Who: Lem & Vex What: Tour Where: Home, Moxie's, Lyttle Hill When: Afternoon 10/16 Status: Complete Warning: Surprisingly safe. Language probably.
Going out and doing grown up things felt like putting on an old suit. An itchy and uncomfortable suit that still fit. There was paperwork to handle and phone calls to make but eventually he had promises that the power and gas would be on by tomorrow at the latest. It was always strange dealing with office clerks and similar people who operated in the meat space that meant so little to Vex these days. It felt more like virtual reality than actual reality and maybe it was in a way. He stood out like a sore thumb in this little town and so far nobody seemed to recognize him which was good. He wasn't easily recognized he supposed, with sunglasses on and bleached blond hair growing out. He'd been just a gangly teenager the last time he came here. Just because the town didn't remember him didn't mean he didn't remember the town. Virtual reality or a bad dream maybe, that was what Point Pleasant felt like to him without Lem by his side.
He was more than happy to get back to the house on Ludlow and that weird craving to start smoking again relented when he walked inside.
The thing about not having any electricity was how fucking boring everything was without it. No music, no TV noise, nothing to keep Lem occupied. She’d cut all the grass she could all around the property before she’d given Zan’s weed eater back. It was jagged and uneven, but it was all short, and that was what mattered. Grass wasn’t meant to be cut anyway, it was meant to grow free like all things, but Lem didn’t like the bugs it brought with it, and sometimes she liked to lie in the grass. That was easier when it was short.
Vex had left to go Take Care of Things before Lem had gotten done, and she hoped he would be glad that she helped when he got back. It just seemed to take forever. To occupy herself, Lem started to rearrange the furniture in the house. Except in Aunt Sarah’s room, of course. She cleared their room out a little bit, then worried for a moment that Vex might not want her to change things. Lem figured she could put it all back if he wanted, but some of that stuff was just in the way. When she heard him come through the door, she hopped up and bounded down the stairs. Grinning widely, as soon as she was close enough she bounced up to hug him.
She was so easy to lift, Vex didn't mind it in the least bit when she hugged him and he couldn't resist holding her up either. It felt invigorating after the mundane day he'd had. "Hello, wild girl," he murmured and he had a feeling she might have been bored while he was away. He'd fully expected her not to be home for that matter, Lem got wanderlust pretty bad sometimes and he wouldn't blame her if she went running around town to burn some energy.
Leaving the house hadn’t even really occurred to Lem. There was still food in their cooler, they’d refreshed the ice, and that was about all she needed. She wasn’t scared of the town, but ... maybe she wanted to nest a bit first. Soak in the vibes, butcher the lawn. Lem automatically wrapped her legs around Vex when he got a good grip on her, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Hello,” she answered. “Did you see the grass? It’s all gone. When are we getting power? I need a shower so bad, ugh. How was it? Did you eat anything?”
"The grass is gone," Vex muttered as he tried to comprehend what she meant. For a second he thought it was something deeper than what it really was, some metaphor for their journey, but then he remembered what she'd been up to when he left. "You did good, fawn." He hadn't noticed because he'd been too caught up in his own thoughts as he walked up to the house but thinking back, yes, the grass was shorter. He couldn't keep up with all her questions, his brain a little foggy but maybe that was because he had in fact not eaten anything. "Did you eat anything?" he asked, holding her up with one arm as he used his free hand to get his shades off.
Lem beamed at the approval, brief as it was, then shook her head as she climbed down off of him. It was easier to ride on Vex’s back if he was carrying her around, she liked glomping onto him, but she didn’t want to feel like a baby. “Not for a while, and I’m starving,” she declared. Bouncing on her toes a little, she grabbed Vex’s free hand to bounce it too. “Can we go out? Everything’s cold here, and I want some real food. I’ll drive if you want, sorry, I know you just got ho-- oh! Or we could order a pizza? They have pizza here, right? What kind of place doesn’t have at least one delivery pizza place, come on now.” Lem rolled her eyes like that might actually be their situation even before she got an answer.
Vex thought about it, peering up at the stairs as if they held the answers. "Moxie's used to be good," he said then. "It might not be good today but it's still standing. I drove past it, saw it, all neon lights and promises of sweetness and deep fried shit that'll clog up your arteries. Sounds good?" It sounded good to him, even if eating too much of that crap gave him heartburn. It was worth it, sometimes. It'd be a nostalgic kind of weirdness too. He'd eaten at Moxie's as a teenager. Not with the popular kids but on occasion with friends of his own.
“Sounds perfect.” Lem dropped Vex’s hand and turned to thunder back up the stairs. She dashed to their room and grabbed a pair of jeans to pull on, then stuffed her feet into her boots and came back down, shrugging into a hoodie that was too big for her. It wasn’t even that cold, but she liked having the extra layer out in public. Just in case somebody tried to grab her, she could slip out of it easily.
Vex only wandered off to take a piss and freshen up before they'd go out again. He was pleased to find the water was actually running, though it came out rusty and gross to start with. The power still wasn't on but maybe by the time they got back. He didn't bother closing the bathroom door behind him so he could easily hear it when Lem came bounding back down the stairs. "We got water!" he hollered at her and flushed the toilet, a small satisfied smirk curling his lips.
