Who: Bailey and Kane When: Early evening, Mid-May Where: Blackwater Woods, the Back Porch Status: Complete
Despite how relieved Bailey had been about the quiet calm of Point Pleasant over the last couple of months, she would have been lying if she said she hadn’t been keeping an eye and ear out for… strange reports. They used to come in daily, back in the winter, but now the oddest thing she had been called upon to check out was a potential animal on Mr. and Mrs. Maurer’s roof. The animal ended up being a naked teenage boy who had snuck out of their daughter’s window and for some reason hoisted himself up instead of down.
She knew it was stupid to wish for something more exciting, but Bailey supposed she wanted to show Kane she could do just as much as he did. Accept the things she saw and deal with them. Maybe there was some deep-seated, irritating need to get his approval on something. Show him she could be trustworthy, and maybe an ally.
It was mid-May when she finally got something. Someone had called in about sighting a bear of some kind in the woods around Point Pleasant. A big one, apparently. Bailey nearly brushed it off, since while black bears were found in Maine, they generally weren’t sighted in southern, Maine. She couldn’t recall ever hearing about bear sightings in the past and it just seemed silly. The report had come to her and Bailey nearly brushed it to the side before it occurred to her that while the caller might not have seen an actual bear, they probably saw something. She knew damn well something hunted in Blackwater Woods, but it wasn’t something that could be mistaken for a bear.
This was something different. Bailey thought about going out to the woods to search for herself, but then she found herself in her car, driving towards Kane’s apartment, the report on the seat beside her. He might laugh in her face or brush her off, but then again, maybe he was as bored as she was and ready for some action that didn’t include getting gutted by a man-who-wasn’t-a-man.
Bailey was at his door and knocking before she realized she should have texted. He might have had company. But… oh well. Too late now.
Kane had been working during the lull in paranormal activity in Point Pleasant, he’d just been doing the boring side of the work. Research. He’d dug deep enough to find out who his not-a-man was. Adrian Moretti, part of a group of young men who’d gone missing in Blackwater Woods years ago. Only one had come back -- not Adrian -- and everyone had assumed that one had killed the rest of them. But it seemed like he hadn’t. Then came a deep dive into all the legends surrounding the creature rumored to live and hunt those woods, something inhuman and terrifying, something akin to a wendigo. That word had sent a thrill through Kane. It pointed in a direction, and he always liked to have those.
He’d also been healing during this downtime, resting up so he would be ready when he did find Adrian Moretti again. Because he would. Maybe not having any other jobs to focus on had allowed Kane to get a little bit obsessed with the guy, but he didn’t care. Kane had never encountered a wendigo before, and he was already dying to know more. But he had to be in good shape when that happened, so he’d been letting his leg heal, and then slowly starting to work out again to make sure he was in shape.
Kane was in the middle of doing just that in his spartan living room when someone knocked on the door. He’d gotten a small weight bench from somebody at a garage sale in town and had started lifting again, not quite ready to go back to a gym regularly yet. Frowning, he settled the bar back in its holders and sat up, then stood. Kane grabbed the towel he had nearby to wipe his face off as he stood up and headed for the door.
He didn’t think anything of being shirtless until he saw it was Bailey on the other side. Had he missed texts or calls? Was it their mom? His frown deepened. “What’s up?” he asked.
For a split second she thought he did have company, considering he had opened the door shirtless, but then Bailey realized if he had a woman inside, he probably wouldn't have stopped whatever it was they were doing just to answer the door. Bailey held up the folder in her hand. "I have something a bit weird, if you're interested." If he wasn't, maybe she would go off and look for this thing on her own. Someone had to check it out, so it might as well be her. Even if it was just a bear, or some harmless, woodland creature, at least she was still doing her job. "I can always come back later if you're busy," Bailey tacked on, mostly out of courtesy than anything else.
Some feeling that was a mix of relief and disappointment flashed through Kane. Not their mother, then. He grunted a dismissive sound as he reached to take the folder from Baily. Almost absentmindedly, he moved back so she could come inside. Something ‘a bit weird’ was better than the whole bunch of nothing that he’d been doing lately. Once Bailey was inside, Kane pushed the door shut and flipped the folder open to look through it. “Not doin’ nothing important,” he muttered. Workouts could wait. Working in the field was always the better option. “So what am I lookin’ at here?”
Bailey stepped inside, her hands slipping into her light jacket as Kane took a look at the papers inside the folder. "A police report that got filed earlier," she explained, glancing around the apartment with mild curiosity. "Someone driving into town had a strange sighting in the woods. They said it moved with alarming speed and may have been a bear. But it's been a long damn time since there have been bears in Point Pleasant. And considering what kind of creature has been hunting people down in Blackwater Woods, I doubt a bear would have a very high chance of survival. A few nights ago we had to help someone file a report for their insurance company. They said they hit an animal but the responding deputy didn't find any carcasses or wounded animals nearby, though there were a few streaks of blood on the bumper. The car was definitely totaled though, which made him think the driver had a hit and run somewhere and was falsifying the report after the fact. It happened in the same place the alleged bear sighting happened this morning. So." Bailey shrugged. "I'm going out there now to check it out. Something tells me it's not a bear. I thought this might be in your wheelhouse."
Kane had never been good at paperwork, and Bailey’s summary gave him more information than his eyes skimming over all the words in front of him did. Something huge and fast that could survive being hit by a vehicle did sound right in his wheelhouse. His skin prickled with the idea that it might be the thing from Blackwater Woods, which was so intimately connected to his current fixation. “Definitely not a bear,” Kane agreed. He closed the folder and offered it back to Bailey. Even if it was a bear and they were just desperately bored, he wasn’t going to let her go out looking around for it on her own. Kane realized she was a cop and was in danger all the time around here, pretty much, but now that she was in his living room, he couldn’t say no to joining her. “Lemme get some better clothes on, have a seat if you want.” There weren’t many places to do so, he hadn’t furnished this apartment very well -- just a sagging futon in front of a TV and his weight bench. Kane turned to head back to the bedroom -- which didn’t have more than a blow-up mattress and his bags of clothes and weapons.
She was glad he agreed with her and Bailey took the folder back, feeling smug. Why, she didn't know. Probably because she wanted to prove to him she could do his job just as well as he did. Maybe. He was different, but that didn't mean much to Bailey. Not at the moment. Plus, she wanted to see him in action in a way that wasn't stumbling upon him murdering three kids with black eyes. Bailey looked at the futon, wrinkled her nose, then thumbed towards the door. "I'm going to step outside and smoke while you get ready."
