Who: Shayna Mae and Nate Where: Dragonfly When: Thursday, December 28, evening Status: Complete
It had been an interesting day and a half. Well, somewhat interesting. Having been out to buy a new pair of boots for herself, and a couple of hoodies for Max, Shayna Mae had gotten stuck in the fog, causing her to abandon her truck on the side of the road and slowly make her way toward the first building with an open door - Dragonfly. She had never actually been in the bar before, but she had seen it plenty of times while out and about in town. Shayna Mae knew that Veronica Kelly’s son Nate owned the place, so it was slightly less stressful being around another witch.
The magic that permeated throughout the place seemed to make everyone… happy. Or at least chill. Some people even felt so good and confident that they tried to leave, a few actually succeeding and disappearing into the fog, no matter how hard Nate tried to convince them to stay.
Shayna Mae tried to keep to herself for the most part. Some people spoke to her, but it was mostly “aren’t you that chick that lives in the woods?” questions and comments, and while that never bothered her, it was hard to be chatty when she worried about where her family might be.
And now they had dark creatures roaming the streets outside. Shayna Mae hadn’t been able to get a good look at them, because they faded so effortlessly in and out of the fog, but she felt safe. There were strong protective wards on this place. It was probably odd that she worried more about her truck than herself. At the moment she just wished she could contact Knox and her brothers. Her muscles were a bit achy from the lack of a decent place to sleep… and lack of sleep… and she wasn’t terribly fond of the uncertainty that came with this fog. How much longer would it take? Where did the creatures come from? Who set them loose, or conjured them?
Eventually, Shayna Mae found herself wandering through Dragonfly, not for the first time. But now she slipped into the back, just for some distance between herself and everyone else still huddled in the bar. As much as she liked people, Shayna Mae was used to privacy, and being around strangers like this was starting to get to her.
Nate was normally chill at work, in part because of the magic he’d put on the place, but mostly because he liked his job. Now, though, he was stressed beyond anything he’d thought capable, and that included the weird that had taken over at Halloween. The fog had been annoying, and he’d done his best to keep people inside, but he couldn’t hold them hostage. And for those that remained, he felt a little like a babysitter, even if everyone was over twenty-one. They needed food and drinks and a comfortable place to rest, which made his bar feel a little like a high scale homeless shelter.
But when the monsters showed up, he began to wish there was an easy way to remove the spells that had been carved into the bar beneath the counters. It helped that people weren’t panicking, but every foot that stepped outside felt like blood on his hands. He closed the bar down, refusing to serve anything alcoholic and begged people to stay put, then eventually went to hide in the back, serving himself a drink after he’d denied everyone else. When Shayna Mae wandered in, he felt like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and he gave her an embarrassing little smile. “Everything okay out there?”
Shayna Mae almost didn't notice Nate, so caught up in her urge to hide that she hadn't realized the owner had disappeared from the front. His embarrassed smile amused her though, as did the glass in his hand, because she was pretty sure that wasn’t apple juice. "I think so. I mean, everything was fine when I left," she admitted. She walked over to sit down close to him, but kept a comfortable distance. "I'm sorry. I starting to feel a little overwhelmed being around so many people." It really wasn't that many, but it was more than Shayna Mae was used to for this long. "I won't tell anyone," she said, gesturing to his glass. "But only if you share?"
“Sure,” Nate said with a little laugh and fetched her a glass before pouring for her. “I just can’t have everyone drunk. It’s hard enough keeping ‘em in and… I feel responsible for ‘em.” He knew that drinking was exactly what everyone out there wanted to do in a situation like this, but it was too hard to manage, especially short staffed. He’d expected Sage to make it in, but the guy never showed, probably because of the fog. Nate couldn’t blame him. “I don’t usually mind the people, but they usually leave at the end of the night, you know?” He sat back and had another sip of his drink. “You’re an O’Reilly, right?”