She practically ran to the bathroom he was in, and gave a happy little squeal-bounce at that fabulous sound. Now they just needed power for the hot water heater, and she could have a shower. Lights and music were nice too, but a hot scrub-down was mostly what Lem was ready for. “Great motherfucking adulting,” she told Vex as he emerged, lifting her hand for a high five. Then she was skipping off toward the door, also ready to go somewhere to stuff their faces with hot, greasy food.
"A little rusty don't mean it don't work," Vex muttered as he trailed after her, looking around and stopping to backtrack to take a better look at the living room. Lem had been bored, that much was obvious as things did not look the way they had when he left the house. "You've done some redecorating," he observed once they were outside. "Kept yourself busy. That's good." He tossed her the car keys since she'd offered to drive and he was fine with letting her if that was what she wanted. It would give him some time to daydream anyway.
Lem hadn’t done much but drag furniture around and take down kitschy art off the walls, but it still seemed like it was coming along. It at least looked different and that was good. It would take them some time to make it their own, but Lem wasn’t in any hurry. Their environment didn’t matter much, they’d proven that a million times. She grinned again at the praise and caught the keys he tossed. “You know me, if I can’t find some fun I’ll make some,” she declared, sounding chipper as she went around to the driver’s side of the van. Lem climbed in and adjusted the seat, then started it up. “I met our neighbor, her name’s Zan and she has a brother named Nic and it seemed like a good sign. They had a weed eater to use.”
Vex curled his lip a little at that. Neighbors. He hadn't had neighbors in a long time and it had been even longer since he had neighbors he actually talked to, let alone borrowed stuff from. If Lem thought those two were a good sign - her reasoning why eluded him - then maybe they weren't too bad but then Lem was young and he was pretty sure she'd never lived in a small town before. Neighbors, especially the nosy and ignorant kind, could be a lot of hassle. He was quiet as he thought about it before that side of him that could adult - despite being pretty bored with it - reminded him that Lem didn't know where they were going. He straightened up and gestured. "Turn right off this street."
If Zan had seemed like an asshole, Lem would’ve said so. But she’d been nice and welcoming and she didn’t look like some fuddy duddy busybody who was going to be peeking into their windows at night with binoculars. Even if she did, Lem didn’t really care what she thought or what she told people. She and Vex handled their own business, they always had. She didn’t notice Vex’s look of disgust, though she did take the turn, still chatting away at him like she hadn’t seen him in weeks instead of hours. “And they have a greenhouse in the backyard -- oh! I wonder if they grow weed back there? That might be handy. But anyway she said she runs like, a tea shop? Which I wouldn’t expect in someplace like this, like is does this place even have enough people who like tea? Maybe it’s a mob front. She had like, red dreadlocks and she was nice,” Lem concluded. “I didn’t see the brother, though. I wonder if she keeps him locked up in the basement.”
That made Vex laugh and Lem's description of their neighbor already warmed him up to her a little. "Maybe for good reason," he joked along. "Or we might have to rescue him." No quest was without its side quests, no story without subplots, he was pretty used to his life going in strange loops. He was curious about the tea shop now too, an old remnant of his cop instincts wanting to check it out simply because Lem had pointed it out. It was probably just a damn tea shop and if it wasn't he wasn't sure he felt up to tangling himself with more criminals. He certainly wasn't going to fuck with it, he had bigger goals to reach. "If we end up having to rescue him... Think you can take her in a fight?" he asked with a toothy grin.
Lem giggled at her mental picture of some faceless brother locked away in a basement like a princess in a tower, then her and Vex busting in all armed to the teeth to rescue him. It was all very cartoonish and delightful in her head. She glanced over at Vex with a delighted grin at that question. “Fuck yeah I can,” she declared, making a fierce face. Lem didn’t know that for sure, of course, but confidence in all things, right? “She’s not much bigger’n me, so unless she’s like a secret ninja or something, I got her.” She bounced a little in the van seat, slowing down for a stop light. “His name is Nicodemus, what the fuck, isn’t that like ... a prophet name or something?” Her eyes went wide as she said it and she looked over at Vex with a little gasp. “What if it is? And he has to stay in the basement because he Sees too much and ohmygod what if he’s like, waiting for us?” It meant they had to meet him immediately, just to see. They would know if he was on their level.
"Let's go over and investigate," Vex said with some amusement. It was more like 'let's go over and meet the neighbors' but this way it was more fun. "Make sure there's not three of us." He chuckled and got a stick of gum from his pocket, unwrapping it and popping it in his mouth then thought to offer one to Lem too. "Did she strike you as an evil dungeon master?" he added, resting his boots up on the dash and leaning his head out the window. It had rained all morning but now it was just cloudy out and he enjoyed the fresh air and the smell of grass in it. "If she is, we might have to kill her too."
Lem took a stick of gum, using her teeth to help unwrap it with one hand before she popped it into her mouth. Another prophet. That would be something, wouldn’t it? She didn’t know if she counted herself among that three, since she was more a conduit. She never saw anything that Vex didn’t see, at least around him, and sometimes she couldn’t see it at all. Maybe she could see what Nicodemus saw too. “She didn’t seem like one, but that would be a perfect disguise for one,” Lem reasoned, not even blinking at the suggestion that they might have to kill Zan. Maybe she was the monster, who really knew. Maybe Nic was the monster and that was why he was in the basement. Vex was right, as always, they would have to investigate. “Is this still right?” she asked, reaching over to nudge his leg and pointing at the road. She still didn’t know where they were going.
