Who: Ruby and Clint When: evening/night, Saturday, Jan 13th Where: out and about, then Clint's house Status: complete
Saturday nights were for dates, and now that Clint had a steady girlfriend again, he pretty much assumed that was what they’d be doing almost every Saturday they could. Ruby had a job, after all. But he’d checked in with her the day before and she was free this particular Saturday, so he’d started making plans. Loose ones, just in case she didn’t want to do his first suggestions -- he was still learning what Ruby did and didn’t like doing. But that was all right by Clint, he was nothing if not flexible. As long as they were hanging out and having fun, nothing else mattered to him. They would have more options when it wasn’t freezing, of course ... if they lasted that long. Clint hoped so.
He put on some nice dark jeans and a couple of layers on top, going for nice-casual. Nothing he had planned was very fancy, but he still wanted to look good for his girl, so he spent some time taming and arranging his hair and made sure he was freshly shaved and smelling good. He told his parents he would be out for the night, then hopped in his car to drive down to Ruby’s. Dinner first, and then something fun, whatever form that might take. Clint pulled into her driveway at about a quarter to seven, leaving his car running as he climbed out to go to the door to knock like a proper gentleman.
Ruby really liked this thing she had going with Clint. It was easy and fun and he made her happy in a way that the other guys in her group had failed to manage. He wasn’t too cool to be silly, but also seemed to know when he needed to be serious. Occasionally she worried that things were too good, but knew that worrying about something like that wasn’t going to help anything. The point was to enjoy what they had while it lasted; they could worry about the future later. She’d asked for Saturday evenings off for the foreseeable future and it was worth it working the breakfast shift if it meant she could have all evening with Clint.
She’d freshly dyed her hair today, adding a little purple into the pink. Ruby had opted for jeans and a form-fitting sweater that was cropped just short enough to occasionally show her midriff. It was the kind of thing her father would’ve made a comment about, but she didn’t give him a chance, grabbing her leather jacket and hurrying to the door before he even knew she was leaving. She called out that she’d be back late, then was out the door, almost bouncing into Clint. “Hey, babe,” she grinned, giving him a little kiss. “Let’s go.”
She looked damn good to Clint when she opened the door, and his smile showed that. Of course she always looked damn good, so hey. He just had a hot girlfriend. “Hey! Your wish is my command.” Clint smooched her back before turning to escort her back down the porch stairs and to his car, glancing over at her appreciatively. “I like the purple,” he said, reaching out to finger a bit of her hair. He opened the passenger side door for her, glad it had warmed up nicely between Overlook and here.
“Thanks,” Ruby smiled, a little tingle running through her as he touched her hair. “I thought it’d be fun to do something a little bit different.” And she’d found purple lingerie to match, but that was a surprise for later. It was never said that they’d fool around at some point during the date, but it was hard to get through an evening without the desire striking them. “What were you thinking for dinner?” she asked as she climbed in the car. It was nice and toasty, something the truck never seemed to manage.
From Clint’s perspective, Ruby was different in all kinds of ways. That was part of why he liked her. He’d dated a lot of girls who’d grown up just like him -- in Overlook, silver spoon in their mouth, fixated on status. Some of them were still nice, of course, but he was bored of all that now. Ruby was different and cool and seemed down to earth while still being a little wild, and he dug that. Plus she was hot as hell, naturally. “We got options!” he said as he watched Ruby settle in, then shut the door and trotted around to the driver’s side to climb in as well. “You in the mood for anything in particular? I was thinkin’ maybe the Italian place, but could go Lobster Shack too ...”
“Italian’s good for me. We can save Lobster Shack for next weekend,” Ruby teased. “We are going to the dance, aren’t we? ‘Cause I’ve got a shopping trip to cancel if we’re not.” It was more than that; she’d be all kinds of bummed if he didn’t want to go. It was the first dance this year that she had a boyfriend for and Clint in a suit was the kind of package she wanted to unwrap later in the night. Shopping with Jules would be fun, a true escape if they made it down to Bangor, but that was only if she was going to the dance. She’d wanted to play it cool and act like it didn’t matter, but that had resulted in them not talking about it at all and she wasn’t sure if she was right in assuming they were going.
Clint had kind of assumed they’d be going to the winter formal together, since they were going out and all, but when Ruby asked he realized that assumption might not have been smart. Girls liked to be asked anyway, didn’t they? Damn, too late now. “Oh, uh yeah!” he hurried to say, glancing over at Ruby before he put the car into reverse to get them on their way. “I mean, I totally planned on going with you ... sorry, guess we should’ve like, talked about it.” He let out a sheepish laugh and shook his head. “It kinda snuck up on me, and you get me all distracted when we hang out. But yeah, I definitely wanna take you if you wanna go.”
“I kinda figured,” Ruby said, leaning in towards him as if sharing a secret. The more she thought about it, the more she liked that he’d just assumed they were going, much like she had. Like they’d been together long enough that it was just a given. She didn’t know when they’d hit that mark, since it didn’t feel like they’d been dating all that long, but she liked it. “I definitely want to go. I’m not always into the school spirit type stuff, but I like a reason to get all dressed up. We don’t really have enough of those around here.”
