Victor Bahorik (in_control) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2023-06-22 10:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, sebastian, sebastian x victor, victor |
Who: Sebastian and Victor
When: midday, Sunday, July 15th
Where: marina, Moxie's, Victor's house
Status: complete
Victor had been in town for a little too long without reaching out to his cousins. James seemed very busy, and he had no desire to talk to Brianna, so it was kind of pointless to wait for an invitation. Sebastian and Ophelia were so much older now too, it wasn’t like he needed their mother’s permission to see them or take them out somewhere anymore. So on Sunday morning, Victor finally took the initiative and sent a message to Bash to tell him he was in town and would love to hang out and spend some time with him. He was a little surprised to learn that Bash wasn’t even living at home anymore, but not too surprised. He was eighteen now, he’d graduated, it made sense that he was starting to gain some independence ... Victor was just glad that Brianna had allowed it.
In any case, it was around noonish when Victor pulled up to the Marina to pick him up. He wasn’t sure which boat Sebastian was living on, so he sent him another message to let him know he was there. Victor set his phone down and stretched a bit, his body still feeling nicely sated and content from his night and morning with Aidan. He let his thoughts drift as he waited for his cousin, vaguely wondering when the little fox would turn up again. They’d established a system with the back door light, at least, and Victor had a feeling he would be avoiding making nighttime plans for a while.
Bash was beginning to wonder if his cousin didn’t want to see them, so he was glad he finally reached out. He knew he was quite a bit younger, that Victor was an adult now, with a house and a real job, but he was still hoping they could be friends. Age didn’t matter quite as much when they were family, and maybe they’d find some common ground. Sadly, most of what he knew about his cousin was years out of date, so they had a lot of catching up to do. He kissed Theo goodbye when he got Victor’s text, promising to fill him in later, then headed up the dock, his eyes scanning the marina for Victor. He thought he would recognize him when he saw him, but people could change a lot in almost eight year’s time.
While he daydreamed, Victor was idly watching the docks and the boats bobbing gently in their slips, and he spotted the young man walking closer to where he’d parked. That red hair was unmissable, even if Sebastian looked quite a bit different than Victor had seen him last. Damn, they were really growing up, weren’t they? Victor opened his car door and climbed out so Bash could spot him back, lifting a hand in a wave until he got the younger man’s attention. Victor smiled at him as he approached, stepping away from the open car door to put his arms out in invitation as soon as Bash was close enough. “Look how tall you got,” Victor said with a soft chuckle. He still stood several inches taller than his cousin, but that was true of him and most people.
Bash spotted Victor as soon as he began to wave and smiled as he made his way over to him and his car. It had been so long, he’d really just been a kid last time he’d seen him, but Victor still resembled his teenage self enough that he was easy to spot. Bash took the offered hug, laughing softly as he pulled back. “You’re one to talk,” he grinned, looking up at him. He’d always thought of himself as being decently tall, but Victor made him feel short. “I swear you weren’t this tall last time I saw you, but it’s been forever. You’re going to have to fill me in on what you’ve been up to. Do you want to go somewhere? Or just walk? I’m good with whatever.” They hadn’t planned that far in advance, but Bash was flexible. He just wasn’t sure if he should climb in Victor’s car or not.
Victor thumped Bash lightly on the back as they embraced, then grinned back at him once there was some space between them again. There was a lot to catch up on, and looking at Sebastian as a young man reminded him of just how long he’d been cut off from this part of his family. It was tragic, really. Even with the age gap between them, Victor had wanted to maintain that connection to his cousins. “Hop in, let’s take a drive, get some milkshakes maybe,” he suggested, nodding to the roof of his car. He supposed they could take a stroll along the marina, but they would have more privacy to talk in the car, and for some reason Victor felt like that was needed. He climbed back in behind the wheel and waited for Bash to get settled before he pulled away and started to head out of the marina parking lot. “It’s been too long, man,” he murmured, glancing over at Sebastian. “Sorry it took me a while to reach out, I’ve been trying to settle in and all that.”
“Moxie’s then, if that’s what you want,” Bash grinned. “Still the best shakes in town.” Not that he was in a hurry to get anywhere, but he was sure Victor would eventually find that you could only drive around Point Pleasant for so long. It just wasn’t big enough, unless they decided to get out for a bit. Bash hadn’t done that in so long that he wasn’t even sure where they would go. He climbed in Victor’s car, looking around as he settled in. He was used to nice rides, but it was clear this was something Victor took pride in. It was clean, the detailing such that it almost looked new, but he was guessing it wasn’t. “I was about ready to come knock on your door when Phee told me you were here. We’re practically neighbors! If I was at home, I’d have seen the moving trucks. You’re going to have to give me a tour sometime.”
The town was indeed tiny, but Victor was fine if they ended up finding a pretty spot to park with the windows open and just eat their ice cream and talk. He could have just taken Bash back to his own house to hang out, but the weather was nice and that lasted so briefly in this part of the country, he wanted to enjoy it while it lasted. “You could have,” Victor answered Bash with a little laugh. “How’d you end up in a houseboat? Are you up at your parents’ place much?” He didn’t want to start in on shit-talking Bash’s mom as the reason Victor didn’t want to go over there and do the knocking himself. It was actually kind of a relief that at least one of his cousins had his own place. Besides Trip, of course, but Victor had no idea when he would see him again. “But yeah, you’re welcome over anytime. We can stop by there today even, if you wanna see it.”
If it had occurred to Bash that the houseboat would bring Theo into the conversation so quickly, he would have had Victor pick him up somewhere else. He knew it would come up eventually, he wasn’t trying to hide it, but if Victor’s views were anything like his father’s, then it could be a rough start to their afternoon. Not that he expected Victor to be like his father, but the possibility was there. It made a knot form in the pit of Bash’s stomach as he answered. “Uh, I’m living with my boyfriend at the moment. It’s his,” he said, eyes forward as he rushed through it, not wanting to see that initial, knee-jerk response. “I was over at my parent’s house the other day though. Had dinner with my mom. Dad travels a lot, and Phee’s dating my best friend, though I saw her on Thursday. See her more often away from the house than at it, actually.” Fuck, he was rambling, glossing over details that mattered, hoping that Victor might find something else to focus on.