"Yeah," Vex murmured. "Turn left up at that corner," he added with a vague gesture. "You'll see it. It's got a nice big sign." If only their mission had nice big signs to show them the way. The Pegasus could be unreliable, not showing for days - sometimes weeks - at a time and neon signs would have been nicer on occasion. With their luck a neon sign would probably steer them the wrong way though, that was the nature of the beast. "If she's not a monster she might be helpful," he said, going back to what they were actually talking about other than directions. "I guess we'll find out." He wondered if Zan had known Sarah but it didn't matter much anymore.
For a second Lem had forgotten the name of the place they were going too, but it came back to her, so she wasn’t worried about it. It wasn’t like there was much of the town to get lost in or anything. “I guess we will,” she agreed, pleased that she might have made a helpful friend. Lem hoped that Zan wasn’t a monster. They weren’t ready for monsters yet, they still had planning to do. She took the left hand turn as they reached the corner, and pretty soon she spotted the sign for Moxie’s. Lem let out a needy groan and bounced a little again. “Fuuuuuck, I’m starving,” she said, speeding up.
"Let's get you fed, firecracker," Vex drawled and his own stomach rumbled a little as he thought of food. "I hope their food is still good, I mean it's gotta be okay or they'd be out of business." How long had that damn place been there anyway, he vaguely remembered it being seventy years old but that was a long time ago. "Might be coming up on a century old," he speculated then smirked. "The place, not their food."
Lem laughed and ‘ewww’d over the idea of centuries-old burgers as she pulled into the parking lot. She parked the van -- not quite straight, but oh well -- and killed the engine. She hopped out, tucking the van keys into her hoodie pocket as she waited for Vex to join her. Lem slipped her hand into his as they walked into the diner without giving it a second thought. The smell of greasy deliciousness hit her as soon as the door opened and she gave another little groan.
It smelled good for sure and Vex looked around the all too familiar place curiously. It really hadn't changed much, funny how that worked. "I used to come here in the eighties," he muttered. "Get a burger and a milkshake, ignore the assholes on the next table." There were no assholes he recognized in there now, the place wasn't too busy at this hour. "Pick a booth, I think they still take our order at the table."
She bit her tongue on exclaiming about how long ago the eighties was -- she didn’t try to make him feel old, it just came out that way sometimes. But that had been before she’d even been born, and it was hard to imagine Vex back then. Or anything back then, really. Lem scoped out a booth and led them there to settle in, not even noticing the couple of wide-eyed looks they earned on the way. They certainly stuck out more here than they had in Baltimore or New York. Lem settled in, crossing her legs on the booth seat and pulled the laminated menu closer to look at. “I want like, all of this,” she murmured with a little titter.
Vex did notice the looks but he ignored them, sprawling comfortably with the menu once they were seated, resting one foot up on the seat next to Lem. "Decide what you want, then order half of it," he told her sagely. "You're hungry so you'll order more than you can eat." Not that he minded, if it was something that didn't go bad right away they could just take the leftovers to go. "Or order all of it, I don't care." He still hadn't figured out if they'd be spending more or less money now that they were staying in one place but he'd given up on being smart about it a long time ago and he still had his stash and a few ways to get more if it came to that.
Seeing as how they didn’t have a working fridge yet -- the one they did have had been full of rotting, disgusting food, and she’d cleaned that out today too, but they needed power for coldness, stupid modern living -- Lem was going to avoid leftovers. She was super hungry though, and she knew she could pack food away when she wanted to, so she picked out a burger and fries, then perused the milkshake options. Strawberry sounded amazing, so that was what Lem asked for when the waitress came by to take their orders. If there was any wariness in her gaze for the disheveled, mismatched punk-looking people sitting in her booth, Lem didn’t notice it. Once she was gone, Lem grinned over at Vex. “So when do we get power? Did they say?”
"Tomorrow at the latest," Vex replied, satisfied with his own order which he had for the most part copied off Lem. "Should be on today." He hoped for her sake that it was today, Lem wanted a shower and she was probably feeling grimey after all her work today. "It's weird to be here," he muttered then, looking around again. "Like traveling back in time. Only I know it's all real 'cause it's blurry." There were a few subtle changes but they didn't mean much when he wasn't wearing his glasses. "It's bringing back memories. A lot of people went missing around here, some of them while I lived here. Makes you wonder if it's related to Sarah's death."
Lem hoped it would be that day too, for more than a few reasons. She stopped thinking about those as Vex continued to talk though, her expression sobering up some. She wasn’t positive that memories being brought back was a bad thing, but he didn’t sound too thrilled with them, so maybe it was. Or at least a hard thing. “Could be,” she said, sitting back in the booth and burying both of her hands into her hoodie front pocket. Lem started idly poking the inside of one palm with the van keys. “Why would the monster take them and leave her, though?” she wondered idly. Aunt Sarah hadn’t disappeared, she’d been slaughtered. “Unless there’s more than one?”
"Might not be the monster," Vex said, furrowing his brows as he thought about it. "But that monster came from somewhere and I've seen some shit, Lem. Weird shit. People torturing kids, dark magic scorching the earth, what if that monster was created - what if that monster is one of those missing people." He hummed, a low growly sound in the back of his throat. Too many theories and not enough evidence, he hoped that would change if he just applied himself and worked on this like he would have worked on a case way back when.
