Kane Owen (sellingsouls) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2023-06-22 07:45:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | #group scene, #july 2018, adrian, cecilia, kane |
Who: Adrian, Kane, Cecilia
When: evening, Friday, July 13th
Where: Blackwater Woods mostly
Warning: monsters and mantrums, oh my
Status: complete, part 1
Aware that he had a busy night ahead of him, Kane had tried to sleep for most of the day. It was hard when he felt antsy and Ready To Go, but he had a few pills stashed away that helped with that, and he got some good sleep before his alarms started going off in the late afternoon. Kane got up and fed himself, then started getting his gear together. He was hoping this would be a straightforward situation, that he could just clean up the mess they’d accidentally left behind and hand those souls over to Cecilia and then he could be done with it. But he was experienced enough to know that his hopes usually weren’t in line with reality. It was best to be prepared for the worst, hope for the best.
So he loaded a small arsenal into his favorite duffel bag along with his soul containment equipment, checking each of three guns for cleanliness and ammunition as he went, hard music blasting through his stereo speakers. Kane wanted to be in the right mindset, and listening to heavy rock always focused him and got him into Go Mode. Once he had loaded up the car, it was time to go get Adrian, and the loud music came with him.
They had planned for Adrian to come to his place to park and leave his car, but Kane was too restless to wait around at home any longer. It was like his body knew what was coming -- a struggle -- and it was just as geared up as the back of the SUV now. He had to keep moving. He drove to Mercy around the time Adrian was supposed to get off, and parked a few spaces down from Adrian’s car. His head bobbing in time with the music, Kane sent his quasi-boyfriend a text to let him know he was there, then dropped his phone to start drumming on the steering wheel, his whole body almost vibrating.
Adrian was antsy all day and he wished he didn't have a shift at Mercy but there he was, going through the motions and trying not to dwell on what was coming. There were a thousand worst-case-scenarios going through his head and it was hard to be professional at times. He rushed out of there as soon as was able, not terribly surprised at Kane's text even if that hadn't been part of the plan. It was hard to miss the very loud music and as a result, Kane's vehicle and Adrian cursed under his breath as he considered flat out ignoring him and taking his own car. There was nothing subtle about Kane's presence there but there wasn't anyone around that Adrian could see so he begrudgingly got in Kane's truck, tossing his backpack in the back. "Did anyone see you come here?" he yelled over the music, pointedly cocking a brow at him before fastening his seat belt. The music was catchy at least, weirdly soothing for his frayed nerves, like the beat of it matched his inner vibrations or something.
Kane grinned widely at Adrian as he began to climb into the SUV, something a little unhinged in the expression. He felt a little unhinged, but in a good sort of way, the kind of unhinged he needed to be to charge into battle. Kane wasn’t even really sure why this job in particular had him all riled up -- maybe because it wasn’t really on his own terms, he was working for somebody else for the first time in a very long time, trusting Cecilia’s word and plan. The addition of another obviously powerful person in all of this turned it into a new situation. Plus the fact that Adrian would be close by. His system didn’t quite know how to handle it, apparently, except with rock and roll and adrenaline. His hands were still jamming out on the steering wheel as he gave an exaggerated shrug to answer Adrian’s question. “Your car wouldn’t start, so you grabbed an Uber, right?” he suggested. Without waiting for a reply, Kane put the SUV in gear and pulled out of the parking spot to zoom toward the exit.
"Nah, man, I'm still working," Adrian laughed though he wasn't so sure Kane could hear him over the music. He wasn't sure how he felt about that crazy energy coming off Kane, it was raw and hot in a way that could easily become annoying if he himself was in the wrong mood, so he tried to relax into it and just enjoy the hard beat of the music. It was easy to enjoy the way Kane was drumming on the steering wheel at least; watching the muscles and tendons dancing in his hands was pretty fucking mesmerizing and Adrian let his gaze linger there as they sped on out of there. He just wished they were going somewhere more fun, that they could stop somewhere and work off some of that energy before they had to meet that old lady out on her farm.
He’d mentioned the Uber more as an excuse to give if someone had seen him swing by the hospital to pick up Adrian. Kane was pretty sure nobody had, but he didn’t really give a shit tonight, if he was being honest. There were bigger things to focus on. Adrian was smart and invested in staying in the closet, he could figure out how to lie to his people if he wanted to. It wasn’t really Kane’s business. It felt like it should be sometimes, because Kane was stupidly in love with him and wanted to entwine their lives together as much as possible, but most of the time he knew how idiotic that was. He sang along with the new song that came on, still drumming in between turns as he drove them toward Witcham. “Dusting off your savior, you were always my favorite, always my man, all in a hand,” he belted out, glancing over at Adrian as he sang. “To celebrate you is greater, now that I can, always my man.”
Adrian vaguely recognized this song at least and he tittered as Kane sang along, feeling a little self conscious suddenly. It was just lyrics to a song and Kane had openly told him he loved him, and yet it felt different when he sang it, like he was being serenaded. "Corny fuck," he murmured when the music settled down to quieter tones for a few seconds, but he was grinning affectionately as he reached over to nudge Kane's shoulder. God he was tense, it made Adrian want to unbuckle his belt and crawl over him, rubbing and squeezing until he relaxed. That'd have to wait until after the hunt and he tried to believe that he had no reason to think there wouldn't be an 'after'. It was just trauma memory, fucking with him. "You've got a good voice," he admitted as he pulled back. "We should just run away and start a rock band."
Kane didn’t take the insult to heart, just laughed it off and turned the stereo volume down just a bit. His body kept moving behind the wheel, rocking in time with the music while his head bobbed -- there wasn’t going to be any relaxing until this job was over. He had to stay in this hyped up headspace to stay focused and on his game. In his Marine unit overseas, they had always pumped music and riled each other up before going on mission, it was almost a pavlovian thing by now, a bodily reaction. “Yeah? You play anything?” Kane asked, glancing over at Adrian again. “‘Cause I can play guitar too.” Had he told him that already? Kane couldn’t remember. “I’m rusty as fuck, but I just bought one again.” He knew it hadn’t been a real suggestion, he had no desire to try to be a professional musician, but he wanted to get good again so he could serenade Adrian.
"Nah I don't play, but how hard can it be?" Adrian said and shot him a smirk. Had he seen a guitar at Kane's place? He tried to remember and had to admit to himself he hadn't exactly looked around the apartment much since his attention was always firmly on Kane. Maybe he'd just bought it today, that'd make Adrian feel a bit better about not noticing it since there wasn't exactly a lot of clutter at his place. "If you play for me and it's really awful, you know I have to break this off, right?" he added with a faked pained expression. "'Cause I just can't do second hand embarrassment, unless it's medical, you know?"
