logan rees (_problematic_) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-08-06 13:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, jasper, jasper x logan, logan |
Who: Jasper and Logan
Where: Near Moxie’s
When: Wednesday, Dec. 27 into Thursday, Dec. 28
Status: Complete
There were three things Logan liked to do more than anything else. Eat, get high and fuck and not necessarily in that order. He considered it a win if he was able to do all three of those things in a day, but he was usually willing to settle for at least one or two of them. Today was one of those days. He was hanging with Jasper for the majority of the afternoon, and they had gotten high in Jasper’s room while playing his new XBox, courtesy of his perky blonde girlfriend. After a while, Logan couldn’t decide if he was horny or hungry, and since he didn’t think Jasper would be down for exchanging blow jobs, Logan had suggested heading to Moxie’s to get some greasy diner food. He had been back in Point Pleasant a few weeks now and he had yet to eat a Monster burger, so it felt like the right time.
Jasper agreed to drive and Logan lit up a cigarette once they were in his car and headed in the right direction. His mind was pleasantly fuzzy and Logan was feeling overly affectionate with his friend, though there was nothing unusual about that. He always liked touching people when he was high, like he could somehow imbue his own happy feelings into someone else through his fingers or something.
“So you’re gonna be with Jules the rest of the week?” Logan vaguely remembered Jasper mentioning something about her parents leaving town through the weekend. “Is she going to have another party or are you two just gonna play house on your own?”
Jasper was having a damn good day with Logan, and going to Moxies for a huge meal was only going to make it better. He always got the munchies when he was high, and the diner had way better food than the Lucas kitchen. Plus the benefit of having other people cook for them and serve them. He wasn’t too high to drive, but still buzzing nicely, and he hadn’t minded a second of Logan’s over-affection. Jasper didn’t mind it because it was nice to be touched, and it was Logan. He pulled out of the driveway to head down the street and held his hand out for his best friend to give him a smoke too. “Yeah, her parents are gonna be out of town,” Jasper answered with a lopsided grin. He was looking forward to all that room and privacy and Jules. “She didn’t mention a party, so I dunno. Maybe we’ll throw something together last minute. Or just spend the weekend naked and fucking the whole time. I told you I ran into her mom, didn’t I?”
Logan gave Jasper his own cigarette since it was already lit and dug into his pack for a new one for himself. "Well, if you don't decide on a party but you need a third party to come around give you guys some naked based tips, you let me know. I'll keep my schedule open." He slipped the new cigarette between his lips and lit it quickly while glancing at Jasper. "I don't think you told me about her mom though. Have you not met her before?" Maybe Jasper did tell Logan over text or something, but he honestly couldn't remember. Thinking wasn't exactly on his agenda at the moment but if Jasper was bringing it up something significant must have happened.
Jasper laughed at the ‘offer,’ well aware that Jules would flip the fuck out if he even suggested such a thing. Having a naked Logan around during their fuck fest didn’t sound like the worst idea to him, if he was being completely honest. But that didn’t matter because it would never happen. He dragged his mind away from those mental images to focus on what he was saying. “I could pick her out of a lineup, but not like, officially,” he answered, taking a drag on the cigarette. Jasper cracked his window just a little. Damn it was cold. “But I ran into her at the grocery store, and she was a total bitch to me. Saying like, I’m gonna ruin Jules’s life and if I love her I’ll break up with her and shit. Like I’ve got no future and can’t provide.” He scoffed and glanced over at his friend, looking for that backup he hoped was coming.
"Sounds like a bitch to me," Logan said, wishing it was summer already so they wouldn't have to deal with this bitter ass cold. Choosing to come back home right before winter kicked in was such a mistake. He should have been a bit more wiser managing his money out west. Rolling down his own window maybe an inch, Logan shivered and glanced at Jasper. "You didn't let her get into your head, did you? Overlook brats are raised by Overlook assholes. How the fuck does she know what kind of future you're gonna have? How long have you guys been together anyway? You'd think she'd try to scare you off long before now."
That was a satisfying response, and Jasper grinned lazily. That was what good friends were for. “I called her a bitch, too,” he said. It probably wasn’t something to be proud of, but he still was, and he thought Logan would appreciate it too. “But I mean, right? What the fuck does she know. It’s been since like, summer, man.” He shook his head like people just didn’t make any sense. He didn’t really want to admit that Ms. Cooper had gotten into his head, so he just avoided commenting on that. “I think she just figured Jules would figure out I’m a piece of shit or whatever and break up with me. Joke’s on her, that girl loves me.” He took a triumphant drag on his smoke and tapped a bit of ash out the cracked window.
Logan laughed. "You called her a bitch. That won't make the family get-togethers awkward at all." It still blew his mind that Jasper was fucking Jules Cooper, and had been since summer. He's barely gone a year and look what happens. Once the laughter died off a bit Logan took another quick drag from his cigarette and pointed it at Jasper. "For one, you're not a piece of shit, and even if you were, you're a hot piece of shit. Two, I don't know how the fuck you got Jules Cooper to love you either but I don't blame you for riding the high as long as you can. Fuck her mom, man. I mean, not literally, but you know... fuck her."
Jasper laughed along with Logan. “They were never gonna invite me over anyways,” he said. Hearing the rest of it made him feel good and glowy and vindicated, so that was nice. It was somehow easier to hear that he wasn’t a piece of shit from Logan than anybody else. Logan knew him and wasn’t in love with him and therefore biased, so it felt more true. He laughed again at the last part. “Man, I dunno how it happened either, but you’re right -- fuck her. Me and Jules are gonna love each other as long as we can make it work. Her mom can eat my white-trash-Lucas asshole.”
Snorting loudly, Logan's head fell back against the seat. It was hard not to let the giggles take over when he was this high. "You've got more patience than I do, man. Or maybe I just haven't had a pussy as magical as Jules's to make all that shit worth it. No wonder she bought you a fucking XBox for Christmas." Logan exhaled a steady stream of smoke up toward the cracked inch of the window before he noticed the white canvas of nothing ahead. "Hey man," he said, motioning ahead. "Check that out." It looked like fog. Only fog on steroids and Logan leaned forward, squinting up towards the sky to see if it had looked like it was going to storm and the two of them had just been too high to notice.
Jasper had thoughts about how it wasn’t Jules’s pussy that made her so magical, but they got interrupted by what was suddenly in front of them. Jasper felt like he hadn’t even seen it coming, though he’d been looking forward to drive and all. It looked like a wall of whiteness, and as he automatically hit the brake to slow down, he saw that it was advancing, swallowing up buildings and cars on its way toward them. It was moving fast, too. “What the shit,” he murmured with a touch of awe. Living by the ocean, they saw fog all the time, but not like that, not that Jasper remembered ever seeing. He got a glimpse of the sky -- which seemed clear to him -- before the fog enveloped them and turned everything to twilight. Jasper was suddenly blind, and he jammed his foot down to bring the car to an abrupt stop. He just hoped nobody was behind him.
