Adrian Moretti (theneedtofeed) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2021-10-07 18:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | #june 2018, adrian, adrian x caius, caius |
Who: Adrian and Caius
When: Early morning, Wednesday June 20
Where: out
Warning: Squick stuff - improper handling of bodily remains
Once Caius made it back to the dead witch’s house after escorting Reagan home, he made sure there was no one on the quiet street before he ducked back inside. His heart was pounding with nerves, returning to the scene of a murder his wife committed, but Caius just tried to channel them into making sure this went according to plan. He would protect Reagan, no matter what it took. He didn’t turn on any lights as he went inside, being careful not to touch anything without his jacket sleeve over his hand.
Caius didn’t go upstairs to look at the body again, he would be doing that soon enough. He had no idea how messy this process was going to get, but he was dedicated to cleaning up as much as he could, to make this woman’s disappearance as mysterious as possible. He knelt down in the darkened living room and bowed his head, taking a few deep breaths to focus himself. Caius closed his eyes and concentrated on reaching Adrian and the wendigo spirit inside of him. He needed its help, and the ritual he’d performed had linked them with undeniable magic. Caius still didn’t know if it was going to work, but he put all of his energy into it, calling Adrian to his location.
Adrian was sleeping blissfully one second and the next he was wide awake, a thrumming in his body that was unmistakable. He had somewhere to be, there was something he had to do. He didn't even question it as he got up and started getting dressed, his days were full of things he needed to do and this was just one more thing. It was like he knew exactly what it was, and yet he didn't and he didn't question that either. He filled a bottle of water for the road, knowing it was going to be a long drive, then headed out and locked the door behind him. Unfortunately for Caius, he was still in Portland but at this hour there was at least hardly any traffic between the two places and Adrian wasn't about to make any stops.
When the magic connected, Caius could feel Adrian in a strange way, like a tug on the other end of a stretched rubber band. He could tell he was far away, which immediately annoyed Caius. He hadn’t told Adrian not leave town or anything of the kind, but why was he hours away on the very night that Caius needed him? He was coming, however, Caius could tell. The tension on the internal rubber band was gradually decreasing. It was just going to be a while.
He tried to occupy himself in a way that didn’t leave any evidence behind, eventually lying flat on his back in the living room, alternating between staring at his phone and staring at the ceiling. All the while, he could feel Adrian getting closer. Caius didn’t know yet what kind of mental state he would be in when he arrived, but he hoped to any gods that existed that Adrian was pliable and cooperative. Caius was already tired, and it wasn’t like he could take a nap or anything with this magic activated. He definitely wasn’t going to work tomorrow. He just hoped Reagan was sleeping through it all. After an interminable amount of time, he felt Adrian finally closing in on the house, and Caius got up and went to the window to watch through the curtains.
Adrian didn't know why he was here and he didn't really care as he parked the car and started walking up the road, pulling his hood up to hide his face. He had to be careful not to be seen and that too made perfect sense to him, just like parking the car far away did. He walked fast but didn't run, didn't really have to, his sneakers quiet on the pavement and his movements faster than that of the average human. The monster that had slowly fallen asleep within him after his run-in with Kane was wide awake now and Adrian trusted it to know what needed to be done. He didn't even try to reason with himself why he trusted it, it didn't feel necessary.
He slipped into the quiet house and headed straight toward where Caius was waiting, realization dawning on him when he saw the witch. He didn't even feel angry about it, that same eerie calm like a blanket over his true emotions, just like it had been with Kane. "So that's it?" he asked with a wry smile. "You snap your fingers and I show up?"
It was good that Adrian didn’t park right in front of the house and jump out in some attention-attracting way. He was playing this smart, and that was a relief to Caius. This was all experimental for him, and he didn’t want to have to tweak anything about the control he’d put on Adrian. It had been hard enough to put it into place to start with. Caius watched through the sheer curtains as the hooded man came up to the door and opened it, then turned to face him. He could practically feel the vibrations from the wendigo inside, not exactly a separate entity from Adrian himself, but a part of him that Caius was the most connected to now. The question made him huff softly out of his nose. “It takes a lot more than snapping fingers,” Caius murmured. “Do you know what to do?”
Adrian looked toward the stairs and on some level he knew he should be freaking out right about now, that he probably would when this was over and he was back to being himself. That hadn't really happened the night before, he'd been all sorts of messed up but not in the way he'd expected. This was different though and yet what he had to do seemed natural in the moment. "Yeah," he said quietly and nodded. "You should be the one paying me," he added humorlessly as his body followed his gaze and he jogged up the stairs quietly. "You want to watch?" he asked about halfway up and doubted the answer was yes, why would Caius want to watch something like that? Unless he was even more twisted than Adrian could imagine.