It just seemed like the order of things to Clint -- if you had a girlfriend and there was a dance, you took her as your date. He and Ruby might not have been going out very long, but that didn’t matter to him. He glanced over to flash her a grin as he drove them out of her neighborhood. “We really don’t,” he said. “So we gotta look fuckin’ baller. Which will totally be easy, of course. You said you haven’t bought a dress yet? Are you gonna aim for like, any particular color? Should I get a tie to match or something?” He wasn’t sure how into coordinating outfits Ruby would be, unlike some of the girls he’d dated. They could get straight up anal about stuff. Clint just liked to look good, anything he had in his closet wouldn’t clash with any dress, he was pretty sure.
“Only if you want to,” Ruby said, her hand slipping into his in the space between their seats. “I have no idea what I’ll end up with. I kind of need to look? Something that won’t clash with my hair. For me, I mean. I can’t imagine anything in your closet would be a problem.” It was a new thing for her, dating a guy who genuinely cared how he looked most days, and she found she liked it. It was nice not being the only one who got dressed up for a date. “Do your parents do the whole pictures before routine?” She asked curiously. She hadn’t really met Clint’s parents, but that had been okay so far. Meeting parents was always intimidating and she wasn't sure what all he’d told them about her, if anything.
Considering Ruby’s hair was dyed super bright colors, Clint was thinking some classic black-on-black action would probably be best, maybe with a white tie or something since it was winter formal. If they were still together by then, they could get organized sooner and match more when it came time for prom. Caring what he looked like had been ingrained into Clint from a young age, so that was just normal to him. He’d never been impressed by the guys who let themselves get all slobbish. He grinned a little at her question. “Not so much anymore,” he told her. “I mean, mom insists on a couple of pictures no matter what, but since I like, go out and pick up my dates myself now, it’s not as big of a thing. Oh god, does your dad? Should I get ready to be fawned over like in middle school again?” He was mostly joking, of course, but the mental image was kind of funny anyway.
“Oh God, no,” Ruby laughed. “He might fawn over me before you get there, but then he’d rather us head on to the dance than stick around.” It seemed to her that her father handled dances worse than dates, but maybe that was because of everything that naturally went with them. She’d thought that maybe he might be a little better when it came to Clint, but that had stirred up a whole different list of concerns. She’d rather avoid that can of worms if she could. “I’ve had friends whose parents want to come over and it’s like this huge thing. I probably wouldn’t mind it for prom, but that’s about it.” It was hard to imagine her dad meeting Clint’s parents. Just the thought made her uncomfortable.
“Ugh, god, I would disown them before I let that shit happen,” Clint said with a laugh. That sounded painfully embarrassing. When they’d still been driving him around to everything and picking up his dates for him, there had been some forced picture-taking, but it just sounded painful now. He was perfectly capable of getting some good shots of himself and a hot date. “Yeah, prom might be different since it’s the last one, but we’ll cross that humiliating bridge when we come to it.” He hoped that they would still be together when that time came so they could suffer through it together, but Clint would just roll with however it went between now and then. Months-long relationships were rare even for seniors. He just wanted to enjoy whatever time they had. “We can just take hot selfies together to make up for it,” he added, glancing over with a smirk as he rubbed at her hand with his thumb.
Prom might’ve been a long ways off, but Ruby had already started thinking about it herself. If she was still with Clint by then, it’d be nearing her longest high school relationship, but that didn’t really say much. It sometimes felt like people got bored with their current crush in a week or two, but she and Clint were past that point and she wasn’t even nearing bored. She hoped they'd still be together by then because she thought they’d have a blast together, but she knew better than to make any promises. Things could change so quickly, sometimes with little rhyme or reason, especially in Point Pleasant. “That’s what cell phones are for,” Ruby agreed. “And friends. They’d get better pictures of us than my dad ever wound, unless you want one of us looking uncomfortable in front of the fireplace. Or on the stairs.”
Clint gave a bark of a laugh and shook his head a bit. “Why do they always want you on the stairs?” he asked, amused. “Like who decided that was a good backdrop for awkward-ass pictures? It’s like, in the parent handbook or something.” It was funny that it was such a universal thing. He didn’t mind the fireplace so much, and his parents’ house had several, but they did like to pose him on the stairs too. They were getting close to the restaurant, and Clint slowed to a stop for a red light. He looked over at Ruby with a little grin and leaned over to steal a quick kiss. “You look really hot tonight,” he informed her in a murmur. “I’m kinda keepin’ the plans after dinner open, so we can do whatever we want, y’know?”
“Maybe if I lived in some grand mansion where I had a giant sweeping, marble staircase, like you see in movies, I could see it,” Ruby snickered. In her experience, anything on the stairs made her look even shorter than she already was. Sometimes people even wanted her to go up a step, which made it look like she was standing on a stool next to her date. It was absurd. As the car rolled to a stop, Ruby leaned in to meet his kiss, staying close enough that he could steal another if he wanted to. “I like that plan,” she purred softly. “Your parents home? Maybe we could hang out at your place.” If not, she had no problem going somewhere to park. All she really cared about was some alone time with him.