He shot Adrian a playful glare, but nodded sympathetically. “See, it’s a big risk, so I’m gonna practice a lot before you hear shit,” he said. Kane hadn’t been some virtuoso, but he’d filled a lot of hours strumming away and picking out melodies, and he’d been pretty good for a while. Plus he knew he had a decent voice, that part hadn’t been bullshit. The thought of playing a song for Adrian was a very weird mix of humiliating and incredibly appealing, and he already knew he would throw caution to the wind and try it someday. Kane turned onto Witcham and drove faster as they hit that open stretch of road, ready to be there and in the thick of it already.
"Nah, you'll get away with shitty playing, you've got a good dick," Adrian said and then he couldn't help but laugh a bit because it was such a stupid thing to say. "I'll be annoyed if I never get to hear you play, next time you take me swimming, bring your guitar." It seemed like such a cheesy thing, but he honestly liked the idea. Even if Kane ended up being terrible at it, that held a certain charm too, maybe even more so than if he was amazing. "Are you self taught?" he asked and now he couldn't keep from imagining Kane with a guitar and in his mind's eye he looked terribly focused and a little nervous and it was both cute and hot.
Kane nodded. “I mean, there were a couple of better dudes around who gave me pointers, but it was mostly just fucking around with it, yeah,” he said. “Gotta pass the time somehow when you’re deployed, put your attention into somethin’ that’s not destructive, you know?” Maybe Adrian didn’t know, not being a soldier, but Kane was sure he could grasp it well enough. “But yeah, my dick makes up for a lot, huh?” he added, laughing again. It was his most redeeming quality, probably. He was trying to do better though -- be better, be more than what he’d been for a long time. It kind of felt like the guitar wasn’t just for Adrian, like he hoped it would help him pull himself out of the constant cycle of destruction. “I can’t write music for shit though, so don’t expect nothin’ new. Only the best covers for my babe.” Kane chuckled.
Kane probably looked hot as fuck in uniform but Adrian felt guilty for even letting that thought pass through his head. He made the guilt subside by reminding himself it wasn't his fault Kane looked hot in anything he wore and left it at that. "Oh you'll have written me a song before you know it," he joked. "It'll be terrible and I'll love it anyway." He looked out at the road, wishing Cecilia lived much farther away than she did, that they'd have to drive for hours before they got anywhere near her because he just wasn't ready for this. Kane probably would have been better off leaving him at home and he almost wished he didn't know any of this was happening. "I like covers," he added more seriously. "You'll take some metal song and make it slow and sexy."
That was a good suggestion, and Kane tucked it away to practice on later. He knew a lot of metal songs by heart, and it wouldn’t be too hard to slow down a tempo, would it? He doubted that he could actually write a halfway decent song -- and he wouldn’t play it for Adrian if it sucked -- but if anything could inspire him to try, it would be this man. Kane could practically feel Bailey cringing at him. There was no reason she needed to know anything about all of this romantic stuff though. He was glad they were getting closer, but he needed to stop word-vomiting at people like some awkward psycho. He could keep some things to himself. “Fuck yeah I will,” he said, determination in his tone. He drummed a little more on the steering wheel. “Gonna romance the fuck out of you. Seduce your stupid ass.”
Adrian laughed. "Yeah, you're gonna have to work hard for it," he said as if his stupid ass wasn't heavily seduced already, as if he was difficult to persuade and not like putty in Kane's hands already. "Just be careful with the lyrics," he said, grinning ear to ear now. "If you try to seduce me with some power rock or death metal ballad I will cringe and you'll never get your hands on this stupid ass again." Truth was he didn't think Kane could do anything to push him away at this point outside of actually pushing him away and telling him he wanted nothing to do with him. All his boundaries had already been crossed and it didn't seem to matter.
“Big talk, you just wait ‘til you see me in leather pants and fringe and eyeliner,” Kane shot back, amused. A couple of different 80s ballads immediately popped into his head and he tittered some more. He wouldn’t deserve to get laid if he tried to woo Adrian with any of that. He knew their taste in music differed a bit, but a love song played with the right feeling could get through to damn near anybody. If he lived long enough to pick up his guitar again, that was. But Kane couldn’t let the possibility linger for long in his mind, or he would fuck himself over, so he pushed it away. He would see the sunrise, because he had to write a bad song for Adrian, it was that simple. “Prepare to swoon and weep and hold your lighter in the air, bitch.” He grinned.
"Okay," Adrian conceded with a bit of a dramatic flair. "I'll keep an open mind and bring a fucking lighter, but only because I have to admit I'm curious about seeing you in eye liner." He tilted his head back and narrowed his eyes as he spoke, sizing Kane up. "Skip the fringe, keep the leather. Not so tight they're hard to get off though." It was a good topic to stay on as it kept his mind off what was to come and he'd probably laugh his ass off if Kane got all dressed up like that, but that wouldn't mean he couldn't also be turned on by it. "If you do a bad job I'll mock you forever, but if you do a good job... I'll be your groupie for the night."
“Naw man, when the pants are real tight, that’s when you just unzip and whip it out,” Kane said, so Adrian knew he had a solid plan. He didn’t even own any leather pants, so he was just talking shit. He didn’t own any eyeliner either, but that was at least easier to buy on short notice. “Mmm, I can almost smell the ball sweat.” He snickered, happy to continue on this ridiculous line of thought instead of entertaining any others. He shot Adrian another dimpled smile. “You’d be my groupie anyway, just one that would mock me forever.” Kane couldn’t imagine Adrian not busting his balls over it, even if the music he made was actually really good, that was just part of their thing.
Adrian opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it, humming in the affirmative instead and grinning. "I solemnly swear to mock you forever," he said and turned up the volume again as another banger came on, bopping his head to it and reaching over to scratch at Kane's neck. "You make it easy," he said loud enough to be heard then sang along to the song and did a little drumming of his own. He had a feeling the music would be off when they drove up to Cecilia's farm, knowing both of them were nervous about this whole thing and not sure of the old lady's intentions, so for now he decided to enjoy it while he could.
