Who: Theo and Sebastian When: Late evening, Saturday, January 13th Where: Main Street and Overlook Status: Complete
Being back in Point Pleasant was decidedly unpleasant. Theo could pretend that he didn’t care that he got kicked out of school. He could laugh it off with his friends and embellish what had actually happened so he didn’t sound like such a cunt, but the truth of it was that he hadn’t wanted to leave college. Not because he wanted a degree and all that. He just hadn’t wanted to come back home. But Theo had no other choice, and unless he wanted to get cut off from his mom’s money…well, he had to drive back into Point Pleasant with the proper amount of remorse and determination to get his life back on track. All the bullshit his mom wanted to hear, anyway.
He had been back a few weeks already and Theo had very quickly remembered why he hated this place. Yes, he had been popular in high school. Yes, he’d had everything he wanted, and needed. But this town was just a hotspot of terror and death and Theo had already been forced to help a half a dozen souls cross over. Once had been while some random girl from Moxie’s had been giving him head in the bathroom. Zoning out in the middle of oral sex was a mood killer for damn sure. It was stressful, occasionally terrifying, and something Theo was still trying to control. His mom was watching him closely, because Theo’s ability was what kept them in the position they were in. Sometimes he felt more like a tool for her to use than a son. Could she blame him for not exactly being the perfect son in college? Fuck.
Theo spent most of the evening with a handful of friends at The Empty Orchestra, but when they opted to go to Cherries after, Theo made an excuse and said goodnight. He had parked down by the marina, so Theo began to walk down Main Street, glancing into the windows of the shops that were all dark and locked up at this hour. The streets were pretty quiet but for the occasional car that drove by. This is part of the reason why he hated this town sometimes. Saturday night and almost everything was closed by ten o’clock.
Theo paused and stared into the darkened window of the antique shop, trying to see what dusty old artifacts might be inside. It was difficult to see so Theo began to turn away from the window when he felt someone behind him. Not right behind him, but definitely a presence on the same street. He glanced over his shoulder and then had to do a double take at the sight of the figure about a block behind him. It was probably a man, but an unusually tall one, with unusually long arms. He was wearing nothing but a suit in the cold weather, and a black bowler hat. Theo squinted a bit, trying to get a better look at him under the light of the street lamps. The guy was just standing there, staring. Grinning, even. Theo couldn’t see his face beyond the smile and that was odd. It was an unusually wide smile too. And then the man began to walk towards him in long, graceful strides, the grin never changing. Theo’s heart began to thump harder in his chest and he instinctively began to walk backwards to keep distance between he and the man. If it was a man. But the teeth in his man looked… inhuman.
“Oh shit,” Theo whispered. This goddamn, stupid, fucking town. Before he was even aware of it, Theo was running, praying he wouldn’t slip and fall on the snow or some patch of black ice. He could hear the footsteps behind him and Theo was reminded of those awful horror movies where the killer followed the running victims, always keeping stride no matter how slow they were, or how fast their prey was. Theo would run miles and that thing would always be right behind him, never breaking a sweat.
He got to the next block and stepped off the curb, running into the street to cross to the alleyway that would lead back behind buildings, to a fence that separated the businesses from the nearest neighborhood. Survival and fear propelled him into the street where he had been completely oblivious to the headlights rapidly approaching.
The play had turned out to be a blast. Sebastian loved being on stage—the lights, the costumes, even the makeup—but the best part was having the freedom to be someone completely different for a few hours. It was similar to the high he got while playing football, a definite adrenaline rush, and it made him wish he’d gotten involved with the drama department a little sooner than his senior year. The only bad part was that it ended so soon, all that work for only two nights, and now he’d probably be stuck with lines in his head for the rest of his life.
