Jul. 4th, 2020 at 7:50 PM
REX HILTS + AUSTIN JONSON
trespassing and spiders
JULY 2nd - around midnight | Abandoned Firehouse | PG-13
This was going great.
Abandoned buildings weren’t that hard to come by in Seven Devils, although most of the town was used with old businesses and facing a little bit of renovations for the new wave of residents to come in, a large portion of the town was inhabited. But there were areas that weren’t.
One building that seemed kind of ominous was an old fire house, probably dating back to the early 1900’s, before the current firehouse in town was built. The glass around the oversized entrance was broken in some places and filthy in others, near impossible to see through. The gaping opening of what had once been the firehouse door almost looked like a yawning maw. It looked like a very bad idea.
But people had supposedly heard wailing from inside, soft cries, almost like a baby. Despite the fact that literally no one had been in there for years.
There was the chance that it was just people hearing things, so Austin had set up a recording device on the edge of the property the night before and collected it in the morning, expecting nothing. Instead, it picked up the soft wailing of someone at around 3am, lasting until just just after 4am.
Naturally, Austin was there that night, stepping through some of the open spaces to get inside, flashlight running over the initial area to make sure it wasn’t just homeless people holing up inside to escape the elements. Nothing looked disturbed though; the building was old and dusty, creaking and decrepit looking.
So naturally, Austin climbed the stairs, wanting to see if there was something in the upstairs office. Except he got half way up the second flight when the wooden panels gave out from under his feet. He’d narrowly gotten up to the top, but it did mean the stairs were just a hole, one he couldn’t jump over to get back across.
Cool. Great. Awesome, it’s fine, really.
Fire Stations have firepoles. He’d just… find that. Everything was great.
When he’d gotten the call from a concerned citizen about suspicious lights around the old abandoned firehouse, Rex rolled his eyes and dragged his hand down his face in preemptive frustration. Even before he reached the scene or had even gotten up from his desk chair and the stack of paperwork — he knew.
“Goddamn kids,” he muttered as he grabbed his hat and headed for his vehicle, not saying a word to anyone left in the office this late.
The werewolf sped off in the direction of the more beat-up side of town; no sirens, no lights, no radio. Nothing. In fact, he’d shut the headlights off as he pulled onto the road the firehouse was on. “Goddamn kids,” he repeated to himself through gritted teeth. The animosity behind his words was weak - at the end of the day he’d rather respond to a trespassing call than something more sinister.
Rex damn near coasted his vehicle to the front of the building, rolling the window down so he could take a long sniff of the air. The young man’s scent familiar by now - unfortunately. Of course it was Austin. Who else would be wandering around abandoned buildings at night looking for proof of ghosts and meth addicts or whatever it was that the young man was after. He sure as shit wasn’t getting out of the vehicle if he didn’t need to. He could just argue with the kid to give up and get in the passenger seat.. Hopefully.
The kid was pretty good at arguing.
Still, he decided to have a little fun with the paranormal investigator before he ruined his night. With his window rolled down, Rex stuck his head out and gave his best howl. Which, given he was a werewolf was pretty damn good. He fell silent and waited for a noise or movement, or both.
There was a smallish office at the back end of the upper floor, maybe where the fire pole thing would be, so Austin was carefully making his way towards that, stopping periodically when he heard something move or there was a creak in the building.
It wasn’t unusual, old buildings made noises, the wind could’ve brushed something against a door or window, debris could move through the building. But every now and then, Austin was sure he heard a tap, like something hitting against the walls or floor, a pipe or stick or something metal just tap tap tapping at things.
And then he hears the howl. And drops his flashlight. Which then rolls away somewhere. “Fuck.”
Austin had heard that there were wolves in Seven Devils, he’d heard there was a pack, heard they were secretive, heard they roamed the woods. He had heard all this. But actually running into wolf territory was something entirely different and he’d thought he’d been good about that so far -spending a few hours with one pack that was begrudgingly not going to kill you because of the accidental good deed you did years before only allowed for some information gathering.
As it was, Austin was now in the dark, unsure what way was out and close to hyperventilating for the potential evisceration that was probably coming his way. “Fuck.”