Kane grunted some answer over his shoulder, not at all offended that his sister didn’t want to sit on his second hand furniture. His mind was already occupied with getting into hunting mode. He didn’t know if they would find or kill whatever this was tonight, but he wanted to be prepared for any eventuality. He put on some pants and a long-sleeved shirt and his good boots, all black, loading up his pockets and belt with his usual supply of ammo and a couple of good knives. He tucked a couple of guns and extras into a small bag and slung it over his shoulder. After a moment’s though, Kane grabbed the duffel bag with his bigger firearms too, a rifle and a shotgun, then headed out the door. Bailey had said it was big, after all. He locked up behind himself, then glanced at her. “Ready?”
Bailey had nearly finished her cigarette by the time Kane reappeared. She eyed the bags, about to ask why he needed them, but... she only had her firearm and she would have to report it if she had to fire it for any reason. So maybe it was better if he was fully armed. "Ready," she said, taking one last drag from her smoke before she tossed the butt to the side. "Do you want to drive? How's your leg?" If it was still bothering him, she didn't mind getting behind the wheel. She knew exactly where they were going, after all.
He was glad that Bailey didn’t question him. Most of his weapons were unregistered, untraceable, and that made them very illegal. He didn’t think his baby sister was going to bust him for something like that, but still. It was probably best they just didn’t talk about some things. “Only hurts when it rains and I’m tryin’ to run,” Kane told her with a faint smirk. “So yeah, we can take my truck, I guess. Unless you wanna let me drive your cruiser?” He doubted that, so he started to walk toward the parking lot where his SUV was. “Just tell me where we’re goin’.”
She was well aware of how she might be jeopardizing her job, driving around with a man who had what were probably unregistered or unlicensed firearms, but she justified it by telling herself they were doing something good - or may be doing something good. The last thing they needed was something else terrorizing Point Pleasant. Bailey thought it was safer to let Kane drive his SUV because the last thing she needed was to be seen driving her patrol car with a civilian in the passenger seat. "I'll give you directions," she said, carrying the folder with her. "Let's hope we won't have to run away from anything because you know I'd leave your ass behind in a second if it came down to it." That wasn't necessarily true, but Bailey would rather talk shit than think about the potential consequences of what they were about to do.
Breaking bullshit paperwork laws was the least of Kane’s crimes, so he didn’t worry much about going down for them. He was very careful, and he was afforded a bit of protection from the enchanted tattoos he had. He flew under the radar more than he could explain to his cop sister. She might come to understand, or not, it didn’t matter to him as long as Bailey didn’t try to arrest him. Pulling his keys from his pocket, he hit the button to unlock the SUV, then put the gun bags in the back. Bailey’s threat made him chuckle. “I would expect nothing less. Save your own ass, always,” he said. His tone was light, but he meant it. If this wasn’t a bear, it was undoubtedly dangerous, and he didn’t want her to get hurt or dead. Kane could take care of himself. He tugged the driver’s door open and climbed into the vehicle.
While Bailey was joking, mostly, she had a feeling Kane wasn't. Climbing up into the SUV, she wondered if he would ditch her if it came down to a life or death situation. They had seen more of each other over the past few months than they had in years, but that didn't mean they were close now. "Take Witcham Road out," she instructed. Without thinking, she reached into her jacket to pull out her mints, tearing down more of the wrapper to pop one into her mouth. "Don't know if you heard, but some of those missing people are starting to show up again. The ones who went missing in the same woods we're about to go searching through."
Kane adjusted the air a bit and put the car into gear to back out. He lived most of his life by that philosophy -- his own ass above all others -- but Kane knew deep down he would make an exception for his baby sister. They may have been two steps away from estranged, but there was part of him that still felt that protective burn in his chest when he thought about anything happening to her. The unofficial plan in his head was to put himself between Bailey and any imminent danger, and hope she listened to his advice and saved herself. Not that he would ever say that out loud. “That so?” he muttered to her news, pausing at a stop sign before he turned to head in the right direction. “That’s weird. Any story on where they been?”
The details in the police reports, what few they had, were mostly confidential since it was an "ongoing investigation", but all someone had to do was plop their butt down in a bar somewhere and someone else would fill them in on it. Secrets were hard to keep in a town like this. Bailey shrugged. "Plenty of stories, yeah. A couple of them I went to see refused to talk. Some of them have said they were in a place like Point Pleasant, only it was dark and foggy with... creatures of some kind. I don't know how much of it is the truth and how much of it is trauma fucking with their minds. From what I understand, none of them know how they got back here."
There were always stories, weren’t there? No matter how unbelievable to most people. Kane was inclined to believe a whole hell of a lot, though. He’d seen some crazy shit, even outside of this weird-ass little town. Some nightmare version of Point Pleasant was a new one on him though, and Kane raised an eyebrow. “That’s ... fuckin’ weird,” he muttered thoughtfully. Gone for months and then back with no explanation? That would make Kane nervous, personally. Like maybe he’d get sucked back into wherever, or that whatever had rescued him would want something in return and come knocking when he least expected it. “Don’t envy you, tryin’ to put all that into some report for the higher-ups.” Kane chuckled faintly and glanced over at his sister’s shadowy profile. “Least you won’t have to do any paperwork on this.”
Fuckin' weird was probably an understatement. Bailey sucked on her mint for a moment, reminding herself not to give too much information away. For the first time in a long time, she was sharing with her brother, showing him she could be beneficial to his life in some capacity. But it wasn't smart to dive in head first and fuck herself over somehow. It was even dumber to get attached in a way that would hurt once he left. Because once their mom died, Bailey was pretty sure Kane would be gone. "Thankfully it's not my job to appease the higher ups. That's on the Sheriff." She bit into her mint, enjoying the peppermint taste as it covered her tongue. "He's a smart guy, though. He's been covering up for people in this town for a long time. Not sure what he gets out of it, but I guess it's decent." Bailey glanced over at Kane. "I might do some paperwork on this, but if it's anything that's going to potentially get me tossed into a psych ward, I'll probably fudge the details some."
Kane sure as hell wouldn’t write anything up beyond maybe the initial call coming in ... but he wasn’t a cop. He didn’t know if that was just Bailey’s ingrained training or what, but it was her problem, not his. He was sure she would leave his name out of everything, that was all he cared about. He’d never met the sheriff to his knowledge, but he thought anybody who tried to keep the peace and illusion of normalcy in this town was stupid or crazy or had some ulterior motive, so he took that comment with a grain of salt too. It wasn’t Kane’s job to tell Bailey how to do hers, so he just grunted an acknowledgement to what she said and kept driving. They were getting close to the edge of town and Witcham Road, and Kane found himself scanning the sides of the streets already, a deep habit of being watchful in the dark that had saved his ass more than once. “Funny you should bring somethin’ in Blackwater to me,” he murmured after a pause. “The guy I’m tracking is connected to those woods.”
