends might be there. Even if it had occured to her, she probably wouldn't have cared. It had been a while since Jules Cooper had made people talk so... let them talk.
Ethan rose to his feet and picked a couple of flowers for himself, turning them over in his fingers as he examined them. He knew his uncle would love to run tests on them, but he wanted to keep this place to themselves, at least for now, and the chance that these specific flowers were going to somehow save the world seemed rather slim. With those in hand, he stepped towards the portal and waited for Jules. “I’ve seen it, but I’ve never actually been there. I could always go for a good burger though,” Ethan smiled. It might not be good for him, but he kept himself in decent shape and one greasy burger wasn’t a big deal. It would be a nice chance to get to know her better, something that was far easier to achieve without her mother and his uncle watching over them during a fancy dinner.
She had met Ethan at his uncle's house, to talk about AIR and their abilities. And now they had spent some time in this place, surrounded by things that looked Earthly and natural, but weren't. The flower in her hand might wilt and die as soon as Ethan closed the doorway, but if it did, at least they knew what the boundaries were. Now they could go somewhere normal, somewhere that was familiar to Jules. That might help them to open up to each other a bit more. Jules didn't plan on spilling her guts to the guy, but if they were really bonded by this, she wanted to know who he was, and if he was worth the chaos all of this could potentially cause them. "They definitely have good burgers," Jules said, moving away from the green grass and flowers and stepping over into the gray darkness that was Point Pleasant. "It's like, the only place I'll eat that kind of food. So worth the extra workout." She had dropped out of cheerleading weeks ago, but she was still trying to stay in shape. Sort of. Maybe she was staying lean because she hadn't had much of an appetite. Whatever worked, she supposed. Jules waited, wanting to watch Ethan close to the portal first. "Do you want to drive with me and I can bring you back to your car later?"
Once they were both through the portal, Ethan turned back towards it, took a deep breath, and shut the portal. Just that one little action brought such satisfaction that he couldn't help but smile. Maybe he couldn't open them by himself, but he could shut them and that was something. Ethan looked down at the otherworldly flowers in his hand, half expecting them to shrivel up or turn to dust, but they remained, at least for now. He suspected it depended on the world and the object in transit, but that was yet to be seen. He was just glad these flowers survived. "I'll just follow you. I don't wanna leave my car in the middle of nowhere," he said, zipping his coat back up now that they were back in the cold of the real world. It was such a weird change and it made him wonder if they could find a world where it was summer. Taking a little vacation in the dead of winter would be nice. Ethan took his keys out of his pocket. "See you in a few?"
And just like that, it was gone. No burning in her hands, no nausea. Jules could only think about how this might have changed everything had she known Ethan before the fog... but he hadn't appeared in their dreams. There had been something else at work there, so it was possible he wouldn't have been able to help her at all. It wasn't something she wanted to think about at the moment. For all she knew, AIR was monitoring them still and maybe they knew a doorway had been opened again. It was probably better to leave now than linger and find out. Turning away from where their doorway had been, Jules nodded at Ethan and walked toward her car, the flower still in her hand. Inside her car, she set it on the dashboard, staring at it for a moment before starting up her car to drive back into town and to Moxie's.
Everything seemed to be relatively close in Point Pleasant, so the drive wasn't a long one, and Moxie's appeared to be a popular place. The restaurant wasn't so packed that they couldn't get a booth, but it was far more full than Ethan would have expected. It was very retro, and cozy, and Ethan decided he liked it on principle. A group of girls, some of them in cheer uniforms turned to look at them when they came in and Ethan smiled in their direction, then took a seat across from Jules in an available booth. "Hoppin' place," he smiled as he took off his jacket and set it beside him in the booth. "Did you miss a game tonight?"
As soon as Jules pulled up to Moxie's and recognized the cars in the parking lot she had to fight the urge to just drive away. She knew people were already whispering about her but if she walked in there with Ethan, that would be throwing fuel onto an already blazing fire. But the panic lasted for only a moment or two because she honestly didn't care what everyone else thought. Not anymore. So she walked into Moxie's with Ethan and sat down, doing her best to avoid looking over at the familiar table where she used to sit every Friday night after a game. It wasn't like they had shunned her or anything. Jules had pretty much shut everyone out. It was just easier that way.