Sebastian wasn’t looking, but the only reaction from Victor was raised eyebrows as he registered the important part of that ramble. He didn’t miss the nervous tone in his cousin’s voice, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he hadn’t gotten the best reactions from coming out. Victor was a little surprised that Bash was so honest right off the bat, but he appreciated it at the same time -- they hadn’t seen each other or really talked in years, so he hoped that meant Bash still trusted him to some degree. Otherwise he was probably just telling him to avoid James getting to it first. “Boyfriend, huh?” Victor asked after a pause, glancing over at the younger man. He could relate, he hadn’t started coming out to people until his late teens either. “I’ll go ahead and shoot the elephant in the room ... I’m pansexual, myself. So no worries about getting any shit from me, okay?” He hoped directness would alleviate the awkwardness rather than make it worse, but Victor knew not everyone appreciated his bluntness. “What’s his name?”
Bash’s eyes snapped to Victor at the question, his face blank, but his eyes lit with defiance as he waited for judgment. He’d gotten comfortable in Point Pleasant, where everyone close to him already knew, but he knew this was something he’d have to face when he went off to college. He thought it might be easier with a stranger though; the lack of acceptance from family always burned worse. “Thank God,” Bash sighed, his relief bubbling up with a little laugh as he ran a hand through his hair. “I really didn’t want to have to deal with that kind of shit, but you’d‘ve found out eventually.” And it seemed smarter to rip the bandaid off from the start, rather than be accused of hiding it later. It never even occurred to him that Victor might not be straight himself. That was a welcome surprise. “His name’s Theo,” he said with a little smile. “Theo McCalley. His mom lives in Overlook, opposite end of the street from you.”
His relief was audible, and Victor shot him a small smile. It had taken his own family a while to really understand that he liked men and women -- and everything in between, though Victor didn’t discuss that part of it with them much -- so he understood a bit what it was like not to be accepted for who he was. It was too bad anyone had to deal with any of that crap in this day and age, but some people were frustratingly slow to come around. “McCalley ... that sounds familiar. But I guess a lot of names in Overlook do,” he said. He thought maybe Theo’s mom was involved in politics, but he didn’t care enough to ask. Victor was more interested in Sebastian’s boyfriend himself. “Theodore and Sebastian, you sound like characters in a Victorian romance novel or something.” Victor grinned a little. “So tell me your meet-cute story, and what’s he like?” If Bash’s relationship was causing issues at home, he probably didn’t get to gush about it much, and that always felt good to do when you were young and in love.
“I’d prefer Victorian romance over gothic horror,” Bash said with a little laugh. “We don’t have a meet-cute story. Not really. I mean, maybe if you squint. I almost hit him with my car while he was running from the Dark Man. And then we both ran, together. Shared terror is a great bonding experience. I saw him at a party a week later and we hooked up. I wasn’t quite over a bad breakup and he wasn’t out yet. Mom was missing, life was shit, but… by the time prom came around he was willing to go with me.” The fact that he was able to say it all so casually spoke to how weirdly normal it was to him. So long as he didn’t dwell on the Dark Man, and kept his focus on him and Theo, he could keep upbeat about it all. It had turned out okay. Better than okay. Theo was supposed to be a distraction and instead he’d gone and fallen for him. As hard as he’d tried to guard his heart, he couldn’t help himself. “He’s a great guy. Fun. Confident. Very hot. You’ll have to meet him sometime.”
Victor hadn’t grown up in Point Pleasant, but his mother had, and she had wanted him to be prepared for anything he might run into there, so he knew the whole town was basically a Stephen King novel. ‘The Dark Man’ sounded vaguely familiar to him as one of the rumors that constantly circulated, though Victor didn’t know the specifics of what he, or it, was all about. He had heard through the family grapevine about Brianna’s disappearance, and Victor felt a pang of belated guilt that he hadn’t reached out to his cousins more during that time, besides the couple of Facebook messages he’d sent. He’d had no idea how to comfort or help them, especially with how strongly he’d disliked their mom. Victor put a mental pin in the bit about the Dark Man, not wanting to dwell there either so soon into the conversation. They were talking about boyfriends, not monsters. “I’d love to meet him,” he said instead. “How’s it going living together? I’m guessing this is your first time living with a boyfriend, right?”
“I wasn’t even out this time last year, so yeah, first time,” Bash grinned. It was crazy to think of how much had happened over the last year, how far he’d come, the highs and lows. His feelings for Hunter had fizzled so that now all he felt was mild annoyance at what he’d done to him, but he’d always be a bit thankful that he’d come into his life the way he had. It had pushed him to come out, to stand up for himself, and become comfortable in his own skin. He wouldn’t credit Hunter for any of that, but his presence had been the catalyst. If he hadn’t been out, he might not have taken a chance with Theo, and he couldn’t imagine missing out on him. “Living with him’s great. It’s kind of like—like being on a date that never ends,” he laughed softly. “I mean that in a good way. If I wasn’t leaving, maybe we’d get an apartment or something, but I like the houseboat, even though it’s small. I like being on the water.”
Listening to Sebastian made Victor smile. He wasn’t too old himself in the grand scheme of things, but hearing his cousin being all young and in love was kind of adorable. Victor was sure the relationship wouldn’t last too terribly long, they both still had so much growing and changing to do, but he was glad Bash had love in his life at the moment. With everything else that seemed to be going on, he probably needed it. “That’s good, man. Water’s your element, right?” Victor asked, though he could sense it was true without much effort. They had that in common, and it was a big reason why Victor had chosen a house to buy that had a view of the ocean in two directions, where he could hear the waves when he opened his windows. “How’s it going with your magic?”