It took Logan an extra second to realize the fog was moving faster than what was probably normal. And it was mid-afternoon. Didn't fog usually disappear in the morning? He couldn't honestly remember and science had never been his thing. He reached out to put his hand against the dash to keep from jerking forward at Jasper's sudden stop. "Fuck," he said, nearly dropping his cigarette as the fog enveloped them. Looking out the window Logan couldn't see a thing. Literally not a thing. "What the fuck is that?" he asked Jasper. He didn't really expect Jasper to know, but maybe this wasn't unusual. Logan had only been gone a year or whatever but this town was bizarre like that.
Jasper could barely see down the length of the hood of his car, the edge of it was hardly a shadow. His own breathing suddenly sounded very loud, and a chill ran down his spine. “I don’t know,” he murmured back to Logan. The air coming in through the windows felt like it had dropped another twenty degrees or so. Jasper reached to turn on his hazard lights, glancing over his shoulder out the back window. They were still sitting in the middle of the road, but for all he could see, they might as well be on the moon. Didn’t mean that cars couldn’t be coming. “Roll your window up,” he barked with sudden urgency, fumbling to do the same. “Don’t breathe it in.” A lot had happened since then, but he still remembered the fog that had made everybody crazy with rage.
If a car came barreling down the road now Jasper's car would get totaled. But then again, if they couldn't see shit out there, Logan doubted anyone else could either. Jasper's demands caught him off guard and his dark brows furrowed together in confusion. "What? Don't breathe what in?" Still, Logan reached for the handle to roll up the window, mostly because it had become unbearably cold in the car. He flicked his cigarette outside just before he finished. "What the hell is going on, man?" Christ, he had been home a few weeks and had so far avoided the Weird Shit that plagued this town. He should have known something would happen eventually.
“The fog, you idiot, don’t breathe it,” Jasper said, but without a lot of bite, because Logan was doing it. “There was just a fog, a few months ago, it made people go crazy. They said it was some ... some chemical accident or something. It wasn’t this fuckin’ thick though, so I dunno.” His heart had started to beat hard, and he stubbed his cigarette out in the car’s ashtray. Jasper wet his lips, looking around them again, even though there was nothing to see. His imagination was quick to fill in the blankness however, and he half-expected to see kids with black eyes come out of the mist to bang on his windows. Jasper’s palms suddenly felt sweaty and his stomach was uncomfortable, and they were still sitting in the middle of the road and he didn’t know what to do about that. “Did you see if there’s cars parked on that side?” he asked Logan.
Don't breathe the fog was a new one and Logan gave Jasper a confused what the fuck look before he turned in his seat to look through the back of the car. He couldn't see shit back there either. This was weird as hell and he could feel his own pulse start to quicken despite how mellow the pot had made him all afternoon. Chemicals. Rage inducing fog. It sounded fascinating, really, but he didn’t feel like experiencing it. Jasper's question had him peering out his window again and he shook his head. "I wasn't paying super close attention but I don't think there were any cars parked on the street. I mean, with the snow trucks and shit, people don't want to get their cars snowed in, right?"
That made sense, didn’t it? Jasper’s breathing had quickened and his heart was racing. He felt completely blind, like a sitting duck out in the middle of nowhere, with predatory eyes all around. He wouldn’t have expected a fog to freak him out so much, but this suddenly felt like a crisis and like they were in danger, the panic overriding the calming effects of the THC still in his system. He closed his eyes and put his forehead against the steering wheel for a moment, trying to breathe and figure out what to do first. That answer was probably to get the car out of the road ... but at the moment he couldn’t seem to make himself move from that hunched over position, his hands locked tight around the wheel, his back tense with the expectation of another car plowing into them or small fists against the glass. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuckfuckfuckfuck--
Logan had expected Jasper to maneuver the car to the side of the road. If they hit the curb, no big deal, at least then they knew they were in the right spot and Logan would rather hit a curb than get plowed into from behind by a truck or something. But Jasper seemed to be freaking out, like he was having a panic attack or something and it just added to the confusion of the moment. "Hey, man, come on," Logan said, not unkindly, but with a mild sense of urgency. "You want me to get out and see if I can tell how far we are from the curb? I don't know what the hell this fog is, but we've got to get out of the road at least. We don’t know if anyone’s trying to drive through this shit. Even if they see your hazards, it might be too late." They couldn't see shit, so Logan doubted anyone else could. Only idiots would be trying to drive through this right now.
Only idiots would, but they both knew as well as anyone that the world was full of idiots. He was right. Jasper tried to take deeper breaths and think about how much it would suck if somebody hit his car. It was something to focus on, so he managed to pull himself together a little bit. “No, just ... I got it,” he said, looking kind of pale as he sat up again. Jasper turned the wheel and slowly let off the brake to let the car creep forward. It was like driving in the dark without headlights, but worse somehow. More claustrophobic. Weird thoughts raced through Jasper’s head, like what if they never reached a curb and just kept drifting through the fog for forever? What if he hit a person, wandering around lost now? What if he hit something worse? Finally though, his tire bumped up against the curb and Jasper stopped again. It was so fucking eerie that the building across the sidewalk they were facing was only a vague shadow in the fog. With a bit of careful maneuvering, Jasper straightened the car up against the curb, relieved to be out of the line of traffic, at least.
Once they were settled Logan twisted around in his seat again to look out the back. He didn't see headlights or anything from other cars. He didn't see any people walking by either. If they were smart they probably got inside quick. Logan blew an annoyed breath between his lips before he pulled his phone out of his pocket to text his mom. He sent a quick you ok? But it have him that red exclamation point error. No service. "Is your phone working?" Logan asked Jasper, only then noticing how pale his friend look. "Hey, you okay? Are you gonna be sick or something?"
“What?” Jasper mumbled, Logan’s words taking a couple of extra seconds to make sense to him. There was a high-pitched ringing in his ears, and he felt kind of clammy and just bad. The bit about the phone got his attention, and he fumbled to pull his own out of his jacket pocket. Before he looked at it, he patted until he found the lump of the hex bag he carried around on the inside lining pocket. Good. It was only slightly relieving to have it there. “No, I’m .. I’m fine,” he muttered absently, looking at the screen. All of the signal bars were grayed out, and when he tried to open an app, it didn’t connect. Feeling a little more frantic, Jasper tried to call Amelia, but that didn’t work either. Neither did his dad. Or Jules. “Fuck!” he hissed, and rubbed his hands over his face. “What is this shit, why is there always shit? Fuck fuck fuck.” He slammed his hand against the dash a couple of times.