"I remember," Bailey said. "But there are a lot of things connected to Blackwater. Missing persons, murders, mutilations, those disappearances. According to a report I read, one guy went nuts on his friends during a camping trip out there and slaughtered them all, including his brother. That's the official report, anyway. Reading between the lines, it seems pretty clear it was something unnatural. The body of one of the men was never found." Since talking to Kane a month or so ago, Bailey had dug a bit deeper into the older police reports. She was trying to read them with new eyes, wanting to catch anything that seemed out of the ordinary. More so than usual. The cops in this town, herself included, seemed pretty skilled at bullshit.
He felt a charge of electricity run down his spine as Bailey told him the story he already knew, but Kane bit his tongue on exclaiming that one of them had survived, that was his guy. Adrian Moretti, he was the one Kane was going to find. Either he’d been Something Else going on that camping trip and killed a bunch of his friends, or Something Else had done it and changed Adrian in the process. From everything Kane had been able to find, he’d been a completely normal guy before he’d disappeared. But he definitely wasn’t now, and Kane wanted to know why. “Yeah, I read about that one,” he muttered casually. “So ... I’m with you in the ‘probably not a fuckin’ bear’ camp.”
"It's always nice to be on the same page," Bailey said dryly. It definitely wasn't a bear, that much she was sure of. But there was the possibility it was something... normal and this whole thing would have been pointless. Bailey wasn't sure if she wanted normal or not. "You're still trying to track this guy down, aren't you? Did you learn anything new?" She nearly said she could probably help him out, but she didn't want to offer only to have him reject it. Maybe she was being helpful now, but she was still a cop and she doubted Kane trusted her completely. That was okay, because she wasn't sure she trusted him completely either.
She would ask directly, wouldn’t she? A little smirk crossed Kane’s face. It was kind of interesting to him that they’d both fallen into jobs -- though his was more of a lifestyle, really -- that involved a lot of investigation. Like their brains were wired similarly, but had taken vastly different paths. Maybe they were converging now in this fucked up little town. He really had no idea what his plans for the future were, but that was just how he lived his life in general. Kane never knew where he would land next. He was here for now, witnessing his mom’s end of life and getting to know his sister a bit better, that was all that mattered. “Nothing solid yet,” he lied to Bailey, his tone casual enough. Part of Kane knew his interest in Adrian Moretti wasn’t exactly on the up and up, and he didn’t really want to try to explain it to his baby sister. “Haven’t seen him again either. I’m thinkin’ he might’ve ran off after we tried to kill each other.”
Bailey silently studied his profile, sucking on the remaining remnants of her mint. Maybe he was telling her the truth. Maybe not. But if he was lying to her, that just meant he didn't trust her enough to tell her anything. Or maybe he just didn't want her to know. "You think he might've run off, but you said you were still tracking him. Seems kind of pointless if he's left and you're still hanging around here," she said simply before turning her attention to her window again. "You'll want to go about three miles down Witcham," Bailey instructed as she flipped open the police report again. "I'll tell you when to stop."
Kane had spent most of his life not completely trusting anybody, and it was a deeply ingrained habit. Besides, maybe there was still some part of him that wanted to preserve his reputation with his sister. If she thought well of him at all, that was, he didn’t even know. How could he, when they didn’t really talk? It didn’t matter tonight, at least, he didn’t want to get into justifying his newest obsession. “I don’t know that he left though, so if he’s holed up somewhere around here, I’ll find him,” he said with confidence he didn’t completely possess. Kane didn’t think Adrian really left, he just had no proof either way. In any case, he was stuck in Point Pleasant until his mother died, so if Kane lost him, so be it. He focused on driving as the buildings disappeared and the trees took over, eyes still scanning the sides of the road.
Bailey hummed in response. She knew she could help. She had the resources, of course. But she wasn't going to offer when it was clear he was keeping his cards close to his chest. That was fine. They didn't have to share everything, or anything, with each other. Pretending to read the police report again so she wouldn't have to talk, Bailey waited until they neared the spot in question before speaking. "Pull off there," she instructed, pointing to the right. "See that tree with the broken branch hanging out over the ditch? There." She closed the police report and set it to the side. The road was dark, but that was okay. Good, even. The less risk they had to be seen, the better.
He’d never worked with a partner before and Kane didn’t consciously intend to start, but there was something kind of nice about having Bailey beside him as they headed into the unknown. It made him a bit nervous too, but it felt like the good kind of nerves, the kind that sharpened his senses and made him quicker and smarter. Kane pulled the SUV over to the side of the road where Bailey indicated and cut off the outside lights. He waited for a moment before he cut the engine and reached to open his door, ready to strap on some of the weapons from the back seat and start looking for this not-bear. “You got your piece, right?” he asked his sister, one leg out of the car. “You want something a little more heavy duty?”
Bailey climbed out of the car and walked around to where Kane was grabbing what he needed. She had no idea what they were searching for, but if someone mistook it for a bear, she wasn't sure her gun would be enough. It occurred to her that if she fired her weapon she would have to fill out a report and hand it over for inspection for a while, so maybe the best thing would be to keep it in its holster and not touch it unless absolutely necessary. "Yeah, sure," she said, gesturing to the bag. "Whatever you think I can handle." And if he gave her some tiny piece of shit, she would hit him over the head with it.
Kane was secretly relieved that she said yes. He didn’t think they were gonna be shooting at squirrels or some shit -- anything big enough to be called a bear was going to be formidable to face down. If they even found it, but better safe than dead. Kane was determined to watch Bailey’s back during all of this, but his sister being properly armed would make that job much easier. He ended up giving her a semi-auto rifle and a sawed off shotgun if the thing ended up too close to them. Kane was carrying similar weapons, plus a few more, and he loaded his pockets down with clips. “I assume you know how to use those,” he muttered with a bit of cheek. “Tell me if I’m wrong, I don’t want you to accidentally fill me full of holes. I dunno what they teach you in small-town-cop school.”
