Who: Elodie and Dahlia When: Late afternoon, Wednesday, June 27th Where: their apartment Status: complete
After Jasper had slipped out of his bed in the morning to go to work, Elodie stayed there to sleep a bit longer. Work was for chumps and if she ever got a job it would have to start at noon and end at four, or something like that. When she finally woke up she did so with a throbbing headache and extreme hunger. After finding a pair of Jasper’s sweatpants to pull on, she found her shoes and ran her hands through the tangled mess that was her hair before slipping out of the house to walk home.
She had to hold the pants up for most of the way, but at least they were comfortable and didn’t smell like puke. It made lighting her cigarette a bit more difficult, but she managed.
Finally she got to Dahlia’s, dug around in her bag for her key, and then let herself inside. She wasn’t sure if Dahlia was home or at the Sheriff’s, but Elodie didn’t mind either way. She was ready for a shower and some food.
Dahlia was indeed home and painting in the living room when the door opened and Elodie came in. It was a bit startling, since she hadn’t really expected to see the girl today, and Dahlia had been firmly in a Zone with music piping into her brain and creativity flowing. She reached up to take one earbud out of her ear, her gaze drifting over Elodie and her state of dress. Dahlia didn’t think she’d seen those sweatpants before, doing Elodie’s laundry. Interesting. “Well hey there,” she greeted casually. “The prodigal niece returns. How’s it going?” Dahlia put her brush down on the little side-table she had set up next to her easel and stood up, stretching her back a bit.
Elodie shut the door behind her and dumped her bag on the floor before working her shoes off with her feet. "Hey... it's going fine." Rubbing her hand over her tired eyes, Elodie wandered over to where Dahlia's canvas was set up to get a look at the painting. "It's nice," she said, though she knew nice was probably not very flattering to a painter. But Elodie couldn't think of better words with her head so fuzzy. Looking over at Dahlia, Elodie studied her aunt. She looked well rested, at least. "Is Sheriff Nice Dick here?"
She looked back at Elodie as the girl studied her, resisting the urge to reach out and straighten her hair a bit. She wasn’t seven. She looked kind of sleepy and hungover, and Dahlia had to wonder if she’d slept at all lately. The question made her snort softly and she shook her head. “Unless he snuck in while I wasn’t looking to hide in a closet, no. I can’t paint with men in the house anyway, they fuck up the energy,” she said mildly. “Are you hungry? You look like you need to hydrate ... crazy night?” She still didn’t expect Elodie to tell her everything about her life, or even most things, but Dahlia was slowly working on getting closer to her.
Despite how tired she was, Elodie couldn't help but bark out a laugh. Men did fuck up energy, didn't they? They fucked up pretty much everything. The thought of food and water definitely pulled Elodie away from the desire to shower and she nodded at Dahlia. "Yeah, I could eat. Charlie usually leaves food for me but I don't think she knew I was there last night. I didn't do much. Just a party and then I hung out with Jasper." Which was more or less the truth. "I'm not fucking up your painting mojo though, am I? I can get my own food." She would rather Dahlia do it because Elodie was feeling lazy and just wanted to sit down.
Occasionally Dahlia felt a little flare of jealousy that Charlie was able to do more mom-type things for Elodie than she was, but she knew that was silly. It took a village, so they said, and Dahlia would much rather Elodie stay in that house with caring adults than crash on random unsafe sofas. “No, it was time for a break anyway,” she said, giving Elodie a little smile. “I can handle it. What do you want?” Dahlia stepped around Elodie to head for the small kitchen so she could wash her hands and prep something for her niece. She was feeling a bit peckish herself, so maybe it was time for a snack for herself too. “Did you have fun at the party?” she asked over her shoulder.