"Hey, it's okay," Logan said, reaching out to touch Jasper's arm. "We don't know what this is yet. It could just be passing through and we've got to wait it out. I'm sure everyone's fine." Maybe. Probably. Logan had been away from Point Pleasant for a while, but he hadn't forgotten how weird shit could get here. He just didn't want to freak out over it yet. Especially since he didn't think Jasper was fine at all. He seemed distracted and worried, which was understandable given the fog. But it could just be an anomaly, one that was just passing through fast. At least the car was warm. "How bad was the rage fog? Were you out in it before?"
It was hard to think that everyone was okay when he couldn’t see anything. Amelia wasn’t out driving, he knew that at least. His dad was at work. Gnawing on his bottom lip, he stared out his side window for a moment, then looked back at Logan. “I wasn’t out in it, but I think a few people died,” he said. “Like people went nuts. But the fog hung around for days before that, and that’s, uh ... there were ... well I was out in that and some fucked up shit happened, okay?” He did not want to go out there, but if this fog lasted for long, Jasper knew they wouldn’t have a choice. His gas tank wasn’t even full. “We can’t stay here though,” he muttered, looking fretfully out the window again, his body tense and braced for black eyed kids to swarm in out of the whiteness.
Rage fog was one thing. Hearing people died? That was something else and Logan frowned, trying to ignore the nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach. If the fog didn't move on then Jasper was right. They couldn't stay in the car for very long. It was fucking cold outside, and they didn't have anything to eat or drink. He ran a hand through his thick hair and tried to formulate a plan, but his brain was still fucked up from all the weed they had smoked throughout the day. "What kind of fucked up shit happened?" Logan asked after a moment. "To you, I mean." Maybe if this was the same crap then Logan could brace himself and be prepared.
Jasper remembered info-dumping on Logan when he’d first gotten back, but he couldn’t remember if he’d told him about the black eyed kids or not. Probably not, because it was kind of embarrassing once he had some distance from it. Nobody should be threatened by kids, especially not Jasper Lucas, but he knew they’d been something else, just wearing kids’ faces. Still, it was hard to admit that to a guy like Logan. “It was foggy ... not this bad, but still not driveable, so I just ... went to sleep in my car to let it pass in the morning,” he started, not looking at his friend at the moment. “In the middle of the night, I woke up and it was just ... pitch dark. These ... kids showed up. Knocking on my windows, asking for a ride. And I really wanted to give it to them, I like ... wanted to open the doors. It didn’t feel right. Then I realized that their eyes were all black. And everything just felt fucked up and wrong, and I fucked off out of there. I dunno how I got home without wrecking.” He swallowed and risked a quick glance over at Logan. “I talked to Ruby Fox about it later, and she said she’d seen them too. Right before her mom disappeared. She thinks they took her.”
If there was one thing that freaked Logan out, it was kids. All kinds of kids. Babies, toddlers, big kids. They were loud and gross and reeked of responsibility and the loss of like, everything he liked doing, black eyes or no. Jasper's description of what happened was unnerving and Logan glanced outside, half expecting to see kids staring in at them through the window. Thankfully there was nothing but fog, although that didn't make him feel any better. "So... do you think if you had let them into your car, they would have... taken you somewhere? Done something to you?" He couldn't remember hearing about Ruby's mom, but Logan had been pretty self-absorbed back in the day. He still was, mostly. "Did you recognize any of them? Shit, it sounds like any kind of fog here is bad news now."
“I don’t think I’d be sitting here talking to you, that’s for fuckin’ sure,” Jasper said. He tried not to sound snappy about it, but fuck, this was stressing him out. He didn’t even feel high anymore, the adrenaline or whatever survival hormone his body was pumping out had completely fucked his buzz. “But no, no I didn’t recognize them. I don’t think they’re real kids. They’re ... demons or something. They just look like kids so you’ll try to help them and they can get you.” It sounded pretty insane, he knew that, but this was Point Pleasant, so maybe it didn’t. “I just knew they were evil. I could fucking feel it. And this ... this isn’t good.” Jasper looked warily out at the fog again. “We were ... we were almost to Moxie’s, right? Like a couple buildings down?”
Jasper was definitely more stressed out about this than Logan was. But Jasper had obviously experienced some freaky shit while Logan had been gone, so he couldn't really blame him. "Man, I don't wanna deal with kids or demons," he muttered. For all they knew, this could just be fog. Some weird weather shit. The climate was changing, right? Fuckery all over, from what he remembered from the news. Maybe this was just part of the earth dying and shit. Logan inhaled deep and then ran his hand through his thick hair again. "Yeah, I think it was like... a block and a half? I could see the sign, at least." He looked over at Jasper. "You wanna try and get there?"
Jasper licked his lips nervously again, looking out into the fog warily. He knew they were on the curb, he knew the buildings they were close to, he knew this damn town like the back of his hand. But it was so disorienting not to be able to actually see any of it. They’d had the windows open for a minute once it had descended, so if it was going to turn them crazy, wouldn’t it have done that by now? Jasper didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary but fear. “It’s on this side of the street, if we stick close the buildings ... we should be able to get there. Y’think?” he asked, looking back over at Logan with eyes that were still a little wide. They all knew not to go wandering around out in a blizzard because of visibility, and this was sort of the same, but if they had a path to follow and things to keep them moving straight, he thought they should be able to make it.
Logan looked out his window again, squinting a bit as if that would somehow help him see through the fog. "I don't know, man. We can try. But it's also like... 10 degrees outside and snow everywhere. If we get lost we're going to freeze fast." He took a breath and sat back, trying to relax. "You sure you don't want to just wait a bit and see if this passes over? Or at least eases up a bit where we can see. You telling me stuff about demons and kids and shit... what if they're out there now, waiting for people to come out like we're thinking about doing?" Maybe he was being doom and gloom or morbid but Logan didn't feel like getting snatched in the fog by creepy kids.
That ‘what if’ wasn’t far from Jasper’s mind, and it made his stomach feel even worse. He slouched down lower in the car seat and stared around them like one of the kids would bang against the window at any second. Being inside a building would be much safer. Jasper didn’t know how long his car would just idle so they could keep the heat on, but the prickling on the back of his neck said this wouldn’t just blow over. “I’m open to better suggestions,” he muttered to Logan. He rubbed at his eye before he dipped his fingers into his inner jacket pocket to touch the hex bag again. “We can wait a while. But I don’t wanna run it completely outta gas, you know?”
