Does That Make Me Crazy? Who: Lia, Samuel, & Rylee What: The boys tell Lia that they are one happy family! Where: Lia’s apartment When: 12th of October, after this thread. Warnings: Cursing is likely.
Rylee had never been inside Lia’s apartment and was worried he would be seen as obtrusive. But Samuel had made it quite clear that Rylee wasn’t to worry and if Lia seemed upset for any reason then he would ‘deal with it’. Still, Rylee was apprehensive as he approached Lia’s door; even with Samuel beside him.
What had happened during the past few hours was still beyond Rylee. He remembered nothing but found it hard not to believe what Samuel had said; especially after Rylee woke and found Samuel pointing a gun at his knee. In fact, even if Samuel hadn’t been acting weird Rylee would have very well believed what Samuel said after all that had happened the night before.
The memory of having fangs and a near growl rolling through his spoken words still gave Rylee chills. To have Charlie witness it and say it was true was one thing; Rylee believed that Charlie would never throw him to the woods. She wouldn’t deem him insane. To have Samuel not even blink at the story was a comfort as well. But they had already discussed these odd events and dreams. Lia was a completely different story. Aside from briefly getting to know her and hearing of her through Samuel, Rylee didn’t know Lia well enough to deem if telling her what happened would necessarily be a good thing. He felt that she would likely think they were insane but Samuel seemed confident and therefore Rylee followed through.
With a knock on her door they waited for her to answer. Rylee hung back, his arms crossed loosely over his chest as he felt his nerves kick in. He looked at Samuel and then at the door before giving a frown. “I hope she doesn’t think we’re insane.”
“Listen,” Samuel said, “she’s got as much reason to believe this as you and I do. She was here last year, remember? She saw that party go to shit, and she woke up in my apartment after she’d called me everything but a Christian. I mean, we fought, Eckholm, and this, whatever it is, made us both do a one-eighty. A little personality shift seems to come with living in this fuckin’ place.”
He shook his head, hoping his own bravado - and faith, for that matter - was well placed. Impatient, he raised a hand to the door, rapping at it another moment before pulling out his own set of keys. “Aw, fuck this,” he muttered, pushing the door open, resolved to bear the consequences when they came.
“Lia, you home?” he called, taking the first step inside, his broad frame blocking the door. “Don’t be naked. Got a friend with me.”
“What did you say, bello? I didn’t hear --” she said, emerging from the bedroom dressed in yoga pants and a faded, well-worn PT shirt from the Rangers that dwarfed her. A small laundry basket sat next to the couch, full of her hand-washed and line-dried delicates as they awaited folding. She might have her laundry done for her, but she certainly didn’t trust her expensive, in some cases custom, underthings to just anyone. Her hair was up in a ponytail, her feet were bare: she appeared tiny, and probably about ten years younger.
Her eyes widened at the sight of Rylee, and the realization they weren’t alone.
(In truth, she’d have been far more comfortable if she had been naked.)
She glared bloody murder at Samuel, though said not a word. Instead, she turned to Rylee and said,
“Hi, sweetheart. I’m so sorry the place is such a mess. I wasn’t expecting company.”
She shot another glare at Samuel, who ignored it just as blithely as the one that had come before it.
“So what brings you two up here so unexpectedly?” she asked, wishing she’d thought to wear a bra.
Rylee’s cheeks flushed slightly and he looked at his feet, still lingering behind Samuel in the doorway. “I don’t think it’s messy. I’m sorry for coming here without calling you first or anything.” He looked wearily at Samuel and frowned before giving a small shrug. He knew they should have called first.
“We... we have something to discuss with you,” Rylee continued quietly. He suddenly wasn’t quite so sure it was a good idea to go to Lia at all as his nerves began to get the better of him. Lia’s head canted to one side.
“The place looks great, sugar,” Samuel said, shaking his head. “What doesn’t is my fuckin’ apartment.”
Her gaze moved sharply to Samuel, her brow furrowed, waiting for him to elaborate.
He started to say more, but found himself momentarily distracted by her laundry; he took a step closer to where she stood, straightening up to better cast an eye into the bin of tidy, tiny underthings. He flashed a bright grin, though wisely it was quickly gone, and he was back on to the subject at hand. “Yeah,” he said, as if this were somehow a fitting segue, a natural and organic way to get back to the reason for their visit. “Whatever happened at the last Halloween party happened again. My fuckin’ place is shot to hell and back. I pulled a gun on him.” He waved a hand back toward Rylee, knowing Lia would understand. She did, her eyes widening comically as her eyes flicked to Rylee, as though to assess the damage. As Sam spoke again, her eyes returned to his. “But Rylee’s got an idea that might explain a lot, even if it does sound... well, pretty crazy.” He looked back, motioning for Rylee to jump in - hopefully with more authority and enthusiasm than he now displayed.
