Debriefing (Zoe, Cai) [backdated to after the pub scene]
Cai called Zoe, later that night when everyone had gone home from the pub. He led with 'How are you?' which was a hell of a question.
She could have been mean about the answer. I had a panic attack in a pub so bad my mother had to come and get me. I have the strongest feeling Alex is going to die but haven't seen anything to help me stop it. My friend's evil stepsister killed my cousin and I know in my bones she's coming back for Alex and maybe Rachel and maybe me. When I got home I cried for longer and harder than I think I ever had in my life. How do you goddamn think I am.
"Is everyone still alive?" she asked, instead.
"Yeah, everyone's still alive," Cai said. Zoe sounded rough. "Sorry I didn't come home with you."
"Couldn't have done anything," Zoe said. She couldn't have cried for so long if Cai had been there. "They might have needed you there. How's Alex?"
"I guess okay. Tried to convince her to come over for dinner and let Nonnie, you know, Nonnie her, but she wasn't keen. I think being looked after by adults just pisses her off, but we made plans to watch a movie at Lydia's soon so she's going to get well Kemped." He wondered if he should tell Zoe how drunk Alex was by the time she went home, despite their not so subtle attempts to buy pitchers of non-alcoholic punch and plenty of food. She had drunk a bit of the punch and she had eaten, but Alex had been determined to stay well away from sober and kept ordering more boozy drinks for herself as well.
"That's good. Well Kemped is good."
"Rach had to leave not long after you did," Cai added. "She got a bit people'd out, but she and Danny got home okay."
"What sort of people'd out?"
"Antsy, I guess. I could see her biting her tongue trying not to snap at anyone."
"Mm," Zoe said, thinking of the day not so long ago that Rachel had demanded Liz take her home because there were too many people in Zoe's house. "She's been a bit like that recently."
"Can you blame her?"
Zoe thought of everything that was piled up against Rachel. Her father and stepmother, her murderous step sister, her mental state that had snapped and then snapped her ankle, her old boss trying to use her for vampire food, all the other unspoken shadowy parts of her life. "No."
"You know, you didn't answer my question," Cai said. "About you."
"Mm," said Zoe again. "Right now I feel like everything is only going to get worse."
There was silence from the other end of the line for a while. Just Cai breathing, which was a comforting sound in itself. "Do you really think Indigo's going to come back for Alex?"
"Yeah."
"Do you really think your uncle's regiment of wingy bodyguards aren't going to be enough? Lydia's pretty confident."
"Lydia doesn't see funerals whenever she closes her eyes," Zoe muttered.
"I think Lydia's seen plenty," Cai pointed out. Rightly, too, Zoe had to admit. After Lydia stayed with her while she had her panic attack, Lydia deserved more generosity from Zoe. "Is it really whenever you close your eyes?"
"Today it is," Zoe said. "Today is terrible."
"What are we going to do about tomorrow, then?"
Tomorrow. Monday. "I'm so behind with Uni work," Zoe said flatly. Uni work didn't feel important, though she was determined not to let herself slip too far, academically. She'd needed an extension for one of her classes but she'd sworn to the professor it was a one time thing and didn't want to break that promise, and was going to get it in at least a day before the extended deadline. "I have to get a few things written. But then I thought maybe I'll go to your church, see if I can pick up any clues. Go back to the theatre. Go to the site of the accident where Indigo broke out of the ambulance."
"Do you want to come over for dinner?" Cai asked.
"And let Nonnie, you know, Nonnie me?"
"Yeah that's the idea," Cai said. Life couldn't be all massacre, accident and funeral shadows.
"How're your sisters?"
"Uh," said Cai. "Grumpy preteens, mostly."
"Will I make things worse?"
"No," said Cai decisively. "And anyway we can just go hang out in my room after dinner."
Zoe smiled, silently, against the phone. "Yeah," she said. "Okay."