“Yeah, I’m water,” Bash said with a little nod. “So are you?” He thought maybe he could sense it, but it was more likely just a memory, something Victor had told him at one point. He knew there were ways to tell, but not knowing any other water focused witches made it hard. He had a much better handle on how to pick out earth witches, thanks to Phee. “I know more than I knew last year, but that’s not saying much. My mom can’t teach us because she doesn’t know, and my dad is pretty MIA these days. When he does try to teach us, he and I, we just… it’s like oil and water. Either he’s a bad teacher, or I’m a bad student. We don’t connect on, like, any level. Honestly, I learn more from Phee than from him. She gets along better with dad, plus Zan Castell has been teaching her.” He tried not to be jealous, because it wasn’t Phee’s fault that he had so many issues with his father, but it was incredibly frustrating.
Victor made a sound of confirmation that he was indeed a water witch, then listened to the rest with a sense of vindication. He was slightly surprised that James had started teaching them anything, even if he was terrible at it, but not that Brianna was useless in that regard. From what Victor had been told, she had denied her own and her children’s natures for too long to be any good at guiding them. “Oh yeah, she’s learning from Zan?” he asked with a faint chuckle. “She’ll pick up a lot, then. Sorry to hear about your dad though, that’s a bummer. Some people just aren’t cut out to teach, and family can be ... complicated.” Victor wondered a bit if Bash’s sexuality tied into that at all, but it probably wasn’t the time to ask. “Not assuming I’ll do a hell of a lot better, but I’d be happy to work on some stuff with you if you’d like,” he offered, glancing over at his cousin. They’d reached Moxie’s now, and he slowed down to make the turn into the parking lot. “I know you don’t have a lot of summer left, but we could crash course some things.”
Bash was surprised his cousin would offer so easily, when they still barely knew each other, but he jumped at the chance anyways. “You don’t have to be a good teacher for me to learn more than I’m learning now,” Bash said with a little laugh. “I’ll take anything.” He knew that was part of his problem, then he’d gone seeking more when he shouldn’t have, but could anyone really blame him for wanting to know more? Every witch he knew was more capable than he was and it rankled his pride a little bit. He might be good at it if given a decent chance. “I was just telling Phee the other night, I like the idea of incorporating magic into whatever I decide to do, but at the moment I don’t know enough to be useful anywhere. I know some of the other witches in the area do it. You do anything like that?” Most of the questions had been directed at him, but he wanted to know about Victor as well.
Being older, Victor probably felt like he knew Sebastian better than the other way around. Not as an almost-adult, of course, but he had a lot of memories of Bash as a kid. Considering all of his anger and frustration at Brianna for keeping his cousins in the dark about themselves and their powers, he considered it something of an honor to have the opportunity to teach them magic, even in a limited fashion. He just wanted Bash and Phee to have the advantages they deserved. “Hmm, well in my day job I do use some luck spells,” he said with a little smile as he pulled the car into a spot. “But finance can be tricky to affect with magic. My other job though ... it’s almost all magic. I’m kind of like an antiques dealer for magical artifacts. So I’m always cleansing things, using spells to get information, breaking curses ... that’s what I want to do full time. I’m hoping living here gives me a better market for it.”
Working in finance sounded like the most boring job that Bash could imagine, and certainly nothing he could talk to his cousin about, so he was glad to hear he had a side job that was far more interesting. He couldn’t do any of the spells that Victor had mentioned, but he liked knowing they existed, and maybe Victor could just give him an overview sometime. They didn’t sound like the kind of spells he would need to use regularly, but he was still curious. Except a luck spell. “Can we add a luck spell to the list of things you might teach me?” he grinned. “I could probably use it starting college. Or just about anywhere.” Did that kind of thing help on tests? Damn, that would be nice. “I think there’s a ton of people around here who might be interested in something like that. Even people who aren’t like us,” he said, as he got out of the car. He knew better than to call people witches in Moxie’s parking lot.
“Sure we can,” Victor said, shooting a smile at Bash over the roof of his car once he’d climbed out too. “We can all use a little more luck in our lives.” This particular spell could be tweaked to bring luck in almost any arena, and he would definitely be teaching Bash how to tweak it. Tailoring spells to one’s needs was a cornerstone of good effective magic. There were plenty that worked right out of the box, as it were, but a good witch knew how to manipulate them to their own ends. He strolled into Moxie’s with his cousin and got seated in a booth. Victor hadn’t quite grown up in Point Pleasant, but being there again still gave him a sense of summer nostalgia, and he was amused to see that Moxie’s menu had barely changed in the years he’d been absent. “So what are your college plans?” he asked Bash once they’d put their orders in. It never took him long to decide what he wanted here. “Where are you heading?”
It was the question everyone asked, which should have made it easy, but the closer it got, the more he began to dread it, making enthusiasm hard to fake. It was starting to feel like he’d only ever told one effective lie in his life and now that that was out in the open, everything else fell apart. He knew why—his heart wasn’t in it, his emotions too torn to build an effective lie. He smiled as he answered, but it never reached his eyes. “University of Maine. I’ve got orientation on Thursday, then I’ll sign up for classes after that. Dad wants me to go pre-med, but I’m leaning more towards nursing.” He liked the idea of being a doctor, but knew he didn’t have the drive to complete all those years of school. He hated the way his dad looked down on him for it, but that was bound to happen no matter what. He was never going to be good enough and as soon as he could stop trying, stop caring, he might actually find a way to be happy with his life.