“Last --”
Memories of last Halloween were still hazy. It had been the first step in her and Samuel getting together, but they both knew it had been something... more than normal, even though they rarely discussed it, and when they did, it wasn’t directly. They both understood that there was something deep, maybe metaphysical, to their connection, but neither of them was particularly prone to getting into that.
She looked to Rylee, who, she had to admit, she felt something like that connection with as well. Not in the same way as with Samuel, of course, but there was something significant between them, as well.
“What is it, Rylee?” she asked, her tone gentler than it had been with Samuel. “What do you think this is about?”
Rylee glanced between Lia and Samuel before moving further into the apartment and making sure the door was closed behind him. With a small sigh he looked at the ground before speaking. “Well, Samuel told me what happened last Halloween. And, well, I started to have dreams. Dreams with Charlie in them, you, Samuel, all of these weird dreams that were either too real or it was like I was watching a tv show. I talked to Samuel about it, because some other weird things were happening, and then... then it all got worse.
“I’ve been researching; Samuel and I both have. I’ve brought back books from work and the library about Greek myths because he told me about the names you both called one another. Well, some of the names.” A blush sprung up on Rylee’s face as Samuel laughed, and he smiled slightly, peeking up at Lia before looking at the floor again. “So, Ares and Aphrodite. They are connected to just about every god but I felt like this... god... that I kept dreaming about had a direct relationship. Then... then yesterday I...” He frowned, not liking this part, it was still an uncomfortable subject. He wanted to believe that he didn’t grow fangs and look like a monster. Again, his reservations about telling Lia arose and he clammed up, giving Samuel a pleading look for help.
Samuel picked up the thread, having no trouble forging ahead even on such strange, uncertain ground. “Yesterday he and Charlie were picking out Halloween costumes and ended up with something weirder than masks. Remember the reflections?” He arched a brow, recalling all too well the mildly insane tea party they had both attended. “Like that, but not a reflection. An actual... shift. A physical change.” He put his hands up, preemptively warding off any attempt to apply logic and reason to this bizarre turn of events. “I know how it sounds, and if it weren’t for everything else that’s happened I’d be calling him crazy, too.”
It was a little overwhelming. She cast a look at Samuel, her first instinct for a response being alarm. Whatever was happening, she immediately tensed at the news that he’d been discussing what had happened last Halloween with anyone, even Rylee, whom she very much liked and had a good feeling about. In fact, if anything, telling Rylee was maybe worse; having someone with whom she was developing a friendship find out about that...
But Rylee seemed to be on-board with the idea, which troubled Lia more. They’d left it alone for almost a year; had taken the good of it, that it had brought them together, and had left the more troubling aspects of it behind, or so she thought. But now, for some reason, the pot was being stirred, and Lia was struck by how little she liked it.
“I remember,” she said cautiously. “But... I don’t know, sweetheart. I mean...”
She laughed lightly, the sound betraying more strain than she would have liked, as she turned to Rylee. “Had you guys been drinking?”
Rylee gave a quick shake of his head and frowned. “We haven’t been drinking, I promise. Yesterday...” Rylee gave another shake of his head before meeting Lia’s eyes. “Nothing happened to Charlie. She was completely normal but she saw it too. It was all me. My eyes were on fire. And my mouth, it all changed. Fangs and a tongue like a cats.” The expression on Rylee’s face was one of desperation. He wished, more than anything, that Lia and Samuel would both laugh, Charlie would appear, and all of this would end up being a very well thought out joke. Even still, Rylee knew that wouldn’t be happening. Lia swallowed, taking a breath. A flash of familiarity, of something maybe she’d seen herself, struck her. She remained silent as Rylee spoke again.
“I woke this morning and it was all gone. I was normal again. But I remembered reading about a god that was tied to Aphrodite and Ares. There was this god, he was always shown on shields with fangs and fire eyes. Phobos, god of fear.”
He let out a breath and looked to Samuel, giving him a nod before continuing. “I wanted to tell Samuel but when I got to his apartment... I don’t remember what happened. Everything about it... I don’t remember it at all.”