"Let's just... wait a bit," Logan suggested. "And see what happens. If it doesn't get better soon and you're getting low on gas, we'll make a run for it, if we can. But I just think we're safer in here than out there right now. Maybe cell service will come back on and we can check and see what we're dealing with." He sighed. "But if you really want to make a run for it, we can. I just... I'm starting to freak out a little." Not as badly as Jasper seemed to be, though he was doing a good job at keeping it somewhat restrained. Logan just wasn't sure what to expect and while he was usually impulsive enough to jump into shit without thinking, that seemed like a really bad idea right now.
Jasper was beyond freaking out ‘a little,’ but he was doing his best to keep it under control. He was wearing a hoodie under his leather coat, and he reached back to pull the hood up over his head, leaning back and trying to breathe steady and slow. He sat forward again a second later to twist the radio knob on and search through the stations. He got nothing but static. Jasper cursed under his breath and sat back once more, gnawing restlessly at his bottom lip. He tried to think about his people instead of the black eyed kids. Amelia had been at home, Gavin was at the bar -- which was way too far to try and reach now -- and his uncles ... Jasper didn’t know. He thought Jules was at home but he hadn’t texted with her since that morning since he was hanging out with Logan ... he just hoped the weather had been too shitty for her to try and go out.
It hadn't been that long but Logan was already getting antsy. What if they were stuck there all night? What if something came out of the fog, like in those crazy SyFy movies? Octoshark. Though he supposed they would need to be in the ocean for that. Or not. Look at Sharknado. Maybe SpiderSnake, or something like that. Logan reached into his pocket and lit another cigarette, offering it to Jasper to help calm him down if he wanted it. "We should talk about something. Try to distract ourselves. Maybe not about black eyed kids or anything like that. Something stupid."
As much as he hated smoking in his car without windows cracked, Jasper needed the nicotine. He also probably needed a few more hits off of the blunt, but he’d left that at home, not wanting to get caught driving around with it. The PPPD liked to pull him over, like a bunch of assholes. He took the cigarette and took a drag off of it before handing it back. “Something stupid?” he murmured, trying to focus. Jasper knew he couldn’t help anyone from where he was, so Logan was probably right. “Aight ... you hooked up with Sebastian McCarthy again?” He shot his friend a vaguely amused little smirk.
Logan released a short laugh before slipping the cigarette between his lips. He didn't think it would be a big deal if he cracked the window again when the car got too smokey for them to deal with it. "Yeah. It's not like there's a lot of options in the dick department in this town," he pointed out. "And he seems open to hooking up, so... why not, right? He's like... the male version of Jules Cooper." So then Jasper would probably see the appeal. "And we're on the page about things, so even better."
Not a lot of options in the dick department. Jasper gave a snort and shook his head a little. That wasn’t something he ever thought about, nor did he really want to. “He’s definitely a lot like Jules,” Jasper murmured. He wouldn’t say they were exactly the same, since Jasper couldn’t imagine Sebastian McCarthy having the same kind of passion Jules did. But the guy was gay, so what did Jasper know? Maybe he’d never had anybody to feel passionate about before. “And what page is that? You’re just fucking?” he asked, glancing over at Logan again. That sure had worked out for him and Jules, hadn’t it? “He’s rebounding, y’know. Be careful.”
"There's no fucking. At least not in the fucking sense like you and Jules before you got infected with feelings. Just a hand job. And blow job." Logan handed Jasper the cigarette. "And yeah man, I know he's rebounding. That's what makes it so perfect. I don't have to worry about him catching feelings for me. He'll have his fun, wise up and move on to the next guy who is definitely more his type. Someone he can bring home to meet mommy and daddy. That sure as shit isn't me, thank god." Sebastian was cute and had a nice dick and they got on pretty well. But Logan wasn't looking for anything serious and it didn't seem like Sebastian was either. Logan smirked softly and reached over to ruffle Jasper's hair. "Thanks for your concern though. It's so sweet."
Jasper wrinkled his nose a bit at the lack of fucking -- handjobs and blowjobs came cheap, why not go for everything you could get? But maybe Bash was holding back. Or maybe gay sex was harder, Jasper didn’t know. Porn could be misleading. Not that he watched a lot of gay porn in the first place -- Logan interrupted his train of thought with the hair-ruffle, and Jasper grumbled a protest and batted his hand away. “From what I hear, he’s not bringin’ anybody home to mommy and daddy anytime soon,” Jasper said. “They weren’t happy about ... y’know, the gayness. Good luck with that, though. Talk more shit, and you’ll end up fallin’ in love with him.” Jasper grinned a little, in spite of everything.
Yeah, he got the feeling Sebastian's parents weren't exactly open arms about his dating life. Or sex life. Logan's parents were busy and neglectful enough that he wasn't even sure they knew he was bi. If they did, they didn't care. It just wasn't something any of them ever talked about. But he laughed at the thought of falling in love. Not with Sebastian, but anyone. "That's not going to happen," he said. "I'm not so easily whipped by magic pussy like you are, apparently. Or dick." He nudged Jasper with his elbow before glancing out the window again. Fuck this fog. "Anyway, are you really sure you're in love with Jules? I mean... really in love? You sure it's not just she's not like your other girls? I know shit like that can be fun, fucking a princess in her nice house with her snooty parents downstairs. But even that's got to get boring after awhile."
Even hearing bits of it second-hand made Jasper very happy he wasn’t gay. Most of his family would shit several bricks if he came home with some kind of boyfriend, he was pretty sure. He didn’t even want to think about it. So he focused on Logan’s obnoxious questions instead, rolling his eyes. He could hear the Jules in the back of his head already screaming about those questions. “Well it hasn’t yet, so I guess it must be love,” Jasper quipped. It was glib, but talking to Logan about anything related to his feelings for Jules felt weird. He knew Logan wouldn’t get it, and Jasper didn’t know how to explain it. “It’s way more than her pussy, man,” he added more seriously. “Or how different she is. I dunno how to explain it to you because you have no soul, but yeah, I’m sure I’m in love.” He elbowed Logan back, then snagged the cigarette out of his fingers to steal another drag. If nothing else, this was distracting him from the fog.
"I have soul," Logan protested before laughing. "Anyway, I'm just giving you shit, J. It's just weird to come home and you're like... actually in love with someone. An Overlook brat, of all people. There's nothing wrong with it. Jules is hot, and seems pretty cool when she's not scowling at me." He grinned and stretched his legs the best he could in the seat. He wondered how long it would take before they both started feeling restless and claustrophobic. "You've just changed a lot. Not that that's a bad thing. Just takes some adjusting," he added after a moment.
Jasper gave an amused little huff, trying to imagine the shoe on the other foot. What if he’d gone away and then come back to Logan in the same position? It would’ve been weird to him too. In fact, Logan might be taking it better than he would have. Jasper tended to get possessive of his people, and Logan definitely felt like his in ways that mattered. “Yeah, I know it’s weird,” he said more easily, tossing a smirk over at Logan. “It’s been weird to go through. Believe me when I say I didn’t mean for it to happen like it has. Not that I’m complaining, because it’s been ... kind of amazing, but ... yeah, I get it. Now I wanna ask how I’ve changed though,” he added, looking curiously at his friend.
