Lem Collier (littlelem) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-02-01 11:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, lem, lem x nic, nic |
Who: Nic and Lem
When: evening, Saturday, Dec 2nd
Where: mostly the beach
Status: complete
While the cage inspection had gone okay, it hadn’t really settled Lem’s nerves that much. She’d recounted every detail to Vex later on, and had gotten the sense that he wasn’t eager to have all those people in their basement either. They didn’t directly discuss the barrels full of homicide evidence down there, but she knew they were on his mind too. Not to mention, the two of them had always liked -- no, needed -- their space. Nic and Zania were Special, but pretty soon there would be strangers crowding their downstairs. One of whom would turn into a werewolf. Lem didn’t want to call it off, because the werewolf needed their help, but that didn’t mean she was super comfortable with all of it.
She found herself restless on Saturday evening. There was a little under twenty-four hours to go, and she needed something to do besides pacing around the house. Lem pulled her giant hoodie on and walked out the front door. She’d intended on just taking a walk down the street to clear her head, but she ended up veering over toward the Castells’ house instead. She wanted to see Nic. Maybe he would go somewhere with her, help her shake off the twitchiness. And reassure her that everything would be fine. Lem tromped heavily up their porch steps and gave a sharp knock on the door.
The full moon had always made Nic antsy, even before they started dealing with werewolves. He thought it probably had something to do with the tides and their pull on him, like the moon was tugging at his element, making him a little crazy himself. There were so many issues up in the air right now, things he couldn’t control and didn’t understand, but at least it felt like they had a handle Carson’s problem. Well, Carson’s werewolf problem. The shared thoughts thing was something they still needed to discuss, but it had to wait. He thought he should probably be concerned about Reagan and Caius showing up at the house to take a spell hidden away in their basement, but with everything else going on he honestly didn’t have time for that. Zania had thrown herself into researching the remaining spell and Nic knew she’d fill him in when she had some answers.
It felt like he’d done everything he could to prepare, but he was still pacing around the house, looking for things to do when someone knocked on the door. With Zania down in the basement, he hurried to answer it, relaxing when he opened it to Lem. He wasn’t sure he could handle any other uninvited guests at the moment. “Hey,” he said with an easy smile. “What’s up? Come on in.”
Lem hesitated, her gaze ticking to the space behind Nic like someone might be there visiting or something. It wasn’t a conscious thought, but Lem did want him all to herself for a while tonight, and the cars in the driveway indicated that Zania was home. “Hey ... no,” she said, a bit haltingly. She reached forward and gave his arm a little tug. “You come out. Let’s go somewhere.” After a beat, Lem realized that probably sounded bossy and kind of bad. The former she didn’t care about, but she didn’t want to worry him with the latter. “I just really need to roam around or something,” she offered, giving Nic a small smile.
Nic raised a brow at her immediate response before his lips turned up in a small smile. “Let me put on shoes,” he said, stepping back a second to slip on a pair of converses and pull a hoodie over his head. It was cold enough out that a nighttime walk probably warranted more than that, but Lem wasn’t wearing much more herself and he’d never really minded the cold. As a last impulse, he grabbed his car keys, just in case. “You restless too?” he asked, rejoining her outside. He pulled his hood up as a chill ran through him and tucked his hands into his hoodie pocket. “Wanna walk or drive?”
It was pretty cold out, but Lem would take being cold over feeling cramped and skin-squirmy any day of the week. A little warmth bloomed in her chest at the way Nic joined her without hesitation. As soon as he’d closed and locked the door behind them, she slipped both her arms around one of his and hugged it, butting her forehead against his shoulder for a second. “Yeah, I just ... need to be out,” she mumbled. Lem paused, pondering, then looked up at her tall semi-boyfriend again. “Drive somewhere to walk? Somewhere people won’t be? Down by the water maybe?” There would be crowds on the pier, since it was Saturday night, but Lem was betting there wouldn’t be anyone actually at the beach. Even colder, but outdoorsy and wild, and maybe the ocean noise would soothe her.
