Gavin Lucas (viciouscircle) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-07-24 00:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, gavin, gavin x roxy, roxy |
Who: Gavin & Roxy
Where: The Back Porch
When: Early Thursday morning 12/28
Status: Complete
Warning: Violence
This wouldn't be the first time Gavin slept in his office but usually when he did it was because he was blackout drunk. It was a little strange, settling down when he was practically sober (just a few drinks that didn't impair his judgment didn't count as drunk) and he had a hard time sleeping. Everyone was restless and frustrated the longer they were stuck at The Back Porch but nobody was going anywhere. The fog stayed thick and cold, oppressive and tight against the building, like it wanted to come in. No wonder Gavin wasn't sleeping. His anxiety had spiked after midnight and stayed in that high alert place, near-crippling.
He dozed off a few times and always came to with a start so that last time he did it it shouldn't have surprised him. It still did because it felt different and his brain was busy yelling at him that something had woken him other than his own fear. He sat up, back aching from the position he was in and his head hurting a little. There it was again. Another bang and this time he knew it was real because he was sure as hell not sleeping.
It came from the back and Gavin slowly got up to investigate, glancing at his watch as he walked. It was seven in the morning and since he couldn't see outside from where he was he was now hoping that the fog had cleared though he really didn't expect it to have done so. No, his anxiety said it was here to stay but then that wasn't overly realistic either.
Roxy wasn’t sleeping well either. Paranoia about the men sleeping outside in the bar and who else might try to break into the building had pushed her to lock herself in the stock room, since Gavin was occupying the office. It was horribly lonely, and once she’d made a little pallet for herself with some cardboard boxes she’d emptied and flattened and one of the musty blankets she’d found, she cried for a while. If she had to get stuck at the fucking bar, why couldn’t it have been on a night when Caden was working? Where was he, was he okay? Was he trying to get to them? Part of her thought she shouldn’t miss him, but she did, intensely so. If nothing else Caden had always made her feel protected from everyone else, and she needed that at the moment.
When Roxy did sleep, it was in fits. In between the shallow dozing, she checked her phone again and again, and sent Caden texts that never went through. She had zero sense of time, so she had no idea when it was that something outside of herself woke her up, but it did. It was a loud bang from the back of the building. Roxy sat frozen for a stretch of minutes, then forced herself to get up and open the door. She listened for a moment, jumped when another bang sounded, then ventured out enough to spot Gavin coming out of his office. “What is it?” she stage-whispered toward him, her eyes wide.
It was obvious to anyone who gave a shit that she had been crying. Gavin gave a shit, he just wasn't very good at it so he ignored it and at least he had a good reason to do so since he still didn't know what that sound was. Crying women made him uncomfortable and on occasion annoyed when it felt like a manipulation tactic but Roxy's crying had been private, now she just looked scared. "I don't know," he whispered back, eyes narrowing as he headed back into his office to get one of the guns out of the safe. There had been a lot of animal attacks lately and he still didn't know if the fog had cleared so it was possible something was out there.
There was another bang when he came back out and he could at least place it now. "Something's out by the trash," he whispered, heading toward the door carefully. He was not opening it, not a chance, but despite knowing he'd locked it the night before, he felt a desperate need to double - even triple - check.
Roxy stayed where she was while Gavin briefly disappeared, nibbling on the side of her thumbnail. She emerged from the stock room when he came back with a gun, her heart beating sickly in her chest. There weren’t many windows back there, only a couple high ones that were small rectangles of gray light, but Roxy felt like she had no idea what time it was. She followed after Gavin toward the back door, staying a few paces behind him, her hands wringing together in front of her. Was it an animal? Some crazy person? Roxy wasn’t sure what Gavin was going to do, but she felt compelled to witness it.
Gavin checked the lock, then stood by the door and listened. He didn't even know what he was going to do at this point, he just knew he didn't want to look outside. It was quiet for a while and he was about to turn and look at Roxy again when a new sound emerged to send chills down his spine. This time it was something scraping against the wall, all the way from the trash to the door. Gavin stepped back on instinct, his heart beating fast and hard in his chest. There was another thud, then quiet again and he backed further away from the door, holding his arm out as if he could somehow shield Roxy with it. "Are the shutters down?" he whispered. They'd closed up before they slept so it wasn't a necessary question and yet he felt compelled to make sure nobody had put them up again.