He thought he detected the lack of enthusiasm in his younger cousin, but Victor was also aware that he didn’t know him incredibly well anymore. Victor had been eager for college because it meant independence, but Bash wasn’t living with his parents anymore, so maybe that had affected his views on it a bit. He pursed his lips a bit and nodded, his expression vaguely impressed. “Nursing, that sounds like really rewarding work,” he said. From what he knew, nurses did twice the work as doctors, for half the pay and only a fraction of the respect, which was tragic. But if Sebastian felt a pull toward medical service, Victor wasn’t going to try to dissuade him. “Orientation already, huh? It’s all barrelling down ... how’re you feeling about it?” he asked, one brow quirking up a bit.
It was the first positive reaction Bash had received regarding his goals in a good, long while and it made him realize how much he craved it. He hated the part of himself that continued to seek approval from others, but it felt impossible to turn off, and when he actually received it, it felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. In the grand scheme of things, Victor’s opinion didn’t matter, but it helped to know someone wasn’t looking down on him for his decisions. “I want to help people. And, I dunno, it feels right?” Bash said with a little laugh. He wasn’t all that sure about college, but he knew without a doubt that that was the direction he wanted to go in. “I’m not as excited as I know I should be,” he shrugged. “I don’t really want to let go of what I have here, but I can’t have it all.”
Victor didn’t look up to many people, especially not because of their professions, but family was family, and he had respect for those who dedicated their lives to helping others. Whether that was in nursing or fighting fires or people working a soup kitchen, he could recognize that goodness. And Bash had always seemed good, even coming from a family like theirs that didn’t really want for anything. Victor was too selfish for that path, but he was glad Bash wanted to walk it. He made a noncommittal noise and tilted his head back and forth as his cousin went on, sitting back in the booth a bit. “Everybody paints college as this thrilling rite of passage that you should just be shitting your pants with excitement over ... it’s a mixed bag. The new independence can make or break you. It’s hard work. You’re leaving your childhood behind, of course that comes with mixed feelings. And you just got together with a new boyfriend you’re really into?” Victor gave a little huff of empathy. “It’s normal not to be constantly enthused. Anything you’re feeling is normal.”
A little smile curled on Bash’s lips as a warm feeling settled in his chest, one that felt a little like acceptance. Or at least understanding. Both felt rare when speaking to anyone older than him. It was the kind of conversation he’d once thought he might navigate with his brother, before Trip turned out to be a mini version of his father. They didn’t share the same prejudices, but they were both assholes. Victor was different in all the right ways. “Also kinda sucks that my open-minded cousin who’s actually willing to teach me something just got to town, a month before I leave,” he said with a little smirk. “It’d be easier if Theo wasn’t in the picture, but he is. We might try the long distance thing. UMaine’s close enough that I can come home on the weekends if I want to. Or he can go there. I just need to see how it all plays out and I really don’t like not knowing.”
He gave a soft huff through his nose as Bash unwittingly triggered some genuine guilt in his chest. Sometimes Victor felt that he should’ve come back to Point Pleasant sooner, should’ve made himself available to his cousins, in spite of what their stupid mother wanted. Maybe if he’d known Bash was facing homophobia at home, he might have, but why would he know that if he wasn’t really around? Plus, things in his own life had only recently aligned where he could live how he wanted here ... timing was everything. “Uncertainty is a bitch, for sure,” Victor sympathized with a wan smile. “You can never truly know how anything is going to play out, even if you stayed put. But I get it. I hope you guys can find something that works for you.” He paused as the waitress showed up with their drinks, and Victor took a sip of his. “And, um ... I want to say I’m sorry. For not being here more for you all. Especially when your mom disappeared. It was always made very clear to me just how much she didn’t want me around you, and I should have ignored it sooner.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Bash said with a little frown. “I could’ve messaged you, hunted you down. It was all such a—such a cluster. There was nothing you could’ve done, unless it’d been to chase grandma away faster. I honestly don’t know what dad was telling people, even family. The truth was a little too outlandish for most people to believe.” Victor probably would have believed it, as a witch with ties to Point Pleasant, but it was still a lot to swallow. Yes, it would have been nice to have him around, but he shouldn’t have had to step in for their father. “I probably should have texted you the moment we started using magic, but,” he shrugged, shame and guilt making his smile tight. “I wasn’t making the best decisions at the time.” And, honestly, he thought of Victor as an adult, one who didn’t have time for his childish drama that turned out to be a big fucking crisis.
Victor shook his head a little at the first part of what Sebastian was saying -- the burden of initiating contact shouldn’t have been on the teenager whose mother had just disappeared. He was an adult, he should’ve been more considerate about it. As soon as he’d heard, Victor should’ve reached out to his cousins. He still knew very little about what had happened to Brianna, and he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know ... but as much as he disliked her, he was glad she was back. For Bash and Phee’s sake. And Trip’s too, he supposed, but Victor had talked to him even less than he’d talked to the others. “I could’ve been there for you, but I wasn’t,” he told Bash, his tone firm but not harsh. He’d fucked up, whether Bash thought of it that way or not. “So I’m sorry for that, truly. And I know I can’t make up for years of magical neglect all in a month or so, but I’d love to cram whatever knowledge into you I can before you go.”
Bash could’ve argued with him, told him again that he really didn’t expect it of him, but he could tell from the tone of Victor’s voice that he meant what he said and that denying an apology was necessary would get them nowhere. “Well, you’re forgiven,” he said with a soft, genuine smile and a hint of amusement in his eyes. “You’ve got a month to make it up to me.” Though, now that Victor had volunteered, he’d be on the list of people Bash wanted to see on his weekend’s home. With Theo, Phee, and Greg already on the list, he was going to have to schedule his time to make sure he got everything in. “The years of magical neglect isn’t really on you. Mom, she…I get why she did what she did. I know she was trying to protect us. Unfortunately for her, fear doesn’t work as a very good motivator when you don’t know what you’re supposed to be afraid of. It’s kind of impressive it lasted as long as it did.”
