Friday: Holding Up a Mirror Who: Christian and Ava, and NPC Natalie Price Where: The mainland, residential district When: Morning
There were three Price families in Darkwater. Christian and Ava had already been to two of them-- neither of which were the right one. Christian had a headache and was feeling more than a little discouraged as they left the second and headed for the third. "Even if she is there," he began-- not for the first time, and with his hands buried in his coat pockets, wishing to hell he could have brought his kittens-- "what do I say to her?"
Ava wasn't entirely sure why she was there. Okay, so she knew why, but it was making her nervous. She had never dealt with anything like this before, but if her telepathy could come in handy, now was the time. She just couldn't help but worry about this girl, and of course Ava feared the possibility that she and Christian would only make things worse. With any luck, things would go smoothly and they would leave without feeling discouraged. At Christian's question, Ava glanced up at him with a frown. "I'm not sure. Maybe you'll know when you see her?"
Ava was there, mostly, to keep Christian from having to go alone. The mainland terrified him-- this was where They were, after all! This was where all the terrible things had happened! That, and he thought having someone female along might ingratiate him a little with this Natalie Price person. That she was a telepath was an added bonus. "If it were a mugger or a kidnapping, it would be easy, but someone who wants to kill herself? What do you say to that?" Especially when the only reason you hadn't done the same was cowardice?
Ava looked pained as she shrugged softly. "I don't know. I've never been in the position where I've had to know. I've heard thoughts before, of other students and stuff, but they were never serious thoughts. Just moments caught up in frustration, you know?" Ava wished Cian was there with her. She knew if he were, she would feel more at ease, but this wasn't something she would ever make him experience. "What if she completely freaks out on us? Or wants us to leave? Do you think we should... we should push her into talking to us? Or maybe finding someone she knows and telling them what's going on?"
"I do not know," Christian said fretfully, for all he'd had those same thoughts already, himself. He didn't have any answers for those questions, either. "I suppose then I will have to tell Jesse that I failed... he might know what else I can do. Who else I could talk to. Or who else could talk to her." He was a little worried about being written off as the weirdo who shouted warnings in the street-- since he was hardly a complete unknown, in Darkwater and Eldritch.
Ava's resolve stiffened. "No, we're not going to send you back to say you failed. We'll try, and if it doesn't work, we'll think of something else. I mean, there's got to be a reason this girl is significant, you know? We'll figure it out if we have to. Who knows? Maybe she'll be receptive to us." Or to Christian, actually. Ava just hoped her presence helped a little, since Christian could be a little intense at times.
"I get random visions of random people dying all the time," Christian protested, but weakly. "I do not know that she in particular is significant... though perhaps she is. I do not understand this curse I have. Only this month have I even realized I was seeing things that were real...." He shook his head violently, not wanting to talk himself in circles and make himself even more discouraged. Glancing up as they approached a corner, he added, "We turn here, I believe."
"I think they're all significant in some way, aren't they? Otherwise, why are you having visions about them?" Ava asked. People died every day. But it wasn't like Christian had visions about all of them. Releasing a breath, she turned down the street Christian indicated. "The important thing is, you know who she is. You can help her, even if you weren't able to help the others."
Christian shrugged helplessly. Mostly he only saw the violent deaths... maybe he only saw the ones where he could do something about them, and all this time he should have been trying. He didn't know. "I hope so. I can try, anyway... do those look like birch trees, to you?" They looked vaguely familiar. He pointed to them, planted in front of a house across the street and down the road a ways. If that was Natalie Price's house, they were almost there.
"Birch..." Trailing off, Ava craned her neck to look at the trees in the yard. "Uh, maybe? Honestly, I don't know much about plants." Where was M when you needed him? "I guess?" Wow, she was helpful, wasn't she? "Do they look like the kind of trees that were in your vision?"
"I think they are." The white bark, the multiple trunks, the drooping, willow-like branches-- that had to be the house! Christian picked up the pace. "I think that is it. I think that is what I glimpsed out of her window. Oh, I hope it is." Even if he was terrified, at least now maybe they'd get an answer, one way or the other.
Ava hurried to catch up with him. She was eager to get this over with, really. She didn't want to make things worse for this girl, and hopefully she would be receptive to whatever Christian said to her. Ava began to chew on her bottom lip as they got closer to the house. She was suddenly anxious, knowing that this was probably the right location. With any luck, everything would go smoothly. "What if she's not home?"
"Then--" Christian faltered briefly, considering that, then picked up the pace again. "Then we wait. Or come back a little later. At least we know where she lives, so I can find her again if I need to." Provided he didn't get lost. He'd have to write down this address. And hope he didn't start hallucinating. He was being good with his meds, really! So he should be find, right?