Bailey took the guns without issue. As a cop, she was tempted to ask him where he got his firearms and if they were legal. But as his sister, and as someone who knew they needed them, she kept her mouth shut. Besides, Bailey felt like she already knew the answer. "Small town cop school, huh? You seem to forget I didn't train here. I know how to use these and I promise I'll try really hard not to fill you fill of holes. It's been a while since I've shot someone on purpose, and even longer since I've shot someone on accident. I think you'll be fine." Bailey smirked before glancing towards the tree line. "Do you think we should split up? These woods go on for miles, but I have a feeling whatever is in there is sticking close to town."
“I’m gonna make you tell me that story, about the accidental one,” Kane murmured with a chuckle as he quietly shut the SUV door. He looked to the treeline himself, squinting into the dark woods. He knew what kinds of things were in there, even besides the not-bear they were looking for, but he wasn’t afraid to go in. What he was afraid of was splitting up and losing Bailey, either by monster or just silent disappearance. One could search those woods for years looking for someone and still not find shit. He looked at her again, his prominent brow furrowed. “You think that’s a good idea?” he asked. “I don’t got any walkies or anything ...” Kane’s desire not to look like a pussy in front of his sister warred with his instinct to protect her, and he wasn’t sure which to listen to more. This was why he worked alone, dammit.
Bailey studied the trees in front of them, half expecting something to come barging out of the dark towards them. Her grip tightened on the guns she carried. "Probably not a good idea if we don't have any way to communicate. We'll have to fix that in the future. Let's go." She started for the tree line, thinking she should have snuck a bullet proof vest or two from work, although Bailey didn't think they would really protect them much if this thing was as big as the witness said it was. She certainly doubted it would be firing bullets at them. But the more protection, the better, right? Kane seemed pretty well prepared though, and she was eager to see how he went about this kind of work. What would they do if they actually found this thing? Kill it? Bury it? Send it somewhere? Bailey supposed she would find out eventually, assuming she survived what this was.
Kane was relieved that she agreed, and while part of him balked at the idea of them doing anything like this in the future, it was also kind of exciting that she wanted to make that happen. If this went well -- if neither of them died, that was -- then who knew. Bailey could be a good source of information. All of that was shit to think about later, however. Kane walked along with his sister, waiting until they had entered the trees and were out of sight of the road before he fished out a flashlight and clicked it on. There was a red colored filter on it that kept the light pretty dim, but it was better than nothing. Kane didn’t really have a plan for what to do if they ran across the not-bear either, since he didn’t know what the fuck it was, so he kept one hand on his rifle while they walked.
"So if this is one of your supernatural monsters, are you going to suck out its soul to sell, assuming it has one?" Bailey glanced at him, careful to step over any fallen branches in her path. "I guess I'm curious how you know what you can collect and what's just a monster that needs to die." Maybe he would explain it to her, maybe not. Maybe he would tell her to shut up, since they were out in the woods alone and her voice could attract predators. Bailey didn't know but that didn't really stop her from wanting answers. She knew she'd had plenty of time in the past few months to interrogate him on his lifestyle, so to speak, but it felt easier to do it when they weren't holed up in the same apartment together.
His first instinct was to tell her to shut up, but maybe attracting some predators wouldn’t be a terrible thing. This forest was huge, who knew how fast this not-bear could move, they could possibly search all night and not find a single sign of it. Kane felt well-armed to handle anything else that might come across them too. “Everything’s got one, some are just more complex than others,” he said, his own voice lower and quieter than hers. “How I know what to keep is lots of research, lots of black market contacts, the values change with demand. I can collect any of them, some just aren’t worth the time. This thing in particular ... I don’t know, because I don’t know what the fuck it is. I’ll grab it if I can, but unknowns are hard to sell without an appraisal.”
Bailey didn't acknowledge him, but she wasn't entirely sure everything had a soul. Arguing with him tonight seemed pointless though. Kane obviously knew more about this than she did, and it was possible he just called whatever essence he collected "souls". It seemed silly to bicker over it, especially when they were supposed to keep their eyes and ears open for this monster-thing. Even so, Bailey snickered and flashed him a grin before her gaze returned to the darkened trees around them. "Appraisal, like it's a fucking house going on the market. What's someone like you worth?"
She wasn’t too far off the mark with that snarky comment, so Kane just shrugged a shoulder. Once a soul -- essence, whatever the fuck it was, same thing to him -- left a body it ceased to be a person and became an item of value. Like everything else in life, some were more valuable than others, and much like a house, sometimes it took a professional to tell him what something was worth. Kane huffed a short laugh at her question. “Are you asking ‘cause you know I’m something more than human? Or ‘cause you think I’m a bad person?” His tone was only partly tongue in cheek, but he honestly wasn’t sure what she meant by ‘someone like you.’
"I can't imagine being a bad person adds any value to one's soul," Bailey replied. "So I'm asking because you're something more than human. Being what you are, and doing what you do, you probably have a target on your back somewhere, don't you?" Kane was the type of guy, in her opinion, to have plenty of enemies, especially if he liked to sell "souls" on the black market, or wherever he sold them. Bailey didn't think anyone would think to look for him here, but it was always a possibility, wasn't it?
Bailey hadn’t said so, but Kane was assuming she was thinking the appraisals had something to do with how ‘good’ a soul was, like the purer ones were worth more. That fell in line with the general social consensus on souls, thanks to centuries of religion. He knew it wasn’t quite like that, though. At least in his business, worth was judged on how rare something was, not the life lived. Kane was a little surprised that she was concerned -- or had at least thought of -- his personal safety. Or maybe she was just thinking of her own and their mother’s, since he was hanging around town longer than he had in the past. “I have several targets, all over,” Kane answered with a chuckle, stepping over a large fallen branch. He kept the light on it as Bailey did the same. “But I’ve had a little help along the way, and I’m magically difficult to find. I’m low on everyone’s radar, and anybody who means me harm practically has to be staring me in the face to know who I am. It’s kept me alive a lot longer’n I deserve, probably.”
"Sounds like you've got it figured out," Bailey said. Obviously she didn't want her brother hurt - again - but she also didn't want some crazy asshole coming into town threatening their mother either. Granted, their mother was holding onto life by her fingertips, but still. Bailey was about to say more but the sound of a branch snapping somewhat near to them prompted her to pause and look in the direction of the noise. She saw nothing but the outline of trees in the darkness. It could have been a small animal but she refocused her grip on the shotgun in her hand anyway. "You see anything?" she asked Kane in a murmur, not wanting to be loud now.