If Elodie were clear headed and one to think deeply about such things, she probably would have realized that Charlie and Dahlia were both mom-type people, just in very different ways. Thankfully neither of them nagged or told her what she could or couldn't do. Charlie was just more of the maternal kind of mom and Dahlia was the cool mom. Merge them together and they'd probably be the perfect mom for someone out there. "Just a sandwich is fine. I don't care what kind," Elodie said as she slipped into one of the chairs at the small kitchen table. Jasper's clothes were kind of comfortable and she pulled her arms from the sleeves of her shirt to clutch it to her chest like a blanket. "But yeah, I had fun. From what I can remember," she added with a bit of a grin. "What'd you do last night?"
Maybe if Dahlia hadn’t had such a wild youth herself, or come from a family of misfits, she would’ve been more overbearing with Elodie -- or attempting to be more overbearing, anyway. She did worry about her safety sometimes, naturally, but Dahlia knew that riding her about it would only push her away, when she was trying to do the opposite. She tossed a vaguely amused glance over her shoulder at Elodie’s words as she washed her hands, then plucked up a towel and moved to the fridge. “Much more boring things,” she said with a soft laugh. “I curled up and watched a couple of horror movies before bed.” Dahlia pulled some sandwich makings out and took them to the table to make them some turkey and swiss sandwiches, glancing Elodie over in her baggy clothes. “So are you and Jasper a thing? You stay over there a lot ...” she asked casually.
Elodie didn't think staying in bed and watching horror movies was super boring. If she had been home last night, Elodie probably would have joined Dahlia... with some pot and stuff, but still. Folding her arms on the tabletop, Elodie rested her head in them, watching Dahlia move around the kitchen. She laughed a little at the question. "No, we're not a thing. He's too scared of me. I think he thinks I'd bite his dick off if we had sex or something. No one wants a psychotic girlfriend." Which she admitted, she probably would be. Love wasn't really something Elodie was actively looking for. It wasn't even something she was sure she could feel. And she doubted there were any guys in Point Pleasant who could deal with her. "I don't even know if we're friends."
Dahlia couldn’t help but laugh a little, cocking her brow at Elodie as she slathered mayo on some bread. “Would you bite his dick off?” she asked, obviously joking about it. If Elodie made that type of thing a habit, she would probably be in jail by now. “And I really doubt you’re psychotic, hon. I’ve known true psychotics and you’re much more in touch with reality than they were. You’ve just got an excellent bullshit detector, no filter, and you like to mess with people. Well ... not just, because no one’s that simple, but you know what I mean.” Dahlia started layering cheese and meat, then added, “He probably wouldn’t let you hang around so much if you weren’t friends.” Once one sandwich was done, she pushed it toward Elodie, then went to fetch her some cold water to go with it. “You want chips or anything too?”
Elodie grinned, liking that description of who she was much better than being psychotic. It at least made her sound sane. Some people might not have agreed with Dahlia, but Elodie didn't really care. "I wouldn't bite his dick off... it's too nice a dick, although I could put it on a shelf with all the other dicks I've traumatized. But yeah, I don't know. We kinda stuck together when we were... over there." Biting back a yawn, Elodie closed her eyes for a few moments to rest them. "So I think we're like, trauma twins. But yeah, chips sound good." She could always count on Dahlia to have good junk food in the house. "My dad liked to mess with people too. Or likes. I probably shouldn't talk about him in the past tense, huh?"
Trauma twins. That was interesting to hear. Elodie had told Dahlia next to nothing about where she’d been when she’d gone missing, all she’d gotten was little tidbits that just made her even more curious. Dahlia grabbed a bag of chips and a water bottle to bring back to the table, setting both down within Elodie’s reach. “He can be as dead to you as you want him to be, honey,” she murmured in regard to Elodie’s father. It was no secret between them what an asshole her half brother was, but Dahlia had hope that Elodie could be better than him. She started making herself a sandwich, glancing over at Elodie. “What was it like over there? You don’t talk about it much.”
