Carson Durand (dontlaugh) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-07-29 15:54:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #november 2017, carson |
Who: Adam and Carson
When: Sunday, Nov 5th, early morning
Where: a road running out of town, the woods
Status: Complete
The first thing Carson was aware of was the cold. It was biting, making all of his extremities hurt, where they weren’t already numb. Every muscle ached, straining with shivers and the instinct to curl in on himself. He could hear birds then, chirping away above his head. He clawed his way to the surface of consciousness, following some instinct that said if he didn’t get moving soon, he would freeze to death. Carson forced his eyes open, blinking as his breath came out in harsh shudders. He saw a lot of greenery. He was in the woods. He shifted his body and felt the roughness of the forest floor bite into his skin.
Carson propped himself up on one elbow to have a look around, trying to wake his brain up enough to help him through this. He was naked, legless, and he didn’t know where. Carson lifted one hand to look at it, shaking, and felt his stomach turn over dangerously. Both of his hands and forearms and his chest were streaked with dried blood. Nausea hit him hard, and a second later he was on his hands and knees, puking up a gut full of half-digested red chunks.
It was true. It was true, it had happened. It was true, it was true, it was true. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Some survival instinct or soldier’s training or something snapped to attention and grabbed hold of him. He couldn’t think about it yet. He had to move. He had to get out of the woods and back to civilization and to help. After he puked again, that was. Panting and spitting, Carson sat up and looked around himself again. He held his breath and listened until he heard the faint whoosh of what sounded like a car, off to his left. A road, that was what he needed. Keeping his head turned in that direction and praying that his only chance hadn’t just driven by, Carson started to crawl.
Adam hadn't known what else to do once he sedated Carson, giving him the highest dosage that was safe to administer. Would the transformation rouse him? Or would he remain unconscious through it? Should he stay just in case? But what could he even do to help once Carson had wolfed out? Even looking at the pictures Nick had provided, the actual process was beyond the scope of Adam's imagination. In some weird way, he felt as though staying would be some kind of invasion of privacy and, deep down, he viscerally didn't want to see what the transformation would be like.
Plus, the part of him that clung to hope still wanted it to be nothing. So he went home, slept in fits and bursts. The night was only beginning to lighten toward morning when he got out of bed, tired and jittery. He slung a duffle-bag over his shoulder that held some extra clothes, first aid items, and whatever he had thought to thrown in the day before, since he didn't know what state Carson would be in, then drove back to the cabin, pulling to an abrupt stop on first sight.
Of course, he hadn't considered the possibility that he just wouldn't find Carson. The walls of the cabin were torn though, like they were nothing. His stomach dropped and he threw his SUV into parked before he got out and ran over.
It was unnecessary to confirm, really, that Carson wasn't there.
"Fuck," Adam swore aloud to no one. There were signs of destruction that followed, branches knocked off trees and deep marks in the ground from where something--where Carson-as-a-werewolf--had torn off into the night. He followed as far as he could manage, but there was a point where Carson had taken a sudden turn and things became less clear after that.
Adam returned to his SUV--which he had left idling, he realized belatedly--and tried to temper his racing heart. Panicking wasn't going to help Carson. Maybe he'd have stuck to the woods in his werewolf form and now that he was back to being human he'd... try to get somewhere else? It was cold and he was without, well, anything. Adam shifted into reverse to go back along the road.
There wasn't anyone else around, so he drove slowly, keeping an eye out for a sign of anything. The first time he stopped turned up nothing, nor did the second, but he had to keep trying. He pulled over again, getting out to head toward the woods, calling out Carson's name as loud as he could manage.
Everything hurt, and Carson’s hands, elbows, and knees were already scraped up. His arms gave out a few times as he struggled to make it through the underbrush to the road. But he couldn’t give up, or he would die out there of exposure. God knew how long he’d been naked and human in the cold. With the violent way his body was shaking, he was guessing it had been a while. Maybe the sluggish thoughts were a blessing, but he had to work to stay focused, fight against the urge to lie down and go back to sleep.
As he got closer to the road, he thought he heard a car, and then he definitely heard his name. Carson stopped, holding his breath, not quite sure if that had been real or if he was hallucinating it. The call came again, and Carson started crawling faster. The small hill of the road-side of the ditch seemed almost insurmountable, but he managed to drag himself up it to the gravel. There was a car parked a few yards off to his left. Carson hauled himself up higher and lifted one hand. “Hey,” he tried to yell. It came out as a harsh whisper. He cleared his throat and tried again, “Hey!”