Kane did have it all figured out, that was why he was still alive. He wanted to tell Bailey so too, in a not so nice way, but he caught himself. She just had this way about her that made him so defensive, he couldn’t help it. His smart, upright, non-criminal little sister. He hated her sometimes, just as much as he wanted to protect her from monsters. That was sibling love, he guessed. Not that he had a ton of time to think about it at the moment, and Kane silently cursed himself for getting distracted with stupid internal shit. He was working, dammit. He froze and stared into the darkness before slowly bringing the red light around to shine it in the direction of the noise. Kane didn’t see anything immediately, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. “Stay here,” he whispered to Bailey, starting to take a few cautious steps forward. It might have been an animal, but better safe than sorry.
"No," she whispered fiercely. "We're doing this together, remember?" No way was Bailey going to hang back and let Kane walk right into potential danger. She would never do it with her partner, unless absolutely necessary, and she certainly wasn't going to do it with her brother. But she did let him go a few steps ahead of her, ready to cover him if need be. It was the circumstances and the fact that it was night time, but she felt a chill go through her body, like they were about to come face to face with something she had never seen before. Anticipation warred with apprehension, but Bailey felt ready. She had been a cop for a long enough time now to understand the adrenaline that came with fear was part of the reason why she loved her job so much.
They already were together and Kane wasn’t going far, but there was no point or time to argue with her. He lifted his rifle and settled the butt against his shoulder, slowly sweeping his red light from side to side as he moved deeper into the trees in front of them, every nerve on alert. He was hoping for the reflection of two eyes in the darkness, to spot a deer bounding away from them, but that wasn’t what he got. There was some more rustling, the dry crack of another fallen branch, and Kane jerked his light toward the sound.
What was standing there -- no, towering there -- was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Its body was huge and thick, but elongated and scaly like a fattened snake, only it had limbs, Kane could see that much. It moved when the light hit it, twisting and lowering a face down into the red beam that wasn’t really a face at all. A dozen or more small black eyes peered back at them, peppered over the front of its head. As Kane stared in horror for the couple of seconds he was frozen, the thing’s massive jaw fell open and a tongue slithered out, flicking at the air like a reptile. A menacing hiss started to come out of that mouth, and Kane did not want to know what else was inside of it. Brief paralysis broken, he squeezed the trigger, pumping rounds into the creature, which gave an instant ear-splitting shriek.
Bailey followed Kane's gaze, her own gun lifted. Like Kane, she was momentarily stunned at the first sight of whatever it was standing in the distance. It sure as shit wasn't a bear and Bailey's lips parted in surprise until Kane pulled the trigger. The sound startled her out of her shock and Bailey exhaled quickly as she aimed her gun and pulled the trigger. It didn't take a genius to recognize that their guns were doing absolutely nothing to injure the thing. If anything, it only seemed to get angrier. It took several steps towards them, its inhuman screams growing louder. Bailey's ears rang with the sound and she grimaced before grabbing the sleeve of Kane's shirt. "We need to go!"
Kane had no idea how fast the thing could move if it wanted to pursue them, but he had to make the split second decision that Bailey’s tug was right. They had to run. The bullets didn’t seem to be doing anything, and between the two of them, they’d fired off quite a few. Kane felt near-deaf, between the guns and the creature’s screaming. He moved his arm to grab hold of Bailey’s wrist, not wanting to lose track of her, and turned them to run. He didn’t bother with any words, knowing they’d just get lost in all the ear-ringing anyway. Kane was glad his fight-or-flight instincts were well-honed -- part of him was tempted to let go of Bailey and just bolt away at top speed, but he kept pace with her, heading back in the direction they’d come from, his grip locked on her so they didn’t get separated.
Bailey certainly knew when to hold her ground and when to run and it was definitely time to run. She didn't even protest when Kane took hold of her wrist. The woods were dark, even in the moonlight and it would be far too easy to get separated or lost. Bailey heard the creature screaming behind them, its heavy steps gaining ground. Her heart was a jackhammer in her chest and Bailey kept up with Kane, her lungs burning with the reminder that she ought to quit smoking. She had no idea how long they had run for, everything seemed like one massive blur, but when she finally saw the break in the trees, Bailey seemed to push herself harder, hoping that thing wouldn't follow them out onto the road.
There was a lot about Kane that was enhanced, but his sense of direction had never needed to be. It seemed to take far too long to get there, but he knew they were headed in the right direction to get back to the SUV. Kane was incredibly glad he’d opted to leave the vehicle unlocked. He didn’t want to be fumbling for keys until they were inside of it. He sped up when Bailey did, that same instinct pushing him to get out of the trees. Kane let her go once they’d crashed through the brush at the edge of the treeline, scrambling up the ditch beside the road to run around the front of the SUV and yank the door open. He was breathing hard, sweat running down his back, but his mind felt clear and sharp with the adrenaline rush. He tugged off the bigger guns he had on, then threw himself into the driver’s seat and only then did he look back toward the trees. It wasn’t stopping, whatever it was, still screeching in anger and pain and tearing through branches at it chased them.
Bailey didn't breathe again until she was in Kane's SUV, slamming the door behind her. She held onto the gun, just in case... though it was obvious her gun would do nothing to save her life. But having it in her hand made her feel better than having nothing at all. "Go." Bailey tried to scream it but her throat was too dry and hoarse from running as fast as she had so it came out as a guttural demand instead. She felt like she was stuck in some terrible sci-fi movie and all Bailey could was hope she wasn't a throw away casualty. "Go!"
Bailey didn’t have to tell him twice, and he bit back the urge to yell at her for doing so anyway. As soon as she was in the car with the door closed, he was throwing the SUV into gear and hitting the gas. Gravel from the road’s edge sprayed up behind them, and the car swerved a bit as he got it straightened out once they were fully on the asphalt. Kane sat forward with his hands gripping the steering wheel tight, his breathing still rapid and heavy as he checked the rearview mirror every half a second. He didn’t see the thing, but out here where there were no streetlights, that didn’t mean much.
As the SUV gathered speed, Bailey twisted around in her seat to look out the back window. She saw nothing but the road and trees dimly illuminated by the moon. Her heart was still racing, adrenaline pumping through her. It wasn't the first time she had felt this way, given her profession, but it was the first time her life had felt seriously threatened. Since she didn't see the creature on the road, she arched her neck to search the tree lines as they drove past, just to make sure it wasn't keeping time with them behind the tree trunks. Again there was nothing. Exhaling sharply, Bailey settled back in her seat again before she began to laugh, the absurdity of what they encountered mercifully overwhelming the terror. "Holy shit... that was something else," she managed, tears springing to her eyes as laughter wracked her body. "Oh, fuck."