Roxy had started to get antsy with the silence, and she was about to say that maybe it was nothing when the new sound came. It sounded so weirdly animal, like ... claws? Or someone dragging a pitchfork against the brick of the building. But nobody knocked and it went quiet again, and she felt like she was either going to throw up or pee her pants. Roxy reached without thinking to clutch at Gavin’s arm, staring at the back door with wide eyes. What if someone truly crazy was out there, ready to pitchfork them all? “I think so,” she whispered back. She’d been locked in the stock room all night, so if somebody had opened them, Roxy didn’t know about it. They probably ought to check, but she felt kind of frozen to the spot.
Gavin's mind decided now was a good time to flash some horror movie scenarios at him, like that they'd go back out to the bar only to find everyone dead. He shook it off with a morbid thought that it wouldn't be so bad considering who was out there but the anxiety still remained. "Stay behind me," he muttered and after glaring at the back door for a moment longer he started making his way toward the front of the bar. Roxy's obvious fear fed his sense of bravery, someone needed to be strong right now and this wasn't the first time he'd come face to face with evil - if that was even what that was. He had a gun and they could lock themselves in the stock room if things got worse. It was sturdy. The first thing he heard when he cautiously opened the door was snoring so that was already a good sign. He glanced back at Roxy with a wan smile before stepping out there, doing a quick check of the narrow windows by the door. The shutters were down and it made him breathe a small sigh of relief. "I don't know what that was," he whispered. "But it's not getting in here." He half hoped he was wrong, that it was a person or the wind and not some creature . It wasn't often that he actually wanted to feel embarrassed by an overreaction but he was willing to make an exception in this case.
It had definitely not been the wind, Roxy’s brain was outright rejecting that idea when it crossed her own thoughts. There had been someone or something out there, and she had the gut feeling that it wanted inside. Which would not be good for any of them. She forced herself to let go of her brother-in-law, shooting the men sleeping on the booth benches wary looks as she followed him to the windows. They were locked up tight, but that didn’t feel super reassuring for some reason. Probably from lack of sleep and a flood of anxiety about everything. “I fuckin’ hope not,” she whispered back to Gavin. Roxy moved in a little closer to the window and peered through the slats in the shutters. All she could see was gray fog, making the light weird and cloaking the sidewalk and street beyond. While Roxy was staring, something big and dark moved through it, just out of her range of vision. She frowned and squinted. The shadow moved again, and Roxy got a glimpse of something that didn’t make sense -- scales and giant claws. She squeaked and flinched back, clapping both hands over her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut.
"Jesus Christ, shut up woman!" Joseph croaked sleepily from the corner he'd huddled down in. He sounded like he was still drunk and Gavin had the sudden urge to go over there and kick him while he was down. It wasn't the first time, it wouldn't be the last.
"You shut the fuck up, dad," he retorted shakily as he closed the distance between himself and Roxy, putting himself between her and the window to peer outside. He couldn't see anything, and he couldn't hear anything with Joseph still cursing him out, even if he wasn't being terribly loud about it. "I said shut up," Gavin repeated with more urgency. "There's something out there." He pressed his hand against the wall to steady himself and he could swear his eyes hurt staring at all that gray. "What did you see?" he asked Roxy finally, glancing over his shoulder at her before stepping back from the window as that stupid feeling that a zombie arm would shoot right through the glass to grab him took hold of him.
Roxy didn’t pay Joseph any mind at the moment, backing away from the window to give Gavin room to look too. He obviously didn’t see what she’d seen, Roxy was watching his face closely, but she swore she had seen it! “I don’t know,” she whispered, taking her hands off her mouth. She stared at Gavin with wide, tear-filled eyes. “It was ... it was big and-- and scaly and ... and there were, um -- there were claws ...” She knew she probably sounded insane, and she was pretty sure she heard Joseph say as much, but Roxy continued to ignore him. “At least ... at least I think so,” Roxy added in a softer whisper. She gave the window a wary glance.
