InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "baby, it's cold outside."

Aaron Jacobson {willful child} (backoff) wrote in bellumlogs,
@ 2009-12-11 22:11:00

Entry tags:

red riding hood, willful child

Who: Aaron & Boyd
What: A date for breakfast.
Where: Starts at Boyd's apartment.
When: The morning after this (the day of the anon post), which is actually immediately after this, as unlikely as that is.
Warnings: None... yet?

As he climbed slowly up the stairs (he didn't trust elevators if he could help it), Aaron wondered whether it was a good idea to leave Shiloh alone. All that calm confidence was a comfort to be around, but it also confused his senses, clouded the water, made it hard for him to be absolutely certain unless he was actually in physical contact with him. That was rare, for Aaron, extremely rare. He could feel emotions everywhere, and even the faint but detectable sense of belonging he felt while he was inside of the building seem to come off the floors and the carpet, like dust, as he walked down the tenth floor hallway. He hadn't gone more than one door before he was already flat against the wall on the opposite side, putting as much distance between himself and the door to #1002 as possible. It helped. A little. He walked quickly down the hall, past 1003, 1004, 1005, all of which he knew immediately were vacant.

He blinked and frowned at #1006, then blinked again. There was so much lust in there, it was practically leaking through the walls. Aaron sort of liked lust, usually. It was an uncomplicated emotion. It was all the other stuff that got mixed in that made it uncomfortable. He stood there a minute, lost in thought, and then finally shook himself out of it. Well, whoever was in there certainly had enough "other stuff" to complicate things, even if they had sex all the time. Aaron was glad he didn't know them.

Continuing past, Aaron looked over the door to #1007. It looked like all the other doors, of course. The first zero was a bit tarnished, but other than that, there was no discernible difference to the unpracticed eye. Aaron had more than his eyes, though. He put up one palm and ran it down the surface of the door, a full inch from any contact with the wood, just for a moment.

Fear. Lots of it. The unthinking panicky kind, the one with sharp spikes. It almost overwhelmed everything else.

Aaron dropped his hand. Everyone has stuff under the surface, he thought, trying to fight off a sigh. What sucks is that I can't just have the surface bits without dealing with the rest of it.

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	backoff 2009-12-13 03:45 am UTC (link)
	That sobered him up pretty quick. "But then they'd stop torturing you, wouldn't they?" Who were they talking about? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 03:49 am UTC (link)
	She moved closer to him, even though she didn't touch, and her voice was deadly serious. "That ain't the point. The point is you don't tell people you just met, you hear? You tell people you're real close to. Not even friends. People you'd trust to take a bullet for you, and you don't tell no one else." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 03:52 am UTC (link)
	Too caught up in the conversation and the strengthening concern she felt for him, he forgot to move back out of the way. "What kind of people do you know? Are they why you're scared all the time?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

ex_sanguine300
2009-12-13 03:55 am UTC (link)

She closed the space between them, though her hands didn't actually raise to touch him. She could sense something around him, something not living, and she didn't focus on it enough to tell if it was hers or his. She had to make him understand somehow. "No, the people I know ain't why I'm scared. I'm Family, they ain't gonna hurt me. But someone's wanting to kill us," she explained. "But that don't mean you're safe, baby. Not with them, not with anyone you don't trust with your life. Promise me you won't do this no more."

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backoff
2009-12-13 04:03 am UTC (link)

It wasn't working. His voice softened, trying to reassure her. "I'm safe, I promise. The guy I'm staying with is on my case all the time about getting stuff to eat and everything." He rolled his eyes a little. "You don't have to worry. Besides, my dad taught me some stuff. I can take care of myself." He really wasn't going to tell her about what happened at school and the dead guy in the alley and the sliced up crazy guy in Shiloh's bedroom... Wait. "You said somebody's after you?"