Kane shot a wary look over at his sister in the low colored lights of the dash. The laughter made his skin crawl in a way, like it was the sound of a mind breaking in half as it tried to reconcile something insane. That was probably too dramatic -- Kane didn’t think she was going completely insane, it was probably just a ton of adrenaline with nowhere else to go. In any case, he just drove and silently let Bailey get it out of her system. After a couple of miles, Kane recognized that they were headed in the wrong direction, out of town, and he let out a hissed curse. There was no other road into Point Pleasant, so he would have to turn around, and go back through that monster’s territory. They would just have to speed through it and hope it wasn’t on the road, he supposed. Kane started to slow down to do a U-turn, glad this road wasn’t used very often. “You didn’t hurt anything, did you?” he gruffly asked Bailey in the meantime.
At some point, Bailey's laughter began to die down, leaving her with a few, breathy chuckles. She wiped at her eyes and sunk against the seat as the adrenaline began to fade with the laughter. Christ. She dug around in her shoulder bag that shoved down onto the floorboard and found her cigarettes. Bailey didn't answer Kane until she had lit one and rolled down the window just enough for the smoke to escape. For a moment she was distracted by the U-turn before she realized they had been headed away from town. Which meant they would drive back past those woods. Oh well, there was no other way into Point Pleasant. "I didn't break anything," she said belatedly, offering him the cigarette if he wanted a drag from it. "I ought to stop smoking though. Feels like my lungs are on fire. Are you okay?"
While his sister had her crazy laughing fit, Kane tried to keep watch of the road ahead of him and the edges of the woods surrounding them. That thing had been big, could it knock over the SUV? Pounce on them from the shadows and send them flying? Or would it be scared of the technology, unaware of what the car even was? It certainly hadn’t seemed very sentient, only intent on attacking them. He turned the brights on and sped up as they approached the spot where Bailey had him pull off again. Kane shook his head at the offer of the cigarette, not wanting to risk taking a hand off the wheel. “M’fine,” he muttered. At least Bailey was coherent, so she wasn’t having a full-on breakdown.
Bailey brought the cigarette back to her lips. Her fingers were trembling a bit, so she said nothing until they were speeding past the initial location. She was already thinking about coming back in the morning to see if there was any damage to the trees, more out of morbid curiosity than anything else. Once it felt like they were probably safe and headed in the right direction, Bailey blew a steady stream of smoke from her lips and glanced at Kane again. "I'm guessing you've never seen anything like that before?" Maybe he had but she got the feeling he was as taken aback by the sight of that thing as she had been.
Kane’s shoulders relaxed a tiny bit once they were past that point, but he didn’t think he’d be able to fully unclench until they were back in town. Civilization, lights, people. Things he usually didn’t like. Having Bailey with him changed things though, it made all of this feel more dangerous. It was easier to blame it on her presence than to think he was truly this rattled. “No, never,” he said, flexing his hands on the wheel again. “And I’ve seen some fucked up shit. That was ... I dunno what the fuck that was.” He heaved a big sigh and tried to force himself to relax, sitting back against the seat even as he glanced in the rearview mirror again. “Definitely not a fuckin’ bear,” he muttered.”
"Not a bear," Bailey agreed. The nicotine was helping calm her nerves a bit, though she couldn't help but glance in the side mirror, just to make sure that thing wasn't barreling down the road towards them. "But hey, I feel insanely honored to know that I was with you for something new. Whenever you think of that giant, disgusting creature, you'll think of me. Or vice versa." She smirked around her cigarette. "I could really use a drink right now. Then I need to figure out what the fuck to do about that thing." Maybe it would stay in the woods. Maybe it would venture into town and wouldn't that be a total mindfuck. Not to mention a complete disaster for everyone.
Her comment startled a little laugh out of Kane and his body relaxed another notch. He remembered back when he used to use humor to deal with this kind of shit. Maybe that was a family trait or something. “I’m sure that won’t be much of a stretch for you,” he muttered, but there wasn’t any real bite in it. Kane was pretty sure he was a disgusting monster on the inside, at least. He tossed a glance over at Bailey. “Wanna go to the Porch? Where we can figure out what the fuck to do about it? Because you’re not handling this alone, Bails. Period.” If it wasn’t something that could be shot, they had to find another way to kill it, and that would likely take connections that Kane had but Bailey did not. He definitely didn’t want her running around doing stupid shit without him.
"The Porch sounds good." She definitely wanted a drink. Maybe two drinks. She still had to drive home and all that, but she could handle two. Three, even. Bailey slipped the cigarette through the crack in the window and then rolled it back up. "And yeah, sure, we can figure out what to do about that thing. Obviously guns aren't going to work." Rubbing her hands over her face, Bailey tried to reconcile exactly what they encountered. It had been dark, sure, but there was no questioning that the creature hadn't been... of this world. Or maybe it had been, and it was something similar to what she had been told was in the fog months before. She dropped her hands and arched a brow. "You should make a pretty penny on the essence of that thing. Make sure you give me a cut if we figure out how to take it out."
Kane was glad she didn’t try to argue, and he vaguely hoped that he wouldn’t end up regretting telling Bailey about what he did, lest she get inspired to start trying to do it herself. He had lots of experience and enough magical protection under his belt that he’d survived this long; Bailey would just get herself killed, he felt sure. Kane had been about to tell her that he had some ideas -- or knew some people who might have ideas -- when Bailey added the last part. Kane shot her a look and let out a bark of a laugh. “What, are we business partners now? You’ll have to help me figure out how to market it, since I don’t even know what the big fucking asshole is,” he said, amused. “I got some contacts I can reach out to, do some asking around. Maybe somebody else will have a clue.”
Bailey did a lot of dangerous things and she had been in a lot of life or death situations so she felt like she could handle it. Maybe not on her own... not right away... but eventually. Kane hadn't always known what to do and how to handle shit like this and look at him now. Bailey felt like she had some skills that would come in handy, especially in Point Pleasant. Arching a brow, Bailey studied her brother, a smirk playing at her lips. "We're something. If I help you, you help me. It's as simple as that. I know you've got your own shit and you probably know plenty of people, but I have contacts of my own. Plus, I have access to things you wouldn't. So... this benefits both of us, as long as we're both alive."
‘Something,’ that was definitely a word for them. Kane had to smirk himself. In spite of how close that call had just been, he had to be honest with himself and admit that he was enjoying this time with her. If they couldn’t be good siblings, maybe they could be good partners. He wanted to ask what kind of contacts she could possibly have, if she didn’t really believe in this shit until recently, but he didn’t really want to pick a fight with her. “Yeah,” he said, drawing the word out a bit. “That’s the bitch of it, staying alive.” If Kane hadn’t given a shit about her, that part wouldn’t have mattered, but it did. The last thing Kane wanted to do was get his baby sister killed, and the possibility weighed on him already.