The plan was for the cast to head to Moxie’s afterwards, but as they were all backstage changing out of their costumes, Sebastian was hit with a rush of memories that chilled him to the bone. The events of the past week came flooding back to him as if they’d just happened—stabbing Caius as he struggled for air, waking up in the woods and seeing the heart that beat and bled, then the searing pain of Baron’s spirit being ripped from him body. It left Sebastian winded and shaken and it took him a few minutes to pull himself together. By the time he did, no one seemed all that interested in going out anymore. It was like the wind had been stolen from their sails and now everyone wanted to go home and hide. Only a few people seemed unaffected by whatever was in the air and Sebastian couldn’t help but envy them. It dampened the evening and by the time Sebastian climbed into his car dread had set in.
Point Pleasant felt dead as Sebastian drove through town, the snow more like a suffocating blanket than something soft and soothing. Even after running his car a few minutes, he could still see his breath on the air and he glanced down to turn the heat up, hoping that would help. When he looked back up, only a second later, there was someone in the road ahead and Sebastian cursed as he slammed on the brakes, turning the wheel hard to the right. The tires screeched and hit the curb as the car came to a stop, but when Sebastian turned to look the figure was no longer there. “Fuck!” Sebastian gasped and threw open the door, frantically searching the road to see who or what he might’ve hit.
Torn between not wanting to get hit by a car, and not wanting to turn around and see that tall man-thing behind him, Theo felt his body seemingly want to run in two different directions. Instead, he slipped on some ice and hit the ground, oxygen catching painfully in his chest just as the driver turned the car out of the way. Theo instinctively brought his arms up to his face, like that would somehow protect him from injury if the car ended up driving over him. But there was no injury and no pain, just an ache in his back where he fell. He heard a car door, but Theo lowered his arms, more concerned with the man who had been following him. The sidewalk was empty, though that didn't really make himself feel any better.
"Shit," he breathed, moving to sit up, his ass already cold and getting wet from the slush in the street.
Sebastian rushed around the car, then straight to the body laying in the road. He was so sure he’d hit someone that he was taken aback when the guy sat up and stared for a minute before crouching beside him. “Are you okay? Don’t move. I can call an ambulance.” He reached for his phone, but his pockets were empty and he realized it must be back in the car. “Shit,” he muttered, then look another look to see how bad it was, now really realizing that he might not’ve actually hit the guy. A second glance was also enough for him to realize he knew him. Not well, but he’d been a senior on the football team when Bash had been a sophomore. “Theo?” he asked, his heart still racing. “Are you okay?”
Depsite knowing in a rational way that the person crouching down beside him wasn't a scary dude in a bowler hat, Theo still jerked back at the sight of him. It took him a second to recognize the face and Theo breathed a bit easier despite everything that had just happened. "I'm fine," he told Sebastian, embarrassment and irritation settling uncomfortably amongst the lingering adrenaline and fear. "Jesus, man, you almost hit me." His ass was freezing now so Theo moved to stand, his gaze still shifting around, like he expected the bowler hat man to show up at any second and... do what, he didn't know. He just knew it meant pain and death.
“Dude, you came out of nowhere,” Sebastian said as he offered Theo a hand up. He knew he didn’t have a right to be offended, he had almost hit the guy, but he felt like he wasn’t entirely to blame. “What the fuck are you even doing?” He looked around now, noting how the streets were mostly empty of both cars and people. He could see no good reason why Theo would be out in the dark, in the cold. The streets had an eerie feeling about them, like there was some treachery hiding behind the corner, and Sebastian shivered from more than the cold. “You need a ride?” He asked, eager to get back in the car.
"I came off of the sidewalk, so that's not exactly nowhere," Theo muttered. But he took Sebastian's offered hand and got to his feet, his body feeling a bit sore from where he fell. He tried to wipe some of the dirty road slush from his ass, scowling the entire time. Honestly, he shouldn't be pissy that Sebastian McCarthy nearly hit him with his car. If he hadn't, that man might have still been following him and Theo would rather deal with a sore back and wet ass than that. "I was walking back to my car from the karaoke bar," he explained, grateful that the prickles of fear in his body were starting to fade, now that he had company. "I parked near the Orion. You mind taking me over there?"