The thing was, Nate wasn't responsible for anyone in his bar. Though she could see why he thought he would be. But they were all adults who could make their own choices. Of course... some of the magic in the bar might be influencing them, and that could be what he was talking about. She took the glass he had poured with her with a smile of thanks. "I'm an O'Reilly," she confirmed with a nod before sipping her drink. It wasn't as good as Aidan's moonshine, but it was pretty tasty. "Shayna Mae. And you're Nate Kelly, Veronica's son." She had encountered Veronica a few times before, and Nate's sister Reagan more than a handful of times, but she couldn't remember ever having a real conversation with Nate before. "For what it's worth I think you're handling everything here as well as can be expected. You seem pretty calm."
“Nice to meet you, Shayna Mae,” Nate smiled. He thought he’d seen her before, but he knew he hadn’t met her. He would’ve remembered a name like that. “It’s the bar keeping me calm. Mostly. Some of it’s knowing that I’m doing all I can do,” he said with a little laugh. He was normally pretty chill in a crisis and things weren’t that bad yet. They were stuck, but they had food and water and bathrooms. And the booths were okay for sleeping in. The floor wasn’t so great, but it had been early on a Wednesday and there weren’t that many people there. “It’s not being able to reach anyone that’s really bugging me. Mostly family.” Mostly Reagan. “You know how that is.”
"I do," Shayna Mae said after taking a drink from her glass. "I keep trying to figure out how I could magic to reach them, but it's just not in my skillset. But they're all pretty capable people, so I'm sure they're okay." And Knox, being their familiar, was hopefully keeping an eye on Max, since he was the one who wouldn't be able to protect himself with magic if it came down to it. She felt relatively calm about the entire ordeal, which Shayna Mae figured was partly due to the magic in the bar. "I'm sure your family is okay too. Your mom is one of the most talented witches in town." She smiled. "And scariest. No offense, of course."
“Yeah, she’s not the one I’m worried about,” Nate admitted with a laugh. “Though if anyone knew how to keep tabs on people during this fog, it would be her, so it’s probably not even worth worrying about.” Plus, Reagan had Caius looking out for her. Nate didn’t know how he’d go about it, but he had the feeling the man would make it happen. Anthony D’Onofrio could likely accomplish it too, if he felt like it. “It’s times like this that I wish I was a little more well rounded magically, but how do you prepare for monster infested fogs if you don’t know they’re a thing?”
"I think... we should always assume anything and everything can be a thing," she said with a laugh. "But I understand what you're saying. You have some pretty effective wards on this place though, so I feel safe. I just wish the same could be said for the entire town." Shayna Mae sipped her drink, wishing Knox would show up. If anyone could travel through this danger, she was sure he could. But Shayna Mae knew he ought to stay home and protect Max. "There always seems to be something out there stronger than magical protection. I can only imagine where these creatures came from."
“Can you lock down an entire town like that?” Nate said thoughtfully. “Even if you could, it’d be a bitch to maintain. And you couldn’t do anything about it if something came from within. That’s what I always wonder. Where do these things come from?” The fog had rolled in from the sea side of town, but Nate didn’t buy in to the idea that the creatures had come from the ocean like oversized saltwater crocodiles. Something drew them here, that was for sure, but wherever they’d been before now they weren’t causing the kind of havoc that made national news. Maybe there was a town nearby that had been swallowed whole, spit out and left deserted. That would be easier to accept than multiple places buying into whatever spin town officials tried to put on it.
"I think... a really powerful witch could do it. Or maybe a coven of them. I like to think that a long time ago, before the executions, the Six families kept the town safe together. Or tried to anyway, before Burroughs showed up." Shayna Mae took a longer drink from her glass, thankful for the alcohol to keep her calm, even though the bar itself had enough magic to do just that. "I don't know where they're coming from though. I'm morbidly curious about it. Was there a rip in our dimension? Do other dimensions exist? Is it just us, or other towns?" Shayna Mae smiled faintly. "It's always been frustrating having so many questions and very few answers. But I had been feeling off lately, like something ominous was coming, right around Christmas. This must be it."