Gavin shook his head in dismay. Were they ever going to catch a break? He instinctively checked his phone again but there were still no bars so all it told him was that he needed to charge the damn thing. "Scales and claws... What, like a giant... alligator?" he mumbled but it wasn't out of disbelief. Giant alligators in the dead of winter was only weird when you didn't know about demons, skinny strange men and black-eyed children. He started again at a scratching sound from the side of the building. It was almost tempting to step outside and empty a clip at whatever was out there but he wasn't stupid or suicidal.
Roxy was shaking her head, but she realized she didn’t really know, did she? Maybe it had been a giant alligator ... walking upright? She’d barely seen what she’d seen. Roxy got as far as “I dun--” when the scratching startled another tiny noise of fear out of her. She edged away from the wall it had come from, then backed up a few more steps away from the windows. “It was big, Gavin, like ... tall,” she said, her voice shaking a bit. Roxy had never had such a strong desire to to lock herself in the stockroom. What if there was more than one? What if Caden was out there? What if one of the kids was? God, she was going to start crying again.
Gavin saw it then. Not as closely as Roxy since he couldn't see scales or claws but he saw the shadow moving, impossibly big. It was almost a relief, weirdly enough, knowing where it was and having eyes on it instead of imagining and wondering. Unless there's more his brain helpfully provided and he shut that down really fast. "It's moving away from the building," he whispered then all but jumped back a couple of feet when a car flipped over with all the noise that entailed. It felt like time to pray and yet praying hadn't seemed to do a whole lot lately.
"Don't just stand there gawking at the window like a pussy," Joseph snarled from his corner, getting to his feet and pulling out his gun. Gavin hated it when he brought that thing in here but he had a license to carry so it wasn't like he could say much about it. He could say something about this though, quietly 'whoa'ing at his father a few times as Joseph stalked over to the front doors.
"Dad, whoa, dad, don't go out there," he pleaded, not because he was worried about the old man's safety, he just really didn't want those doors open. "Don't fucking go out there."
Leave it to Joseph Lucas to escalate things in a horrible direction. The instant Roxy saw the gun, she was moving out of the way, putting herself behind Gavin first, then scurrying behind the bar. A couple of the other lingering patrons had woken up, and she heard noises of protest, but no way in hell was she going to be the one to get in between Joseph and the door. Roxy wouldn’t put it past him to shoot her to get her out of the way. The word ‘no’ was repeating in her mind like a heartbeat, but none of it made it to her lips. Roxy covered her mouth with both hands again, watching what was unfolding with wide eyes.
There were things going through Gavin's mind that he knew he couldn't act on, shouldn't act on but it was hard to hold back on them. One, he wanted to hit Joseph over the head with something and take his gun, maybe tie him up. Two, he wanted to let him leave and lock the door behind him. He had never hated a man as much as he hated his father but even then he still stood up for him at times like a dutiful, idiotic son. Today he wasn't sure what to do other than try to stop him. Whatever he'd seen out there was surely too big to come through the doors but he wasn't so sure rules applied if it was something unnatural.
"Dad!" he said sharply but Joseph was already opening the door and bursting outside, gun pointed out at the fog.
"C'mon, you fuckers, you don't scare me!" he was yelling. "You wanna piece of Joseph Lucas? Come get it!"
For a long moment it was quiet as they all stared out the open door, all but Joseph frozen in fear or apprehension.
Joseph snorted. "Yeah, I thought not," he said derisively. "'Cause I got one of those." He waved his gun at the fog, looking back over his shoulder at Gavin. "See? There's nothing out here but fog, I don't know why you keep indulging hysterical women, maybe you're one of -"
He didn't finish the sentence and under other circumstances Gavin would have been happy about it but not now. Joseph screamed as he disappeared from view and he kept screaming, the sharp noises of gunshots mingling in with the blood-curdling cries. As much as Gavin wanted him dead he found himself running toward the door, the safety off his own gun, his heart beating thickly in his damn throat.
