lookinside (lookinside) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-06-29 19:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, #january 2018, james, ophelia, sebastian |
Who: Sebastian, Ophelia, and James
Where: The McCarthy House
When: Midday, Thursday, January 25th
Status: Complete
The distance between the Cooper house and the McCarthy house was barely a block, but it was enough for Sebastian to finally breakdown, forcing him to stay in the car ten minutes longer than the drive actually took. His mom was gone. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t always gotten along, or that she favored both his siblings over him; he missed her fiercely already. All he could think about was all the missed opportunities, things he should’ve said or done, but hadn’t because his pride got in the way. Or his social life. Or any number of things that felt unimportant now. She’d been there for him when he needed her, even when he least expected it, and he was just getting used to that idea and now she was gone.
His eyes were red and puffy by the time he climbed out of the car, but he’d pulled himself together enough that he thought he could have a decent conversation. Sebastian was still determined not to let his father see him cry, aware of how James would see that as a weakness, but he didn’t think he could wait long enough for the side effects to fade, not without the risk of starting up again. “Dad? Phee?” he called out as soon as he walked in the door. He took off his coat and slid off his shoes, aware of how much his mother would’ve hated him to track snow in the house, and that almost broke him once more. He stood there in his socks, trying to hold it together as he waited for at least one of them to respond. He called out a second time, this time louder. “Dad? Phee? Can you come here?”
James happened to be on high alert that morning. He'd woken up earlier, though not as early as he was used to, and known something was wrong off the bat. He'd been so exhausted and out of it and that just wasn't like him and when he woke up, Brianna was nowhere to be seen. She didn't answer her phone which was also not like her, especially not for over an hour before noon. Maybe it was extreme, but with his growing paranoia and his odd state of being lately, he'd called the police already, though he didn't want to alarm the kids to the fact yet. When Sebastian called, he could hear the tightness in his voice and even if he hadn't he still would have felt alarmed so he took the stairs two by two from the basement and came out to meet his son. It was obvious he'd been crying and while James typically didn't like that sort of weakness in men he tried not to take it out on his sons when they did cry in front of him. They no doubt knew how he felt about it, of course, but showing displeasure was different from vocally expressing it... Right? Today he just grabbed Sebastian's shoulder, concerned and visibly worried. "What's going on?"
The change in how she felt had been impossible to miss when Phee had woken up that morning. It was kind of late, but she hadn’t set her alarm for school since she’d known going to sleep that she wasn’t going to school. She was sick or ... something. Just completely worn out. She felt better when she had woken up, but still not better enough to go to school. She’d stayed in her room, lounging in bed with her grimoire, until she heard her brother’s voice call her name downstairs. Phee got up and grabbed her fluffy robe to wrap around herself as she emerged from her room and padded downstairs. Sebastian was in the foyer, their dad holding onto his shoulder, and he looked like he’d been crying a lot. Phee stepped up to them, her expression knotted with concern. She didn’t speak yet, but the same question was in her eyes -- what was going on?
Sebastian swallowed hard and looked up at his dad, still unable to find the right words. The simplest way felt too blunt, and yet that's what kept coming back to him because otherwise he had to break into a long explanation first. When Phee joined them, he knew he couldn't stall any longer. "Mom's gone," he started, but he knew he couldn't stop there. His voice shook as he pressed forward, rambling in an effort to get it all out at once. "She and... and everyone else who got hurt in the fog. They were sucking the life out of everyone and there were some people who were trying to save them, but it didn't work. They got shut away instead, to the place where the fog came from." It wasn't everything and he knew he was missing some of the details, but he had to take a breath and give them a chance to catch up. Phee might know what he was talking about, but he thought this might hit his father out of nowhere.
James had a million questions and he doubted Sebastian had all the answers. All he could do was hope his son was delirious and talking nonsense because what he was saying was horrific. A part of him knew it was true though, he'd been uncharacteristically tired lately and he hadn't gotten out of bed at all the day before which was so unlike him it made him cringe just thinking about it. He furrowed his brows, searching Sebastian's face for answers to the multiple questions running through his mind before he tried to focus and piece together what Sebastian was saying and which answers were most important to get first. "What people?" he asked first after feeling unable to speak for a good few seconds but that's where he opted to start. If he knew who had done this then he could make them undo it, he was strong again, he could figure out what was going on with Brianna and fix it. "Who locked them away?"
As soon as Sebastian said the words ‘where the fog came from,’ Phee knew. Her eyes widened and a freezing chill ran down her spine. She flashed back to being in the school hallway with Jules, when suddenly everything changed to that other place. The place with all the black goop and the shit floating in the air and the thick fog that hugged the ground and hid gods knew what. Jules had been asking about Brianna, about her behavior and saying there was something wrong with the people who’d gotten hurt ... had she transported all of them to that awful place? Phee pulled her robe tighter around herself as her heart picked up speed, wide eyes ticking between her brother and her father’s face. She didn’t want to rat on Jules, because who knew how James was going to take this news, but it felt like so many things had already clicked into place. “Oh my god,” she whispered, not wanting to interrupt what Sebastian had to say just yet.