Adam's pulse drummed in his ears, his breathing harsh in the cold morning air. Stay calm, he admonished himself. His training for work helped kick in with that, since he had one thing to handle at a time. He kept his search thorough, but brisk, not wanting to waste time in an area Carson might not even be, listening intently for any kind of an answer--and he drew abruptly up when he got one. Pivoting in that direction, he hurried over, breaking into a run when he caught sight of Carson.
Relief flooded through Adam: Carson looked like hell, but he was alive and there at least. And very obviously naked. He came to a stop beside him, taking off his coat before kneeling beside to drape it over Carson's shoulders and head as best possible. "Oh thank god, I found you," Adam said, breathing out a sigh. He touched Carson's face, more to have the tactile confirmation of his being there than anything else; it was easy to tell that he was cold. That he was still shivering and conscious were both positive signs at least. "Are you--" he almost said okay, but it felt like that was a given no. "--did you wake up far from here?"
It wasn’t just any guy, it was Adam, and Carson felt on the verge of bursting into tears with relief. He wasn’t sure why anybody else would be out there yelling his name, but his thought process wasn’t the clearest at the moment. What mattered was that Adam was alive. Carson hadn’t given himself the chance yet to think about what he might have done to Adam, but it didn’t look like the worst case scenario had happened, and now the other man was there to rescue him. Carson’s hand grabbed hold of Adam’s arm as soon as he was close enough, and the coat already felt incredibly good against his skin, even though the sudden heat was a little jarring. “That way, a ways,” he said through his chattering teeth, glancing behind him in the direction he’d come from. “D-do you ... water?”
Adam would never have forgive himself if he hadn’t found Carson and he had succumbed to the elements. Clearly Adam hadn’t really understood the magnitude that went into Carson’s werewolf transformation--was that the right word?--and that could have been a potentially disastrous mistake. (Maybe even was, said a voice in the back of Adam’s head, but the important part felt in the moment that Carson was, relatively speaking, okay.) Bad enough there was already at least one werewolf running around, given Adam knew very little of the one that had attacked Carson. Adam smiled as worry continued to unknot in his chest and he resisted the urge to hug Carson. “Yes, in my car. Let me move it closer, so we can get you inside.” It wasn’t that far away, but Adam reasoned the shorter the distance the better. His hand moved to squeeze Carson’s shoulder gently before Adam got up, hurrying to get his car to move it closer, grabbing a bottle of water as he returned to kneeling in front of Carson, offering it to him. “Do you think you can get up, if I help you?”
Carson kind of didn’t want him to go, even for the minute or two it took to move the car. He had the irrational fear that Adam might just drive off and leave him there. That was stupid and it didn’t happen, but Carson was feeling pretty goddamn on edge at the moment. But then Adam was back and he had a water bottle, and Carson dropped down to one elbow to grab it and twist the top open. He drank greedily, stopping only when he needed a breath and his stomach clenched in warning. “Yeah,” Carson more gasped than said, nodding some. He put the water bottle down, then motioned for Adam to get on his left side so Carson could better use him for a crutch. Not that they were going far, but still. He got up on his knees and slung an arm around Adam’s shoulders, giving a little groan as the other man helped haul him up to his foot. His body was so fucking tired and sore and scraped up and everything hurt.
Leaving Carson on the cold ground any longer than necessary seemed like a bad plan, and he looked fucking exhausted, so Adam moved as indicated and got his arm around Carson in return. “Here we go.” Carson had some height and weight on Adam, but he was fairly sturdy as it tended to be helpful for work. Plus, he at least had experience helping maneuver injured people, so he was careful as he helped Carson get to his foot. Giving him a moment to steady, Adam guided him the short distance to the passenger side of the car, getting the door open and helping ease Carson inside. He moved around the back, getting an insulated blanket and another bottle of water out of his bag before climbing into the driver’s side. Handing the blanket over to Carson, he turned the key in the ignition to let it idle and keep warm while he got arranged. "What do you last remember happening?" he asked, both because he wanted to know and to try to assess how Carson's cognitive function was doing, if he needed to get him to the hospital or if he'd be able to just get him warmed back up at home.