The statement made his chest flutter like it was a fucking wedding vow. Kane just laughed and fell back into jamming out to the music, still speeding down Witcham. Part of him was tempted to just keep driving, to take Adrian and himself away from this cursed fucking place and start a new life somewhere else, where they could really be together and figure out how to be real full people again. Adrian was certainly already helping him in that regard, and he hoped it was mutual, even if neither of them really had their shit completely together yet. Too soon, the turn off to get to Cecilia’s farm came up, and Kane slowed the SUV down to take it. As the trees crowded in closer on either side of them, Kane did turn the volume down, a different sort of tension building in his body.
They were quiet as they drove and Adrian was sure Kane was looking out for any trouble of the kind Adrian wouldn't even know how to spot. Kane was the soldier, he knew traps to look out for - or so Adrian hoped. He could feel his man's tension and he couldn't bring himself to say anything as he skimmed the wood line and let all the awful possibilities of what might truly be happening go through his mind. Maybe it was a trap, maybe Cecilia needed a reaper's blood for whatever it was she was doing, maybe it was a plan to capture him, a wendigo in her possession, maybe she wanted both of them dead for what they'd done and the only reason they were still alive was that she'd had children on the farm when they first showed up. He almost asked if Kane had brought weapons but he didn't want to know if there were guns involved; he had in a way brought a weapon just by bringing Adrian along, the only problem was that he wasn't always loaded.
The vibe-shift in the car was palpable, and part of Kane was quietly validated that Adrian was taking this as seriously as he was. Not only was it a type of collecting he wasn’t used to, it was for a woman neither of them really knew, who apparently could talk to spirits. Kane still didn’t trust Cecilia, and considering she was threatening to slaughter a bunch of innocent people if this didn’t go right, he didn’t think he ought to. He just wanted to get this done and put it behind them. As his tires hit gravel on the long path up to the farm, Kane glanced over at Adrian’s profile. He was looking tense now too. “Keep your phone turned up and close to you,” he murmured. “If I call you, get the fuck out of there as fast as you can, okay? Promise me.” It was too late now, but he should’ve thought to bring walkies along, he realized. He would keep his earbud in and it was only one touch and a voice command to call Adrian -- Kane knew something could happen to him to make that impossible, but if anything happened out there to make him think Cecilia was fucking them over, he would try until his last breath to warn his man.
"Back at you," Adrian said even if he couldn't imagine any scenario where he'd just get up and leave without making sure Kane was okay. "If she lets something slip I don't like, I'll be calling you." Did souls get easily spooked? Could Kane even keep the sound on his phone? Adrian had no idea how it all worked and he had a feeling Kane wasn't so sure about any of this either. Reaping a soul from a recently dead person was one thing; this was a gathering of many and Kane was going there in the flesh. Adrian had seen Kane reap once before and he hadn't gone there physically or willingly, he'd been summoned mentally by some power and the thought of him zoned out and vulnerable out there in the woods made Adrian's stomach churn.
Kane was practiced at capturing monster souls that he’d just liberated from their physical forms, but human spirits were different. He’d never reaped one in his physical body, he didn’t sell human souls. He’d definitely never hunted any down that had been roaming around for a while on their own, so Kane wasn’t sure what to expect out there. He thought he could do it, though, and as long as Cecilia didn’t have shitty intentions, it would turn out okay. She’d said she had something to help him ... Kane could only hope he wasn’t walking straight into some bullshit. “You make my phone ring and I come running,” he agreed with a slow nod, watching the gravel road in front of them. He probably couldn’t protect Adrian better than the wendigo could protect himself, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying. Too soon, the farm house was in view, and Kane slowed down, looking harder for anything shady.
Everything looked suspicious to Adrian, but then again it was a farm at night and he'd only been here once. It was quiet and dark even with the lights on in a lot of the windows and the front porch of the main house and he kind of didn't want to go in there. He probably would have felt better if a dog had come out barking when they pulled up or something but it was eerily quiet and the tension in his body just kept getting worse. He didn't speak again, just watched and listened intently while paying attention to Kane for any sign that something was wrong. They sat there for a minute after the car stopped, both of them watching the house. Adrian wondered if Cecilia would come meet them at the door before they even knocked, she had to know they were there, but she didn't show so he looked at Kane again, worrying at his bottom lip with his teeth. "Do you want me to go check if she's even in there?" he asked since they were both pretty sure he was harder to kill.
The lack of animals or people milling around like they had been when he and Adrian had first been here was a little unsettling. But it was night now, and there were barns and stuff ... didn’t most farm work end at sundown? Kane was pretty sure that was the case. He left the headlights on as the SUV idled in the driveway, his eyes skimming the surrounding area for a moment before coming back to the house. There were lights on in there, and it might have looked inviting if the circumstances were different. He looked over at Adrian when he spoke, a frown furrowing his brow. Send Adrian to the door by himself? Fuck that, wendigo or not. “Nah, let’s just go to the door,” he murmured, reaching to kill the engine. “Lemme get my bag outta the back.” Kane pushed his door open and climbed out, his senses even more keenly alert in the outside air as he headed to the back of the SUV to get his weapons together.
Cecilia knew they were already there, but they were still by the car and she didn't feel like lounging in the doorway waiting for them, so she waited. She was watching TV without really watching it, Styr whispering things in her ear was too distracting and her mind was on tonight's events, trying to predict what might go wrong so she could potentially prevent it. The woods weren't the most unpredictable component for the first time in a long time; Kane was. A hotheaded hunter who wasn't too thrilled with her plans nor did he really know the full purpose of it all. That might give him some pause and that was the last thing Cecilia needed. When Styr told her it was time, she got up from the couch and headed to the door, opening up just as Kane and Adrian walked toward the house.
Adrian wasn't sure if he was relieved to see her or not. It did release some of the tension to know she was really there and alone by the looks of it - though was this woman ever truly alone? He nodded in greeting, trying not to think of what lay ahead or of what was in Kane's bag. Of course he knew there were guns, but he couldn't see them and they were currently sealed away in the duffel.
Some people might have thought it was overkill to bring a couple of rifles and two other smaller guns with him on a mission where he wasn’t even hunting monsters ... but Kane had been in Blackwater Woods enough to know better. He might run into trouble that had absolutely nothing to do with the mission. He’d settled the duffel over his shoulder and approached the farm house beside his man, his expression stony and serious. It was going to be difficult to leave Adrian behind here with this woman they didn’t know and didn’t trust, but taking him into the woods would be even more dangerous. They still couldn’t trigger the wendigo to wake up at will, and until that was possible, Kane was going to worry about him. He nodded at Cecilia as well when she opened the door, and added a quiet “Evening.” Kane stepped up onto the porch, expecting to be invited in before he went off to take care of business.