"I--I don't know everyone involved," Sebastian said and was glad it was true. The only way he'd ever been good at lying to his father was through omission, but he knew he couldn't deny him the answers he deserved. "You can ask Nic Castell. He was there." So was Jules, but he would protect her from his father's questioning if he could. She had her own shit to deal with, had lost someone herself, and no one else needed to know that she was the one who'd opened and closed the portal. His eyes flicked over to Phee, knowing she'd pick up on the things he wasn't saying and would probably have questions herself, but they could talk later if he could get through this without revealing his source. He doubted he'd be that lucky, but he'd give it a try.
Nic Castell. James' eyes narrowed at hearing the name and it was hard to swallow that some chaotic witch he'd never cared much for was one of the people responsible for whatever his wife was now going through. Rage bubbled up inside him at the fact Nic hadn't even tried to reach him for help even if James had been completely out of it and unable to so much as get out of bed. Still, he hadn't even tried and this was Brianna's life in the mix. The only reason he was keeping himself somewhat composed was that his little girl was there, staring wide-eyed at him and Bash, scared and confused. "I'll fix this," he said through clenched teeth, reaching up to grab their shoulders, Sebastian's more firmly. "We'll get her back, there are more capable witches in this town than Nic Castell, he should have had help with whatever he was planning on doing." He tried to channel that anger he was feeling into some semblance of hope for his kids. "I'll fix this."
I was there! It’s hell! You can’t go! Phee wanted to scream, one of her hands shooting up immediately to grip her father’s arm when he squeezed her shoulder. But the look Sebastian had given her, the way he’d left Jules out of it ... she knew she shouldn’t tell, there would be too many questions she didn’t have ready lies for. Seconds later she wanted James to go, because it was their mother and she needed their help. Phee didn’t realize she was biting too hard at her bottom lip until she tasted blood. “Fix it how?” she asked in a burst, her voice high and trembly. “Nobody could fix it before, what -- how can we even find her?” She was starting to freak out a little, and she looked at her brother with pleading eyes, even though she had no idea what he could do about it. It was just awful and bad and they had to try to do something, right?
Sebastian could see Phee starting to freak out and he didn’t blame her. She probably understood where their mom was better than him, but he couldn’t imagine that relaying all that information to their father now would be a good idea. It would seem like they were keeping secrets when that hadn’t been the case— they’d been keeping Jules’s secret and hadn’t realized how it would impact their lives. Maybe James deserved to know, but based on the look in his eyes Sebastian knew he’d been right to keep Jules’s name out of it. It was all he could do to protect her. “I don’t think this was a witch thing, Dad,” he said. “If they let her and the others out, they’ll just start draining people again. And the creatures that live in the fog could get out too. I know you weren’t here for that, but it was bad. It was really bad. If even one of those things gets out, more people will die.” He wasn’t really arguing, but stating the facts as he knew them. If his dad could have done anything, he wouldn’t have been in bed like the rest of them.
James' grip on Sebastian's shoulder tightened and he shook his head. "We don't give up in this family, Bash," he reminded him sternly. "We're fighters and we're winners, especially when the stakes are this high." They'd get the coven back together if they had to, - if a witch could open a damn gateway to another dimension once, they could do it again and James didn't care what he had to do to make it happen. "It may not be a witch problem but that doesn't mean there isn't a witch solution," he added in a grumble as he let go of his son's shoulder to pull Phee into a tight embrace, torn between the urge to rush out to save Brianna and the duty he felt to stay here and comfort his kids.
Phee got plenty of hugs from James when he was around, but not many that felt like they would crush the breath out of her. This was one of those, and it was kind of grounding to the daddy’s-girl part of her psyche. Their dad was there and determined to tackle the problem, so it had to work out okay, right? She tried to cling to that idea as she hugged James tightly back and tears filled her eyes. Phee knew Sebastian was right, those were real dangers, and she still didn’t know how they would rescue their mom, but gods she wanted to believe it was possible. Hadn’t they been through enough in the past few months? Phee let go of James with one hand to reach out to Bash, wanting him in the hug too, or at least his hand.
Sebastian’s eyes dropped from his father’s to the floor, feeling the reprimand more than the promise. He didn’t want to be a quitter; he wanted to fight for his mom and every other person who’d gotten trapped in the portal. He just didn’t know how. Everything Jules had said made sense—if they couldn’t restore his mother to her former self, then it wasn’t worth the risk of opening the portal. He’d even gone down the same path of thinking, that surely the coven was more powerful than anything Nic Castell could have done himself. “Maybe…ask Reagan and Caius,” he suggested. He didn’t want to say they were stronger than his father, but he quietly suspected that to be the case. If any of the witches could get his mother back, it was them. He squeezed Phee’s hand, appreciating the gesture, but he knew he needed to be strong now. He needed to believe they could beat this, even when it felt impossible.
James had no idea how he was going to save Brianna, or even if he could, he just knew he was going to try and 'fake it until you make it' was somewhat of a private slogan for him. He had to look certain for his kids but more than that he had to convince himself he was going to come out on top. Certainty of victory was more likely to bring about victory than a defeatist attitude and he instilled that in his boys far more than he did Phee. She was allowed to be softer, she was a girl. "We're calling on the whole damn coven," he muttered and reached out to Sebastian, cupping the back of his neck firmly and bringing him into the fold. Yes, he had been reprimanding him, he did that quite a lot, but he did that out of love even if it was a misguided gesture and a relief of his own frustration as well.
