Re: Shadowcrest: Sam & Louis
Sam didn't think about whether the things Cris said were a secret. Maybe they were or whatever, but this was Lou, and Lou was Cris' partner, and it was someone to talk to about it without being all fucking cryptic. She knew Cris cared about Lou, and she thought Lou cared about Cris, assuming caring was still something her brother could do, and she thought it was. He'd given her the blanket, yeah? And that was a tiny thing, a microcosm of caring in faded knit, and she thought it meant he still cared, despite whatever thing was making him commit atrocities, he still cared. She needed to believe that, because the number of people who cared was dwindling or whatever.
"You're so fucking sweet. Even if it was obvious I was driving him fucking nuts you'd say I wasn't," she said knowingly, and it was true. Because Lou would probably sacrifice a thousand Cris' for her sanity, and she knew that too, yeah? But he'd spent a long time trying to keep her safe from-
From-
She shook her head, and he was saying she hadn't broken anyone, yeah? She shoved at his shoulder. "Asshole. You're full of it," she said of Neil's situation, because even Neil admitted shit had been bad before. But maybe that was just what being an older brother was about, yeah? Absolution, and his question about whether or not she would tell him that he should stick things out on his own was so not fair or whatever. "That's cheating. No, you shouldn't stick things out on your own, but this is different. Don't ask how, because I'm not fucking sure, but it is. You don't make people cry, yeah? And you don't try to kill yourself and leave people to pick up the pieces, and you don't end up in drug dens or whatever."
She shook her head really fucking fast when Louis arched that sharp and unforgiving brow. She knew that look, and her brother could hold a grudge like no other queen in New York. "She said they talked about it first or whatever, about her wish. I think she misunderstood. Don't stand against her, Lou. It'll just cause a rift with Neil, yeah?" She shook her head, imploring. "No rifts, ok?"
Then he motioned to the sigils, and she noticed them for the first time. Normally, she was hella observational, but not today. Not with cold bare feet and old scrubs and ache in her chest that wouldn't fucking fade. But she noticed now, and she craned around, knees on the couch, to see the marks behind them. She leaned over the back of that couch like a child, hair a dark halo of refusal to remain contained, and then she looked at him again. "You know, this is some fucked up shit, yeah?" She sat heavily back on her ass. "How did they get you or whatever? Do you remember?" He'd used a lot of fucking words and things she didn't know before, but the idea of being captured, that was a simple one she understood.
"I'm surprised Cris let anyone kill anyone," she said honestly. "He has a lot of morals, yeah? He said she looked like me- He looked like me, the dude you killed? I think he probs needed it to be quick and painless or whatever. I don't think he could stand there and watch something like that be painful, not with anyone, much less if it looked like someone he knew." She shook her head. "You aren't a coward, baby. Not killing someone isn't ever cowardly."
He squeezed her hand, and he told her Micah was just a psychopath. He made it impersonal, and like a willing child who wants Santa Claus to be true, even though she knows better in the corners of her mind, she believed him.