Bailey knew Point Pleasant was fucked up. She had known for a long time that there were some fucked up things sneaking around in the dark as well. She had never seen them wearing the faces of children until she came across Kane near the cemetery that night. But she believed... after what she had seen as a kid, it was impossible for her not to. The problem was she had left Point Pleasant to escape it all, and hopefully forget. That hadn't worked out very well for her. "Well, I've stayed alive this long." She shrugged dismissively. "And I always figured I'd die in this town, so..."
Even if he didn’t allow them to ‘work’ together, Bailey would still be a cop in this hellhole, and therefore in danger anyway. Sure, she likely wouldn’t be seeking the bad shit out on her own, at least not as much ... maybe he could teach her some things. Ways to better survive in her already-dangerous life. “I’ll try not to let it happen on my watch,” Kane muttered. It wasn’t exactly singing a partnership contract, but it was the most he could give for the moment, after the scare they’d just had. Fuck, he wanted to kill that thing. Every minute it was out there was another chance for someone innocent to die horribly. Of course that was every minute in Point Pleasant, but still. “You really know somebody who might know something about this shit and won’t call you crazy?”
Bailey huffed a soft laugh, her gaze focused on the scenery passing outside. She really didn't need Kane trying to protect her and she doubted he needed her doing the same. They had been on their own for years now and maybe that was why she wasn't too worried about their safety. "Kane, there are quite a few people in this town who might know something about this shit. They might call me crazy but it won't be for this." Bailey finally tore her gaze away from the window to look at her brother. "I've seen things too, you know. Just because I ran away from Point Pleasant doesn't mean I completely forgot about it."
Whether Bailey thought she needed it or not, Kane was going to try to protect her. His first instinct back in the woods had been to grab her and run, to get his sister out of mortal danger. He would try to save his own ass too, of course, but the deepest part of him knew she would be his priority when they were out together. It was an uncomfortable feeling for someone so used to living just for himself. “What have you seen?” he asked, glancing over to briefly meet her eyes in the dim car. “You never told me.” There was no bite in the statement, he knew there were volumes of things he hadn’t told her. It wasn’t like they’d been close. Things were different now, though.
"There's a lot of things I never told you." She didn't sound bitter about it. It was what it was. They hadn't been close growing up, no matter how desperately she had wished they had been. But it wasn't like Bailey made any huge steps to try and bridge the gap between them. And then Kane was gone and it seemed pointless to let it linger in her mind any longer. "I saw something when I was fourteen... a demon, maybe? I don't know. Maybe it had a name or was something I had never heard of before. I watched it kill someone. It's hard not to believe after you witness something like that. But I guess in my mind, evil things wore those kinds of faces."
Kane was sure the first part was true, and very mutual. He wasn’t even sure if he regretted it. That was just how their lives had turned out so far. They were both here now though, and had the chance to reconnect and do something useful together. He listened to what she said and had to bite back on firing a dozen questions at her about it -- fourteen had been a long time ago, but he knew how those kinds of encounters tended to etch themselves into one’s mind. “They got all kinds of faces,” he muttered instead. They were getting closer to the Porch now, and Kane honestly couldn’t wait to get a couple of drinks into himself. “What’d yours look like?”
Apparently they did. Bailey knew now that some of them looked like children. And that was terrifying. She nearly reached for another mint from her jacket pocket but then remembered they were going to a bar. Her mouth felt dry and she was already imagining how cold the beer would be. "Not human," she said, restlessness starting to prickle along her skin. "Almost skeletal, actually. Dark. No eyes... a lot of teeth." Clearing her throat, Bailey decided that was enough for now. "It was like watching a horror movie outside of my window. I thought maybe I dreamed it for a while."
She may have been good at keeping her emotions in check, but Kane thought he could hear some strain in Bailey’s voice as she shortly described the thing she had seen. Thoughts immediately sprung to his mind on what had likely been, but he kept them to himself. That wasn’t the important part anymore. Kane grunted some acknowledgement, then was silent for a moment, chewing on that. He’d been gone from home by the time she was fourteen, hadn’t he? Timelines got wobbly in his head a lot of the time. Even if he had been there, he wasn’t surprised she hadn’t told him. “Did you know who it was?” he asked then, glancing over at her again. “The person who got killed.”
She wondered if he was asking so he could check up on her story. Verify it with a body somehow. If that was the case, Bailey wouldn't have blamed him, but after what they saw tonight and after what she was guessing he had already seen in his lifetime, skepticism would have really surprised her. "Parker," she said after a moment and she started thinking that maybe a couple of shots of hard liquor would help soothe her nerves better than a beer. "Louis Parker. I heard mom talking to Joanie Martin that he'd been having an affair so everyone thinks he ran off with his mistress, since she disappeared too. When I was older I went back and looked through some old articles... not that there were many, you know how it is here. But his wife seemed pretty flippant about it. Bought into the story that he ran away. She still lives here, you know." Bailey exhaled and rubbed her hands on her thighs. "I can remember that night better and more vividly than any other part of the last two decades of my life."
Kane wasn’t going to fact-check her, he’d just been curious if it had been someone she knew. If the monster had brought a friend or even an acquaintance to kill in front of her. Some of them were sadistic that way. But no, it had just been a neighbor, so Bailey had just looked out the wrong window at the wrong time. “Yeah,” he said slowly, his mouth set into a grim line. “I got a couple memories like that myself. Drinking helps ... except when it don’t.” Fuck, what a pair they were. He was hard-pressed to come up with any other word but ‘doomed.’ Kane by virtue of what he’d been born as, and Bailey by circumstance, but they weren’t ones who had been dealt a normal life. Might as well make some money off of it, right? He wanted to tell her he was sorry that she’d been exposed so young, that she’d gotten drawn into this life that nobody wanted, but it all locked up in his throat, and he fell silent instead. A couple minutes later they were pulling into the Porch lot, and Kane found a spot for the SUV. “Speakin’ of,” he muttered as he parked. “Let’s tie one on, partner.”