Nic smiled and nudged her back, placing a little kiss on her head as he tightened his arm back against hers. “I’m always in the mood to go down to the beach,” he told her. Some people thought it was creepy at night, that they saw a ghost in the water, but Nic couldn’t imagine being scared of the water. It was too cold for swimming anyways, even just dipping their feet in. Unlocking his car, he opened the door for her, then circled around to the other side to start it up. The black BMW might have been ten years old, but Nic had taken good care of it. It was one of the few signs of his upbringing, originally worth the kind of money he would’ve never spent on himself these days. “Ready for tomorrow night?” he asked as he turned up the heat.
Lem realized she had never been in Nic’s car before. That in fact, they’d never gone anywhere together, always spending time at one of their houses. Or out in the street that one time he’d been sleepwalking. It was a little odd, sitting in the passenger seat next to someone who wasn’t Vex, but not odd in a bad way. Just odd. It was a nice car, much nicer than their van, and Lem ran her hand idly over the dashboard for a second. At his question, she gave a little bark of a laugh. “Is there even such a thing?” she asked sardonically. “I mean ... I guess, as much as I can be.” She managed to sound flippant enough about it, but there was a pressure in her chest already, just thinking about it. “Are you?”
Nic gave a little laugh and nodded, agreeing with her silently. ‘Ready’ was such a relative term in this situation, where it all depended on if reality matched up with their expectations. They were only truly ready if everything went smoothly. If it all went to hell, he doubted any of them were truly prepared to deal with the consequences. “I dunno,” he admitted as he backed out of the driveway and started them off towards the beach. “I feel like we’ve tried to account for everything that can go wrong, but there’s just so many variables. I don’t really like that the person I have to trust the most is the person I know the least about.” Nick Cooke. The werewolf expert. The outsider. Were they really that lucky to have stumbled upon him at the exact moment that they needed his expertise? It felt like too big a coincidence and he kept worrying that they were missing something, that he shouldn’t be trusted, even if they really didn’t have a choice this time.
“Yeah,” Lem agreed, though there were plenty of things not to like about any of this, she thought. If Nick Cooke brought them trouble, they would deal with it, she was a little more concerned about the werewolf itself. She’d had to kill the last one, and while it seemed now that Vex would be okay, it could’ve easily gone the other way. Lem didn’t want to have to stuff anymore bodies into barrels to dissolve. Plus this guy would have family there, his cousin or something. But speaking of bodies ... “Could you like ... with your magic, make something invisible? Or ... camouflage it somehow?” she asked, looking over at Nic with a bit of caution. He may have already thought of this, but Lem just hated reminding him that she was a murderer with a corpse in her basement.
“Yeah,” Nic nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. I do it with the greenhouse.” From the outside, it looked old and run down with broken windows and vines climbing up the sides. Inside, it was pristine, probably the most organized area of their entire estate. It was a way to keep people away and he could mask the inside if he needed to, though that took a lot more work and energy. Maintaining illusions could be draining if he didn’t use an additional spell to lock them in place, but he’d yet to run into anything he couldn’t handle. “What were you thinking?” he asked, glancing over at her.
Oh right, the greenhouse. He’d told her about that, it had kind of slipped Lem’s mind. That was on his own property though, and she didn’t know if that made any sort of difference or not. “The uh ... the body barrels,” she answered in a mutter, as if someone might overhear them even though they were in the car. “With a bunch of people down there, I would just like ... feel better if they didn’t look like anything but junk, you know?” She hadn’t discussed it with Vex yet, but she was pretty sure he would agree. “If it’s not too much trouble.” It had seemed to come easy for Nic when he was making her flowers and feathers and stuff, so hopefully it wouldn’t be some pain in the ass or something.
Though he wasn’t sure how, Nic had forgotten that there was a body hidden in the basement. It seemed like the kind of thing that he would have gotten rid of as quickly as possible, but he understood that Vex had a different plan in mind, one that would leave no evidence by the time they disposed of the body. Except that meant it was still there now, when they were about to have a basement full of people. “I can’t make ‘em invisible, but I can mask ‘em,” he said. “We’ll still want to keep people away from them though. If someone knocked one over…” He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he contemplated how big a disaster that would be. “Let’s just keep people away from ‘em.” That would just be Rylee, Carson, and Nick. That shouldn’t be too hard to manage. “How much longer do you need to keep ‘em?”