It wasn’t the first time that Lem got the impression there was more Vex wanted to tackle in Point Pleasant. She pushed the tip of the key harder into her hand, fixated on his face as he thought about it. They’d made plans to get the monster that got Sarah, but if there was more to do too? Lem was all in. She wanted to righteously fuck up the lives of people torturing kids. “We’ll find out,” she said, sounding confident of that. “And make sure that whatever it is doesn’t happen again. Or die trying.” Maybe it was a corny thing to say, but Lem meant it. They might as well go down swinging at something worth swinging at, right?
Doubt crept up on Vex because he really wasn't sure how much of what he saw was true or connected but then he looked at Lem and that fierceness in her expression inspired him all over again. His lips quirked up in a crooked grin and he nodded. "Or we'll die trying." Lem might think she was just a conduit, but she really was his fire, driving him onward in his mission. Without her he'd still be eating the medication that muddled his visions, living a gray and dull life back in Baltimore.
When Lem had told her parents that she wasn’t coming home after her last stint in the psych hospital, when she’d informed them that she was going with Vex instead, her distraught mother had called him an ‘unhinged madman.’ Sometimes that phrase crossed Lem’s mind. She was self-aware enough to realize that they sounded batshit crazy to most everybody else in the world, but Lem knew better. She believed. There was a layer of reality that ran parallel or underneath or above their own, and if your eyes were open at the right times, sometimes you could see it when it shone through the cracks. Vex could tap into it, and so could she, and they confirmed it for each other. She didn’t care if no one else understood, this was where she was meant to be. Lem grinned back at him. She uncrossed her legs and slid down off of the booth seat and under the table. Ducking under Vex’s bent leg, Lem crawled up onto the seat he was on, between him and the wall. She cuddled up to his side and put her temple on his shoulder.
Vex had never known another person who was this addicted to physical touch. It had taken time to get used to it but now he found he liked it. It was funny to think about it now, how Lem had gotten on his nerves at first and he'd constantly pushed her away. They'd even been a little antagonistic with each other there for a while but then everything had changed. He couldn't imagine life without her. He reached up and ruffled her short hair then found her hand so he could stroke and toy with her fingers. She was so small, everything about her, yet she was fierce and strong. Like a little bullet, she could do a lot of damage under the right circumstances, though people wouldn't think it looking at her. He tugged gently on her index finger, his mind roaming. "When do you want to go investigate the neighbors?"
Lem had been persistent with Vex, following her instincts that she had something he needed and he just didn’t know it. A half dozen psychologists had tried to figure out why she was so averse to being touched by some people, but seemed to cling to the older, prickly man who didn’t want her to cling. Lem had struggled and then not bothered to explain that it was because Vex made her feel sane and then safe, in that order. And now he needed her as much as she needed him, and they were in balance. She hummed thoughtfully as she watched Vex’s long fingers playing with hers. “Soon? I already gave their thing back, but we can find another reason to go over,” she said. “When do you want to go?”
Did he want to go? Vex didn't really care. He'd been joking mostly about Nic being a prophet in the basement but his curiosity had still spiked when Lem talked about them. Why did people go see their neighbors? He'd never really lived in the kind of place where people talked to each other but when they did it was usually because something was wrong. Your leaky ass toilet is flooding my bathroom, motherfucker, that kind of stuff. He thought about it, then thought about it a little too long until he could feel Lem's impatience growing. "We should look up the history of this place tonight," he said then, changing the topic completely. "See how much of it is parallel with the truth."
Lem wouldn’t have been surprised if the answer had been ‘never.’ As it was, he didn’t give her an answer at all, and that wasn’t too surprising either. A little frustrating, since he’d been the one asking in the first place, but Lem was no stranger to very random conversations. “Look it up where?” she asked, giving him a bemused smirk. “We going to the library? Or did you arrange for internet to be turned on at the house too?” The question started out skeptical then turned a little hopeful at the end as she realized that Vex might have done just that.
"Of course I did," Vex muttered, recognizing that tone in her voice no matter how faint. "But maybe the library could be helpful too, no trace." He wasn't sure if that mattered if they were just looking up local history but the world was strange and he tended to be paranoid. "I hated the library as a kid, it meant I had to study and I hated studying. I was good at it, but I hated it. I guess it's different when it's stuff you really want to know."
Even though she didn’t do a lot of social media anymore -- strange for someone of her age, but a lot about Lem was strange -- that made Lem happy. There were parts of the internet that she adored, and some she’d found to be useful for the two of them. “I was never good at it,” she admitted, her shoulders hunching a little. Being institutionalized for most of her high school career may have had something to do with that. “At least not for school. But I’ll help!” Vex had said this was an evil town, and an evil town probably had an interesting history.
"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll always think it's stupid," Vex muttered. "So said Einstein, Lem. You ain't a fish but you're good at other things. You burn bright and light up the darkness. School doesn't mean shit." He shifted around so he could wrap his arm around her, not particularly caring that he didn't smell his best. "Don't let anyone tell you what you can or can't do."
She didn’t care either. Especially not when he said stuff like that to her. Lem beamed, feeling like she actually was burning bright in that moment. She slipped her arm around his waist and tucked her face into Vex’s shoulder, muffling a little giggle against him. As she was just starting to pull back, their waitress came with their food. Lem spotted the disapproving look she had on her face, and held up her middle finger for the woman as she set their plates down.
