didi! (i_happen) wrote in we_coexist, @ 2008-12-17 16:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | charlie crews, death of the endless |
Questions
Didi sat across from The City, her knees propped up against a table edge. Her toes tapped unnoticed inside her boots. Her head started rocking just lightly side to side. It wasn't actually quiet. Death could hear the hum of a fan, the tick of a clock and the static of white noise from a hidden camera lens. She looked back at The City and sighed, her smile sympathetic.
"You're mourning and that's okay. But they're not coming back. Keeping me here isn't going to change that."
Death slid back in her chair and stood up suddenly. If she was concerned about retaliation, she didn't appear to show it. Her boots clicked against the floor and she walked around the table until she stood behind The City. Her hand brushed through its hair and she slowly leaned forward and kissed the top of its head. The City disappeared from the police interrogation room. Death was left locked in. She glanced up at the two way mirror and waved.
"Do I get a phone call? Or is that only if I'm in jail?"
It wasn't exactly his first day on the job, but being here always felt like a new day. He had to look at on the bright side, or he might go insane. He was there, and he wasn't going anywhere, not yet. That didn't mean he hadn't tried walking as far as he could. He hadn't found his car yet, and he'd not found a place to live. For the past couple nights, he'd been trying one room after another at different hotels. None of them had the space he needed. He'd have to wait, to flow.
Crews walked by an interogation room, but he soon stepped back to stare at the person being held inside. His head tilted slightly as it was odd to have someone just sitting in a room without anyone seeming to be interested in said someone. The detective turned slightly and looked around, brows up, just a small squint. He stopped a passing uniform who had no idea what was going on. He asked a few more people and got nothing.
With no answers, and many questions, he gave an amused "hm," grabbed the peach and pear waiting in his desk drawer, and headed in.
"Hi. So, what are you in for?" he asked, setting down the two pieces of fruit.
"I don't know," she replied honestly. "Am I in for something?"
Death took a seat, this time on the table. Her feet did not reach the floor and swung back in forth, though not together. She looked at the fruit in his hand with interest, her brows raised ever so slightly. "The City and I were having a conversation and it left me here."
"The City?" Crews settled in a chair only after pulling it in just the right spot to watch her and the door. "You have conversations with the City often?" His eyes narrowed a little as he tried to process this. Or more, he was simply letting it happen, just taking the information as it came.
"No one seems to know why you're in here. Guess, it could be having conversations with geographic locations; I've always wanted to have one with San Francisco, but it seems too busy to say anything back." He gave a genial smile; see, he wasn't being that rude.
"I've had a conversation with everyone at least once. Sometimes more. Even you, Charlie. You've had a few close calls. You can talk to San Francisco, the hardest part is understanding when it's talking to you. Well, if we weren't here. Obviously we can't talk to San Francisco while we're here."
Death leaned back on the table and stared upward at the ceiling.
"I like apples, myself. I like the way Delicious Reds look the best, but I like the taste of Granny Smiths."
Crews shifted slightly on his chair, leaning forward for a moment to grab the pear. He looked it over, contemplating whether or not he wanted it. Peaches were good, but a pear seemed a better choice for this conversation. There was something odd about a pear without being too exotic.
"You've talked to me before? What did we discuss?" His head tilted as he looked her over, the hint of a smile on his lips. Life could be very amusing if you wanted to see it that way. Plus, it wasn't exactly everyday a pretty girl seemed to know him. Just every other day. Hopefully she wasn't some murderer.
"Apples? They're good, but I like to mix it up, that is the term kids are using these days, right?"
"Don't worry about it. I don't think I've met anyone who remembered their first conversation with me. You know who I am. It'll come to you if you really want to know. We've talked a couple times. I'm glad you decided to stick with it." She thought she could be very amusing too, thankyouverymuch.
"So am I here for something? I mean this is a very nice room, don't get me wrong..."