"Well, for one, you're living with your dad now. But I mean, that's a life change thing, and it's probably better than you being with your mom, or sleeping in your car. But like, you're... less... angry? I don't know man, you seem happier, like with everything. I mean, I'm usually happier when I'm getting laid on the regular, but it's definitely more than that." Logan blew a breath out from between his lips and grinned. "I'm not good with the words and shit, you know that. I'm just happy to see you happy, that's all. Jealous as fuck too, but happy."
Jasper felt happier, generally, and less angry. He was sure there were a lot of factors involved -- Jules, not living with his mother, being almost done with school, having a better relationship with his dad. Amelia disappearing had thrown him for quite a while, but he felt like he’d recovered from that now. She was back. Different, but still herself, and so they just had to move forward. “It’s pretty cool to be happy,” Jasper answered with a little laugh. “You’ll get there, man. It’s definitely not all roses and unicorn farts, but shit is ... better. At least until more bullshit like this happens.” He sighed and glared out the window for a second.
"I've never been around a unicorn fart," Logan said with his own, more dramatic sigh. "Maybe someday." He was trying not to think too much about the fog, but he knew it would get tougher the longer they stayed in the car. And goddamn, he was hungry. The idea of Moxie's only being a couple blocks away made him want to say fuck it and suggest they run for it, but Logan had seen enough horror movies to know that could be a very bad idea right now. "You know," he began, taking the cigarette back from Jasper. "This place is a special kind of fucked up. But... it's not much better out there. I ran into a lot of weird shit when I was traveling, J. There are other towns like this one. I thought I'd be able to get away from it, but... I don't know. Maybe people like us are just drawn to the scary and weird. Or maybe the scary and weird is drawn to us. I mean, I was broke so that's why I came back but also because it's like, well, if I can't get away from it, why try? At least here I've got my mom, and you."
Jasper gave a soft snicker. “Why is it never fuckin’ unicorns?” he muttered. It was always something shitty with this town, some disaster or death or disappearance ... the big three Ds. They ought to make it the town motto. What Logan said was interesting though, and it wasn’t like they had anything else to do, so he quirked a brow at his best friend. “What kind of weird shit did you run into? Besides like, crazy junkies and stuff, ‘cause I think those are everywhere.” Logan hadn’t told him about anything traumatizing yet, nothing like what Jasper had been through since he’d been gone. It was good to have Logan back for the home-turf weird shit, Jasper was glad for the company, but it did make him a little sad that someone else he loved hadn’t been able to get away from this town.
Logan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, even though he didn't have much room to do it. It was just easier to be chill about everything and not care. Logan was pretty good at the not caring. Or pretending anyway. He wasn't even sure he wanted to talk about any of it while they were trapped in Jasper's car in some freaky ass fog. But Jasper had asked and it felt silly to try and deflect. "In Utah, we were driving on the interstate and got hungry. Couldn't tell you where we were specifically but you know those highway signs that tell you what food is off what exit? So me and the guys get off because it says there's a fucking McDonald's about two miles off the exit. Only there's not. We drive for about five miles and decide to turn around before we see a diner, right? Kind of like Moxie's, but older, and smaller. And it's pretty much by itself on this fucking road. There are trucks in the parking lot and it looks like there are people inside, so we park and go in to grab a bite. There were like, ten people there total, including the cook and one waitress. They all looked like inbred hilljacks, and I know that's mean but whatever, it was true."
Logan ran a hand through his hair, still looking outside. "So anyway, they're all staring at us, like we've come from outer space to abduct and probe them, right? Like we're from some other planet. The waitress comes over and she doesn't even say anything, but stares at us until we're all freaked out enough to just order pie and coffee, but I shit you not, J, everyone in that place just watched us and no one but the cook and waitress actually moved. No one talked, no one paid their bill and left. And it felt sort of suffocating after a while, ominous like if we didn't leave soon something bad was going to happen. We ate fucking fast and left a ton of money and just got the fuck out of there. We got in the car and pulled out of the parking lot and started to book it back to the highway when Kyle realized he left his phone on the table. So we had to go back. Only the diner was gone. We drove easily ten miles back and nothing. No parking lot. No diner. We called Kyle's phone and it said it was disconnected." Logan's lips twitched as he finally glanced at Jasper. "I know it sounds made up. But that's just one freaky ass thing we dealt with. I swear on my mom's life it's true."
Jasper listened intently as Logan spoke, watching his face even when he wasn’t looking at Jasper. It didn’t sound like a lie, even if it was the sort of story you told little kids around a campfire to keep them awake at night. It sent a cold chill down Jasper’s back, likely amplified by their current situation. The fog was creepy all by itself, and it seemed to present a blank canvas for Jasper to picture the scene Logan was describing, like a movie screen. “Damn dude,” he murmured quietly when the story was over. “That’s fucking creepy as fuck.” He blew some air out through his lips and ran a hand through his shaggy hair, then glanced over again with a soft chuckle. “How was the pie?”
The question had Logan laughing and he felt some of the lingering uneasiness that had surfaced with the memory fade. "The pie was pretty damn good, actually. We were all afraid it had been poisoned or something when we left. And we'd like, pass out and wake up in some creepy shed with saws and shit hanging from the ceiling. Like a horror movie." Logan shook his head. "Honestly, after trying to call Kyle's phone and it not working, I started wondering like, how many people went into that diner and just... disappeared like that damn phone. Maybe we got lucky. Or maybe they didn't want to keep our ugly asses." He grinned. "I guess at least being here, I kind of know what I'm dealing with. I mean, if some weird shit happens here, I'm with you which makes it slightly less freaky."
Jasper had meant to break the tension a bit, so he was glad when it worked and Logan laughed. It was a familiar, reassuring sound, something normal in the middle of all this weird shit. “Aw, too ugly for crazy murderous hillbillies from another dimension, poor you,” he teased, reaching out to pinch at Logan’s cheek. That couldn’t have been the reason, because Logan was hot, and he was sure some gross rapist-murderer would think the same. Maybe they’d been passed over because there were too many of them, or they’d just gotten lucky and left fast enough. It was yet another thing none of them would ever have answers for. “But yeah man, you know I got your back as much as I can. ... speakin’ of, my dad gave us written copies of his protective tattoos for Christmas. You should come with me, get some too. They’re like, symbols and shit, he got ‘em from a witch.”
