Who: Cecilia and Kane Where: Castle View When: Wednesday afternoon, fourth of July
Cecilia didn't go into town often. She much preferred staying on her farm where the only people she had to deal with were the people she herself had hand picked. Big cities were fine too, she didn't mind traveling when she had to, but Point Pleasant was home and she always felt seen there. On top of that, today's task was entirely unpleasant and if she had a choice, she'd have let someone else handle it or skipped it entirely. It involved getting an outsider mixed up in her business and if Kane Owen was anything like most people, he'd need to be wrangled into helping her using some unsavory means. It honestly made her feel like throwing a tantrum like a disgruntled teenager, to simply sulk and mope and not leave the farm at all.
Instead, she put on a brave face, because of course she did. Styr didn't join her today and she had a feeling the entity was wary of the man they were visiting. She couldn't really blame him, Kane Owen was a reaper and a hunter and Styr might be powerful but she couldn't begin to guess what his vulnerabilities might be. Instead of her vessels, she left with a man named Reggie. He'd worked for her for three years now, a quiet loner in excellent shape despite his age. He knew more than most of the humans on her farm did by now and yet he remained loyal. Needless to say he was one of her favorites of the living on her farm.
She was just glad Mr. Owen didn't live near all the Fourth of July festivities and that the road to Castle View was clear of parades and drunken idiots. It was perhaps a ridiculous day to visit but it hadn't been her decision, in fact most decisions weren't hers to make. She didn't feel bitter about it, but that didn't mean it couldn't at times be tiresome. Reggie didn't ask any questions. He would wait in the car for as long as it took and Styr, even if he was not there in anyone's flesh, would watch over her and whisper in her ear.
And yet she was a little apprehensive as she walked up to Kane's apartment, unsure what to expect from him. She was used to many types of people and she knew how to handle herself but that didn't mean she enjoyed being threatened or scowled at, nobody did. She knocked sharply on his door and adjusted her necklaces idly as she waited for a sign of life from within the door, then plastered on a mild smile when the door opened.
Kane didn’t want to hate drinking holidays -- they were really made for guys like him with no families or heavy responsibilities, who just wanted a celebratory excuse to get fucked up. But they always ended up miserable for him, often full of more calls to reap than he sometimes got in an entire month, all crammed into one day. Fourth of July was bad, St. Patrick’s Day was usually worse, New Years was a nightmare ... the only other holiday that rivaled those was Christmas. There were so many suicides on Christmas.
With all of that in mind, Kane had opted to stay home through all of the Fourth. He could’ve made plenty of money ridesharing, but he didn’t actually need the cash and he didn’t want to be out driving around when a reaping hit. He always had a few seconds’ warning, but that got risky when he was behind the wheel with witnesses in the car. So that morning he bought his own liquor and settled in for a long afternoon and evening and night.
It was still fairly early, but Kane was halfway through a movie and a little tipsy from what he’d been drinking so far when someone unexpectedly knocked on his door. Frowning, he hauled himself off of the couch and shuffled to the door. Kane looked through the peephole and didn’t recognize the woman on the other side of the door, but she looked harmless enough. He leaned against the doorframe and put a hand on the shotgun leaned hidden against the wall next to the door as he opened it, just in case, arching a brow at the older woman on his step. “Yeah?” he asked.
"I'm only here to talk to you," Cecilia murmured in a low, husky voice, a somewhat bemused smile twisting her lips and her glance darting down to the door where Styr had told her Kane's hand was resting - and what it was resting on. "No need for that," she said pointedly before softening her smile again. It was a little funny really, reaching for a gun when a senior citizen knocked on his door, but she knew what this town was really like so she supposed she couldn't fault him. It wasn't like he was wrong either, she might be only human and he could easily kill her in a number of ways, she just might not stay that way for long because her time wasn't up. "You're not busy right now, so why don't you come chat with me outside by the pool. The weather is so lovely and I don't think you want me visiting your bachelor pad."