In the silence that followed his howl, Rex heard the clunk of the flashlight hitting the ground and laughed softly to himself.
It took a little while for the scent of Austin’s dismay to waft his way — ironically just enough time for him to reach his arm out and positive his spotlight so it pointed directly at the building. He could have been exceptionally cruel and turned the siren on briefly so it gave a yelp in the dark - but thinking ahead, he was going to have to escort Austin home and he didn’t want shit on his seat.
Hearing the second fuck, Rex grinned widely and turned his overhead speaker on before grabbing the handheld microphone. He waited a few moments before turning on the spotlight and illuminating the front of the building in a bright, white light.
He disguised his voice; took out the Texan drawl, made him sound more robotic - more like a cop. “Exit the building slowly with your hands in the air,” he instructed.
The sudden burst of light had Austin stumbling back, tripping over a pipe along the floor and landing hard on his ass, hand out to try and catch his fall but just hitting more debris, “Aw, fuck man.” At least if one of the cops were outside, he’d probably not get mauled by wolves.
He was about to try and work his way downstairs, just so that whoever had been sent out didn’t get pissed off at him, when something moved behind him, a shadow shifting and a small round pebble rolled along the floor before the shadow was gone.
Without his flashlight, that he still couldn’t see, even with the glow from the light from outside, Austin was a little hesitant to follow the shadow, especially with the cop outside, but there was a chance that this was something or even someone hanging around. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Pulling himself up caused a twinge in his wrist, but Austin ignored it and followed to the back of the building where the main area of the second floor led into another, smaller and impossibly dark room.
“Hello?” Okay, maybe someone was using this place for shelter, hiding out, that’d make sense. He glanced back towards the light, wondering if he should try to find his flashlight again. And then something creaked in the room, and Austin’s heart almost stopped. “Hello?” It was a much quieter question that time, a tiny hint of fear in his voice, because this room was entirely empty.
Hearing the scuffle made Rex laugh, with the microphone off of course. Readjusting his hat with his free hand he waited for Austin’s embarrassed and annoyed face to slink from out the entrance of the building.
And he waited… and waited…..
It wasn’t until Rex caught the scent of blood in the air that he realized something wasn’t quite right. “Goddamn kid!” he snapped quickly, more out of annoyance than anything and put the microphone down in exchange for a flashlight of his own. Of course he was going to make this a big ordeal. Exiting the vehicle, Rex unbuttoned the holster of his gun but kept it on his belt for now as he approached the entrance.
Even as a werewolf, his eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the lighting and shadows as he slipped inside the building. Clicking the flashlight on, Rex began to sweep the area and clear it before moving further inside and toward where he’d heard the kid’s voice.
If he’d been paying better attention, Austin would’ve heard movement down the stairs, not that he could’ve gotten down that way or anything, he wasn’t about the hang from the stairs to try and get to the floor, or jumping and breaking his foot or something. That’d just ruin the night entirely.
Instead he was trying to find out where the movements were coming from, something like scratching, a little tap tap noise. He kicked a box that was sitting on the ground, hissing a little as his shin protesting from the knock. His hiss seemed to trigger something, since there was more skittering, a scratch noise and Austin was absolutely sure he’d never find the way out it was so fucking dark.
“Not weird, not scary, Jesus fuck.” He should’ve figured out how to get out when he could’ve, maybe the cop would wait a while, maybe they’d leave. Oh, shit what if he got shot and eaten tonight? That’d really suck.
Something moved beside his head, dangling from the ceiling and then gone, making Austin stumble back until he hit a wall, the steady stream of curses falling from his mouth.
Abandoned buildings were all the same in Rex’s book - so it was safe to say he was pretty oblivious to the real reasons why Austin was rooting around the cobwebs and dust. Which, there seemed to be an awful lot of as he needed to reach up and pull the sticky material from the brim of his hat more than once already.
Hearing Austin’s voice, Rex turned his flashlight off and made his way up the stairs - not intentionally trying, to get the jump on the kid, but because he actively heard something skittering around.
