Ominous Threats
Characters: Autumn and Brady Setting: Block A Courtyard, morning
The damn knots were done up pretty good, but Brady was nothing if not determined when he had a goal in mind, and he worked on them for a while before he finally got them loose. When he’d finished, he rolled them each up neatly and then decided he should probably figure out what the hell to do with them so he could get back to his room and crash. He had no idea where the rope had come from in the first place, but he put one in the tool shed that was in that courtyard before heading to the elevator, the other rolled up length of rope still in his hand. He didn’t have any immediate plans for it, but who knew when a good length of rope would come in handy?
He made it down the first elevator, through the basement, and up the second elevator before pausing in the cafeteria. It was, to put it simply, a disaster, and he sighed, shaking his head at it. The night and morning he’d had had him wanting a drink, so it was probably a good thing that the broken glass and spilled liquor were deterring him from crossing to the bar. Someone should probably clean it up, but damned if he had the energy for that right now. No, he needed to get back to his room and just sleep for a few hours. Only as he left the cafeteria he spotted Autumn walking around, and it would seem he was still awake enough to be concerned by the expression on her face, especially considering the display he’d just dismantled.
Detouring to her, he called out “Autumn, are you okay?” with clear concern.
Autumn heard her name called, and immediately looked up. God, Brady. Exactly who she very abruptly decided she needed to talk to. She jogged over. "Can I say you have perfect timing?" she asked. Then she noted the ropes. "What're those? Need help with some project? I might not be super handy, but I can stand around and hold things with the best of them." she told him, with a smile. It was strained, however, clear that he was right--something was the matter.
Yeah, she wasn’t okay, even if she was deflecting with an offer to help with whatever he was doing. He snorted at the questions, shaking his head. “No, not for a fucking project,” he muttered darkly. “Got stranded over in B Block during the blackout, and sometime during the night someone decided to be an asshole and hang a couple nooses from a tree and carve something into the trunk. Had yours and Mazie’s names with a heart around it,” he said without preamble, not about to waste time in sharing what he’d seen.
Autumn had been going to express that she hoped he found someplace to sleep, but his description of things had her going pale. Her eyes widened, and she took half a step back, eyes going to the nooses again. She opened her mouth, but no words came forth.
She looked scared. Good. As far as Brady was concerned, she should be scared. It was clearly some kind of threat. “Pisses me the fuck off that even though I was over there, I got no clue who did it. Was in the music room all night, keeping watch while Edan slept,” he went on, staying put even though she’d took a half step back.
Autumn was aware she needed to react to this. She needed to get herself together, to speak, or something, but she was reeling, very very hard. She didn't know what to do. She was a girl from a well off family. She'd been a ridiculously high priced call girl. At no point had she ever had to deal with threats, even lowly ones. So, this, was absolutely terrifying. She swallowed, realized she was trembling a little bit, and she found Brady's eyes. "I don't know what to do." she said, voice much smaller than she would have liked.
When Brady noticed that she was trembling, he couldn’t help but step closer to her, reaching out to rub her shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. “Fuck, there’s not much you can do? Just keep an eye out, watch your back, and try to stick around people you know and trust.” Which wasn’t exactly a fun thing to suggest, but it was better safe than sorry, right? “Gonna do my best to figure out who the fuck did this. There’s been a lot of threats going around lately, and it’s really starting to piss me off.” He could handle being threatened himself, he knew he could take care of himself, and if something did happen to him? Then something happened. But to threaten someone as kind and gentle as Autumn? No. He wouldn’t tolerate it.
She stood closer to him, feeling more vulnerable than she had in her entire life. Even in her time in prison, she'd known how to play it all. But this? Who would have done this? And why? She got along with everyone. The only person she'd even had a minor tiff with was Leandro, and it certainly hadn't been anything that would result in what Brady had described. And Mazie...the only person she knew she had a spat with was Brady who wouldn't do something like that. Reaching up, she dragged her fingers through her hair, feeling sick to her stomach. "Brady, I can't think of anyone who even has an issue with me. Not that would...no one...and I don't think anyone's on Mazie's bad side either."
Brady nodded slowly at Autumn’s words. “Don’t try to logic it, you’re just gonna give yourself a headache. There are some fucked up people here that do shit for no reason at all. You hear about the anonymous messages? Got a couple myself. And this guy, Jeremy, got a message painted on his door last night, too. Someone might just be trying to fuck with people’s heads, but you can’t discount it might be a real threat, so yeah, just be aware and shit,” he said, scrubbing his free hand through his hair as his other hand slid around her shoulders, tugging her in a little side-hug. “No one’s gonna hurt you.” He’d make sure of it. “Or Mazie,” he added, knowing that the blonde was very important to Autumn.
'Be aware and shit' didn't help her state of mind either. She felt like her world was crashing. First Mazie and her incredibly irresponsible ideas she very much planned to go through with, and now this. She couldn't help but think that with the cameras going offline, or under Mazie's control that it would just make things more dangerous. God, what the hell did she do? Just...go back to her room and never come back out? She couldn't exist like that. She didn't want to exist like that. She rested her head against him, and shut her eyes for a moment, feeling better at his assurance that no one would hurt her or Mazie. Even if he didn't say how, hearing it was nice. "Should I...I don't know, find something to defend myself with? Are you going to be around? Can I call you if anything goes wrong?" she asked. "And I know it's a lot to ask, you can tell me no, I understand that it's probably too much, but you make me feel safer." she said, rambling a touch towards the end.