Even if it wasn’t terribly serious, Bash’s forgiveness still made Victor smile, and he genuinely felt better for a moment. He could fit a lot into a month, but he was sure they would only get to a fraction of it. Even if his parents kind of sucked, Bash still had good people in his life he would want to spend time with. Victor had already decided he would make himself available as much as he could. “There’s protection and there’s denial,” he said, careful to keep his tone casual. He shrugged a shoulder. He didn’t want to speak ill of Sebastian’s mother right in front of him, that might be alienating, so he would do his best to stay nice about her. “You’re better prepared to protect yourselves armed with competent magic. In my opinion, anyway. So yeah man, you just tell me when you’re free and want to, come to the house, we’ll work on some things.”
“Wards. I need to learn how to setup wards, like, ASAP,” Bash said with a little laugh, though it quickly died. “I don’t know that they’ll do much good—the ones at the house didn’t protect my sister’s friend—but there’s none on the boat. We’re like sitting ducks.” He’d felt so safe out there on the water, but he realized now that was an illusion. The water made him feel safe, and he could use it as a weapon if needed, but it couldn’t protect him at all times, especially if he was sleeping. Wards might not be able to keep the Dark Man out of their dreams, but at least he could rest assured that he wouldn’t wake up to find him on the boat with them. “If I tell you something do you promise not to freak out and tell my parents?”
Bash had laughed, but Victor thought he could hear an urgent need underneath it, and it stirred up a bit of concern in his stomach. The reference to Phee’s friend was confusing, but the question that followed made Victor think he was about to find out more about whatever was going on. Had he come back to town at the exact right time? Hopefully not too late, at least. His brow furrowed in a vague frown -- it took a lot to make Victor freak out, but he’d obviously been very out of the loop in his cousins’ lives, so he had no idea what might be coming. “Of course I won’t, I’d much rather talk to you than them ... what happened?”
Sebastian took a slow, deep breath. He’d already committed to talking about this, but every time it was brought up, the fear returned. It wasn’t as bad as it had been, but he couldn’t talk about the Dark Man without feeling like saying his name might conjure him. “So, last winter, right before my mom went missing, Theo and I saw the Dark Man. He was chasing Theo, and I almost hit him with my car—Theo, not him— and then Theo jumped in with me and we got away. And we tried to forget about it, ‘cause… what else could we do, you know?” He probably should have told his parents then, but things were shit at home, his mom had been acting weird, and he honestly didn’t want to be the cause of more drama, even if he’d promised not to keep any more secrets.
“Okay ...” Victor said slowly, but there wasn’t any disbelief in his tone. Sebastian had already mentioned the Dark Man and how he met Theo, Victor just hadn’t stopped him to ask for more details. This was definitely the time, though. “So, forgive my ignorance, but you’ll have to tell me more about who the Dark Man is. It’s vaguely familiar from my time here, but ... what exactly did you see?” The question was concerned but also fascinated -- Victor was a fairly accomplished witch, but he hadn’t had a lot of encounters with other facets of the supernatural beyond some pesky spirits attached to magical objects he’d acquired. Nothing his wards and cleansing spells couldn’t take care of. But it was different here, Point Pleasant was full of power. It was part of what had drawn him back.
The fact that Victor didn’t look at Bash like he was crazy helped him continue on, relieved that he was listening and attempting to understand, rather than one of the many negative alternatives. He’d hit the point in his life where he felt like he’d believe any insane story someone told him about Point Pleasant, so long as they seemed sincere. Maybe that made him gullible or easy to take advantage of, but he’d rather be cautious than dead. “We saw this—this thing that looked like a man, but it wasn’t,” he said, face pinched with a frown as he looked down at the table and recalled what he’d seen. He hadn’t gotten a good look the first time, but in his dream the Dark Man had been closer and crystal clear. “He’s tall and thin, like inhumanly tall and thin. His arms are too long. He wears a striped suit and a bowler hat that hides the top half of his face, but you can see his smile…” Sebastian shuddered, suddenly feeling cold. “I know that might not sound terrifying, but it is. I saw him and I just knew. If he caught us, he’d kill us.”
It did sound like something out of a nightmare or a horror movie, and Bash described it well enough for Victor to get a pretty clear mental picture. He kept his thoughtful frown as his cousin spoke, then nodded solemnly at the end. No wonder Bash was so eager to learn wards, he would want to keep that kind of monster out too. Victor believed him -- he’d always had a good head on his shoulders, and he had no reason to lie about something like that. He’d heard a lot of outlandish things about Point Pleasant, but Victor knew better than most that outlandish things could be true. “No, it sounds plenty terrifying. But you got away from him,” Victor said. “Are you worried you’ll run into him -- it -- again?”
“See, I wasn’t worried. I’d kind of forgotten, right? But then last week, he—it came after us in our dreams,” Bash said with a cringe. “I didn’t know that was possible. We both had nightmares on the same night, where he came after us, and when we woke up, all the—the damage he’d done was real.” Bash put his hands on the table, his knuckles still badly bruised, though they’d had started to turn a sickly yellow instead of the bright purple they’d been before. “He buried me alive. In a wooden box. I had splinters when I woke up.” And the terror in his voice was as real now as it had been then. Sebastian looked away and focused on his breathing, reminding himself that there were multiple exits in the diner, that he could leave any time he wanted. He wasn’t trapped.
Victor looked down at the damage on Bash’s hands that he hadn’t noticed before, even more concern weighing his brow down. He’d heard of spirits that could cause harm, of course, and seen vague references to people who could enter the dreams of others, but ... nothing like this. Sebastian was right -- he needed magical protection as soon as he could get it. Victor wet his lips and nibbled on the bottom one. “Come with me to my place after we’re done eating,” he suggested. Bash already knew how horrible his experience had been, he didn’t really need Victor to repeat that and dwell there. He needed action instead. “I have some protective talismans that might help you -- Theo too. Until we can get your place warded properly. Was he badly hurt too? Having the same dream?”
