Reunited Who: Clementine and Zania Where: Their house When: Late night
Clementine had slept for a good, long time but when she woke, she realized how desperately she wanted to wash off the grime of what had happened to her. Maybe it was mental, but a nice, hot shower was going to do her wonders. She’d snuck out of her room, promising herself she’d do this as quickly as possible so she wouldn’t scare a sleeping Skylar if he woke up and she was still in the shower.
She’d taken some clothing, an oversized white sweater she’d knitted herself a while back and a pair of pajama pants, into the bathroom with her. After her shower she pulled them on and got stuck staring at the horrible bruises on her neck in the mirror. Sighing, she took the towel she was using to dry her damp hair with her out of the bathroom and started toward the kitchen in search of food. Or, well, to see if any food really jumped out at her because she felt like she should eat but she just didn’t want to.
Zania had been out looking for the people that were missing. It was what she did these days, her only successful find being Mickey, but that gave her hope rather than stopped her. If he was alive, then others might be also. She went out every night, but each morning she came home empty handed. She’d thought she’d have Clementine by now. The longer her friend was gone, the more she feared the worst. She was only stopping by the house to make a pitstop, and then she’d be back out looking until dawn.
The second she walked in, Zania knew something was different. She could hear people in the house, heartbeats, movement. It was dark, but she moved towards the sound. “Hello?” She wouldn’t be taken by surprise, but if it was a friend she wanted to give them a chance to speak up before she cut their head off.
As soon as she heard a female voice, Clementine was pressing her back up against the nearest wall and holding her breath. It took her too long to realize it was Zania and when she did, she peeled herself away from the safety of the wall to stand, dumbfounded, in the doorframe. “Zan?”
Zania recognized the voice right away and immediately dropped her machete on the coffee table to go see her friend. She didn’t even take the time to turn on the lights before pulling her into a hug, hopefully not hurting her. “You’re okay!” she gasped, “I looked everywhere! I couldn’t find you!”
Zania. Zania was here! She held her friend back, pressing her head into Zania’s shoulder. Her friend was here! “You’re not dead!” She said, though she knew that Zania hadn’t died because Skylar had said it. But still, having her here was something else, something that quelled a worry inside of her.
“No, not dead,” Zania said, refusing to release Clementine a moment longer. “I’m hard to kill.” There was a while there that she thought she was going to die, had nightmares about it, but Lance had saved her. “What happened? Is that asshole dead? Are you okay?” she asked, finally taking a step back to look at Clementine. That’s when her eyes landed on the bruising around her neck. “Oh God…”
Zania's questions were ones that Clementine still didn't want to answer, but knew she'd have to at some point. Sooner, probably, than she wanted to if Zania was staring at her bruises. Which was probably hard not to stare at. She certainly got caught up in staring at them herself. "I don't know if he's dead or not. I didn't see him after he took me..."
“What do you mean?” Clementine had been gone for days. If she hadn’t seen the man who took her, who’d been keeping her? Surely he hadn’t thrown her in a box somewhere and left her. “I have to find him. I have to make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else. How are you feeling? Can I help you with those?” she said, nodding towards the bruises.
"Let's just sit down first?" She asked, moving to the kitchen table because mostly she was still tired and if she had to tell this story again, she needed to be sitting. "Can you help me with them?" She asked, pointing back at her neck and the bruises there. They hurt and were a constant reminder of the fact that she'd nearly died.
“Sure,” Zania said, following her to the kitchen, though instead of going to the table, she went to grab a paring knife. “You just need a little of my blood. You might still be sore, but you’ll heal.” Putting a small bowl down in front of her, she cut open the palm of her hand, then made it into a fist, letting the blood drip down into the bowl. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said again, looking up at Clementine.
Clementine hated that Zania had to cut herself. Logically she knew that she would heal really quickly and that, in the long run, the blood would help her but right now she hated the idea of any more violence. She turned sad eyes up to Zania and just watched her friend for a long moment as they grew watery. "I'm so sorry. I don't even really know what this was all about and you got hurt and…I'm sorry, Zan."
Zania reached out with her other hand to take Clementine’s and give it a small squeeze. “It’s okay now. I survived. And it’s not your fault.” She had to know that. There was nothing she could have done to keep a maniac from coming into their home and attacking them. “Here,” she said, pushing the bowl of blood over to her. It was small, maybe only half a cup of blood, but it should be more than enough to heal Clementine’s bruising. “I know it’s gross, but you’ll feel so much better.”
