Who: Vex and Carson When: midday, Wednesday, Jan 3rd Where: phone! Status: Complete
Vex had never struck Carson as an early riser. He’d spent some time around the guy now that they had two full moons together under their belts, and while Carson really appreciated everything Vex and Lem did for him, he still thought they were weird as fuck. He was always glad that Nic was hanging around too. Not just for his own sake, but for Rylee’s. Carson couldn’t watch out for her while he was all wolfed out, so he was glad she had a friend there too.
It did mean he had Vex’s phone number though, and he wanted to call him about his dream. Once it was a decent hour for normal people, instead of his natural early waking time, Carson ambled into one of the back rooms of the gym to give him a call. He was curious what the guy would think about the dream, and even more curious to see if his mind had just barfed something up, or Vex really did have lunch with one of the Overlook wives.
Vex was awake and had been awake for a while, in fact. He felt manic and paranoid and had spent the morning dragging barrels from the basement to the van because they needed to get rid of what remained of the dead body now now now. Lem hadn't managed to stop him and he'd been obnoxious to her, not wanting her to come along. If the cops stopped him, he was alone in this and what help was she anyway? She was just a stupid kid, she shouldn't even try to get rid of a body and she couldn't lift those damn barrels so she'd just get in the way. On some level he knew that wasn't fair but that didn't mean it wasn't true. He'd just coddled her so far and now he needed to step up and clean up this mess before they got into trouble for it.
He was gripping the steering wheel too hard when he drove, careful to not go too fast - or too slow - eyeing every car around with anxiety and suspicion. They might know he had a dead man in the back, barrels full of sludge that used to be a body. They could probably tell just by looking at the van that he was up to no good. When his phone rang his heart nearly stopped and he cursed loudly, pulling up to the side of the road. He was almost out of town now - so close to being in the clear - of course something had to stop him. "What!" he snarled when he picked up, not even bothering to look at who was calling. It was an inconvenience, it was going to get him caught.
That was not the greeting that Carson expected, and he was startled into silence for a moment, his mouth gaping open. “Uh,” was the first thing that came out. Carson cleared his throat and quickly got his words together. “Vex? It’s uh, Carson Durand. The werewolf?” He winced a bit, hating that he had to identify himself that way. “Listen, I won’t take long, I just wanted to check in with you. I had uh ... I had a weird dream and you were in it, and sometimes my dreams are like ... different. Important.” he felt like he was rambling like an idiot, even though he hadn’t said that much yet, he just hoped Vex was currently open to listening.
Dead werewolf in the back, live werewolf on the phone, Vex felt like he was being crushed with the weight of his paranoia and restlessness and he grunted as Carson kept talking, frowning as the words really sank in. "You're chosen too," he acknowledged and that made sense. Dreams, prophecies... Maybe Carson had some pieces for the ultimate big jigsaw they were all poking at together. "Tell me everything," he said decisively, looking at all his mirrors again to check if there was a police cruiser lurking up behind him. He had his blinker on, he was doing everything very legally - except the body-disposal, of course.
That was kind of a creepy thing for Carson to hear. He didn’t want to be chosen by anything, especially not something related to some of the rambling bizarre shit he’d heard Vex spout before. But he was cursed with the werewolf burden and he was involved in all these crazy dreams, so he supposed he was chosen in some way, like it or not. He gave a little sigh and then launched into describing the dream -- not the part where he was in war, but popping into The Boathouse and seeing Vex and some dark-haired woman in serious conversation. Carson tried to describe her without using the word ‘Stepford,’ even though that was in his head now. “And then she stood up and you stood up and she grabbed your arm and started walking, and when she looked at me, her eyes were completely red,” Carson concluded. “And I got the creepiest fucking feeling, and then I woke up. Does any of that mean anything to you?”
"Mrs. D'Onofrio," Vex said, realizing who she was as soon as Carson started talking and only really let him go on to be absolutely sure. "That all actually happened. I didn't see her eyes turn red but she broke my phone with her fucking mind. Bitch." He was fighting the urge to drive - or leave the car, but leaving the car would only look more suspicious. Right now he was just parked so he could legally talk on the phone - his new phone, which was actually a lot nicer than his old phone but that didn't excuse the woman's actions. "Fat lot of good it did her, I could retrieve the data anyway," he added with a snort but it stood to reason that some upper class bitch wouldn't know much about how phones really worked. "So what do you think it means, Carson? She's like me, we're both chosen. Think it could be a good vs. evil kinda deal?"
Carson mouthed ‘Mrs. D’Onofrio?’ to himself, genuinely shocked at that one. He knew the name of course, everyone did, and he supposed that was why she’d looked familiar. Funny how that was more shocking than hearing what he’d dreamed had actually happened. What the fuck was his life lately? “She broke it with her mind?” came out of his mouth before anything else, and Carson ran his fingers through his short hair. That was some kind of telekinesis, wasn’t it? What-all kinds of psychics were actually real? “Jesus Christ. I dunno man, that’s all above my pay grade,” he said to Vex, shaking his head a bit. “She’s the wife of the most powerful dude in town though, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s evil. Eat the rich and all that, you know?”
"Oh that's just fucking peachy," Vex groaned. "Married to a powerful man, chosen by a god and telekinetic? Fuck that, she sounds evil as hell." He wasn't telekinetic, he could only see things that were already happening, see patterns that others couldn't see, it was a power on its own but he honestly would have preferred telekinesis, that was some powerful shit. "This is above my pay grade too, Carson," he mumbled, finally tearing his attention from the mirrors to dig around in the glove compartment for something to gnaw on. God he needed a cigarette and now more than ever quitting seemed like it had been the dumbest idea he could have had. "It's above everyone's pay grade, but we gotta keep an eye on her. She might know more than she lets on and... Fuck, I just walked right up to her and told her who I am. Carson! If I go missing, you go tell Lem everything, okay?"
He felt a little alarmed but ridiculous about it at the same time -- it sounded like shit from a bad movie, evil rich people and psychic powers and this child-stealing institute. It should be silly for Vex to worry about going missing. But considering everything, he honestly didn’t think it was that far fetched. “Of c-course,” he stuttered, kind of feeling like he was taking on a responsibility. “I’m sure it’ll ... I mean, we’ll figure it out. I hope.” Carson couldn’t sound too confident of that, unfortunately. Not that he thought Vex would listen to him even if he did. The man seemed to have his own strong opinions about things. “I’m gonna check with the others, see if they had dreams like this too. Usually we share the ones that mean something, you know? Maybe that’ll give us more information.” That was really all he could offer.
Vex froze up as he realized they might have to kill Mrs. D'Onofrio. She could become a Problem and she knew who he was - where he lived. He might be doing another run just like this one soon, another body turned to sludge. Was that his life now? Killing people left and right? He didn't need Carson to check with the others, of course they'd all had dreams like this, it was all connected, the witches next door, the kids who'd been at AIR years after he'd presumably been taken by them. Maybe this woman was chosen by the god because it needed Vex to find her, to kill her. Maybe the mark wasn't only a good thing. "I gotta go," he growled since he wasn't about to tell Carson just how dire things were. "Call me back. Not until tonight, I have shit to take care of right now." He didn't wait for a reply, hanging up as soon as the words were out and then he was smothering a scream, squeezing the steering wheel so tightly he felt like it should break. He'd thought he could calm down once this body was taken care of but no, there'd be more bodies and then probably more bodies because war was coming and he was right there in the eye of the storm.