numenviscera (numenviscera) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-08-02 02:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, lem, lem x vex, vex |
Who: Lem & Vex
Where: On the road, their home
When: Sunday early afternoon
Status: Complete
Warning: Some gore
Disposing of a dead body 101. Things would have been so much easier if the dead monster hadn't transformed back into a human upon its death. The corpse in their basement was a problem that Lem and Vex needed to take care of and they both knew the police would never believe what really happened. Vex had no interest in spending the rest of his life in prison for murder so this had to be taken care of. It wasn't smart to stalk to the nearest store and buy everything they needed there. Bleach, lye, barrels, protective gear - that would look pretty damn suspicious if they bought it all at the same place so today was road trip day. Lem got the dubious honor of being the driver since Vex's leg was still fucked and he explained to her on the way what it was that they needed to do.
"Buy other stuff too," he told her. "Normal ass household shit." They didn't want to show up and act like murderers. The odds of people giving a damn were low to be honest but there was always a chance that some busybody got involved and tipped off the police. Especially since Lem and Vex didn't exactly blend in too easily.
Lem was less than excited about all of this. She didn’t exactly feel bad about killing the werewolf, because he’d tried to kill Vex, and he’d killed other people around town too. A life for a life and all that. But nobody wanted a dead guy in their basement. He hadn’t been there very long, but still. Lem wanted to get rid of him before he started to stink, and things got obvious. Vex had said they should tell Zan and Nic that it didn’t work and they didn’t catch anything, and that was bothering her too. She didn’t want to lie to the Castell twins, they’d been so helpful, and if they thought the whole thing had failed they might insist on helping them ‘try again’ next month. But on the other hand, Vex was right -- dragging them into a homicide case would suck too. So she was torn.
But first things were first. From behind the wheel -- with the seat pulled up as far as it could go -- she nodded. It would be a lot of driving, but they needed to get it done. “Normal household shit,” Lem repeated to show she was listening. They did need some of that anyway, they just had to spread it out. “And wear a hat,” Lem added in a mutter. She’d brought a knit cap to pull on, it was chilly enough for it, and her shaved head garnered a lot of attention.
'And try to hide the limp' Vex thought to himself as he reached over and rubbed Lem's head. "A hat's good," he agreed. They both stood out, thanks to Lem's fascination with keeping his hair patchy. He really liked it that way too, it was totally punk rock, but like her shaved head it tended to draw people's attention. He pulled out a notebook and looked over the list he'd made and divided, then peered out at street. It was such an unremarkable day and he hoped that was a good sign. Unremarkable day for unremarkable body disposal. There were a lot of small towns not too far from Point Pleasant and they had a plan for each store they could go to.
"Hey, firecracker," Vex murmured softly as they drove. "You wanna talk about it?"
Lem realized she was tense, her shoulders up and her hands tight on the wheel. She purposefully took a huge breath and sighed it out and tried to make herself relax. Which was usually an exercise in futility. She rocked her head from one side to the other to crack her neck, then glanced over at Vex. It was difficult for her to imagine his life as a cop, the things he’d probably seen and done. She’d known him for such a short time in his life, but it felt like so long in hers. Maybe he’d killed people before. Maybe he’d dissolved their bodies. Maybe he had good advice. But Lem wasn’t even really sure she felt bad about what had happened. It wasn’t her first time hurting someone, but the transformation from huge beast to man ... it was in her head. “I dunno what to say,” she admitted, turning her eyes back to the road. “I just wanna get it done with.”
"Well I'm here if you find your words," Vex told her but he understood. She might never want to talk about it, or she might suddenly find the need to weeks from now. People coped in different ways and Vex didn't care how she dealt with it as long as she was coping. "Thanks for saving my life," he added and he hoped that would be the one thing she took away from all of this. Not that she'd killed some hapless idiot but that she'd kept Vex from dying. He'd been reckless and because of Lem he could learn from his mistakes and do better next time.
Lem’s emotions were chaotic on the best of days, so who the fuck knew how she was going to take all this. It wasn’t like she was some innocent who had never hurt anyone in her life -- Vex knew better than that. She could’ve killed those boys in her past and not batted an eyelash about it. She’d been in fights where she’d felt like ripping out people’s throats. But all of those were always personal, people who had wronged her. This had just been some poor idiot who didn’t know what he was, or at least didn’t know how to keep himself safe. She knew she might have ultimately saved some lives, but that was hard to give a shit about too. Lem glanced over at Vex at the thanks, a faint smirk crossing her face. “You owe me one, I guess,” she said. He didn’t; he’d already saved her life, but Lem was more in the mood for sass than sap.
"Guess you're stuck with me until I repay you," Vex said in a good-humored way. Their relationship was full of give and take and at this point they weren't keeping score anymore. His was hers and vice versa. He grabbed a pack of gum from his pocket and then leaned over to turn up the radio. They could do with the distraction for now and he was lucky enough that there was a song on that he recognized so he could playfully sing at Lem while she drove.