And it smelled weird.
His biggest worry was that the kid had gotten bit by whatever was in the building and that maybe it had rabies and, well that’d lead to a whole thing with animal control in the morning and really, Rex just wanted a simple night with as little paperwork as possible and—
Pop. Pop pop.
The Sheriff drew his gun and fired the instant he saw the large arachnid-looking creature stalking up to Austin, who was only a stone’s throw away from him.
Just as Austin was about to turn, completely sure he’d seen something, there was the sharp pop of gunfire, Austin automatically flinching back further into the wall and ducking, like it might save him from anything.
Stunned barely covered it, his ears ringing from the sudden noise as his eyes tried to adjust to what the hell was going on, “Oh my god,” of course it would be the Sheriff that was sent out to respond to the trespassing call, because obviously it was a trespassing call, “What are you shooting at?!” Yelling wasn’t the best idea, but at the same time he almost had to, his heart was thumping, the noise of blood rushing in his ears pretty much all he could focus on too.
“How did you even get up here?” He could barely make out the Sheriff, just the hat and his general shadow, the light from outside dull this far back into the building. “Is there another set of stairs?” That’d be helpful, Austin didn’t want to have to shimmy down a fucking disgusting pole with a cut up hand either.
“Jesus I think I’m fucking deaf.” He should maybe also not sass a cop as much as he did, but the adrenaline was overwriting literally all of his common sense right then.
Even as a werewolf Rex was used to the sound of a gun in close range. And within a building. Needless to say, he heard everything Austin blurted out in shock — but honestly even he wasn’t quite sure what he just saw. It was enough that he clicked his flashlight back on and swept the room with the beam.
Gun still in hand, but finger understandably off the trigger, he pointed the light in Austin’s direction but it was pointing at his feet.
“There was a giant spider about to chew your face off!” he said loudly through gritted teeth - trying not to yell back at the kid but wanting to stress he had good reason to fire.
“No?” Rex replied in confusion when asked about another set of stairs. “And you’re not deaf, you’re just not used to it.” He all but rolled his eyes as he glanced around again - the scent of blood hitting his nostrils again. The light shown on Austin once more. “You hurt yourself? Or get bit by somethin’?” he questioned in a brief moment of concern before he was reminded that he really had no business snooping around.
“What the hell are you even doing here?!”
Giant spider? Giant spider!
Fuck, where was the giant spider? “Did you hit it, where is it? What did it look like?” There were possibilities with ‘giant spider’ that something was wrong and someone had migrated with one of Australia's deadly beasts. Or it was a fucking mutated spider of some kind from testing, or a cryptid, or just a really big asshole of a spider, but… Well he’d need to see that to know.
They needed more light, although he was shuffling to try and see if he could see a spider body on the ground. If Rex shot at it, well, it had to be relatively large, right?
He’d missed the whole ‘no’ at a second set of stairs, brain not quite catching that while it was working on giant fucking spider the it skipped ‘he must be a ninja’ in the process. “I hurt my hand,” he raised it again to check, the bleeding on the heel of his hand sluggish now, but the dirt was probably a bad thing, “it’s fine I think, just cut it on something.” Don’t mention tetanus, don’t mention tetanus.
“Um… can I plead the fifth on that one?” He’d gotten a little further from the wall he’d tried to sink into, still shuffling his feet a little to try and hit the spider body that way, but pretty sure Rex could’ve just made that up to scare him -it worked, but it was still a dick move if it was made up.
What did it look like?
Rex was fully sidetracked for a moment, ignoring Austin’s freakout as he lowered his gun and stared in near disbelief. “I don’t know, and I thought ‘giant spider’ was pretty descriptive,” he snarked in return.
When Austin raised his hand, Rex pointed the flashlight more directly. He had a first aid kit in his car but… all that dirt, and the amount of rust and grime covering the interior wasn’t exactly something a simple dousing of isopropyl alcohol could fix. Fuck, he thought, realizing his night had just been extended as he’d need to take him to the hospital for a tetanus shot before going to the station.