Lem wasn’t sure why the barrels were still there either, if she was being honest. She wanted to haul them away, throw them in the ocean. But she trusted Vex’s plan, he was the former cop and he had the Pegasus in his ear, and he knew what to do. She had seem some Missing posters up for the man she’d killed, but just thinking about that gave her a stomachache. Best to focus on one problem at a time. “They’re out of the way, if you could just make them look like nothing interesting, old suitcases or something, that would be great,” Lem told him earnestly. “I dunno, though. Vex hasn’t said.” She pulled her sleeves down over her hands and lifted one to nibble on the edge of it, watching the dark world go by through the window.
“I can totally do that,” Nic told Lem with a little smile. He’d help them get rid of the barrels too, if they needed, but that was something they didn’t need to mess with in the next twenty-four hours. They had enough going on without disposing of a body. Nic thought it should probably bother him more that she had a body in her basement, but it was easier to accept given the circumstances. They just needed to make sure they didn’t have a repeat of the last full moon. “I’m hoping that once everything gets settled that we’re just… waiting till dawn, you know?” He wasn’t sure they’d even need both him and Zania to be there. Maybe Zania could get Rylee to go sleep on their couch, at least. He just couldn’t imagine them all sitting up all night in the room together.
Lem hadn’t exactly expected Nic to refuse the request, but she felt relieved about his answer anyway. She had more than one reason to be nervous about strangers in the basement, but being found out as a murderer was definitely a big one. Plus, Lem wasn’t exactly accustomed to asking for help from outsiders. She and Vex were a unit ... maybe she and Nic could be a unit too. A different kind, but still. “Yeah,” she murmured. “Let’s hope.” Lem didn’t want to have to shoot anyone again, especially now that she’d seen Carson as a person. Lem kept nibbling on her sleeve, watching the lights from the marina get closer. It all looked pretty and festive and not somewhere she should be. The beach would definitely be better.
Nic could already tell that getting out of the house was good for him, just in the change of scenery it provided. He wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere crowded, so the beach was just perfect, deserted this time of year. Point Pleasant was small enough that they were there in no time, the only car in a dark parking lot. If it weren’t for the upcoming full moon, they would have needed a flashlight. Nic shot Lem a little smile, then turned off the car and opened his door. The cold ocean air hit him instantly like a shot of adrenaline and Nic bounced a little on his toes as he waited for Lem. He’d been fidgety before, but this was different. This was invigorating.
Lem got out of the car and absently wished she had worn more layers. She was pretty good at dealing with the cold though, good at disconnecting herself from her body. And it wasn’t too bad yet, she just knew she would get uncomfortable if they stayed out too long. Lem walked to Nic’s side and took his hand, tugging her oversized sleeve down around both of their fingers, and wordlessly started off with him toward the beach. She had expected to be invigorated too, but something had started to gnaw at her, like a pressure building in the back of her throat, seeping tension down through her body. Lem tried to brush it away and just focus on how gorgeous and desolate and wild everything around them looked at the moment.
Nic gave Lem’s hand a squeeze as her fingers threaded through his, comfortable with the silence between them. It was something he appreciated about her, that she didn’t feel the need to fill every bit of space with words. Sometimes he didn’t know what to say, but still enjoyed the companionship. He wasn’t sure there was anything that could totally dispel his worries tonight, but being there with Lem, near the ocean, was close enough. He expected they’d talk about tomorrow eventually, but he saw no reason to push her until she was ready. “I always find this soothing,” he said softly, looking out at the water. “If it wasn’t so cold, I’d sleep out here, on the beach.”
