Lark Kelly (growntoofast) wrote in playinghouse, @ 2012-05-13 11:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | 01-07, lark |
things that go bump in the night
Who: Ben and Lark
When: Late night
Where: Living room, mainly
Her luck had finally run out.
Thanks to Lark’s incident with over-drugging on... whatever the scientists had given her during the flight, the first couple of days in the house Lark had experienced a slightly weird sleeping schedule. After sleeping through the entire first day, she’d evened out and ended up waking up just before sunrise, and falling asleep again around nine or ten. It had worked out for her. It was what her high school friends would have called an old lady schedule, but it worked for her. Today, she’d dozed off while writing in her notebook. Lark wasn’t the sort of person who did naps. They threw her system out of whack. Which meant she was finding it impossible to get to sleep. She had tossed and turned for a little while, but finally found herself too frustrated to stay in bed a moment longer. Scowling, she got out of bed and decided she had to find something to do. Staying in bed was not working for her. The wheels in her brain would not stop turning, and it wasn’t at all pleasant.
She wore only an old pair of striped pajama bottoms and a dark blue T-shirt as she headed out into the hall. Immediately upon opening her bedroom door she wondered if she wasn’t making some kind of mistake. She’d never been awake in the house this late at night, and thus, had never been out of her room late at night. It was kind of... creepy. There were still a few soft lights on at spaced intervals in the hall, but it was dimmer. And somehow, even quieter than usual. Lark didn’t like the quiet. She was used to a thousand little soft sounds. Wind rustling through trees, owls hooting, a dog barking in the distance... this place just felt dead. I can do this, she told herself. Don’t be so stupid. Go find something to do. You can’t hide in your room after midnight like some even sadder Cinderella. So, hugging herself for comfort, she headed to the stairs.
[it works!]
Ben couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t been working hard all day, hadn’t done anything to tire himself out and laying in bed trying to get his body to shut down had just left him worrying about his family and the scrap yard and everything else he’d left back home. He knew it was the right thing, being here, it was the perfect answer to all of the money troubles they had but he couldn’t help but worry about what would happen in the year he was gone. And the quiet of his room had only made the worries so much louder.
Wandering out in just a pair of dark blue cotton sleep pants and a white tank undershirt he made his way downstairs, all the way to the main floor. He remembered seeing some interesting hunting-type carvings and paintings in the living room and he thought about checking them out again. And tinkering with that upright now that no one was around to bother. It was a little eerie, moving about the house at night but he got over it quickly. He’d never been one to be afraid of the dark, though the silence would take some getting used to.
He found the room he was looking for, though he did accidentally end up in the ballroom first and had to backtrack to find the right turn to take. He had a little difficulty locating a light but once he did the warm yellow glow filled the room enough to make it feel a little less creepy. He drew his fingers over the carvings around the fireplace as he wandered to the piano, sitting down and tapping a few random keys before he started on one of the few songs one of the women at the church had taught him over the years.
Lark hadn’t set out with a destination in mind, but as she walked she decided on maybe making a snack or a cup of tea. Then... well, she didn’t know, but she’d figure it out as she went along. Occasionally she heard a sound inside someone’s bedroom, and she figured some of her new roommates were probably awake, but she wasn’t about to knock on random doors in search of noise and company. Lark usually wasn’t the sort of person who minded her own company, and usually not the sort of person to be so jumpy about things that went bump in the night. You’re fine, she kept telling herself, every time she turned a corner to see another dimly lit room of shadows. She couldn’t get used to the way not even the floorboards creaked beneath her feet as she walked. Things were almost too new for her liking.