Clint did indeed want another kiss, and he took advantage of the moment they were stopped, feeling pleasant warmth pool in his groin. Even if this thing with Ruby turned into nothing more than a fun relationship with lots of dating and parties and sex, he though it would be well worth it. Clint didn’t want to think any further than graduation. They had time. “They’re home ... but you can still come over if you wanna,” he told her with a dopey little smile. “They’ll just hang out in their den, they won’t even notice.” The light turned green, so he straightened up to drive again, reaching down to adjust his crotch just a bit. “They’re not assholes about it, you don’t even have to say hi.” He knew that was ideal when you wanted to fool around, and after a certain point his parents had stopped caring about the company he kept in the house. As long as they weren’t loud -- and with the size of the house and arrangement of bedrooms, they would have to be loud -- and he didn’t get anybody pregnant, they didn’t care.
Ruby grinned as Clint adjusted himself, feeling that sense of accomplishment that came with successfully turning a guy on. She knew she’d be squirming all evening herself, enjoying every little touch and the anticipation of more when they could finally be alone together. “Really?” She asked in surprise, then bit her lip. It was tempting and she was sure she could be quiet if she had to. It wasn’t like she was loud. “I don’t want them to think--think badly of me or some shit. Do they know we’re dating?” She suspected Clint had told them he had a girlfriend, but she didn’t know if it was anything beyond that. They both avoided parents like the plague when they were together and while she was fine with that, she didn’t know what had been said when she was away.
Tarnished reputations were far from Clint’s mind, so the suggestion caught him a little off-guard. He didn’t have any sisters, so it was always a bit of a surprise to learn how different society’s expectations were for girls. A stupid surprise, because they never made any damn sense. “Naw, they won’t. I mean ... to them we’d just be hanging out,” he said, glancing over at Ruby. That was his assumption, anyway, he didn’t really know what his parents would think of her. But he didn’t much care, either. They were good parents, but it was his life, so whatever. “I don’t think they wanna think about it too much beyond that. But yeah, they know I’m with you. Mom has mentioned inviting you over for dinner a couple times, but I keep dodging it for your sake.” He chuckled faintly.
Ruby didn’t usually care what people thought of her, or she tried not to, but a boyfriend’s parents were a little different. Adults tended to have their own old school biases and could make life incredibly difficult on their kids if they didn’t like the choices they made. They could always push back, but how that would go depended on family dynamics and Ruby didn’t know much about Clint’s. His parents sounded pretty chill, or incredibly naive. “Oh God,” Ruby huffed. “Yeah, let’s maybe push that off a little longer. I’m sure they’re great, but… but I like it when it’s just you and me.” Dinner with anyone’s parents sounded like an absolute nightmare.
Clint couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that answer. He reached for Ruby’s hand again and brought it up to kiss the back of it. “Me too,” he agreed, shooting her a grin. He didn’t know if they would last-last, but considering his track record so far, he was inclined to think not. They hadn’t even talked about post-graduation plans, really, and he doubted they would be headed in the exact same direction. Clint liked Ruby a lot though, so he saw no issue with just enjoying themselves and letting it play out. And parents could indeed wait. He pulled the car into the lot at Basi Italia, and found a spot to park. There were a good number of cars there, considering it was Saturday night. While he was tempted to just stay in there and make out with Ruby for a while, he was pretty hungry, so Clint cut the engine and opened his door.
Ruby knew that if they lasted through graduation, they would have to talk about the future at some point, but that seemed like a potential downer of a conversation so she kept putting it off. Going off to college was supposed to be exciting for both of them, but it would likely mean a breakup. People that tried to do long distance for four years were out of their minds and just prolonging the inevitable, in her opinion. They could worry about that all in the spring, assuming they were still together then. Tonight was theirs for the taking with nothing to stand in their way. She gave his hand a squeeze, then released him to climb out of the car, pulling her coat closer around her against the cold. She wasn’t looking forward to summer when it came to her future with Clint, but she couldn’t wait to be rid of the snow. “I am so done with the cold,” she said as she came around the car to meet him. “Makes me wish I lived in one of those places where snow is a novelty.”
It was easier to live in the moment when you were a teenager, especially in a place where crazy shit happened all the time. Clint had gotten lucky and skated away from most of it, but being trapped in the fog and seeing the aftermath had kind of made him appreciate his present even more. His goal was fun this year, as much as he could cram into it before summer. He chuckled a bit at Ruby’s words and draped his arm around her shoulders as soon as she got close enough, then turned them toward the restaurant to walk her in. “I can’t even imagine what that’s like, honestly,” he said, amused. “Born and raised in the frozen north. I mean, I’ve been down south in the winter and it’s nice, but I dunno about all the time ...”
“Yeah, I’d probably miss the snow if I didn’t have it,” Ruby smiled as she cuddled up close to him. She’d never been down south in the winter, but she knew Christmas would be weird without blankets of white all around. It was only afterwards, as January dragged on, that she began wishing for warmer weather. Even a nice day in the mid-forties would be appreciated. As they walked towards the restaurant, Ruby’s eyes were drawn to movement at the edge of the sidewalk and her footsteps began to slow. There was a man there, an exceptionally tall one, and as she continued to stare he looked up at her, a skeletal smile stretching across his face. Fear shot through her, freezing her feet in place and she clung to Clint, unable to take another step forward.