"Well, you must be here for something. You wouldnt' be here if you were here for nothing, then again, if you're here for nothing, that's something, which negates the whole nothingness of the being here." Crews was currently looking at the ceiling and walls as he said this, thinking was something he did best, even if it didn't make much sense to those outside his head. There was a bright smile as his attention came back to her, not that it ever fully left her.
"What's your name? I could ask a few questions and find out if you're here for anything in particular. Thought maybe you'd know, seeing as you're in here, not out there. Sometimes we get lucky." Another smile and a shrug. "It's always worth a shot, even if you miss."
Death smiled as he spoke. Her eyes remained trained on the ceiling as she listened to him. Death was a very good listener. "You know my name. Some of my friends call me Didi, though. If you can't find out why I'm here, does that mean I get to go? Not that I'm not enjoying your company..."
Death sat up on the table and looked at him. Then she looked down at her hands. She flexed her fingers and then balled them into fists. Her lips pressed into a thin line though she did not quite frown. She was just the slightest bit troubled. She lifted the ankh necklace and tapped the plain looking symbol against her hand.
"The City is very unhappy with me..."
"Why is the City unhappy with you?" Crews left the question of her leaving; he thought maybe he should let her talk. Then again, he wasn't sure why anyone would be sitting around in an interogration room without being interogated. It didn't make any sense. He smiled slightly as he looked to the glass, as if that would give him some sort of answer.
"I'll have to find out why you're still here."
"A lot of people died recently. The City wants me to bring them back."
"Can you do that?" Crews' eyes narrowed.
Death smiled and shrugged her shoulders lightly, "What matters is I won't."
"Why won't you? If you have the power, why wouldn't you?" He took a bite out of the pear, chewing absently, or more thoughtfully.
"Would you do it? If it was their time to go to wherever it is life goes when it's through, would you force them to come back because a City in mourning told you to do it? We're supposed to mourn the dead, Charlie."
"I suppose, if you look at it that way, then it could be a bad idea. But, were they meant to die? I'm playing catch up."
"Everything living is meant to die," she said with a smirk. "But if you're asking me should they have died, or why did they die, or who is responsible? Those aren't questions I can answer. I mean, perhaps if I were a police detective it would be a different story..."
"Yes, if you were a police detective, you'd probably wonder why someone who a city, a technically non-living thing, but really it is living, isn't it? Well, a city wants to bring back living people." Crews paused, thinking. "Let me try that again, if you were a detective, you'd wonder why a person like you is where witnesses and suspects are usually held for questioning. If you were a detective, you'd also wonder why so many people died recently. If you were a detective, you'd be right back. Excuse me."
Crews handed her the partially eaten pear and stepped out, closing the door firmly behind him. He had a few more questions to ask, mainly he wanted to understand exactly what had happened to kill numerous people. More than one was numerous in his book. Actually one was numerous.
Death watched him leave the interrogation room curiously. She carefully set the pear down on the table and proceeded to step away from the table and attempt doing hand stands in the room's limited space. Death had forgotten how much fun hand stands were and wondered why people didn't try them more often.
The detective soon appeared, leaving the door open this time; she wasn't being kept apparently. He claimed the pear again, the peace could be the next person's snack. They were okay, but the fuzz was something of a deal breaker. Taking another bite of pear, he motioned for her to leave, or more for her to lead the way out. Chewing took time, and let him think, which he needed to do.
Swallowing, he spoke, squinting slightly. "So, they said there's a good bit of clean up; maybe you can walk me through what you think happened. Zombies? Really, zombies?"
Death's legs fell forward as she moved to stand upward on her feet. All the blood rushed to her head and for a moment her pale complexion looked almost a little normal. His request made her frown and she studied him closely before responding, "I know what happened. I was there. Are you sure you want to go there, Detective? It's okay if you don't. Most people wouldn't."
"I want to know what happened. I can't say that I'd believe in zombies; I know it's not very accepting, but zombies? I never got zombies. I got vampires, but not zombies. I definitely got werewolves. You know what I never got? Planet of the Apes, sure, they're only a little different from humans, but you'd think they'd know that having what we have isn't all that it's cracked up to be." Crews was smiling, so maybe he was full of shit as he spoke; but, if she was Death, she'd know.