It was a bit of a struggle, but Carson had never been happier to get into a vehicle ever in his life. He hugged Adam’s jacket around him, shivering hard as he tilted the vents toward himself with numb fingers for when the heat kicked on. Numb and bloody fingers. He gratefully accepted the blanket and covered as much of himself as he could with it, rubbing his arms with his hands. “Uh ... being ... in the cabin,” he said with some hesitance, brow furrowing as he tried to latch onto a solid memory. “I remember you putting the chains on and ... the injections ... that’s it, though. Then I just woke up out there.” Carson nodded through the passenger side window. He didn’t know what he’d done as a wolf-beast, didn’t know where he’d gone or where all the blood had come from ... or what he’d thrown up. Animal parts, he hoped. God he hoped that was all it was. Carson looked at Adam again. “I’m so glad I didn’t hurt you,” he murmured.
That Carson seemed to be coherent was good. Relatively speaking in potential hypothermia terms, at least. Though Adam believed in all of this beforehand and knew that what he felt was infinitesimal compared to the whole slew of what Carson must be feeling, there was something surreal to be on the other side of this now. Christ. Adam's gaze remained on Carson, concerned and appraising; the blood on him didn't seem to be his own, but there were a lot of animals in the woods, so that was probably all it was. Nick had mentioned Carson'd be more likely to hunt around and not return to civilization, right? Adam blinked at the comment, since he hadn't been giving a lot of thought to his personal safety, and he smiled at Carson a little. "I wasn't sure what else to do, so I went home and uh, maybe went into panic mode when I came back this morning and you weren't there, so I'm really glad I found you before anything bad--anything worse happened." Turning the key in the ignition, he shifted into drive to get back on the road; no one else had passed them by, but might as well not linger. "How are you feeling? Like... injured at all or anything?"
Carson was really glad too; those words didn’t even begin to cover it. Someone worse could’ve found him, or nobody at all, and he could’ve died out there. It wasn’t like he could just walk himself somewhere, was it? Fuck. All the shivering and whatever was still on his stomach was making him feel kind of sick, and he closed his eyes and leaned his head back to try and quell the nausea. “No ... not really. Just kind of ... bruised and scraped up, but nothing’s ... broken, or anything. Other than that ... just ... sore and sick. Whatever I ate ... my stomach is not happy about.” Carson swallowed thickly and cracked one eye open to reach for the fresh water bottle. He took a sip and let out a little groan, then picked his head up again and looked at Adam. “Did you see my leg? In the cabin?”
Adam’s gaze flickered back to Carson while he answered, though remained mostly on the road. The panic had mostly abated, but Adam still felt a little jittery, so it couldn’t hurt to be too careful. At the question, he felt a little guilty. “Not sure. I forgot to check for it, I’m sorry. When I saw the wall was busted through and you weren’t there, I got zeroed in on trying to find you,” he said, looking over at Carson. “We can go back by now? Or I can go check after I take you home.” It wasn’t too far out of the way, but he had started by default back to Castle View and he was good with whatever Carson felt up to. “And let me know if you need me to pull over or anything. I can’t imagine raw woodland creature is pleasant on the human stomach.”
As much as Carson just wanted to fall somewhere soft and sleep for five days, he knew he needed his leg. Explaining this to Rylee was going to be hard enough, he didn’t need to add to it by losing his brand new prosthetic and being back on a crutch. If his leg had survived the change, Carson wanted it back. Besides that, he was feeling a sense of morbid curiosity, now that he was starting to rehydrate and warm up. He wanted to see what he’d done to the place. What this new side of him was capable of. “Thanks, but no, uh ... let’s go back now. If you don’t mind, I really need it.” He gave Adam a slightly pleading look. Maybe he needed a bit more time to wrap his head around this before he had to explain it to Rylee, too.
“Yeah, of course,” Adam said at once. Not that Point Pleasant had a ton of traffic at any given time, but it was early enough that he didn't have any trouble pulling a turn to head back in the direction of the cabin. Mostly he didn’t want Carson to push himself too much if he didn’t feel up to it and there was only so much Adam could assess visually and based off of his responses. Would going back to the cabin spark any traumatic memories for Carson? It was the sort of thing that neither of them could answer and it wasn’t like most of the research Adam was able to pull had frequently asked questions from the werewolf side of things. “I brought some extra clothes, too, when I thought I would just find you in the cabin, if you don’t want to just wear blankets.”