“It’s hard to imagine the Six working together to do anything these days,” Nate said, trying to picture it and failing. Personalities clashed in so many places, egos so big that he doubted they’d stoop to sharing their secrets. The concept of a coven seemed foreign, the kind of thing that only happened in movies. But maybe they did keep the town safe, once upon a time… “Other dimensions sound so sci-fi, but that would actually make sense. Like, if there was some kind of a tear here that kept letting things through. Or a door.” If it was a door, maybe it could be shut. A tear could be mended. But then this had been going on for so long that it was hard to imagine it was anything simple. “You could feel it coming?” he asked, curious about that. “Like precognition?”
"I think that was the point of Burroughs. Tear the magical families apart, isolate them... I mean, even your family and the D'Onofrio's had to deal with a centuries old curse designed to keep them apart through death or other means. And the town became cursed." Shayna Mae finished her drink and set the glass down. "But you're right, it's hard to imagine our families coming together and sharing our magic, merging it. But imagine what we could do if we did." She sighed and then smiled at him. "I absolutely think there are... portals?... around town. If you look at the people who have gone missing in the tunnel, or the cemetery. It makes sense. I don't know how or why they open, but this could be one of those things. I just don't know, which is frustrating. I can't say I had a precognition of this, but the week of Christmas I felt odd, like something bad was coming. It wasn't just me, my brother did too. Maybe as witches we're more sensitive to things like that? Did you feel anything?"
Nate raised a brow, surprised that Shayna Mae knew about the curse. Even Reagan and Caius hadn’t known until recently and he didn’t think either of them were great friends with any of the O’Reilly’s. “I’d say yes, but it’s hard for me to tell what it’s related to. My family’s been dealing with that curse a lot lately. Not me specifically, but it just seems to keep getting worse the harder they try to fix it. With that plus the holidays, it just felt like things were starting to spiral.” He’d assumed it was a more personal problem, but now he wasn’t so sure. Maybe he’d been feeling the fog on the air, a cover that allowed another dimension to open for a short amount of time. There were definitely hotspots around town, places that seemed to be more dangerous than the others. “How’d you know about my family’s curse?” he asked. “And what do you mean the town’s cursed? Do you just mean figuratively?”
Shayna Mae blinked in mild surprise. "I guess I assumed everyone knew. I mean, a lot of the Six's history is chronicled in my family's grimoire, and some journals left behind." Then again her family's bloodline had generally stayed to themselves over the past few decades, so she probably shouldn't be surprised that Nate hadn't known what was common knowledge and what wasn't. "I'm sorry your family is still dealing with it though. Curses can be pretty intricate. And I think the town is cursed... literally." She shrugged softly and pushed some blonde hair back behind her ear. "I think when the Six were executed, it did something to this place. Evil won, you know? And it's been sticking around ever since."
“It sounds like your family is better at sharing information than mine is,” Nate said with a roll of his eyes that wasn’t directed at her. His mother and Anthony D’Onofrio had gone out of their way to keep that information from their children, but it was impossible to know how far that reached. Did they pressure the other adults into keeping their secret? Had the Castell twins known? Or Harper Lyttle? And then there was the way the McCarthy’s had shut off their own children from magic, so unaware of their own history that they didn’t realize they also carried the Baron line. The way the witches in this town kept secrets, it was no wonder evil was winning. They kept shooting themselves in the foot. “I could totally see that,” he said, sipping at his drink. “And knowing now what we know about the curse Baron put on our families, I can’t even imagine the layers to something put on the whole town. Except I never thought Burroughs was a witch, so maybe…maybe that just opened a door.”
"No, I think Burroughs was something else," Shayna Mae mused. "Something darker. Of course, there's no proof of that, beyond how he riled everyone up in town about witches. Some people are really charismatic at the pulpit. They'll get you to believe anything. Especially if they have a touch of something dark, they may be more persuasive." She sighed and then smiled at Nate. "I've always thought there were place in the world more sensitive to things like... well, like us. Good and bad. Point Pleasant is one of those places. And I think that's why so many of us never leave, or we come back. It's comforting in a way, but also... not. I know that doesn't make any sense. It's just a never ending cycle."
