Fredcat (panthera_uncia) wrote in regulation, @ 2008-08-03 12:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | everrett mac, fred holden, new moon rising |
Who: Fred Holden & Everrett Mac
What: Kitty is laying some things out very plainly
Where: New Piccadilly Cafe
When: 1:30, Sunday, 3 August
Rating: PG
Status: Closed;Complete
Fred had stolen a table in the corner the moment it had been vacated, wanting as much privacy as possible. She'd picked somewhere not only public but somewhere busy on purpose. Everrett was less likely to run and hide in a literal fashion if there were people in the way. It would also force her to behave physically even if silencing charms could be utilised so she didn't have to worry about training back all the growling that was likely to commence.
The blonde was perched in her chair, feet on the edge and her arms curled around it so her hands could clasp the hot mug of tea. A highly unusual sight, Fred was nearly fully covered in a pair of jeans, a matching blue long sleeved shirt, and a white tee shirt layered over the other shirt. Head down, she was gnawing on the edge of her braces where they came over her left shoulder. It was easy to see her body was tense, eyes trained on the steaming liquid she wasn't bothering to drink though she'd charmed it discreetly to remain warm.
Everrett was late. Somehow, despite living in the city for years now, he'd managed to get off at the wrong stop. So instead of getting back on the tube at the other side, he'd walked, almost losing his way - every street, apparently, looked the same. He hated this part of the city - it was too busy, too touristy, especially on a Sunday afternoon.
When he finally arrived, his cheeks were a little red and little bits of hair stuck in curls by his temples where he'd been sweating from walking in the heat for so long. He'd tied it up again, in a knot at the back of his head with a red elastic band, and some of it was sticking up, down, in all directions - bleached bright, white blond from the sun.
He cleared his throat a little when he approached the table, disguising the trembling in his fingers by shoving them in his pockets and sitting down, suddenly and quickly, in the chair opposite her. Behind his glasses, his eyes were red-rimmed, slightly watery - he hadn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks.
Fred didn't look up when he finally arrived, just kept staring down at the steam curling up into the air before it dissipated to nothing. Fred wasn't hot despite what she wore. She didn't have the body mass to keep herself warm yet. Once Everrett was seated one hand released her mug and went under the table. She'd shoved her wand up her sleeve earlier and pulled it out now to cast the silencing charm around the table. It went out far enough that if a waitress approached she wouldn't realise anything was up. There were enough people creating enough noise that no one would notice the lack of sound from their table. Once the appropriate wards were in place her wand was slid back up her sleeve. Only then did she look up.
Fred's eyes were cold and wild. Some of the human façade she kept up was still present in her eyes, unlike when she'd been captive in Mysteries, but the grey of them were unnaturally icy. Normally Fred was a warm person and that radiated from her eyes as well. To say she wasn't happy was an understatement. All the scents of the people near them mingled and masked Everrett's scent a bit, but the anxiety came off him so strongly she didn't even have to dig for it. A satisfied, and slightly malicious, smile curled onto her lips.
"Before anything happens I want a couple things known right out of the gate. One, I didn't kill those Unspeakables. I wish I did but I didn't and there are multiple people to attest to it if your department wishes to question it or risk coming anywhere near me. Two, any warm or fuzzy feelings I ever had toward you are effectively gone. Don't think my friendship with Ky buys you any points whatsoever. Quite the opposite. Are those points understood?" Fred always rolled her r's when she spoke, but she didn't usually have a growl in her voice as she did now.
Everrett's feet were bouncing nervously under the table, shaking at his ankles in a nervous twitch - it was something he usually did when watching the telly or playing games, but also when he was being told off - by anyone. He swallowed, and when he tried to say "yeah" it didn't really come out, so he said it again after clearing his throat.
"I didn't know," he said after a moment, shrinking back a little. "I didn't know that they - we - had you. Until then."
"And what did you do when you knew, Everrett? Anything? No. I'd thought more highly of you before but it turns out I was wrong. You're a coward. Nothing more. The worst people are the ones who inflict torture, the ones who commit atrocities. Do you know what they call the people know who what's going on but do nothing to stop it? Accomplices. They don't go to jail for as long but they still go away. And for a damn long time depending what it is they were silent about." Her voice was flat as she spoke. Her hands were both wrapped around the mug and she was trying to not come close to breaking it because that'd be awkward and hard to explain to the people who worked there.