Death nodded a few times. She walked toward him and placed her hand into his. Once her fingers had laced with his, the world looked like it had lost some of it's luster as she pulled him into Limbo. Death couldn't take him back in time but she could show him what happened. It also made it easier to walk through The City's twisting streets. The two could walk through walls unhindered, pass people unseen. People themselves, plants, animals; all had an unmistakable spark.
"There are still more than a few out there. It's not really my job to help you find them..." Death shrugged. She didn't have much else to do. "We can stop any time. Just say the word."
Crews didnt' say anything as they..phased? Phased was a good word for it. As they phased into that other existence, he couldn't help but wonder why this was happening to him, now. It might have been better had it happened to him in prison. Maybe this all was happening in prison, and the last few years of his life had simply been some psychotic break. His fingers tightened on Didi's because at the moment, her fingers were the only thing that felt real. The images he started seeing certainly didn't help.
"So, this is what zombies do?" He watched as a pack of zombies attacked some poor woman. Knee jerk reaction was to pull his gun and tell them to stop, but pulling his gun would mean letting go of that hand, and he wasn't ready to let go.
"This is what people do." As far as Death was concerned, the zombies were still human and not undead. Not that there was a particularly large difference between undead and alive; it was mostly a made up semantical matter in Death's opinion. Death's second hand patted the top of Crew's reassuringly.
"This is what people do." Sometimes repeating was the best way to understand; sometimes it was the only way to keep from falling. The second hand was finally noticed, and he looked down at it, then up at her. "They shouldn't be doing that. It might be a dog eat dog world, but human beings shouldn't do that." Even if he knew they did, and often.
"Actually they should say man eat man world because dogs don't know any better when they're hungry. We should know better. Or maybe we should say dog eat dog world. What started this?"
Death smiled and gave his hand a squeeze, "That's your job to find out, isn't it? Your life's purpose? You're a cop. Go out and do cop things!"
Didi could be very encouraging when she wanted to.
Crews just watched as the scene got worse. Zombies were everywhere, and he didn't like it. Mainly because he never thought zombies could move so quickly. Sure, in movies they seemed to manage, but if anyone thought about it, it just didn't seem....kosher?
He looked at Didi finally, making his "I don't quite believe you" squinty sort of face. "I don't you'd bring me here without telling me something more than 'be a cop'. Well, maybe you would." His face relaxed a little. "Just, I don't see why you would want to show me something and not give me information."
"Didn't I?" Death's head cocked to the side, her lips pursed and one brow arched high into the air before shaking her head with a hint of mock disappointment. "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie... I didn't bring you here to give you evidence. That's your job. That's what you do. That's what keeps you going. You're here now and it's going to be unlike anywhere you've been before. But it's going to be okay. You're alive, you aren't delirious, and you still have work to do."
Death let go of his hand and they were back in the interrogation room. "You going to be okay with that?"
The squint came back, but then the smile. Crews questioned his sanity all the time; sometimes he even found that he was indeed sane. He also knew that this...woman was right. He did have a purpose. He had a crime, now if he had a partner he'd be much better off. He needed Reese.
"I'll be fine. I don't have many other choices; those that are other than okay would not be okay - which would go with the whole not being okay bit. Right, yes, I'll be okay."
"Good." Death didn't seem to have a problem with following his ramble. She motioned to the exit with her chin. "Is it okay for me to leave now, Detective?"
"Yeah, but don't leave town. You had to be in here for a reason, even if no one seems to know what it is." Crews was serious, and later he'd figure out why her knowing his name bothered him. He was certain he hadn't given it, but maybe he had.
"I haven't left yet," she said honestly before skipping out the door. "Just call me. Not many people like to but I'll come. Promise."
"I'll keep that in mind. Be careful out there." Crews knew the zombies were gone, or being taken care of. He'd caught that little memo earlier. He'd have to get his mind around this place; he'd have to just flow with it...somehow.