“I asked you to come out and you didn’t listen so… no, no you cannot,” the Sheriff explained. He’d lost that privilege when he made the werewolf come in after him, really. “And don’t say you’re looking for giant spiders because I know it’s a lie,” Rex added with a shake of his head.
Giant spider was descriptive, sure, but all it meant was ‘big with 8 legs’ really, “Okay but was it like a giant spider like from a movie or a giant spider like ‘that’s just a big ass spider’ or like something from Alien?” There were so many possibilities and some of them were either within the supernatural or fell into conspiracy theory territory. If he could get a picture, Cass might know if there were mentions of them online somewhere. But then a thought occurred. “Spiders usually lay like thousands of eggs.” It stopped him dead in his tracks because giant spider babies. Fuck but that was more terrifying.
The telling off for not coming out, okay, he expected that but… “I couldn’t. The stairs are broken, I was… How did you get up here? There’s a giant hole in the stairs? I was trying to find a way out when… Well, when I heard some things and thought maybe… y’know. Ghosts?”
It always felt weird explaining it. Even though Rex was aware by now that Austin went to weird places to play ghost buster. He was way more into it since Morgan had told him they 100% did exist and that some of them liked to fuck with the living. “I’m still not sure how to get out, by the way. Since I’m not a fucking ninja who can leap over gaping holes.”
Again, a look of confusion from the Sheriff at the quickfire detail-oriented questions. Pretty much all of it lost on him as he didn’t really watch many movies with giant spiders. A personal choice. But then Austin had to go and mention spider eggs and well, that was enough for Rex. “Okay, enough with bullshit. They were really big spiders.”
Ah shit, the stairs.
“You can’t finagle your way down? Christ, I got almost fifteen years on you and I can make it down,” he insisted, trying to brush it all off like it was normal and his being a werewolf had nothing to do with his stealth. He took a step, his foot bumping the flashlight Austin had dropped. “Ghosts?” he asked as he bent down and snagged the light, turning it on and handing it over. “You came into an abandoned building, alone, with one flashlight, thinking you were going to catch ghosts?” Rex said, wondering if it sounded as ridiculous to Austin as it did to him.
Rex grinned faintly, shining a light on the hole in the steps he’d managed to clear. “If you want I can catch you with my mad ninja skills?” he offered teasingly. Obviously they’d have to use the firepole, as disgusting as it may be.
Okay, he’d just… He could chalk the giant spiders up to nope, nope, nope in this particular case, because he did not want thousands of baby spiders of any side swarming. That shit was enough to make him itchy as it was.
“I tripped over a pipe and busted my hand, attempting to get down those stairs will likely result in breaking at least one bone. Possibly more.” Because that was how Austin’s life worked. Apparently getting used to pain meant he was going to deal with it all the way through his life. “I’d rather not crush the Sheriff because of flailing limbs and have to listen to someone yell at me for that.”
He was more than okay with getting out of this place, but he’d rather be in one piece to do it, since he’d already gotten injured as it was. “Don’t make it sound like I’m the opening sequence to a horror movie, okay. Yes, it was dumb, no I wasn’t thinking about the long term, and also I already recorded some stuff so it was plausible.” He hated explaining shit to skeptics, or just people who frowned on casual trespassing. “Can we get out of here before you judge me? And also can you silently judge me?”
He was definitely okay with leaving, the itchy sensation was going to drive him crazy.
Apart from his otherwise unamused look, Rex rolled his eyes a little when the kid said he’d tripped. “Well you’re already going to the hospital so why not,” he offered with an indifferent tone, shining his flashlight to a corner where he thought he saw movement.
Giant spiders, or whatever they were, smelled musty and terrible.
“Crush me? You’re what, 150 pounds soaking wet?” he scoffed jokingly as he moved over toward the firepole. Rex inspected it as best he could in the light before grimacing faintly. It certainly wasn’t going to be a smooth trip down, that was for sure. “But you are the opening sequence of a horror movie,” he commented. The paint was chipped, and there was heavy rust in some spots, but thankfully they were both wearing long sleeves.
Rex pointed the flashlight at Austin’s chest, adding; “And I don’t even watch horror movies.”