She shrugged out of her coat and pulled her scarf off, giving Ethan a small smile. "Not really. I mean, there was a basketball game tonight. But I quit cheer squad a few weeks ago, which would have been the only reason I'd be there anyway, unless I was dating someone on the team. Which I'm not." She plucked a menu from the holder just to have something to do with her hands. "You had to have played basketball right?"
“Yeah,” Ethan smiled. “All four years. And football too, though it was more just something for me to do in the off season. Basketball was definitely more my sport.” That was something he missed about high school; even if he’d gone away to college, his days of team sports were over. The guys still got together to play a few hoops occasionally, but it wasn’t the same as playing an actual game. He wanted to ask why she’d quit cheering, but he had the feeling it all traced back to the thing she didn’t want to talk about, so he steered clear of that topic. “What else you get up to around here?”
That wasn't surprising. She was guessing he had been a pretty good athlete too. Maybe he had been the Sebastian McCarthy of Westbridge. Except for the gay part. Jules held onto the menu, giving him a rather thoughtful look. "Oh... well, it depends on the weather. There are usually bonfires at the beach during the summer, weekend parties and stuff like that. In the winter our choices are pretty limited, so we come to Moxie's, obviously." She gestured towards the crowd of her classmates at the other end of the diner. "There's a karaoke bar here now too, and an arcade, if that's your thing. We don't have a ton of options so we kind of have to make our own fun. And that usually involves alcohol." Jules huffed a small laugh and set the menu down on the table. "What about you? Tell me about Westbridge."
“A karaoke bar sounds like fun. We’ve got a bowling alley, but that’s not exactly exciting,” Ethan said with a little laugh. “Entertainment’s pretty much the same, lots of house parties and shit. I think the only thing we have going for us is we have this outdoor amphitheater called The Backyard. It's got live music sometimes, or plays, but it’s pretty dead this time of year. I feel like that’s the case with everything. The orchard’s closed, nobody wants to be outside at the pier, and I’m not old enough to frequent the three bars in town. I’m seriously looking forward to the snow melting.” There would be lots to do once it was warm enough to spend some real time outside. It wasn’t all that bad now, but he was sick of winter.
"I think I've been to that bowling alley before, back when I was a freshman." Back when she and her friends had wanted to do more than make out with boys and drink. "The Backyard sounds cool though. The only live entertainment we get here is on the boardwalk when local musicians play. I mean, I guess you could count the karaoke bar, but I don't know if you could really consider that music." Jules paused when the waitress appeared to take their order. Since they were there for greasy food Jules got a cheeseburger too, with onion rings and a sweet tea. She would hate herself in the morning, but what else was new? "You guys have an orchard?" Jules asked, once they were alone again. "What kind?"
“All the events I’ve been to on the boardwalk have been pretty fun. I know there’s supposed to be something next week for St. Patrick’s Day. I thought I might come over for that. We should meet up, if you’re not doing anything,” Ethan suggested. If not, he’d drag some friends over with him. Even if they couldn’t drink green beer, it was a chance to hang out in a festive atmosphere. When the waitress came by, Ethan ordered himself a burger and fries with a soda, opting not to get the milkshake even though it was supposedly amazing. There was only so much he could fit into a meal without feeling overly stuffed and he had the feeling that the milkshake was a meal in itself. “The orchard’s primarily apples. They’ve got four different varieties, hence the name Four Point Orchard, but I forget which four. I know one of them’s Granny Smith. They also have berries, and pumpkins in the fall. You ever been apple picking?”
"I'm pretty sure I'm not doing anything, so yeah, if you decide to come, just text me." Jules hadn't really been all that social lately and St. Patrick's Day was only good for drinking, which she couldn't do legally anyway. That didn't mean she couldn't sneak something into a coffee cup or something. Maybe getting wasted was something that would help her feel better. Jules shook her head at his questions, her lips twitching at the edges. "I've never been apple picking. I could just imagine what my mom would say if I came home with a bag full of apples.But I went with some friends to a pumpkin patch a few years ago. We were stupid and had a drunken pumpkin carving contest. Nobody got seriously hurt but there were some band-aids used." Honestly, she sort of missing stupid things like that. Where she felt invincible, like nothing could ever hurt her.