Adrian didn't get to spend that much time with Kane when there were other people around so he was always hyper aware of the little changes that took place with the man. This wasn't exactly a normal situation but it always felt like he was seeing different sides to Kane, the fronts he put up for strangers, some polite, others dangerous. This one felt like a mix of both. He felt taller to Adrian somehow, not imposing but very physically present. Cecilia scared him and he had a feeling she at least made Kane a bit concerned.
"Come on in," Cecilia said and waved them on inside, as well aware of the masks and armors up on the two men as they were. "Did you boys eat already?" They didn't have a whole lot of time to kill but she wasn't going to send a hunter out on an empty stomach if she could help it. "I see you brought supplies but I doubt you packed snacks." She gave Kane an amused smile before shutting the door behind them. "There's some leftovers if you want them."
It was such a matronly thing to offer, something his own mom might have asked if she wasn’t comatose and dying, it tugged at something in Kane’s chest. Nothing that made him feel any more trusting toward the strange woman who spoke to spirits, but it was a pang. “No thank you, I’m good,” he answered. Cecilia had fed them once already and it had been fine, but Kane wasn’t in the mood to eat in the first place. A full stomach slowed him down, and he was hyped up on enough energy to get the job done. Whether Adrian ate or not was up to him, but Kane kind of hoped he didn’t. He glanced around the house all over again after stepping in, but it didn’t look any different than it had when they’d been there the first time, just darker. Something felt different though, heavier. Maybe it was the lack of children or that it was nighttime or just his own internal shit, Kane didn’t know. He just felt on high alert already. “So you’ve got something for me to make this easier?”
Adrian was hungry but he knew he couldn't eat right now so he shook his head and gave Cecilia a polite smile before looking around the place as well. The children being present the last time they were there had been a safeguard and he could feel it now. Cecilia wasn't going to do anything too awful with her grandkids around, but if they were here now, they were in bed and he hadn't actually seen any small shoes at the entrance.
"I hesitate to call it easier," Cecilia admitted when Kane asked. "But it'll save you a lot of walking by bringing the souls to you." It was clear he didn't want to waste any time on idle chit chat so she wasn't going to drag this out. Instead she headed for the living room where she'd put the rudimentary tool for him to use. "This looks very simple and it is, for all intent and purposes. That doesn't mean it's safe." She brought back a crude looking staff that looked more like a broken broom handle, about three feet long with some sigils carved into it. "This is how you use it," Cecila told him and turned a knob at the top just enough to show him it was loose before letting it click back in place. "Now, I hope you're good with directions or I will write this down for you, no errors allowed. It takes eight circles to take this off fully and you do not want to do that. Three circles will open it up enough, if you go up to five it'll be stronger but there's a caveat. You can't leave it open for long at a time or you will bring something worse than souls your way. Three circles will give you ten minutes at most and then you have to close it for ten minutes. Five circles sends a stronger signal but the cool down is shorter, no more than five minutes. Do not open it near the farm and do not open it all the way." She watched Kane intently to make sure he was taking it all in. "Repeat that all back to me."
Kane watched as Cecilia handled the ... magic stick. It wasn’t long enough to be a staff, it wasn’t even pretty wood. His eyes were keen on how her fingers twisted the top knob, and he listened intently. It might have just looked like a piece of junk, but Kane knew appearances could be deceiving, and if Cecilia said it was powerful, he had to treat it that way. “Three circles is ten minutes, close it for ten. Five circles, five minutes. No more than that, and don’t open it until I’m clear of the farm,” Kane summarized, one brow arching as he looked up from the stick to Cecilia’s face. “That about right?” It sounded simple enough, and he planned to play it safe anyway with only three circles. Whatever this thing did, Kane didn’t want it to happen too fast. He didn’t like the sound of attracting other bad shit in the forest.
Cecilia nodded, visibly pleased but not really surprised. Kane was the soldier type, he did well with being bossed around and following orders, it stood to reason that he was quick to process them. He was exactly what she needed for this job and she knew he'd leave any empathy behind when he went out there. She didn't want to have to sit down with him again and remind him that every one of the shitbags these souls belonged to deserved what they'd gotten so that was a good thing. "When you open this enough, it'll bring the souls to you. It might take a while but don't stay in one spot too long. This stick is a beacon and the souls will follow it so feel free to move around, they'll still keep moving in your direction even while you close it - if you've already gotten their attention."
It all sounded insane and if Adrian hadn't had first row tickets to a few insane supernatural events already, he'd have marked this lady up as certified. Now though, it all just sounded dangerous and he realized he'd folded his arms tightly across his chest, fists clenched against his sides. "Call if anything..." he said but he wasn't even sure what that anything could be. If something felt wrong? This all felt wrong so that wasn't the criteria he could use here.
He took the unassuming stick and nodded his understanding at Cecilia again, his lips still pressed a little tight. Kane’s eyes ticked to Adrian and the tension radiating off of him in waves. He felt the compulsion to put his arms around him, but they weren’t alone and he didn’t want to put on any kind of show for this weird woman. Kane had the same gut feeling that there was more to this than the task on the surface, but with the choices in front of him, this was the best one. “I will, don’t worry,” he murmured to Adrian, though he knew that was vastly easier said than done. His attention returned to Cecilia. “Any idea how many I’m picking up? I wasn’t exactly countin’.”
"Fourteen is good, fifteen is better," Cecilia replied. "Sixteen if you're thorough, but there are worse things in the woods than a couple of stray souls." It wasn't optimal, leaving them out there, but if Kane had fourteen already and the last two were nowhere to be seen, he had the option of leaving them out there. "They haven't strayed too far from where you killed the reaper, so that is working in our favor."
Adrian couldn't help but try to mentally count the bodies he'd seen at the facility and he was sure there had been more than twenty, but maybe the creature had only taken Sixteen souls. Sixteen souls was still a lot and while he didn't know if human souls sold for as much as monster souls, he knew that Kane got him a shit ton of money for just one of those. Sixteen just sounded ridiculous, but he supposed he'd still expected there to be more.
Sixteen was more than Kane had ever transported at once, and he’d never handled human souls like this, and he was very aware that his inexperience made this extra dangerous. Kane wasn’t really feeling nervous anymore though, now that they were here and it was beginning. Just sharply focused. It was that soldier part of his brain, all that training -- he could be scared, but he couldn’t let it affect him. Kane knew the rough direction he was going, if the souls were lingering around where that grisly death had happened, and it sounded like that might be enough, if this stick did its job. He could turn it on long enough to send out the signal or whatever, and draw them toward him while he walked to meet them. It was going to be smart to keep moving. “Got it,” he said. Kane glanced between them again. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, then. ... walk me out?” The last was for Adrian, one of Kane’s brows quirking up.
