Henry Townshend is a ghost magnet (room_302) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-05-01 16:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, henry townshend, leon orcot |
Who: Henry Townshend and Leon Orcot
What: Surprise Haunting
When: Back dated to mid March
Where: Henry's Apartment
Rating/Warnings Mediumish for gross haunting
Status: Complete!
Even though he wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the fact that Revy and Liv were friends, the fact of the matter was that Revy was making an effort to get to know his friends. Even though he wasn’t much one for socializing, and he prefered to stick with the friends he knew and trusted, he didn’t dislike Henry, and that was saying something. So he’d texted Henry and asked if he wanted to hang out, and then made his way to the man’s house with a case of beer in hand.
Leon had never been to Henry’s place, and while the place seemed normal enough, something about it seemed a little unsettling. Though the feeling seemed to get stronger the closer he got to Henry’s apartment. While Leon wasn’t one to ignore his gut feelings, he couldn’t put his finger on what seemed off, so he decided that he’d put it aside. He’d be on alert for any danger, but cancelling plans over vague feelings also wasn’t something Leon would do. He knocked on the door.
Revy was an important person in Henry’s life. A very good friend, maybe even best friend. She had gone out of her way to meet Chloe, Henry’s girlfriend, and get to know her, so it was only natural that Henry do the same. Even though he and Leon already kinda knew each other. Their first introduction being Leon almost breaking Henry’s nose, of course, and somehow considering Leon was dating Revy, that seemed very appropriate.
He hadn’t expected Leon to want to come over, especially knowing he had that rag doll locked up in his trunk. Leon had made it very, very clear what he thought about that doll when Henry had announced he’d received it. Probably best to not mention to the detective that the doll was the actual cause to some of the haunting events in the apartment. And speaking of which, after Henry had done a quick check of the apartment to make sure that something weird wasn’t already happening before Leon even arrived, Henry peeked in on the doll.
She was where she always was when Henry was home, seated in the corner of Henry’s trunk, looking innocent and harmless. “A friend is coming over,” he told the doll, as if she could understand him (and who knew, maybe she could?), “so please take a break for a night, alright?”
When Henry heard the knock, he closed and locked the trunk and went to let Leon and his case of beer inside.
Leon smiled widely when Henry opened the door, his face tanned more than usual from all the sitting in the sun he and Revy had done while they’d been in Hawaii. He really wasn’t afraid much of the doll, mostly because he assumed that any sane man would have thrown that thing out the moment it proved to be haunted as fuck. “Hey man, how’s it going?” he asked as he entered the apartment, and he looked around for a place to set the beers.
Oh, if only Leon knew that Henry had already tried to get rid of the doll, but with no such luck. Still, what Leon didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right?
“Hey,” Henry greeted with a grin. Leon looked good with his tan. He also looked happy, which was good to see as well. Henry smiled at him as Leon entered the apartment, “it’s good to see you. Here I’ll put those in the fridge.”
While Leon made himself comfortable in the living room, Henry deposited Leon’s beer in the fridge to chill. He selected two of the cans to bring back to the living room, handing one to Leon before opening the one he’d kept for himself. “How was Hawaii?” He asked.
Leon sprawled haphazardly across Henry’s couch, his legs spread wide. He reached for the can of beer, opened it, and took a long swig before he answered Henry. “Hawaii was great,” he exclaimed cheerily. “If I had the choice, I’d never leave.” At least, that’s what he told himself, though Revy’s prediction of them being bored to tears was probably closer to the truth. “There’s nothing quite like lying in the sun, drinking booze on the beach, and not worrying about a ten-story spider crawling out of the ocean.”
Henry smiled faintly. Leon had wasted no time making himself at home. Henry took his seat in the recliner by the couch, sitting deep in the cushions. He grinned hearing Leon rave about Hawaii. Henry had been to Alaska, but he’d never made it out to Hawaii while he was working as a freelance photographer. He’d always heard what a tropical paradise it was.
He took a pull from his bottle. “That sounds nice,” he agreed, then added thoughtfully, “you wouldn’t miss it, though? The ten-story spider crawling out of the ocean?”
“Fuck no,” Leon said emphatically. “There’s no way in hell I’d miss all the weird shit that goes on here.” Except maybe the dreams, he thought with a frown. Unlike others he’d talked to, he didn’t get repeat dreams, even though he sometimes wished he would. But there was always the chance that his dreams might actually finish, that he’d either find D or die trying, and he didn’t think he could leave until he found out one way or another. At least, not unless Revy dragged him away. “What about you? Think you’d miss your creepy fucking dreams or the weird ass demon attacks if you left?”