Vex ignored both the woman and the way Lem treated her, growling softly as he pulled their trays closer. He was hungry, he could feel it now that he thought about eating and he wondered how long before he'd realized if Lem wasn't there prodding him about details like that. He picked up a fry to begin with, not in any rush to let go of Lem though he'd need both hands to tackle that burger. "Eat up," he muttered. "This smells good."
It wasn’t even a very aggressive middle finger, just a ‘mind your business’ one, and not the first time Lem had thrown it up at someone who was looking at them funny. She pulled her plate closer, sitting straighter so she could start to eat. It was a bodily necessity that she sometimes forgot to take care of too, but she remembered more often than Vex did. She never minded reminding him, she kind of liked taking care of him that way. Lem fully planned to pull him into the shower with her too whenever they had hot water. She fell eagerly into eating, too focused on it to talk anymore for the moment.
Vex let her go so he could focus on his food as well though he didn't bother sitting up straight for it. Sprawling was comfortable and he liked keeping his foot up on the seat in front of them.
Vex was similarly quiet as they ate, too hungry to make any observation for a while, his focus on the the taste and texture of the food as he gobbled up it. The best food usually was the messiest and he licked his fingers, not caring if they weren't terribly clean even before he got sauce all over them. His girl looked happy as she chowed down and it was one of those rare hedonistic moments he enjoyed, like he should remember to do this more often. "You wanna know some of the fucked up history of this place?" he asked when most of his food was gone and he was idly munching on fries more for something to do with his mouth than actual hunger. "I can give you a tour."
One wouldn’t guess it from her size, but Lem loved to eat. She sometimes forgot to do it often, and she stayed active enough to keep herself from getting chunky, but when she did eat some actual good food, she did it with enthusiasm. So she didn’t mind the quiet while they both stuffed their faces, eventually slowing down and sitting back a bit as that satisfied warm feeling of finally being full after a few days of not eating much radiated through her. Lem stuck one finger in a bit of ketchup and then popped it into her mouth to suck off with a soft hum. She looked over at Vex, considered, then gave an amiable shrug. “Sure, yeah,” she said. Lem might as well learn about where they were living now. Especially if it was interesting and fucked up. “Maybe we’ll have hot water by the time we get back.” She picked up her milkshake to drain the last of it.
A tour was as much for Vex if he was being honest. He needed to refresh his memory, understand the difference between meat space and Truth, find out where the lines were, no matter how blurry they might be. There was so much he couldn't remember, but also so much that he could but didn't know how much of it was actually connected to him. Point Pleasant might hold the answers. "That's what I'm hoping," he said of the water, wrapping his arm around Lem again. "Not much we can do without power."
Lem snuggled happily into Vex’s side again. She did really want a shower, but now that she was fed, she felt more easygoing about it. It could wait, she didn’t have to go check right now. They could drive around and see the fucked up sights first. Lem needed to get familiar with the town anyway. Her sense of direction wasn’t super-great, but she tended to end up wherever she was going eventually, with enough wandering. Having some vague idea of what was where would help when she inevitably got restless and started wandering. She let her head rest back against Vex’s shoulder for a quiet moment, then straightened up again. “Are you ready? Do you have cash?” she asked as it occurred to her that they still had to pay for all this food.
Vex always had cash and he dug out the crumpled bills from his pocket, sorting through them before dumping enough on the table to cover the meal and a tip. Always a tip, even if the waitress had apparently earned Lem's irritation somehow. He hadn't been paying enough attention to know why or how and the food had been good and timely. "Let me start with the witches," he muttered since that was an easy one to remember for someone who'd grown up in Point Pleasant. "And yeah, we had motherfucking witches." He scooted out of the booth and waited for Lem to do the same and as ever, right after eating he really itched for a cigarette. He'd smoked more than his share in the hospital and his heartburn could get bad so he settled for a piece of gum instead. "Lyttle Hill, you ready for history?"
Lem had already forgotten the waitress’s offense, so she didn’t question the tip in the slightest. She slid out after Vex and started for the door, grinning a bit over the idea of real motherfucking witches. Lem had zero doubts they had been real, too. And there were probably still real ones walking around, because people didn’t change that much through the years. “Lyttle Hill, I’m ready for whatever!” she declared with a little bounce as she pushed through the door. Lem probably wouldn’t remember everything Vex told her, but she was more than willing to let him talk, and ride his voice like a wave. It was one of her favorite things to do.
A lot of people who knew Vex would have been surprised to hear he talked much at all but when he got started he could go on for a long time. As they drove he told Lem about the witches, the stories he still remembered, the names he still remembered and how the group of six had been sacrificed for people's peace of mind and no doubt some political reasons too. People didn't like Different, they wanted things safe and boring, repetitive. Except when it came to killing off that which they didn't like. "Hanging," he told Lem as they parked near by the hill. They'd have to walk up there if he wanted her to see the spot but he didn't mind. "For most of them, all but one. I don't know if they feared her more but Rebecca Lyttle got burned alive." He peered up at the twisted trees, a familiar old chill going through him. "They have their names up there, you wanna go see?"
Sitting in the passenger seat of their van and listening to Vex tell her things was right where Lem belonged, and she enjoyed the ride, rolling her window down so she could stick her arm out into the air. It snuck up her sleeve and cooled the inside of her hoodie and felt nice. Lem was paying attention, but some of the details went in one ear and right out the other, but she thought that was okay. Stories weren’t about memorizing everything on the first go-round. Lem made a disapproving sound at learning that one of the witches was burned -- that had always seemed like an awful way to go. Burns were the worst. “Yes,” she answered without hesitation, her eyes focused out the windshield as she opened the van door and got out. Walking would be good for them, and there was something about this place that felt ... kind of magnetic.