Cecilia simply gave them an understanding nod before strolling toward the kitchen, leaving them alone in the hallway and Adrian relaxed just a bit when she left, turning to walk with Kane to the doorway. "You sure you can do this?" he asked, not with any real doubt in mind but he needed to hear Kane say it - or tell him if he had any doubts himself. "It's... a lot." Was it harrowing? Even if he didn't see the deaths? Adrian didn't even know how to begin asking all the questions on his mind, he didn't want to freak Kane out or sour his mood for this, but he felt antsy and curious. He bit back on the flood and just looked at Kane with concern in his eyes instead once they stopped by the front door.
Kane appreciated that Cecilia was quick to give them a moment of privacy ... though were there any truly private moments in this house with its spirits? Or was it just the one? Kane didn’t even really want to know. He glanced over his shoulder before he took in all that unspoken worry in Adrian’s expression. It made him feel bad and irritated and so in love, all in a dumb flash. He needed to keep his equilibrium, and the way Adrian could just make his insides churn was not helping. Kane cupped his hand to the back of Adrian’s neck and gave a firm squeeze, pulling their foreheads together. “Don’t doubt me right now,” he murmured. “I got this. I’ll be back before you know it. Stay sharp here, okay?”
Adrian wanted to take comfort in the fact that Cecilia didn't seem worried, but she didn't really have anything to lose. What did she care if Kane died? It would be frustrating for her at best and then she'd go through with whatever backup plans she had ready up her sleeve. Adrian hated this, hated that he couldn't summon up the monster inside of him and walk out there with Kane as a supernatural bodyguard. He wanted to keep an eye on him but he also knew that if he could watch him from afar, it would drive him crazy with worry, paranoid at any little noise and shadow. "You got this," he agreed weakly, grabbing at Kane's heavy jacket and squeezing. Kane had been doing this for a long time, he was strong and fast and more than capable. And yet... He should be more worried about himself. He was out of his depth here because he knew that old lady was more than what she seemed while he didn't know if she was hiding some nefarious plans. Maybe he shouldn't have come along. Maybe he should have waited in the car near by or something. Fuck, but he was hating this more and more with every ticking second. "Don't make me wait too long, asshole," he mumbled with no real bite to the words.
Adrian didn’t sound too convinced, but Kane couldn’t let it get to him. He had enough of his own reservations about all of this. Being a soldier was mostly a head game, and this was a kind of war. Kane couldn’t blame him though, and it felt good that Adrian was worried, in a way. Like Kane was valued. It still felt weird and new, but he liked it. “C’mere,” he whispered as he moved his mouth to Adrian’s. Kane kissed him deeply, grip still strong on the back of his neck. If things did go sideways out there he wanted to savor the last one, but he tried to project some reassurance into it too. Adrian needed to stay focused himself. After a long moment, he pulled back to look at him, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. “I’m comin’ back for you,” Kane murmured. He rubbed his thumb against the base of Adrian’s skull. “So stay safe and be here. I fuckin’ love you.” If he came back and something had happened to Adrian? Kane would burn this fucking place to the ground. It might end up killing him, but he would make Cecilia regret harming his man. He had the feeling Adrian would hold his own if the shit hit the fan, though. The wendigo wanted to live, just like anything else.
Kane always somehow managed to fill Adrian with a rush of contradicting feelings and tonight was no different. That grip on him, that kiss, those words - it all sent a fire through him while anxiety followed close behind because what if he never got to feel this again? "I fucking love you too," he said as he reached up to touch Kane's face. "So I'll just sit here and sip tea and watch TV or whatever while you go take care of business." The frustration was obvious in his words, he felt useless and he knew he was going to be on edge the whole damn time until Kane came back. Because he was coming back, Adrian knew he had to decide this and stick to it or he'd really lose his shit. "Just forget I'm here, do what you usually do and get back safe."
He could sympathize with Adrian’s frustration, but the way he phrased it made Kane snort softly anyway. He sounded as though Kane was leaving him alone with an annoying aunt or something. He wished it was all that innocuous, and he was sure Adrian did too. “Kick her ass at bridge or whatever old people play,” he murmured with a tiny grin. Kane headbutted him affectionately once more before he pulled back with a bit of reluctance. He pulled his phone earbud out of his pocket to stick it into place, serious about staying as available as he possibly could. Kane reached to squeeze Adrian’s forearm once more. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised, then turned toward the door. It was hard to say how he was feeling, a big mixture of things, but he tried to pull the confidence forward -- he’d collected hundreds of souls over the course of his life, he could do sixteen more. Kane stepped back out into the night and thumped down the porch steps, adjusting the bag on his shoulder and forcing himself not to look back.
Adrian reluctantly let him go and only watched him walk away for half a minute before he forced himself to close the door behind him and headed back inside to hopefully find Cecilia not doing anything questionable or terrifying. He already had his phone in his hand even if there was no reason for Kane to call so soon - nor did he really want him to call because that probably meant trouble. He found Cecilia in the kitchen, loading up the dishwasher so that was nice and mundane to start with.
She turned and smiled when he entered the kitchen. "Don't worry," she murmured. "Someone's out there with him looking out for him. A friend. He should be right as rain." She paused and huffed softly. "I forgot to tell him that, of course. He'll pick up on it soon enough. Oh don't give me that look, it's... just a cat. A special little cat."
Adrian sighed and headed for the kitchen window, hoping to catch a last glimpse of Kane and... the cat? But there was nothing out there but shadows and trees.
Kane managed not to glance back at the house until he was almost at the woodline, lost in the darkness with his black clothes. He watched the glowing windows for a moment, the paranoid part of him half expecting to catch suspicious silhouettes and flying splashes of blood or something ... but it just looked like a quiet farm house.
Repeating to himself that Adrian would be okay, he had an incredibly deadly weapon inside of him, Kane shrugged out of his duffel bag and let it thump to the ground. He crouched over it and spent a couple of minutes pulling out his own, more mundane weapons, checking again that they were loaded, and strapping them on. Once his guns were secure, Kane pulled on his night vision goggles and stood up, scanning the brightened green trees in front of him, then jogged into the woods, Cecilia’s magic stick clutched tight in his left hand. He had to clear the property before he could open it.