“You scared the shit outta me,” Sebastian muttered. It had already been the week from hell and he couldn’t handle a serious car accident on top of everything else. It was almost worse in a way because he’d have been hurting someone else. “Sure, hop in,” he said, heading around to the driver’s side door. He paused there, looking back towards the sidewalk again, unable to shake the feeling that they were being watched. He thought maybe it was just a holdover from earlier, but then the shadows seemed to shift and a figure stepped out of the darkness. Sebastian’s skin began to crawl. “Someone’s there,” he said, unwilling to risk a glance at Theo. It felt important not to lose track of the man, if that’s what it was, like if he turned his back on him, he might be ten feet closer in the blink of an eye.
Theo headed for the passenger side of the car, looking up sharply when Sebastian spoke again. A cold chill seemed to shoot down his spine, and it had nothing to do with the actual weather. His gaze shifted back to the thing, no way that was a real man, stepping out of the shadows. Even in the dark Theo could see the grin, prompting Theo to grab the door handle and yank it open. "Yeah, I know," he said, his voice full of urgency. "Why'd you think I was running into the street? Get in the fucking car so we can get the hell out of here."
Sebastian had questions, loads of them, but they could be answered once they were gone. He wasted no more time talking and climbed in the car, not even waiting till Theo was all buckled in before driving away. It felt important to put some distance between them and...whomever they were leaving behind. He glanced in his rear view mirror, just to make sure they weren’t being followed, despite knowing a person on foot couldn’t possibly keep up. “Who was that?” He asked, going a few extra streets down before turning towards the Orion. Theo’s car wasn’t far, but putting a bit more distance between them and that man seemed like a good idea.
Theo realized he had been holding his breath waiting for Sebastian to start driving. Only when they had put some semblance of distance between them and that thing back there did he finally exhale, his heart pounding in his chest all over again. "I don't know," he said finally, tugging his glove off to run his hand through his hair. "I was walking and felt someone watching me... looked back and saw that... guy. He just started walking towards me. It could've been nothing, but I knew he wasn't just walking down the street... he was following me." Theo didn't want to talk about the way the guy was dressed, or how he looked, or what the grin made Theo feel like. He just wanted to get to his car and get home and lock the doors. It should have amused him, how freaked out he was now, considering he talked to dead people, and often. "There's some fucked up people in this town, that's all I gotta say about it."
“Yeah, I know,” Sebastian muttered quietly. He’d gotten that same feeling of being watched, even from afar. Normally seeing people on the street didn’t make him want to run, he liked to think he could handle just about anything now, but something about that man made him want to get as far away as possible. The car was quiet for a moment as his heart settled, slow to find a normal rhythm once more. “You still on winter break?” He asked casually. He couldn’t remember where Theo had gone to college, but figured it must be somewhere other than University of Maine. Last he heard, they’d already started up classes again.
Theo sighed, looking out the window as he did so. Dramatic, maybe, but whatever. He didn't want to talk about school, especially not after what had just happened. "I'm taking the semester off," he said brusquely. "You're still in high school, right?" Theo looked back at Sebastian. "Senior?" Theo was two years older, but they had more or less run in the same crowds when Theo had been in high school. Athletes or not, most of the Overlook kids had been friends back then. Most. Even so, Theo had always been a bit more focused on friends his own age, and McCarthy had always seemed like one of the kids who could do no wrong, and didn't want to.
Sebastian was fine with comfortable silences between friends, but he didn’t know Theo all that well and he needed something to latch onto other than the last few minutes. School had always been an easy fallback, but it didn’t sound like Theo wanted to talk about it. He guessed that the semester off didn’t include a backpack trip to Europe or anything exciting. “Yeah,” he nodded, only now remembering that he was still in full makeup, glitter and all. At least it was dark. “Graduating in May. Not sure where I’m going yet.” He assumed he was still going somewhere, at least. He couldn’t imagine what would change that path of his future.