Clint was just walking along thinking innocently about the weather -- and how he did hope that he and Ruby were still together when bikini season hit -- when he spotted the man on the sidewalk at the same moment Ruby did. The guy was crazy tall and skinny, bowler-hatted head bent down, just taking up the path into Basi Italia. Clint stopped walking a second after Ruby did, her grip suddenly ironclad on his arm. Clint’s eyes were transfixed on the man, who started to smile in a way that made Clint want to scream. He’d never seen him before, didn’t recognize him, he just got a horrible feeling when he looked at that grin. Instinct made him step halfway in front of Ruby, but other than that Clint didn’t really feel like he could move. “What the fuck ...” he breathed to no one in particular, his eyes wide with terror.
Ruby had thought she knew what it was to be scared, but this took it to a whole new level. This was nothing like attacking Jules’s father or facing the monsters in the fog--the man in the bowler hat incited pure terror just by being there. When he took a step towards them and she made a high pitched noise in her throat, a sound that would’ve been a scream had there been a little more force behind it. “Run,” she gasped out, giving Clint’s arm a tug as she tried to remember how to work her legs. Getting to the restaurant was no longer a priority for her. They needed to get away from this man, far away, or he would… Ruby didn’t know, but instinct told her that her life depended on escaping him.
The stem of Clint’s brain that still ran all of his animal instincts knew that ‘run’ was the correct response to whatever was currently happening. He just felt paralyzed for a few heartbeats, other instincts screaming at him not to turn his back on the man. The thing that really wasn’t a man, actually. If it had just been him standing there, he might not have finally moved. But Ruby pulling on his arm is what finally got him going. He had to protect her, any way he could. Clint half-turned and grabbed onto Ruby to get her moving back the way they’d come. “Back to the car,” he said breathlessly, not taking his eyes off of the creature in front of them. “Go go go go!” As soon as she’d moved enough that he wouldn’t trip over her, he started in the same direction, keeping himself between Ruby and the dark man.
It wasn’t until Clint started saying go that Ruby actually began to move, trembling and clumsy at first, then with the speed of a rabbit fleeing a bloodthirsty wolf. Turning her back on the man seemed like an absolutely horrible idea and once she’d done it she was afraid to look back, sure that he’d be right on her heels, reaching for her with long, bony fingers. Or worse, that he’d have gotten ahold of Clint. Her brain couldn’t even formulate what that might mean, but she could no more leave him behind than she could’ve left Jules to her father. Ruby skidded into the car as she reached it, then fumbled for the handle before jerking it uselessly. “It’s locked!” She shouted to Clint as she turned to watch him with wide eyes, the dark man following close behind them.
It was hard to run and look backward at the same time, but Clint had been through a fairly successful high school football career, so he was decent at it. What was harder was looking backward at that. The skinny ‘man’ seemed huge all of the sudden, his limbs seeming to elongate as he came after them, his long stride keeping up with their running. Clint was trying to give Ruby some space in front of him so he wouldn’t accidentally tackle her, which made him completely forget about the fucking keys. “Fuck!” he cried, his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest as he skidded into the car. He fumbled with the keyring and very nearly dropped it, but managed to hit the unlock button to let them in. Clint scrambled around to the driver’s side to yank the door open and fling himself inside. What the fuck was this fresh hell? Was nobody else seeing this? All he could think was run, run, run, RUN.
“Hurry!” Ruby shouted, aware that didn’t help, but unable to stop herself. Desperation was taking over her mind, fear demanding that she get away now and if the door didn’t open in another two seconds, then Ruby was going to take off down the street on foot. Then Clint managed to unlock the car and she threw herself inside, frantically locking the door behind her. The angle made matters worse-- the man looked huge, towering towards them with outstretched hands, his fingers now like knives ready to slice into them. Beyond the man, people sat in the restaurant completely unaware. How was this even happening? Were they having some kind of bad trip? Ruby didn’t understand, but she couldn’t question it now. “He’s coming!” Ruby shrieked, sure that any second he’d somehow rip the door off the car and pull her out.
This time Clint did drop his keys as he fumbled to get the right one into the ignition. He felt like he was having a heart attack or something, fear and adrenaline pumping hard through his veins. He cursed loudly and groped around on the floorboard until he found the keyring again and shoved it home. Clint threw the car into reverse and revved the engine, jerking them out of the parking spot before jamming on the brakes and switching to drive to get them the fuck out of there. He very nearly hit one of the parked cars, jerking the wheel at the last second before he peeled out into the street. Clint sped away from the restaurant, breathing hard and glancing in the rearview mirror every other second. He couldn’t see anything now but the road behind them. “What the fuck was that?” he asked breathlessly, voice strained. Ruby probably didn’t have any answers, but the words came out anyway. “What the fuck was that?”
Ruby didn’t realize she didn’t have her seatbelt on until the car jerked around and she caught herself on the dash, braced for impact. Every swerve of the car jostled her until she was able to right herself again and she buckled in, her hands struggling to manage such a simple task under the stress of escape. Only once the restaurant was behind them did Ruby feel like she could breathe again, but she still kept checking just to make sure the man was truly gone. “I dunno,” she gasped out, shaking her head. “A thing. Some evil thing.” It had looked like a man, but Ruby didn’t believe it was one. It just took that form to walk among them, to get close enough to…to what? She didn’t know and didn’t really want to think about it.