“I do,” Samuel said, his jaw tightening at the thought. “He wasn’t himself, they say.” He could see Lia did not believe them - did not want to believe them. In her position, he would have felt the same. There seemed only one way to bridge this widening gap. “Come downstairs and see this,” he said. “You’ll get it then. And fuck yeah I’d been drinking, but I swear one glass of whiskey wouldn’t make me shoot my own place full of holes.”
Looking from Samuel to Rylee, Lia hated this. She wished for a moment that this conversation wasn’t happening, that they would tell her they were punking her and ask if she had any beer in the fridge. But as quickly as she’d thought it, she dismissed it. The dreams she’d had last year had returned; dreams of ancient times, beautiful beings, another place, but she’d written them off as subconscious manifestations of her feelings for the people in her life. She told herself that something was happening here, and though she couldn’t quite put stock in Samuel and Rylee’s claims, she owed it to them to see what they were talking about -- to gain a better understanding of what was going on, and reserve judgment.
“All right,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Rylee nervously stepped to the side, clearing a path for Samuel and Lia to head for the door. He felt like the tag-along for this, that he had to leave the big decisions and leading of this odd little pack to the both of them, which struck him as funny considering the relationship Phobos had to the gods that may or may not have been attached to Samuel and Lia. “When I was at Samuel’s apartment, during the part that I don’t remember, I guess I was calling him Ares. And then when I woke up Samuel was completely different and he was calling me Phobos. His son,” Rylee rambled, looking from one of his friends and to the other. “Yeah... maybe seeing the apartment would be a good thing.”
Samuel’s jaw had gone tight at the mention of their quasi-relationship, seeming for whatever reason more comfortable with the idea that they might all be possessed by ancient gods than that there might be some paternal connection to his increasingly close friend. In the interests of hiding his uncomfortable look, he gladly took the opening Rylee provided, taking Lia’s hand and leading her out into the hall. To him there was nothing else to say: She would see, and she would understand, or would not. Either way it seemed a chance at closure, and should she reject their reading of the situation, they could simply choose to never speak of it - in her presence, at least - again.
The walk down to 707 seemed to go quite quickly, perhaps in part due to the unsettling amalgamation of trepidation and excitement they all to some degree now felt. Samuel unlocked the door with a hasty jingle of keys, pushing it open for Lia to step inside. The lights had been left on, the mess for the most part left untouched. Destroyed photographs - some in broken frames, some loose and bent - littered the sofa, bullet holes torn into each. The walls and floor bore the clear markings of erratically but skillfully spent cartridges. Samuel gritted his teeth to see it again, knowing what perfectly mundane trouble lay ahead for him because of this.
“Well?” he asked, looking over to her.
Her heart seemed to skip several beats as she stepped into the apartment and saw the shambles it had been left in. Instinctively, she squeezed Samuel’s hand tighter, drawing closer to him, her lips parted, her expression one of disbelief as they moved further in to the apartment. Pulling Samuel’s arm around her, she surveyed the damage, taking in each bullethole, each picture -- the destruction of another life. A wife. A dog. This room. Somehow, it filled her with an almost paralytic fear, and she looked at Rylee and Samuel.
“What...” she shook her head, squeezed Samuel’s hand again. “I don’t... Are you both all right?”
Rylee looked from Samuel to Lia and suddenly felt a great desire to just go back to his apartment and forget all of this even happened. It was silly of him to think telling Lia would fix something, that he would find comfort in her knowing, he barely even knew Lia. Shifting on his feet, Rylee ran a hand up and down the back of his neck and lingered once more by the door. “We’re both fine,” he replied quietly. “We didn’t hurt each other or anything. It’s just the apartment that took the beating.”
Samuel nodded agreement. “PS3’s okay,” he joked, hoping humor might ease the burden he saw shadowing her eyes. “We didn’t take out anything important, including each other. We didn’t really even try.” Left unspoken was the fact that if they had intended one another harm, even in small part, the results of this little experiment would have been disastrous indeed. Samuel could guess what both their immortal counterparts were truly capable of, and recalled enough to know that properly provoked, both could easily carry out their traded threats. “We just want you to believe us. Somebody else oughtta know in case something does happen.”