Kane wasn’t the most subtle human being, but he knew his shotgun wasn’t visible and he’d practiced this casual lean, so when the woman acknowledged it the hair on the back of his neck prickled with awareness. He studied the woman’s face for a beat, but recognition still didn’t kick in, which put Kane on edge. She was talking like she knew him. He didn’t move a muscle from where he was, lifting his chin a little as he stared at her. “Why don’t you tell me who the fuck you are first and I’ll consider it,” he said, his tone steady and flat for the moment while his mind scrambled to connect dots. Kane couldn’t think of any reason for a random older woman to show up on his doorstep wanting to talk that didn’t involve his hunting, which meant that somebody had been talking about him.
"Oh!" Cecilia huffed softly at herself. "Where are my manners? My name won't mean anything to you, you're not nearly old enough for that, but it's Cecilia Werner. And you're Kane Owen, nice to finally meet you." She gave him another pleasant smile then turned around to head down the hallway. "Come along now, and open up a window before your boyfriend gets here, it's very stuffy in there." She fully expected him to follow, curiosity would get the better of him even if he tried to fight it and she wasn't sure how him being a reaper affected the way he saw the world. Perhaps he had awareness of the entity following her around, she wasn't sure if Styr could be classified as a soul, he was so much more than that.
He got another uncomfortable chill at the casual reference to Adrian -- or to Kane’s bisexuality, at least. Who the fuck was this broad? ‘Cecilia Werner’ didn’t mean jack shit to him, she was right about that. Kane eyed her retreating back for a beat, then straightened up, closed the door, and locked it. It was a temporary measure just in case she got the wild idea to try and come in while his back was turned. Kane quickly fetched a pistol to tuck into his ankle holster, put some shoes on, grabbed his cigarettes, and -- after a brief hesitation -- opened one of the living room windows. This was probably incredibly stupid, but he was curious, and she wanted to talk somewhere the neighbors could see, so ... it couldn’t be too stupid, right? Shaking his head at himself a bit, Kane left his apartment, locking up behind himself before he jogged down the hall to catch up to this Cecilia woman. “What do you mean, finally meet me?” he asked once he was close enough.
For a moment there, Cecilia wondered if he would come after her, or at least how long he would make her wait. She had her phone, she could busy herself with reading or listening to music for a while and it wasn't like she had anywhere to be, but she was still pleased to hear his footsteps behind her. "I've heard a lot about you," she replied. "That's generally what people mean when they say they're pleased to finally meet someone, right?" Styr led the way to the pool area where there was a nice bench to sit on and Cecilia wondered what it would be like living in a place like this, with so many strangers around. "Do you like living here?" she asked as she headed to the bench, pulling a pack of cigarettes from her purse before sitting down.
The only people around here who really knew about him were Bailey, Adrian, and now Brianna, though she didn’t know all of it. Kane silently stewed on which one of them could’ve been running their mouth while they made their way to the pool. He didn’t sit on the bench, standing and facing Cecilia instead while he pulled his own pack out and shook one free. “It’s all right,” he said, tossing a glance around. It was a weird question, but all of this was weird. “So what have you heard about me, and who have you heard it from?” Kane lit his cigarette, then offered the lighter to Cecilia for hers, curious if she would take it or not.
Cecilia did accept the lighter and handed it back when her cigarette was lit. It had become an annoying habit as of late, at least when she had to be places that weren't home. Nobody liked cigarettes anymore and she couldn't really smoke anywhere except her own home or outside but that was the only thing that bothered her about it. Styr kept her healthy and she could afford it. Kane was young and he probably ought to give it up but she wasn't going to play mother to him, she didn't care and he wouldn't listen. "Who told me all about you," she rephrased for him and this was the part where she and Styr didn't quite see eye to eye. He wanted her to be cryptic but she was sure that would only irk a guy like Kane too much and while she was sure he wouldn't willingly right the wrongs he didn't even know he'd committed yet, she kind of hoped this wouldn't be entirely unpleasant. "Well," she sighed. "Nobody you know. An old friend of mine who only really talks to me. It's a long story, but I do know a few things about you and I honestly don't care about most of them, your secrets are safe with me." He might be standing to appear aloof or even intimidating but Cecilia was quite used to men hovering over her. She liked sitting down and most of the men in her life liked standing or pacing, it seemed only natural.
