Nothing should’ve been all that surprising after the murder house, but Ronan finding himself in the parking lot of a roadside motel was still a wild ride. There were others mingling about and looking through rooms that apparently had keys in the doors, but he didn’t spot any of his people yet. Rather than letting anything as annoying as anxiety take over, he stalked towards the motel and down the line of rooms, peeking in a few open doors with an axe dangling from his hand. He was just about to turn back and start calling out names until he annoyed everyone with earshot when Ronan heard a familiar shriek.
The scream didn’t seem to be aimed at him and his axe at the very least. Swiveling on his heel, he headed towards the noise. He had to wait for another obnoxious screech before he finally kicked open a cracked door to find Opal in one of the rooms.
“Alright, enough with the noise, asshole.” He sounded relieved and a smile flickered across his face. He propped the axe against a wall and crouched down to reel her in close enough to check for injuries. “Where have you been hiding? Were you in the house all this time?”
Opal had a very distinct voice, the sounds that came out of her mouth belonged to anything but a small, human child. Sometimes her cries sounded like a scream being played backward. Sometimes it sounded like a wailing animal. Sometimes it was a noise that could curdle your blood.
She was howling the moment she had realized that she wasn’t at the Barns anymore. It was strange and frightening to walk through Ronan’s house to only step into a place where she had never been before. Had she stepped into a dream? She cried and cried, scared that this dream will turn into a nightmare.
“KERAH,” Opal wailed into the closet she had just walked out from. A wig was crammed on top of her head, backward and disheveled. She was layered in the clothes that were in the suitcase.
At the sound of Ronan’s voice, she spun around. “KERAH,” she yelled again. “No! I came from there.” Opal jabbed a finger to the closet. She looked back at him, her eyes wide and wild. “Did you dream?” Opal cupped the sides of his face with her little hands. She looked at his eyes, next his ears and then she stuck her fingers into his mouth to make sure that nasty black ooze wasn’t dripping from any of his holes.
Ronan made a noise as he extracted her hands from his mouth, part annoyance part amusement. “Don’t use Chainsaw’s word. You know my name.”
She looked ridiculous, but it settled something in his heart to see her. If Adam wasn’t here—No. He couldn’t deal with that thought right now. He tugged the wig off Opal’s head and tried to smooth out the craziness of her hair, not that it did any good. And how many shirts did she have on? Jesus.
“You better not have been here alone for a fucking week. I will tear someone a new one.” It was an empty threat without a target to aim it at, but whatever. “Wait, why are you asking if I dreamt?”
“Kerah,” Opal said defiantly. Chainsaw wasn’t here as far as Opal could tell so, in her dream mind, she was allowed to call him Kerah! “Ronan,” she added quickly after a passing moment.
“That’s my hair!” She attempted to swipe it back into her possession but settled when Ronan smoothed the frizz of her actual hair. It hadn’t helped much but the touch was comforting. “I was with you! And Adam!” The grip on his face tightened as she became more frustrated with him. “The black! It was coming out of your face! You didn’t dream! Remember!” And that’s when Opal bopped him on the head with her tiny fist. “Remember!”
Her intensity was usually predictable, but this was different. Ronan frowned and snatched her hands, gently holding them away from his face. “Hey, easy.” He tried to sound calm, but it wasn’t exactly his default. Pushing up from his crouch, he pulled her over to a chair and sat down. Having a weird-ass conversation about something black coming out of his face would be easier if his knees weren’t yelling.
“I don't know what you're talking about. I haven’t been able to dream since I got stuck here. Nobody has any magic. But I’m fine, okay?” He tapped her little fists against his cheeks before letting go. “No black leaks, I promise.”
Opal sighed with exasperation. She wasn’t understanding anything he was telling her. Even as she dug her heels onto the floor, Ronan easily pulled her over to where he sat.
“You do,” Opal tried reasoning with him. “I feel it.” It wasn’t as strong, no, they weren’t beneath their ley-line but Opal felt it. The soft static from a television that had been left unattended. The humming of electricity. That’s what she felt.
“You need to dream, Ronan. Please!”
She had the sudden urge to pluck his eyeballs out from his face just to check if any black had been hiding behind them. The thought fled as soon as it came to her. “Where’s Adam?”
“Okay, Jesus, fucking chill. I’ll try again tonight.” Ronan squeezed her shoulder even as her next question made him frown. He glanced out the open door into the parking lot. There were still plenty of people out there. Surely he wasn’t so fucking unlucky to get his dream kid back and lose his boyfriend all in one go.
“I don’t know where Parrish is. Or anybody yet. We gotta go back out there and look.” He tugged on one of her shirts, squinting at her. “You got enough fucking clothes on?”
“You will,” Opal demanded, eyes steeled, looking directly at him. The pressure of his hands on her shoulders had seemed to smooth away her ruffled feathers because her face softened. Her cheeks puffed when she drew out another sigh.
Upon hearing that Adam’s whereabouts were currently unknown, Opal deflated. She frowned. If Opal had a heart, it would have broken just then. Maybe she did, Opal didn’t rightly know. She had no intention of finding out either.
“I found ‘em,” Opal says cooly about the clothes she had layered on herself. “Can I go outside?”
“Yeah you can go outside, weirdo. Leave the fucking wig, though.” Ronan huffed out a laugh. The only motivation to get Opal out of her ridiculous gettup was worrying she’d overheat, but whatever. He wasn’t even sure she could. Even if she did, she’d just discard clothes in random locations and he’d collect that shit later.
Ronan stood up and held out a hand, reclaiming his axe with the other one. “Let’s go find everybody and figuring out what the hell we’re dealing with now. Are you hungry? Or have you been eating weird crap already?”
For a moment Opal didn’t say anything, just eyed the wig thoughtfully. “Can I wear it when we come back,” she asked. Her neck craned so she could look up Ronan, expectancy sat in her blue eyes. Even if Ronan said no, Opal still took his hand. Her little fingers too small to wrap around his hand so she held onto his pinky and ring fingers.
“I want to find Adam.” Opal wanted to make sure he had not gone off to college. “What are we going to eat?”
Ronan let out a real laugh, the lighthearted one that few people ever heard. “Yeah, creep. You can wear it later.” He squeezed her fingers and pulled her towards the door. “I wanna find Adam too. We can let him decide what we’re eating.” Assuming he was here. Assuming he hadn’t gone home to college where he fucking belonged. Assuming…
“Assuming you don’t decide to eat a fucking stop sign instead.”