Henry’s knee-jerk reaction was to say no as well, but he stopped just as he opened his mouth. He closed his mouth again and looked at his beer thoughtfully a moment. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t like my dreams. You’re right, they’re fucking creepy and make me feel isolated, like I’m the only person in the whole damn world. Everyone I meet dies. I’m too slow, or powerless to stop it and I watch them die. All of them and that makes me feel as though I have no control. I’m afraid it might happen here, but…” and here is where Henry thought maybe he was going a little crazy, “if I left, if the Dreams stopped, I’m afraid I might lose who I am.”
He looked up at Leon and laughed nervously, “forget I said that. No, I wouldn’t miss it.” He cleared his throat nervously, afraid he was coming off completely insane.
Leon frowned thoughtfully. “I kind of get it, man,” he said after a moment. He didn’t think he’d be the same man he was now if it wasn’t for the dreams. He didn’t think he could love Revy if it hadn’t been for the dreams. As far as bending the law goes, he’d been pretty unbending. He’d once told D that if Queen Elizabeth’s pet attacked Jack the Ripper, he’d kill the pet to save the human. That if it was the last of its kind, he would shoot it down to save any one of the idiots on the planet that he hated. Because even if he hated humans, each and every one of them deserved to live.
D had started nudging open the door that said that maybe there were people who deserved to die. That maybe, no one human deserved to live over any other creature out there. And where D had started opening the door, Revy had blown it apart, guns blazing. He wasn’t sure it was a change he welcomed, but it was what it was. He wasn’t about to wish it away. “This place changes people. Besides, I guess it’s always been home. I couldn’t pack up and leave if I wanted to.” He chewed over his words, and then shot Henry a grin. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t think everyone you know is going to die any time soon. I don’t plan on going anywhere any time soon.”
Henry tried to return the grin, but it felt forced. The Dreams had definitely made him the person he was now. He was determined to be more proactive instead of drifting from crises to crises, constantly being the “damsel in distress” that had to be saved by Revy or Regina or any of his other friends. His biggest fear was something happening to them - of happening to Chloe, the woman he loved and wanted to spend the rest of his life with - and him being absolutely dumb and powerless to stop it and forced to watch as each of them died some nightmarish death.
Henry looked at his beer hard. He tried, but at the end of the day he was just a normal squishy human in a world of supernatural creatures and people with extraordinary powers. He couldn’t stop thinking of Eileen. The one person in his Dreams he had tried desperately to save, only to have the whole thing prove fruitless and painful proof that he was at Walter’s mercy.
“I hope so, Leon,” he said quietly.
As if to prove Henry’s fears, the air in the apartment suddenly felt heavy and thick and was accompanied by a low register hum that could be felt more so than heard.
Leon felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and he tried to repress the chill that ran through his body. He didn’t do a very good job, and swallowed a gulp of beer. He had to clear his throat before he could talk, trying very hard not to think about ghosts and hauntings. “That AC of yours sounds like it could use some work,” Leon said, grasping for some explanation. “I could take a look at it if you wanted.”
Air conditioning. In the middle of March. With a high of 66 degrees. Right. “My AC isn’t on,” Henry said before taking another gulp of beer and getting to his feet. As he moved towards the trunk at the other side of the room, the air somehow darkened and took on a red hue. The hum intensified. A muffled crying noise started to come from the kitchen.
While all this was going on, Henry unlocked and opened his trunk. He glared at the little rag doll sitting in the corner of the trunk. He reached for one of the white candles he’d gotten from his dreams, only to find that he was currently out. “Oh.” He said a little strained. “Oh, crap.”
Leon stood at the sound of the muffled crying, a shiver running from through him. “Oh crap what?” Leon snapped, his nerves already becoming frayed. “What’s going on?”
“Uhm,” Henry started. He straightened from the trunk and slowly lowered the lid. “I’m out of the candles I use to take care of…this,” he said waving his hand around the room in a vague indication of the haunting that was currently taking place.
Henry could deal with the bone-vibrating hum. He could deal with the red hue in the air. He could deal with his faucets spouting blood instead of water. He could deal with his alarm clock going off and his windows rattling. He could deal with cracks and cancer-like boils appearing on his walls. He didn’t like them, but they were at least familiar at this point. What Henry could not deal with was the strange muffled crying coming from his kitchen. That was new. He couldn’t tell what it was either, if it was human or not. All he knew for certain was that it should not be there.