"Used to come out here and smoke pot with my friends," Vex muttered as they walked and it might have been a long time since he'd been back but some things hadn't changed at all. "We'd get stoned and talk shit about what this town was and why it was so fucked up. I never told you but I went missing as a kid. Two fucking years." Just thinking back on those times when he'd been here as a gangly teen made him itch to smoke again and he flexed his fingers idly with a soft grumble. "No clue what happened but I've got my theories. So did my friends." He huffed, none of those theories had made much sense but considering the things that did happen in Point Pleasant, maybe they weren't as out there as he'd previously thought.
Lem turned around to walk backward so she could look at him better, her brows lifted high at that revelation. “What like, you got kidnapped? Got lost? How old were you?” she wanted to know. For talking together a lot, neither of them really dug deep into the past issues in their lives to one another, and hearing that came as a total surprise to Lem. She was under the impression that most kids who weren’t immediately found stayed missing, but she guessed that if a kidnapper would want to return any kid, it would be Vex. If he’d been anything like he was now. Or maybe that had made him like he was now.
"Nobody knows," Vex replied. "We had theories. A witch got me, I was swallowed by another dimension, stolen by a cult and brainwashed, I ran away and lived with the fairies for a spell." He huffed softly and shook his head. "Watch your step there." This wasn't the best place to walk backwards, no matter how good Lem was at it. "I was eight, almost nine. My parents wrote me off as dead and boy were they happily surprised to get me back two years later." Yeah, now he really wanted a cigarette and he grumbled softly at himself again, reminding himself the urge would fade if he just let it. "I wasn't the only one. These days I'm thinking maybe I'm like those other kids I saw. Later. Much later."
There were a lot of times in Lem’s life that were kind of fuzzy in her memory, but she couldn’t imagine forgetting two whole years. How disorienting that must’ve been, especially at that age. Eight through ten were tender years. She turned back to walk straight, veering in closer to Vex to take his hand in hers, linking their fingers together as she chewed on that for a moment. She knew what ‘other kids’ he was talking about, having been privy to some of the visions Vex had had about them. Poor souls, being tortured for some mysterious insidious purpose. “Maybe that’s why you saw them,” she offered quietly. Vex had probably thought of that already, but she didn’t know what else to say. “Maybe only you can stop it.”
There were times when Vex couldn't feel a thing and doubted he was capable of feeling anything ever again, and then there was Lem saying shit like that, filling him with inspiration that were he a religious man, he'd call divine. It made his chest swell with feelings and he gave her hand a little squeeze. "Maybe," he agreed. "But not alone." He looked at her meaningfully because of course he meant her, he wouldn't be here if not for her, he'd still be eating pills, feeling nothing and ignoring his purpose in life.
Lem looked over at him and smiled faintly, squeezing his hand back. “Never alone again,” she reminded him. They made all sorts of promises like that which might’ve been meaningless coming out of other people, but Lem knew they meant it. Nothing would be tearing her away from Vex while she was still drawing breath, and if one of them died the other wouldn’t be too far behind. That was just how it was. Lem left it at that and started looking around at where they were walking. The woods were pretty, at least.
Vex stopped by the main location where most of the markers were, crouching down to read them. "This is where the five were hanged," he muttered and it was a morbid place to come sit around and smoke weed but he and his friends had been a morbid and unhappy bunch of teens. "Over there is where Lyttle was burned," he added and pointed to the marker that was some ways away from the others. "People talk a lot about those witches but we used to talk a lot about that motherfucker who caused their deaths. Reverend Burroughs, a man of god." He traced the name on one of the markers then glanced up at Lem. "Pretty sure he wasn't a man of any god I care to meet."
Crossing her arms over her stomach, Lem leaned down a bit to read the markers too. It led to so much tragedy, the human need to destroy what wasn’t understood. Back then they hanged and burned people for being Different, and now they put them away and pumped them full of chemicals to keep them quiet. To make them toe the line and be ‘normal.’ Or they outright killed them somehow, because that hadn’t quite gone out of style in a lot of places. “People invent their own gods to give them permission to do whatever they want,” she muttered, eyeing the plaque before she met Vex’s eyes. “Monsters in human suits in holy costumes. I wonder if they were even real witches.”
"If they were I don't think they were causing harm," Vex muttered. He saw the difference in young people today, like it was less black and white now that everyone could spew their thoughts online and feel less alone but he remembered the eighties and the nineties when it felt like there was a war being waged between social circles. Those stereotypes of the preppy kids vs. the outcasts. He'd been part of the latter group and they'd bitched about those 'popular kids' and how rotten they were underneath their shiny exteriors while they themselves were somehow more authentic and kind underneath the black clothes and dark eyeliner. It was silly in hindsight, especially when looking at it from where he stood now, but there had still been truth to it. Misunderstood dark creatures vs. self righteous creatures of light.
He realized he was zoning again and his gaze snapped back to focus on Lem. "Monsters," he agreed. "I think Burroughs may have been a monster. I dream about him sometimes, it's never pretty." Whether that actually meant anything or not he couldn't say. Dreams weren't visions.