"All right..." She wondered what Cian would think about all this. He would probably be feeling pretty uneasy, if she'd made him come with them. Even though Ava wouldn't have done that to him. This had the potential of being extremely uncomfortable and Cian didn't do well in those kind of situations. "With any luck, she's home. And home alone, because I doubt she would want any family overhearing two strangers confront her about her suicidal thoughts."
"If she even has family," Christian agreed, though in a subdued voice. It must be harder to think of killing one's self if one had many people around, right? Surely it had to be. He turned up the walkway to Natalie Price and climbed the single step to the front door. Then he glanced over his shoulder at Ava, swallowed heavily, and knocked.
Natalie was between attendants, which meant that she was alone for the length of time it took her mother to run to the grocery store. She'd been dozing and actually hadn't been aware that her mother was gone, which meant that when someone knocked on the door, she jerked awake, instantly curling into a ball on one end of the couch. It's Them... They're here for you. The voice sounded different from one time to the next; this time it was low and gritty. Sinister.
"There is no Them," she bit out, feeling groggy from the meds she'd been coaxed to take earlier as she got up, stumbling a little. She padded on bare feet to the door, her tank top and stretch pants hanging off of her nearly skeletal frame, blonde hair in her eyes. Very rapidly and in a low voice, she muttered, "ThereisnoThemthereisnoThem," as if for protection, then yanked open the door to stare at the two people on her doorstep.
Christian jumped when the door opened-- despite having expected it to open. And then he stared, because... there she was. Natalie. Who had hung herself, in his vision, who Jesse had met in her dreams, who was looking back at them, sleepy-eyed and rail thin. "Ah. Natalie Price?" he began, belatedly, after he'd stared for rather too long for normalcy.
Ava swallowed hard, not that she was faced with an actual person and not just a name. She waited for Christian to introduce himself, and when he remained silent, Ava wondered if she ought to say something, or nudge him or something. But thankfully he spoke up and Ava tried to tune into Natalie's mind, even though she didn't make it a habit of trying to listen into people's thoughts.
Natalie had been staring at Christian through her long, uncut bangs, a tide of dark suspicion rolling across her features. It was supposed to be safe here. Her mother tried to convince her of that all the time. How, then, had They found her? When the man didn't speak, her gaze shifted over to the girl, who looked to Natalie like she was up to something. If she wasn't, why would she look so nervous? Christian spoke her name, and her head snapped to the left again, an abrupt and awkward movement. "Who are you?" she hissed, thinking that the fact that They'd found her meant that she was absolutely going to have to kill herself. How else would she get away?
"Christian," he hurried to answer her. The words tumbled out, far too many and probably far too soon, but he couldn't help it. "Christian Cullen. Please-- please, miss Price. You cannot do this. I saw you do it, but please... it does not have to be that way. You do not have to die. There must be some other way." He finally cut himself off, flushed and uncomfortable, but desperate and earnest, and trying very hard not to look crazy.
Ava blinked in surprise at Christian's rambling. It was kind of... abrupt and forward and probably not the best way to start the conversation. It was bound to freak the girl out! "Uh, I'm Ava," she said quickly, wanting to try and salvage this before Natalie slammed the door in their face. "I live on Eldritch. My dad's one of the police officers in Darkwater." Maybe that would help put her at ease? "We actually wanted to know... could we talk to you for a couple minutes? We don't even have to come inside or anything."
It was true, then! Natalie's eyes blazed with fury when Christian said he'd seen her do it. Seen her. That meant that despite what her mother and her shrink had told her, there were people watching! She knew they were everywhere: in the mirrors, in the television, hidden deep inside drawers beneath supposedly ordinary things. She took a deep breath and screamed the words, loudly enough that the neighbors would probably hear. "Stop watching me! This is why! This is why!" It made sense in her head; what she meant was, This is why I have to kill myself. So they will stop watching me all the time.
Christian very nearly staggered under the force of the shout, clapping his hands to his ears with a little whimper. "It is not like that, not at all!" he exclaimed, unhappy and no little afraid of someone shouting at him. He really wasn't a particularly brave person. It was probably a good thing that he wasn't telepathic right now-- though he had a sinking feeling that might change at any moment. "I only saw you once, and I only wanted to stop you. To help you!"
Ava could hear Natalie's thoughts in her head, just as loudly as the girl's screams. And Ava knew she was going to have a massive headache later. "No..." Squinting against the thoughts barraging her, she reached out to touch Christian's arm. They weren't explaining themselves well at all. "We're not watching you," Ava said quickly, wanting the shouting to stop. "We're not them, whoever they might be. There's someone we know who has... visions? He saw you try to kill yourself and... so we tried to find you so we could help."
