Henry Townshend is a ghost magnet (room_302) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-07-15 17:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, henry townshend, leon orcot |
Who: Henry and Leon
What: Meeting at the Grocery Store
When: Before Leon got shot
Where: Local grocery store
Rating/Warnings Lowish - Henry is attacked by a ghost
Status: Complete!
Henry didn’t believe in ghosts. He hadn’t been raised to be religious and as far as he was concerned when you died that was just it. The spirit didn’t linger on waiting to cross over, or whatever. But try to explain that to the thing that was currently following him through the grocery store.
He had seen it come through one of the walls from the back. It’s feet dangled several inches above the ground and it’s arms just hung at its sides. Hollow looking dead eyes peered out of sunken sockets, peering about as if looking for something. Henry had watched with growing fascination as it floated around the deli counter, occasionally gliding through it and the poor pock-faced teen cutting meat with the slicer. The teen didn’t seem to notice it. In fact, no one in the entire busy store did.
When Henry had tried to get closer, the creature -- ghost if you wanted to call it that -- seemed to notice him. Instantly it started floating towards him and emitted a strange groaning noise that reminded him a lot of the creatures in his Dreams. It was then that Henry decided maybe he’d done enough shopping for the day.
He quickly tried to make his way through the aisles. He didn’t run. No one else saw the ghost and Henry figured he’d have a hard time explaining to anyone why he was running through the store like a crazy person. The ghost followed after him persistently, passing through the stocked shelves and making that awful moaning noise. The closer it got, the more anxious Henry became. His head started to ache and his vision blurred. He didn’t see the grocery cart in front of him until he’d run into it.
Chris stood, holding the box of Cookie Crisp tightly to his chest, glaring up at Leon with a look of pure determination.
“Absolutely not,” Leon said firmy. “That shit is going to rot your teeth. Besides, it’s a terrible breakfast. You eat that shit and you’ll be hungry way before lunch time.”
Chris didn’t budge. All the other kids at school eat it, he said, his words sounding directly into Leon’s head.
“And if all the other kids at school jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” Leon retorted, only realizing belatedly how much like his father he sounded in that moment. Man, he was getting old.
I bet Alex would like it too, Chris added slyly, and Leon frowned. Well, Chris was probably right. The man who forced Leon to eat a doughnut burger the first time they’d intentionally gotten together to hang out would probably enjoy cookie flavoured cardboard floating around in milk in the morning. His tastebuds seemed to lean more toward a six-year-old than any 21-year-olds taste should.
But Chris knew he’d won, and as he went to put the cereal in the shopping cart, Leon made a mental note to do his grocery shopping on his own from now on. Chris was just about to drop the cereal into the cart, when someone ran full-tilt into it, and Leon’s hand shot out to stop the cart from hitting his younger brother.
“Hey!” he roard, turning toward the guy. “Watch where you’re - are you okay?” he asked, the heat immediately leaving his voice. Whoever he was, he sure didn’t look okay.
Henry had been going a lot faster than he thought – a point that was hammered home when the shopping cart caught him right in the center of his abdomen. It caught that sweet spot just under the sternum that made the air whoosh out of his lungs.
He was of the presence of mind to realize what he’d hit and that he should apologize. He gasped out an “I’m sorry” that sounded far more earnest than a man (admittedly freaked out) trying to catch his breath should be able to manage. However, the delay was just what the ghost needed to catch-up. It phased through the shelving unit a few feet behind Henry and honed in on him as though the man had a magnet strapped to his ass. It moaned that horrible sounding noise before reaching out and thrusting both of its arms into Henry’s back straight up to its elbows.
For Henry it felt as though he’d been impaled on two large spikes then came the feeling of being chilled from the inside out. Henry had no way of knowing that the ghost was feeding off his energy and by doing so was rapidly depleting Henry’s own health, but he did know that something was very, extremely, wrong. He could feel the ghost inside him. He grasped hold of anything to keep from falling, the something being the shopping card, which did little as Henry tried to pull himself away. He couldn’t breathe and his vision started to fuzz and dim.