“God yes, thank you,” Carson said with obvious relief. He slumped more firmly against the seat and the car door, letting his head fall back and pulling the blanket tighter around him. Finding his leg and putting on real clothes would make him feel at least eighty percent more human, he was pretty sure. He’d still be filthy and banged up and digesting god knew what, but he at least wouldn’t be showing up at home naked and hobbled and wild-eyed. Whether it would be traumatic or not remained to be seen. He tried to relax and rest and sip on water while Adam drove them back to the cabin, then sat up straighter as they arrived. Carson could immediately see the damage done to the wall, and could easily imagine how that might have freaked Adam the fuck out. Once the SUV was parked, Carson pushed his door open and got out, leaning against the vehicle as he hopped forward a few steps. “Jesus Christ,” he breathed, looking the cabin over.
Seeing the damage done now that Carson was safely next to him didn’t draw as drastic a reaction from Adam this time, but the cabin was still pretty fucked up in a way that, well, an ordinary wolf or human definitely wouldn’t be capable of without some serious effort. He killed the engine and got out of his SUV, going around the back to get the bag that had the clothes in it and slinging it over his left shoulder before going back to Carson’s left side to help steady him as needed. “Yeah, it looks like werewolf strength was, uh, more than I accounted for,” Adam said, glancing at Carson. “Let’s head inside.” Hopefully they would find Carson’s prosthetic there, but if nothing else, Adam could help him get changed in there if necessary.
Carson almost told Adam to leave him out there and go find his leg, but he didn’t want to pussy out like that. He’d been to war for fuck’s sake, and it wasn’t the full moon anymore so he wasn’t going to wolf-hulk out again and become a danger. So he let Adam serve as a crutch and went with him into the cabin. At least half of the inside of it was trashed, everything splintered and broken, with deep claw marks here and there. The wall with the huge hole in it seemed even more dramatic from the inside. Carson could see where the chains had been pulled free. “Fuck,” he whispered, looking around with dismay. Adam opting to go home was probably the smartest thing he’d ever done. Carson spotted his leg among the debris and pointed it out to Adam. “Thank fuck, there it is, can you grab it?” he asked, even as he found something else to lean against.
The assessment Adam gave to the cabin earlier had been cursory at best, so he was also really only getting a look and processing it now and just--holy shit. If he had stayed, it wasn’t like he would have been able to do much of anything, if this is what the werewolf was capable of while drugged up. Or maybe that had only affected Carson? There maybe wasn’t any way to find that out other than trial and error. And. Well. Maybe he could find something that would put an elephant out? That train of thought was disrupted by Carson’s words. “Oh, good,” Adam said in agreement, then set his bag on the ground nearby Carson and went to retrieve his leg, bring it over to him. “Do you need help with anything? Otherwise I’ll give you moment to get situated.” Adam could busy himself with getting a closer look at where Carson broke free to give him a moment of privacy, but didn’t want to leave him hanging. It wasn’t like Carson would be the first naked, somewhat injured, guy Adam helped get dressed, even if he were one of the more attractive ones.
Carson reached to take his leg as soon as Adam was within reach, a sick weight in his stomach turning to pure relief as he saw it wasn’t damaged. Maybe if it had been strapped on, he would’ve broken it as he changed, but it looked like it had just de-suctioned off of him. Had he been a three-legged werewolf? He had to be, right? “Thank Christ,” he muttered with a sigh. “Nah, I got it.” There was a couch on their side of the cabin room that had survived, and Carson got himself around it to plop down. He’d wrapped the blanket around his waist like a skirt, and he hiked it up now to get his leg back on. It wasn’t as comfortable without the nylon sock, but whatever, it would do. He stood up again with a little groan and tested his weight on it. It felt fine, and even more relief made him feel slightly dizzy. “Okay,” he muttered, making his way back to the bag Adam had brought in. “You said there’s clothes in here?”