Kane didn’t like that answer very much. It was vague and made him feel like there were eyes on the back of his neck. He already had enough reason to be paranoid, now he had to worry about some mystery friend he didn’t know? Or the old woman was covering for someone else, protecting her source. All of this was setting his teeth on edge, he was getting the feeling that whatever deal this Cecilia wanted to make, he wasn’t going to like it. Kane took a drag from his cigarette, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “So what parts do you care about?” he asked, his tone still dry like he was humoring her. “What do you want from me?” It was possible she was bluffing and she didn’t know shit, Kane was interested to hear how she phrased her answer.
"Now, keep in mind I'm just the messenger," Cecilia said and she could feel Styr bristle next to her. He did not like Kane but then Kane had gotten in the way of their plans, delaying them even further so she couldn't really blame him. "So don't shoot me," she added with a crooked little smirk. "Three months ago your boyfriend was locked up in a private facility run by power hungry dickheads who want to harness the supernatural. Weaponize it. They had doctors and mercenaries working for them, none of them particularly good people. Did he tell you they were going to let him starve just to find out what would happen?" Styr might not understand why this was important and he was bristling again, this time impatiently. Cecilia knew though. Honey before vinegar, some mutual ground. He might still turn on her when she told him what she required but he didn't exactly strike her as a moral and righteous person.
The more Cecilia talked, the less Kane liked this. How the fuck did she know so much about Adrian? Somehow that bothered him even more than what she knew about him. He stared at her, his jaw slowly clenching tighter. “Yeah, he told me about it,” Kane murmured. Adrian hadn’t gotten into a ton of details, but he’d told Kane enough to make him want to go burn the place to the ground. He’d also told him everyone there was dead from the escaping monster. Kane supposed those crazy motherfuckers had weaponized the supernatural a little too well.
"Then you know the rest," Cecilia said and took a long drag of her cigarette before tapping the ashes off to the side of the bench. "Those people are all dead and their souls are scattered in Blackwater." She scrunched up her face and squinted her eyes at Kane. "And that is a problem," she told him, gesturing at him with her cigarette. "They're not supposed to be scattered. They're supposed to be contained." She meant to say more but Styr shushed her, observing Kane closely for his reaction and she supposed he was right, better to gauge his reaction than to keep chattering on. He got defensive at the mention of his boyfriend, that could be used against him but it could also make him harder to control so she opted against putting the blame there even though she knew very well Kane could never have done this killing by himself.
Kane did his best to keep his expression neutral as his mind scrambled to try and make sense of all of this. He vividly recalled the additional spirits that had emanated out from the dead monster after Kane had reaped its own soul, ghostly people-shaped lights that drifted up and outward. He hadn’t been able to help any of them at the time, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t help them now, either. He wasn’t some Reaper Roomba that could roll around and suck them all up to send them on their way. “They’re supposed to have moved on,” he corrected Cecilia. “If they were reaped correctly, but ... they weren’t.” He didn’t want to bring up the monster if she didn’t, still unsure about just how much she knew. “How do you know all this anyway? Did you work in that place?” Something clenched tighter in Kane’s chest -- everyone was supposedly dead, and Cecilia had said critical things about the facility, but if this woman had anything to do with torturing Adrian ...
"Oh god no," Cecilia said and even pulled a face at how ridiculous - and crappy - that would have been. "I'm a farmer, not a scientist or a mercenary." She wagged her cigarette at him again for emphasis. "Cows and goats, not wendigos. You on the other hand are a reaper and you know not all souls get to move on yet, not if they can prove themselves useful here first. You know these particular souls have not moved on, they're floundering around in Blackwood, being a nuisance. Someone needs to collect them because... Well, the original collector is dead, as you know. Ripped apart by a wendigo hybrid, if I'm correctly informed." She was, of course, and maybe the collector might still be alive if it had looked more human and a little less terrifying but that wasn't something she could control.