"Really? It's January... you haven't applied to any colleges yet?" He hadn't said that, only that he didn't know where he was going yet. But usually people had their choices set at this point in the year. Not that Theo ought to have any opinion on it. Frankly, he didn't care about college much at all anymore. He just wished he could be anywhere but this place. "You could probably get into a school that appreciated your makeup skills," he added, starting to feel around in his pockets for his car keys to have them ready to go. Honestly, he should have just gone to Cherries with his friends, then none of this scary bullshit would have happened to him tonight.
Sebastian snorted, too amused to be properly offended. “Yeah, I’d fit right in, wouldn’t I?” He quipped with a roll of his eyes. He rubbed a finger across his lips, glad the girls hadn’t put too much color there. The bright lights of the stage washed out everyone’s complexion, but as pale as he was he’d had to have a bit of color, otherwise he’d look more like a ghost than a fairy. “It’s stage makeup,” he explained. “And I’ve got the applications in. Even gotten a few back. I’m just not sure what I want to do yet. I’ve had a lot of shit going on lately and it hasn’t exactly been my priority.”
Theo hummed a distracted response in his throat, because his gaze kept shifting to the side mirror, half-expecting to see that tall man walking after them. Not running, but walking, and keeping pace too, like in horror movies. And fuck he wanted to stop thinking about horror movies. Talking about college was just surface shit, things to keep his brain occupied from the bad stuff, even if it wasn't doing a very good job of it. It was then that he realized he was still feeling around in his coat pockets for his keys. "Fuck," he muttered, looking down at his coat as he realized the pockets were empty. "Fuck! My keys are gone."
Sebastian was fine with surface level shit. He was good at it even, like he’d been groomed for small talk at cocktail parties. It passed the time well enough and was usually good when a distraction was necessary. They were about halfway to the Orion when Theo spoke up and Sebastian pulled the car over, unsure of how to handle the situation. “Do you wanna...go look for them?” If that man was still there, he’d suggest Theo call it a loss, but there were other places his keys could be. “They might be back at the karaoke place,” he suggested hopefully.
"Hell no I don't want to go look for them." Theo exclaimed, looking over at Sebastian like he might have lost his mind. "I'm not going back there. They probably fell out of my pocket when you nearly hit me. Or maybe I did forget them on the table in the karaoke bar. Fuck." He brought his palms up to press against his closed eyes as he tried to think. This was why he hated this town. It was like every bad thing that could possibly happened happened. Sighing, Theo's head thumped back against the seat, his hands falling to his lap. "I'll call the bar. You think you can just drive me to Overlook? You're going that way, right?"
“I was just asking!” Sebastian said, his own nerves starting to fray. “I wouldn’t have almost hit you if you hadn’t run into the middle of the street, so stop acting like I hopped the curb to run you down.” His hands tightened on steering wheel and his lips pressed into a tight line. He didn’t blame Theo for running from that man, he was probably right to do so, but he refused to take full blame for almost hitting him. Any other time of day and he’d have run into full on traffic. “Sure, I can drive you home.” Even if he wasn’t headed that way, he wasn’t going to kick Theo out. He wasn’t a jerk.
Theo knew Sebastian hadn't been trying to run him over. It was just easier to focus his uncomfortable feelings into irritation towards the guy, and his car. He realized he needed to chill, especially since Sebastian was willing to drive him home. Fucking keys. He would just ask to be taken back to the karaoke bar, but he didn't want to turn around. He didn't want to go anywhere near that street again in the dark. He'd figure things out tomorrow, when there was daylight and more people on the road. Theo felt a bit like a coward, but he knew enough about Bad Things to know when to be afraid and keep his distance. After a moment of silence he grinned and felt a laugh form in his throat. "You wouldn't be the first person to try and run me down with your car," he said, his tone light, "if that's what you'd been trying to do anyway. Sorry man, I'm just frazzled and shit. It's rough going from normal living back to this place."
