carter bennett ( human ) . (solepurpose) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2014-09-23 15:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-10-09, carter |
stars are only visible in darkness.
Who: Carter (and NPCs).
Where: Outside town, about a twenty minute drive from Scarlet Oak.
When: Late night.
When Carter had been younger his family had spent a lot of time together. Training, practising, sharpening skills that would save not only their own lives but those of any number of potential victims. They hadn’t taken holidays together in the traditional sense but they had gone camping. Knowing how to fend for yourself when you didn’t have a lot to work with was a vital part of being a hunter and Carter had gone on to become an incredibly resourceful individual, not only when it came to fending for himself in the day to day but in a fight. That resourcefulness had saved his life more times than he could count, it had saved countless others as well, and he was thankful for it. The memories of those trips, unconventional as family trips as they might have seemed to everyone else in the world, were some of his fondest. With so many of them all gathered together it had not only helped to bond them as a family but it had highlighted habits and individual traits in every single one of them.
Lainey had liked to stay close to the fire, illuminated by the flames. Colin and Andrew would stay back from it, exploring their surroundings with the kind of inquisitiveness their parents had tried to warn them might one day lead them right into trouble. For his part, Carter had come to enjoy seeking higher ground, namely the bonnet or roof of one of the vehicles they had taken on the trip. Every now and then, well into his adult life, he caught himself mimicking that behaviour from his youth, especially when he was making contact with those still living.
As he agilely made his way first up onto the bonnet of his vehicle and then the roof, sitting himself down on the top of the SUV, Carter withdrew the phone from its place in his pocket. It was a burner, disposable, meant for one use only. The number he called would redirect several times before connecting directly with the source he intended to reach. They couldn’t be too careful. They never knew how many of the monsters they hunted might be looking for any one of them and Rebecca Bennett was close to the top of most of those lists if she didn’t outright claim the number one slot. Carter wasn’t going to take chances with the lives of any of his family but his mother had done what so few Bennetts had managed to do. She had survived. Not only that she had done so with grace and dignity, with a sense of deeply-rooted responsibility that had seen her taking in all of those children whose parents had been slaughtered or stolen away by the vampires and demons they had sought to destroy. Those children, Carter’s nephews and nieces, were in Rebecca’s care now, they would receive her tutelage just as he and all of his siblings had. The next generation of the Bennett family were in her hands. Carter would not take that lightly.
The line rang precisely four times before Carter disconnected, waited one minute, and then dialled again. This time it was answered, a woman’s voice on the other side. “Yes.” She never answered by name, or with a name in the form of an enquiry. She had two surviving children, after all, and it was always a fifty-fifty chance of whether or not she would have it right.
Carter felt the smile creep onto his face of its own accord but he schooled his expression as best he could so she wouldn’t hear it in his voice. It was always best to wait for the all clear before he did anything like that. “It’s me.”
“Carter.” There was relief on her end, Carter not only heard it but practically felt it down the line. His eyes closing he bowed his head for a moment, running his free hand back through his hair. That relief went both ways. It always did. “It’s good to hear from you.”
“And you,” he said, still trying not to smile. She might have bad news for him. “How is everyone?”
“Getting bigger every day, I swear,” Rebecca responded with a touch of a long-suffering but affectionate sigh in her voice. Carter had heard that exact same sigh so many times throughout his childhood, aimed not only at him personally but any one of his siblings. “Duncan is taking after your sister.”
Carter felt his chest go tight at that. Rebecca did not reference any one of her late children with that sort of effortlessness, not without using their name. That could only mean one thing.
Isabelle was still alive.
A rush of relief escaped him in a hurried sort of sigh as he bowed forward even further on the roof of the car. From the other end of the phone he heard his mother’s soft laughter. “She called a couple of days ago. You know our Belle, she always was a tough one.”
Carter chuckled at that. “That’s putting it mildly.” As the youngest of Rebecca and Edward’s children Isabelle might have felt like she had a lot to prove, she had certainly had the competition growing up, but Carter had only ever seen confidence and natural talent. Her mother’s daughter through and through.
“She asked after you.”
“What did you tell her?”
“What I could,” Rebecca said with a touch of amusement in her voice. “That last I knew you were still bouncing back from whatever the world throws at you, just as you always have.” Carter’s smile turned a touch sorrowful. None of his brothers had been so lucky. Only one of his sisters was still out there. It made his heart hurt thinking about them. Rebecca sensed the weight behind his silence and said to him, her voice soft, “You have both made me so proud. Just as your brothers and sisters did.” And still do. Carter heard his mother’s hidden message there and as he straightened on the roof of the car he had to blink several times and take the phone from his ear just for a moment so he could clear his throat.
“Do you know where she is?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
Rebecca laughed softly. “I taught her better than that.”
“I know.” Carter smiled, laying his free arm over his legs, the soles of his boots against the windscreen of the car. From here he couldn’t see much of the town that had drawn his attention, only dimly blinking lights that spoke of the varied nightlife Scarlet Oak had to provide. Normal and supernatural alike. He should be getting back. “Tell everyone I miss them.” More than he could put into words.
“I will. They miss you too.” Rebecca paused for a moment before she added, with a mother’s concern, “Be careful.” Carter had long since lost count of the number of times she had said those words to him, just as she had said them to every one of her children every time she had spoken with them. His throat threatened to close a little but he swallowed to keep it clear, nodding his head even though she couldn’t see it.
“You too,” he said to her, hearing the faintest trace of a plea in his words, subtle and soft but plain enough to someone like the woman on the other end of the line. “I’ll contact you again soon.” By email or some other means, probably. It wasn’t safe to keep using the same method.
The smile in his mother’s voice was evident when she said, “I’ll be here.” They were both making promises neither one of them could keep and they knew it. That was the Bennett way, projecting that confidence and surety unwaveringly, in a world where nothing was certain. Neither one of them knew if they would still be alive by week’s end but they said they would be because it gave the other much-needed strength and assurance.
When they disconnected the line after saying their goodbyes Carter remained on the roof of the car for several minutes, looking down at the phone in his hand. It had served its purpose, it no longer had any usefulness to him, but there was always a piece of him that was reluctant to destroy any means of contacting one of the last few remaining members of his immediate family. Through the piece of plastic in his hand he had heard his mother’s voice, heard that his nephews and nieces were alive and well, that his sister was still out there somewhere. Destroying it wouldn’t be easy.
It was necessary though. Carter dismounted the car easily, quietly and quickly, and started to dismantle the phone in his hands as soon as his feet touched the ground. Certain pieces were stashed in his light jacket to be disposed of later but others he left behind, tossing them to be corroded by the elements or carried away by one form of ignorant wildlife or another.
Only when his hands were empty did he climb back into the car, slide the key into the ignition, and turn over the engine. As he headed back towards Scarlet Oak it was with the knowledge that the survivors were still just that. That was enough because it always had been. It was enough because it had to be.