Once Carson was settled on the couch, Adam wandered over to where he had chained Carson up to examine how they were evidently pulled free fairly easily and how the claw marks dug deeply into and splintered the wooden floor. Christ. The cabin belonged to and was little used by--possibly abandoned, it had been unclear the last time they talked--one of his uncles, so he wasn’t worried about anyone needing it again anytime soon, but he’d look into getting it repaired. Or at least the wall put back. He glanced over at Carson and nodded. It was simple, just a shirt, hoodie, slippers, and sweatpants, since he figured he just needed to get Carson back to the apartment. “I probably should have just asked you for extra clothes of yours beforehand, but it slipped my mind and asking your cousin out of nowhere seemed like a bad idea. I tried to reasonably guess your size for pants, everything else was just my stuff that I thought would work.” Adam glanced away again to give Carson privacy while he got dressed.
Carson hadn’t really planned any further yet than getting home and trying to explain all this to Rylee, but he felt a vague sense of obligation for all the damage, and he wasn’t going to make Adam handle it all by himself. He wasn’t paying attention to being naked either, just ditching the blanket before he dug around and pulled the sweatpants out. Carson got dressed as quickly as he could, still not fully warmed up, then shuffled his way over to where Adam was, near the worst of the damage. “This is ... I’m so sorry, man,” he said, glancing helplessly over at the nurse. Carson offered his jacket back to him, now that he had some clothes of his own. He started looking around for his phone -- they’d left it within reach if he worked for it while he was still chained up, just in case something went really wrong, and was relieved to find it in the debris. The battery was almost dead and the screen was a little cracked, but nothing too terrible. “She’s gonna think I’m fuckin’ crazy,” he muttered. “All over again.”
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Adam said, somewhat earnestly, definitely certainly, at Carson’s apology; he had more than enough to worry about already and he hadn’t asked for any of this to happen. Adam took his jacket back. He had been distracted enough that he had ignored the cold morning air, but he was quick to put it back on now. At the muttered comment, Adam recalled with some guilt the way his conversation with Rylee went at their random run-in and he wasn’t altogether sure that Carson was wrong, but Adam didn’t know her well enough to judge for sure. “Hopefully she’ll believe you--it’s… well, you know it’s a lot to take in.” Sighing, Adam ran a hand through his hair, then felt like he needed to admit, “When I talked to her about how you were, that time I ran into her in the parking lot, I did try to feel her out on if she’d believe the whole werewolf thing--and she definitely didn’t, but maybe it’ll be different coming from you, considering I’m a relative stranger. Sorry I didn’t tell you before; she may have thought I was kind of crazy and I didn’t want to… undermine you believing me prior to the full moon.”
Carson frowned a bit, more because Rylee hadn’t said anything about that than because Adam kept it from him. But he couldn’t really fault anybody for keeping secrets without being a giant hypocrite, he guessed. Rylee was going to react badly about him keeping all of this quiet, Carson already knew it. He’d just been hoping so hard that it wasn’t true and it would just be a weird overnight in the woods and he could forget all about it. But the evidence was all around him that it had actually happened. Feeling stiff and tired, he limped over to pick up the clothes he’d been wearing the night before, completely shredded and ruined. “That was probably smart, she’s ... skeptical,” he told Adam in the meantime, heaving a sigh. “Getting less so, because of other bullshit happening to me, but ... still. This is a hell of a lot more than fucked up dreams.” He gave Adam an earnest and pained look. “Thank you ... for all of this. It was a big risk in a lotta ways, and you didn’t have to do shit for me, you know?”
Adam smiled ruefully. “Yeah, I did get that impression about her. This is the kind of thing that’s going to be hard to deny now though.” At the thanks, Adam wasn’t… not appreciative of Carson’s gratitude, but he wasn’t sure it was merited. Not helping Carson hadn’t ever felt like an option. As much as Adam had gone back and forth about what he could even do and how to approach addressing it, he knew couldn’t simply leave Carson to whatever happened insofar as possible. Glancing over, Adam reached over to clap Carson on the shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “And you’re welcome; this hardly seemed like the kind of thing I could let you go through by yourself--and we’ll try to figure out what to do better the next full moon,” Adam said, since it wasn’t like he was going to peace out of this now. But then his expression turned quizzical. “You’ve been having something weird happen with your dreams?” At least, Adam didn’t think Carson had mentioned that before.