“It makes sense,” Nate smiled. “I’ve heard it before, from people that wanted to get out but failed. I always thought that I came back of my own free will, but who knows what would’ve happened if I wanted differently. Maybe I would’ve been successful if I’d found another place like this.” But then it would’ve been safer to go with the devil he knew, rather than the one he didn’t. Except Nate had never really felt the need to go with the safe choice. Or the easy one. “Sometimes I think we must feed off it, that there’s some kind of magical energy here that we feel drawn to. Otherwise I can’t explain how there’s so many of us in one place.”
"There's definitely an energy." Shayna Mae knew that much to be true. This whole town was tinged with magic, and not necessarily the good kind. But it went deeper than that too. "I think this fog will clear up soon. I just don't know what will be waiting for us when it does. But there are worse places I could be trapped," she added with a small grin. "So I appreciate your hospitality. And the drink. Do you need any help? Anything I can do to make this a bit easier on you?" He seemed to be trying to make sure everyone was okay, and that had to be exhausting in this particular situation.
Nate suspected there would be bodies waiting for them when the fog lifted. Lots and lots of bodies. They probably had the busiest morgue in the state, at least compared to the number of people in their little town. But that wasn’t what she was referring to. This felt like the beginning of something bigger, like it had come with the fog and would remain when it left. He gave her a small smile. “If you could help me keep people here, that’d be great. I like that they feel safe, but if they walk out that door because I’ve stripped away the fear that would keep them alive, that’s...not what I was going for, you know?”
Shayna Mae had a feeling there would be casualties from the fog, and what roamed in it, but she was trying not to think too deeply on it. Death was always tragic, but it seemed to be expected in Point Pleasant. "I'll do what I can," she promised Nate. "I don't want to take away anyone's free will, but... maybe we can keep the door from opening... magically. Just a small thing. If someone tries to leave and panics that the door won't open, we can deal with it then, but it might deter some people from trying at least."
“I could be on board with that,” Nate smiled. “And it would mean I wouldn’t have to keep such a close eye on the door the whole time.” And he wouldn’t have to feel bad about moments like these, where he knew he was lacking, giving people a chance to slip away when he wasn’t looking. Nate knew there were ways to magically remove people’s free will, but he wasn’t willing to stoop to that level. It felt too much like playing god, even if it was for their own good.
Shayna Mae wasn't sure if he could just take down whatever magic he had in this place that made everyone feel so good, but given how intricate it probably was, she doubted it would be easy. A simple spell on the door might be better. "We'll do that then, if we have to," Shayna Mae said. "But until then, we'll do what we can if someone wants to leave. It might get harder to keep them here the longer this goes on. People will get restless, if they're not already. I guess we should probably get back out there."
Unfortunately for Nate, the magic that made the bar so special was carved into the underside of the bar, the physical runes making the hold so much stronger, but also far more complicated to remove. He hadn’t envisioned ever needing to, but now saw that that might have been poor planning on his part. Or at least a lack of creativity when considering the sort of bullshit this town threw at them. “I won’t hold them against their will,” he said, rising from his seat. “But yeah, let’s get back out there and get that spell up. Discreetly, if possible,” he smiled.
Shayna Mae was of the mind that it might be okay to hold someone against their will if it ultimately saved their lives. But this was Nate's bar, not hers, and she would help where she could. Even with a simple spell. "Discreetly," she agreed with a smile of her own. "And if people get too curious or nosy, I'll just start singing and dancing like a maniac and create a proper diversion so you could finish it up." Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, for all their sakes, as Shayna Mae couldn't carry a tune.
“Now I kinda hope they’ll be nosy,” Nate laughed, though he knew it would be for the better if no one took an interest in what he was doing. His sister might be one of the more well known witches in town, for those that knew any at all, but Nate preferred to operate a little more under the radar. If more people knew he knew magic, then they might start wondering about the bar itself. Even if they enjoyed its effects, people didn’t like to be manipulated, so he was hoping to remain as inconspicuous as possible. The sooner this fog passed and they could all go home, the better.