Who: Madison and Nick When: Tuesday, Nov 7, late afternoon Where: the library Status: complete
It had been a fascinating, eventful couple of weeks in Point Pleasant. Nick had been out on Halloween night, browsing the festival and people-watching, and then everything had gone crazy. He hadn’t been injured, but he’d seen some nutty stuff. He had heard about the tainted candy theory, but Nick didn’t really buy into that. He wasn’t sure what the common thread had actually been, but it had been an interesting exercise in denial to witness.
And then the full moon happened. Nick hadn’t heard from Adam yet, so he didn’t know how it had gone with his potential werewolf friend, but he knew there had been at least one death. A schoolteacher, according to the news, fallen victim to an “animal attack.” It was a shame, and he hoped that didn’t mean Adam’s friend had taken him down too. Nick didn’t have a lot of optimism that his buddy had escaped the curse, so he anticipated a phone call soon. If he didn’t get one in the next couple of days, he would start to worry.
It made him curious though, about the history of full moon deaths in this town, so Nick had gone to the library yet again. They were starting to know his face there, and he made a point to be friendly with whoever was behind the desk. Today that meant bringing a hot cocoa to the black teenager manning the front, Mak. It was a rainy, cold day, and he had gotten coffee for himself from Joyland, so why not, right? Once he’d chit-chatted with her, Nick dove into their database of newspapers. He was checking articles for past full moons and jotting down the subsequent deaths and locations when he got a text from Mads. He told her where he was and she said she would head over there to meet him once her shift was done, so Nick went back to work, hunting down the patterns.
There were some days Mads wondered if moving back to Point Pleasant was a good idea. This wasn’t one of those specific days, but there had been at least one evening within the past two weeks where wondered why? What compelled her to come back to this crazy ass town? To make a difference was the answer she usually came up with. She wanted to help prevent the constant tragedies that plagued the town and that’s what drove her to stay.
So far she seemed to be doing a piss poor job of that. Halloween had been strange with people mimicking their costumes to a ridiculous degree, leading to at least one death and several other incidents. There was talk about tainted candy being the culprit, but Mads couldn’t really get herself to believe that. There were quite a few people affected and the amount of candy that would have had to be tainted was considerable if it managed to spread through the whole town. Part of her wondered if it might have something to do with those ghosts from before though she didn’t put much stock into that thought. Mostly because she didn’t want to start jumping to supernatural conclusions to things that could potentially be solved logically. She may reluctantly agree that ghosts were real but that didn’t mean she would consider that option until all other explanations were proven false.
While the situation during Halloween was proving difficult to pin down the cause of, the recent death of Sadie Gaines was simple. It had been an animal attack. Mads was the one to break the news to Fin and that went about as well as she suspected. The death hit him hard and she had spent the last couple days with him for support. He seemed to be doing a bit better; hopefully it would stay that way come the funeral. There was another person in her life that wasn’t taking Sadie’s death well: Jared. She couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for him to come across her body. Whatever animal that caused such a gruesome death was going down hard. They just needed to find it.
With shift ended and a quick change of clothes later, Madison walked into the library. She paused to ask the teenager working where Nick might be and with a thank you made her way over to him. “Hey stranger,” she greeted with a smile as she approached, situating herself behind him and resting her hands on the back of the chair before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. She stayed hovering there for a moment, gaze moving to the computer. “What interesting things are we researching today?”
Nick preferred to use his own laptop, and he’d brought it with him, but it wasn’t hooked up to the library’s database, so he was stuck using the outdated desktop to hunt through the archives. He felt too big for the little cubby hole each computer lived in, but being tall at least let him see over the top of the cubicle walls, so he spotted someone approaching. A quick glance confirmed it was Mads, and he smiled at her as she walked over. “Hey, beautiful.” The kiss made his cheeks bunch a bit more, and he leaned back into her warmth for a moment and sighed.