Carson had gotten very into the brotherhood of being in the Marines. The female Marines were his brothers, too. They had each other’s backs like family, and while they sometimes fought like family, someone would always be there. After he’d gotten hurt, that community had narrowed down to basically one person who stuck around -- Rylee. Carson had gotten so used to only relying on her, it was strange now when someone else stepped up to help him. Especially someone he hadn’t even considered a friend before. He gave Adam a nod and a smile that felt a little shaky around the edges, then cleared his throat to answer the question. “Yeah, uh ... me and a few other people who I didn’t know before ... we keep dreaming the same things. We can see each other but can’t talk. And there’s like ... something screaming, and then we wake up. Woke up sleepwalking outside once. That’s how I met the first guy, he lives in our complex too. And then had a huge nosebleed the other morning.” He wasn’t even worried about Adam not believing him -- the guy had just helped him through his first night as a fucking werewolf. Carson shook his head a bit helplessly, and then let out an unsteady laugh. “It’s been a stressful time, man,” he murmured and swallowed hard.
In many ways, Adam was very much a people person and generally willing to help out to the best of his ability. On top of that, he had a tendency to just assume he would become friends with someone anyway unless given some clear signal of rebuffing, even if that always wasn’t always the best strategy. So even if he didn’t know Carson well enough to have called him a friend before this, Adam reasoned there was no reason not to help him when he was going through something uniquely rough and bizarre. Besides, he had come to accept that life was strange and threw people together in unexpected ways a while ago. Listening to Carson’s explanation about his dreams, Adam of course did not doubt him for a moment, though the idea of sharing dreams with other people, much less ones that might lead to things like nosebleeds or sleepwalking, had not occurred to him before now. “That definitely sounds like a lot of unsettling shit being piled on you at once, I’m sorry,” he said, the apology an expression of sympathy more than anything else. “I can’t say I’ve heard about any kind of bizarre dream stuff beyond, you know, the usual nightmare type stuff, but if there’s anything I can do, let me know.” Patting Carson on the back, Adam glanced around to see if there were any other stray items about that they might need to take back, but didn’t see anything. “The other people are all ones from around here, but only the one in our building?” he asked, curious more than anything.
It was kind of a relief to talk about it, if Carson was being honest. He’d been keeping so many secrets, so terrified of being judged and written off as crazy and losing the few close people he had in his life, he was glad to have at least one person he could completely let his guard down with. It made him want to start bawling and just cling to Adam for a few hours, but that would probably be too much. The guy had given him unbelievable support so far, Carson didn’t want to wear out his welcome, so to speak. He could break down on his own time. Probably as he tried to explain all of this to Rylee. Talking about the dreams was actually kind of nicely distracting from the overwhelming revelation that he was going to turn into a monster every month for the rest of his life. “Thanks man,” he murmured to the back pat and the sympathy. Then Carson nodded a bit, glancing around himself. He hadn’t brought anything else with him. “They all live here, yeah. It’s me and a girl in high school and the librarian and a, uh ... another guy, business owner. He’s some kinda witch, and even he doesn’t know what the fuck is going on.” Carson didn’t want to name names, just in case the other three wanted privacy. He gave a little sigh. “Let’s get the fuck outta here,” he murmured, turning back toward the door.
There had been enough strange occurrences that were objectively unbelievable in Adam’s own past that giving someone the benefit of the doubt tended to be his default. Sure, there might be times where that was misplaced or where there were clear red flags that it wasn’t warranted, but Carson seemed genuine about this and there was already the indisputable proof of the werewolf situation on top of it. Plus, Adam was always willing to listen, if nothing else, since he knew that sometimes it helped to just not feel alone in going through a thing, even if he had very little in the way of practical advice that he could possibly offer about the dream thing. “If nothing else, I’m happy to talk to you if you need to vent about any of this, you know?” He smiled at Carson, then blinked in surprise when he mentioned that the librarian was one of them; he wasn’t sure about the other two, but. Was it Neil? There was another librarian, Adam was pretty sure, but mostly he had talked to Neil so it was who Adam defaulted to. He didn’t want to pry though. Besides, he was ready to get going as well. “Yeah, let’s,” he said in agreement, picking his bag back up on the way out before heading toward his SUV, adding along the way, “If you want to take a nap or eat some food or whatever before talking to Rylee, you’re welcome to hang out at my place a bit.”
