Neil (piezoelectric) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-04-26 05:12:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #october 2017, jane, jane x neil, neil |
Who: Jane & Neil
What: Visitations
Where: The library
When: 10/16
Status: Complete
Warning: Jane is scary :( even outside of dreams
Neil couldn't help but wonder if his strange dream from the night before had been somehow Jane's fault. It didn't really feel like a dream and it certainly didn't feel like a dream he would have. He'd been standing outside, nowhere he recognized or could describe. There were other people around and he recognized only one of them: Nic Castell, a guy he remembered from school. Nic had started walking toward him and Neil had started to move, though he hadn't even decided what exactly he wanted to do, when there was an inhuman scream in the darkness. He didn't think it came from any of the people he was currently seeing and it was so shrill that he clenched his eyes shut and covered his ears only to wake up in his bed. He felt uneasy after that and only just barely managed to fall asleep again so he wasn't completely dead tired that morning.
Jane had said she'd come see him on Monday but she hadn't said when and he didn't quite trust her to show up. At least in the waking world she couldn't really threaten him, at least not without consequences, but he still felt nervous as he went about his work.
Jane wasn't in the mood to threaten anyone, although that didn't mean her mood couldn't change. She still had every intention of seeing Neil, and after lunch, she headed for the library. Honestly she had no idea if Neil would even speak to her, but he seemed unnerved enough in his dream that he probably wouldn't run from her. She might not be able to hurt him face to face, but there were other ways... and he knew it.
Walking into the library from the underground entrance, she began to search for Neil quite casually, occasionally pausing to look at a book or two. It was close to ten minutes before she wandered down the next aisle and spotted him putting some books away. Jane grinned. "This is like deja vu, huh?" she asked, walking toward him in the aisle.
It really was like deja vu and Neil looked up with a sinking feeling. He knew he was awake but dreams had a way of making you unsure so what if this was a dream? He hated that thought more than anything and it helped to look at the book he was holding where the numbers made sense. "A little bit," he replied. "I don't know where we can talk safely, I suppose here is no worse than anywhere else." He put the book where it belonged and looked down at the cart full of other books. "How are you?"
"It's okay, I'm pretty sure no one is bugging the library," Jane said, leaning against one of the stacks as she watched Neil. She doubted AIR would go that far, even if they had tried to break into her room at the Juniper before she moved. "I'm doing great, Neil, thanks for asking. How are you?" He wasn't shrinking away or dodging her, so that was nice. Jane had known Neil was skittish and apparently that hadn't changed much, even in adulthood.
Neil was not so sure they weren't bugging the library. In his mind They were everywhere, listening and watching, waiting for him to make a wrong move. He wasn't about to tell her that because he knew it sounded insane, but so did what had happened to them in the first place so he felt somewhat excused. "I'm-" he started, then sighed and shook his head. "I'm getting by." She had wanted to talk to him and as much as he didn't want to, it felt best to get it over with. If he didn't, she'd just haunt his dreams again and this time it could be worse. "You wanted to talk," he said and wondered if she knew about Adam being back in town. It felt like only a matter of time before he went missing too, it seemed everyone did.
"I thought it would be beneficial for us both to talk," Jane explained. "With a few of us going missing, Nicole and Naomi. I think they tried to break into my room at Juniper. Them, not Nicole and Naomi. And then I ran into someone else who..." Jane trailed off, aware that Neil knew what she meant. "Have you talked to Adam yet?" She had, and she had plans to again, since they lived in the same apartment complex. She wanted to know what he could do, if anything. It was always easier to formulate a plan with all the information rather than going in blind.
Was it strange that Neil felt almost protective of Adam? When Jane mentioned him he certainly felt that unexpected urge to find him and tell him to get out of town, to get as far away as he could. It wouldn't make a difference, but there it was anyway. "I have," he said quietly. "He doesn't remember anything." He felt compelled to add that, in case They were listening. "He thinks we went to school together and that's all." It was better that way, knowing wouldn't do Adam any favors.
Jane gave Neil a skeptical look, wondering if he truly believed Adam didn't remember anything. "His memories might be a bit scrambled, but I bet if he was told enough, it would start coming back to him," she explained, her tone low now. "He's back, though. I think his subconscious brought him back, just like it seems to bring a lot of people back here, including me. Aren't you the least bit curious what he could potentially remember? Especially now that the facility is open again? We should be proactive, not reactive."
