Who: Aaron & Adrian Where: Around, then Seaview When: Tuesday night, 12/19 Warnings: Violence, mentions of gore
It was a bad one, one of those nightmares that was part memories all twisted up into something that made it hard to tell what had really happened from what he'd dreamed. Not that these particular memories needed much twisting around. They were ugly and confusing enough all on their own. A friend's face torn in half, one eye staring straight at him with horror still etched in there despite the lack of life. Cruz walking away with barely a glance over his shoulder, while carrying his brother fireman style out out of there - but that wasn't how it happened. Cruz's bones snapping in his grip as Adrian crushed his head - but that wasn't how that happened either. It was a cacophony of sensations and visions, all wrong and spiraling too fast and Adrian woke up kicking the car door in confusion and panic. He cursed quietly and lay very still for a few long minutes, listening to the thudding of his heart and the sounds of the woods around him. He was hungry but that was nothing new. He was always hungry.
He slowly gathered his senses and pushed those unpleasant dreams and memories from his mind as he chewed on some beef jerky and planned his day. It had been three weeks since he last went home, it was too risky to be anywhere near Point Pleasant when people were looking for him but it felt like time again. He needed to check on his little sister, even if it was ever only from afar. He might never talk to her again but seeing her was a reminder of his humanity, of his reason to cling to that humanity. In a different reality he would go see her and let her see him too but it was easier to let her think he was dead. She'd had her time to grieve, Adrian couldn't imagine how much worse it would be to have him back in her life. He was different and he was trouble, his handler had made it pretty clear that she was better off moving on with her life.
That didn't mean he couldn't watch her from afar, subtly gather information about her, make sure she was safe and go to any ends to keep it that way. Like he'd done when Cruz got too close. Another thing Mila never needed to know about.
It was always strange to him how a place that had been such a nightmare to him just a few years ago had now become his shelter but he didn't put much thought into it. He parked his car in the woods now to sleep, hidden away where people didn't particularly enjoy going, especially after winter hit. The less attention he brought to himself the better, especially since the few people who knew he was alive were looking for him.
It was early in the evening when he arrived in Seaview and Mila's home was shrouded in darkness. Maybe she had work. He didn't know where she worked now, it wasn't the Back Porch anymore which was probably a good thing. He knew Aaron Lucas spent enough time at her house that he might as well have moved in, maybe he had, but he wasn't there now and the place he lived - or had lived before - was dark as well. Adrian spent hours in their neighborhood, waiting and watching, gnawing on a beef jerky as his body felt numb to the cold.
He hightailed it back to to the woods at dawn and slept but made it back to Mila's house that afternoon. There was still no sign of life and he grew frustrated. He walked around town for a bit then sat outside her house for a while before doing what he'd sworn he'd never do and went to their parents' house. It was easy to watch people like the Morettis. They were not paranoid people and while they were private they weren't particularly stealthy. His mother looked haunted, his father looked angry. It didn't take much brainpower to realize something was wrong.
It was hard to ask around when he didn't want to be seen but there were people who didn't know him and places where he could lay low and listen. It took him two days to find out Mila was missing and those two days meant that even if he had been home in time to find her, he was now too late to save her. That's what everyone said about missing people, right? The more time that went by the less likely they were to be found alive and he'd just wasted two days because he didn't talk anyone and just skulked around like a ghost. He had no intention of interacting with anyone but listening and snooping around had brought him to the firm conclusion that Aaron Lucas had done something to his sister. It seemed more like something his brothers would do, Aaron was a puppy compared to them, but maybe it was just a matter of time before he too displayed those Lucas genes and went overboard.
Adrian parked his car in Seaview again and watched the place where he knew Aaron was staying. Why he was staying with his brother wasn't clear but it just made this harder. He watched Caden leave around dinner time and then sat around and waited for his girlfriend to get the hell out too. Maybe she wouldn't and that was a problem. Adrian had no reason to hurt Roxy, she was Mila's friend and was probably in pain too, but it grew harder and harder with each passing moment not to barge in there and cause a scene. He was at the end of his rope when he spotted her coming outside and get in her car and there was no telling how long she'd be gone so he didn't linger.
He was hungry, not starving but hungry enough that his skin felt tight and the lock gave way easily in his grip. Everything was easier when he was hungry; everything except existing in his own body. It was dark in there but seeing in the dark was easy too and he stalked through the house quickly, knife in hand and a desperate sort of rage driving him toward Aaron.