What Natalie took from that was that there was somebody else watching her from far away. This filled her with terror and the faintest twinges of memory. She'd dreamed that she was being surrounded by thorny vines, killed and yet still not able to die... and there'd been somebody else there, hadn't there? A man with messy hair and intense blue eyes. Watching. "Tell him to stop," she whispered. "I have a knife. I'll make him stop." She didn't, of course. Any sharp objects such as knives, boxcutters, ice picks had become a thing of the past in the Price household.
Not sure whether Ava meant Jesse or was just trying to distance his own vision from the current conversation, Christian tugged unhappily at his hair, and tried not to look nervous. He didn't know whether or not she was lying, though the mental image of Natalie with a knife coming for him-- or for Jesse-- was all to easy to see. "I cannot exactly control it, or I would! Why would anyone want to watch strangers die over and over again? All I can do it try to make it stop by stopping the people, that's all. No one wants you to die."
"You don't have a knife," Ava replied quietly. The situation could get out of control really fast and Ava wasn't sure she was equipped to deal with that. "And I don't think you want to hurt anyone. Christian isn't one of them. You're not the first person he's seen in a vision, and you won't be the last. We just want to try and help you."
Natalie's demeanor abruptly changed as her eyes shifted from Christian to Ava. Ava looked vaguely familiar to her, although she didn't realize that was because she'd gone to school with Ava's sister Jenny, once upon a time. Her anger had faded, and she looked frightened again. "I have a secret that nobody knows," she said, her voice very soft. "And you can't tell anyone." The skin on her forearms had goosebumped up, and she took hold of the doorknob so she could close the door quickly when she wanted to. She waited, as if trying to decide if she could trust them with the secret she had. Finally she said, "Nobody can help me, because I'm already dead." Her face crumpled, as if she would cry, and she closed the door in their faces, her fingers hurrying to turn the lock and deadbolt.
"No, wait--" Christian tried to grab the door to keep it from shutting, but it was too late. He knocked again, a little frantically. "Natalie?" he called, certain that something terrible was going to happen, if they didn't explain, if he didn't convince her she wasn't alone, if this didn't work.
Ava had reached out too, to try and keep the door open, but Natalie had been too quick. "Natalie," Ava called, leaning in to see if she could get any of the other girl's thoughts through the door. Dammit. Pained, Ava looked up at Christian. "What does that even mean, she's already dead? There's going to be something else we can do."
"I do not know what it is," Christian exclaimed unhappily, trying to knock again, with no response. "Talk to her family? She is not already dead, but she thinks she is. She feels she is. I know that feeling. It-- it is something one takes medication for." It came out almost like a foul word or an insult. Medication. But it kept him (mostly) stable. Why wasn't Natalie on it?
Ava felt like talking to Natalie's family might make it worse. What if they didn't care? Releasing a breath, Ava frowned at the door. "Wel, we've got to do something. Call the police? Or a doctor? I mean..." She didn't want to say it aloud but if Natalie was thinking of hurting herself, couldn't they admit her to the hospital for awhile?
"No!" Christian said firmly, almost with panic. The very idea was repugnant and terrifying. "They will put her in There. I will not be responsible for someone else being put in There! We must-- I must talk to Jesse. He will know what to do...." He hoped. He could only hope. If Jesse didn't... he could talk to Gwen, if Jesse didn't have any ideas. As long as Gwen didn't try to get her put There.
"They might not put her there," Ava said. "Maybe they'll admit her to the actual hospital? But... yeah, talk to Jesse. I don't know what else to do." She felt helpless, and that was a terrible feeling. It was a heavy thing, having someone's life weighing on your shoulders. She didn't like it at all. "There's got to be a way to help her."
Christian simply wasn't willing to take that chance. No one would end up There, not through his actions, not if he had anything to say about it. He slumped and dropped his hand from the door, giving up. "I suppose we should go back to the island... if she is not going to talk to us." At least he knew something, now. Something they didn't know before. Natalie Price was like him, at least in some ways. Maybe knowing that would help. He wouldn't hold out hope that it would... but it was better than nothing.
Ava nodded and touched Christian's arm gently as she turned away and lowered her voice. "At least we know where she lives, right? We can check on her. There's got to be something we can say or do to make her listen, we just... don't know what it is yet. Maybe Jesse will know what to do for her."
"Maybe...." Christian sighed, nodding a little to Ava. It was time to go, or else he might start pounding on the door again and embarrass them all. Well, more than he already had. He turned away and started back down the walk, putting his hands in his pockets and wishing he had kittens to soothe him. "Thank you for coming with me."
Ava walked with him, feeling a little resigned and defeated. What a horrible feeling. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more. Her thoughts were all scattered. She thinks we're them and no one can help her. I just don't think I'm like, equipped to break through those kind of walls."