She had reached the grand staircase and was almost to the bottom when she heard it - a far-off couple of notes in the air. It wasn’t particularly loud, but she would have heard a pin drop anyway. It was just unexpected enough to scare the daylights out of her. She jumped and slammed her hands over her mouth to stifle a yell, and froze as she waited to figure out whether or not she was going to throw up her own heart. It was a close one. “Piano,” she mumbled, feeling very stupid. Not a ghost, which I don’t even believe in anyway, just another person who can’t sleep. Or maybe a ghost on some native burial grounds, but even if it is, it’s playing the piano and not trying to kill me, so it shouldn’t matter either way. Just to prove to herself that she was being stupid, she decided to go investigate the sound - which had actually become a song in the time it took to force her heart from her throat. After stepping off the landing she quickened her pace, more because the marble floors were cold and she was an idiot in bare feet than anything else. She tried to be quiet about it, anyway, knowing that a few people had bedrooms on this floor... somewhere. She was almost starting to feel like she didn’t need a map for the house.
She peeked in through the arch to the living room, and felt both silly and relieved to see an actual person. She didn’t feel right saying anything though, so she just stood and listened. Sounds of life were actually making her feel better.
Ben eventually sat at the bench of the piano, playing the song the best he remembered-though there were a few notes every few meters he had to fudge a little. Not that it particularly bothered him, he didn’t mind a bit of creative license here and there. It made it all feel a little more natural and free. As the song he remembered ended he paused a bit, one hand tapping a few of the keys though some part of his mind sensed the other presence in the room. He stopped playing to glance over his shoulder, spotting Lark. “Oh. Hey there.” he murmured quietly, drawl thick in his words as he stood up to turn and face her. “Sorry ma’am, didn’t wake you or anything did I?” he didn’t know yet that there were bedrooms on the first floor but he hadn’t seen the whole thing and just assumed no one would be able to hear the piano from their bed.
Whoops. Caught. Lark smiled sheepishly, and held up a hand in a slight wave. Ma’am? “No, it’s not that loud. I was just close by. I think the bedrooms are on the other side of this floor, anyway. Sorry to...” she gestured lamely between them and crossed her arms again. “Interrupt,” she settled on. She was trying to figure out if she’d seen him around the house yet. She didn’t think that she had, though that didn’t necessarily mean much. She’d only met a handful of people so far. The most interaction she tended to have with people was on the computer. “I’m Lark.”
Ben took a few steps toward her, shaking his head. “No interruption at all, don’t worry ‘bout that.” He gave her a smile and ducked his head slightly, “Ben, quite nice to meet you Lark.” He couldn’t remember for sure if they’d spoken on the computer before or not, he had a feeling they had but he would be able to remember the name better after meeting her face to face anyway. “Guess you couldn’t sleep much either?” he asked softly, feeling like he needed to whisper for some odd reason. Talking loudly just seemed too out of place in the silence of the house.
Aha, new guy. Lark smiled faintly and shook her head. “Wide awake. Sadly,” she answered, also speaking in a hushed tone. She would have agreed that it felt required. Perhaps loud voices would echo in the night but not the day? Nope, she was just still in irrational mode. She really hoped her brain would knock it the heck off soon, it was getting on her last nerve. “I guess jet lag’s not a problem for you.” Normally she might have wondered if that was a clue as to where they were, but she remembered Ben mentioning Texas on the journal. All it took was half a glance out any window to know they were nowhere near Texas.
“Me too.” Ben smiled, sitting down on one of the couches, gesturing to the seat next to him, almost asking if she’d like to sit too. He shrugged a little, thinking about it for a few seconds. He hadn’t even thought about jet lag. “Ya know, I couldn’t tell ya. Between not working myself tired and a mind that don’t wanna stop thinkin’ don’t think I’d be gettin’ much sleep tonight either way.”
Lark hadn’t meant to interrupt his playing, but at the same time she found she couldn’t really turn down a little human interaction. Her early assumptions that you could go a whole day without bumping into anyone in this massive house had proven true, and she still felt a little off with the realization. “Same here,” she said, rolling her eyes as she headed to the couch. She took a seat on the other end, tucking her legs beneath her as she faced Ben. “I accidentally took a nap today and now I’m wide awake. How are you settling in so far?”
Ben nodded, “Yeah, my little sister does that all the time. She’ll come home from school and fall asleep on the couch for a few hours then be sittin’ up all night ‘cause of it. When she was younger used to always sneak in my room, these days I think she just plays with that phone of hers instead.” Ben smiled a bit talking about June, he knew he had a soft spot when it came to his sisters, especially the baby of the family, and he tended to ramble when he talked about them more than anything else. “I’m pretty alright. Tough gettin’ used to bein’ away from home, ya know? But it’s not so bad here, least there’s company.”