Aaron was in bed, where he spent most of his time these days. He’d been vaguely aware of Roxy leaving, because she’d checked on him beforehand and left him with a fresh glass of water. He hadn’t drank any of it, but he still appreciated it in a dim, muted way. As soon as he’d heard Roxy’s car door slam shut, Aaron had reached under his bed for the bottle of vodka he’d secreted away, and used it to take another couple of pain pills. He didn’t strictly need them, but Aaron had found that they dulled more than his physical pain. Lately he wanted to just be high and numb more than anything else.
He was just starting to drift off again when Aaron heard the door. But it didn’t sound like someone coming home, it sounded ... worse. Like something broke. He sat up in bed and squinted toward the closed bedroom door, his head spinning a bit, so it took him a moment to get up. In just boxer briefs and a t-shirt, Aaron shuffled over and opened the door. Roxy had turned most of the lights off, probably assuming Aaron would just keep sleeping, so there wasn’t much to see in the shadowy hallway. “Caden? That you?” he croaked, his heart laboring to pick up speed as adrenaline started to seep into all the other chemicals currently in his blood.
There had been a time when Adrian would have thought twice about going after Aaron Lucas. He was the youngest of the Lucas brothers but he was also the biggest and not exactly scrawny. It didn't matter anymore, Adrian was strong and he could take him down. He just wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do here. He had no plan, no endgame in sight, just a drive to get answers one way or another. Aaron made it easy to find him now that he'd moved and spoken and Adrian could smell the alcohol on him as he moved swiftly through the small building, slamming into Aaron's larger body to knock him to the ground. He was on top of him in a flash, the blade pressed against his throat, his knee digging into his stomach.
"What did you do to her?" he hissed and he was trying oh so hard not to picture Mila's body in some shallow grave somewhere, broken and lifeless, rotting away like all of Adrian's friends. Maybe he should have worn a mask, Aaron knew him but Adrian wasn't used to doing this without someone else pulling the strings, without a team ready to take in whoever he needed to constrain or kill. This was different, personal and as a result, too messy and rushed.
The impact was like getting hit by a car, coming too fast and unexpected for Aaron to brace himself. Air rushed out of his lungs as he toppled backward and hit the floor hard, pain blossoming bright and burning in his chest. For a quick second, his muddled mind thought maybe it was Mila, back to finish the job, but the body that scrambled on top of him was heavier than Mila had ever been in her life. Aaron wheezed thinly, his hands clumsily groping around to grip parts of his attacker’s shirt. He felt weak as a kitten and completely blindsided and confused about what was happening and who was doing this. Then there was a knee in his stomach, close enough to the knife wound there to make Aaron feel like he was suddenly on fire. He tried to scream and curl inward but couldn’t do either one, so he just ended up writhing and mouthing ‘stop’ and ‘please’ and trying desperately to get air back into his compromised lungs.
Knife or no knife, Adrian was expecting a fight which was why he'd moved fast and gotten Aaron down as soon as he could. There was no fight and more importantly no answer. It agitated and confused him and he pushed the knife harder against Aaron's throat, letting the blade scrape against his stubble. "Answer me!" he roared at him and that was when he smelled the blood, hot and thick and yet weirdly tainted with a medical smell like it was an old hurt, a treated one. He paid it no mind for now, leaning in closer to peer at Aaron's face in the dark. "Where is she?" he ground out between clenched teeth and the idea of Aaron hurting Mila - his tiny pain in the ass little sister who he loved more than anything - made him want to start stabbing and not stop until he was too exhausted to move.
He was bleeding again, he could feel it, hot and wet against the skin of his stomach, the fragile scabs broken by the rough weight pushing against his abs. Everything hurt so bad, it took Aaron a few seconds to recognize that there was a blade to his throat. He reached instinctively to grasp his attacker’s wrist, though he didn’t have the strength to do anything about it, the other hand pushing uselessly at the knee in his gut. Tears were streaming out of his eyes now, making everything even harder to see, but the face over him swam into focus as it leaned closer. Was that ... Adrian Moretti? Aaron’s brow flexed in confusion as he managed to drag in a thin breath. “She’s gone,” he whispered harshly, fighting just to be audible, the words slurring together. “Please ... please, stop, she left, she’s gone.”