It wasn’t until they were in the SUV again that Carson realized he probably should’ve taken pictures of the place. So he had something for Rylee to see. She was smart and skeptical, and he really didn’t know what he was going to do if she didn’t believe him about this. Or got pissed about him having help with it from someone who wasn’t her. What could she have done, though? She probably would’ve tried to stay in the cabin with him, just in case, and then he would’ve killed her, and Carson just felt sick at the thought. They would have to make a plan for next month, she would have to get over it and let Adam assist, everything would have to work out, or he might as well eat a bullet. His werewolf self getting free once was bad enough, Carson couldn’t risk letting it happen again. “Thanks, but I need to get it over with,” he answered, giving Adam a grateful and tired little smile. “She’ll be mad enough that I kept it from her this long.” Before Adam pulled away, he took a couple of pictures with his cracked phone of the outside of the cabin, and he tried to pay attention to directions as they left. Maybe if she really didn’t believe him, he could bring her back here to show her in person. “After that though, I definitely wanna sleep for like, five days,” he added in a mutter.
Adam put his bag in the back again before getting behind the wheel. Making plans for the next full moon was definitely something that would occupy Adam’s thoughts, though they were about as far as they could get from it at the moment. While his need to decompress a little was considerably less than what Carson’s might be, Adam figured that taking a break would probably be for the best. Still, he could understand the impulse--or the need--of being upfront about it with Rylee, since it was a pretty big thing. When he noticed Carson taking pictures, Adam paused; he probably should have done that too, but he’d have to come back later anyway to at least maybe put a tarp up or something in case it rained. Construction wasn’t anything he was familiar with, but he could Google. “That’s understandable--figured I’d offer just in case. I hope it goes alright. Or, well, as alright as this kind of conversation can possibly go,” he said, pulling back onto the road. “I can obviously back you up, though I imagine that’ll only go so far. At worst, you know where I live and I have plenty of beer?” The last part was half-joking, half-serious, since it wasn’t really a solution of any sort, but who knew how a “hey, werewolves are for real and I really am one” conversation would go.
Carson’s relationship with his cousin was complex and it had been strained to its limit in the past few months. He couldn’t keep this from her anymore, couldn’t dawdle and stall. He felt bad enough about not doing it sooner, but he’d really been hoping he wouldn’t have to. That he could prove to himself that he wasn’t a werewolf, then brush this all off as a weird weekend and get on with his fucking life. Apparently not, though. And she had to know. “Thanks man,” he murmured, slumping down in the seat as they got rolling. “Probably best for me to talk to her alone at first, but ... if she really thinks I’m crazy, I might be calling on you. And maybe the guy you know.” Rylee was understandably touchy now about other people being in their lives and knowing things she didn’t, but if she started talking about him needing to be hospitalized or something, Carson was going to call for a witness. Even though Adam hadn’t exactly seen anything. He’d seen the aftermath, that was enough. “I appreciate it though,” he added softly, tiredly.
Glancing over at Carson, Adam gave him a brief, sympathetic, smile, before returning his attention back to the road. He didn’t know what Carson’s relationship with Rylee was like, but they were family and they seemed to be close, so hopefully that would go a long way in her not thinking he was BS-ing her or out of his mind. Adam wanted to check in with Nick again, now that the full moon was passed, anyway, so he could give him an additional potential head’s up about Rylee. Hopefully the after the fact of what happened would be enough, since he had the uneasy feeling that even once they found a better way to contain Carson after he transformed next month, that staying in proximity to him or hanging around to witness his change to a werewolf wouldn’t be wise. “Of course. I’ll definitely do whatever I can. Let me know how it goes either way?” Adam said, since he was concerned and would want to know, even if his assistance wasn’t needed.
“I will,” Carson murmured, leaning the side of his forehead against the car window. Hell, he might have to crash on Adam’s couch for a while, if things went badly. Or surf around. Or just load his car up and drive until he ran out of gas and start his whole life over. That was an impractical dream, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away anyway. He needed Rylee too much. And the few true friends he had. Carson fell silent, the exhaustion seeping deeper into his bones. He wasn’t looking forward to this, but it had to be done. And then he had to keep thinking about the future, as tiring as that seemed at the moment. He’d been crippled in yet another permanent way, and Carson had to once again figure out his new normal. It made him want to cry, but he was too worn out for that. He closed his eyes instead and tried to map out in his head how he was going to explain all this.