"Fuck off," Logan said with a laugh, batting Jasper's hand away. He thought about a lot of stuff from his trip, and a lot of "what ifs" and general "what the fuck". But he was home now, and there was even more fuckery about. It was like he couldn't get away from it. At least right now it was just weird weather and not something worse like disappearing diners. Protective tattoos definitely sounded interesting though, and Logan looked at Jasper curiously. "Protective tattoos from a witch? And they actually work? And who the hell is a witch in this town? I mean, I could guess but... now I've got to know."
Jasper shrugged a bit. “They work for dad,” he said. “At least he thinks they do, I dunno. He saw some bad shit when he was a kid -- like, spooky bad shit, not just he had a shitty childhood bad shit -- and he thinks the tats have helped keep it away. At this point? I’m like, whatever helps, right?” He paused for a moment, considering whether or not he should tell Logan who the witches were that he knew about. He’d already told Jules, so why not, right? “Um ... Reagan Kelly? The one who runs that fancy soap store? She’s one. I think her boyfriend is too, D’Onofrio. ... there’s some our age too, but I dunno if I’m supposed to tell on those.” He gave Logan a regretful look.
He was much more interested in any witches their age, though he knew who Reagan Kelly was. And of course he knew the D'Onofrio name. Everyone did, considering they owned half the town. "Reagan Kelly. She's hot. Or she was a year ago. And she's a witch? Like, now I'm picturing her doing sex magic." He sighed happily, not even knowing whether or not sex magic was real. Whatever, it was his fantasy. "But you know, you won't show me Jules's tits, you won't tell me who's a witch." Logan threw his hands up a bit in exasperation. "You can trust me, you know? I'm not going to broadcast all this shit to people. I know what it means to keep a secret."
“Still hot,” Jasper confirmed about Reagan Kelly. She was just hot in a scary, rich girl kind of way. But hell, considering who he was dating, maybe that just added to her hotness to him. He didn’t know if sex magic was a real thing either, but it sounded kind of good. “It’s not about you dude,” he said, rolling his eyes at Logan’s dramatics. Jasper understood though -- he would’ve wanted to know too. But he especially didn’t want to tell now that Logan had fooled around with Sebastian. Logan could keep a secret, but he didn’t know if he could keep that kind of secret from somebody he was messing around with. “It’s just not mine to tell, y’know?” He knew that would still be unsatisfying, but he wasn’t going to crack. “And why do you wanna see Jules’s tits so bad?” he added with a laugh.
Logan groaned. "Fine, don't tell me. Keep your secrets." He wasn't really mad about it. It was probably just another way Jasper had seemingly changed in the past year. But Logan also figured he would eventually find out this stuff, if not on his own then from someone else. He supposed everyone had secrets to keep. It was just harder to do in a small town like this. Jasper's question about Jules's tits prompted a quick laugh and he nudged Jasper with his arm. "Because they're Jules Cooper's tits. Every guy at school fantasized about seeing them right? But I'm just fucking with you, J. Sort of. Just trying to distract from all of that." He gestured toward the window. "I'd much rather be talking about tits than whatever that is."
“Well they’re better than you’ve imagined, I’ll say that much,” Jasper teased. Had every guy fantasized about Jules’s tits? It wasn’t something Jasper had thought about in a while. He’d known she was hot, of course, but before they’d hooked up he hadn’t spent much brainpower on fantasizing about her, since she was so far out of his league. He wondered vaguely how many dudes still fapped, thinking about his girlfriend. Which of course led him to wonder if Logan had, and that made his neck feel a bit overly warm. He looked out the windshield at all that never-ending fog and felt unsettled all over again. Why hadn’t they brought a joint or two with them? Fuck. “I’m still fuckin’ hungry, too,” he muttered.
Logan had fantasized about Jules's tits. But he'd fantasized about a lot of girls over the years. Still, thinking about boobs was making him horny and he was already hungry so it was a bad combination. "I'm hungry too," he admitted with a sigh. "I say we just... try to get to Moxie's. I mean, we might freeze our balls off, but... if you're willing, I am."
And they did try. But they barely got twenty feet before realizing that they literally could not see where they were going and it was so bitterly cold that Logan's fingers had begun to physically hurt from it within the first few minutes of being outside.
It drove them back into Jasper's car, where they stayed huddled up together, hoping the fog would lift, or that someone would drive by and "rescue" them, although if they couldn't drive, Logan wasn't sure who could. Eventually Logan fell into an uncomfortable sleep, his stomach growling from hunger and his legs slightly cramped from sitting in the car for so damn long. At some point during the night, assuming it was night, the car finally fell silent, having run out of gas. It didn't take long for the cold to creep into the car and Logan kept himself pressed up against Jasper simply for the body warmth. This was some major bullshit if you asked him.
Logan wasn't sure what time it was when he woke up because when he checked his phone, he found it dead. "Fuck," he mumbled, sitting up a bit in his seat and rubbing the sleep crusties from his eyes with one hand. "Hey, is your phone working?" he asked Jasper, nudging him a bit.
The attempt to leave the car had been terrifying, and while Jasper had done his best to keep calm, He’d been freaking out inside the entire time, expecting every second to be grabbed by a black eyed kid ... or worse. The fog hadn’t turned them into rage-monsters, at least, and he’d never been so fucking grateful to climb back into his car than he was when they found their way back. In spite of the heat coming through the vents, Jasper hadn’t truly warmed back up by the time the car died. He and Logan got close, Jasper opening his jacket to wrap it around both of them as much as possible, and he’d eventually fallen into a fitful sleep.
The nudge woke him more than Logan’s voice, and his body twitched, heart rate spiking. Jasper stared at his friend without recognizing him for a couple of heartbeats before his brain caught up to where they were and what was happening. “Fuck dude,” he muttered, rubbing his hands over his face as he sat up too. Everything felt crampy and sore and bad, his extremities were aching with cold, Jasper felt thirsty and hungry and he needed a bathroom. Pissing out the car door could only take you so far. He found his phone in his pocket and woke the screen up. “It’s a little after six AM.” And the fog hadn’t budged. Of course. Jasper scooted in closer to Logan again, toward the body heat. “Sun’s up ... fog’s still here.”
"Yeah." Logan was dead tired and he just wanted his bed at the moment. Well, he wanted a bathroom, some food and then his bed. Six AM was way too fucking early for this. He also wanted a cigarette and he fumbled around in his coat pocket for his pack. He pulled it out and groaned when he saw it was crumpled up. Thankfully there were enough cigarettes left in one piece and Logan pulled one out to slip between his lips. He was still exhausted and irritable, so it was possible that the brief glimpse of movement he saw ahead was his sleep deprived imagination. But Logan still tensed and straightened a bit in the seat, his cigarette dangling from his lips and momentarily forgotten. "Hey, did you see that? There's something... maybe. I can't really tell but it looks like someone moving down the street?"
