Re: Ruby and Clint
The question startled Clint a little, and his surprise showed in his expression. He knew he looked tired, so it wouldn’t have been a completely weird question for someone to ask, but coming from Ruby? How the hell had she known something was fucked up with his sleep? “What ... how’d you know?” he asked, his voice dropping as he started to lean in closer. Clint caught himself and gave her space again. His brow furrowed in concern. “Did you dream about him too?” That was the only answer that came to him, and he was already starting to feel a little nauseated. It had been a horrible experience he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy, and Ruby was far from that, in spite of everything.
It was the answer Ruby expected, but not the one she wanted. It would have been so much nicer to know he was falling apart all on his own. “Yeah,” she sighed, opening her beer and taking a long, needed sip. “Fucker sliced me up good.” She probably should have gotten stitches, but had done her best to avoid them. A few butterfly bandages had helped with the worst of the cuts, but she would have scars. Ruby wondered what it had been like for him, but was afraid to ask. She didn’t need more nightmares, and didn’t want to bond over shared trauma. “I think it happened to a few of us. I know a couple other people who saw him that night. In their dreams.” If she hadn’t gone to Jasper, she’d have never known, and probably would still be fighting sleep nightly. It was luck that his dad had seen the Dark Man. Bad luck for him, of course, but good luck for her.
A weird chill ran through Clint’s body, some mix of shock and unreality but with a sense of of course. There was a strong dose of relief in there too, because hearing that it hadn’t just happened to him made it real. Clint wasn’t crazy, something dark and evil really existed and it had fucked with him. It hadn’t even occurred to him before now that it might have fucked with Ruby too. They’d seen the damn thing together. “Fuck,” Clint murmured, his brow furrowing. “Are you okay? I mean ... how bad was it?” Ruby had obviously survived it, but Clint’s night had been fucking awful, and he hated to think she’d been through similar. It sure didn’t sound good. Not that anything could be done about it now, and it probably wasn’t his business, but the whole thing was mind-boggling, so he couldn’t help but be curious.
Ruby raised a brow, staring at Clint for a moment. He had no right to that information and she didn’t exactly feel like getting into it. Not with him, not after everything that had happened. She wouldn’t have even brought it up, but it was key to the information she had to offer. “It was rough there for a while, but I’m okay now,” she said. “That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you. Do you happen to know any witches?” Ruby had suspected there were witches in Point Pleasant, had heard all the rumors, but she hadn’t known for sure until meeting the O’Reillys. Now she wondered who knew and if she was supposed to keep it a secret. Hopefully Clint knew one himself and she wouldn’t have to divulge her own source of information.
Clint frowned reflexively, because that sounded crazy on first blush ... but waking up injured from a nightmare was pretty fucking crazy too. He’d grown up with all the same urban legends about witches in this town as the rest of them, but Clint had never really given the truth of it all very much thought. “No, uh, I don’t ... not that I know of,” he muttered, shaking his head a little. That was another pointed question, so he was assuming that Ruby did know some witches. Which was just weird, but Clint was learning the hard way that ‘weird’ didn’t mean ‘impossible.’ Not anymore. Ruby hadn’t seemed to appreciate him asking after her, so he nibbled on his bottom lip and gave her room to talk.