Klaus Hargreeves (callsthedead) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2020-01-12 13:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, ~2020 january, ~25 points, ~trixie espinoza (pretendtobeokay), ~~klaus hargreeves (callsthedead) |
WHO: Klaus Hargreeves and Trixie Espinoza
WHAT: Talking
WHERE: Starbucks
WHEN: Before Christmas
WARNINGS: Talk of drugs and addiction
STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
Objectively, Klaus wasn’t doing well. Sure, he was clean for two weeks now, which was pretty much longer than he’d ever been clean since he was a little kid. But other than feeling physically terrible (and they couldn’t tell him how long that was going to last), the worst thing was that he was most definitely seeing dead people everywhere. And they were absolutely everywhere. And they wanted to talk to him.
He was hardly sleeping, and had dark circles under his eyes. He wasn’t really eating, so he was even skinnier than normal. It might have been hard to tell him from the ghosts who surrounded him other than the fact that the fear made his heart thump in his chest. He wasn’t sure if it was better to be alone or in public. In public, it was easier to ignore them, but in private it was easier to be crazy.
Falling on the “ignore them” side today, he’d gone to Starbucks and ordered one of their Snickerdoodle hot chocolates. It had like a million calories and even more sugar, but it was hardly like he needed to watch either of those things right now. In fact, the milk was probably good for him.
He sat at a table, clutching the paper cup tightly, tapping his fingers on it as his eyes darted from person to person - dead and alive.
***
Instead of heading straight home after school, Trixie decided to do some last minute holiday shopping. Now that they were inviting a few more people to their Christmas party, she had more gifts to buy, plus they needed more lights to hang around the apartment. First, she decided she needed some hot chocolate, so she stopped at Starbucks, needing to stand on tiptoe to place her order.
Paper cup cradled between her mittened hands, she noticed an odd looking man sitting alone. The adults in her life would probably yell at her for approaching him, but Trixie was a fearless ten year old.
“You look sad,” she said. “How come?”
***
And of course, it was a small child who joined him at the table. Klaus had nothing against children, but neither did he have very much experience with them. He was fairly certain she was alive, though, so maybe she could help distract him.
“I’m not sad,” he said honestly. “I’m scared. It’s different.”
That was how his life was. It was underneath everything he felt and was a big part of the reason he’d started drugs in the first place.
***
“What are you scared of?” Trixie asked, setting her cup on the table so she could climb up into the chair opposite the man. She understood what it was like to be afraid of something, though there didn’t seem to be any imminent threats in the coffee shop.
She wasn’t in a big hurry to get home. Lucifer didn’t really track her comings and goings the way her mother had so she wasn’t worried about getting in trouble.
***
“The dead people,” he said bluntly. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that to a child but honestly he didn’t care. He just wanted his mind to make sense again. Again? What was he talking about? It never had. He’d always been either high or crazy so he had no idea what it felt like to be normal.
“They’re everywhere, you know. Absolutely everywhere. And they won’t leave me alone.”
If he scared her, maybe she’d leave and he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about being weird around a kid.
***
Trixie frowned. He sounded kind of crazy and she should probably leave. She was too curious for her own good though and looked around them, obviously not seeing anything out of the ordinary . “Can we make them go away?” she asked. “Like with the stories about iron keeping fairies away?”
It didn’t seem fair that they were bothering him and she wanted to try and help.
***
“Nope, doesn’t work with ghosts.” He’d tried everything. Even the stuff from fairy tales, because shit, he was tired of his mind not being his own. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t take a piss, he couldn’t do a damned thing by himself when he wasn’t wasted.
“See? I’m nuts. And stuck that way.” He smiled at her, though. “The hot chocolate’s good though, right?”
***
That didn’t seem fair at all and Trixie frowned at his answer. “I can ask Lucifer to scare them away,” she offered. “Maybe they’d listen to him.” A lot of people thought he was scary, though she wasn’t one of them.
She did like the hot chocolate though and she took a careful sip, smiling at him with a whipped cream mustache. “What’s your name? I’m Trixie.”
***
“Lucifer?” He wasn’t liking the sound of that. “I’ll pass. Thanks.” He definitely didn’t want the devil in his head. It was bad enough having God and the dead in there.
“I’m Klaus,” he replied. He still couldn’t quite believe he was sitting here having hot cocoa with a kid, but at least she wasn’t screaming or being totally obnoxious or anything.
***
“He’s really nice,” Trixie said. She understood why people were hesitant to spend time with him though. “Maybe one of my angel friends can help.” She had quite a few of those.
She picked up her cocoa and took another drink. “Do you have any people here?”
***
“Any people?” He blinked, but then shrugged. “Sure. A bunch of my brothers and sisters are here. Almost my whole family.” That was kind of weird, but then it was one of the least weird things about being here. This place was messed up in a thousand different ways.
“What about you? Where are your parents?” He probably should have asked that before now.
***
Trixie was a little jealous that he had siblings and they were here. Being an only child could get lonely. “They’re not here. My mom was, but she got sent back a while ago. I live with Lucifer. But I also have Maze and Ella and a bunch of other angel friends.”
Humans were somewhat lacking in her life, which was kind of weird.
***
“You live with...Lucifer?” he stared at her for a moment, his eyes widening at that. He didn’t seem like a particularly reliable or safe guardian, but the girl didn’t seem to be wanting for anything. She wasn’t starving and she was wearing clean clothes. That was something, anyway.
“What about kids your own age? There are quite a few of them here, yeah?”
***
“Most of them don’t wanna talk to me,” Trixie said with a shrug. “But there’s a girl named Penny who’s around my age. She and her guardian are gonna come over for Christmas.” She was looking forward to that.
***
“Well, that’s good,” he said. “People your own age. You’re a kid. Enjoy it while you can.” Not that he’d enjoyed his childhood much. But he at least knew enough to know that you were supposed to enjoy it. Being a kid and doing fun kid stuff, all that.
“Why don’t they want to talk to you?” She seemed like a pretty normal kid to Klaus.
***
“Cause they’re afraid of us,” Trixie said matter-of-factly. “People are always afraid of what’s different.” It was something her parents always told her as an explanation for why people committed crimes and it made sense to her.
She finished her hot chocolate and smiled at him. “I’m not though,” she said. “But I do gotta go. It was nice meeting you.”
***