After a moment, she finally stepped away from Samuel, squeezing his hand before releasing it. As she moved into the room, she was overtaken by sense memory, or maybe some sort of deja vu. Being so close to them here made everything all too clear, and she could somehow easily envision Samuel, but with burnished skin and a full beard, and Rylee, hair wild, teeth sharp, eyes ablaze -- for a moment, she saw it.
She took a breath and shook her head, blinking, as though to clear her vision. “I...” She kneeled, picking up a ruined photograph, careful of the broken glass. She remembered the reflections, the impossibility of it, the madness of what their friends and neighbors had been saying. But she remembered the things she’d felt, the ways she’d understood things --
“So,” she said quietly, “they -- they took over? Ares?”
She looked at Samuel, who nodded without hesitation.
“And Phobos?” she turned to Rylee.
“And... you think I’m... Aphrodite?” her voice was almost a whisper then as she looked back down at the photograph and felt some overwhelming sense of the rightness of that which was followed immediately by fear that she didn’t feel incredulous anymore.
Rylee looked nervously at the pair and rubbed his hands together as he tried to find the words. “That’s... that’s what I was assuming from what Samuel told me. From the names he remembers calling you,” Rylee replied and felt his cheeks grow hot. He clamped his jaw closed for a moment before continuing. “And... I’ve had some weird dreams where you’re in it but you’re not you and I’m not me. It sort of makes sense, I suppose, if we’re all in this together that they’re deities which are connected. Do you know Aphrodite’s relation to Ares and Phobos?”
His voice perked up with that final question, a small whisper of a smile on his face, but Rylee was still nervous and completely unsure if he should be continuing this discussion with Lia. If she should even know or if maybe, Rylee should just turn around and go home, leaving the couple to figure this out on their own and he could check in later.
For all the quite personalized chaos that surrounded them, Samuel could not help but grin. It was enough for him that she had not begun to laugh, or dismissed them out of hand and called his fine co-workers the moment she had seen the state of the place. Clearly she was being won to their side, if the battle was not already over. “‘Course she knows,” Samuel said, chuckling quietly. He looked to them both, brow quirked as he watched both their reactions; it seemed to be sinking in, if slowly and cautiously enough. As strange as the realization was, it was some comfort to Samuel, at least, to know he wasn’t alone in it.
As rare an occurrence as it was, a blush bloomed brightly on Lia’s cheeks -- a combination of the strange and unfamiliar sort of intimacy she felt just then and the memory of Aphrodite and Ares’ quite explicit expressions of their relations last year. She rose from the floor then, nodding.
“Aphrodite and Ares were lovers,” she said. Then, something inside her vehemently insisted she continue, “ultimately consorts. I guess some kind of common law marriage. And Phobos...”
She looked at Rylee, things falling into place: the dreams, the connection and affection she felt to him -- everything. “Phobos is one of their sons. Along with Deimos. And Eros. And Anteros.”
She shook her head, at first thinking she didn’t know where this knowledge was coming from, but then suddenly sure of the source of the smug pleasure that was rooted with it.
“Well,” she said, looking at each of them, then giving a wry laugh. “At least I don’t have stretch marks.”
After another pause she asked, “What now?”
Rylee grinned, his anxiety dissipating as Lia seemed to accept what Rylee had been hinting at without running and screaming. But her question left him confused, he didn’t know what was next. He was so thrilled that they had figured out who was haunting their minds...and now taking over their bodies...that he hadn’t really considered what happened next. “I...I don’t know, Lia. I didn’t think past tellin’ you. I guess...well I wanted to see if any of this weird stuff started to happen to Charlie. She has had some dreams but that’s been it as far as I know.”
Rylee shifted on his feet and looked to Samuel. What was odd about considering Lia to be his “mother” and Samuel his “father” was that Rylee didn’t find it uncomfortable or strange at all to tag that family title to the pair. It seemed natural and right. “What do we do?” He asked his friend.
It surprised Samuel perhaps less than it should have that they looked to him for answers. This did not mean, of course, that he had any to give; rather, it meant that he was more than willing to take the reins of an entirely unknown situation, providing what guidance he could until they had something tangible to go on. His smile did not fade entirely, though it did wane somewhat as he considered their precious few options.