Elodie's mom and grandma were both dead, so she guessed it made sense to think of her dad dead too. She doubted she'd ever see him again anyway. Straightening in the chair, Elodie reached for the water first, gulping it down until the dryness eased a bit in her throat. Then she went for the food. "It was disgusting," Elodie said after popping a chip into her mouth. "You missed the fog, though I guess that doesn't mean it won't be back. I mean, do you believe in things that are unexplainable? Like, if I said some hellish dimension existed underneath this town, would you want to commit me to the psych ward or something?" She had never told Dahlia the full truth about where she had disappeared to months ago, afraid she might tell her boyfriend or try to have Elodie committed. But at this point, she felt like Dahlia should at least know what she was in for, living here.
She kept her expression neutral as she listened, tuned into Elodie’s emotions at the same time -- Dahlia didn’t pick up on any deception in her niece. Once her sandwich was put together, she sat down in one of the chairs and looked fully at Elodie. “I believe in the unexplainable, yes,” she said. “I don’t know that everything everyone claims is true ... but I’ve seen some strange things that make me believe there’s a lot to the world we largely don’t understand. So no, I’m not going to think you’re crazy. I want to know what happened to you, if you’re willing to tell me.” She already knew that Elodie was some brand of psychic, given what she’d said about Grady’s broken arm, but that was small potatoes compared to other hellish dimensions.
Elodie took another bite of her sandwich and eyed Dahlia from across the table, as if she could somehow read her aunt's mind and find the truth. She didn't know if she trusted Dahlia one hundred percent yet, but... Elodie didn't trust anyone one hundred percent. So Elodie washed down her bite of food with water, reached for the chips again and began to tell her about everything, from when the fog rolled in, to when Jules and the others lured them out into the woods off of Witcham. She purposely left out the part about her mother, for reasons. As she spoke, she didn't stop, not wanting Dahlia to cut in with questions. "Then they opened this weird... doorway... portal? I don't know. It's like the world changed around us. It was Point Pleasant, but... not. And then they were gone, the four... no, three. Because the werewolf got stuck with us. Everything was dark and gray and foggy. There were things in the fog we could see, and things we couldn't see. We basically had to hide out and hope we didn't get eaten by anything." Now she did stop, picking up her sandwich to take another bite, her gaze still on Dahlia to see how she was processing things.
Her expression went through a few phases of shock and concern, but Dahlia didn’t try to break into Elodie’s monologue, listening intently as she slowly ate her own sandwich. It all sounded like the plot to some crazy, low budget movie, but she still didn’t sense any untruth in anything Elodie said. She had really experienced everything she was saying, and with so many other people involved, Dahlia knew she could corroborate her story if she wanted to. Elodie knew that too, so why would she make up a bunch of crazy bullshit about it? She wasn’t that dumb. By the time Elodie stopped, Dahlia had lost interest in her sandwich, studying the girl intently. “And you were trapped there for how long?” she asked, her voice quiet. “With how many people?”
Chewing a bite of her sandwich, Elodie scrunched her nose thoughtfully before swallowing again. "Since... well, end of January to I guess the end of May? However many months that is. I don't remember how many people went in there with me, but like... maybe... nine? Ten? I don't remember for sure. Jasper and I sort of did our own thing, so we weren't always with the adults, if you want to call them that. I can tell you a few of the people there, but most of them I forget their names. I don't know how or why we ended up back here, but we did. It was weird though, because none of us needed to eat or drink anything. It was like the air there kept us alive. I think that place is like... beneath ours, or next to it. Like a mirror, almost." Elodie raised a brow at her aunt. "You really believe me?"
Four months in that kind of place, only to return mysteriously. Ten-ish people, all gone and then back at the same time. No wonder Grady looked tired so often, if that was the kind of thing that happened in this town. She’d been absorbing all of the vague warnings from people she’d talked to, most of them probably trying to avoid sounding crazy, because this was heavy supernatural shit. “I really believe you,” she confirmed to Elodie with a nod. “And I’m very impressed with you for surviving, and incredibly relieved you made it back somehow.” Dahlia paused, glancing down at her food before she met Elodie’s eyes again. “It does sound like a crazy story, but I believe you in large part because I can tell you’re not lying. It’s an ability of mine ... and you have one too, don’t you? Could you feel it before you went over there? Or only after?”