The way he talked about his sister gave Lark a little all-too-familiar pang when she thought about her own, which she determinedly pushed away. “There’s company,” she confirmed, and it was definitely a preferable company to the homeless shelter she’d been staying in. Just one sad story on top of another, everyone depressed and at the end of their rope. “People have been kind of keeping to themselves so far, which is...” Which was, what? She hadn’t thought about it much. Was she actually feeling disappointed? Lark refused to admit in any way that she could possibly be lonely. She had too many other problems to even begin to deal with loneliness. “Well, probably to be expected. Everyone’s still feeling each other and this place out. There’s some interesting characters here, I can tell you that much.”
Ben didn’t know if talking about them would make things better or worse but he felt like trying to forget his family was something he just couldn’t do so there was no point. He nodded a little bit. Though he’d already had the chance to spend some time with Emily he did notice that for the most part people were separate around the house. He definitely be doing anything he could to try and remedy that. He was used to a community, being surrounded by people and friends almost all the time so he didn’t particularly want to spend the next year on his own. “Yeah I bet, we’ll fix that up though, eventually. This is a social experiment right? Can’t study social if nobody’s being very can you?” he grinned a little, the smile lopsided and casual. “Oh yeah? Interestin’ can be good, who should I look for?”
Despite the fact that Lark was absolutely not admitting to disappointment and loneliness, she felt encouraged by Ben’s statement. She grinned, and tried to figure out how to answer him. “Well, there was a guy that threw a party, but he quit. Which is weird to me, because the party was... you know, fine. Everyone just sat around the billiard room shooting the breeze and drinking and eating baked goods. Oh, Mack! She’s this blond girl, I think from California, and she’s a... uh, a fancy word for baker. She made all this amazing stuff. She seems really nice, she’s really talkative and helpful on the computer, but I haven’t met her in a one-on-one setting. There’s also a guy who claims he just got out of jail, and this blind chick who seems to think it’s her job to snipe at people on the computer, but... I don’t know, I just ignore her.”
“Heard ‘bout that party, darn pity he quit, seemed like the kind of guy that’d be good to have around if he’s gettin’ everybody together.” Ben shrugged and chuckled softly, “Ma’am, where I come from baker is a fancy word.” he joked, leaning back against the cushions of the couch, the scientists definitely didn’t spare any expense in trying to make the house comfortable for them and it definitely wasn’t the sort of place Ben had been expecting. “That oughta be good though, havin’ somebody who knows their way ‘round the kitchen real well.” Ben hadn’t heard from many of them yet but if definitely seemed like there were some pretty interesting types around. He wondered if the scientists had done it on purpose, finding people with strong personalities so things would be more interesting in their study. “Ignorin’ those types usually seems to be the way to go ‘bout it. Hopefully she won’t cause too much trouble or nothin’”
Lark’s grin had widened, but she wrinkled her nose up at being called ‘Ma’am’ again. Yes, it was a Southern thing, but even she’d never experienced that before. Where she was from it was usually ‘Miss’, or something much more distasteful. “Don’t you be ‘ma’am’ing me all night, I may just have to start calling you Sir,” she warned. There was no ire in her voice though, only amusement. “I think we have a professional boxer in the house too, but I don’t know the sport well enough to know if he’s famous. He’s huge though, he probably has to stoop to get through certain doorways.”
Ben laughed at that, he was so used to it he sometimes forgot not everyone spoke the way he did. “Sorry ‘bout that, I’ll do my best.” he smiled, bowing his head a little bit again. “I can’t say I know boxing much either, most the fights I’ve seen have been between schoolkids or guys who spent a bit too much time at the bar.” he grinned, “I’d say he must be hard to miss but this house is so huge can’t imagine it’d be hard to lose anybody in here.”