There was a part of Caius that was tempted to go up with Adrian and watch. He was twisted in many ways, and it wasn’t as though he was squeamish. Part of him was curious to see the monster in action. Maybe he ought to bear witness to what he was making Adrian do for him ... but he didn’t want to. It had already been an unbearably long night, and there would still be clean up to do after Adrian left. Besides, this was in the wendigo’s nature, it wasn’t like Caius was torturing him with something he would never ever want. “Just do it,” he answered, his tone flat. “Leave as little behind as possible.”
Adrian might have forgotten all that had happened during the ritual, but the monster within him seemed to remember and while it was all jumbled in his head, he knew that he hadn't simply passed out - that Caius had made him forget. He dimly thought maybe he would do that again and do a better job of it this time and he knew that it would be better that way. This wasn't something he would want to remember when this sweet numbness wore off. He found the witch's body, studied her whitened eyes and toothless mouth for only a second before he picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. His take on what he had to do was both primal and methodical, leave no trace, keep it clean. The only blood spilled was on her night gown so that was good, it helped him be careful to touch nothing but her body and he removed his own clothes to keep them from getting messy.
It didn't take as long as it should; a human body should be hard to dispose of, but it came easily and natural to him, pulling her apart like she was just a fly, crushing the hard parts into fine dust and flushing the few pieces that he didn't want. With every bite he could feel the beast inside of him getting stronger, but that didn't frighten him anymore. It was so easy to imagine giving into it when he was in this state of mind, to think how truly wonderful it would be to never to worry or fear anything ever again. He wondered idly if that would happen if Caius died, if the finely constructed prison he'd created would crumble with him, or if the magic would stick around for a while after. Adrian was fucked if that was the case, but the monster would be free and a part of him liked the idea.
She tasted different from the people he'd tasted before and he wondered if it was all on account of her being female or if there was something else. By the time he finished up there was very little left of the woman but her long hair, something he had no interest in eating and something that wouldn't flush easily as the rest. He supposed he could burn it later - or let Caius take it and use it for whatever rituals he was into - so he shoved it into a plastic bag before washing the rest of the blood off himself and the bathtub.
"Was she human?" he asked when he finally came back downstairs with the small plastic bag and his hoodie in his hand. "Or something else?"
It was difficult for Caius to wait downstairs. He was tempted to go up and at least listen, to make sure Adrian was actually doing what was required. He had no idea what he’d expected, but it was so quiet up there except for the occasional toilet flush. He paced the living room some more, peeking out through the curtains now and then to make sure no one was around. The street was as quiet and deserted as it had been for hours now. Caius wanted this done before the sun came up, and he had started to get antsy by the time he heard Adrian coming down the stairs. He was vaguely surprised by how clean Adrian looked, but even more so by the question. “ ... she was a witch,” Caius answered honestly. Why not, right? He was going to wipe Adrian’s memories anyway. “Why? Can you tell?” That was interesting. And it made him wonder how many humans Adrian had eaten to compare it to.
"Yeah," Adrian replied a bit distractedly and tossed the bag to Caius before pulling his hoodie on. He was eager to get out of there too, aware of those far away human emotions telling him he was going to hate this when his numbness wore off though he suspected Caius would erase his memories again. This time he didn't really mind, if it was just what he'd done in this house. He'd still remember what Caius had done, he'd still know because he'd woken up before tonight and the monster within him remembered. "Did you kill her?" he asked, even if he didn't really care and he wouldn't care later if he didn't remember. "Looked like magic gone wrong." He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes as he studied Caius. "Or right..."
The distant, analytical part of Caius was wondering if the flesh of a witch tasted differently if they still had their magic. Would he taste different than the emptied corpse upstairs? Would Adrian want to find out someday? Mostly he was internally grossed out by the bag of hair that was suddenly in his hands. Caius folded it and tucked it into a jacket pocket. He wasn’t sure what he would do with it later, but he didn’t want to keep looking at it. He sighed and met Adrian’s eyes. “Not me,” he said. “It was my wife. There’s something big going on with her, and I might need your services again soon, but ... I hope not.” Caius wanted to find out if there was a way to do this without killing the victim. But Adrian Moretti wasn’t going to be able to help with that, obviously. “You can relate to doing anything necessary to protect the ones you love, can’t you?”
Adrian had thought a lot about how he would handle Caius and killing him was very much an option he had considered. He felt even stronger now that he'd fed - and fed well - so he suspected that this time he might stand a chance against whatever the hell Caius had thrown at him during the ritual. It was a risk though, just like every move he could think to make in his situation. At least in this moment he was calm and the urge to scream at Caius and make a scene was blissfully far away. "Speaking of protecting our loved ones," he said and pulled his hood back up. "You're going to make me forget all this, I know that. I want a new deal."