Roxy had never been quite so scared. This was different than being afraid of her father’s fists or Caden’s or being raped in an alley or any other human threat, because what was out there was definitely not human. She watched in terror as Joseph threw the door open and ran outside like some lunatic cowboy. Her whole body jerked when Joseph vanished into the white and screamed. She saw Gavin start to run toward the door, and Roxy lunged out from behind the bar. “Gavin, no!” she screamed, reaching for him. Her fingers caught in the back of his shirt, but it slipped free of her grasp a millisecond later. There was no time or breath to say so, but Joseph was not worth this, Gavin had kids, what the fuck was even happening?!
Gavin didn't even know what he was running for. He stopped a couple of feet from the door and his body felt like it had more muscles than it should, some cramping weirdness going through every limb as terror shook him. Joseph was still screaming but he wasn't shooting anymore and Gavin raised his hand slowly, oh so slowly as he waged war with himself on whether to shut the door and lock it or not. If not, then what? He wasn't going out there, they couldn't see a damn thing, Joseph had a gun too and that hadn't done a thing to help him.
He took a quick step back, his heart seizing in his chest when Joseph appeared in the doorway again, his old and already ugly mug screwed up in pain. "Help me, god damn it," he croaked and his shirt was soaked in blood.
A split second passed, then Gavin grabbed hold of his father's shirt, yanked him inside and slammed the door behind him. He wanted to scream at him that he was a fucking idiot, he wanted to ask him just what he'd been thinking but he could barely breathe, let alone get words out, frozen to that spot, one hand tight on his gun, the other holding the door as if he could physically keep it on the hinges if something came crashing through.
Joseph stumbled further into the bar, waving at Roxy. "Useless bitch, get a towel, can't you see I'm fucking hurt?" he yelled. "What are you all staring at? Do something!"
Roxy was not prepared to tackle Gavin or anything, so she was incredibly relieved that he stopped. That relief was short lived though, because Joseph appeared again, covered in blood, and everything felt chaotic and awful and scary. The only good thing was that the door slammed shut again, and Gavin was on the right side of it. Roxy gaped at Joseph for a second before she hurried back behind the bar to grab a few clean towels out of the drawer. She definitely wasn’t going to nurse-maid Joseph Lucas, especially when he was calling her a bitch, so she just threw them on top of the bar within his reach. “You shouldn’t have done that, Joseph,” she snapped in a high, reedy voice. “If there’s more of them they’re gonna be all over here now!”
Gavin hadn't thought of that and her words sent a new kind of terror straight through him. "Let's all go to the back," he said as he locked the door and stepped away from it as if it might burst if he stayed close. "It's safer there, smaller windows." He hated the idea of non-employees being back there but things weren't exactly normal right now. Thankfully one of Joseph's drinking buddies was on his feet and attending to Joseph who was still cursing loudly, obviously in a lot of pain. It served him right, Gavin thought and he only felt mildly guilty about it too. He just couldn't bring himself to care about Joseph's pain when his mind was on what was out there. Something had attacked his dad and scratched him up really bad. Gavin didn't even know the extent of it and he didn't want to know, let those drunk bastards deal with it. "I'll get the first aid kit," he said, trying to keep some semblance of control over the situation. He gestured at Roxy to come with him, even if they were all supposed to be going back there. She was the only person in that place he actually liked at all so it made sense to stick close to her. If Caden had a problem with that? Well, fuck Caden. He wasn't here.
Joseph’s injuries were upsetting, if only because they hinted at what fresh terror was out there. Her mind was shoving images of her of Caden that scratched up, Amelia, Jasper. Bleeding out, stuck out in the freezing cold. Or just eaten by whatever the hell could cause those kinds of injuries. Of course Joseph would survive it, because life was completely unfair. Roxy tried to remind herself that nobody was dead yet, they were smart people who would stay inside and not try to shoot fucking Godzilla or whatever. She went to follow Gavin, looking stricken as she tried to keep her emotions under control. She was the only woman in the building, she didn’t need to get all hysterical and confirm their idiotic sexism. On the way to the back, Roxy grabbed the blankets they’d all been using to take with them, because God knew how long they would have to huddle back there. At least there was a bit of food, that was better than some people probably had it.
Joseph was of that old school generation that didn't show weakness and he generally didn't show it when he was hurt because 'whining like a little bitch' was weakness. The fact he was still cursing up a storm and groaning in pain was disconcerting at best and Gavin watched him closely as they hurried to the back. He belatedly noticed that Roxy was gathering the blankets so he turned around to help her, glad someone had the sense to think ahead because he really didn't feel equipped to deal with any of this.