He didn’t miss that she didn’t answer the how of any of it, and Kane tried not to let his impatient annoyance about that get the better of him. He didn’t enjoy cryptic riddles, he preferred people be upfront and honest and just say what the fuck they meant. But this woman obviously Was Something Else or at least knew about a lot of supernatural shit, and he wasn’t sure losing his temper with her would be a good idea. “Collector, huh?” Kane muttered as he took another drag on his cigarette. “It sure didn’t look like it was doing anything good with ‘em. In fact, it looked like it was trying to ... I dunno, build something. Like a doorway or some shit, you sure it wasn’t on its way out anyway? It almost ate me and my sister, so if I’m s’posed to feel bad it’s dead now ... I don’t. I’m assuming you want me to go around and gather all those people back up?”
Styr was hissing an angry 'yes!' over Cecilia's shoulder and she was so tempted to just say yes - in a completely different tone of course - and tell Kane that that was a lovely thing to offer before fucking off. That'd piss him off and he wouldn't have any of the details he needed, but it was hilarious in her mind. Instead she took a moment and just smiled at him in a way that said... yes. "It was just doing its job," she said evenly. "But I fully understand if you want no part in this. It would just be less messy to use the souls of those who were already chosen, instead of finding a new group and a new collector and doing it all over again. What do you say, Kane? You break it you buy it?" She'd gone solemn as she spoke, aware that a smile now would only be patronizing and false and talking about sacrificing a group of people didn't really make her want to smile. It was nasty business, one she hoped to avoid repeating.
Kane was starting to put some things together, and it gave him a deep sense of unease in his gut. She hadn’t been on the side of the scientists, but she was on the side of the monster. He wasn’t sure which was worse. Cecilia’s words made him think that she’d orchestrated the slaughter somehow, killed all of those people with the monster on purpose ... and she would do it again. He blew a slow breath out through his lips, shaking his head as he moved a couple of paces away, turning in an agitated little circle. “You made this happen?” he asked as he faced her again, his jaw tight. “That was a lotta fuckin’ people, what do you want ‘em for? And what’s in it for me? I don’t sell human souls.” His gut instinct was revulsion at the idea of trapping a bunch of former people to hand them over to someone with nefarious purposes ... but they were already lost, beyond his reach to really help. And they had all been employed in a place that had kidnapped and tortured Adrian.
Cecilia shook her head at his first question, then let him get the rest out of his system. "I'm just a farmer," she told him. "Don't shoot the messenger now." He was pacing like a trapped animal and either that's exactly what he was or he was doing it to unnerve her. Men and their posturing and all that. "Do you want there to be something in it for you? Beyond knowing that you prevented an unnecessary slaughter? Would money or favors make this better?" She was genuinely curious about that, the souls weren't his to sell in the first place but would money really help get him onboard? She wasn't above paying him if that helped, even if those souls escaping were partially his fault.
She kept saying she was just a messenger-farmer, but Kane was struggling to believe that. This woman knew too much and was too calm about it all not to be involved somehow ... or she at least condoned all of this, whatever the fuck it was. He still had no clue who would be doing the ‘unnecessary slaughter’, or what fate awaited these souls he was supposed to collect. Kane didn’t mind handing monsters over to people with bad intentions for them, but humans? He wasn’t good at moral quandaries, and this one was making his stomach churn. Kane pointed at Cecilia with two fingers still holding his cigarette. “Any slaughter that happens is not on me,” he said flatly. “You’re involved, I’m not, the blood’s on your hands.”
Still, could he really say no to potentially saving lives? Lives that might not be as guilty as the ones already taken? Kane chewed on his bottom lip and paced another round as he thought. He didn’t need money, especially not for this, but maybe a guarantee ... “I’ll do it if you can promise that whatever the fuck you’re involved in stays far away from Adrian,” he said as he faced Cecilia again. “The wendigo hybrid. He’s not to be touched, now or ever. Same goes for my sister. Otherwise I’ll make it my sole mission in life to hunt you and whoever or whatever you’re working for and destroy you all, understand?”