She fell silent for a moment, studying Dahlia and wondering what she meant by being able to tell if someone was lying. An ability. Was her aunt telling her she could read people's minds? Or had some innate sense to just tell? Like Elodie, but different. After another moment of silence, Elodie popped another chip into her mouth. She had to figure if Dahlia was a mindreader, she would have definitely skipped town by now. There were so many crazies living here. Finally, she sat back in her chair, taking her glass of water with her. "After," she admitted. "How do you know about that?"
Dahlia could feel the suspicion, and she didn’t really blame Elodie for it. Every time Dahlia had told someone she was a psychic, they got wary and suspicious that she somehow knew all of their secrets. She mentally crossed her fingers that this was the right move with her niece, hoping to build trust between them. “You might not remember, but the night Grady brought you home, you said he’d broken his arm,” she said, her tone still casual. “You were holding your own, like you could feel the pain. He told me that happened when he was a kid, he fell out of a tree, and he had no idea how you could know that. I had some idea, because I have a psychic ability too. I’m an empath. I can sense the emotions of other people, and feel them myself, to some degree. So I know when people are being deceptive. ... I’ve been trying to find the right time to talk to you about it.” Dahlia gave her a small smile. “What’s it like for you?”
Elodie wrinkled her nose. "That has to be really horrible, being able to feel everyone's emotions. I would be locked up in my room forever if I could do that." She barely liked feeling her own emotions. Though was that better or worse than hearing someone's thoughts? Even so, knowing that her own aunt was psychic was kind of mindblowing, but also, not. No wonder Dahlia was always so chill. She had to be, otherwise she would be in a psych ward. Elodie didn't remember much about the night Grady brought her home, but if Dahlia said it happened, it happened. "My thing... I don't know. Like, when I meet someone, it's like I can feel all their injuries at once, and I know what happened. I met this guy, a ride share driver... I knew he'd been shot before. Twice. I knew where too. I can feel it. But it doesn't last long, it just hurts like hell when it does. It's not helpful." Elodie chugged a bit more water and then set the glass down. "Jasper, he came back different too. He can find people... things. All he has to do is think real hard and then like, he'll know where to go. I asked him to pick me up last night. I didn't know where I was, no street name or anything. I was wasted. But he came right to me."
Dahlia was no expert in psychics, but she hadn’t really heard of either of those things as defined powers. She found it fascinating, especially when Elodie started telling her about Jasper. Had all of them gained some sort of ability from their ordeal? It didn’t sound like nearly enough to make up for all that tortured lost time, but still. “Well hell,” Dahlia murmured, pinching off another bit of sandwich to pop into her mouth. “I think I’d rather feel everyone’s emotions than their injuries, that sounds miserable, even if it doesn’t last long. I’ve learned to control mine to some extent over the years, so it’s not as bad as you might think. It definitely boosts my bullshit detector. ... Jasper’s though, that sounds really handy. Interesting that you both gained something completely different ...” She trailed off for a thoughtful moment, then quirked a tiny smile at Elodie. “You can call me too if you ever need a ride home when you’re wasted, I hope you know that. I’m not going to bitch at you the whole way home or anything.”
"Physical pain is easier to handle than emotional pain," Elodie said simply. That's what she believed anyway. But Dahlia definitely seemed pretty level-headed and calm and it was kind of awesome that she could use it to cipher out lies. For a moment Elodie tried to think through all of their past conversations and all the bullshit Elodie had spewed, but her brain was too foggy still to recall anything clearly. Smirking suddenly, Elodie lifted a dark brow. "How're you gonna find me if I don't even know where I am?"