For someone who had lived in Point Pleasant his entire life, Clint had had relatively few run-ins with the supernatural forces that worked in the town. He’d heard all the stories, of course, and he thought he’d seen something moving in one of the windows of the Zinneman house when he was a kid, but besides the fog that had taken over everything, he’d never been directly confronted with something that shouldn’t exist. Now that seemed to have changed. The ‘man’ behind them hadn’t seemed like a real man to him either, more of a carnival funhouse version of a human. That smile ... fuck. Clint made himself slow down some now that they were down the block, his gaze ticking up to the rearview mirror every couple of seconds. There was nothing there, but that didn’t stop the fear from keeping the fine hair on the back of his neck raised. “Jesus Christ,” he whispered, then glanced over at Ruby. “Are you okay? It didn’t touch you, did it?”
“No!” Ruby said, her voice shrill as panic flared at just the thought of that thing touching her. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, then tried again. “No, it didn’t touch me. I… I’m okay.” Physically, at least. Mentally, she wasn’t so sure. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that thing grinning at her with the kind of smile that induced nightmares. “Think we can maybe… go to your place and order pizza?” Even if the tall man was gone, Ruby couldn’t imagine going back there now. She didn’t think she could make it up the sidewalk, scared that he’d be waiting in the shadows for them to return. She didn’t really feel like eating at the moment, or doing much of anything, but didn’t want Clint to take her home either. The last thing she wanted was to be alone.
Clint was definitely not going back to the restaurant, that was for damn sure. Food was the farthest thing from his mind at the moment, but he was on board with going home, that was for sure. “Yeah ... yeah, I’ll take us back to my house,” he said, his voice still a little shaky. The initial rush of panic was subsiding, but he couldn’t help but keep looking in the rearview mirror, expecting to see the dark man running after them. Or worse, sitting in his back seat. Clint suppressed a shudder, hands tight on the steering wheel. He felt like they’d gotten away from something really bad, and there were crazed alarm bells going off in his brain. He pried one hand off the wheel to rub it down his face a few times. “Holy shit,” he whispered. “Just ... what the fuck.” It was like the fog all over again, only much more immediate and personal.
Ruby had been trying to steal glances in her mirrors, then eventually turned around to check and make sure there was nothing following them. Not that she expected the man to be jogging behind the car, but he had a presence that made her believe he could be there, walking his slow walk, yet somehow keeping up. Like Michael or Jason in the horror movies. They were always there, no matter how fast their prey ran, yet they didn’t need to run to keep up. Turning back around, she took a few deep breaths as she tried to calm her heart back down. Even knowing they were safe now, she couldn’t seem to settle. “Are you okay?” She asked, realizing she hadn’t checked in with him. It hadn’t touched her, but Clint had been behind her, protecting her. Despite the cold that she couldn’t shake, that warmed her heart a touch.
Even though they were getting away from it, Clint still didn’t exactly feel safe. The thought occurred to him that he was leading that thing straight to his house, but fuck, what else could he do? Even seeing the damn thing on the sidewalk made him feel half crazy, and trying to drive around to ‘lose’ it seemed even crazier. “Yeah, uh ... I’m not hurt,” he answered, tossing a quick glance over at Ruby. His heart was still beating hard and he was still shaky and tense and scared, but he was as okay as he could be at the moment, he thought. The thing hadn’t touched him either, which was a good thing. Clint couldn’t shake the impression that it could do some damage with a touch alone. He forced himself to take a couple of deep breaths, trying to steady himself. He cursed softly as the light ahead of them turned red and he had to slow the car down to a stop, giving the rearview mirror another glance. “I don’t think it’s ... I think we got away,” he muttered cautiously.
As they slowed to a stop, Ruby turned to look again, just to make extra sure that nothing was there. Point Pleasant had thrown some fucked up things her way this year, but nothing had struck terror in her quite like this. She kept expecting the tall man to knock on the window or, worse, scratch it with his long, boney fingers. Ruby swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded, thinking Clint was right, even though she couldn’t shake the fear. “I didn’t think… I didn’t think there were things worse than… God, that was terrifying,” she said, then took a deep breath. She needed to pull herself together. This shouldn’t be so bad. There’d been some kind of apparition walking towards them, but it hadn’t gotten them. They’d gotten away. Yet, she still felt like they’d been marked somehow. It made her wish she had one of those hex bags on her, the kind Jasper had gotten from the witches. She didn’t know if it would make a difference, but she was open to anything that would help at the moment.
Clint didn’t even want to ask what Ruby had been about to compare it to, if he was being completely honest with himself. That had been the scariest encounter he’d ever had, even being a lifelong resident of Point Pleasant, and he didn’t want to know what was worse. The fog had been scary, but he hadn’t come face to face with what had been in it. He’d just had to keep Victoria Chapman entertained and pointing the rifle he’d given her in the right direction. As soon as the light turned green, Clint was on the gas again, scooting through the intersection to get them home as quickly as possible. He didn’t quite feel safe, but at least the sense that that thing was breathing down his neck was easing up. Fuck. “We’re okay,” he murmured to Ruby, reaching over to find her hand. Overlook wasn’t too far away, and he couldn’t wait to be inside his big house with an armed security system. It might not make a difference to things like that, but it was better than nothing. Within another few minutes he was pulling up the drive, his head swiveling around to see if the tall man had somehow beaten them there. “I’m gonna get as close to the porch as I can,” he told Ruby. “Move fast when you get out, okay?”