She knew Nic’s element or whatever was water, so that made sense to Lem. If the cold didn’t bother her, she would probably sleep outdoors more often too. She’d just always lived in cold places where it was too risky. She didn’t think she would get robbed (or worse) in a town like Point Pleasant, but who even knew. Lem walked silently with Nic until their shoes were trudging through the sand and the wind was even stronger, that tension building and bubbling until it burst out of her. “I was raped,” she blurted, glad that the wind was there to whisk the words away as soon as they left her lips. “By more than one. So I don’t like strangers and I don’t like men and I don’t like stranger-men in my house. Just ... so you know.” It wasn’t going to be an easy night for her, werewolf problems or no.
There really wasn’t anything that could have prepared Nic for the bomb Lem dropped, even if he knew she had darkness in her past. His whole body tensed as a chill ran up his spine and if it weren’t already so cold the temperature around them would have dropped substantially. There was little that bothered him like violence against women and for a second he was taken back to high school, his arms wrapped around his friend as she sobbed over her own assault. It was a different time with different people, and yet the desire to hurt the men who hurt Lem was so strong that Nic knew he wouldn’t hesitate if faced with them. Going through something like that changed a person and, while he liked Lem the way she was now, it wasn’t right that she got that way by having something taken from her by force. “I would kill them before I let them hurt you,” he said quietly, though he realized that might not be comforting. He was still a man himself, one that could be unexpectedly violent under certain situations.
Lem knew that it was an abrupt revelation, and not a pleasant one, so she wasn’t surprised by the way Nic’s hand tightened on hers. She never talked about it with anyone anymore -- she’d had more than her fill of so-called therapy -- because Vex knew everything and Lem hadn’t gotten close to anyone else in a long time. Somehow it felt right to tell him here, on a windy, freezing nighttime beach, not somewhere soft and warm. She didn’t want pity or comfort, she just wanted him to understand her better, which was also a new and unusual feeling. Studying his face, Lem nodded a couple of times. She believed him. Vex would kill them too, so they would end up doubly-dead. “I trust you. You’re different. Vex is different. But I wanted you to know, in case I’m ... weird. Weirder.” Lem gave a twitch of a smile.
“You’re not weird. Or… I like your weird,” Nic told her with a tiny smile of his own. Even without that in her past, he understood her being weary of strangers in her home, but this explained a lot about how things had gone yesterday. No wonder she’d been skittish about them being there, especially with Vex gone. He watched the waves crash along the shore for a moment, internally debating whether to tell her his own story or not. A part of him worried that the timing was wrong, and yet it felt like the most appropriate time ever. The silence hung between them until he finally spoke, his hesitancy coming out in the breaks between words. “A friend of mine was raped. In high school. She didn’t want anyone to know, but. She told me.” He bit down on his lip, his free hand clenching into a fist before he released it. “I almost killed him,” he sighed. “That’s… that’s why I went to juvie.”
She liked that Nic liked her weird. Lem was usually pretty wrapped up in her own world, but she’d been through enough people and professionals trying to ‘fix’ her that she was well aware of how different she was. How much she stuck out, how much she made a lot of people uncomfortable. But never Nic, not so far, and she already loved him for it in a way. She listened to what he said, watching his face and taking that in, and bit her tongue on informing him that odds were, he knew a lot of other women who had been raped too. It wasn’t the time, though. Naturally, Lem saw the parallel between them immediately, and got the sense again that she’d been led to him for a reason. “I didn’t tell anyone,” she said. “I waited, I found out who they were, and I broke into some of their houses and fucked them up with a knife, before I got caught. One guy almost bled to death, I’m pretty sure none of their pathetic worthless dicks ever worked again ... I used to be sorry I didn’t kill them all, but now I’m glad. They get to live with it. That’s what started my adventures through the mental health care system, so ... I get it.”
Nic didn’t usually like the idea of fate. It made him feel like the universe was taking control, like his choices didn’t matter. Like bad things were destined to happen to some people no matter what they did. But it was hard not to see the similarities in their pasts and not feel like they’d been drawn together for a reason. It had been years since Nic had told anyone what he’d done to end up in juvie. He hadn’t even been willing to provide it for a possibly reduced sentence. But he knew Lem would understand even before she told him about her own revenge. “Aren’t we a pair?” he said with the smallest hint of amusement. It really shouldn’t be funny that they’d both snapped and almost killed someone, but it also felt like they’d somehow managed to find the person least likely to judge them for what they’d done.