It wasn’t difficult to imagine that this was overwhelming to consider for someone like Autumn, which just made him even angrier that someone had targeted her with this very ominous threat. Her questions were both surprising and not, and he couldn’t help but be a little impressed that she was already considering these different things. It would help him worry just a tiny bit less. “Yeah, you should definitely arm yourself. And don’t be afraid to use whatever weapon you settle on. You can’t trust the fuckers in charge to protect you, not if Kasper’s attack the other day is anything to go by. You need to learn how to defend yourself, if you don’t know much yet. You ever take a self defense class before? We can go over some stuff later,” he offered in case she hadn’t. It would have to wait until after he’d slept some, as he was barely standing as it was. “Yeah, I’ll be around, and I’m in room eight. I’ve told you that before, right?” Fuck if he could remember right now. “You definitely should call me if something goes wrong. And you ever need to escape somewhere no one’s gonna fuck with you, my door’s always open for ya.”
"I only know very basic things." Autumn admitted. It hadn't been a part of her life, really. She was a 'get flown to Paris' prostitute, not a back alley 'imma cut you' prostitute. There was a rather enormous difference. She nodded, however, when he told her that he'd go over some things with her. That made her feel better too. She looked up at him, and gave him a soft smile. "Thank you." she told him, one hundred percent grateful, and that was very clear. "Can I kiss your cheek? I feel like you deserve one."
“Nothin’ wrong with the basics. You never know when something as simple as punching a guy in the balls might save your life,” he quipped with a faint half smirk. He’d have to figure out just what ‘basics’ she knew, but she seemed like she’d probably be a quick study, so he wasn’t too worried about her picking up whatever he would show her. “Anytime,” he replied at the thanks. And really? It wasn’t all out of guilt or feeling like he owed her for that day at the pool. He genuinely liked Autumn and wanted to look out for her. He chuckled faintly at the question, glancing down at her with a quirked brow. “Sure, if you want,” he answered, amused that she’d asked in the first place.
Autumn pushed up on her toes and put her hand to his opposite cheek, then kissed the one closest to her. "Thank you." she told him. "I feel...well, like I can breathe, so there's a start." she said, sighing. And she knew she'd be freaking out again later, but the initial shock wave was ebbing back.
Brady leaned down just a little when she pushed up to kiss his cheek, but otherwise stayed still. It wasn’t that he was a stranger to platonic kisses on the cheek, it had just been a very long time since he’d been around women that it was taking some getting used to again. “Yeah, breathing’s good. So. You seemed like something was buggin’ ya before I dropped this on you. What’s going on?” he asked, now that his news was done shared and out of the way.
"Oh...right." Autumn said with a sigh. "I...remember how I was talking about worrying about Mazie last time? Let's just say that's popped up again, like it was always going to." she shook her head a little. "And I'm just...worried."
It took a lot of effort not to groan at that, but he managed it, keeping his expression neutral and attentive. Relationship drama, he really didn’t feel equipped to help her with, but he could try. “Shit, I’m sorry. So, things just not going well, or...” he trailed off, scrubbing a hand through his hair as he tried to figure out how to ask without actually asking.
"Between us? That's fine. But her...tendencies? Not so much." Autumn said. She also had to shake her head. "I'm not really great at relationships." she said quietly. "Not really. This is the first one in...well. A very long time."
Well, at least it wasn’t actual relationship trouble, that was a bit of a relief even if he wasn’t sure what exactly Autumn meant by Mazie’s tendencies. He didn’t really know much about the blonde, and he was a little too tired to try to focus on what he did know. “You and me both,” he muttered under his breath. He didn’t need to unload his own failures with relationships on her, though. “Huh. Well, figure it’s probably long past due you let yourself have one, then. So what’s she up to that’s got you so worried?” he asked, though he wouldn’t be surprised if she told him to butt out considering how vague she’d been so far about it.
"Things I probably can't just talk about out in the open." Autumn said with regret. And she looked at him for a long moment. "And you look a little like you're ready to fall asleep standing up, hon. I'm guessing you didn't get much sleep over there." she said, wanting the poor guy to be let off the hook if he was exhausted.
So things the administration would probably frown on, which only made him even more curious. Maybe he’d try to find a way for him and Autumn to talk without the assholes listening in. “Understood,” he said simply, letting it go for the time being. “Ha, yeah, not so much. Been up for, fuck, probably ‘round twenty-six hours. ‘Bout ready to crash. You should head back to Mazie, tell her what all I told you,” he suggested, figuring it would be best if they were both aware of the threat.
Wincing, Autumn stepped back from him, to stop crowding his person. "I'll tell her. Thanks, for the heads up, and y'know, everything else. Go get some sleep, Brady." she told him, affection in her tone.
“Yeah, you’re welcome. For everything. And, okay, yeah, I’m going,” he said with a small grin. “Catch ya later,” he added with one last nod toward her before turning and continuing on to his room. Once there, he locked his door, dropped the rope on his couch, and then fell facedown on his bed fully clothed, passing out within seconds.