Styr had considered taking over the body of one of Cecilia's workers, one of the mindless ones, but human bodies were cumbersome to pilot and the hunter was sure not to enjoy their company, likely to make a fuss so he settled on one of Cecilia's cats. It was a gray tabby cat, small and swift and unlike a human, it didn't seem to mind a passenger riding along and occasionally taking over. He made sure Kane saw him coming, chirp-meowing at him when he got close enough and bouncing ahead into the woods before stopping and turning around with an expectant look.
The sudden animal sound made Kane twitch a little and his head jerked around to look at his boots slowed down. There were eyes shining like huge laser beams aimed at him, enhanced by the night vision goggles, and it took an extra second for him to register the feline body attached to it. The cat didn’t move even when he took a step toward it, and something about the way it was staring at him gave Kane a creepy feeling between his shoulder blades. “You here to watch me, huh?” he muttered to it. It felt a little ridiculous, but he knew that Cecilia was into spirits, and animals weren’t always what they appeared to be. It was weirdly annoying and reassuring at the same time to have an escort assigned to him. “A’ight then.” Kane broke the staring contest with the cat and started jogging in the right direction again, unsurprised that the small cat could keep pace with him easily.
The cat moved swiftly and easily through the thicket and Styr moved with it, watching Kane closely even as the cat observed its surroundings, its ears flicking a bit at the sounds of the night. It felt at home in the night, but the woods were different and if not for Styr, it would never venture this far out. Nobody should.
They were making good speed and soon enough they came to a good spot to start. The cat stopped, then leapt up on a low branch, turning around and flicking its tail. They weren't very close to where the original reaper had been building the shrine but most of the souls had strayed away from there by now so that was okay. The beacon should lead them all closer and thankfully they hadn't scattered too far in the other direction.
Kane stayed aware and tuned into the cat -- not too much, because there was a lot out here to stay aware of, but enough to catch when it seemed to stop with a purpose, climbing up obviously higher to be in his line of sight. Kane stopped too, his boots settling in the crunchy leaves underfoot, his breathing light and quick. He looked around to see if something had caught the cat’s attention, but there was nothing apparent lurking around. “Did we cross the property line?” he murmured, then immediately felt stupid because cats couldn’t talk. Kane looked at the magic stick, then pushed the night vision goggles up onto his forehead. If this thing gave off a big flash, he didn’t want to be blinded.
He hesitated for a moment, squinting as he scanned the dark trees around them, listening hard over the noise of his breath and his heart pounding in his chest. Kane had been in these woods plenty of times at night, but it never ceased to be nerve-wracking, and now he was doing something New and Different and Magical. “Don’t make me regret this, Cecilia,” he muttered to the air, and lifted the hand with the stick up in front of him. He held it far from his body and kept his eyes scrunched as he began to twist the top of it, still not sure what to expect. One ... two ... three ...
Another man might not have felt anything, but Kane was a reaper and more attuned into souls than the average person. There was no dramatic flash of light, but there was a low pulsing of soundwaves that seemed to emanate from the stick, vibrating against Kane's skin with every wave it sent out. Styr felt it more keenly and saw it as well, the pale gray circles spreading out through the woods, more loud and visible to the souls than it was to either of them. A new pulse came out every four seconds and Styr knew the woods could feel it too - the parts of it that were alive and sentient at least.
The hair on Kane’s forearms stood up as he felt something start to happen. For a panicky second he forgot how long Cecilia had said he could leave it open for -- was it ten seconds or ten minutes? Minutes, it had been minutes. And if it wasn’t, hopefully the cat would alert him somehow if he was doing something unspeakably stupid. At the center of those gray sound ripples, he started to feel the pulsed hum in his core, and Kane started to slow-walk in the same direction again, hoping to meet some of the souls as they came his way, if they really hadn’t wandered far. He tried to focus more on the deep sense he had about spirits, waiting for that particular tingle that told him anything was near. It had never been a well-honed sense, just an instinct that led him in certain directions sometimes. He was used to reaping when he was out of his body, this was going to be interesting. With his free hand, Kane pulled one of the containers off of his belt and braced it against his hip to get it open and ready.
There was waiting and Styr hoped Kane wouldn't get too impatient. Styr wasn't, he'd already waited so long for everything, time had become warped. The cat didn't mind, content to stretch out on a branch, knowing it was safe with this ancient spirit lingering in and around him. Eventually they came, three - four souls at first, a faint glow in the black of the night. They were moving faster than souls usually did, thanks to the beacon, but ideally they'd be moving at the speed of an automobile, that'd make this all so much easier. They didn't show until Kane closed the beacon for the second time and the cat let out a quiet meow, just in case Kane wasn't paying attention.
The thirty minutes that passed felt like a goddamn eternity to Kane, his nerves jangling as he shifted from foot to foot. He used the timer on his watch to measure out the ten minutes open, then ten minutes closed ... and then another full ten open again. He cursed as he twisted the knob closed and tapped the tiny button again. He knew they weren’t terribly close to where the big beast had been killed, but goddamn the waiting was painful. He was almost convinced this wasn’t going to work, that it was some sort of distraction to keep him occupied while Cecilia did something bad to Adrian back at the farm house, but then he saw something, right as the cat alerted to it. A glimmer in the darkness. The pit of Kane’s stomach flipped weirdly, and he knew that shimmer had once been a person. He shifted his stance a bit, his eyes scanning the area, and Kane picked out a few more faint glows on the way as well. He licked his lips and held up the soul container, reaching out with that part of him he didn’t quite understand to draw them in.
Adrian was wary for the first hour or so staying at Cecilia's place, but as time dragged on he became far more concerned about Kane. Adrian was fine, he mostly poked at his phone and counted down the minutes for that first hour, constantly stopping himself from sending Kane a message because it might get him into trouble. Only for emergencies, but damn was he dying to text some random shit about hoping Kane was as bored as he was. Eventually Cecilia offered him some tea again which this time he accepted and then watched her like a hawk as she made it. No, he didn't trust her and he really had no reason to. When she sat down, he asked her what she was going to do with those souls and got no real reply other than a faint smile and a shake of her head as if she wasn't really sure. They did get to talking though, casually at first but it soon became obvious that maybe Cecilia knew things Adrian wanted to know and maybe if he told her secrets, she might tell him secrets in turn. It all felt more like a cautious game than a conversation and Adrian checked his phone a little less often, knowing it would only drive him insane and distract him from his present situation.