“Chris, I need you to go get an employee and make them call an ambulance,” he said, keeping his voice calm as he made his way around the shopping cart, and when Chris reminded Leon, mentally, that he couldn’t speak, Leon added “Well, you can write, can’t you? The hell are they teaching you in school?”
He made his way to Henry’s side as Chris took off running down the aisle, and grabbed his arm to help keep him supported. “Hey, you don’t look so good. Are you okay?” he asked again, wishing that Alex was here. Alex would no doubt know what to do, more than Leon would. He shook the man. “Get ahold of yourself, maaaaAAAAAAHHH,” he said, his voice rising up to a yell. He grabbed the guy to yank him away from the… whatever the hell it was that had just appeared behind him. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!”
Henry tried to tell the man who had suddenly grabbed hold of him that no, he was not ok, but he couldn’t get air through his throat to actually speak. Then the guy was shaking him. Then the guy was screaming. The next thing Henry knew, he was yanked forward. The ghost’s arms slid out of his back and instantly, Henry could breathe again. His head still pounded, but his vision was only slightly fuzzed. He grasped hold of the man who had saved him and looked back to see the ghost still hovering just behind him.
It was giving the other man a baleful look, but it seemed satisfied with the energy it had managed to get. It hovered backwards before turning and taking off through the shelves again, this time being just corporeal enough to shake the unit and cause a handful of items to tumble onto the floor.
“Th-thanks,” Henry gasped out once he was able to breathe enough again to speak.
Leon held onto Henry in turn, partly to keep Henry on his feet and partly because he needed to hold onto something because what the hell was that? He stared at the ghost as it retreated, open-mouthed and pale-faced, and didn’t even make a move when the cereal boxes tumbled from the shelves.
Then he shook his head to snap out of it. His first concern was that it was headed in the direction that Chris had gone, but after taking a moment to orientate himself, he realized that it hadn’t gone towards the registers at all. Then, he turned his attention to the man who was still in his arms and took a step back, making sure to keep an arm there incase he still needed it to stay upright. “Yeah, no problem,” he said. “Was that thing inside you?”
Henry’s legs felt wobbly, but he was able to keep standing as the other man pulled away from him. Just to be sure, he reached out to steady himself against the shelving unit next to him. With the ghost no longer depleting his energy he felt a little better, if still weak. He shook his head a little to clear the last of the fuz. “Yeah,” he breathed.
It was then that one of the store’s employees came around the corner at the far end of the isle. “Sir?” He called out as he approached the pair. “Is everything alright? What happened?”
Not knowing how to explain anything that had just occurred, Henry tried to say that everything was alright, however, the moment he tried to step away from the shelves, his knees buckled causing him to fall with a groan to the floor.
Leon tried to help guide the man to the floor so he didn’t hurt himself on the fall. “Low blood sugar, I think,” Leon said, saying the first thing that came to mind. It wasn’t like he could say ‘this dude just had a monster crawl out of him.’ He didn’t even know if that’s what happened. “My brother find you? I don’t know if you called the ambulance yet, but…” he turned to the guy on the ground. “You think you’ll need it?” He didn’t want to leave the guy with a huge ambulance bill if he was going to be fine now that… whatever the hell had just happened had happened.
Henry’s vision greyed-out and the next thing he was aware of was being seated on the floor. He heard the man standing over him giving an explanation that sounded much more plausible than anything Henry ever would have come up with.
The store clerk shook his head in response to Leon’s question. “No, sir, we haven’t. We weren’t really sure what was happening. That kid -- “ he gestured towards Chris who was coming around the mouth of the aisle with another clerk, “-- just started pulling on my shirt and pointing frantically. I didn’t know what was going on. I thought maybe something had happened to his parents…” The clerk (who looked barely old enough to drive himself) looked down at Henry carefully and seemed to come to the conclusion that he was far too young to have a son Chris’s age. “Will you need an ambulance, sir?”
Henry shook his head feebly. “No. ‘M awright.”
The clerk looked uncertain and not particularly pleased at the thought of leaving Henry sitting on the floor like that. He looked back at his co-worker. She was a little older than he was (and probably a manager of some kind), holding Chris’s hand and assuring him everything was going to be alright. Somehow Chris had even managed to get a lollipop out of the ordeal.