"It fucking burns!" Joseph was yelling at his buddy. "Don't touch it, you son of a bitch!" And then he was groaning more, clutching the towel tightly against his arm which seemed to give him a little comfort. "God damn, son of a bitch what the fuck was that thing, what the fuck is out there, Gavin, fuck! Gav, you need to go shoot that fucking thing!"
Gavin ignored the rambling and the cursing, closing the door shut behind them and scurrying to his office to get a chair to set by the door. It wasn't much but it was some leverage in case someone - something - tried to get in. They would hear it of course, if something broke through the doors or windows, but he didn't want to have to barricade the door in a panicked rush. He was thinking they needed to ply his dad with more alcohol until he got docile or they would all go crazy in there and that wound would never be seen to. It made him wish they had tranquilizers on hand but... why would they? Stepping up to Roxy he put his hand on her arm briefly. "It's gonna be okay," he said quietly, more because he needed to say it than because she needed to hear it.
Roxy’s unfair reflex was to shake the touch off from Gavin, but she didn’t. Joseph’s racket was already making her feel edgy and crazy, and God she wished Caden was there. He could shut his old man up much better than the eldest son could. She shot Gavin a look that said she didn’t believe a word of that, dumping all the blankets onto one of the shiny metal counters. “We need to disinfect it,” she said loudly to the older men huddled around tending to Joseph. Roxy strode away toward some stacked boxes and rummaged until she found a bottle of high proof vodka. She cracked it open, grabbed some more clean towels, then approached the little group. “Move,” she muttered as she elbowed her way in and crouched in front of Joseph. “This is probably gonna hurt, but it needs to be done, okay? Who knows what kind of germs are in there now,” she told him firmly.
“Stay away from me, bitch!” Joseph hollered, trying to squirm away from Roxy’s insistent hands. She grabbed him roughly -- and it felt damn good to grab something -- and sloshed vodka into one of his wounds. Joseph howled like Roxy had set him on fire and his hand shot out like a snake, fist connecting with her face. Roxy’s head snapped back and she heard the cartilage in her nose break like a matchstick and her body rocked back until her ass connected with the floor. Pain bloomed bright in the middle of her face, making her vision sparkle. Blood immediately started dripping down over her lips.
As soon as it happened, Gavin knew he should have been there with her to hold the old man down but he didn't want to be there at all and if he had to be there, he really didn't want Joseph there too. He rushed over there now, growling at the men that they were fucking useless while he felt the same way about himself, then knelt down next to Roxy, offering up a towel. "It might not be broken," he said and this was like being fifteen again, all over again, dealing with Caden, dealing with dad. Only this time it was Roxy and he knew for sure Caden had never broken her nose. "I'll get some ice." If it was broken he knew how to reset it, he'd done it too many times in his life but Roxy wasn't a Lucas, she wasn't going to handle this well, he just knew it.
The men had scrambled a bit to restrain Joseph, which might have saved Roxy from another punch or two. Her eyes were dazed when she turned them on Gavin, and her hand moved a bit slow as she took the towel and wiped her mouth with it. It hurt, a lot, her whole face already throbbing in time with her heart. Roxy had dropped the vodka bottle, a bunch of it spilling onto the floor and making the air taste like alcohol. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel any anger toward Joseph, not yet. Maybe it was shock. Roxy moved to stand up, grabbing the edge of the counter to help her along, and shuffled backward from the still-hollering old man and his friends. Leaning against the counter, she gingerly touched her nose, then hissed in pain. “Yeah, it’s broken,” she mumbled thickly. Caden had hit her in the face plenty of times, but he’d never broken her nose.
There was so much going on and still so much noise with Joseph hollering and his friends now trying to help him. They probably weren't doing a good job but Gavin couldn't bring himself to care. His focus was on Roxy now and getting her to his office to sit down. It would give them a little room to themselves and he knew from experience she should not be standing up. "C'mon," he muttered, relieved when she moved with him when he put his arm around her and steered her. There was an extra chair in there that he blindly reached for and dragged out to the center of the room before making Roxy sit down on it. "Lean your head forward," he told her, leaning down in front of her. "Blow your nose into the towel. Get that blood out."