“Different dream, different injuries, but they weren’t too bad,” Bash said, thinking of the bruises and cuts on Theo’s wrists and hands. Both dreams had been traumatizing, but luckily not lethal. Bash didn’t know if that was a possibility, but he didn’t want to find out. “A talisman would be great. We’ll take any help we can get. Phee’s friend, Jen, was at our house that night and the wards weren’t enough to stop him. She mentioned something about the O’Reillys helping, but… I dunno. I’m not super comfortable asking for help from people I don’t know.” The last time he’d done that it had blown up big time and the O’Reillys were an even bigger unknown to him than Reagan and Caius had been.
A strange feeling washed through Victor at the mention of the O’Reillys. A couple weeks ago, that name would’ve just been a vague piece of Point Pleasant’s magical history to him -- he’d known of them for a long time, learning about the Six. Now everything was different, and he felt a small stir in his jeans at the association, his dick trying to perk up like an alert dog. Victor took a long swallow from his drink to re-focus, nodding slightly. “I’m not surprised that the wards your dad might have put up failed,” he said, clearing his throat faintly. It was a small dig at James, he supposed, but his uncle had never seemed terribly dedicated to his magical practice anyway. Victor wasn’t surprised he wasn’t great at it. “Especially against an incorporeal enemy, those are always more difficult to guard against. If he’ll let me, I can beef up the wards at the house too. And I uh ... know one of the O’Reillys. I can see if they have any advice on it.”
Bash snorted in quiet amusement at the dig at his father, unwilling to even try to defend him. He didn’t know his father’s strengths or weaknesses magically and he was beginning to see how unfortunate that was. If they knew each other better, they could play to each other’s strengths. But then, they’d never been a unified front. Not even their parents stood together when it came to magic. “I seriously doubt Dad’ll be cool with you altering the wards, even if it’s to make them better. He’d probably see it as an affront to his masculinity or some shit,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But yeah, if you’ve got an in with the O’Reillys, please ask. I know people around here are weird about trading spells, but it seems like we should work together against things like—like that.”
Victor pursed his lips to one side, wondering if James would still take that attitude if he knew his kids were in danger. It was probably fucked up that he couldn’t definitely say what the answer would be. He didn’t know his uncle well as a grown man, but Victor had plenty of doubts about him. “I agree,” he told Sebastian with a wan smile. “We should.” He didn’t have any illusions that he was going to swoop in and unite the families or anything, but Victor did want to forge connections with all of them, it would be good for business. If he slowly turned into a hub for gossip and finding help when it was needed, all the better. “I’ll reach out to them and let you know, yeah. And in the meantime I’ll ward the hell out of your boat and give you some talismans to keep on you ... Does Theo know? About what you are?”
It made Bash feel better knowing that Victor might be able to help, even if he knew that his parents would have done their best if he’d told them. It wasn’t just that he doubted their abilities, but that he felt it would somehow be twisted into something he’d done, that it would somehow be his fault. Maybe they’d be willing to reach out to another family for assistance, but that would be twice in one year and he couldn’t imagine his father taking that kind of a blow to his ego. Or maybe he was completely wrong and his dad knew how to kill the son of a bitch… Bash would never know. It was so much easier to be forthcoming with Victor. “Yeah,” he nodded, smiling softly as he talked about Theo, something he really couldn’t seem to help. “He didn’t at first. After the last guy I dated, I realized that, once you tell someone something like that, you can’t really take it back. So I hung onto it for, like, six months. He wasn’t as shocked as I thought he’d be, but he grew up here. He knows things.”
The bit that surprised Victor the most was ‘six months.’ Had Bash told him they’d been together that long? He did say they met during the winter, so yeah, Victor supposed that timeline made sense, he just hadn’t done the mental math, thinking more about the Dark Man himself. Six months was a long-ass time for young men that age, no wonder Bash was struggling with the decision to leave town for college. “It’s important to find those people who can understand you fully,” he murmured, a warm little smile crossing his own face as Aidan naturally came to mind. They were both witches, they were both kinky, the whole thing had injected unexpected electricity into Victor’s life. There was a weird understanding there he couldn’t really explain ... he just hoped he wasn’t reading it all wrong, but Victor’s doubts were fading away the longer it went on. “Good then, he won’t think it’s weird if you give him something to wear or carry in his pocket all the time.”
“Naw, he’ll understand,” Bash smiled. Theo might not be a witch, but he felt like they understood each other well enough. They were both tied into the supernatural, both lacking in training for what they were. At least Bash had other witches around to guide him, even if it had been lacking up until now. He’d never even heard of reapers before finding out about Theo. “You seeing anyone?” he asked, somewhat curious. He kind of doubted it, since Victor hadn’t mentioned it and he’d just moved to town, but he did have that huge house up in Overlook. For all he knew, Victor had a harem holed up in the house, a different lover in every room. Unlikely, but there was room for it.
It was a perfectly normal question but it surprised Victor anyway and he smiled reflexively, before he could catch himself. He hadn’t meant to tell Sebastian anything about his own love life, but damn if Aidan hadn’t stolen his control over his face. Victor chuckled faintly and made a vague gesture. “Ahh ... maybe?” he suggested, scrunching his nose a bit. “It’s very new, still figuring things out.” It wasn’t a lie, it just didn’t reveal anything that was probably inappropriate to talk about with a much younger cousin. Bash was an adult now, but that didn’t mean he had a clue about the kink world. Victor didn’t even actually know if Bash and his boyfriend were sleeping together ... some people believed in waiting, for some inscrutable reason.
Bash grinned and raised a brow as his cousin stumbled through his response. He’d been cool as a cucumber when he’d said he was pansexual earlier, had barely batted an eye. Now his body language screamed that there was more to the story, regardless of what his mouth said. “You’re either in denial or a horrible liar, but okay,” he snickered. “Enjoy figuring it out.” He was now more curious than if Victor had given him a straight answer, but he wasn’t going to push for one. He believed Victor when he said it was new; he also knew how hard it was to keep a secret in this town. “Just remember people have eyes,” he grinned. “You live in a nosey neighborhood.”