Four souls, then two more drifted closer and they were all easy to catch, already zoned in on the beacon, mindlessly willing to succumb to their fate. Styr observed it, noting that Kane's methods were far less brutal than those of the first reaper. Cleaner, too. The cat moved from its branch when Styr willed it to. He could sense more souls coming, but it would be faster to meet them halfway so he tried to signal to Kane to follow the cat.
After the first couple of wayward spirits were sucked into the container, Kane started to relax a bit. This was actually working, and it wasn’t any harder than catching the fresh souls of the monsters he killed on a regular basis. Those required brutal methods, but these souls had already been liberated from their meat suits by something much more horrible than Kane. They’d been assholes in life, maybe not bad enough to deserve whatever weird fate Cecilia had in mind for them, but he couldn’t concern himself with that. This was better than other people dying needlessly. He glanced at his watch when the cat leapt to the ground. It was another couple of minutes before he could open the beacon again. It felt pretty stupid to be following a cat around, but Kane was still kind of grateful for the guidance. Hopefully it didn’t have orders to lead him astray. He started walking with it, taking the chance to pull his night vision down again and scan the woods around them.
It was more of the same after that, three more souls, then two and Styr could sense the rest of them coming. It was almost too easy and he was bracing himself for any kind of trouble because this was Blackwater Woods, after all. So much lurked here that shouldn't even exist on this plane in the first place and it had only gotten worse over time. Kane did his job well and if he was bored, he did a good job of not showing it or letting it drop his guard. For a human, he was fairly impressive at that.
Even humans needed to rest and as another hour went by Styr suspected Kane would need to at least sit down and drink something soon. It was hard to keep such things in mind when he didn't need it himself but, the cat's consciousness served as a reminder; it wanted to head back to the farm and nap somewhere safe and cozy. Styr was going to will it to stay for now, but an owl had caught his attention and he was willing to swap and give the kitty a break. Tired vessels weren't useful vessels.
Kane had just activated the stick again when Styr released the cat and drifted upwards to charm the owl to do its bidding and in that moment where he was preoccupied, he failed to sense the thing slithering out of the darkness. It was actually the cat that alerted him to its presence, its ears flattening and its hackles raised as it hissed out at the darkness.
Kane wasn’t exactly lulled into a false sense of security ... but he was on his way. This was all turning out to be easier than he’d worried it would be, and while that was usually a bad sign, Kane was up to eleven souls captured in his jar, and that felt like good progress, even if it was taking a long time. Five to go, he was over halfway there. And he’d been keeping a good eye on the timer to make sure he didn’t unleash hell or fuck up the spirit world or whatever the fuck would happen if he left the damn stick open for more than ten minutes.
He’d twisted the knob and pushed his goggles up on his forehead to watch for more of them when he heard the cat hiss and the leaves rustle off to his left at about the same time. Kane didn’t even have a full second to look around before something long and snake-like reared up and struck. It felt like someone took a sledgehammer to the back of his thigh and Kane pitched forward with a bark of pain, the stick flying out of his hand as he tumbled to the ground. His forehead smashed into a huge thick root sticking up and he heard the glass of the goggles break as his vision went sparkly-gray. The blow dazed him for long enough for whatever it was to wrap around his leg and drag him backward, leaves and sticks and dirt scraping against his face.
Kane sputtered and grabbed for anything he could reach, pain jolting through his shoulder as he managed to catch a root and stop himself, trying desperately to turn himself onto his back. The snake-body that was wrapped around his leg tightened and pulled, and he heard a hiss in the shadows that came from something much bigger than a cat. Kane fumbled with his free hand to grab for a weapon, a pistol, a knife, anything at his belt, and managed to fire a few clumsy shots into the darkness beyond his boots. “Fuck!” he yelled, ears ringing. The thing lunged for his face like a snake striking, only it wasn’t a snake head -- it looked like a giant leech, all round mouth and layers of teeth. Kane threw one arm up and it latched on. He screamed and struck at it with the butt of the gun, but that didn’t accomplish anything except make a horrific squishing noise.
The pain was blinding, hot fire racing up his arm, but Kane knew if he didn’t do something fast, he would be truly fucked. He was forced to let go of the root and fumbled to push the button on the earbud. “Call Adrian!” he shouted when he heard the beep, and the phone started to ring in his ear as he kicked as hard as he could at the snake-leech thing.
It didn't happen often that Styr wasn't fast enough but sweeping down from the sky and toward the hunter took a couple of seconds and sadly that was all that the creature had needed. Kane was already hurt by the time Styr flashed his power and created a barricade between him and his attacker but it was too late, he could sense the venom in Kane's veins already, smell it on his blood. It was weak, not enough to kill him, but he wouldn't be moving much within seconds and without Styr there, he'd be a fine meal for some otherworldly monster in a matter of seconds.
The phone didn't ring for long, Adrian might be up to his eyeballs now in a conversation but his phone jolted him out of it and he picked up with his heart already hammering away in his chest. Please tell me you just miss me - is what Adrian was about to say but he didn't even manage to open his mouth before heard everything was not okay. There was so much hissing and he could hear Kane grunting on the other end, the pained and scared kind. "Kane?" Adrian yelled, already on his feet and moving. "Talk to me!"
A sound came out of Kane’s mouth that was close to Adrian’s name, but it was more a panicky jumble as the giant leech lunged at his face. It didn’t connect though, that teeth-filled mouth stopping centimeters from Kane’s nose. Lightning-quick, it tried to strike again, and seemed to bounce off of some invisible barrier. Kane barely had time to register that before he realized that his movements were slowing down, his limbs suddenly uncoordinated as he still tried to struggle out of the tight grip around his leg. The monster above him shrieked horribly and lunged in rapid succession, incensed that it couldn’t get to its prey. In another couple of seconds, Kane couldn’t move at all, his heart racing in his chest as he grunted as much as he could before his throat froze up. This is it, this is how I die, he thought with surreal clarity.
With the kind of noise going on, Adrian was almost sure Kane was already dead. His voice got cut off and there was that godawful shriek that sent a chill up Adrian's back. Yelling for Kane got him no answer and Cecilia looked concerned so that didn't help. "I thought you were protecting him!" Adrian hissed at her even as he stormed out of the kitchen with Cecilia on his heels. "Did you know this was going to happen?" She seemed shocked enough that he believed she hadn't planned this but if he got so much as a whiff of any tricks, he was going to tear her apart. "Which direction?" he snapped because even if he roughly knew where he'd killed Cecilia's monster, he was too turned around here to know where to go.