It was all so big and scary Phee didn’t know if it could be fixed ... but if anybody could do it, it was the coven combined. If there was a good force more powerful than them in Point Pleasant, she didn’t know what it could be. They’d saved Sebastian, maybe they could save Brianna too. Glad that their father pulled Sebastian in with them, Phee clung to both of them, trying to draw on that confident strength so she wouldn’t cry too much. She half expected her mom to walk through the door and look at them all funny for being huddled and emotional in the foyer. Phee tried to picture her in that other place, and it was almost too horrible to contemplate. Phee had been there for a handful of minutes and it had been traumatizing, she couldn’t imagine being stuck there. “Somebody sh-should call T-Trip,” she said haltingly after a moment. Phee didn’t know if he would come, but he should still know.
Phee was right. Somebody should call Trip, but it wasn’t going to be Sebastian. Breaking the news to his father and sister had been horrible and he didn’t want to relive the experience anytime soon. There was no telling how his brother would react, but Sebastian knew it would likely be better received than the tears that he’d shed. Trip had always been the perfect son, he’d probably do a better job of putting on the strong front his father expected, but he wasn’t there. He wouldn’t understand and having lost their mom in some kind of bizarre supernatural tragedy wasn’t going to draw him home when he’d already rejected magic. If anything, it would push him away more. Bash didn’t blame him. Point Pleasant was a shit show these days. “He won’t believe it,” he said softly. “It’ll sound crazy.”
Trip had been a colossal disappointment in the last weeks ever since he refused to come home for Christmas. He hadn't come home even when Brianna got hurt and James knew she had been hurt and angered by that, even more so than he had. He couldn't really blame him, he was away at college, he had a girlfriend he was head over heels in love with whose family apparently was very accepting of him. As long as he kept his grades up and did well at school, James tried not to resent him for his actions but it took a toll. The thought of calling him, of telling him what had happened over the phone was a harsh one and he shook his head. "I'll call him after," he muttered. "I'll tell him to come home, this isn't the sort of thing we can tell him over the phone. You understand? Don't tell Trip yet." They might not have to tell him a damn thing if James succeeded in getting Brianna back, Trip had made it perfectly clear he didn't want anything to do with the supernatural so they could do him and themselves the favor of excluding him while they could.
Phee hadn’t expected Bash to handle the burden of telling their brother -- he’d already done enough by getting the news in the first place and then relaying it to them. She didn’t want to make the call either, so it obviously fell to their remaining parent ... but James didn’t want to. Trip may have rejected the magical life, but he was still their brother and Brianna’s son, and it didn’t seem right to hide this from him. What if he called and wanted to talk to her? Were they going to straight up lie to him? Phee glanced between her father and brother’s faces, her expression growing more incredulous as her tears dried up. Feeling angry was easier and better than despair. “Call him after what exactly?” she asked, her brow furrowing at James. “I would be livid if I was away and nobody told me this was happening. Maybe he’ll come back to help.”
"You've gotta call him, Dad," Sebastian said, echoing Phee's sentiment. "If you wait, even if you get Mom back, he's gonna be pissed." That might not matter to James, but if it was Sebastian then it would have only exacerbated the trust issues he already had with his father. Keeping something this big from Trip seemed like a horrible idea and Sebastian couldn't fathom why he'd want to wait.
"I'm talking to Nic Castell first," James said firmly. Yes, his kids would be livid if it was them - Trip would no doubt be livid too - but they didn't get to decide when he told them things, he did. "It's more pressing to get your mom back." He let them go and maybe anger was better for them than grief so he'd give them that. "Stay together," he told them, already getting his coat. "I'm going to fix this and I need to know the two of you are safe. Don't talk to Trip before I do, understand?" He hadn't quite shifted into the tone of voice of 'what I say goes' but he was close as he looked at them expectantly.
Phee doubted in her heart that this was a thing that was going to be fixed quickly. It had ramped up gradually and turned into a huge problem, she didn’t think her dad and Nic Castell were going to be able to just snap their fingers and bring Brianna back. But at least he was acting with some urgency. Maybe if he came back with no good news she could convince him to call Trip later that night. Phee crossed her arms over her stomach, standing close to her brother, and gave an uncertain sort of nod. She wouldn’t call yet or do anything or go anywhere. She was still tired and she needed a shower pretty badly. And to check in with Greg, Phee was sure she’d been missing calls while she’d been so out of it. After that? It would be nonstop worrying, she was sure.
"Yeah," Bash said, unwilling to argue with his father at that point. If it was as simple as marching over to Nic's house and getting answers, he didn't think they'd be where they were, but maybe his father was right. Nic hadn't performed the ritual with the coven, so maybe he wasn't all that competent as a witch. Bash didn't know and he wanted to believe his father could fix this, even if the chances were slim. "We'll be here." Hopefully his father would return soon with some good news.