Victor huffed through his nose and nodded, not surprised to hear that in the slightest. He was only a couple doors down from Sebastian’s parents and Phee now too. Maybe it was a good thing that Aidan got off on all the stealth, at least for a while. “I’m just ... you know, trying to keep my head on straight and pace myself, but ... I really like him, yeah,” he admitted, since Bash was calling him out. He’d already shared quite a bit, so Victor supposed that was fair. “But thank you, enjoying the hell out of it so far.” He smirked and wiped his fingers off with a napkin as he sat back. “Just going to keep it low key until I know it’s not just going to burn out.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Bash smiled. “Theo and I hooked up at a party. It wasn’t supposed to be anything serious. We didn’t tell people for months.” It had been fun sneaking around until it wasn’t anymore. Bash knew they’d let it go on too long, but the situation had been a bit different. He hadn’t wanted to pressure Theo to come out. Now he wondered if he beamed like that back before they were official. If so, it was probably the worst kept secret ever. “I hope it works out for you. It looks like he makes you happy.” And wasn’t that all that really mattered? He knew things could be complicated, that there could be other things standing in the way, but he’d always felt the core of it should be easy.
Wasn’t it funny how often ‘it wasn’t supposed to be anything serious’ turned into something serious? It had happened to Victor once or twice, and he’d seen it happen a lot more often than that for his friends. He had no idea if he and Aidan would actually become a real couple, especially of the out and proud variety, but he was hooked enough now to see it through and find out. Because the whole thing did make him happy, it scratched a deep itch in him that hadn’t been reached in a while. “Thanks Bash,” Victor told his cousin, glad that they’d had this to bond over. “And I hope you and Theo find something that works for you guys. I’m sure it’ll be tough, but if you’re meant for each other, who knows, right?” He pulled his wallet out of his pocket to pay for the meals they were almost finished with. “You about ready to go?”
Bash knew there were a number of years between them, enough that Victor felt like a real adult while he was just barely there, but it felt damn good to be treated like an equal. He felt like he could talk to Victor like one of his friends, but Victor had the experience to actually help him when he needed it. And he listened, something the adults in his life rarely seemed to do. It made Bash wish he had something more to offer, but maybe that would have to wait until he got a bit older. “Yeah,” Bash said, pulling out his wallet as well. He didn’t have an income like Victor did, but it hadn’t been his intention for Victor to buy his lunch. “Can I help pay?”
“Sure, yeah ... you wanna get the tip?” he offered, pulling out some cash. He knew Bash didn’t have the kind of money he did, still being a teenager and all, but he didn’t mind if his cousin wanted to kick in for part of it. Moxie’s was never expensive, at least. Once they’d settled the bill, Victor stood up with a little groan and a stretch, and led the way out of the restaurant. In his mind he was sorting through his collection of talismans, going over options that might work the best for Sebatian and Theo’s problem. If the O’Reillys could do something, he wanted to know about that too, but he wasn’t going to send Bash home empty-handed. Victor unlocked the car and settled behind the wheel, turning on some music as he waited for Bash to get buckled in too. “So how’s your brother doing? I haven’t talked to Trip in ... a long time.”
Bash was fine getting the tip—he just wanted to contribute and appreciated the fact that Victor let him. Not that he expected him to say no, but he could have blown him off. Rolled his eyes. He’d done none of that and it continued to strengthen Bash’s opinion of him. He followed Victor back to his car and climbed inside, snorting softly at the mention of Trip. He’d have expected Victor to be closer to Trip, seeing as how they were closer in age, but his brother was doing a great job at cutting off family, so it wasn’t a surprise they hadn’t talked. “I assume he’s doing great, but I don’t really know. We don’t talk much. He didn’t come home this summer—didn’t come home when Mom went missing. I think, to him, it doesn’t really feel like she was gone, ‘cause he wasn’t here for it. When he’s here, he’s an asshole,” he said, forcing himself to stop there before he started full-on ranting about all the issues he had with his brother. “Sorry,” he muttered.
Victor listened as his brow slowly furrowed. He didn’t have any siblings himself, but all of that sounded pretty shitty. In his memories, the McCarthys had been close, but he knew a lot could change as you were growing up. He and Trip had been friends and played together a lot as children, but Trip had drifted away along with the rest of them when the different parts of the family had stopped talking. They hadn’t reconnected yet as adults, and from what Bash was saying, it was possible they never would. Which was pretty sad, but less sad than Trip losing connection with his siblings. It wasn’t up to him to heal their family though, he just wanted to build a good relationship with the cousins who were interested. “Hey don’t be sorry,” he told Bash, glancing over as he backed the car out of the spot. “You’re just speaking the truth, don’t apologize for that. I’m sorry to hear it though, that’s ... really beyond shitty of him. Sounds like he must’ve been in denial about it.”
Bash knew that things could change, that Trip could realize the importance of family and change his tune anytime he wanted, and that they’d probably forgive him. It was just shitty timing, abandoning his siblings when one parent was missing and the other was dropping the ball. But maybe it made sense as well. Trip was more like his father than any of them. When things fell apart, he’d done practically the same thing in Bash’s eyes—he’d disappeared and let them down. “Maybe. Probably,” Bash agreed. “I think he almost burned his dorm down when I broke the seal on mom’s family magic. He’d had even less training than Phee and I have. It probably just seems destructive. And this town… it takes a lot, you know?” He wasn’t sure if Victor truly understood, but if he hung around long enough, then he’d find out first hand. “When you’re not here, living it, it doesn’t even sound real.”
