Caught Off Guard Who: Lydia and Justin Where: The Market When: Afternoon
With the chaos of the last few days, Lydia was glad for things to start getting back to normal. It had also given her great inspiration to paint, and so she went to the market, just to see if anything was new. Even if there was, she wasn’t entirely sure how she would buy it, but maybe she could track down Skylar and see if he’d grab it for her. It wasn’t something to worry about unless she found something she just had to had. She just liked being out and about, acting like a normal human even if she wasn’t.
With things starting to settle down again, Justin had realized that morning that his cabinets were woefully bare. He hadn't had much time to eat or sleep, let alone keep supplies stocked in his house. So after spending the morning at the diner, Justin headed toward the market, lost in thought and trying to remember what he needed at the same time. He spent some time wandering, not at all interested in actually shopping and loathing the necessity of it. At some point he glanced over at the sight of a brunette, more in passing really, but then he paused, giving her another look as the spark of recognition began to dawn on him. She looked familiar to him, in a way that went beyond the possibility of her simply being a regular at Eatzy's.
Forgetting about supplies now, Justin began to walk toward her, determined to see her up close so he could try and figure out why the sight of this supposed stranger left him feeling slightly uneasy.
Lydia frowned, feeling the hair on the back of her neck begin to stand up. It was the feeling that someone was looking at her, that she was being watched, and she immediately began to look around to see who it might be. When she spotted Justin, her eyes widened slightly and she took a step back, then another, and before she knew it she was trying to get away. In her hurry, she forgot that she could make herself invisible, doing what any human would do, attempt to shuffle through the surround people, rather than walk right through them.
He hadn't expected that. She had looked right at him and now she was hurrying off, like Justin might hurt her for some reason. Of course, he was more concerned by the fact that he knew her face. He was just trying to remember from where, and that was only because of the confusion of her reaction distracting his memory. "Hey," Justin called out, picking up pace to try and catch up to her. He could only hope the people around them didn't think he was chasing her... well, he was, but without malicious intent.
She wasn’t sure what to do, whether to turn and face him or find some place to hide. Her plan had been to haunt him until he figured out who she was, and then… she wasn’t sure. Because she’d spent so long invisible around him, she hadn’t thought about what might happen if she ran into him somewhere. Lydia kept moving, though didn’t completely break into a run, as if she didn’t know he was calling after her. Why would he? He didn’t even remember her name…
The more she tried to ignore him, the more determined Justin was to catch up. He was quick and had that instinctive feeling that he wouldn't lose track of her. The fact that she was trying to get away from him told Justin that there was something there, that she knew him somehow, even if he couldn't quite place her. Maybe he would be able to if she stopped and he got a decent look at her. He was closing the distance between them and starting to realize that she was young. Like in her teens young. "Hey," he called again, more firmly this time.
Lydia looked over her shoulder to see if he was still coming, but he was still there. Persistent bastard! She tried not to look like she was being chased, afraid that drawing attention to herself would be worse than running, but not wanting to face him at the same time. She wasn’t prepared for that confrontation. Sure, it had to happen at some point. She couldn’t haunt him forever… or maybe she could. She hadn’t thought that far in advance. Either way, he was closing in and she hadn’t figured out what to do that wouldn’t give her away completely.
Okay, this was just getting ridiculous. At that moment, Justin didn't care if the people around them thought he was chasing her down. He pushed past a few people and finally broke free. Before he knew it, he was behind her, reaching out to take her arm to make her stop and look at him. Only there was nothing solid to grab onto, despite his best efforts. His hand went right through her elbow. Justin stared at his hand and slowed down. Because what the fuck. Was she a ghost?
Though there was nothing solid about her, she felt his hand go through her, knew that he’d attempted to make contact. At that moment she stopped and turned towards him, eyes wide, not with fear, but with anger. “You got me. Are you happy?” she snapped. “Do you even know why you’re chasing me?” She wanted to lash out at him, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good.
Yeah, she was a ghost. She looked real, but she wasn't. Justin got a good look at her face then, lowering his hand to his side. It did take him a second or two, but recognition finally dawned on him. "I knew you," Justin said, torn between feeling shock and confusion. "You were part of the group, before the domes." And even though he had killed a lot of zombies before Delphi opened, Justin remembered her. They had all been attacked, she had been bitten, and he had killed her. It shamed him on some level that he couldn't recall her name properly.
“You killed me!” she snapped, the color draining from her face, from her entire body, as the bullet hole in her forehead became visible. She could feel the blood dripping down her face, as if it just happened, but she knew better than to mess with it. She could only imagine what the back of her head looked like, and in thinking about it managed to shatter her own skull. “You left me for dead! You took my gun! And- and why? Why do you get to live when I had to die?!”
It was rare for Justin to ever be rendered speechless, but the image that formed before him was horrific. It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before. Justin had seen some really fucked up shit outside Delphi. But being reminded of it was different. Justin blinked rapidly and resisted the urge to reach up to wipe the blood from her face. He remembered she wasn't really there. Just a ghost. "You were bitten," Justin said finally, wondering why it felt like such a flimsy excuse when it had been the truth. She had been doomed already. "You were bitten," he repeated, staring at the bullet hole in her head and feeling something akin to guilt start to seep into his system.
“Do you see any bites on me?” She asked, holding out her arms. Sure, she was close to being bitten. She’d definitely been attacked, scratched, and bloodied in the processes. And it had occurred to her more than once that it was probably an honest mistake. But it was a mistake that had gotten her killed and the second she remembered that the bitterness returned. She could and would hold it against him, especially when he didn’t remember her. “You were wrong. And since then, I’ve been stuck following your sorry ass around.”
Justin was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Lydia was standing there, as a ghost, talking to him. He was accepting of a lot of things lately. He had to be, considering his sister was a vampire, and he had been turned into a werewolf... but this was just so damn surreal. Justin lifted his gaze from her arms to her face. "I didn't see a bullet hole a few seconds ago either," Justin pointed out. Not that he was calling her a liar, but if she could change her appearance...His brows drew together quickly and he shook his head. "Wait... why the fuck would you want to follow me around? It... it's you, isn't it? All that weird shit going on in my house... you're the one haunting me." And Jesus, did it really take him that long to figure it out?