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	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 04:07 am UTC (link)
	She flounced onto the bed in a swish of perfume and skirts and disarrayed red hair. "Someone's taking out my family one by one," she said, as if it was the least important thing in this conversation. "If you don't listen to me soon, I'm'a touch you, so help me God." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 04:08 am UTC (link)
	"Taking out... how?" His expression looked... odd. He was listening, most certainly. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 04:12 am UTC (link)
	"There's only one way you can take a person out," she said, then corrected herself. "Alright, there's lots of ways you can take a person out, but there's only one way to be dead. Do you see what I'm saying? This ain't a game, Aaron," she insisted. "Now, you promise." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 04:43 am UTC (link)
	"No I mean." Uncomfortable. "Like how. Like... with a knife?" Or their teeth and claws?! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 04:46 am UTC (link)
	The fear broke through the concern and warnings for a moment, and she was just a scared little girl again. "Why do you want to know?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 04:48 am UTC (link)
	He took a step back from the wave of fear. "Don't be afraid," he almost-begged. "I just..." Careful. "...felt this... this place once. On the way home from school." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 04:54 am UTC (link)
	"You felt what place, darlin?" she asked quietly. This was serious, whatever it was, and she felt buzzing over her shoulder, voices, dead things, anxious and excited. She knew they would be there if she turned, so she didn't. She swallowed, throat tight and thick, and she asked again. "What is it you know, Aaron?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 05:03 am UTC (link)
	Aaron opened his mouth to reply and then stopped. His head twitched again, and a line appeared deep between his eyebrows. "What... what is that?" He was almost sure that wasn't her he was feeling. The shift was sudden, of course, people often shifted quickly from emotion to emotion, but... this was faint. Disoriented, he took another step back. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

ex_sanguine300
2009-12-13 05:09 am UTC (link)

She waved the question off impatiently. "They're always around. Ignore them." It was a response she would have never given, had she been paying attention to her words. But she wanted to know what he was going to say, and she wanted to know why the haunts were making more noise than usual. They never spoke - couldn't speak, as far as she could tell - but they did make noise, just usually not this much. It was like they were... excited? "Aaron, please, what did you feel?" she begged.

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backoff
2009-12-13 05:16 am UTC (link)

Aaron wasn't doing any ignoring. A little fear of his own was starting to creep into his expression, and he wasn't looking right at her, but just past her. "This... somebody died in this alley..." He'd never felt this before, it was like being in a crowd--only a crowd that was somehow beyond his senses, like he was wrapped in several yards of cotton. "Are those... are those ghosts?" Clearly Aaron had never run into a dead person doing any emoting before.

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	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 05:19 am UTC (link)
	"Was this recent? The alley? 'Cause Tommy died just a bit away from here real recent," she said. She was about to go on and tell him more, when he said the word. "Ghosts? You believe in ghosts? No, wait, you can feel ghosts? Here? Right this now?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 05:23 am UTC (link)
	"You knew him?" Aaron couldn't keep up with this conversation. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 05:24 am UTC (link)
	"You know who done him in?" It was a leap, but one that was easy to make, given how loud the ghosts were getting at her back, and she tensed in anticipation of his answer. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 05:28 am UTC (link)
	"No," Aaron said, utterly unconvincingly, and not at all like someone who lived in the same apartment as the guy. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 05:33 am UTC (link)
	"Aaron," she said, stepping closer. "That man done killed my parents, both of 'em, and my grandma, and he left me to wake up hugging on a dead thing Christmas morning. Tell me who it is," her voice cracked, "I ain't had a day without haunts following me 'round since, and now everyone's starting to die all over again. Please?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 05:35 am UTC (link)
	Overwhelmed by the accompanying wave of emotions that accompanied this flood of information, Aaron pressed his back up against the wall. "He... he what?" Aaron gasped. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 05:45 am UTC (link)
	"You ain't been here long, and it has to be someone local. Did you meet him hereabouts? In the building, even?" she asked, trying to remember who lived where and who could possibly be old enough to have killed her parents all those years back. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

backoff
2009-12-13 05:48 am UTC (link)

Besides Boyd's almost overwhelming fear-anger-excitement-hope, whatever else was in the room swamped his senses with bitterness and anger and grasping, near violent demand. If they could put their hands around his throat and squeeze the information out of him, they would have. "No... no. I don't know who it is." Aaron slid along the wall and backed away from her. "I have to go."

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	ex_sanguine300 2009-12-13 05:49 am UTC (link)
	She reached for him with fingers turned desperate. "Please..." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	backoff 2009-12-13 05:52 am UTC (link)
	He shied back from the touch. "I just passed the place where he died. It was an alley. Nobody was there. I have to go." He moved quickly back, into the main room, and groped blindly for his bag, jacket forgotten. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

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ex_sanguine300, 2009-12-13 05:54 am UTC

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backoff, 2009-12-13 05:57 am UTC

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ex_sanguine300, 2009-12-13 05:59 am UTC

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backoff, 2009-12-13 06:03 am UTC

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