Lem waited patiently through Vex’s mind wandering, her own drifting off in a different direction. She’d always been a black sheep herself, especially within her own family, and it had been alienating as hell. She’d had friends, of course, some of whom had been pretty fucked up, but even in those circles, Lem always felt like The Worst. And then she’d lost all semblance of friends when she’d done what she’d done and gotten put away. Until Vex came along, that was, and started to understand her better than anyone else in her life ever had. In spite of the generation gap, she hoped he felt the same. Their souls knew each other, everything else was just cosmetics. “Do you think he’s stayed dead?” she asked idly, ambling away a few paces, toward the tree the five had been hanged from.
Among other things it were questions like these that endeared Lem to Vex. He'd grown so tired of logic and reason in a world where those two things just weren't as solid as people liked to think. Lem knew that, she understood and that's why she asked the important questions. "I don't know," he replied. "I think evil like that doesn't just die. He left town, disappeared, so that just makes it all the more likely he's still out there somewhere, being a monster." If there had been records of him staying in town and dying there, maybe not, but the stories of the Six and everything surrounding them had been strange for many reasons. "I haven't seen him, so maybe he stayed dead. I hope he's still dead."
“Me too,” Lem said, sounding a little glum about it. They already had enough monsters to deal with, didn’t they? She walked a slow circle around the tree, eyeing it up and down. Lem found a good spot to start at, and she began to climb it. She was pretty strong -- she could handle her own body weight, for sure -- and she’d always loved climbing trees. This one was a special tree, a tree with bad memories, and it gave off a vibe that wasn’t exactly friendly, but Lem was going to climb it anyway. Maybe there would be a different perspective up in the twisting, thick branches. She got up to the big branch that hung the straightest outward and straddled it, scooting out away from the trunk a bit, glad she’d worn jeans and boots so she could cling with her legs better. Lem looked down at Vex on the ground and pondered what it might be like to hang. “I read that men sometimes get an erection when they die violently,” she told him. “I wonder if it happens to women too. They call it angel lust.”
Considering that Lem was by far the hornier of the two of them, Vex had no doubt women were every bit as horny as men. It just wasn't as visible. He did wonder if men's erections had anything to do with arousal at those times, maybe it was just the body's desperate attempt at utilizing everything no matter how futile it seemed. "Angel lust," he said slowly, tasting the words. "I do like the sound of that, it's violent in its own right." He tilted his head back to look up at her, glad that he didn't get visions from the past. This place would be full of them, he had no doubt about it. It didn't take a prophet to feel the ancient fear and wrath still clinging to the earth here.
Lem laid down on the thick branch on her belly, legs wrapped around it. She folded her arms to prop her chin on them, feeling thoughtful up there in the death tree. Her thoughts were running along the same lines, wondering if angel lust was just a dying brain’s failsafe switch to try and cancel out pain. Lem thought that if death came with an orgasm, that wasn’t such a bad deal. “These violent delights have violent ends,” she murmured. Lem stared off into the other branches for a moment, then peered down at Vex again. “I like it here,” she told him. “I would’ve come to hang out with you and smoke pot and talk.”
"I would've liked you back then too," Vex murmured and Lem did remind him of his friends back then in some ways, except she was more aware and far more fun than they'd ever been. "You would have fit in just fine though I wouldn't have wished that on you. It was a pretty miserable time." He winked up at her. "No internet." It had been miserable for more reasons than that and his little group of misfits had found each other because they were all in pain in some way or another. Vex supposed that went for him and Lem too, they both saw the Truth and they both suffered for it.
She wondered vaguely if they would have been a Thing if they were the same age. Lem generally hated men her own age, but maybe Vex would have been different. Maybe not. Maybe he’d been the same sort of fuckhead that most early-twenties dudes were, and it had taken a couple more decades of life and work and the forces of the cosmos pushing on him to make him who he was. She didn’t know, and she never would, because they were stuck in linear time on this plane and there was no traveling backward. At least as far as Lem could tell. She gave a little laugh. “The terrible dark ages,” she teased, grinning down at him. “However did you survive without knowing what your fourth grade best friend had for breakfast? And what they think about gun control?”
Vex would have told her he was definitely a fuckhead back then and had been for a long time. Probably still was. He smirked at her questions, shaking his head slowly. "We barely survived, we just beat each other up and hoped we got the right fucker in the face. Oh, and we talked sometimes, asked questions. You know, face to face. A lot of faces were involved either way. Mostly we just suffered, disconnected from everyone and everything around us." He was being willfully dramatic but it wasn't entirely hyperbolic. He had been miserable for a long time, though his climb out of darkness didn't have a whole lot to do with the Internet. "You would have hated it, fawn."
“Sounds like too many faces,” Lem said. “Gross.” It was glib, but honestly she didn’t think she would’ve turned out much different back then. Lem didn’t really use the internet to socialize, and she knew that made her an oddball in her generation. Scrolling through Facebook or Twitter or something to peek into the minds of her peers always just made her feel even more strange and isolated, so she’d quit doing it. Who gave a shit about them? Her life was far too interesting to put up on social media, she didn’t give a shit about anyone’s opinions on it, so a lot of what people were addicted to was useless to her. The internet was great for research and funny cat pictures and music and porn and that was about it. Lem was good with that. Still feeling restless, she sat up and shifted around on the tree branch, then let herself slide off and hang there by her hands. It wasn’t too far up off the ground, and dangling stretched her back out.