“I haven’t been apple picking since I was, like, twelve. I think it’s usually all families and couples, which I guess could be fun, if you had cider and maybe made pie afterwards. Or maybe that’s too much work. Most of the girls I’ve dated wouldn’t be into it,” Ethan said. It was hard to picture any of the girls he’d hung out with doing anything that might result in them getting dirty, or put them in the kitchen, but he could kind of see the appeal. “I carve a pumpkin every year though. It’s Halloween tradition,” he smiled. Even if he was too old to trick or treat, there was always something to do that time of year. It was this dead space between new year’s and spring that made the days feel like they lasted forever.
Jules tried to imagine her mom and Edward taking Jules and Jason apple picking when they were kids. It was such a foreign concept... family outings. As was picturing her mom in an orchard, tugging apples off a tree. Margaret would just complain about potentially ruining her manicure. To be fair, Jules would probably freak out about her manicure too. Which reminded her... she probably needed one. Jules resisted the urge to look at her nails. She had neglected them as much as everything else over the last couple of months. "I can't bake," Jules admitted with a sheepish smile. "I can buy pies though. And... probably heat them up. Honestly, if we had an orchard here, we'd probably use it to sneak into after dark and smoke pot or something." Their drinks were set down in front of them and Jules picked up her straw to start peeling the wrapper off. "What kind of things would the girls you've dated be into?"
“It wouldn’t surprise me to hear there’s enough pot smoked in the orchard to get high off the apples,” Ethan snickered. Personally, he preferred some place a little less public, but he knew for certain there were groups that liked to sneak out to the orchard, something that was much more easily done when it wasn’t picking season. “I don’t bake. I don’t really cook either. I’ve heard I’ll need to learn if I ever move out, which I hope to do eventually.” He just didn’t know when. He assumed it was when he went to college, but then there’d be dorm food to rely on. He smiled at the question about the sort of girls he’d dated, but also rolled his eyes. “I dunno. Instagram. Likes on Instagram. Shopping and brand names I’ve never heard of. Looking back, I honestly don’t know what we had in common, other than going to the same school.” He hadn’t been looking for anything serious, but then that had only been half the problem. He’d been physically attracted to them, but past that there was nothing else that really clicked.
Jules couldn't help but smile a little at the image of getting high off of eating an apple. How many of her friends would bring those apples to school? Probably most. Taking a sip of her sweet tea, Jules realized that the things Ethan listed were all things she liked. Or used to. Jules was sure that girl was still inside of her somewhere and occasionally she tried to pretend like the last several months had never happened. She wanted to go shopping and obsess over her social media and all that stuff. It was just too exhausting to pretend, so she had stopped. "What would you rather they be into?" Jules asked, mostly because she wanted to keep the conversation from delving into serious subjects again. It was nice to have a lighter topic, to shut her brain off of things that would only depress her, even if it was only for a little while.
“I dunno,” Ethan shrugged with a smile. “Something we could talk about. I don’t really expect ‘em to be into sports, though it’d be cool if they were, and my interest in the supernatural science shit isn’t exactly good conversation material. But maybe, um… something we like to watch on tv or something. Game of Thrones or The Good Place or even Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I’m just not super into reality tv. I’m sure there are other things. I just haven’t figured ‘em out yet, you know?” He’d often wondered what his parents had in common, since he’d never had a chance to see it first hand. If they hadn’t met in college, he wasn’t sure how they’d have even met. “It probably sounds like I’m a failure when it comes to relationships, but isn’t everyone a failure until they find the right person?”
That was the first time she had ever heard "supernatural science". It had never occurred to Jules that there could be science behind it all. She just assumed it was all scary and unexplainable. But she supposed that was what AIR was for, right? Finding answers. And considering the topic of conversation, Jules couldn't help but think about Jasper. They'd had absolutely nothing in common but for sex, but that had grown into something better. "I think... maybe being with someone who is totally different than you can be a good thing. I mean, obviously you should be able to do things together you both like doing, but maybe there are different experiences and new ways of looking at things, you know? And it doesn't sound like you're a failure at all. Even if a relationship doesn't last, if you still had fun or cared about the person, that means something. Break-ups suck, but I guess nothing lasts forever."
“Well, that’s a depressing thought,” Ethan said with a little laugh. “Horribly unromantic, but I guess it’s true. I know for sure that no one I dated in high school was my soul mate or anything like that. I cared about t’em while I was with them, and we had fun, and we’re still friends afterwards, so that says something, I guess.” Though the fact that neither of them had been crushed was probably evidence of how things mutually fizzled out. But then Ethan would rather them get bored of each other than have a dramatic breakup that resulted in tears and broken hearts. “I could be into new experiences though. I definitely don’t want someone who’s just like me.”