“Animal attacks, deaths around the full moon ... how connected they are,” he said, tilting his head to glance up at her. They’d talked a bit more about ghosts since the incident at Juniper, and Nick knew that Mads was grudgingly accepting that particular reality. He knew she was a natural skeptic, and he didn’t want to push her too hard into all the truths, but he’d decided not to outright lie to her either. At least not about what he researched. Other details had to be kept close to his chest. “You want some coffee? Still warm, I think,” he said, gesturing to his mostly-neglected cup from Joyland.
Werewolves. The word popped into her head almost immediately. He was exploring the possibility of some kind of bloodthirsty mythical being running around terrorizing the town. One that, if his belief was true, had killed an innocent person Sunday morning. Mads let out a soft sound of consideration. She wasn't sure how she felt about this line of thinking and not just because she was reluctant to even consider it an option. Sadie Gaines' death was little more personal for her than others due to how it have affected several people in her life and the attempt to connect it to something that was, until proven otherwise, hogwash left a bad taste in her mouth. It seemed disrespectful, but then how often did the police end up causing those same feelings for others during their investigations? It was the nature of investigations and it was better to accept that reality than get upset.
“I'll give it a try. See how edible it is,” she replied with a smile, reaching over his shoulder to grab at the cup resting on the table. She took a sip. Lukewarm, not very sweet or creamy – so edible but not particularly good. She gave a slight shrug and gulped down some more. “So what has your research come up with?” Despite her initial feelings about his investigation, she still wanted to discuss because she found those conversations with Nick enjoyable. Believer and skeptic exchanging information and theories. It was intellectually fulfilling and made his company even better.
Mads was far from stupid, and Nick figured she’d probably guessed where his thought process was headed -- or she would at least think that was the extent of it. He was positive there was at least one werewolf in the area, probably two now, possibly more. It was that number that Nick was attempting to pin down. He reached over with one foot to push the chair next to him out and nodded for her to take a seat if she wanted. Nick flipped back through a couple of pages of notes and then shot Mads a bemused look. “These animal attacks happen much more frequently on the night of the full moon,” he told her matter of factly. That part was impossible to deny when you were looking at it all in black and white. “In fact ... besides a couple of bear sightings around campgrounds and some suspicions that cougars took a few dogs, I couldn’t find anything about any wild animals attacking humans in this area at any other time. Sure, I’ve only gone back a few years, but ... the pattern holds up.” Nick didn’t offer the explanation he already knew up just yet. “I’ve been looking at the locations, trying to see if there’s specific areas they tend to come to. Territories.”
Madison took the seat offered to her, glancing over at Nick's notes while he summarized his findings. She definitely couldn't argue that assessment. Even just in the short amount of time she had been back in town there had been reports of animal attacks, some more severe than others. Her thoughts briefly wandered to the old priest at the catholic church and his claim of a large bear like creature going after him. Mads had planned to go out and look for the beast, but that never came to fruition. Was the same wild creature that went after the priest the same one that killed Sadie? There was a pang of guilt in her chest. If she had gone out like she had planned maybe Sadie would still be alive today.
No time for thoughts like that now. It'd just drag her down. "If we know possible territories there is a better chance of tracking it or them down," she stated with a nod of approval. She had thought that same thing but one catastrophe after another kept her from delving into it. An animal attack with just a cow victim didn't take high priority when there were missing persons. "There was one attack near St. Dismas a couple months ago. Took out a cow and went after the priest." She was certain Nick had read about it. "Did you come across any additional reports from that area?" If they could at least pin down one location it would help narrow their search. "St. Dismas isn't exactly close to the location of the current attack though." Two creatures? More? That was a terrifying thought.
Nick happened to know that werewolves were too manic when they were changed to keep up neat territories. They turned into killing machines, more interested in running down anything with a pulse than keeping other wolves away from their space. Maybe it was because they knew somewhere that nothing could challenge them except another werewolf. He’d seen one kill a grizzly bear once in a controlled environment, and it had been ... horrific. But that being said, they were still people most of the month, and people had homes and habits. It was just easier right now for Mads to think he meant wolf territories rather than human ones.