“I’m really glad they brought more people in,” Lark admitted. “This house is way too big for half capacity. Maybe things will liven up now.” And that would be good. This house needed a bit more life. Maybe that was why it didn’t seem anywhere even close to ‘homey’ yet. “What about you? Have you met many people yet?” Lark’s first day she had gone until late afternoon until she saw anybody, so she knew how disorienting that could be.
“Sure hope so, big ol’ house like this can’t stay quiet so long, think it’ll get real eerie pretty quick.” Ben shrugged, he hadn’t been here long but in all his wandering around he’d still only really seen Emily and she was a new too. He shook his head. “Nah, just you and one of the other new kids, that Emily. Real nice girl, chatty.” he grinned a little, remembering the way she could chat a mile a minute about anything and nothing. “Had luch with her and we went lookin’ round a bit together.”
“I talked to her on the computer, she seems really nice,” Lark replied. And in her humble opinion, the house could do with a few more nice people. The idea that someone was here fresh out of jail worried her, mainly because she didn’t know why they had been in jail (or if that was even true), and Hannah seemed to go out of her way to argue with people. “We talked about going through the hedge maze when it’s warmer. There’s an actual hedge maze outside.” She giggled slightly. “Maybe we should get a bunch of people, and try and see who can make the best time. That could be fun. Albeit cold.”
Ban had a bit of apprehension in the back of his mind, about having anybody fresh from jail hanging around in a house where they really couldn’t get away from him at all. But, he was the type to meet first, judge later so he knew he’d give him a shot anyway. And since he hadn’t met the other girl either he’d probably just do his best to not get on her nerves. “Hedge maze? Never been in one of those, never seen one of those!” he chuckled softly, “But yeah, thinkin’ I might be waitin’ til the ground ain’t so white for somethin’ like that. Ain’t much one for the cold.”
“I haven’t been outside much myself,” Lark admitted. “But the scientists did leave snowsuits and gear for anyone who didn’t have their own, so that was nice. I always thought I had appropriate winter clothing, growing up in the mountains and all. I was dead wrong.” She grinned again, and wondered how long winter tended to last... wherever they were. She really hoped they weren’t in some place where it was cold and snowy year round - that scenario seemed to be begging for trouble. “So you’re from Texas? What did you do in the real world?”
“Yeah can’t say I have much anythin’ made for weather like this, never been north of Oklahoma, and even there only ever gone right near middle of summer.” Ben himself had been wondering if and when this weather would change; he was really not looking forward to spending most of his year inside. He was so used to being outside more than he was in and couldn’t imagine hardly ever going out for so long. Even when he was sick and his mother would make him stay in bed he was always sneaking out to just sit on the porch after a day or two. “Yes I am.” Ben nodded, barely managing to pull back and not say the ‘yes ma’am’ that had been on the tip of his tongue. “I owned a scrap yard. Worked out in the yard since I was 13. What ‘bout you? What’d you do back home?”
“I’d never been out of Tennessee before,” Lark admitted. She had been unsure where exactly she was going, but no matter what else, she was at least certain that they were not in Tennessee. Yeah, that narrowed it down. “For all I know we’re not even in the states anymore. Kind of weird to think about.” She sort of assumed that was just part of the experiment, though. The not knowing. “I was a hotel maid,” Lark answered, smiling briefly. “From the time I was fifteen. Kind of weird fighting my urges to clean up after everyone here.”
Ben himself hadn’t been outside of Texas more than a handful of times so it had been a bit odd to think that he would be going somewhere far enough to need a plane to get him there and it was definitely odd to see snow and while it was interesting and he’d probably explore it at some point the brief time he had spent outside on his way in to the house was enough for him to confirm he wasn’t much a fan. “That is odd, kind of hope we are.” He shrugged a bit. He chuckled and nodded, “Oh well then, I’ll definitely have to try and keep tidy for ya. Don’t want you to go crazy or anythin’.”
“Oh don’t worry,” Lark said, with a tiny snort of laughter. “I’d probably welcome having something to do. Even if it is clean up after other people. I think a good deal of our roomies would think I was crazy though.” Which was always an idea to put away for later if she really got that bored. And, you know, decided she didn’t care what anyone in the house thought of her.