Caius was immediately more guarded and wary. He didn’t know how Adrian knew that he’d tampered with his memories, but he was too tired to really be surprised by it. It was just another problem to deal with tonight. And now that Adrian had fulfilled his purpose here, if dealing with it meant killing him, then that was what Caius would do. He didn’t want to, but he didn’t want to be there at all. “What new deal?” he asked, his tone flat. Fed and awake wendigo or no, Caius was still holding the leash, and he wasn’t in much of a mood to negotiate at the moment.
"I want to be able to protect my loved ones," Adrian muttered. "I want to be able to summon up this strength when I need it, not just when you need it." He knew he wasn't really in a place to bargain, but he could try - had to try - to see if he could get something out of this rotten deal for himself - and more importantly, for Mila. "I don't care if you wipe my memory again, I don't really want to remember that." He gestured vaguely toward the stairs, indicating what he'd just done. "But you know what kinda town we live in, if something or someone comes after my sister, I want to be able to protect her. You said I could meditate, but that's not gonna cut it. I won't have time to meditate in the face of danger."
He couldn’t recall exactly what he’d told Adrian, especially not right then, and Caius sighed heavily. “This isn’t a buffet, Moretti,” he said testily. “You don’t get to pick and choose precisely what you want. Magic, especially untested magic, is not an exact science. You wanted the wendigo part of you tamed so you could have your life back? I gave it to you. I created a ritual to do that for you, it’s not like there’s a long history of tried and true methods to refer to -- this has never been done before as far as I know. It’s amazing that it worked at all. Meditation was a suggestion to help you learn more control, you have to put the work in.” His own dark gaze ticked to the stairs and he tried to find his patience. “Look, I’ll try to think about tweaks, okay? But know that you risk breaking all the bonds if we try to adjust it. The monster could take you completely, for good. Keep that in mind.”
Adrian knew Caius's words should alarm him, but in this comforting haze of numbness and fullness, getting taken over didn't seem all that bad. He hadn't been able to call up the monster again once it 'wore off' after his encounter with Kane but maybe, he thought, maybe given time he could do that. It was there, under the surface, ready to charge up if he was close to death. Right now it seemed to take intense fear and he didn't exactly want to play russian roulette to attempt summoning it. Kane could have killed him many times over before the damn thing surfaced so that wasn't exactly comforting and Caius's answer wasn't good enough, thinking about tweaks wasn't the same as working on them and Adrian had to smother a rush of frustration, thankfully easily since it didn't come on too strong. He didn't push this though, didn't want to piss off this witch, not tonight and without a plan. "Okay. But you can't call on me when I start working," he said. "I can't leave a shift at the hospital. I'm trying to get my life back together, I can't lose my job as soon as I get it back."
Caius couldn’t promise him anything else tonight, and he felt stretched to his limit. He was relieved that the binding spell worked, and he had a clean way to dispose of corpses if he needed to, but that was about the only good emotion Caius could dredge up at the moment. He was scared and stressed about Reagan, and the last thing he wanted to listen to was some minion complaining about his contract. “Email me a copy of your schedule and I’ll be sure to work around you,” Caius said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. Not wanting to waste anymore time when he wasn’t even done in this fucking house, Caius squared up to Adrian more and stared into his eyes as he started to flex his magic. Once he felt like he had a grip on Adrian’s mind, he started implanting instructions. “You’re going to drive back to wherever you started from tonight and get back into bed to have a pleasant night’s sleep, and when you wake up, you won’t remember anything about me calling you here tonight. Not the drive, not the body, not this conversation, not the drive back. For all you know, you stayed where you were. Understand?”
Adrian could feel it when it started happening and he opened his mouth to tell Caius to wait, just wait god damn it. The sarcasm had him pissed off already and he almost pushed through but then he was listening, pliant but still pissed off. He was going to forget all of this, but he'd still remember a little bit about the ritual and he vaguely realized this was going to be a mess, though he didn't quite have the time or wherewithal to grasp how. "Fuck you, D'Onofrio," he muttered defeatedly as he turned to leave and that compulsion was back to push him around, urge to him to leave - to do exactly what Caius had told him. "You're a real piece of shit."
Maybe that was true, but Caius didn’t give a fuck what Adrian Moretti thought of him. Especially not tonight. He did what he had to do to protect his family, just like Adrian would. Both of them just had very different talents to use in the service of that goal. “Drive safe, Adrian,” was all he said as he watched the other man walk out the door. As soon as it shut behind him, Caius turned to hurry up the stairs to see what kind of mess had been left behind, and wipe down any surfaces that any of them might have touched. He wanted to be home and in bed already, but he had to be thorough, and that took patience.