“Well first off we tell as few fuckin’ people as possible,” he began. “Maybe Charlie, if you think she’s ready to hear this kind of shit. But if not, be patient. I can’t have her callin’ my Lieutenant and getting me benched, understand?” He looked to Lia, remembering, as she had, the mad claims earlier residents of the building had made. He had no intention of letting any of those present repeat their former neighbors’ mistakes. “Then,” he said, “we keep an eye on each other. Dreams and a few flashes are one thing. Shootouts are somethin’ else. And I’m really not inclined to take any more bullets than I already have. So if one of us starts acting weird...” His brow furrowed as an idea came to him. He shrugged, hoping it wasn’t as insane as it sounded in his head. “I dunno. Try to talk each other down. Use these other... I dunno, personalities, whatever they are, if you have to. Anything to keep us from doin’ something we can’t take back.”
Moving closer to the two men, Lia couldn’t help but turn and look back at the destruction. She took a soft breath, then reached out to squeeze Rylee’s hand, a soft gesture meant to convey affection and acceptance. It was so strange, how natural this felt. The affinity she’d felt for him had always been there, but this was certainly a clear, if outlandish, enough explanation for it. Somehow, though, now that she’d said the words aloud, she didn’t question it. It simply explained too much that was inexplicable.
“I can definitely live with that,” she said. “I can’t think of something that would undermine my credibility more quickly than going around and trying to convince people I’ve been possessed by a love goddess.” She took a breath.
“So... your Charlie. She’s been having these kinds of... experiences, too?” She looked at Samuel.
“If last year, all those people were convinced that the same thing was happening to them...” She turned her gaze to them both, taking a step back. “Do you think there are other people in the building who are experiencing this, too?”
Rylee softened at the touch of Lia’s hand, a small smile appearing on his face as he grasped her hand back, feeling comforted in the gesture and not for a moment considering it strange. “Charlie was with me yesterday when my face changed, she saw everything. We had other weird things happen...the black out at the start of this summer affected us. Weird things went on when we went to the movies and we’ve had dreams. She just hasn’t had anything physical happen to her. Her face hasn’t changed and it hasn’t seemed like she was possessed or anything. But she’s seen me and we’ve experienced other stuff.” Rylee looked away from Lia, turning his gaze to Samuel. “She won’t go blabbing about it. But there are others who have experienced things. There’s a man that Charlie knows, Elias, he was poking around and asking people what odd experiences they’ve had.”
“I saw his post on the forum,” Samuel said. “I didn’t see any responses, but they might’ve been private. Wonder if he heard anything interesting.” He thought for a minute, the shallow crease in his brow deepening. “Whatever anybody told him, I say we keep this between us.” He looked up to Rylee, needlessly adding, “And Charlie.” A thin smirk crossed his lips. “Let him, or anybody else, be the first one to say some crazy shit in public. It’s really just a matter of time. All this shit happening now, on top of last Halloween... we can’t be the only ones. Sooner or later somebody’s going to let something slip.”
It was clear Samuel rather liked the idea. While playing detective had never been his forte, he was, often enough, distressingly observant; add to that the relatively high stakes of this particular game, and he found himself more intrigued with each passing moment. “Four of us should start a pool,” he said, laughing to himself. “Guess the who’s who of Pax Letale. Winner takes the kitty.”
Pursing her lips against a smirk, she arched a brow at Samuel, but refrained from commenting. Even before this idea of Rylee being her son -- wasn’t he older than she was? -- was introduced, she’d felt a sort of protective streak toward him. Now she felt particularly reluctant to say anything untoward.
“It seems likely we’ll find out soon enough,” she said. “I know I’ve been having more dreams lately, and if Phobos is starting to manifest physically for you, Rylee, and you two almost shot each other to death...”
She took a look around the room, shaking her head.
“Jesus.”
Turning back to them she said, “Were there any warning signs? Is there any way to tell when this is coming? I’m a little concerned about the possibility of you two, you know, actually murdering each other when Ares and Phobos decide to... come out, I guess.”
“Just...weird things starting to happen with me. Dreams, people acting weird when Charlie and I saw a movie, then suddenly it was the teeth and the eyes yesterday and then today...” Rylee looked at Samuel then back to Lia. “When I woke up on the floor, Sam- Ares was demanding that I give him back his son. He threatened me because I couldn’t give Phobos back. I don’t know exactly what Phobos did to you, Samuel, but I guess it was all the same. They just...really want to see their family and they seem to be a little pissed when they are denied that. I think, if we were able to let them see each other, we’d be safe. But...I don’t know how to make Phobos show up on command and I don’t know what would happen if he did show up and he didn’t get what he was looking for.”
Samuel nodded, understanding all too well.