"Bullshit!" Adrian hissed at him because Mila wouldn't just go disappear like that, leaving their parents devastated and in the dark, she wouldn't do that. "You did something to her, didn't you." He drew a sharp breath through his nose, trying to clear his thoughts, remember his objective here, remember how to make people talk. "Tell me where she is and I'll make this quick. Don't tell me and I'll make it slow and painful, you son of a bitch." Another unbidden image of Mila's dead body flashed in his mind and he brought his free hand up to his scar, pressing hard and hitting the side of his head as if to clear it. Mila was supposed to be okay. She was the only thing he was still connected to in his life in any way that was still even remotely okay and now... now she wasn't.
Aaron shook his head as much as he could with a knife to his neck, which ended up being more twitchy than anything. Adrian was still bearing down on him, and the pain was making the edges of his vision sparkle and the vodka he drank threaten to come back up. “No I love her,” he moaned pitifully, blinking more tears away. He felt like he might pass out soon, and if he did, Adrian would slice him open worse than his sister had, and then he would just die on the floor ... and maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. At least the pain would stop. “I don’t ... I d-don’t know where. Adrian, please. She’s in t-trouble, sh’needs help, but it w-wasn’t me ...” Aaron’s useless pushing got weaker, and the hand on Adrian’s wrist slipped away to flop against the floor as the bit of fight he’d had left drained away.
Compassion wasn't something Adrian was exactly brimming with right now and Aaron's weakened state didn't affect him much but his words did garner his attention. "Then why aren't you helping her?" he demanded. "You were supposed to keep her safe!" His nostrils flared and his glare finally left Aaron's face, glancing downward where that smell of blood was getting stronger. He was hurt and that was finally filtering through the rage and desperation. Aaron wasn't fighting him and that had more to do with him being hurt and drunk than it did the knife at his throat. He finally let up some of that pressure, moving to straddle his stomach instead, the knife still close but not as firmly pressed against his skin. "Don't pass out on me, you bastard," he whispered sharply. "Start talking."
The physical relief was almost lost in the overwhelming sense of despair at Adrian’s first words. Aaron was supposed to keep Mila safe, and he hadn’t. He was supposed to help her, and he couldn’t. He could do even less for her now, injured and pathetic as he was. He gave a weak cough, distantly wishing Adrian would get off of him completely so he could roll over. Aaron pressed a hand against the blood-wet spot on his stomach, wincing. It was such a long, terrible story, and it was hard to straighten out his thoughts enough to start talking. “I didn’t know what to d-do,” he started, feeling choked with emotion and pain both. “She ... we went. To the uh, the t-tunnel. Copperdale. To look for my niece. And s-something ... something was in there, and it ... it l-latched onto Mila.” Aaron’s face crumpled as he struggled to keep his shit together. “She was possess-essed, I d-dunno, but it wasn’t her. It wasn’t her, and she k-kept saying she was okay and I believed her ‘cause I’m fuckin’ st-stupid and then s-she stabbed me one night and d-disappeared. It t-took her, Adrian, it wasn’ me.” He was blubbering now, crying outright. Half of him hoped Adrian would kill him anyway, half of him hoped Caden would miraculously come home and shoot this man who was supposed to be dead already. He looked different than Aaron remembered Adrian Moretti, scarred and thinner and more stretched somehow, haggard, but it was still him.
The story was crazy but believable and Adrian wished it wasn't. Even when he barely believed in any of that superstitious shit, the tunnel had been scary to him and now he was to believe something lived in there, something bad that had taken his sister. He felt something give in himself, a crack in his rage to make way for some emotion that was too similar to the one he saw in Aaron's face. He couldn't even name it, it was an ugly choir of hopelessness and grief and something else, ripping into him and making him believe what he didn't want to believe. He thought he'd been prepared for the truth, to hear that Mila was dead but he wasn't and he certainly wasn't ready to hear this. It was easier to feel rage and he compressed it back into that, deciding that yes, Aaron had been stupid - even if he didn't know how - and he'd failed to keep Mila safe. He should kill him right now but if there was any chance Mila was still alive - if there was even a sliver - she loved this asshole.
"I'm going to find her," he said with angry determination, pointing the knife at Aaron's face for emphasis. "And when I do, if I find out you were lying to me? I find out you hurt her? I'm coming back here and I'm carving you up real good, Lucas. I'm feeding you your own entrails, you hear me?" It was hard to speak and every word felt like he was grinding stone but he spat each out through what felt like a locked jaw and he got them out there and he knew Aaron believed him because he knew he meant every one of them.