Bailey barked out a short laugh. "Yeah, except when it don't." Wasn't that the truth. When Kane parked the SUV, Bailey climbed out quickly and breathed in the fresh air. She half-expected to see that thing coming down the road behind them, but all was clear. Bailey closed the door and headed for the Porch. She had been drinking there for a while now that they didn't seem too perturbed anymore about having a cop as a patron. It didn't surprise her in the least that this was more Kane's speed than say, a place like Dragonfly. Bailey found an empty booth near the back and slid into the seat before running her hands through her short hair. She needed a drink. Then she needed to process what she saw. And what they were going to do about it. "So what's your process?" she asked Kane once he was sitting with her. "After you do something like what we did tonight?"
Kane checked behind them too before he followed Bailey into the bar, but he didn’t see anything either. He hoped they’d lost it, that it had given up and gone back into the woods and hadn’t followed them far enough to find some other human trouble to get into. There was nothing to be done about it now, so Kane went inside and sat down across from his sister. At least they weren’t covered in blood or something equally unpresentable, because he was more than ready for a few stiff drinks. “My process?” he echoed, his brow cocked with amusement. “Guess it depends on if I got my mark or not ... I either drink to celebrate or drink to get over disappointment, but it usually involves some drinking.” His tone was light as he glanced around for a waitress. “I don’t usually get run off like that though, so ... no process for this specifically.” if she meant something else, she was going to have to be specific.
Bailey huffed. "So you didn't get your mark this time. Or the last time, with the not a man, man. You drink and then what? Research? Call your contacts?" The waitress wandered over so Bailey fell silent until they had ordered their drinks. When they were alone again, Bailey turned her attention back to Kane. "Basically, what's our next step? I'm going to help, so I want you to tell me what you want me to do." She would let him control this much, at least. He had been doing this a hell of a lot longer than she had and Bailey wasn't stupid enough to pretend she could handle this without him. And maybe she was curious about her brother's life... the things he had yet to tell her, which was a lot, she was sure.
He ordered three shots and something strong on the rocks to sip on once he was done with those, then turned his attention back to Bailey. Kane wasn’t sure if he felt kind of excited that she was into this, or sick to his stomach with worry. It was some mix of both. He’d never had to explain himself or his actions to anyone -- at least not since he’d left the military, anyway -- and he was obviously rusty at it. “I call contacts, yeah,” he said. “There’s some spots on the internet -- this is gonna sound dumb and cliche, but on the dark web. Encrypted forums, people comparing notes, pictures ... sometimes if my direct guys don’t know shit, I post there, see if I get any bites. We definitely ain’t the only monster hunters in the world. As for you ... you say you know people who might know, then check with them, see if they got any ideas. It didn’t even look like nothin’ I’ve ever heard of, so I don’t got a good direction to point you in quite yet. If bullets don’t work, we gotta figure out its weak points. Or how to pen it in somewhere.”
The part of her that was devoted to her job felt a ping of interest at the mention of the dark web. Illegal activity, among other things. But what she was doing with Kane wasn't exactly on the up and up in her mind, so she forced herself to stay grounded in the conversation. "Pen it in somewhere," Bailey repeated with a soft snort. "You mean set up a trap? Maybe we can get some blow torches and set the damn thing on fire. If we even manage to find it again." Her nails tapped lightly on the table top. "I just hope it doesn't kill anyone until we figure out what it is. I'll make a couple of calls tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to forget what it looked like for a long time." Bailey paused, eying Kane curiously. "What's been the most profitable... soul... you've sold?"
Kane still didn’t completely trust her, so it would still be a while before he gave her access to the more illegal side of what he did. Those details could stay vague until he was positive that Bailey wasn’t going to have an attack of cop-conscience about all of this. He nodded a bit at blowtorches -- fire could be one possibility as a weakness. Or it could do nothing, for all they knew. Maybe they would do better with hoses, who the fuck knew. That was why research had to happen. If there was something to be found, it would be worth the trouble to look. “Yeah, I hope it doesn’t either,” Kane muttered, glancing around for the waitress again. He was ready for their drinks. Bailey’s question brought his attention back around to her, and he hummed softly as he thought. Not that he had to think hard about the best deal he’d ever done, he just wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her. “It was a demon,” he said. “A pretty bad one that had holed up in New York. The urban area made it hard to find, hard to fight. It took me weeks to track it down, but I got it. Made about forty grand off of it.” Kane fished out his pack of cigarettes to pull one out.
Bailey's brows shot upward. "Forty grand?" For a demon's soul... essence... whatever. Her gaze dropped to his cigarettes but she didn't bother telling him she was pretty sure there was no smoking in the bar. Considering who owned the place, she kind of doubted that the Lucas brothers would care. "So it might be a good assumption that the thing we saw in those woods could be worth more than that. I haven't seen many demons in my lifetime, but that thing looked more like a... monster than anything else."
Her surprise at the amount made him smirk a tiny bit, and made Kane wonder if she would only want to do a few jobs with him to build up her bank account and then split. He wouldn’t blame her. That was probably what he should’ve done years ago. “That’s on the really high end, mind you,” he muttered as he tucked the smoke between his lips and found a lighter in his pocket. If the owners of the illustrious Back Porch wanted him to put it out, they could tell him so. “Lots of hazard pay for that one. My average is around eight to ten, but I got the reputation to back it now. I’m the best, so.” Kane quirked a brief grin. “It could be worth more than that, could be less ... it depends on how useful it is to someone. If it’s unique, then that makes it worth more. But if we can’t put a name on what the fuck it is, it could lower the price tag. You get it? People ain’t gonna buy somethin’ that could just be a cocker spaniel in a jar, you know? That’s where the appraisals come in. But we gotta get there first.”
An average of eight to ten was still a hell of a lot more than Bailey would have figured. She was thinking a couple of hundred here and there, but obviously she didn't know enough about this. And Kane did have money... at least when it came to Bailey needing to pay their mother's medical bills. "Useful..." She trailed off as the waitress returned with their drinks. Bailey thanked her and then picked up her glass. "How are they useful, exactly? Do you know what happens to those things after you sell them?" She couldn't imagine what a soul, or whatever the fuck they were, could do to be worth that kind of money.
Kane sometimes thought about saving up for a year or two and retiring from the monster hunting life, but something kept him from doing so. Maybe he was hooked on the money, maybe he was hooked on the killing. Maybe he just knew that he would have to be doing his reaper thing regardless, so why not profit off of it? Or maybe he just had a death wish. And if it ever caught up with him, Bailey had a good chunk of money coming to her. Not that he was going to tell her that for a while. Kane picked up his first shot and knocked it back, then waved a hand. “Not really,” he said. “It’s all ... magic bullshit. And I don’t get paid to ask questions.” He was sure the souls weren’t used for anything good, but Kane honesty didn’t want to know.