She's old enough to know better Who: Jadyn, Cecil (NPC), and Bubbler (NPC) Where: Jadyn's home When: Late morning Warning: Not for the weak hearted
Hey hey hey! Knock it off, bucko! Why Cecil had to insist on knocking on bubbler's tank was beyond the lobster, but it wasn't like shaking a claw at the kid was scaring him any. If anything, it was just making the little kid laugh. Bubbler sighed, twitching his antennae while moving to the back of his tank. Where's ya motha, anyways? Isn't it ya birthday or somthin'? "My birthday!" Cecil threw his hands up in the air, all sorts excited about this day. In reply, the lobster merely sighed. Yeah yeah, that's nice kid. Now go find her. I'm not ya motha! He was relieved to find the blonde tot skitter on off in search for his mother, but at the same time, the lobster groaned lightly and tried reaching out to his mistress via telepathy. How ya hangin' in there, Jade? No response. Jade? Yo. Girl. Talk ta me here. Still nothing. With a sigh, Bubbler retreated to one of his rocks and let the water elemental be.
Though Jadyn could hear her familiar, amongst many other things: her son running about the house, the bathtub faucet dripping every ten seconds, the raining pouring outside, and the voices screaming inside her aching head. The moment she and Cecil had reached home after the vampire attack, Jadyn had insisted on her son using her bedroom and then promptly locked herself up in the bathroom. She had only left the room several times a day, only to feed her son when he came whining at the door. Even then, Jadyn refused to eat. Maybe a cup of coffee now and then, but that was it. She opted to smoke pot to alleviate the tension knotting up in her stomach while she laid naked in her bathtub, soaking up in the water. Though at this point, no amount of water could calm her. Not the bath, not the rain outside, not even the tears that endlessly streamed down her face.
She lied in the tub, eye puffy from lack of sleep as one arm hung over the tub, bleeding lightly over the tiled floor. A kitchen knife covered in crimson liquid was inches away from her finger tips. Her right arm was covered in various cuts, some deeper than others. Another failed attempt, as always. 'You're not strong enough to even kill yourself,' one of the voices laughed at her, causing Jadyn to flinch and sniffle, a teardrop rolling down her eye. "Stop it." 'You should have let the vampire finished the job for you.' "No..." 'Of course not, you liked it, remember?' The memory of that alone was enough to bring Jadyn to full on tears, weeping hard as she brought her head under water. Even while submerged, she could still hear the psychotic voices haunting her.
What scared Jadyn the most was that she did enjoy the bite. It was a shame was beyond unstable to even think straight and therefore figure out which vampires were able to lure their prey like that and instead put the blame on herself. It wasn't the vampire's fault, it was her own. Jadyn was merely a fucked up woman who actually enjoyed this agony. If she enjoyed that, then she would enjoy a kitchen knife cutting into her flesh. She remembered for an instant wishing the vampire would take her life, wanting nothing more than to reunite with Kevin. There would be no family politics to hold them back. There would be no one looking down upon them. No pain. They could be together again and be happy. Jadyn could finally be happy. The only thing that made her hold on was Cecil. Seeing the little boy watch her suffer made her heart wrench. Her son didn't deserve to see that. He didn't deserve any of that. He didn't deserve to be blown off by his own damn mother on his birthday, who was too lazy to bake a cake or even haul his furniture gift into the house.
With her head still under the water, Jadyn let out a scream, air bubbles surging out of her mouth and exploded to the surface. Her cries were muffled by her own element, knowing that Water was deeply concerned with her child being so distressed. Jade, stop it! It was Bubbler booming in her head. You're scarin' me, girl! Get your act togetha. Rolling over in the tub, Jadyn curled up into a ball and responded to her familiar, albeit extremely weakly, ...I can't.
Why not?
She paused, then opened her eyes to stare up through the watery surface and stare at her ceiling. I want to die, Bubbler. I can't do this anymore. I couldn't even stand up against my own fear and I let my own son down. Michael is going to hear about this and they're going to take Cecil away from me permanently. If I just go away, then no one will have to worry about me. Cecil won't have a failure of a mother and Michael can stop worrying about me and I won't be such a target for vampires and-
JADE. STOP IT. Bubbler's sudden bellow in her head made the water elemental flinch. Ya know what will make Mikey take ya son away from ya? If he finds out 'bout whatevah ya been doin' in there. Jade, ya got so much to live for, girl. Ya got your shop. Ya got that psychic readin' thing at that othah place. Ya got ya friend from Maine ovah heah. Ya got lotsa stuff goin' good foah ya. So one thing goes wrong. Don't let it control ya life. Just please... come outta theah. Ya kiddo is runnin' 'round lookin' foah ya.
Almost two seconds later, Jadyn heard a knock at the door, muffled by her head being under water. Slowly she sat up and pushed her soaking wet hair out of her face. Staring at the door, she heard the tiny knock again along with a voice, "...Mommy?" Hearing Cecil almost made Jadyn cry all over again.
"Yes, sweetie?" It was immensely difficult to be upbeat, but Jadyn did her best. She had to for Cecil.
"Can we have birthday cake?"
Right, the cake she never made. Pausing, she placed a hand over her mouth to silence her sobs while she closed her eyes and wept. The voices whispered in her head, telling her to kill herself, that it would be easier to do that than to stress out over disappointing her son. Though after a moment, she sniffled and recomposed herself. "Give me a second, Cecil. Mommy will be right now." Slipping out from the bathtub, she drained the water and dried herself off, washing her arm in the process. She was going to need to bandage her arm at some point, but for now she just washed it and dried it with a towel. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she glanced in the mirror and flinched as she spotted the bite marks that still lingered on her neck. How long it would take to heal was beyond her, but it was enough of a reminder to creep the hell out of Jadyn. Doing her best to ignore the mark, she dressed herself and propped the door open to spot her blonde-haired boy standing before her.
"Hey, birthday boy." Jadyn knelt down before him and pulled him into a tight hug, kissing the side of his head. To her surprise, Cecil actually clung onto her as well. Could he smell the fear on her and knew that his mother wasn't doing well? Weres seemed incredibly crafty like that, but Jadyn was too timid to ask. She lingered for a moment, enjoying the embrace while rubbing his back, then eventually pulled away to look at him. "So I have a better idea. How about you and I make a birthday cake together, hmm?"
Cecil's eyes actually lit up to that idea. "Really?!"
"Yup." Jadyn nodded and poked his nose. "And you can lick the bowl afterwards." He seemed overjoyed by this concept, all giggles and smiles and Jadyn insisted he hurry on off to the kitchen. As he did just that, she slowly rose to her feet and wrapped her arms around her body. In her mind, she had doubts that this cake wasn't going to be perfect and Cecil would be disappointed. Would he even be disappointed in the furniture she made just for him? She didn't know, but she worried. She always did. And even though Bubbler insisted that she had enough reasons worth living for, she couldn't help but feel that knife should have cut deeper as she shuffled on into the kitchen.