Roxy let Gavin usher her around, dimly aware that he was right and she should take his advice. She didn’t think he’d ever touched her so much, or so gently. She sat where he put her and leaned forward. It made her face hurt even worse, but Roxy blew. There were tears coming out of her eyes now, more from pain than upset, and she knew she couldn’t stop them so she didn’t even try. When she pulled the towel back it was bright red with blood and Roxy felt a bit queasy. “Caden’s gonna kill him,” she mumbled, then let out a weird little laugh that she hadn’t even felt coming.
"As long as he makes it look like an accident," Gavin mumbled, placing his fingers on her nose. "Breathe in deep through your mouth," he told her, nodding slowly, almost in a self-soothing manner. "This is going to hurt but it'll be quick. Breathe out through your mouth." He dragged his fingers down over her nose, felt the broken cartilage shift and crackle underneath his touch but it looked straighter when he was done. It was definitely time for ice now and she was going to be in pain for a while so he needed to find painkillers. Maybe booze would do, they had plenty of that.
She closed her eyes and did as instructed, and the pain felt like it moved down her back in a wave. Roxy grunted and shuddered a little, a few more tears leaking out of her eyes. At least it was over fast, though the additional pain did not make her stomach feel any more settled. She folded the towel to a clean portion and wiped her cheeks with it. “God,” she whispered. Even wincing hurt. “Ice?” Roxy asked, looking up at Gavin with watery eyes. “And like ... a shot or five.” Roxy also hoped Gavin didn’t mind her taking over his office for the duration of whatever this bullshit was. She did not want to go back out there with Joseph.
"Coming right up," Gavin said and gave her shoulder a little squeeze as he straightened up and headed out. At least they had enough of ice and booze, the one thing they did have enough of, and he put together a little ice-pack for Roxy, then brought a bottle of whiskey back to the office. Outside, Joseph was still cursing loudly and it was a wonder he hadn't broken more noses but Gavin didn't care. He didn't want to be here at all but having to choose between the drunks out back or Roxy in his office, he knew where he preferred to be. He handed the ice pack to Roxy and set the whiskey down on his desk before going through the drawers for painkillers.
Roxy mumbled something that sounded grateful, and she put the ice pack to her nose. It hurt to touch it, but the cold felt good at the same time. The whiskey would probably help even more at numbing things. Roxy didn’t care if it was still early in the morning, she wanted to get drunk and forget about everything for a while. As much as possible, at least. She took the pills when Gavin found them, and knocked them back with some booze, wincing a tiny bit at the burn. She hoped desperately that they kicked in fast -- her head was starting to ache sharply. She really should have known better than to touch that old bastard, but it was done now. It would be truly dealt with later, if all of them made it out of this alive. “You don’t have to stay with me, if you want to go see how he is.” Joseph had gotten much more hurt than she was, after all.
Gavin made a face as he looked toward the door and listened for a moment to the ruckus outside. "Unless you want to be alone, I'd rather stay in here," he muttered. Joseph could probably use help from someone who wasn't a completely incompetent half wit but Gavin didn't want to be there. He still had a dark longing skulking around inside that Joseph would succumb to his wounds today but they hadn't looked that serious so he doubted luck was on their side. It was a morbid and terrible thing to wish for but Joseph Lucas had earned that seething hatred from all his children and to this day he wasn't doing a thing to make amends.
“Okay,” Roxy said with the faintest of smiles. It wasn’t like Gavin ever hung out with her on purpose, but she supposed these were extenuating circumstances. It was at least quieter in the office, and Gavin always liked quiet. She sat back a bit and held the ice pack to her face, closing her eyes and trying not to let all of this really get to her. Somehow, it was easier not to cry when she was in a lot of pain, so that was probably good for Gavin. Because this whole thing was terrifying and upsetting. If she died like this, broken-nosed and locked in the bar office with Gavin Lucas, she was going to be so pissed. Silently, Roxy sent up a prayer for them, that Caden was safe, that this would pass quickly and everything would get back to normal.