Ruby squeezed Clint’s hand and gave a shaky little nod of acknowledgement. She wasn’t looking forward to letting him go, and the run to the house felt like a race for her life. She knew it wasn’t reasonable, there was no way that thing could’ve beat them there, but she didn’t want to take any chances either. Who knew what it was capable of? What if it had somehow attached itself to the car and was hiding beneath, waiting for them to step down and grab them? It felt like something out of a horror movie, which meant she was absolutely screwed. Only virgins survived in horror movies and she was far from that. As Clint pulled into the drive and put the car in park, Ruby took a deep breath, then looked over at him. “Ready when you are,” she said, her heart beating hard already.
Some very distant part of Clint thought that maybe all this fear was ridiculous. Maybe there was a reasonable explanation for what they’d seen. Some deformed guy, just trying to mind his own business, when two teenagers got all weird about what he looked like. Or maybe it had been a prank, some sort of optical illusion, or a fucked up guy in a costume. But even more of Clint was sure that he’d seen what he’d fucking seen, and it could still be around. Clint got the passenger door as close to the walkway up to the house as he could. His father would bitch at him for such a weird parking job, not putting his car in the garage, but Clint didn’t give a shit. He wanted the smallest space possible between Ruby and the door. He waited for a second before he turned the engine off, looking around again. There was nothing to see, so it was now or never. “Okay ... go,” he said, popping his own door open at the same time. Clint heaved himself out of the car and rushed around the front of it to dash toward the front porch.
The second Clint said go Ruby was out of the car, scurrying towards his front door. The hand that might've grabbed her from beneath never came, but that didn’t calm her fears. There was so much that could still go wrong--she could slip and fall, the door could be locked, or it could be waiting for them inside the house. Something told her that last one wasn’t possible, but nothing about this night felt reasonable and her instinct told her to stay on guard. She’d know in her gut when she was safe. The distance to the door was a short one, but she ran the whole way, then skidded to a stop when she reached the door. She assumed the door was locked, but she tried it anyways, but before she could panic and start banging on the door Clint was there beside her. “Come on, come on, come on!” she muttered, clinging to him.
Any other time he would’ve been embarrassed about what a scared rabbit he probably looked like, bounding up the stone steps to the front porch in two big steps. Clint still had his keys in his hand, and he quickly found the one for the house and jammed it into the deadbolt hole. The back of his neck prickled with hyper-awareness, all of his body pretty sure there was something dangerous and scary right behind them. Clint got the door open and pushed it open, his arm moving around Ruby’s shoulders to urge her inside in front of him. He tossed a wide-eyed look over his shoulder, but there was still nothing to see but his car parked all crooked in the driveway. Clint didn’t let out the breath he was holding until he was inside the warm house as well and slamming the door shut behind them. He twisted the deadbolt again and went to the beeping security system keypad to put the code in. Once it was quiet again, Clint turned back to Ruby and held his arms out for her.
Ruby felt like a child running from her shadow, but her experience living in Point Pleasant had told her to trust her gut. She got the impression that Clint wasn’t going to tease her about it, as he seemed just as scared as she was. Once inside, she waited till he’d disarmed the alarm, then wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. The relief was so overwhelming that for a moment she felt she might cry, but the tears never came, thank God. “I can’t believe that just happened,” she whispered. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.” It was wild to realize that, considering what all she’d been through lately. Clint might not know how dreadful her Christmas break had been, but she hadn’t thought anything could top dragging a body into the fog and getting chased by one of those monsters. This, though… this was worse. It wasn’t just a monster. It felt evil.
Clint was just as relieved inside that Ruby didn’t think any of this was funny, and she wasn’t judging him for being scared or anything. He knew guys were supposed to be the strong and brave protectors, and his instinct had been to put himself between Ruby and the threat, but he was definitely scared. He could beat up some asshole who was harassing her, but he wasn’t sure he could actually defend her -- or himself, honestly -- against something like that. Clint hugged her tight and closed his eyes for a moment, just trying to slow down his breathing and his heart. They were inside, the alarm was armed, the house was pretty secure. There were guns here, if needed. Fuck. “It’s okay,” he murmured, trying to reassure both of them. “We’re okay now.” Clint kissed Ruby’s forehead, then took her hand. “Come on, m’gonna ... check all the doors.”
Even though she’d been scared out of her mind, Ruby had noticed the way Clint put himself between her and the tall man. She didn’t know how he’d managed it, she hadn’t felt capable of anything other than fear, and if she hadn’t been so shook up she’d have showered him with kisses over it. Instead she just clung to him, her appreciation silent for now, and she squeezed his hand as she began to lead her through his house to check the doors. “I know this is gonna sound crazy, but… can we get a… a weapon or something?” The first thing that came to mind was a baseball bat, but she pushed that thought away. She couldn’t handle thinking of that night on top of this one. She’d just feel better if they had something to hold between them and him if the tall man returned.