That first bit was a matter of opinion, Dahlia supposed. Or maybe she’d just been exposed to so much emotional pain -- both hers and others’ -- that she’d adapted to it better than physical pain. She tucked that tidbit about Elodie away in the back of her mind. She was sure there was a lot the girl hadn’t even begun to deal with yet, and that could have consequences down the road. Dahlia lifted her brows back at Elodie, a smile toying with her lips. “Honey, I will knock on every door in town to find you if you need me,” she said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Or I’ll go grab Jasper and have him tell me where to go.”
Elodie was amused with Dahlia's exclamation and reached out for another potato chip. She could call her mom for a ride in the past and her mom's phone would just go to voicemail, no matter what time of the day it was. That's why Elodie had gotten used to walking everywhere. "Okay then, if I need a ride later, I'll text you. I was thinking about trying to get my license too, so I can drive myself around if I can find a cheap car. Though I guess that means I'd have to get a job." She wrinkled her nose. "Jasper's working now too. There's just... nothing I would rather do less." And just like that, she talked herself out of getting a car for herself. Working all day to try and make enough money to buy a car seemed like such a waste of time. "Are you and the Sheriff going to the carnival this week?"
Dahlia was nodding to the part about Elodie getting her license, then gave her a Look. “I told you I would help you get a car,” she reminded Elodie. “I do want you to either be working or taking some kind of classes though, if I’m going to do that.” She knew that might be a dealbreaker for Elodie, and it wasn’t even very good leverage in this small of a town. She’d been getting around on her own just fine so far. Dahlia had been chomping at the bit to drive as a young teenager, but she hadn’t been living in Point Pleasant. Elodie should have something to occupy her time anyway, but Dahlia knew she couldn’t force that. “Where is Jasper working? And yes, probably. We haven’t really talked about it yet,” she answered. “Looks like fun, though.”
That was the catch. Working or taking classes? She supposed she ought to get her GED or whatever it was, since she didn't graduate. Maybe she could convince Jasper to get his GED with her so she didn't have to do it alone. "I don't remember if he told me where he was working, only that he had a job and had to sleep, blah, blah." Elodie waved her hand dismissively. Jasper could do whatever. At least he didn't work super late or anything. "You should check out the carnival though. Make him take you on the Tunnel of Love and buy you a candy apple. Do all the normal couple-y things."
Elodie’s resistance to work or school was obvious to Dahlia, and it was kind of amusing in that ‘oh what a teenager’ sort of way. She believed this compulsion Elodie had to party all the time would burn itself out eventually, and then she would need something constructive to do. “Have you been to it yet?” she asked Elodie, picking another bit off of her sandwich to eat. “I’m not sure Grady remembers how to do all of those normal couple-y things, I’ll have to remind him.” Her tone was light and affectionate -- honestly, he was proving himself to be a pretty damn good boyfriend when it came to dates, it was just his schedule that was always getting in their way. Dahlia understood and liked her space though, so it was working out.
Elodie shook her head. "I'll go eventually. I feel like I should 'cause who knows when it'll ever be back again. And Grady isn't ancient. He was married, right? So it's like... probably like riding a bike or whatever." She paused and eyed Dahlia closely all of the sudden. "So you can really tell when I'm lying? Just based on how I'm feeling? How's that work again?" Maybe she would be able to get around it, maybe she wouldn't. But Elodie lied a lot and she wasn't sure she wanted Dahlia calling her out on it.
Coming from a teenager, ‘not ancient’ was sort of a compliment, so Dahlia tucked that one away to tell Grady later. Sheriff Nice Dick, who wasn’t actually crumbling into dust. Though she would probably leave the dick part out, that would surely embarrass him, even if it was true. Dahlia raised her brows at the questions, then gave a little shrug. “Most people feel certain things when they lie,” she said evenly. “I’m sure there are some things that slip past me, if someone’s extremely good at it, or actually believe what they’re saying. But I’ve learned some sensations that tip me off. The better I know someone, the better I get at it.” She knew Elodie was asking because she wanted to keep saying whatever she wanted and having it believed, but that wasn’t going to fly with Dahlia for long. She was being patient, but eventually she wanted them to be able to be honest with each other.