Aaron believed every syllable. And he truly believed that if he had hurt Mila, he would deserve every slice. He knew his brothers’ histories, and he’d gotten a little shove-y with a crazy girlfriend or two himself in the past, but it had never gone far and never with Mila. He adored her, and he missed her so much, and the grief was slowly drowning him. He clutched at Adrian’s arm, not to move the knife out of his face but just to hold onto him for emphasis. “Please,” he said, his watery eyes a little desperate as he nodded his understanding. “If you c-can, you have to. Please find her. I dunno -- I thought ... you’re dead so I d-dunno how you’re here, but if you can d-do something, please help her, I tried but I couldn’t do it ...” Aaron took a big hitching breath and turned his head to cough again. A bit of blood came up and clung to his mouth.
It wasn't the reaction Adrian expected, if he had expected any damn thing in the first place. He still glared down at Aaron, keeping himself hard on the inside because anything else hurt too fucking much. He knew he'd end up a blubbering mess just like Aaron if he didn't keep himself still and hardened but it wasn't easy now. Aaron's desperation was a raw, living thing that did more damage than his knife could have. "You didn't see me tonight," he said with growing alarm. "You don't tell anyone you saw me. I am dead." He got off him then, pleased that his movements were smooth despite how he felt like his knees should give out or he should stumble. He'd have to go to the tunnels and if the history of the place was any indication, he either wouldn't come out or he'd walk straight through and never find a trace of Mila.
Aaron’s fingers clung briefly to Adrian’s arm, like he didn’t want him to go anywhere now, but he was too weak to really hang on. It was a relief to get the man’s weight off of him. If he was a ghost or something, he was a fucking heavy one. “I promise,” he whispered. Aaron had no idea how he was going to explain this, he probably needed to go back to the hospital to make sure he wasn’t bleeding internally or something. If he started telling people that Adrian Moretti had broken into the house to kick his ass, they would think he was even more crazy than they already did. “If you find her, t-tell her I love her. Please?” Aaron added, his voice catching a bit.
Adrian idly twirled the knife before sheathing it, his gaze fixed on Aaron as he tried to think clearly through the haze of ugly feelings and hunger. "If she's alive you'll tell her yourself," he muttered and already he was dreading what he knew he had to do next. Go hungry. Go hungrier. Hungry enough that his common sense dulled and that creature inside him got stronger, strong enough to maybe pick up Mila's scent and find her body. No. He had to believe she was still alive or he had no reason not to slit Aaron's throat right here and now. He was already bleeding and he'd said something about Mila stabbing him so maybe he needed help and Adrian wasn't willing to give it. Every instinct was telling him to end this in blood and pain and the only thing holding him back was Mila. "You gonna be okay?" he grunted with an upnod at Aaron's stomach.
Aaron didn’t know if he could dredge up any real hope that Adrian was right. If she was still alive -- and that was a pretty big ‘if’ -- Mila might still be under the thrall of that thing. Maybe it would kill Adrian and he would never see either of them again. Maybe the thing would take over both of them. Maybe none of this was actually happening and it was just some fucked up dream or vision or something. It was still dark and Aaron’s head was still spinning, the drugs and vodka in his system giving everything a surreal feeling. His body hurt like hell though, he was pretty sure he was awake. Even though he was pretty sure he wasn’t okay, he nodded at Adrian’s question. Aaron didn’t want his help, he just wanted him to go find Mila. Even if he didn’t come back.
Adrian didn't believe him but he didn't really want to help him either. It felt too much like old him and he was too hungry and fucked up right now to even attempt it. He didn't seem to be bleeding too much so he wouldn't expire on the floor if Adrian left him now and someone would be back soon if he couldn't get up. Adrian filed it away as not his problem and it was made easier when Aaron nodded. "I'm gonna find her," he churned out and at this point he wasn't sure if it was a threat or a promise to Aaron, nor did he care. It was a promise to himself, he'd find Mila or he'd die trying. It occurred to him Aaron would be the first person he'd known before who saw him again and lived to tell about it, Adrian just hoped he'd keep his mouth shut. It felt off though, leaving him alive, letting him see his face and Adrian felt at least ten shades of wrong as he backed up toward the door and slipped on through.
He made it out of the house and to his car unseen, even managed to drive a couple of streets over before he had to pull over, where it all caught up to him and the dam broke. He hadn't wanted to break down like Aaron did but there was no stopping him and banging on the dashboard didn't stop him crying.