“They don’t seem to have a whole shitload of patience,” he said. He laughed in spite of the discomfort he felt at that knowledge. Pushing aside his concerns - what might they do if too frequently or too willfully denied what they wanted being foremost of these - he carried on. “I’ve had a few dreams, too. Maybe deliberately trying to have them would help. I wouldn’t mind watchin’ some violent stuff before bed, or marathoning God of War games...” Again he laughed, forcing his mind away from far more damning and final possibilities. “And when you showed up - well, when Phobos did - it seemed to pull Ares out. Other than that I dunno. I’ve been kind of conscious for things like this before, but I don’t know what brings him out. Halloween it just...” He shook his head, giving a vague, frustrated gesture with his hand. “Happened. Like flicking on a light switch.”
Lia nodded. “I don’t think any of us had any idea what was going to happen last Halloween, and truthfully, we didn’t remember much afterward... but lately things have seemed different. I’m remembering more...”
She shook her head and shifted closer to Samuel and looked up at him. Since they’d been together, they’d had dreams with what seemed like slowly increasing frequency of these “other” selves, but after discussing them briefly once or twice and concluding that they were the result of having watched one too many episodes of Spartacus, they’d let it lie. After all, neither of them stood to benefit from entertaining the other possibility.
But now...
“I guess... has Ares or Phobos ever come out, even partially, around anyone else? You know, beside people from Pax?”
Rylee looked to Samuel, wondering if Ares had taken over him like that, he seemed much more relaxed with all of it than Rylee felt. Then again, Samuel had been dealing with this for a year apparently. With a small breath, Rylee looked at Lia, his eyes large. “On my birthday, Charlie took me to the movies. Nothing happened to us, we didn’t change at all, but everyone in the theater went wild. They were either terrified or simply destroying the theater and each other. I don’t know if that has anything to do with Phobos but...how often does a theater filled with people go crazy like that? But otherwise, no, Phobos has never come out.”
“Ares either,” Samuel said. The words still felt strange on his tongue. It had been so much simpler to laugh all this off, to pretend it had all been the result of too much softcore television and late-night groping sessions. But there was no pretending now; strange as it was, their shared experiences were too much to push aside. A shallow crease marked his brow as he thought back to his work, his active tours of duty, his boot camp and training. Nothing particularly stood out: Though he had been a quick study - unnaturally so, his peers and superiors alike had joked - there had seemed nothing untoward or out of place. It seemed nothing worth mentioning, given the lack of overt changes or even dreams, and so he let it lie. He shrugged.
“Seems like this place is a trigger,” he mused, grinning at the sheer stupidity of the thought. “There’s others I feel familiar with - not like this, but like I’ve met ‘em before - and I can’t really come up with a reason for it. I’ve felt the same way about some people who’ve left, but never figured out why.”
“Me too,” Lia agreed faintly, thinking on friends she could barely remember now. “I don’t...”
She shook her head. There were people she’d felt close to, people she’d known for years, and now she seemed only dimly able to recall them. Even their names were hard to remember, and she didn’t know if it was because Aphrodite didn’t care to, or because something here was affecting her, or them... she was afraid to admit this though. Afraid to bring it to the fore and acknowledge it openly. Instead she held back. “What does it mean, then? Do they just want to take over permanently? Are they going to... I don’t know, erase us, and take over our bodies?”
She laughed, the sound a bit hollow. “I mean, it’s all a bit much. Is that why people keep moving out? Are they remembering? Is something happening when they do?”
Trying to keep a clear, cool head, she looked at Rylee and Samuel. She tried to remind herself that moments ago, she’d refused to believe this, and now that she was apparently convinced, she kept going over worst-case scenarios in her mind.
“Maybe. I guess we’ll see what happens. If they keep making appearances I’m sure we’ll get our answers soon. At least we know what’s happening with us,” Rylee replied with a dry smile followed by a sigh. He gave a nod to Samuel and then a small smile to Lia. “I think I’m going to head back to my apartment. If anything else happens that is unusual or strange I can let you guys know. I’d appreciate any updates from you as well, if you both don’t mind.”
“Sure thing,” Samuel said, his voice seeming somehow distant. They each of them had plenty to think on, plenty to occupy their minds for a time. And time alone would allow him and Lia to discuss other things - the tattered pictures, among much else. He nodded to Rylee, trusting him to show himself out. “I’ll text you,” he said, and moved toward the couch, beginning the long cleanup.