As they started to walk through the house, Clint couldn’t help but notice how quiet it was. His parents liked to lounge in the den in the late evenings and watch their shows, and he couldn’t hear anything coming from that direction. The thought of what if they’re dead? started to beat in the back of his mind like a drum, and he found himself squeezing Ruby’s hand a little too hard. “Yeah, there’s a gun in my room,” he murmured to answer her question. He was too focused on trying to listen for his parents to realize that it might be smarter to go get said gun before exploring the whole house. Clint led Ruby through the kitchen to one of the back doors and confirmed it was locked. Next was the den, which was empty, the TV dark. It was a relief not to find his slaughtered family, but worry still gnawed at Clint’s stomach. “They were here when I left,” he muttered.
“Why do you have a gun in your room?” Ruby asked, alarmed at the thought despite just having asked for a weapon. She was picturing a handgun in his nightstand or under his pillow, which sounded crazy, but also practical at the moment. Then again, if he’d had a gun in his car when that thing appeared, someone might be dead now. Ruby could only cope with one murder in her life. She didn’t need to witness another. As they walked through the kitchen, she considered grabbing a butcher knife out of the block, but was sure that was just going to get one of them stabbed at this point. “Who was here?” She whispered. “Your parents?” It would’ve been nice to have them around now, asking her uncomfortable questions about school and her future. She’d take that over this any day.
“Because of the fog, when I was stuck here with Victoria,” Clint answered Ruby’s first question in a hissed whisper that came out a bit more defensive than he meant it to. He was just on edge, and right then he thought his possessing a legal firearm -- well, it was legal for his dad to own, anyway -- was the least shocking thing going on tonight. “It just seemed smart after that. But yeah, my parents.” He was still keeping his voice down like something in the house might hear him, but so far everything seemed locked down safe and sound. The emptiness was disturbing though ... he’d talked to them before he left. That had been what, forty-five minutes ago, tops? “C’mon, let’s go upstairs,” he murmured once they’d cleared the ground floor.
His tone earned him a quick glare, but then Ruby nodded, having forgotten how he’d spent the fog. The image in her mind changed to something a little less gangster, one that made sense considering the situation, and now she wondered if they could do the same--camp out in his bedroom with a gun. It wasn’t how they’d planned to spend their evening, but at least the might feel safe. The house was eerily quiet, but making noise also felt like a bad idea, like it might draw attention to them. Ruby looked up the stairs and felt her heart begin to race despite knowing that, logically, nothing should be up there. Her hand tightened in Clint’s and she followed behind him, too scared to talk out in the open.
Nobody would ever mistake Clint for a gangster, but he was glad that he knew how to handle firearms. His family was rich, but his dad had grown up in rural Maine, and he’d always enjoyed being an outdoorsman and passed that along to his son. If shit like this was going to keep happening, Clint thought maybe he wanted even more firepower within reach than he already had. That was something to think about later, though. Clint led Ruby into his room and quietly shut the door behind them. He gestured for her to stay right where she was, then went to check the closet and his bathroom. Both were empty and normal. It was only then that he thought to pull his phone out and look at it. A frown on his face, Clint scrolled through a few notifications, then ran one hand through his hair and blew some air out between his lips. “They went out,” he told Ruby, looking up at her a little sheepishly. “Last minute drinks a few doors down.”
Ruby waited anxiously by the door, ready to bolt if Clint gave any sign of danger. The whole evening felt surreal at this point and it wouldn’t have surprised her if a monster really was hiding in his closet. Everything was normal though and Ruby was able to breathe a sigh of relief before taking a seat on his bed. “That’s good,” she said, giving him a small smile. “I mean...that’s better than...It’s good,” she said, jumping back to where she started. Neither of them wanted to think about the alternative. She’d feel better if they were home, which was a turn around from earlier in the evening, but at least Clint knew they were safe. “Do you maybe have something to drink? I feel like we could use one.”
Clint was pretty sure they were safe, both his parents and the two of them in his bedroom, but he was finding it difficult to wind down from the scare they’d had. It was the first time he’d ever come face to face with something that just didn’t fit into the reality he’d always known. There had been the fog, of course, but that had been more passive to Clint, just something happening outside. He hadn’t had to run, not like this. He went to the window to peek outside, half expecting to see the skinny creepy man standing out there staring at his window, but there was nothing. “There’s booze downstairs,” he said, turning his attention back to Ruby. “But uh, I’ve got some weed too. Want that, or a drink? Or fuck, both?” Why not, right?
“If the booze is downstairs and the weed is here, I say we go with the weed,” Ruby said with a twist of her lips. Both would’ve been great, but she wasn’t sure either of them wanted to wander through the house right now. Even if they’d cleared it as safe, she felt better staying in one place, where she could watch the doors and windows. “Just something to...take the edge off.” She still felt like she was turned up to eleven, almost quivering without outright shaking. She’d always known there were things out there, but her memory of the black eyed kid was distant, something she’d seen as a child herself, and she’d not felt the danger in the moment quite like she had this time. Ruby hoped the paranoia would fade a bit because right now she was downright skittish and she didn’t like it at all.