It took a while to get it all done. What could have been an hour's worth of a shopping trip became multiple hours at multiple stores and they stopped at a restaurant on the way home, for sanity's sake. "The only problem I have with keeping this from the neighbors," Vex muttered around some fries. "Is I bet they're real good at cleaning shit up. You know, like that mom in Harry Potter."
Lem didn’t mind how long it took, really. It was better than being in the house with an un-dealt-with body, and driving all over creation with Vex had been her main occupation for months and months, so it wasn’t a thing. It was kind of an adventure, going around to the different stores and sneakily buying things, she’d started to imagine she was on some TV show. Breaking Bad or something. Plus it made for good people watching. She snorted some amusement over her plate and glanced up at Vex across the table. “I bet they are,” she agreed. “Nic can like, telepathy things around ... what is it? Tele-something.” Lem wiggled her fingers. “Zan would probably just say set it all on fire. But like you said, don’t wanna make them involved. Legally speaking. Just in case.”
"Tele-" Vex muttered but just like that he couldn't remember the word either. He was sure he would have if she hadn't started questioning it, brains could be dicks that way sometimes. "Metry, phone, kinetic," he more mouthed than whispered as he thought about it then shook his head. "Let's not set the house on fire just yet." He wrinkled his nose then shot Lem a little grin before shoving more food in his mouth. "You want to tell Nic though, don't ya," he mumbled with his mouth full.
Her eyebrows lifted and a grin crossed her own face, but Lem tried to tone it down into something more detached. She picked at her food without putting any of it into her mouth and tilted a sideways look at Vex. “Maybe,” she said and tried to make it sound aloof. It didn’t, and Lem rolled her eyes at herself. “I mean ... kinda, yeah, just so they don’t ask questions that are hard to answer, you know? They helped us do it in the first place. But like ... I don’t want him to think I’m some murderer or something,” she ended in a mutter, looking genuinely sullen now. She was, technically, but thinking about Nic being turned off enough to stop hanging out with her kinda sucked. She was having fun with him.
Vex washed his bite down with some coke and then gave Lem a somewhat stern look. "What happened last night wasn't a premeditated killing of a human being," he said. "It was a panicked response to being under threat from a two hundred pound creature that was nothing but fangs and claws. That? Was not murder. Whatever happened after... The curse killed that man, not you. You just kept me from dying." He didn't like it when she got sullen, like her fire went out and she looked like she was one of the doped up zombie types from the hospital. "Lem," he said, his gaze fixed on her. "Tell me what I just told you."
She’d been poking one french fry into the others while Vex talked, some strange-feeling combo-expressions crossing her face. Doubt and gratitude mingled together. Her eyes ticked up to him, then down, then up again. Lem gave him a mildly pouty look at the last part because he sounded like a teacher, but she knew it was probably good for her anyway. Vex was always doing what was good for her. They were usually big things, unlike her reminding him to eat and shower and stuff. Like getting rid of the body of a man she’d killed. Or helped the curse kill, or whatever. “Not murder, panicked self-defense,” she said. “Vex-defense, whatever.” She swung one of her feet out to nudge against his leg under the table, just to touch him somehow. “I’d rather you be alive than him though, so. And me.”
"Not human," Vex added because that part was important. The man they were about to deal with wasn't what Lem had unloaded her gun into. The fact that they'd tried to catch that thing alive gave them a hell of a pass on the killing they'd been forced to do after. Vex just wished he'd been the one to pull the trigger, he was pretty sure that was a burden he'd carry more easily than Lem. "Say it, Lem. Not human."
Lem kind of wanted to roll her eyes, but that was an insincere feeling, and she pushed it away. She did need to internalize that she hadn’t murdered a man, but self-defensed against a monster. She’d protected them. And here she thought she didn’t feel anything about it, surprise. “Not human,” she repeated, giving Vex a Look that said she understood. “Even if he looks like it now, he wasn’t before.” And he’d been incredibly dangerous before, and had injured Vex, and would’ve happily shredded them both. Lem stuffed some fries into her mouth.
The man that had remained when the beast died was a small man who didn't look terribly threatening and probably hadn't before he died either. It was important that Lem remember what she'd actually fired at and if Vex had to remind her every day, on the hour? He would. It weighed even more when he didn't force himself not to think about the fact that he might be cursed too. One day Lem might need to put a bullet in his head if for some reason the cage didn't hold after all they'd put into making it. She needed to internalize the difference between man and beast if it came to that. It wasn't a path he really wanted to go down and for now he had the luxury of not doing so yet. They had time. "You did good, kid," he said. "I'll take it from here."
She was definitely not thinking about maybe someday having to do that to Vex, because if she did, she would go completely mad. They had a cage, and Lem would be very careful if he did change, and keep her distance. Maybe feed him steaks and try to make friends with him -- from a distance! But none of that was going to happen, because Vex was not going to be a werewolf, and therefore she would never have to shoot him, the end. She gave a little snort at the last part and arched an eyebrow at him. “Okay, gimpy,” she teased. “You’re gonna need my help, so ...” Lem made a vague gesture with some fries before munching on them again.