“No, just the cow and the priest, that time,” Nick told her, shaking his head. He let out a dark little chuckle. “Sounds like the start to a bad joke. And that priest is gone now, right? The name’s not the same as the one I’ve seen on the church billboard.” It didn’t surprise him much that there was a high turnover in clergy here in Point Pleasant. He wasn’t any sort of church-going man, but he couldn’t imagine men and women of the cloth wanting to stay here long-term. Unless there was something corrupted in them too. Nick flipped to his scribbled list of locations of incidents in the past six months and nudged it toward Mads. “You know this place better than me, any of those really close together?”
Madison definitely saw the humor but she didn't chuckle, instead focusing on the question. "Yeah, left a few weeks ago. I think he was transferred." She couldn't remember an exact date just that Fin had been saddened by it. Thinking on it, she couldn't remember the exact date of several people that had left town. Why was that, she had to wonder.
Nick nudged the notebook toward her and she slid it closer so she could better inspect the list. "Hm... there is some overlap, yeah." Spying his pen, she picked it up. "These are relatively close together," she stated, moving the notebook so he could see and using the pen point to indicate which areas she was referring to. "Surprised how many happened near residential areas. They're pretty bold to creep that far from the woods."
Nick looked at the notebook and nodded, reaching over to take the pen from Mads -- and letting his fingers linger on hers for an extra second -- so he could put stars next to those spots. He would need to really study a map again and make some notes. There weren’t enough deaths or stories of attacks for him to really pinpoint where they were originating from, but it was possible he could narrow it down a bit. Maybe the werewolf lived in one of those neighborhoods and just wasn’t doing anything about his or her problem. It wasn’t the easiest affliction to be in denial about, but Nick had seen some incredible instances of denial. “If they even started in the woods,” he murmured, glancing up at Mads. He gave her a tiny smile after a beat. “I’m sure you’ve guessed I have a pet theory.” Whether she wanted to hear it or not was a different story.
That brief touch brought a small smile to her lips. He starred the locations she had pointed out. "I can get you a map if you don't have one," she offered, though she was sure that was probably one of the first things he picked up when he arrived. Couldn't very well do research on a town without knowing its layout and points of interest. "Though I'm sure you have one," she added with a slight chuckle as if embarrassed to even suggest he might not have had the foresight.
He mentioned his pet theory and Mads raised a brow. She could tell based on that tiny smile that Nick knew she had an inkling what that "pet theory" would be. "I had a feeling," she replied, resting her head on her hand and repositioning herself so she could better see his face. "What’ve you got?"
“I have a few,” Nick assured her about the map with a lopsided grin. He just hadn’t brought one with him this trip, not a big one anyway. Those were all tucked away in his room, each with its own theme. Nick thought he might want a fresh one to track were-creatures with. He had to chuckle over the attentive look on Mads’s face, already knowing she wouldn’t buy it, but hell, why not say it out loud? She hadn’t decided he was crazy yet. And if she did? He knew he wasn’t, so it would be too bad to lose the connection, but some things were unavoidable. Nick leaned in a little closer. “I think there’s at least two werewolves in town,” he said, watching her eyes. “I’m unclear if they know what they are or not -- I would hope not, since they don’t seem to be taking precautions -- but I see the work of more than one here.” He nodded at his notebook.
And there it was. Werewolves. Just as she'd expected. Of course the idea of werewolves running around was absurd, but she was intrigued by his assumption that there were likely two. She had thought the same thought with a more realistic creature. "What makes you think two? Why not one or even more?" Mads asked curiously, glancing at his notebook. There was the possibility of more than one animal attacking the victim which would explain the damage. It didn't account for the few witness statements insisting there was only one creature though. "What has you thinking it's the work of two werewolves and not, say, a pack of wolves or some freak bear?” The questions were casual, not argumentative, meant to spark conversation rather than shut down. Madison was genuinely curious what had him jumping to that conclusion and it showed in her gaze. He might have believed in all things paranormal but he had a good head on his shoulders and wouldn’t always ‘cry wolf’, as it were. Something about all his collected information must have pointed him to that conclusion.