He didn't mention a price so she supposed he didn't care about the money so much as he felt like he should be asking for something in return. She could respect that and she could probably reward him with something later on if everything went well. The threat itself wasn't particularly scary but only because she had no intentions of bothering these people but Kane was still formidable and she had no interest in pissing him off. "The only interest I have in Adrian is pure curiosity," she admitted. "In what he is, I mean. I'd love to have a chat with him over a cup of tea some day, but that's not a necessity. I will make sure he and your sister are left alone." That was a promise she could easily make at least, she had no use for a hybrid wendigo and a human cop and they weren't even likely to be on the list of whatever people might end up dead if Kane didn't help her. She'd had no qualms with the deaths at the institute, they'd been bad people, finding another group like that was going to be tricky and she didn't have all the time in the world. "I can make finding the souls easier too, don't want you traipsing all over Blackwater searching for them. Nobody should spend too long in those woods."
The promise sounded sincere enough that it relaxed Kane a little bit, even though he had no reason to really trust this woman. Maybe she was an excellent liar and he was an idiot ... but she already seemed to know everything about him, so if she had ill intentions, they had probably existed before this conversation. And if Cecilia hadn’t knocked on his door, he never would have known about her. It was the kind of thing that stoked a man’s paranoia, and he had the brief but insanely strong urge to pack both Adrian and Bailey up personally and drive them all the fuck out of town forever. Kane knew just how well that would work out. He finished his smoke and flicked it over the little pool fence into the grass, his eyes still on the woman. “Thank you,” Kane muttered. He related to being curious about Adrian to an uncomfortable degree, he just hoped Cecilia was more sane about it than he’d managed to be. “How can you make it easier?”
"Spirits can be drawn to you with the right beacon," Cecilia explained though she left out the fact that these souls were all marked and thus easier to draw back. "I don't really understand it, it's all... How the fuck do magnets work, you know?" She chuckled and flicked the ashes off her cigarette. "Maybe we can arrange this next week, that'd be fantastic. You could come to the farm or I can meet you somewhere, set this all up." That would give her time to have the shrine built again, the one the boys had kicked down before it was even ready. She kind of wished she didn't need Kane at all but she wasn't equipped to handle souls, whether that meant catching or releasing them.
Kane could relate to being immersed in things he didn't fully understand too, couldn’t he? He had no idea how the magic inked into his skin worked. Or even if it still actually worked after so many scarring injuries to his back. Not that he wanted to reveal any of that cluelessness to Cecilia. “Sure,” he said, a bit relieved to be able to put it off for a while. He had other stuff he wanted to do this week, and who knew how long this would actually take, how many trips to Blackwater. “You want my number or do you wanna just show up again all mysterious?” He gave a faint half-smile so he didn’t come off as a complete asshole.
"I do enjoy being a bit mysterious," Cecilia said with a little twinkle in her eye before shaking her head in indication she was joking. "But no, it'd probably be far more convenient if you just come see me when it's time." She dug around in her purse for her card, a plain one with just her name, address and phone number. It wasn't often that she gave those out but she'd found they could come in handy for moments like these. "Feel free to bring your boyfriend along," she said as she stubbed out her cigarette and got to her feet, stretching her sore back a bit. This bench wasn't the most comfortable seat she'd been in. "He's very fascinating, apparently nobody's survived a wendigo attack in at least a hundred years - that I know of."
Kane took the card, glancing at it only briefly before he tucked it into his pants pocket. He supposed he would be the one to decide when it was time then. The tidbit of information about Adrian stirred up some of his own fascinated feelings, but Kane didn’t let it show. Instead he gave her an unimpressed sort of look, his lips pursing a bit. “You already forget my terms? Don’t make me regret this. You just forget he exists, I’ll be in touch.” Figuring that Cecilia could see herself out of the apartment complex, Kane turned to go, slipping one hand into his pocket to finger the edges of her card. His stomach felt rather unsettled and nervous about this, so maybe he regretted it already. Kane would just have to find out if it was warranted.
There was a chance that Kane might not contact her and Cecilia was well aware of that, but in that case she would come back or send someone in her place. He wasn't off the hook just because she was leaving his premises. His abrupt departure didn't really surprise her either and she was perfectly fine with seeing herself out. A long time ago she might have taken offense at how rude he was but she'd learned in the last decade or so to let that all roll off her back. She headed back out to the parking lot where Reggie was waiting, Styr murmuring in her ear and fretting about how this would come along. Cecilia wasn't very worried though, Kane would do this for them and as long as they all played their cards right, he had no real reason to turn on them.