Proactive, reactive, they both sounded awful. Neil just wanted not to think about it all, as long as they left him alone, he'd leave them alone and not stir up trouble. "Whatever he might remember it won't help us," he said fretfully. "We were just kids, we have no idea what's going on, how many people are involved, what kind of resources they have." It would be just like Jane to try to blow up the building or something and the thought was mortifying to Neil. "Proactive how? What do you suggest we do?" he asked skeptically, crossing his arms over his stomach and giving her a worried frown.
"So we find out," Jane said, "and maybe Adam can help us. Maybe there are more of us in this town, that have been hiding like you, or just can't remember like Adam. All I know is if we don't do something, kids are going to go missing again. You know that, right?" A dark intensity sparked in her eyes as she stepped in closer to Neil. "I think we need to figure out who's there, and what they're up to. We have the ability to do it, so I think we should. Even if it's not to keep it from happening again, they should pay for what they did to us."
"That's easy for you to say," Neil said with a frown and if ever he felt like he was stuck between the rock and the hard place it was when Jane showed up anywhere near him. He wasn't sure which scared him more if he was being honest, AIR or Jane. Jane seemed like less of a threat but she was a more immediate one. "You have this... gift or curse or whatever you want to call it. I'm not like you, I have a small gun I can barely use and that's it." He was whisper-hissing at the end of that sentence, looking around nervously as if someone might have snuck up on them while he was speaking. "What do you expect me to do?"
"You are like me. If you hadn't been, they would have let you go," Jane hissed. "What I expect you to do is stop being a coward and denying what they did to you. For all I know, whatever you can do is what we need to stop them. Also, learn to use your fucking gun, because you might need it." His irritability seemed to trigger her own, and Jane really didn't react well to annoyances. "Look, other than Adam, you're the only one left in town that I know has been where I have. There may be others, but I don't know who they are yet."
"If there was anything then I don't remember," Neil hissed back, agitated by her irritation but most of all the topic of their discussion. "Maybe they were about to let me go and wipe my memory when the place burned down. I certainly don't have anything going for me right now. You have that dream thing and I... I have my Master's degree in information science." He threw his hands up as he spoke, then sighed with frustration. "That's all I can do, Jane, I can look shit up for you."
"You have something. I know you do. We just have to figure out what it is," Jane said. "If you honestly thought you were just normal Joe Librarian, you wouldn't be so paranoid." Then again, maybe he would be. He was so goddamn jumpy, and maybe that was just who he was. But she refused to believe there was nothing special about him. She needed help doing.... whatever it was she eventually decided to do. And so far, Neil was her only option. Lucky her. "Look," she added quietly, "I know you don't like me, but I am the lesser of two evils. They've already taken the others, and they'll come for you too. A gun isn't going to cut it. You need to know what you can do, and learn how to use it."
Neil's expression tightened a little at that because hadn't he just told her he didn't think he could do anything? He'd certainly know by now, he was sure of that. No, he had convinced himself that if not for the fire, AIR would have dropped him off soon, as clueless as Adam seemed to be. Maybe that would have been better too, there were definitely things he didn't want to remember that he couldn't force himself to forget. People were talking somewhere in the hallway near them drawing closer and Neil did not need whoever they were to see him chatting with Jane when he should be working. He had theories, involving one about how AIR only really came after the ones who did have abilities but he didn't want to talk to her about it, doubted she'd listen or care and she might even use it against him and accuse him of pretending to not have any abilities because he was a coward. She might not be that wrong but he could swear until he was blue in the face that there was nothing out of the ordinary that he could do and she'd never buy it. "I have to get back to work," he muttered. "We can... Talk later."
"We will," Jane said firmly. "Because the longer you ignore this, the worse off you're going to be." She made it sound like a promise - and maybe a threat, before walking past him to leave the stacks. Neil was a frustrating, irritating person... not much had changed since their years in the AIR facility. But he couldn't hide now, or run. None of them could. Pretending wasn't going to save anyone.
The library patrons were almost upon them so Neil took his little cart and stepped backwards away from Jane to at least pretend to be busy while they passed. "Here," he hissed. "Not... in my head." He hated it when she visited his dreams, it felt entirely too personal and god forbid he dream about something he really didn't want anyone to see.