Cecilia gestured to the correct direction but then she caught him by the wrist. "Styr is alive," she said firmly. "If Styr is alive, Kane is alive."
"He's not fucking answering me!" Adrian barked at her and he was too angry to let grief take over but every nerve in his body was telling him he was already too late.
"Listen!" Cecilia yelled back, squeezing his wrist, then repeated it, more softly. "Listen." She wasn't even sure what she was telling him to listen for, she just knew with more certainty than she really could afford that Kane wasn't dead. Styr needed those souls and he had made a promise.
Adrian glared at her but he did stop and for a few seconds he held his breath and listened on the phone. There was still shrieking, angry and frustrated, but underneath it he could hear shallow and shaky breathing. His brows twitched and a pained grimace crossed his face but it was proof of life and it made Cecilia nod at him knowingly. "I'm coming for you," Adrian said. "If you can hear me, I'm coming. Hang in there."
"You better hurry," Cecilia said and bit back what she was thinking; that they better pray the stick was off.
Out in the woods, Styr had coaxed the terrified cat back to his side and calmed it down. It was easier to localize his powers when he had a vessel and Kane was neither willing, suitable nor of much use at the moment so Cecilia's cat was it and it curled up on Kane's stomach, taking turns purring soothingly at him and hissing up at the monster trying to get to him.
Adrian kept the phone line open, so Kane heard almost everything that was said back at the farm house, though the monster’s terrible screams drowned out some of it. The words didn’t matter to him as much as the rageful pain in Adrian’s voice. He’d figured out that the reason he wasn’t torn to shreds yet was because of Cecilia’s spirit, the being in the cat who’d accompanied him and was apparently shielding him from taking any more damage while this giant leech-snake tried to tear chunks out of him. The purring animal on his chest was a weird contrast to the rest of the chaos, and was something Kane felt rather than heard. His forearm burned and throbbed with pain, and Kane was sure that Styr couldn’t draw the venom out that had paralyzed him -- it was only a matter of time before it stopped his heart and lungs, and then he would be a goner.
He couldn’t even close his eyes, tears leaking out of them as he tried to channel every ounce of strength he had to answer Adrian, confirm he was still alive, beg him to stay away unless the wendigo was driving ... Kane couldn’t force out a single peep, he could just keep breathing and staring up into the awful maw above him and hoping Adrian reached him in time to close the fucking goddamn stick, or who knew what else was going to happen.
The only reason Adrian knew he still hadn't shifted into his more monstrous mode was the fact he still felt all the intensity of his feelings as he ran in the direction Cecilia had given him, unsure if it was the right direction in the first place and if it was, if he was really sticking to it. Human brains weren't all that, people went in circles in the woods, he was probably gradually changing directions without even knowing it and he was trying so hard not to. He needed the wendigo and it wasn't there yet which meant Adrian felt slow and vulnerable out here in Blackwater. If it didn't show up, what the hell was he going to do? Die with Kane? It had only been a couple of hours since they'd been singing along to music and Kane's smile flashed in his mind, sending a fresh wave of terror and pain through him.
He couldn't lose him.
"Come ON!" he yelled when his lungs began burning from the run. "Where the fuck are you?" I need you. Stupid god damn part of him, never showing up when he most needed it. He stopped briefly, mostly to turn around and try to get his bearings, listen for the shrieking he'd heard so clearly on the phone. They were both going to die out here tonight, and for what. Some stupid souls, some more strangers dying, some people he probably didn't give a shit about. Cecilia could probably have found some more bad people, ethics be damned. Fuck those people. Adrian wanted to live and he wanted Kane to live and he was crying now, angry tears spilling hot down his cheeks. "You motherfucker," he whispered before picking up the phone again to listen, breathlessly taking a few more steps in what he hoped was the right direction. He'd kill those fucking people himself if he needed to, he'd fucking eat them once Cecilia had her fucking souls.
He had a moment of clarity then as he felt himself calm down, the burning in his lungs fading, the shake of his knees stopping and if he'd had any time to feel relief, he probably would have smiled because it had actually worked but for now he just let the wendigo senses kick in and followed the sounds he heard oh so clearly. There were no shrieks anymore, but he knew exactly where he was going, where he'd killed the beast, where Kane was struggling for his life.
He ran, easier now and faster, turning off the flashlight Cecilia had shoved in his hand because he no longer needed it. The dark felt comfortable and he could see everything in it.
It was Styr who was agitated now, the poison in Kane's veins had him paralyzed and while the cat was useful for many things, it didn't have the ability to shut down the stick. The souls were all there now, hovering around it, mesmerized and oblivious to the racket in the world of the living. The creature was trying to find weaknesses in Styr's defenses, stubbornly set on its prey. It kept Styr busy and that meant that even if the damn cat could turn the top of the stick, Styr didn't have the ability to focus on that and keep Kane alive. So he kept his promise and stayed with the reaper as the cat started nudging Kane with agitation. As if that might rush his recovery and get him on his feet in the two minutes he had to prevent more bad things from happening.
Kane heard Adrian’s frustrated shouts and it made his eyes water even more, blurring the hellish scene he couldn’t look away from. His lover was trying to get to him on human legs, with human lungs, with human eyes ... he wasn’t going to make it. Even if he found Kane by some miracle, the leech-snake would just turn its attention to Adrian, and Kane would be forced to watch him die before he followed suit. No, don’t come, run away, save yourself, please I love you, I need you to live, please please go -- The pleas were useless in his head, unable to move past his frozen throat to be voiced. Even if he could speak, he was sure Adrian wouldn’t listen ... gods knew he wouldn’t have, if their positions were reversed.
Then there was nothing to hear but the quiet rustling and faint wind in the phone mic while Adrian ran again. Was he moving faster now? Kane couldn’t tell. He couldn’t tell much of anything except the monster over him really wanted to eat him, and the spirit-cat kept pawing at his neck and cheek like he could actually do anything. His whole body felt frozen and stiff, his injured arm pressing against his chest, roots and sticks digging into his back where his shirt had pulled up a bit, his left leg still wrapped in the creature's coils. He was going to die in fucking Blackwater Woods and there was nothing he could do about it. Beyond the existential terror, Kane was filled with sadness and regret, and he would’ve been sobbing if he had the ability to move at all. The inner pain sat like a rock in his throat, making it even harder to breathe, and he wondered if he was starting to suffocate for real now.