The Sheriff holstered his gun finally and clipped his flashlight to his belt so it was aimed at the ground. “No promises,” he told Austin as he looped an arm and a leg loosely around the firepole, pushing off with his opposite foot and sliding down.
He’d say he was more likely the interlude, maybe the flashback, he was probably the flashback where they explained how things got so terrible. Because some idiot kid got the giant spider mama shot and killed and that was why the thousands of baby spiders were seeking revenge on the whole town.
Fuck. Stop thinking it.
“I could totally crush someone, I just have to land weird and boom, broken neck.” Although he did wonder if that was some kind of comment on how scrawny he was. Whatever, he couldn’t help it.
He was mostly annoyed at the cool parting line before Rex made it look like they weren’t about to slide down a horribly out of use and old pole that probably had some kind of bacteria all over it. “Seriously.” How was he a bit part in his own fucking life? Oh, right. Stupid choices.
Wrapping his sleeves around his hands, keeping as much of himself away from the pole as possible, Austin made a far less graceful descent to the ground, with many stops and starts. “Ow.” It didn’t really matter that he got blood all over his sleeve, because he was officially burning his clothes later, so that was going to be fun. “Hey, is setting controlled fires in backyards illegal here?” Best check just now? “Asking for a friend.”
The firepole was a bit more shaky than he’d like - but it got him from A to B and that was all that mattered. Although, when his feet hit the floor and he stepped away, he noticed his sleeve was dirtied. “I liked this shirt,” he muttered, mostly to himself with a hint of sadness in his tone. He rubbed and swatted at the fabric as best he could to get a good majority of it off.
Looking up, Rex expected Austin to be directly behind him but -upon flipping the light up to shine the way- he noticed there were…. issues with his descent.
“The only people allowed to set controlled fires would be the fire department and judging how you’re handling that pole, you’re not cut out for it,” Rex told him, his hands on his hips as he watched.
“If you ain’t down in 2.5 seconds I’m shooting you down,” the werewolf said, thinking the feigned threat would light a quintessential fire under his ass.
“Oh, I’m so not cut out to be a firefighter,” he started again, grabbing the pole and just shuffling down, ignoring how it was shaking and getting far enough that he could let go and only stumble a little bit rather than break his neck. “I’d fail the psych test.”
His own shirt was just as messed up, and Austin started to use a hand to wipe at it before remembering the open wound and deciding to not get it even more infected than needed.
“I lost my flashlight.” He looked up at the other floor forlornly, now that the light was giving the area a backsplash he could see the gaping hole in the stairs better and just how had Rex gotten up there? And acted like it was nothing special, there was at least three feet between the steps, on an incline, and it didn’t look in the least bit stable either. Austin was just trying to figure out if Rex had fucking hovered up there or something.
“So who should I tell to burn my clothes?”
“Good to know,” Rex said, though understandably concerned Austin was sure he’d fail the psych test. He’d definitely fail the physical portion; staying calm under pressure while in a room full of smoke and having to find his way out. Moments prior he’d been ready to freak out about getting out of the building.
Though giant spiders didn’t help.
“Be glad it was the only casualty tonight,” he said gruffly as he led them out of the building finally. Where the night air was cooler and less musty. “You do realize that you don’t have some kind of unspoken punch card for every time I fire my weapon because of you, right?” the Sheriff said only half-jokingly. The amount of paperwork he had to do from discharging his weapon, while mentioning Austin, was getting absurd. And there was definitely no prize for a certain amount of times it happened.
“Just.. throw ‘em away like a normal adult,” he shrugged faintly, shutting his flashlight off as he approached his vehicle once more. “Front seat. Don’t touch anything and try not to bleed on anything,” Rex told him as he got into the driver’s seat and quickly told the station over his radio that they’d be going to the ER for a minor injury.
His pride tended to be the biggest casualty at any rate, regardless of what it was he was doing. As a result he usually didn’t care too much for the trouble he got himself into or the way he ended up getting out of it, or who had to shoehorn him out of the trouble in the first place. He was pretty sure that was evident by now.