It might have looked like a leap from Madison’s perspective -- something that Nick had already anticipated, of course -- but it made perfect sense to him. Even if Adam hadn’t approached him about his friend’s problem, he would’ve figured it out. He shook his head a little bit at Mads’s suggestions. They weren’t bad, just ... limited by her skepticism. “Wolf packs and bears don’t hunt this way,” he said, nodding at the notebook. “And if there was a starving one around, we would see more attacks than just on the full moon. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t found any in the papers or anything.” There was also the fact that there had been plenty of good meat left on the victims, even the cow, and that made Nick think this was a bloodlust issue and not a hunger one. Nature was brutal, but it didn’t usually kill so excessively. But that felt kind of disrespectful so he didn’t say it out loud. He didn’t know how well Mads had known Ms. Gaines, after all. “I might be wrong about it being two, it’s just ... a gut feeling,” he said. It wasn’t, but Nick didn’t want to sell anybody out.
Madison let out a soft hum, pursing her lips thoughtfully. The gears in her head were moving, considering and contemplating. Nick gave a good argument against her suggestions. The attacks really didn’t fit the regular hunting patterns of a wolf or bear though that could likely be explained by rabies or another disease. What couldn’t be was the fact that the attacks seemed limited to the full moon; if a rabid animal was going to mindlessly attack, it wouldn’t just do so on a single day each month. Looking at all the data, it wasn’t hard to see why Nick would come to his conclusion. It made sense which had her a bit worried. A theory about a couple werewolves running amok shouldn’t make sense to her at all, shouldn’t even be given true consideration, and yet it did. It was because of that ghost - it convinced her that spirits were real and now she was beginning to believe horror movie monsters were as well. And why wouldn’t they be, if ghosts were? But they weren’t… She let out a puff of air. How frustrating.
“Okay,” she finally said as she sat back in the chair, crossing her legs and arms as she did so. “Let’s say your gut feeling is right and there are werewolves in Point Pleasant… how do we deal with them?”
Even before she took up that defensive body position, Nick could see her gears grinding over it all. He’d run into so many skeptics in his career, of varying stripes, and he was glad that Mads wasn’t an angry type of skeptic. He could tell it was hard for her though, and he had sympathy for that. If you’d never been exposed to all of the truths out there, they could be hard to swallow. She’d stayed calm, but he knew seeing that ghost had shaken her, and this probably sounded like an additionally ridiculous leap. Nick gave her a faint smile, reminding himself of his own role in all of this. He wasn’t there as a vigilante hunter, he was there to observe and report and blend as well as he could. “Well ... I dunno,” he answered with a faint chuckle. “Try to find out who they are and talk them into taking precautions? They’re people too, most of the month. Hunt them down? Less appealing. And unbelievably dangerous on the full moon. It would be a bad idea to continue to let them run around and wreak havoc, though. Most people don’t survive an encounter, but if they get bitten and make it? It just adds to the population and grows the problem.”
His words had her hoping that the werewolf theory was as bogus as it sounded. If it wasn't... well then that complicated things greatly. The solution for a rabid animal running around was an easy one. Dealing with a werewolf, however, was not only incredibly dangerous but brought about an ethical dilemma that made finding an acceptable solution damn near impossible. As he said, they were regular people most of the time and didn't necessarily have control over their change – possibly. The way Nick spoke made it seem like that was the case, but she couldn't be completely sure. For all she knew they could be less classic horror movie monster and more Twilight-esque. If it was the latter than it wouldn't be such a dilemma – they would be in control of their actions thus making them one hundred percent accountable for what happened while a werewolf – but that would be too easy. Everything supernatural had to be complicated.