Sebastian didn’t usually like uncomfortable silences, but in this case he’d needed the moment to let his own nerves settle. Theo’s laugh dissolved any lasting frustration and he felt his lips tug up in amusement. “You like running into traffic or you got yourself a list of enemies?” He teased. He couldn’t imagine anyone seriously gunning for Theo, but maybe there was a story there. “It’s okay. I’ve seen enough bad shit to know it can mess with your head. And lately it’s been.. I dunno, reaching it’s peak or something.” It wasn't just in his life, but in his friends as well. He thought of Jules and her hands opening doors, how Greg had seen it too. If he really poked at his friends, he suspected they’d have stories too, but no one really wanted to talk about it. Everyone seemed to be grasping at normal. “You staying a while? Or are you gonna travel or something?”
"Little bit of both," he admitted. No, he didn't like running into traffic, but it sounded better to add that into the fact that he probably did have a list of enemies. Or people who didn't like him very much for a variety of reasons. All of which he was pretty okay with. Theo supposed the normal thing to do would be to ask Sebastian just what bad shit he'd seen, but honestly, Theo didn't want to know. He had enough bad shit to last a really long time, he didn't really want someone else's bad shit on top of it. "But no, I'm here for a while. No traveling, unfortunately. Maybe later but... my mom wants me around for a bit. How're things back at school? Same old, same old?"
It was probably better that Theo didn’t ask about specifics on what Sebastian had seen because then he’d have to come up with something generically bad, that everyone in town had had to deal with. There was plenty of that to go around, but what’d been stuck in his head for the past hour was last weekend, more specifically the bits of it he could remember. It left a lingering feeling of dread that never quiet died away. “Pretty much the same,” Bash said, mentally grasping for the normal things that had been going on lately. “Basketball’s starting back up. Winter formal’s next weekend. Someone’ll likely throw a party and give everyone a reason to forget about all the insane shit that’s been happening.” It was like the whole town suffered from short term memory loss, ready to move on and forget as soon as possible.
"Nice to hear nothing's changed," Theo muttered. Was it sad and pathetic if he showed up at a high school party? Probably. But what else was there to do in this town? He fell silent, still unnerved by what had happened back near the karaoke bar. Theo could generally brush things off and disguise his unease with some bravado, but it was difficult tonight. At least Sebastian McCarthy wasn't someone to give him shit about it. He had seen that guy - thing - too. He felt a little out of his element. Usually Theo could talk to anyone, but god it was hard to be smooth or interesting when his heart was still pounding uncomfortably in his chest.
A little laugh bubbled up before Sebastian could stop it and he bit his bottom lip as he tried to find the words to explain. Nothing had changed, Point Pleasant was the same as it had always been, but his own life had been turned upside-down such that everything felt different. Theo wouldn’t know that, of course, and Sebastian didn’t want to get into it, but he felt like he should say something. “It depends on your perspective, I guess,” he said, eyes on the road as he headed towards Overlook. “Town’s the same, but people change.” A couple years ago, he’d still be under the delusion that Point Pleasant was somewhat normal. He’d been able to buy into whatever bullshit stories authorities gave to explain away bizarre events around town. He was past that now and he knew he wasn’t the only one.
"Yeah. Some of them, anyway." But not everyone. Theo knew that for a fact. Had he changed? In a lot of ways, yes, but he also tried to cling to the person he had been before college, just because he was so much more comfortable with that version of himself. It had been easier to be that guy. More fun, at least. "Hopefully you can get into a college far away from this place," Theo added, almost as an afterthought. "Then again, as soon as you're out, everything feels different, and not necessarily in a good way. So... who the fuck knows what I'm talking about."
In the span of only a few months, Sebastian had gone from thinking he’d be halfway across the country to staying in state. There were perks to both, but his primary reason for staying close was to learn magic, something he couldn’t very well do if he had to get on a plane to get home. “Different how?” He asked, hoping Theo could give him an example. “My brother talks it up like it’s the best thing ever. He’d rather be there than come home, even for Christmas.” A part of him was bitter, Trip appeared to have gotten out, but at what cost?