“Wait, I don’t? I thought like I got one of those badges if I filled up the card. Wasn’t it ten firearm discharges and I got an honorary badge?” At least his wit wasn’t so shaken that he’d just mumble an apology, that’d probably happen when they got to the ER and he got his hand cleaned out and the nurses gave him those looks because why was he wandering around in dirty places in the dark?
At least he wasn’t getting shoved off into the back where Rex could just ignore him, he was grateful enough for that fact that he sat down and quietly put the seatbelt on without complaint, peeling back his sleeve to get a look at his hand.
Probably wouldn’t scar, just need a stitch or two probably, the stuff in it was the ickiest part. It took a lot to not pick at it, just dabbing at the corners with a bit of his shirt that wasn’t wrecked. “Do you like, have a sixth sense when it’s me up to something that means you show up?” More often than not it was Rex that ended up glaring at him for the latest idiocy that occurred, and he was genuinely curious if that was some kind of karma or if Rex just knew when he was doing something dumb.
Rex cast Austin an unamused look in the dark when he commented about an honorary badge. “No, but you get honorary rides in police vehicles and a tour of the station,” he insisted, shutting the spotlight off and taking the vehicle out of park.
As he began to back out of the spot, he glanced down at the young man’s hand, his lips twisting with discomfort even looking at it.
The question warranted a snicker from the werewolf as he started to drive off in the direction of the Emergency Room. “Anymore when the call comes in for someone being in a place they’re not supposed to be I automatically assume it’s you,” he admitted. “I’m looking forward to the day that I’m pleasantly surprised with a stranger instead.”
At least now he expected to see the kid rooting around abandoned buildings and stretches of woods he had no reason to be in. “Would it kill you to give the station a call ahead of time so I could just… ignore it and finish my paperwork?” he asked with a certain annoyance back in his tone.
Austin had to ponder that for a minute, it wasn’t like it was bad, the cop rides tended to be way less stressful than taking public transport, that was for sure. Even if he wasn’t allowed to touch any of the gear at all. Which, y’know, rude. Fair. But rude.
Automatically just assuming the trespassing calls were Austin was probably telling in how often Austin was reported -more often than not he got a lift home from where he’d been in a cop car, and that was probably not the best way to do things, but it did mean he wasn’t hauling his butt home at 3am, tired and sore from whatever he’d been doing. “I feel like I should be insulted, but that’s probably a good system to have.” He wasn’t about to say ‘don’t assume it’s me’ because that might mean more firearms.
The comment about calling ahead, to warn them that he was going to be an idiot, it seemed a lot like calling the bank before the robbery. “Well, I sorta assumed if I ever did that,” his shoulders shrugged a tiny bit, probably missed in the car while Rex was driving, Austin giving in the compulsion and picking a little at the corner of the cut on his hand, just picking some of the grit out, “Y’know, I’’d get told not to?” Which seemed fair, really. It was trespassing, even if he’d never gone to a residence since the Funeral Home, which, thankfully, hadn’t been reported.
All things considered, he was lucky that Austin was otherwise a relatively good guy. He never vandalized the sites, and apparently apart from breaking a few things, he left them otherwise undisturbed. His previous comment about starting a fire to burn his clothes was a little concerning, but as far as trespassing went he couldn’t rightfully charge the kid or even really fine him.
“Yeah but would you really bother listening?” Rex countered as Austin brought up the fact that calling ahead would be met with warnings. He knew the answer, since they’d literally done this multiple times now - surely Austin had no intentions of stopping. Plus there were all the times that a complaint was never called in and Rex was none the wiser.
Glancing over, Rex happened to notice the picking and rather than lecture the kid about it - lest he be accused of judging... The Sheriff braced himself and pumped his brakes abruptly, on purpose.
“Sorry there was uh.. uh possum in the road back there.”