"That place is despicable. And you choose to work there. Choose to stay there. That's the person you want to be? Where's the line stop? If it was your sister? If it was Ky? If what happened last weekend didn't happen," she purposely remained vague on her break out because she wasn't sure who knew what within Mysteries regarding it. Pritchard had been obliviated, she wasn't sure who else had been there who may have also had their mind wiped. "I'd be dead now. If I stayed there I'd be dead now and would your excuse be 'I didn't know we had her' when my family came looking for retribution? You don't need to be an animal to be scary, Everrett. Every single person in my family is a sight more terrifying than anyone I saw in that department."
Everrett's face hardened. It was a strange expression - perhaps a new one - and it felt strange on his face, as tired as he was, but it also felt right. Suddenly, he looked his age.
He was tired of everyone telling him what he should and should not do, where he should work, where he shouldn't work, who he should see, what secrets to keep. He'd never felt more like a puppet - physically, mentally. Now he understood why Ky didn't want to see him. Fred had told him everything - that much was obvious from the way she had said the other boy's name. Protectively.
Well.
How fucking dare she.
"I can imagine," he finally said, the edges of his tone accusing.
What he was trying to implicate her in, well, Fred could guess. Would he be wrong? No. Technically there were alibis for Ford and Finn, but that didn't change that they'd been the ones to kill the Unspeakables. Fred had been beyond angry with them for it, but she could only do so much about it now. They were mine to punish, not theirs. When it was all said and done those Unspeakables got off light. Fred would have kidnapped them. She'd have held them, tortured them and burnt the bodies when she was done with them. No one would ever know what had happened to them just as no one would ever know what had happened to Fred if she'd died. Then again, they were only two of her captors. She stared down the one across from her.
When she spoke the growl in her words was stronger. "If your job ever puts Ky in danger, if it ever harms him, I will personally hunt you down and rip your throat out. Do you understand me?" Her tone was even and calm. Aside from the growling, which could be accurately assumed to be uncontrolled and unintentional, there wasn't any actual threat in her tone, just in her words. She meant every single one of them. "And you had better hope to fucking God that's all I do to you."
The hardness in Ev's eyes was still there, but it was shrouded in something else - not quite fear, but an odd sort of sadness. Regret? Maybe even a little bit of self-loathing. His fingers shook when he took them out of his pockets and placed his hands on the table, each fingertip touching the wood and slightly steeped.
"If my job ever puts Ky in danger, I will personally find you and ask you to do that," he said harshly.
Fred looked like she was trying to look past him to see the truth beyond his face but she didn't need her eyes to verify that. She nodded curtly. "That's not limited to Ky. Anyone I love. Friend or family. Anyone of them end up hurt because of you people and I will hunt you all down and slaughter you." She tilted her head to the side and there was a vague sense of amusement, though she wasn't the least bit amused. "I hear your boss doesn't remember much about me. See to it that it stays that way. Right now that is the only thing stopping me from killing him for what he did to me. I catch any of you lot suspiciously too near myself or anyone I care about and I will not wait for confirmation, I will just kill you. I want you, personally, very clear on this point."
She leaned forward over the table suddenly, the motion quicker than she ought to have allowed in public view. "It was made clear to me that I am an animal to your lot." Her voice dropped, "What I don't think you realised is that I've never thought of myself as human and I'm sure as fuck not domesticated." What remained of her human façade in her eyes dropped and there was nothing but the cat left. Unlike when she'd been captive she didn't look wounded, hurt, injured. She looked like she was staring at prey and about to pounce. "Think about whether or not you want to piss off a leopard in the wild." She paused, letting the idea of a wild leopard sink in. "Leopards are notoriously hard to spot in the wild. They kill quickly. They are one of the few predators who will kill humans. They've been known to develop quite a taste for them. There have been problems with man-eating leopards in India because humans have encroached on a leopard's hunting grounds as they expand and destroy everything natural in their path. You and the other two surviving members of your department are my enemies. Be glad I'm letting you live after what you did."
Fred's words, while sharp, were beginning to blur together in Everrett's exhausted mind. Because it was stuck on one little thing.
"Wait," he said slowly, tilting his head forward with a deep frown. "Why would we be after Ky?"
"You want me to explain your own department to you?" She didn't let the question about Ky show she knew anything. "I wasn't the only one held there, but I was the only one that wasn't human. Why are the others there? Bet they're not furry once a month. I smelled humans. And I smelled a lot of fear. Anxiety. Some of it bordered on hatred. I mention Ky because he is my friend and is unfortunate enough to be close to you."
Everrett's brow wrinkled and he slumped back again. The defiance he'd held onto with shaking hands finally fell away from him, burning his fingers.