Jasper was busy getting his own cigarettes out. If they couldn’t eat, he at least wanted to smoke. He looked up at Logan’s words, his heart giving another one of those unpleasant jumps in his chest. At first he didn’t see anything, but a second later something moved in the fog. It was just a shadow, slightly darker than the rest of the blankness. It was difficult to judge distance in all of this, Jasper was starting to feel like his eyes were just broken, but the thing moved again and he got the sense that it was coming closer. It was getting bigger. Like, bigger than a person. “Oh shit,” he whispered, his cigarette pack falling into his lap. While they were gaping, the shadow-thing seemed to lunge to one side, and Jasper heard the unmistakable sound of metal crunching. It must have been a car. His hand groped out to clutch at Logan and he push-pulled at him. “We have to go,” Jasper hissed urgently. “Fucking run.”
Logan was fascinated by the thing moving out there but he was also maybe half asleep, so when Jasper pushed at him he blinked in surprise. "Wait, what?" Even in the haze of his confusion he was grasping at the door handle and pushing it open. The freezing air definitely woke up him then, as did the sound of shattering glass down the street. "Run to where?" he asked Jasper. They had tried this yesterday and it hadn't worked. Then again there hadn't been some weird, creepy dark mass moving down the street destroying cars either. The air was so bitterly cold that it hurt Logan's throat to talk, but he wasn't going to stand there as they formulated a plan. They could do that as they ran into the fog.
“Just out!” Jasper had no idea where they would go, only that they could not stay in the car. He was absolutely positive that they would die if they did. They might die anyway, running blind into the freezing fog, but his animal instinct was considering the shadow-thing coming toward them as more dangerous and was willing to take the chance. Jasper all but pushed Logan out of his open door, shoving himself across the bench seat to tumble out into the cold with him. Jasper got his feet under him, grabbing for any part of Logan he could, and started to run. He ran toward the back of his car and beyond, away from the thing advancing on them; they’d gone forward the day before and failed to find any shelter, but it wasn’t like they had a choice now.
Logan didn't know where to go, or what to do at this point and he was imagining them just running through fog forever. Or until they fell over dead from exposure. But he kept his hand gripping some part of Jasper's coat just so they wouldn't lose each other in the elements. Were they headed in the right direction? Assuming they knew where the right direction was. Where was Moxie's? Or any of those buildings on the damn street. Logan was panting, his throat raw from the cold. All he knew was they had to find something fast or they were completely fucked, either from the cold or from whatever was behind them.
Where the fuck were the buildings? Jasper already felt like they had been running for an eternity, and he was completely disoriented and terrified and pretty sure they were about to die. The cold air burned his lungs and exposed skin, and even with the physical effort he could feel that shiver-tension starting up in his muscles. He could hear more metal screeching behind them, and an insane part of him wanted to turn back to try and protect his car, just as a fleeting desire. The instinct to get away was stronger than anything else however, to get away and hold tight to Logan.
Jasper veered them toward the left a bit, hoping that if they altered their course they would run into civilization faster. The snow under his feet turned into sidewalk, which was a good sign, but that realization only lasted for a split second. The next thing Jasper knew, pain was exploding across his upper chest and arm as sharp claws swiped out of the fog and tried to catch him. He stumbled into Logan, crying out in pain and terror, sending both of them to the ground for a second, everything blotted out by animal fear.
Logan was really close to just giving up and falling to the ground and letting the elements finish him off. His muscles were tense and his face was almost completely numb and he had no fucking idea where they were now. He honestly felt ready to puke, but then something came out of the fog and Jasper was shouting and they were both falling to the ground. He landed on his back where the wind was knocked out of him. Logan wheezed as he struggled to draw in a breath, but even that fucking hurt. There was a metallic sort of smell that wafted up into his nostrils and he realized it smelled a bit like blood. Shit, who was bleeding? Looking over at Jasper he could see his friend's coat was fucked up and Logan grabbed Jasper to haul him to his feet as he got to his own. Oh shit, they were really going to die out here, weren't they? "Come on," he shouted, not caring anymore if Fog Demon Monster heard them. He was going to get them to safety and FDM could just suck his balls. Logan didn't really believe in God, but he was willing to believe in miracles for the mere fact that as soon as he began to drag Jasper along behind him a dark shape appeared several feet ahead. It wasn't a scary shape, but... a building. A door. "There," he told Jasper, moving on pure adrenaline now as he ran towards it.
If it hadn’t been for Logan getting him on his feet again, Jasper probably would have died. The fog monster was pursuing them, though he kind of got the sense that it was toying with them, that it could grab both of them and rip them to shreds any second if it wanted to. His body was on auto-pilot as he ran with Logan, the slice in his flesh singing with bright hot pain. It burned, it burned more than anything he’d ever felt, and part of him was pretty sure he was bleeding to death. Then they were at a building, a door that was familiar to him but Jasper couldn’t place in the moment, mostly glass, with a metal frame. Jasper fell against it, but it didn’t move, then he saw that it was a pull not a push and he lurched to yank it open, praying in a completely wordless way that it wasn’t locked. It came open, almost making him fall backward again, and Jasper lurched inside.
Logan followed Jasper inside and pulled the door shut quickly behind them. He locked it without thinking, and then thought in a morbidly amused way that the door was glass, as were so many of the large windows and that Thing could just smash right through and eat them. He saw it move through the fog several feet ahead and Logan turned back to Jasper, grabbing his friend's unharmed arm to pull him along down toward the back of the store. "We gotta stay away from the windows. Back to the pharmacy." The convenience store was fucking empty as far as he knew, unless people were hiding in the back room. At least they had bandages and shit here, because Jasper was bleeding pretty bad. "Don't pass out on me, man."
The pain was burning hotly across Jasper’s upper chest and shoulder, and it was starting to make him feel queasy. As much as he could think about anything, he thought it burned a lot more than it should. He let Logan pull him around, hardly aware of where they were. It was just inside, it was warmer, and there didn’t seem to be any huge fuck-off murder-monsters inside. The two of them moved down an aisle with a small selection of groceries, then the pharmacy counter was in sight and Jasper knew where he was. He was in too much pain to be relieved, but at least a place like this would have painkillers and antiseptic and all that good shit.
Logan led Jasper around to the two steps that led up into the pharmacy. There was one lone chair back there and he nudged Jasper to it. "Sit down. I'll go get some shit to put on that." He didn't know how bad it was, but Jasper looked pale and there was a lot of blood. "Take off your coat, if you can." He turned to head back down into the aisles and he looked around for any sign of someone else. "Hello?" Logan shouted. Had the place been empty when the fog came in? Maybe everyone who had been in here took off or tried to get home even with the lack of visibility. Were they really alone? No one answered him anyway, so Logan began to grab bandages and antiseptic and other shit that he didn't know they would need. After dumping everything on the counter, he left to grab some bottles of water from the coolers lining the other side of the store. At least there was food in here, and they could eat something after Jasper was taken care of. He returned to his friend and handed him a bottle of water. "How bad does it hurt?"