Clint was of the same opinion that he didn’t want to go wandering around, so just sticking with what was in his room sounded like a good plan. He pulled the curtains tight and then abandoned the window to go to his dresser and rummage in one of the top drawers until he found the little pouch he kept his drugs in. Not that he had a ton, but some pot and occasionally some E for parties weren’t things he wanted to leave lying around in the open. His mom still cleaned his room sometimes. Clint realized he was still wearing all of his outside layers, and he stripped down to his jeans and long-sleeve t-shirt before he sat down next to Ruby again. “I’ve never seen anything like that,” he murmured softly as he pulled one of the joints and a lighter free of the pouch. Clint offered them to Ruby so she could have the first hit. “That’s mellow stuff, it shouldn’t fuck with you,” he added. Some weed made some people paranoid, but he knew what he had, and it was good.
Ruby hadn’t realized she was still in her coat until Clint started to take his off and she followed suit, dropping her boots on the floor beside the bed. This was where she’d hoped to end up at the end of the night, just under completely different circumstances. “Last thing we need is another reason to freak out,” she said as she accepted the joint from him and took a hit. She’d never gotten high with Clint, but she trusted him to have decent shit. Ruby closed her eyes as she exhaled, trying to calm herself down as she felt the burn in her lungs. It wouldn’t take long, thank God. She’d never felt the need to get high so desperately. “I saw something as a kid, and I’ve heard things, but nothing like that.”
Clint felt a tiny bit more relaxed with both of them in more comfortable states of dress. While Ruby hit the joint, he flopped backward onto his bed, stretching his arms up for a second and giving a little groan. “I want to ask what you’ve seen sometime, but ... not tonight,” he said, rubbing at his eyes. They didn’t need to be telling each other spooky-ass stories right now; like Ruby said, they didn’t need anything else to freak out about. Looking over at her back, he reached out to toy with the loose ends of her hair where it fell against her back, trying to relax himself with the smooth silky feel. She was so gorgeous tonight, he hated that their evening had gotten so fucked up and she didn’t feel safe.
“No, not tonight,” Ruby agreed, taking a second hit before handing the joint over to him. “Sometime when it’s daytime. And we’re surrounded by people. Or something.” It wasn’t really a story she wanted to say with a crowd around, but she also didn’t want them alone in some creepy setting. Not that Clint’s house was normally creepy, but hopefully he understood what she was getting at. Ruby shut her eyes as he played with her hair a bit, then laid down on the bed and curled up next to him. “Thank you for… for saving me,” she told him with a little smile and a soft laugh. It wasn’t lost on her that he’d kept her safe when many a guy would have been too afraid to do anything more than save his own ass.
Clint took the joint and the lighter, staying on his back as he tucked it between his lips and took a couple of puffs. He held the acrid smoke deep in his lungs and looked over at his girlfriend. He knew exactly what she meant, now was definitely not the time to relive something scary. He just wanted his body to calm down and for everything to be okay. He let the smoke out when she thanked him and gave a soft chuckle. “Nah, I didn’t do shit,” he murmured, though he was smiling as he said it. Clint had gotten between Ruby and the danger by instinct, but he didn’t feel like he’d actually done anything to protect them. He took another hit and offered the joint back to her. “Thanks for not totally freezing up and needing more saving,” he added softly.
“There was a moment there that I wasn’t sure my legs would work,” Ruby said with a little huff. In a fight or flight situation, Ruby had always thought she’d be a fighter, but instinct had kicked in and told her that the tall man wasn’t something she could fight. Run had felt like the only option. She was just glad that Clint had felt the same way. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if he’d just seen a normal man standing there. It still seemed unfathomable that there were people in the restaurant, just a few feet away, completely unaware of what lurked outside. “This might sound a little crazy, but… could you teach me to shoot sometime? Not tonight, but…” Ruby paused to take a hit off the joint and used that moment to try and make sense of the things coming out of her mouth. “If we were here, in some kind of a standoff, I’d like to know what I’m doing.”
“That doesn’t sound crazy at all,” Clint murmured, watching Ruby’s lips for a moment before he met her eyes again. “With this kinda shit, that sounds like ... the most sane thing.” He didn’t know if a gun would’ve helped them, if something like the dark man could be stopped with bullets, but he would at least feel less helpless if he’d had a weapon in his hand. And if knowing how to handle one made Ruby feel better? Then he was more than happy to help her. “Of course I’ll teach you. Sometime really soon, we’ll go out to the woods and do some practice, okay?” Clint lifted his hand to stroke her hair again, then leaned in close enough to kiss her softly.
If someone had told Ruby at the start of her senior year that she’d be asking her ‘Overlook brat’ boyfriend for lessons in how to shoot a gun, she’d have laughed in their face. And yet, there she was, thinking that any steps she could take to ensure her safety were worth it. Guns, hex bags, tattoos, you name it. It felt extreme until she remembered that man’s smile, a grin that would haunt her dreams for nights to come. Ruby gave a little nod of agreement, then returned the kiss, appreciating the escape that Clint offered. Maybe she could find some way to stay with him tonight because if she had to sleep alone, she might not sleep at all.