“I’m not sure what to do, Sam,” the clerk said. “He says he’s alright and doesn’t want an ambulance.”
“Well we can’t make him take one,” the woman said. She patted Chris’s hand before coming over to stand in the little group that was forming around Henry. She glanced at Leon a moment before looking down at Henry. She frowned a moment, not liking the pallid complexion of his face and the dazed look in his eyes. She looked at Leon again. “Do you know him? Is he a family member or a friend?”
Leon took a look at the woman who was holding Chris’s hand. She was good looking, and if he’d still been single he might have flirted with her. As it was, he just gave Chris a (not-so) subtle grin and a thumbs up.
“I’m a police officer,” Leon said, which wasn’t really an answer to her question, but he didn’t want to leave this dude alone if that… whatever it was came back. Even if he kind of wanted to turn tail and get the hell out of that store. As he spoke, he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and flashed his detective’s shield at her and slipped it back. “I’ll make sure he’s okay before I send him on his way.”
Both of the store employees looked relieved to hear that Leon was a cop and were eager to pass the responsibility of the “sick” man off on to one of Orange County’s finest. “Oh, that’s good to hear. Thank you very much, Officer.” Hands on her thighs and bent down a little to speak to Henry. “Sir?” She sounded as though she were speaking to a small child rather than a grown man. “Sir, this man is a police officer. He’s going to make sure you’re ok.”
Henry winced a little at the tone, but raised his eyes again to look at the store manager, then over at Leon. On the one hand he was a little relieved to learn that the other man was a cop. Henry had been raised to believe that police officers were there to protect people and keep them safe. Leon, of course, had no way of actually warding off the ghost if it should happen to return, but Henry felt better regardless.
Henry nodded slowly to show that he understood. After the two employees walked away again he let out a breath. “Thanks for covering for me,” he said. “I’m really sorry about running into you like that. Are you ok….” He looked over at Chris standing a few feet away sucking on his lollipop, “are you?”
“No problem,” Leon responded. He’d never been especially good at lying, but after all the weird shit that happened in the OC on a daily basis, he’d gotten better at it. Even if he did think it was better to just go public with all this weird shit. Maybe then they’d get some actual answers. Like who was behind all of this.
“I’m fine,” Leon responded, and glanced over at Chris who nodded in response to the question. “You get ghosts crawling out of you often?” he asked.
“No,” Henry answered. A few minutes sitting on the floor and he was starting to feel better. Another moment and he tried pulling himself to his feet again. “That’s the first time anything like that’s ever happened, but I was warned--” He stopped himself from saying that dream stuff can bleed over. He looked at Leon carefully. Yes the other man had seen the ghost and yes the other man had covered for Henry, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was in the know as one might put it. If Henry started talking about how ghosts attacked him in his Dreams the detective may want to have him committed. Could police officers do that? Probably.
Henry looked a little uncomfortable for a moment. “That is...uh...well...do you see stuff like that often?”
“Like that?” Leon asked, barely repressing a shudder. “No, I don’t normally see shit that’s as creepy as that, thank fuck. But it’s not the only weird thing that goes on around here.” He glanced at Chris, who seemed a little confused by their conversation but was accepting it pretty well. After all, Leon had kept Chris in the loop as far as strange things went. He’d seen enough already at his young age to accept talks of ghosts in grocery stores. “I get the dreams too,” he added after a moment, because he hadn’t known anyone who experienced that kind of stuff without dreaming.
“You do?” Henry asked and his shoulders visibly relaxed. Hearing the other man admit to the dreams was like a vindication that Henry wasn’t in fact losing his mind. “Oh,” he breathed, relieved. “Good.” Then hurried on the moment he realized how that may have sounded, “I mean…I’m relieved I don’t have to think of a way to explain that because…well, I don’t even know how to explain it. I mean, I see ghosts in my dreams a lot and they chase me and stick their hands in me there, but I until now I’d never experienced it while I was awake.”
He glanced at Chris, who still sucking on his lollipop and watching the two adults with a hint of curiosity. Henry swallowed hard and looked back at Leon. “Is that going to happen to me a lot now?”