While Logan was running around gathering things, Jasper got his coat off. It was a struggle, and he already hated that some asshole monster had fucked up his favorite jacket, but he managed to get it off. The heat was running in the store, so it wasn’t freezing in there, but he still felt cold as he carefully stripped his shirt off too. It would be in the way. Jasper hissed a breath in through his teeth as he prodded the skin around the scratch. It was still sluggishly bleeding and it burned like a bitch, but Jasper couldn’t see bone through it or anything, so he thought maybe he would be okay. “Thanks,” he muttered as he took the water from Logan. “It hurts pretty fuckin’ bad.” Jasper held the bottle between his knees to twist the top off, then tilted it up to drink greedily.
Logan wrinkled his nose. "It looks pretty bad too. But hey, you're going to have a kick ass scar, so that's something." He grabbed one of the antibiotic wipes and tore it open. "I guess we clean it first, right? Like... man, I don't know what I'm doing, so if it hurts, just don't hit me in the face." Because it was heavy and in the way, or so it felt like, Logan unzipped his coat to shrug out of it. They were staying put until help came, or the fog cleared up. You couldn't pay his ass to go back outside right now. "If it gets to be bad, there's a shit ton of prescription meds behind us." He grinned and pulled out one of the wipes. "Uh, so yeah, this might sting? I think." He slipped a hand around Jasper's arm to hold it as he began to clean around the wound.
“Yeah, we clean it first,” Jasper said as Logan stripped his coat off. He’d hurt himself enough times to know, working on cars and trying to learn to skateboard. You cleaned and disinfected and then put cream and a bandage on. He’d never had a wound quite so big though. Or one that burned like his skin was on fucking fire. The longer it went, the more dizzy and sick he started to feel. Jasper had time to worry for a couple of seconds that he might pass out, but then Logan touched him with the wipe. The pain he was already feeling tripled in an instant, and Jasper yelped, jerking in the chair to try and pull away from it. It was a completely involuntary reaction, as were the tears that flooded his eyes. Nothing had ever hurt like that before.
Logan's eyes widened and he pulled his hand back. "Shit, man, sorry. It's just rubbing alcohol. Maybe... maybe you've got some poison or shit from that thing. Um... maybe we should just pour water on it first and see if that hurts less." Logan was no doctor and his brand of medical care was slapping a band-aid on something. Jasper probably needed a doctor, but there wasn't one around and there was no way they could get to the hospital right then. Logan looked past Jasper toward the aisles of medication. "Want me to see if they've got any Vicodin or Oxy? Something to numb you a little?"
It was still burning, but it got a little less as the moment passed, and Jasper was able to blink his vision clear enough to look at Logan. Maybe water would be better, rubbing alcohol was good but not kind to exposed nerve endings. Pills also sounded fucking fantastic, and Jasper was nodding to both of those options. “Yeah, please,” he rasped. His mouth was full of spit and he had that feeling in his jaw like he was going to hurl pretty soon. “Fuck, it hurts man, it burns so bad.” Jasper hated to sound whiny about anything, but fuck. He’d cut himself a hundred times and it had never felt like this.
Logan didn't think twice about moving through the pharmacy to look for some hardcore pain medication. It was illegal and all that, but this was an emergency and he didn't think they would get caught anyway. Unless there were cameras somewhere. Which there probably were. Oh well, fuck it. It took him a while before he found what he needed and he brought a bottle of Oxy back to give Jasper a couple. "Well, you got sliced by some creepy ass monster," Logan said, putting the bottle down to grab his water bottle to use that instead of the rubbing alcohol. "Just don't become some bad sci-fi movie and turn into one of those things. I'm gonna pour some water on it now. If it hurts, I'm really sorry." Water was water! It couldn't hurt too bad, but then again this was not a simple cut. If it hurt Jasper as bad as the other stuff, he was going to call it a day and just wrap the damn thing up to stop the bleeding.
Jasper worried for a few minutes that all of the good drugs were locked up and Logan would come back empty-handed. He succeeded though, and Jasper greedily popped the pills and drank them down with a couple of swallows from Logan’s water bottle. Then he tried to brace himself, sure that water wouldn’t hurt as much as the alcohol had. Jasper was terribly wrong about that, and he let out another cry as fire tore through him all over again. He pushed at Logan’s hands in a desperate instinct to get the pain to stop, his face contorted in agony. “Stop stop, I can’t, man,” Jasper wailed, openly weeping now. He slipped off the chair and down to his knees as his stomach turned over, and Jasper promptly leaned forward and puked up the water and pills he’d just taken. At least they were in a pharmacy with plenty more. He braced himself with his good arm, wishing dully that he would just pass out already. He felt like he was dying.
Well, fuck. This was bad. Logan grabbed for the pharmacy phone to call 911 but found it dead. "Fuck," he muttered as he slammed it back down into the cradle. Then he turned to Jasper and grabbed the gauze and bandages he had grabbed from the aisle. "Okay, forget all that shit." He knelt beside Jasper, mindful of the watery puke. "Let's just get it wrapped up. It'll be okay. It just needs to stop bleeding." He tore open the gauze and placed his hand on Jasper's chest to nudge him into sitting up. "Let's do this and then you can lay down if you need to." There was nowhere comfortable to sleep here, but it was what it was. It had to be better than being out in the car. Logan felt completely out of his depth here, but there was nothing he could do about that but help where he could, even if his help was shit.
Jasper sat up with Logan’s help, leaning back against the chair and wiping his mouth off with his forearm. He was dizzy and clammy and cold, except for the band of lava-heat that throbbed around his wound. He looked blearily at Logan, aware in a distant way that it was bad to cover up a wound without cleaning it, but he really couldn’t take that kind of pain again. Not without passing out, which would’ve been a mercy. That in mind, he almost told Logan to try again, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. So he just tried to breathe while his best friend patched him up. The touching around the wound didn’t hurt as bad as the attempts at cleaning had, and it even felt a little better once the bandage was pressed over it. “Lemme try the pills again,” he mumbled.
Logan didn't care about the medical crap. He had poured water over the damn wound, and that's all Jasper could seem to handle, so that was that. He could wrap this bandage around Jasper's wound and hope that his friend was still okay when the fog lifted and Logan could get him to the hospital. With that finished, Logan grabbed the pill bottle again and gave a few to Jasper. "I'd get you a beer if they sold alcohol in here," he said. "I wish I knew what else to do for you, man. You want me to find you something to eat?" He was starving, even more so now that some of the urgency of Jasper's injury had worn off.