"Maybe your brother is immune to the charms of Point Pleasant," Theo said, looking over at Sebastian with a faint, unamused smile. "It's just different. You want to get out, but once you are, it's like you don't belong anywhere else but here. Like you're pretending to be a different person and it doesn't feel right." Theo stretched his legs some and then huffed a laugh. "I think I drank too much tonight. I'm getting all... philosophical on you. Can't really explain it, man... you'll just have to experience it for yourself when it happens. Then you'll know what I'm talking about."
“No, I get it,” Sebastian said as he turned into Overlook. It wasn’t very comforting to hear, but it aligned with what Sebastian was beginning to feel. Who he was and what he wanted to be might not have a place anywhere else. Or, if he did, it would be some place just like Point Pleasant, which was almost worse. It was different to hear it from someone who’d left, who seemed normal, but didn’t everyone? Jules had echoed similar thoughts and she’d seemed normal until a few days ago. Maybe no one was really normal if they stayed there long enough. “You can’t live a lie forever. I mean, I guess you can, but who really wants to?”
"Your brother, I guess." Theo grinned a little, just to make sure Sebastian knew he was mostly kidding. Then he shifted in his seat, feeling a little better now that they were closer to his house. Far away from that creepy guy in the street. "Sorry for bringing down your night, by the way. From the look of your make up and everything, you were probably about to go have a good time." Theo knew he had been in a play and everything, but it was easier to find the lighter things to make fun of and talk about than the shitty town they lived in.
Sebastian smiled, laughing silently as he gave a little nod of agreement. He liked the idea that he’d gotten something right compared to Trip, who until recently could do no wrong. It didn’t really balance the scales, Bash knew he was probably a permanent fuck up in his parent’s eyes, but it helped in his head. “You didn’t. I mean, it had already gotten weird. Plus, the rave was cancelled,” he grinned. He’d never actually been to a rave, Point Pleasant wasn’t that exciting, but imagined that the makeup might’ve been appropriate.
Theo snorted in amusement. A rave in Point Pleasant. Yeah, right. And even if there had been one, he definitely would have known about it. The lighter feeling in his gut began to dissipate the closer they got to his house. It was a nice place to live, but at the moment he wasn't too thrilled that his mom had wanted a house so far back from the street, closer to the cliffs than their neighbors. He understood her desire for privacy, but now Theo really wished he had stayed with his friends. "Well, at least you got some action tonight. Even if it was cold, and freaky as fuck."
“Not the kind of action I’d like, but sure,” Sebastian said with a laugh. He’d thought about texting Logan earlier, before he’d gotten that bad feeling in his gut, but there’d been talk of a cast party at the time and he’d felt like he should be social over potentially getting laid. Now he was glad he hadn’t tried to set something up because he wouldn’t have been in the mood, even if he hadn’t almost hit Theo. Funny how his evening had gone completely sideways for no logical reason. “You should come, next weekend, if there’s a party,” he said, a little knot forming in his stomach. “You’d know some of the guys and you’re not the only one who’s already graduated.”
At the moment a party seemed like the very last thing Theo wanted to be out. But that was only because of how weird the night had turned. He had a feeling by next weekend he would be bored out of his skull and ready for whatever might get him out and feeling good. "Yeah, that sounds good," Theo said with a small shrug. "Just hit me up with the details, you know? Might be nice to get fucked up for a night." Or it could be very, very bad, depending on the day. Point Pleasant was good for that. At least it wasn't predictable. "Thanks for the ride though. I owe you one."
Surviving another week was a good enough reason to get fucked up, at least in Sebastian’s recent experience. It was probably good that he didn’t have easy access to liquor, otherwise he might’ve just drowned his troubles away. Instead, he was trying to bounce back, to prove he was strong enough to survive, maybe even thrive. If there had been a way to punch his current situation in the face, he would have. “Not a problem,” he said, offering Theo a small smile. “I’ll see you around.”
"It's a small town, so probably, yeah." Theo chuckled and climbed out of the car and shut the door, thankful to at least have his phone and wallet, even if his keys were MIA at the moment. He could just use the security code to get into the garage. And then every fucking light was coming on in the house until he was able to fall asleep. Whenever that might be.