"I did not really expect you to," Christian assured her, a little glumly. That wasn't really why he'd brought her along-- though it might have helped a little, and it had, if just by calling Natalie's bluff about the knife. "Perhaps I could have, if mine had been working, since I at least am familiar with such things, from the inside." He pulled a hand from his pocket to rap himself smartly on the head for his mental bad timing.
Ava nodded. She wished hers would turn off every now and then. There was a reason she kept to herself mostly, or with Cian. She was silent for a few moments, trying to come up with some genius plan to get Natalie to listen to them. Only she couldn't think of anything. "Do you think... maybe she would talk to you if she knew you had been there? If she knew you could relate to what she was going through?"
It was a thought, though Christian was afraid he'd wasted his chance. "I can try... if Jesse has no other ideas. She will not listen now, I am sure. I lost my chance...." If a chance would come again, in the future, he didn't know. He hoped one would, but he wasn't very optimistic. Then again, Christian often wasn't very optimistic.
"Hey, you totally haven't lost your chance. I really didn't think she was just going to open the door and let us in, you know? You've got to keep at it, at least show that you care. You just have to convince her to give you a try and listen." Ava figured if Natalie saw Christian wasn't giving up, then maybe she would realize someone out there does care, even if it's a stranger.
Or she might just think he was a persistent hallucination. Christian could see himself thinking that. But he did nod. "Perhaps... Jesse knows her better than I do, he has actually interacted with her, perhaps he will agree and that will be what he tells me to do. Or know what I should say."
Sighing, Ava nodded. "Just... keep me updated, okay? Or if you want me to come back, maybe on my own? I could try that again. I'm not too intimidating, so maybe she'll feel more comfortable with just me." Christian was a nice guy, but he did look a little scary. Especially to a girl who was clearly paranoid.
"Yes, yes of course I will," Christian promised. "Though coming alone...." Christian looked over his shoulder in the direction of the house. "She may not have had a knife, but she may still be... dangerous. I was. Can be, if I take it into my head someone is trying to hurt me...." Mostly not, though, since he was such a coward. Natalie, however, was not a coward, and he didn't want Ava to run afoul of that.
Natalie had seemed like such a fragile thing behind the door that Ava had never considered she might to try to hurt someone. Only herself. "I would be careful," Ava said after a moment of deliberation. "I can hear her thoughts, so if she considered hurting me, I could brace myself, or stop it. Honestly, when things are bad, sometimes it's less frightening to just have a girl around. We're not as strong as guys, you know."
That earned her a desirive snort and an unbelieving look. "You are stronger than I. So is Sorcha, and Gwen. So, in fact, is Natalie. So the notion that women are not as strong as men is complete poppycock." Yeah, he totally just said poppycock. What of it?
Ava scowled before crossing her arms. "Okay, one? You just said poppycock. And two? Even if I am stronger than you? Natalie doesn't know that! It's just perception, Christian. Society teaches you that men are stronger than women, physically. You're already scared and suicidal, when you look out your window and see a man standing all alone? You're less likely to open the door than if it's a teenage girl."
Flushing, confused as to just what was wrong with "poppycock" and embarrassed at being scolded, Christian hunched his shoulders and glared at the sidewalk. "That still does not mean that your previous comment is valid, even if this comment is valid. This is not what you said then." Which was a round-about way of saying okay, she had a point.
Rolling her eyes, Ava wondered if all boys liked to argue just for the sake of arguing. "Look, you know what I mean. If you don't want me coming back on my own, then I won't. But you and Jesse need to figure something out otherwise." She didn't know anything about visions, or when they might come true. She didn't know if Natalie was planning on killing herself in three days, or that night. That was the scary part.
It was a pride thing, probably. It was with Christian-- or more rarely, it was a lack of understanding thing. Right then? Totally pride. Though it didn't last long, either, and melted into uncertainty at the reminder of him and Jesse and figuring something out. "We will... or you can. Or both. I do not know-- I do not know what to do about all this... I just need to ask Jesse."
Exasperated by Christian lack of decision making, Ava breathed in deeply to keep from huffing and getting impatient with him. Instead, she released the breath slowly and then nodded. "All right," she said calmly, "just check with Jesse. If you need me again, you can call me. My dad's a cop... I know you don't want them involved, but if you need any kind of, like, authority help, he'll do it."
Prevaricating was what Christian did best. He nodded, back, looking at the ground unhappily. "All right. Thank you. We will... we will think of something. All of us." Ava included, because she was offering so kindly.
There wasn't much else for her to say, and Ava fell into silence as they walked. What a depressing day. All she could do was hope that Christian would call her with some good news. If that girl ended up dying, Ava wasn't sure she could handle that kind of weight on her shoulders. If Christian and Jesse didn't come up with anything, Ava would just have to tell her dad and get him involved, even if Natalie didn't respond favorably to it. It didn't matter. The important thing was trying to keep her alive.