"Well... I guess it's not always about romance," Jules said with an amused huff. "And that's okay too. But it's good that you can be friends with your exes. One of my ex-boyfriend's became one of my closest friends after we broke up." The same couldn't be said for all of her exes, but that was okay too. Jules was kind of past caring or being resentful, or anything like that. All she wanted now was to have Jasper back. No one in the past mattered anymore. "Have you ever told anyone about what you can do? Or what they thought you could do? Any friends or anything like that?"
"Was that the one that turned out to be gay?" Ethan asked with a raise brow, though it didn't really matter. That was just the one ex that he knew about. He was curious about what kinds of guys she'd dated, but recalled that the most recent one was gone under unhappy circumstances and the last thing he wanted was to get on a topic that might upset her. It seemed like she'd been through enough already. Ethan shook his head, his smile fading a little. "No, no one would believe me. I'd just sound crazy. I mean, what would you think if one of your friends came to you and said, hey, I have these powers, but I can't show them to you. They don't really work. But I swear I have them." It sucked, but it was just something he'd come to accept. Until he had proof, there was no point in bringing it up.
"Yeah. but I kind of think maybe we would have become friends even without him being gay. That's just what sort of got us talking again." And as shallow as it was, Jules had been sort of relieved to find out that Bash had been gay because then that meant the only wrong with her in his eyes was that she was missing a dick. It certainly made the bitter string of rejection easier to accept. Well, that and having Jasper in her life. It always came back to him, didn't it? Jules twisted the straw wrapper around her finger, pausing a moment as their food was set down in front of them. She had to resist glancing over to the other tables where her friends were hanging out. "Honestly, in this town, at this point? I would say I believed them." She huffed another laugh. "I actually have a friend who can do stuff... nothing like what we can do, and he was able to show me too. So, I mean, maybe it's harder for people to believe if they can't see it for themselves, so I get what you're saying. It sucks that you don't have anyone in your life you can confide in though. You must have felt pretty lonely."
“Yeah, it… it definitely sucks. It’s like having to hide a part of who you are,” Ethan said, glad that food had been put in front of them. It made a suitable distraction from focusing on his feelings of isolation, something that felt a little heavy to get into here and now. He thought that Jules might understand, since they shared the ability, but maybe not if the people around her would’ve believed her. “Are things around here really that weird? Like, what do you mean you have a friend who can do things? Like a psychic?” It was a pretty generic term, but Ethan had never met anyone with any other abilities, despite his association with the institute. He knew they existed, his uncle wouldn’t have made that up, but it all felt intangible and distant until tonight.
Jules hadn't told many people about what had happened to her, but more than a couple knew about it at this point. Thankfully they were people she trusted, mostly. No one had come by since January to attack her or anything. Caius D'Onofrio had tried to get her to help him re-open that portal but he had left her alone after she told him no. At least, she thought he had. Sometimes when she thought about him, her head began to throb, like she was forgetting something important. "Oh, things around here are super weird," Jules said, her face breaking out in a rare smile. "It's probably hard to see for someone who only visits from time to time. But there is so much more going on here than just me." Grabbing an onion ring, Jules began to pick it apart over the plate. "My friend... they're not psychic. You probably don't know the history of Point Pleasant, like, with the people who got executed for being witches?" Jules popped a tiny piece of the fried onion into her mouth. "All that was totally real. And their descendents still live here."
“I knew that festival in the fall, but you’re telling me you’ve got real witches around here?” Ethan grinned. “Not, like, people who just got accused of it and died from paranoia, but real ones?” He’d been told they were real, but he’d never actually met one, which made them just like psychics—more legend than reality. He wasn’t sure if AIR treated them the same, but for him they were just as interesting. He would have loved to study them if that was a possibility. “I’ve heard some things, but it’s more like weird mutterings that don’t make any sense. Like, it seems like you guys have a lot of bizarre accidents.” Not a lot of news from Point Pleasant made its way to Westbridge, or maybe he just hadn’t been paying attention. He’d always thought it was just another town, but if what Jules was saying was true, then it was worth looking into.