"Well I promise I won't think ya nuts for it." Ben smiled, his dimples deep in his cheeks as he relaxed more. "And either way, pretty sure my mama would smack me upside the head she knew I was bein' a mess round here." Ben chuckled. He wasn't sure exactly if it would be a good idea in the long run to keep talking about his family the way he did when he knew he'd see them in a few hours but he didn't know any other way so he'd just have to figure it out as he went and hope he didn't bother anyone else along the way. "So what do you do when you get bored round here?" he asked, "Besides wander round in the dark that is."
Ah, boredom. Lark’s arch nemesis. “You mean other than catch up on sleep?” She grinned again. Okay, she felt pretty sure she’d managed that one within two days. “I’ve actually been doing something kind of weird,” she admitted. “They have all these different how to books, like teach yourself... whatever? In the library. So I grabbed a bunch of them and I’ve been trying to find something that sticks.” She’d definitely decided against any sort of language. There was just... no way. Her brain was not built for that kind of thing.
Ben laughed softly with her. He didn't sleep much at all back home so maybe now that he had the time he'd be able to teach himself to. Or he'd just make up ways other than work to fill the nighttime hours. He thought about what Lark said for a second before shaking his head, "I don't think that one's weird at all. Kinda genius if you ask me. Good use of the time and all."
Lark’s smile broadened somewhat. “I guess I don’t do downtime well,” she said, shrugging. At least she was bettering herself somehow, so she could fool her brain into thinking she’d been productive. Even if all she was doing was learning to make origami swans. “Guess everyone’s gonna have time to dream up some new hobbies while we’re here.”
"You and me both. barely been here a day and I'm already itchin' for some thing to do." Ben laughed softly, "Yeah, recon we will. Unless they got some horses hidin' out in that snow somewhere." he joked though, in the back of his head he'd probably believe someone if they told him there were.
Finally, someone Lark could relate to. She felt like she could have been talking to someone from her hometown - if it weren’t for the fact that most people in her hometown thought she was the lowest form of white trash. “They got just about everything but,” she sighed. “No greenhouse, either. It’s only a matter of time before I brave the white stuff out there. I’m not used to spending so much time inside.” Nevermind the fact that she had considered sleeping outside before she signed up for the experiment. Those days were over. “So how’d you kill time back home?”
"Gotta admit, today was probably the longest I been inside since I took over the yard. Its drivin' me a little up the wall but I ain't much a fan of that cold." He'd even opened up the window of his room to see what it was like and his general thought had been 'not good' before slamming it shut again. "Wasn't much time to kill back home. Spent pretty much any light hours out in the yard then I'd usually help mama with the girls at night. Though sometimes there'd be stuff in town, dances or barbecues, just people gettin' together type a things." he shrugged a little, "If there was any time after that I'd go to my sister's stable and ride a bit."
“Sounds familiar,” Lark admitted. “All I ever did was pretty much work or help out with my little brother and sister.” Before they’d been taken away, anyway. “Is your mama gonna get by okay without you?” A question she realized she possibly shouldn’t have asked only after she asked it. Oops. “I mean... you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to. None of my business and all.”
The question definitely threw Ben off, but only for a few moments, it may not have been something he wanted to think about much but he was good at dealing with that from having to take over the junkyard when his father died. “It’s alright, she’ll be okay. One of my sister’s is already married so she lives with her man, she’ll come help if mama needs it. And we got Earl, he worked with Dad on the yard for years so he’ll keep things going til I get back.” He ran a hand through his hair and scratched at the back of his neck a little bit. “It ain’t gonna be easy, stayin’ away from them, but I know they’ll be okay. Plenty of people around that’ll help out.”
Lark nodded. She supposed she could relate. She hated the idea of the twins with their uncle for another year, but they’d survive. They’d be unhappy, but safe from harm. It was more than she wanted to put them through, but they were tough. And they had each other to lean on. “That’s the thing I like about small towns,” she said, forcing her mind away from her brother and sister. “There’s always someone to turn to. I hope we can build that feeling here. I mean. We’re not a town. But... close enough?”