"I don't know," he said, feeling so fucking ridiculous sat there, ready to cry like a little girl. He was so tired. His temples throbbed and all he could see was Ky on that tree, lost and alone. Was there a portion of truth to those dreams? Was that even possible? "I don't know what I'm doing, Fred." His chin wobbled and he quickly raised his wrist to cover it, knocking some sugar packets to the ground.
Fred sat back again. She relaxed and something in her eyes softened the least bit, but the changes in her posture weren't overt by any means and she doubted he was paying enough attention to notice. "You should figure out what you're doing then, Ev." Using his nickname was a small concession. She wasn't mad at him for anything beyond being a coward and anger over that only kept boiling so long. "I know what it smells like when my blood and organs cook thanks to the people you work with. You really want to be part of that? I'd think Space would look at the bloody stars, not use Unforgivables."
"That's what I thought," Everrett insisted, and his hand dropped. His eyes were a darker red now, watery, his eyelashes clumped. The glasses only made them look bigger - probably like a cartoon. "I went into it thinking that... I don't know. I'd play around with telescopes all day and calculate. That's what I do. It's what I'm good at! It's what they brought me in for and-... and I'm just supposed to be in training right now..."
"You should have joined up with astronomers instead." Technically, Everrett was included under the umbrella of people Fred would protect. He was important to Ky, Ky was important to her and that meant she'd hurt people to keep them from hurting Everrett because it would keep Ky happy. She just didn't feel like sharing this information with Everrett. "They brought you in to play with telescopes and then oops there's a girl being cut up and getting 'electrotherapy'? You got shorted on the job description."
"I didn't half," Everrett whispered, staring straight ahead and not really focusing on anything. "I don't know how to get out," he added, closer to tears. "I'm sorry," he croaked. "I didn't-... I didn't know what to do when I saw you."
Fred shrugged, as if suddenly it was water under the bridge. All those threats still stood, but she could understand not knowing what to do. "If you want out, really want out, there's got to be a way out. Don't imagine it'd be easy or the trade off would be great, but there are always choices in life, kid." She slid a serviette across the table to him. Now she felt like she'd kicked a puppy with him about to cry like that.
Everrett accepted the paper hanky but didn't use it - instead he sniffed loudly like a child and scrunched it up in his hand, tearing at it gently for something to do with his still-shaking hands.
"I feel like I've been lied to," he admitted. "I have been lied to. All that department is is a bunch of lies. Secrets and lies." He shook his head, leaning down to clear the sugar packets up. When he sat back straight, he sighed softly, hiccuping gently and sniffing again. "I'm worried about Ky now."
"If they touch Ky they will end up dead in the most slow, painful way possible." She wasn't sure when the growling had left her voice but it was back now. "Maybe you should talk to Charlie if they won't let you out. He's the stupidly noble type, he might help. Might even have an idea how to free yourself. It's just a thought." Who knows, maybe Harry had erased whatever part of Pritchard's brain tended toward capture and torture as well. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad for Everrett now that Pritchard had been obliviated. Maybe it would be worse.
"I would happily help with that," Everrett said seriously, his voice uneven in its fear and anger. He bit his lip. "Fred," he said, leaning forward. "Why would they touch him?" His fingers gripped around the packets in his hand. "Is he like you?" It would explain a lot, after all - he just couldn't get his head around the slightly prophetic quality of his dreams.
"Ky's not like me," she told him seriously. "He's just a sweet bloke, that's about it. Like I said, I wasn't the only thing held down there, but everything else, as far as I could tell, was human. I put nothing past those people now."
Everrett noticed the way that she said "those people" and not "you people". He shifted a little, dropping the sugar packets back onto the table and rubbing his hands together.
He wasn't sure what to say or do anymore, what to think - so just nodded dumbly, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose and wiping away his tears.
"I've said everything I came here to say." She leaned back in her chair, hand dropping under the table again so she could slide her wand out. "I mean what I said, though. I'm going to be watching everyone very carefully. Anyone gets too close to me or anyone I care about and I will act." Fred couldn't help but wonder if the threat was worse when she was calm, when she wasn't growling and just said it as a point of fact.
Again, Everrett nodded dumbly and, somewhere in the back of his mind, knew that she must take him for an idiot. He didn't expect any more than that.
She removed the silencing charms and wards with the flick and swish of her wand, the noise of the cafe around them came rushing in to fill the space they'd be so selfishly hogging. With her wand back up her sleeve, Fred uncurled and left without another word.