Clementine looked down at the bowl in front of her and reached for Zania's hand. Her friend had bled for her. More than once, she'd bled for her. As she stared at it, a breeze kicked up around her like it had with Skylar before, but this time it was rougher. It fed off of the sadness she felt that Zania even had to bleed for her. That she'd had to go through any of this at all. It kicked up her hair and blew at the sweater on her arms as Clementine continued to stare at the cup. "I'm so sorry, Zania…You shouldn't have to do this at all."
“It’s okay,” Zania said, giving Clementine’s hand a little squeeze as her dreadlocks swayed in the breeze. “I’m just glad I can do something to help. I tried to find you. We looked everywhere. But the rain had washed away your scent and-- and I’m just glad you’re here now.” She was going to say she was glad Clementine was okay, but she wasn’t sure that was the case. “This is nothing, I promise. I’ve fed quite a bit this week.” More than enough to make up for the blood she lost.
"But still, Zan! This should never have happened to you…We're supposed to be safe in this dome but I got kidnapped and you got attacked! And other people were kidnapped too! What the hell is happening here?" She asked, tears brimming her eyes as she looked back at Zania and the breeze kicked up to a full-blown wind. It flapped the tablecloth hard, pushed loose papers around, and Clementine shut her eyes and put her hands over her face, trying to breathe evenly.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Zania said, jumping up from her seat to go give her friend a hug, though her attention was on the wind that seemed to come from nowhere. What the hell was that? Was there even a window open? “Bad things happen. It sucks, but we survive. You survived and that’s what matters. And I’m lucky to be a vampire, for once.” If she hadn’t been, she most definitely would have been dead.
The hug helped quell the wind, dying down from a wind to a breeze to nothing. She rested her head, uninjured side on Zania's shoulders, and nodded after a moment. At least Zania was safe. She wasn't dead. Skylar wasn't hurt. Things were ok for now. She calmed herself after another moment and reached for the bowl of blood and downed it like the strangest, largest shot she'd ever taken. When she was sure all of it was down and staying there, she turned to Zania again. "I'm guessing this starts to taste better when you're a vampire?" She asked, trying for a joke.
Zania found herself petting Clementine gently, smoothing her hair down in an attempt to sooth. The wind died down, but it left Zania feeling unsettled, not sure where it came from in the first place. She waited till Clementine picked up the bowl of blood to take a seat, watching the weird transformation that came about as she drank it down. “Yeah,” she said with a little smile. “It still tastes like blood, but now I think it tastes amazing. Like the best chocolate I’ve ever had or something. It’s weird.” And it healed, as was clear when the bruises on Clementine’s neck melted away.
She could feel the soreness let up in her throat, feel the changes spreading through her body to her face. The swelling of her left eye cleared up and the bruises there faded as well until she looked normal. Or about as normal as she could after a kidnapping. Turning to Zania, she smiled again. “That stuff...wow.” She said, reaching up to run her fingers over her unswollen eye, over her puff-less cheek. She made a show of blinking a few times until both eyes could adjust to the darkness now. “Thanks, Zan,” She said, reaching out for her friend’s hand with a smile on her face. “No more visible reminders of that guy or that crazy bitch…”
“If you can stomach it, it does wonders,” Zania smiled. She knew that healing the body wasn’t the same as healing the soul, but it was a step in the right direction. The lack of physical pain made the emotional pain a little easier to bear. “You’re welcome. If it’s something I can do to help, then I want to. Do you mind me asking what happened?”
Clementine shook her head a little and moved, resting it on her arms after folding them on top of the table. "So that guy came and took me…knocked me out. And I woke up…." She sighed. She'd already said this to Skylar but it didn't get easier to live it all over again. "I woke up in a big cage in some bitch named Anne Marie's basement. There were…there were four cages and I was in one, and then the one beside me had Eily O'Reilly in it. I need to make sure she's ok," She mentioned, cutting her story off because it was really important to Clementine to know that Eily was ok. "But Anne Marie…she was talking crazy, saying things like…things like we had this power and she was going to bring it out so we could turn of the sun. It was just fucking insane."
Taking a moment, she moved her hand to run it through her hair instead and sat back in her chair. "She picked me first, tied up my hands and took me into this other room. And she just…strangled me. Wrapped a piece of rope around my neck and tightened and tightened until I couldn't breath. Until I started seeing black. And then, just like that, it was easy to breathe again. The rope was still there, but I could feel the air in my lungs like…like it was just doing the work for me, like I didn't even have to try anymore...."