“Well, no,” the whole point was to go and do the stuff to find out if he could put some lofty proof behind any of the rumours or stories, and if he didn’t go where he was told he shouldn’t go, he’d get nothing at all. Although he was far more wary about the cemetery now, it hadn’t really slowed him down. He was pretty sure that being bitten in college should’ve scared him out of the whole thing rather than spurring him into it, but that was another reason why he’d likely never pass a psych eval ever. ‘Do you value your own life’ hard pass. “But if I don’t ask you can’t say no and then I can’t ignore that no.” Which could get him in some trouble or something.
The sudden brake had him grabbing the seatbelt before it could throttle him, bracing slightly with his knees hitting the dash.
Possum. Right.
“You know I could probably clean this at home, just some… like… soapy water and shit, right?” He was still hoping they could avoid the tetanus shot. His hopes were very low though.
Exactly. Of course he wouldn’t listen.
“And yet we still end up here in this same situation,” the werewolf countered, motioning to the both of them and the vehicle as best he could given he was driving. At least if there was a call ahead of time, he could gauge how dangerous the place was, and then how likely Austin was to either cause harm to it, or himself.
He couldn’t help but smirk. The sudden braking had served its purpose by taking Austin’s attention off his wound, which was starting to smell a bit off to the werewolf. Though that could have been the dirt inside of it and his body’s natural reaction. “No,” he answered, rolling down his window a little.
“So the rule is, if you keep arguing, you ride the rest of the way in the trunk,” Rex explained - even though they were maybe a block away from the small community hospital.
“That’s hardly my fault, that’s more on you, y’know, for having a conscientious town that’s curious about strange things going on and actually call in case it’s serious. I mean, any other place they’d just let whatever was happening happen. Not that I’m complaining… I’d rather not have my face eaten by a giant spider.” It wasn’t every town where the locals actually did something when they saw weird lights on in a place they shouldn’t be, or if someone was in an area that was dangerous. He’d waded through a swamp for hours one time only to find out that they knew he was out there but just figured he was fishing. In the dark, in the middle of winter. Honestly.
“You should really do a worse job if you want people not to call and tell you the weird kid is in another abandoned building.”
The window almost seemed like a precursor to Austin getting chucked out the window, so he just pulled the strap on his seatbelt a little tighter to keep him in place. So, they were going to the hospital, yay. “I think that’d be really unsafe and defeat the purpose of taking me to the ER.”
Any other place they’d just let whatever was happening happen. At that, Rex turned his head to look at Austin for an unnaturally long time - his eyes completely off the road though they were on a straight stretch to begin with.
“How about I don’t want anyone in my town getting their face eaten by a giant spider, which I why even trespassing calls are handled so then I don’t have to deal with the mountain of paperwork that’s needed when a body is found a week later,” he argued, though quietly and with only a slightly judgey snark in return.
And only then did he look back to the road.
“Or maybe it’d be all too convenient and not matter how much you get banged up in the process?” he shrugged with a convincing indifference.
Austin made a point of not looking over, even as he got a little bit tense from the whole staring thing. Like, sure, the guy was a Sheriff and he was pretty involved in the whole town safety thing, but that was a bit of an exception rather than the rule in Austin’s experience.
He never really saw much of the police until Seven Devils at least.
“I mean… who does want to get eaten by a spider?” He probably shouldn’t get into the number of times he almost was a body and just figured at least he’d know about the afterlife if that happened.
“I have comments to make about police brutality and the law, but given the previous circumstances of tonight, I’m just going to hum thoughtfully and remain quiet.” And Austin then hummed and nodded his head, looking towards Rex with an expression of calm understanding.
Part of him wanted to answer Austin with a huge resounding ‘You’ - but he refrained. Barely. In truth the only thing that kept him from commenting was that he didn’t want the inevitable word vomit about how giant spiders ‘weren’t the only things out there’. Which would have led to Rex being forced to listen to the conspiracy theories and tales of mostly-fictional creatures.
He just didn’t have the patience to commit to that right now.
Rex offered the young man a wide, charming smirk. “Smartest decision you’ve made all night,” he insisted as they approached the hospital shortly after. Honestly, he couldn’t wait to pawn Austin off on one of the nurses for a few minutes. He still had to drive the kid home after it, after all.
Although, maybe he could sweet talk the nurses into giving the kid a sedative or two to knock him out.
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