Jules nodded to confirm that yes, they did indeed have witches. She just couldn't tell them who because those weren't her secrets to tell. Or, Sebastian's secret wasn't hers to tell. She found she didn't really care if she told him about Nic, or Caius D'Onofrio, or Reagan Kelly. "We have a lot of weird things that happen here. Accidents... disappearances. People say Point Pleasant is cursed, which I'm sort of thinking is probably true." Jules trailed off and grimaced slightly. "I probably sound crazy now. But I swear it's true. The longer you're here, the more you'll see it too. I'd be really surprised if your uncle didn't know all that already. He seems to know plenty about this place."
“My friends might think you sound crazy. I don’t,” Ethan told her. “I’m the weirdo who kind of wants to see it for himself, even though I’d probably regret it.” He was sure his uncle knew tons more than what he’d shared with Ethan, but maybe he could talk him into divulging a bit now that he had some kind of leverage. He wanted to better understand how Point Pleasant played into AIR and if he really thought there was a connection, or if they just happened to be adjacent to each other. “I know there’s a lot he can’t tell me due to patient confidentiality and stuff, but I feel like things that pertain to the town should be a bit more open for discussion. Makes me wonder though— if it is cursed, can the curse be broken?” It would be an interesting thing to study. Perhaps that was why AIR was there.
Jules could understand the curiosity of wanting to see the "weird" stuff just to confirm it existed, but having seen what she had seen... she could confidently say she wished she had remained totally oblivious to all of it. All she wanted was her "old" life back. Jules supposed if she agreed to let Mr. Wilkes take a look at her, and what she could do, maybe she would be told what they did know about Point Pleasant. And if they were really trying to help people like her, or hurt them. So far Jules hadn't felt threatened by Wilkes, or Ethan. Quite the opposite, actually. It was nice having people who actually understood her. Jules took a bite of her cheeseburger, trying to ignore the instinct to think about how hard she'll have to exercise later. She wasn't cheering anymore but she still didn't want to get fat. After swallowing and wiping her mouth, Jules shrugged. "I don't know what kind of curse it is. I don't know if it's like, a witch's curse? Or just... something evil that lives here. I'm starting to think there are just some places that are bad, like... rotten. And you can't do anything about it."
"Yeah, I guess that could be true. It would suck though. I like to think that if there's something evil lurking around, that we'd have a way to fight it, but I know that's not always the case." Ethan knew there was a lot out there in the world that he was unaware of, but he hadn't considered the possibility of a town just being evil. Like it was something in the dirt, permeating everything it touched. It sounded unrealistic, but he'd kind of lost his gauge for what could be real now that they'd successfully opened a portal. Anything seemed possible. "So when are you getting out of here? Going anywhere exciting?" he asked before digging into his burger.
Some things were just impossible to fight. Jules knew that for a fact. But she felt like maybe she was being a total downer, talking about Point Pleasant in such a cynical way. But it had been really hard to find anything to be happy about lately so Jules knew she needed to try and pull herself out of the funk she'd been in. She could potentially get some answers about her abilities, and maybe she had even found a friend who could help her through it, just like she could help him. Raising a brow, Jules sipped her tea to wash down another bite of onion ring. "Get out of here? You mean... Point Pleasant?" A few months ago she would have had a plan in place. College, either at the University of Maine, or California, since she had eventually applied there... but now? "I don't know," she admitted, looking down at her food. "College seems a bit, like, out of reach at the moment, you know? I don't even know that I want to leave anymore. Is that weird? I bet you're dying to get out of Westbridge."
“Some days yes, some days no,” Ethan said, stopping to wash down a bite of burger with a sip of soda. “I like the idea of moving to a big city, but I’ve never been anywhere bigger than Bangor. And I want to study at the institute, which kind of prevents me from going anywhere far. If you’d asked me a couple of weeks ago, I’d have probably told you I’d be heading to a real university this fall, but now? What we did tonight kind of changes everything for me.” His uncle would want to explore the possibilities that accessing another realm would allow. Maybe he’d still leave for college, but if that was the case he suspected the institute would pay to fly him back home once a month. Which could be exciting, but also annoying. “I kind of need to see how this all plays out. It might just make more sense to stay close for now. But then, if you leave, I might as well, too. Which kind of sounds creepy, but they’re not going to get much with just me hanging around. They’ve already proven that.”