Lem gave a soft huff that was inaudible in the wind and a rueful shake of her head. “Aren’t we just,” she agreed. While she hadn’t really expected Nic to have a story of his own, she also wasn’t surprised that he did, or that he’d violently defended his friend and then taken responsibility for it. It just seemed in character for him. She squeezed his hand then decided the next second that wasn’t enough, so she stepped in to wrap her arms tight around him, her face buried in his chest. She looked up at him after a few heartbeats. “Everything leads you somewhere else,” she said. “Even the bad stuff ... stuff that’s so bad there aren’t words for it, it’s all connected.” Lem usually left the proselytizing to Vex, but she knew Nic was a person who would truly understand what it all meant. “I can’t say I’m glad for either of us for the past, but I’m glad for the present.”
Nic hugged Lem back tightly, wishing that he had the right words to say. ‘I’m sorry’ or something along those lines didn’t seem right. He hated what had happened to her, all that she’d gone through over the years, but loved the woman that she’d become. Where he couldn’t seem to vocalize, Lem had all the right words and he smiled softly as he kissed the top of her head. The path that she’d gone down had brought her to him and, maybe it was selfish, but he wouldn’t have changed that. “Me too,” he said. “Even if the present’s a little crazy.” It wasn’t everyday that they had to deal with a werewolf over a full moon, but it was better them than anyone else. “Carson’s one of the people I’ve been sharing dreams with. I think we’ve developed a telepathic connection.”
The present was nearly always crazy, so that didn’t bother Lem much. She had just found herself happy to have company through it. First Vex and now Nic and Zan ... support from unexpected places. But they had been Aunt Sarah’s neighbors for a reason, Lem truly believed that. This was all meant to happen. The ride got bumpy sometimes, but that was okay. One of her eyebrows lifted at that news -- if Nic had told her Carson was a dreamer-person too, she’d forgotten, but he definitely hadn’t mentioned telepathy. “... really? Like just talking with your minds? When did that start?” she wanted to know.
“Yesterday? I didn’t realize we could do it until we were together, right before we came over to see the cage,” Nic said. “We don’t have a lot of control yet. Which is why I think we’d sometimes hear each other from afar. It was a lot clearer in the same room.” He knew for certain that he’d been hearing the others now, even if they’d not discussed it. It wouldn’t surprise him if he found they could all communicate telepathically once they got together again. The real issue would be shutting each other out. He was pretty sure Carson hadn’t wanted him picking up on some of the thoughts he’d picked up and Nic didn’t want to find himself doing the same.
Lem continued to look surprised with a side of impressed, nodding a bit. That was interesting. She had no idea what it could possibly mean, but it definitely had significance of some kind. People just didn’t grow psychic powers for no reason, she and Vex were shining examples of that. “Huh,” she said, then gave Nic a tiny smile. “That might end up weird when he’s all in beast-mode.” Carson was supposed to be unconscious for most of it, but there would at least be a few seconds of possible connection, and she could only imagine what a werewolf’s brain would sound like. Lem squeezed Nic’s hand and turned to walk back toward the car, pulling him with her. “C’mon, I’m fucking freezing now.”
“Yeah, that could be bad,” Nic cringed, having not considered exactly how Carson shifting might impact him. It wasn’t something he’d even known to worry about 24 hours ago. Hopefully the tranquilizers worked, since he couldn’t imagine spending the entire night with a werewolf in his head. That would likely drive him insane. Distance would probably solve the problem, but he’d promised Carson he’d keep Rylee safe and there was no way in hell he was leaving Lem at this point, so he’d just have to stick it out if things got bad. “Let’s go warm up,” he smiled, squeezing her hand back. He could probably last a little bit longer, but preferred some place warmer himself and the car was a good start.