Elodie supposed she wasn't that worried. How well would Dahlia ever get to know her anyway? How well did anyone get to know her? Still, she supposed she would have to watch what she lied about. Maybe Dahlia wouldn't care if Elodie always told her the truth. Elodie could be so honest with her aunt that she would totally regret ever admitting she could suss out someone who was lying. Elode finished off her water, feeling a little better now that she had eaten some food. "I think I'm going to go shower and change. Jasper's clothes are comfortable but the pants keep falling down my ass. Oh! You should tell the Sheriff that you can tell when people are lying... maybe he could use you when he's interrogating people. You can be a crime fighting duo."
Dahlia laughed a bit and wrinkled her nose. “Why does that sound like a sitcom in the making?” she said lightly. “Let’s keep that just between us though, okay? People get weird on me when they find out what I can do. I really like this guy, I’m not ready to scare him off yet with too much emotional intimacy, you know?” She and Grady had been doing well with connecting naturally, Dahlia felt, and she didn’t want him to freak out about her being an empath. People had such an obsession with controlling how they were perceived, it seemed to really rattle them when they learned she knew more about what was going on in their head than they revealed. It was hard for some to accept that she wasn’t trying to read them all the time, they were just really fucking loud.
Elodie's brows rose sharply. "Oh, he doesn't even know?" Well, that was interesting. Already keeping secrets. She wondered if the Sheriff had secrets of his own. Drama was never exclusive to teenagers. She made a zipping motion against her lips, because while she sucked at keeping other people's secrets, she would try hard to keep Dahlia's. It should be easy since she didn't hang out when the Sheriff was around the apartment anyway. Scooting back from the table, Elodie held Jasper's pants up around her waist and picked up her plate to carry into the kitchen. "I bet, as a cop, he can tell when people aren't being truthful too... just in different ways. So that's something you've got in common."
Her empathy was always a default secret in Dahlia’s life, so she didn’t feel much guilt about keeping it from Grady. If they ended up feeling really serious about each other, she would find her time to bring it up. But it definitely wasn’t something he needed to hear from her niece. “He’s definitely observant,” Dahlia agreed, glancing back as Elodie moved behind her toward the sink. “Maybe we’ll bond over it when the time comes.” She could sound light about it, but she honestly was anxious that it would weird him out too much ... but they would cross that bridge when they came to it. “What do you think about pizza and a movie tonight?” she suggested, wanting to get it in before Elodie disappeared again to do her own thing. “Unless you’ve got more parties to go to, of course.”
Elodie figured if Grady was freaked out, then that was his problem. It probably wasn't as black and white as Elodie felt it in her head, but Grady wasn't her boyfriend, so she was okay with simplifying things. The suggestion of pizza and a movie prompted Elodie to hesitate for a moment. She generally had no idea what she was doing from one minute to the next but she supposed it wouldn't be bad to hang out with her aunt later. "Yeah, okay," she said finally. "But I get to pick the movie. I just wanna take a shower and go back to sleep for a while now."
“I would expect nothing less,” Dahlia said with a light laugh. Of course Elodie got to pick the movie, she was the teenager and they ruled the world, right? Really, Dahlia would accept almost any caveat that prompted the girl to spend more time with her. Standing up to clear her own plate, Dahlia motioned for Elodie to go on about her business. “Of course, go enjoy both.” She had headphones so the apartment would stay quiet, and she could get some more painting done until Elodie woke up and was ready to eat and relax.
Elodie headed for her bedroom, pausing only once to glance back at Dahlia. "Thanks for the sandwich." She was definitely tired and wanted to sleep some more but it didn't feel like the last half hour or whatever felt like a waste of time. She knew something about Dahlia now and Dahlia knew something about Elodie. It felt kind of good to get it off her chest, telling someone outside of it all what had happened to her and what it was like Over There. Whether or not it meant anything was yet to be seen. Dahlia could end up disappointing Elodie like every other adult in her life but all Elodie could do was be herself and hope that Dahlia didn't run away because of it.