Okay, psycho bitch needed to die, too, because choking someone to death was not okay, even if they miraculously survived it. “God, I’m sorry,” Zania said, tugging at one of her dreadlocks. “That’s really fucked up. I mean, she sounds crazy, but that’s no excuse.” Hopefully having the bruises healed would help her get over it, but Zania doubted Clementine would move fast it quickly. She knew she had nightmares herself and she hadn’t been thrown in a cage. “What… what can I do to help?” While she had a morbid curiosity to know more, she thought that not talking about it might be easier.
Clementine shook her head a little bit. "I don't know," She answered honestly, reaching out with one arm for Zania's hand. "Stay safe. Don't hate me for screwing up our house…" It wasn't her fault, logically she knew that, but emotionally? It still sure as hell felt like it was her fault that Zania had been hurt, that their floor was screwed up and there were blood stains everywhere. "…And maybe take the pills I got from Dr. Micah back to the hospital sometime, if you don't mind? I won't need them now and someone else will. And I can't…I don't want to leave yet." Going outside at all felt like a bad, bad idea.
“You think I’m upset about the house?” Zania asked with a little laugh. “Everything’s replaceable. Don’t worry about it. I’ll recover the couch and we’ll get a rug and then you won’t have any reminders in sight.” It wouldn’t erase the memories, but she knew it would help. “And I’ll take the meds back to Doctor Sexy. I probably need to start going back to work tomorrow night. Do you think Skylar would mind hanging out here?” She didn’t want to leave Clementine alone, especially not until she was sure the guy who took her was dead.
“We can do all those things together, the couch and rug…” Clementine laughed a little at the Doctor Sexy comment. "Apologize to him for me for being so off? I was…I don't know, I wasn't myself." It had been hard to trust the doctor, even if he was nice, because he was giving her medicine and Anne Marie had tried the same thing. And she hated Anne Marie for taking that trust away from her. "I don't think he'll mind but I can ask him. I don't want you to miss any more work. If he can't stay, I'll just…go with you. It'll be like take your daughter to work day." But with more emotional scars, probably.
“I’m sure he understands, but I’ll tell him anyways,” Zania said. She didn’t really know Micah, but she imagined that someone in his shoes would be compassionate. He knew what Clementine had been through based on her scars. “I’m here tonight, so don’t worry about it yet. We’ll figure it out, and you’re always welcome to come up there with me.” She just didn’t think Clementine wanted to be up all night. Zania didn’t expect any normal person to keep her hours, but she also didn’t want Clementine to be home alone. “I was going to go back out and look some more, but since you’re here, I’m not going anywhere.”
Clementine kept her hand in Zania's, watching her friend quietly. "You don't have to stay, if you want to go look more," She said gently, though selfishly she did want Zania there. She wanted to surround herself with people that made her feel safe and Zania was definitely one of them. "Can we talk about other stuff though, if you're staying? Like the night club and what I can do to help there?"
“You were the one I was looking for,” Zania said, squeezing Clementine’s hand. “You and Mickey, and I found Mickey. And Kenzie, for Lance.” She hoped they were able to find Lance’s cousin soon. Then she’d finally be able to relax and maybe leave the rest of the looking up to someone else. “We can talk about whatever you want,” she smiled. “My nightclub’s been on hold with everything that’s been happening, but now that you’re back I can start thinking about it again.”
"But you should go back out if you want to," Clementine emphasized, though she grew quiet while she listened to Zania. "Well…I'd like to talk about the nightclub. About what we could do to get started with it. What can I do to help? Do you need a…hostess? I'm not a good bouncer but I could be a door-person."
“I will tomorrow. We still have to find Kenzie,” Zania said. Lance would probably spend the night looking, but she needed a day off and to spend some time with Clementine. Hopefully he’d understand. “Would you be willing to work at the bar with Lance?” she asked. “You’re definitely not bouncer material.”
“I think Kenzie is ok. She was with us…” Clementine and Kenzie hadn't really gotten along but that didn't mean she wanted her at the hands of anyone, especially not Anne Marie. She doubted Zania would let her go but she still wanted to offer. "I can work the bar. Can Lance teach me to make a good drink? I usually just make mine really strong."
“Oh!” Zania said, immediately brightening. “I hadn’t realized Kenzie was with you, or that she’d been found! Then I really have no reason to go out.” She’d check in with December in the morning and see if anyone was still missing, but everyone on her list was now accounted for. It felt like she could finally breathe again. “I can teach you or Lance can teach you,” she grinned. “Maybe we can have a party where we trade drink-making secrets. It’d be a nice change of pace.”
Clementine scooted her chair closer to Zania and nodded, leaning in after a moment to press her healing face to Zania's shoulder. "I vote yes to a drinking party. It sounds nice," She said, closing her eyes after a moment. "Thank you, Zan," She said again, feeling safer than she had in a long time with Zania there now too.