“In other words, there is no right way to handle it and it'd be a complete nightmare no matter what was done.” She rubbed at her temples; this was starting to give her a headache. Why, oh why, did she have to have that encounter with that stupid spirit? It would make waving off this bizarre theory so much easier if she was still blissfully ignorant. “No offense, but I really hope your theory is wrong,” she continued with a hint of a smile to soften the blow. Not so much because it was a strange theory but the hell that would ensue if it was right. She brushed a hand through her hair, looking a bit uncertain. “Otherwise… well, I don’t know.”
Mads’s expression drove home to Nick again that she wasn’t just a skeptic, she was a cop and this was her town. While he might think it was criminally irresponsible in theory for the police force to not accept the reality that surrounded them, they were just people like anyone else. The supernatural world was overwhelming and terrifying even to the well-informed, having to accept those truths -- and more than one at a time -- had to feel like drowning. He reached out to take Mads’s hand and brought it up to kiss the back of it. “Honestly? I hope I’m wrong too,” he told her with a faint smile. Nick squeezed her fingers gently. “But either way, we’ll deal with it, okay? It doesn’t have to be a complete nightmare.” He would help, he was already internally committed to doing so. He had a lead on one of the wolves, at least, and if Adam could get him in contact with his unfortunate friend, Nick would help him.
But they had time for that. Nick let go of Mads to flip his notebook shut and started closing down windows on the computer. “But enough shop talk, you’re off the clock,” he said, flashing her a smile. “Let me take you somewhere. Dinner? Home? Wherever you want.” Nick’s smile turned a bit more wicked and his eyes crinkled at her.
His assurances helped ease Madison's mind a little bit and she offered him a faint smile in response to his own. “The less complete the nightmare it is the better,” she half joked. She was still overwhelmed at the prospect of werewolves in her town and the research she planned to do so she was as informed as possible should such a bizarre theory prove true, but it helped to know that Nick would be there for her.
Her smile widened. Setting aside work related matters sounded like a wonderful idea. A promising one too if that wickedness in his smile was any indication. “Hm...” She took a moment to consider, making a show out of it by tapping her chin lightly and pursing her lips. “How about we get some take-out, head over to my place, throw on a movie-” She moved forward in her seat and rested a hand on his knee with a coquettish smile. “-and see where the evening takes us?”
Nick’s grin widened a bit as Mads ‘thought’ about the offer. She was such a tease sometimes, he loved it. It was fun. And that’s what this was all about, right? Fun and inside information. She might not be on quite the same page there, but that was all right. No matter what, Nick genuinely enjoyed her company ... and that little smile on her face. “Sounds delightful,” he rumbled happily, moving his big hand to cover hers. Nick leaned in to press a soft kiss to her lips, keeping it reluctantly brief since they were in public and all. Her lips were just so soft and that hand on his knee was just so promising. He gathered his things to stuff into a bag, then moved to get up and head out of the library. “I can pick up food on the way, give you a chance to get settled. Any preferences?”
“Wonderful,” she purred, moving forward to meet his lips with hers. The kiss was far too short and the soft hum of disappointment that followed made her feelings on it obvious. She didn’t pursue a more acceptable kiss though, instead letting him gather his things together unhindered. There would be plenty of opportunities to press her lips against his - and more - throughout the evening. She got up from her chair and walked beside him as they made their exit. “How about Chinese? You know what I like.” It wasn’t the first time, and certainly not the last, that they had ordered the classic take-out cuisine. Take-out had sort of become their thing thanks to her having little time (and only some ability) to cook and Nick stuck without a kitchen. For now, at least.
Once at her truck, Mads smiled over at Nick and gave him a peck on the lips. “So I’ll see you in about twenty or so?”
He did know what she liked, and that was nicely convenient. Nick wasn’t any sort of gourmet chef or anything himself, but food was one of the factors that had been making him think about getting a more permanent place. He was putting on some pounds, eating out all the time, and he knew they weren’t good ones. But for tonight, Chinese sounded good to him. Out in the parking lot, he smooched Mads back and gave her ass an affectionate pat. “Yes ma’am,” he drawled, giving her a little grin. Nick bent in to steal one more quick kiss, then moved away to head to his own car. “Drive safe, officer.”