Breaking a magical seal sounded like another whole story, and Victor was very tempted to ask Bash to elaborate on that. He didn’t want to pressure him into spilling the beans on everything that had magically gone wrong in his life in the past few years though. It could be an eventful lifestyle -- Victor had plenty of stories of his own. He wasn’t freshly turned eighteen though. “Yeah ... I didn’t believe a lot of the stories for years,” he said. “Like it was all maybe some elaborate inside joke. I know better now, though.” He glanced over at Sebastian. “And magic, you know, it definitely can be destructive in the wrong hands. So I want to help you be the right hands. I’d help him too if he was around and wanted it. I guess I don’t blame him for not wanting to live here anymore, but ...” It still sucked of Trip to leave his family behind when they needed the most support.
There was probably a lot that Bash needed to fill Victor in on, but it felt like too much for their first time seeing each other in years. It would be easier to get into it after a couple of drinks, though Bash had to remind himself that he legally couldn’t drink and, as a responsible adult, Victor probably wouldn’t be having drinks with him. None of it was urgent, all drama months in the past, so it could wait. “Maybe he’ll come back around eventually,” Bash said, not wanting to stick on a low note. He could hope for the best. He just wasn’t going to invest too much in it. “It’ll be good to learn, though. Did you have any friends that were witches growing up? Or was it just your mom that taught you?” While Bash didn’t have any witchy friends himself, there was a big enough community in Point Pleasant that he knew a number of them. He wasn’t sure if that was the case anywhere else.
“No, we only ever knew one other family with any witches in it,” Victor said with a faint chuckle. “There’s definitely a ... an unusually high concentration of witches here. You’ll find out when you leave.” He shot him a little smile. “But I didn’t learn anything from them, we just all hung out sometimes. My mom taught me everything I know.” His father didn’t have any magic, but his mom had that McCarthy blood in her veins, and she actually embraced it. She’d been so adamant about him learning that it kind of felt like torture when he was a kid, having to read a bunch of dusty old books before his magic had even set in. Once that happened though, it had changed his entire attitude. Now he was kind of a nerd about it. “What about you, are you friends with any of the other descendants around here?”
Bash knew the numbers had to be different elsewhere, otherwise the whole world would know and believe in witches, but he didn’t know exactly how different it would be. He was used to weird things happening on a regular basis, things that didn’t have anything to do with witches, at least that he knew of. He always imagined some of those things happened elsewhere, just maybe on a smaller scale. “The only one I know that’s close to my age is Liam Wolf. His mom’s a Lyttle. But he’s more Phee’s friend than mine,” Bash said. “Everyone else is normal. Mostly normal. I think there’s more that are your age, actually.” He had a hard time guessing how old people were once they were beyond college, but they were definitely older than him and younger than his parents.
Victor knew some of those people as well -- the Castells, Caius D’Onofrio, Reagan Kelly. People he likely would’ve been in school with if he’d lived full time in Point Pleasant. He didn’t know Caius or Reagan as well as he knew Zania, but they’d always seemed like the snobbier types anyway. Victor had grown up with money, but he didn’t like assholes. “That sucks,” he said to Bash, thinking that he could’ve benefitted from having some witch friends his own age. Though maybe his mother would have tried to isolate him from them too. Victor bit his tongue on that. “I’m glad you found a boyfriend who can understand it though ... I very rarely tell anybody I’m dating about it.” Aidan was obviously the glowing exception, and one corner of Victor’s mouth quirked up.
“I get that,” Bash smiled. “I didn’t intend to, but… I’m glad I did. Even if we don’t work out. I’ve got some friends that aren’t witches, but they know. Some aren’t all that normal themselves. And even if they are normal, witches are pretty tame compared to what they’ve dealt with.” He thought of Jules and her hands that could open portals, or Theo and his abilities, which were still kind of a mystery. He understood them as well as Theo explained them, but they appeared different from his side, where he just had to watch his boyfriend zone out until he’d completed his task. And then there was Greg, who’d seen enough shit that he didn’t blink an eye at him and Phee being witches anymore. Bash just wished he’d told him sooner.
“Trial by fire in this town, huh,” Victor murmured with a quiet chuckle. It wasn’t really a laughing matter, he’d heard quite a few truly horrible stories come out of Point Pleasant -- now including his cousin being chased and having his dreams tormented by some asshole monster man. “Just be careful when you go away to school,” he added, glancing over at Bash again as he drove them toward Overlook. “I know you’re not an idiot, but people out there really don’t know their ass from their elbow when it comes to the supernatural. Just be careful what you say and to whom. You don’t need the kind of trouble that comes from other people thinking you’re hallucinating or something.” He was sure Bash would make new friends and want to confide in them, but the folks who lived in Point Pleasant were honestly a different breed than the rest of the world, and Victor wanted him to be prepared.
“Yeah,” Bash said with a little nod. “After living here, it’s going to be weird to be somewhere normal.” He knew he should be looking forward to it, but a part of him wondered if he’d really fit in. Would he be looking over his shoulder for monsters that weren’t there? Or would his new friends seem naive, completely unaware of the dangers the world really held? Or maybe he’d just be bored. Or he could be like Trip and find that, once out of Point Pleasant, there was no reason to use magic at all. It was weird to think about and he had no idea how it would really feel until he lived it. “I don’t plan on telling anyone anything. Not what I am or what I know is out there. I don’t think they’d believe me, but even if they did… I don’t know. It doesn’t seem safe.”
Victor nodded, glad to hear that Bash had a realistic grasp on all of that. Being mired in one small pond environment for his whole life could make an adjustment to a different, mundane-people-based world out there difficult. Victor just wanted him to be safe. “It’s not, so ... don’t trust anybody with it, at least not until you know them really well,” Victor advised. Sebastian didn’t ask, and maybe it wasn’t his place to be advising a cousin he hadn’t talked to much over recent years, but he was on the cusp of making a big life change and considering how much his parents sucked, maybe nobody had brought this stuff up to him. “But yeah, it’ll be weird. I didn’t live live here, so it wasn’t so strange to me, the differences ... but there are a lot, if I’m being honest. You’ll definitely be in less danger of the kind of shit you’ve already been dealing with.”