Leon glanced at Chris again, wondering if this talk about ghosts was too much for him. Chris knew of the weirdness that happened here - hell, Leon had started being able to hear his thoughts not too long ago, and the kid wasn’t stupid - but all this talk of ghosts was wigging Leon out. He wondered if it was too scary for his crybaby little brother. But Chris didn’t seem too bothered. He was a little wide-eyed, but that seemed to be more curiosity than anything. He made a note to keep an eye on his little brother to make sure he didn’t get too scared.
“Couldn’t tell ya,” Leon answered truthfully. “I dream of killer animals, but other than when the rabbits attacked on Easter, I haven’t dealt with that at all in real life. I think it depends entirely on your dreams. But I gotta say, that wasn’t a very good first sign.” If Leon had to guess, Henry was going to be seeing a lot of ghosts. It could just be one of the temporary events that happened once in a while, but he hadn’t seen anyone else talking about ghosts on the Network. “You on the Network? Pretty sure I saw some guy on there who’s like, a Ghostbuster in training.” Or something like that at least. Leon had never talked to the guy.
That was a very disheartening thing for Henry to hear, but deep down he knew it shouldn’t have surprised him. He nodded his head in response to Leon’s question. “I’m on the Network,” he said. “All this weird stuff started happening shortly after I signed on.” It was then he realized that he probably should at least introduce himself to the man who had helped him. “My name’s Henry. Henry Townshend.” He offered his hand to Leon. “Is there really a Ghostbuster on the Network too?”
“Leon Orcot,” Leon said, taking the man’s hand and giving it a firm shake. “And that’s Chris. Yeah, that’s how it works for most of us, I think. Everything’s normal until you get on the damn network and then it’s not so normal anymore. But yeah, there’s someone who claims as much at least. I don’t know if I buy it.” Weird, parallel universe dreams was one things, but he wasn’t quite ready to believe that there were movie characters running around.
Henry wasn’t sure if he believed it either, but he hadn’t believed in ghosts until one had literally come through the deli counter and chased him down. Still, it seemed a little far fetched for an actual Ghostbuster to be running around the county. Far-fetched or maybe some kind of hoax.
“It’s nice to meet you.” He nodded as he shook Leon’s hand. His grandmother had raised him to be well mannered, if not particularly socially confident. “And, uh, you too, Chris.” He gave the boy a wan smile. “Again, I’m really sorry for running into you and thanks again for helping me, uh...cover this up, I guess?” When the introductions and handshake were over, Henry stood somewhat awkwardly, unsure what he should say or do next.
“I’m, uh, I’m ok now. I guess, I should go? I mean, you got groceries to get and stuff.”
Leon frowned. It seemed kind of weird, after all of that, to just go their separate ways and carry on with their days. “It’s fine, really,” Leon assured him. He couldn’t really blame the guy for crashing into him with some freakish ghost on his tail. “And uh, yeah. I guess we should finish up here.” He rubbed the side of his head. “Listen, if you ever wanna grab a drink or something…”
Henry was awful at these kinds of interactions. He probably should just thank the man for helping and be on his way. He should just go home and try not to think about what happened. He wanted to, and yet he couldn’t quite bring himself to just leave. It didn’t quite feel right. And now Leon was offering to grab drinks sometime. It would have been rude to say no. “Sure,” Henry said. And then after another awkward pause he gave Leon his number. “I kinda owe you, so if you ever need anything, just give me a call, alright?”
“You too, man. Even if it is with… you know, that kind of thing,” Leon said. The ghosts scared the bejeesus out of him, but the whole point of being a cop was to protect people from things. Even if he didn’t have the slightest clue how to do that.
He cleared his throat, and then stood up a little bit straighter. No point in letting this linger on until it got unbearably awkward, though it was already pretty close. “Come on, Chris. I’ll let you get some ice cream today,” he said, placing a hand on Chris’s head and leading him down the aisle.
Henry watched as Leon led his little brother away. He let out a tired breath. Leaving sounded like a good idea. His grocery shopping could wait for later. Much later.