Vex opened his mouth to protest but she was right and he clamped it shut again and growled softly in his throat. It made him wish he had someone else with them, someone he could trust but cared about just a little less - or worried about less in any case. Lem held her own when it came to a lot of things but this shouldn't have to be one of them. He wagged a finger at her before shoving some more food in his mouth but his disgruntled expression was ruined by the warmth in his eyes.
Lem flashed him a grin and went back to her food, feeling a bit more settled about it all. Once they were done and back in the van, she sang with him more on the drive back to Ludlow Street. There was a lot of shit to unload out of the back, but it was dark out now, and Lem was kind of glad for it. She kept glancing over at the Castell’s house while the two of them worked on getting things inside and down to the basement, hoping that neither twin decided to mosey over to see what was going on.
Finally, the barrels and all the supplies were downstairs next to the cage, the van was parked properly again, and all the doors were locked. Lem stared long and hard for a moment at the corpse in the cage, laying exactly how he’d fallen, then looked at Vex again. “Okay, what first?” she asked. She was ready to get this shit over with.
Getting all the crap inside had mostly fallen to Lem but Vex still felt like he'd had the wind knocked out of him by the time they were all done. He'd grabbed a can of coke from the fridge and now perched on a plastic chair, watching the mess they still had to deal with. Fucking corpses. At least the cage was going to be easy to clean, unlike the concrete floor in the rest of the basement. "It's easier if we uhm-" he started, waving his hand at the body dismissively. "Chop him up. I'll do that." It was messy work but Vex wasn't really disgusted by bodies or the mess that came with them. Dealing with a corpse was no more disgusting than having a body, all flesh and bones and blood. "I'll chop, you clean up the blood. Deal?"
Right, the chopping. Great. “Deal,” Lem agreed with a sigh. She put on the rubber apron and the big gloves they’d bought, and the medical facemask thing, then took the big tarp into the cage to spread it out on the floor. It wouldn’t catch everything, but it was better than doing it all on the bare floor. With a grunt, she pulled the corpse onto the tarp -- it was weird to touch him, he was cold and stiff and heavy and gross-feeling, but it had to be done, so Lem did it. She brought in the saws Vex had picked out and laid everything out neatly, then helped him bring the chair he was using in as well.
They were at that point of no return. Up until this moment they could still go to the police, claim there had been an intruder, that they hadn't come in sooner because they were in shock - hurt, whatever. Mutilating a body however, that was where it got really dicey. Vex had no intention of going to the police though and if it came to that, he'd take the fall. He got his mask and gloves on and limped into the cage with Lem. His leg really hurt after today, especially since he'd forced himself not to limp a few times, but it was something he could ignore. Pain was temporary, just a warning. He did wish he could turn it off like a smoke detector because hey, he already knew there was something wrong with his leg. "Maybe you should go upstairs," he muttered as he picked up the saw. "Clean up, be there in case our neighbors come around." She didn't have to see this. It would take a while but he chop up this body and get it into the barrels by himself.
Lem had a strong stomach, and she’d seen and thought and dreamed about all kinds of violent shit, but she kind of appreciated the out from watching Vex hack a body to pieces. Especially a body that she’d made dead, justified or not. It kind of felt like pussing out on him though, and leaving him with all the really hard work -- from what she understood, bodies didn’t come apart very easily -- so Lem hesitated for a few beats, glancing between Vex and the dead guy. She was kind of glad that his face had gotten all fucked up from the bullets, she didn’t even really want to know what he’d looked like before. The image of the wolf-monster was what she needed to keep in mind. “You sure?” she asked. Then, impulsively, hugged Vex hard around the waist, her face pressing into his chest.
"I'm sure," Vex told her, hugging her back with one arm, the bone saw dangling by his side in his free hand. "Help me clean up when he's gone," he muttered. "That's all I need." In a way he didn't really want her to be there when he did this. It was going to be messy and hard and he'd be cursing up a storm while he still had the breath for it. Rigor mortis had set in and if Vex thought they had time he would do this with plenty of breaks. As it was, it had already been more than twelve hours and it was just going to get nastier from here on out. "Text me if the witches come over - or anyone. I don't wanna come up there naked and covered in guts while we have company." He patted her back gently as he spoke, as if they were just chatting about dinner or gardening or something easy breezy.
That got a little laugh out of Lem and she squeezed Vex tighter for a moment before she let go and pulled away. “ Okay, I’ll man the door,” she murmured, tossing one more glance at the corpse before she went to step out of the cage. She kind of hated thinking that they might need to stick Vex in there next month, where she’d killed the thing that made that necessary. But Lem just had to keep hoping that wouldn’t happen, that they were worried for nothing, and that once they got rid of this body, all of this would be behind them. They got the werewolf, no matter how he ended up, so they’d been successful. “Yell if you need anything,” she added over her shoulder, looking back before she started climbing the stairs.
Vex cocked a brow but didn't remind her that the basement was now soundproof and he could yell until his throat was raw without her ever hearing him. He could call and that just reminded him to wrap his phone in plastic so that if something went wrong he could call or text her for help. As soon as she was gone things felt darker, quieter in a bad way. he looked at the ruined body on the ground and then turned on some loud music. This was going to be bad enough without the unpleasant sounds of a body coming apart and music could motivate and change a man's mindset completely.