"Too many faces and too much talking," Vex muttered, plopping down to sit with his back against the trunk of the tree. The earth was a little soggy still from the rain earlier but a wet butt didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. There was something a little surreal about watching Lem hanging from the tree where all those people had died by hanging but not in a bad way, it was almost poetic, his fire fawn so full of life, a tribute to those who had passed so long ago. She was a little blurry since he wasn't wearing his glasses but that just made it all the more real and present. If only this was enough to appease the lost souls of the Six. "They say the town's been cursed ever since they died. Makes sense, I'd curse the hell out of place where I got burned alive."
While she hung there, Lem looked around at the trees and wondered if any of the five saw the same thing she was looking at. Maybe not, maybe they had hoods on. People’s faces got gross when they hung, it wouldn’t surprise her if the executioners had bagged their heads. How sad would it be for your last sight to be the inside of a bag? Lem wanted to die with her eyes open. “I would too,” she agreed. “Fuck everybody, in that case.” She gently kicked her legs to swing a bit, then let go and fell to the ground. Lem took the landing well, especially with the ground being so soft, crouching for a moment before she rocked back onto her ass. She hugged her knees and looked around them some more, thoughtfully. “Do you think we’ll stay? After we find the monster who ate Sarah?”
"Firecracker," Vex murmured. "We'll do whatever the fuck we want to." He didn't know if this was their last mission but without a mission they were roaming free. If they wanted to stay, they'd stay. If they wanted to leave, they'd leave. Of course 'they' meant 'Lem'. Without a mission - without a purpose - Vex didn't really give a shit where he was but Lem did. It was Lem who wanted to stay in places with showers and beds. If Lem ever left him, Vex would probably end up sleeping in his van again, forgetting to take care of himself for days at a time. It didn't worry him because he wouldn't really care, but he still cared enough that he hoped Lem would stick around.
Lem was aware that whatever they said at this moment could change -- in days, in weeks, in the next five minutes. They were impulsive creatures when they weren’t being guided by the pegasus. She did enjoy having a comfy bed with clean sheets though, and Lem knew that once they had hot water and cable, she would like it even more. So right at that moment, she wanted to stay. But who knew. Restlessness could strike at any time, especially when their mission was over. The way Vex phrased it made her grin a little, because he did have that way with words. Lem got up onto her hands and knees and crawled closer, swinging one leg over his hips to sit in his lap. Lem tugged at the sides of Vex’s beard a little with both hands and patted his cheeks. “We’re gonna kick so much fucking ass here,” she declared. “This town’s gonna run out of ass.”
Her 'patting' was a little rough but Vex appreciated it more than he would have it if she'd been gentle. He smirked at her words and idly wrapped his arms around her. "No more ass, just nice butts," he agreed and Point Pleasant really could use some cleansing of assholes that was for sure. He didn't know if any of the big time jerks he'd hated as a kid still lived here and if they did he didn't know if he'd recognize them but humans aside he knew there was plenty of evil to be vanquished and it was a good thing Lem was ready for it.
Replacing assholes with nice butts sounded like a philosophy that Lem could get behind, and she giggled a bit. She gave Vex’s beard another tug, then planted a smooch against his forehead, right between the eyebrows. She rocked back to stand up again, never able to keep very still for very long while she was awake, and offered a hand down to Vex. He didn’t need it, but she was clingy. “Where to next, boss?” Lem asked brightly. “More fucked up places of power, please.” She knew there had to be more than one in town, and if they were touring, they might as well tour.
"We could check out the murder tunnels," Vex said as he got up, putting no weight on her even if he took her hand. He might just look skinny but he was in great shape for someone who treated himself like shit half the time, strong and flexible, probably because he still loved dancing as much as he loved fighting (and the two often looked like the same thing anyway). "That place is evil though and it's a trek, you wanna check out the cemetery? I heard there's a haunted house on our street now too if you wanna go check if the water's back on."
Murder tunnels sounded fascinating, but Lem did really want a shower, and cemeteries were one of her favorite places to be. She usually found them peaceful, but maybe the one in this crazy town would be more interesting than peaceful. “Okay!” Lem said brightly, swinging their linked hands back and forth. “Cemetery then to the haunted house!” Even if they didn’t go in, they could stare at it, and Lem could remember which one it was to go investigate later. “And murder tunnels like, sometime later, yeah?” Half-skipping, she started back toward the car with Vex.
"Cemetery, then the haunted house," Vex agreed. "It wasn't haunted when I lived here. It was just a fucking house." Or maybe it had been. "Maybe an evil lurked there all those years and finally drove Mr. Zinneman insane but it was lived before he snapped." Thinking about that didn't make him feel very good. If a house could drive a person to do such a thing, how could he be so sure he was immune? He'd have to train Lem harder, make sure she could fight him off if something possessed his meat suit and tried to make him hurt her. He got in the car and spared Lyttle Hill another little look. The drive home would be quick but the cemetery was a bit out of the way so it probably made sense to go home first. They'd made plans though and he'd stick to that.
Like they often said, things were changing all the time. Maybe houses could drive people evil-crazy, maybe people were just crazy and then they made the spaces around them evil, Lem didn’t know. Darkness found the cracks and snuck in from all sides. She just grunted in answer to what he said, and climbed into the van next to Vex. She did want to check out the cemetery, and if the house was right on their street, they could go anytime. After traipsing around outside so much, Lem might decide to forgo it for a shower. The best thing about plans was that they could be broken, and the two of them were nothing if not impulsive.