Henry calmly picked up the ax leaning against the wall next to the trunk. He had taken to leaving the weapons he’d gotten from his dreams around the apartment. His pistol was still tucked safely away in his bedroom, but the ax was almost always out and within easy grabbing distance. That was more Revy’s influence than the Dreams.
Gripping the ax in a two handed stance, Henry cautiously made his way to the kitchen.
Henry grabbing an ax was not a good sign. Why the hell had Leon decided to come to this apartment anyway? He’d known the damn thing was haunted. He’d somehow convinced himself that it wasn’t anymore, but he should have known better.
Fuck the Orange County and it’s creepy fucking ghosts.
He got up from the couch, and pulled the gun that he always kept on his hip out of its holster. As he walked slowly behind Henry, gun pointed at the floor and both hands on the grip, he turned off the safety. “What do you think it is?” he asked, his voice low and quiet.
“I don’t know,” Henry answered. His voice was low to match Leon’s, but still calm. He approached the kitchen slowly, ax at the ready. A man like Henry should never know how to handle an ax like a weapon, but he did know and he knew very well.
At first glance, the kitchen seemed normal, if one were to overlook the red hue that was slowly overtaking the entire apartment. The noise, while still muffled, was definitely louder and seemed to be coming from - of all places - the fridge.
Henry glanced over his shoulder at Leon. He wasn’t at all bothered that Leon had drawn his gun. Maybe he’d been around Revy too much, but guns no longer so much as made him raise a brow these days. Though, if when Henry opened the fridge and found Zuul hanging out on the other side, a gun probably wouldn’t do the trick. Then again, an ax probably wouldn’t either. Where was a fucking Ghostbuster when you needed one?
Henry’s attention went back to the fridge. Cautiously, he reached out to open it.
Leon hands were sweating. He wiped first one hand on his jeans, and then the other, keeping one hand gripping the gun at all times. His trigger finger was lined up alongside the trigger, a millisecond away from pulling the trigger but making it that much harder to accidentally pull said trigger if he was startled.
He swallowed heavily, and gave a brief nod to Henry. He was ready for whatever was waiting behind that door.
At least, he hoped he was.
Henry wrapped his hand around the handle to the refrigerator. He wasn’t sure opening it would be a good idea, but that yowling wasn’t stopping. Henry took a breath and yanked the door open.
There was no portal to another dimension inside. No gargoyle demons growing or hissing. No Zuul. Instead, Henry’s normally well stocked fridge was virtually empty save for something on the bottom shelf. It could only be described as some kind of animal that had been skinned alive and dumped inside. Henry could make out a head and legs. With the fridge light on, the creature raised its head to look up at Henry and Leon. It was then Henry recognized the noise as the sound of a cat yowling. Now he saw a pair of cat ears on the naked head and paws at the end of the legs.
Henry nearly dropped his ax when he slammed the fridge door closed again. A hand pressed over his mouth choking down his stomach, which had leapt up into his throat.
Leon stared in horror for a few moments at the spot where he’d seen the skinned cat. He’d been bracing himself, so while he could feel the gorge rising in his stomach, he was able to rather easily keep it down. He swallowed heavily, trying to block the sounds of the crying cat. “If I put that thing out of its misery, I’m not going to cause some kind of demon invasion, am I?” Leon asked, forcefully keeping his voice level.
It took Henry a moment before he could answer. He was never, ever going to let Craven come down here from Chloe’s again. He opened his eyes and looked at Leon another moment before he felt he could safely take his hand from his mouth. “I don’t know,” he answered breathlessly. “I’ve never shot any of the hauntings in the Dreams. I don’t know if it works that way?” He risked a glance over his shoulder at the fridge door. The cat was still crying inside and Henry thought for a moment he could still see it. “I’ve always used the candles or the medallions to deal with the Apartment stuff.”
But he had no more candles and the Dreams hadn’t given him any of the medallions either. He decided the only choice he had was to let Leon try and shoot the poor creature, if for nothing else to put it out of its misery. “You can try,” he said as he stepped away from the fridge door and out of Leon’s way.
Leon nearly asked about the medallions and the candles. Anything, other than letting the poor thing continue crying like it was, was preferable to shooting a cat in the fridge. But if those were an option, he was sure that Henry would have suggested either of those instead.
He stepped toward the fridge. He swallowed thickly when he laid his hand on the handle, and after a brief hesitation he pulled it open. He was sure that he’d be seeing the car burned to the back of his eyelids for a while, and if he didn’t have nightmares about it he’d be surprised. He was relieved, at least, that it didn’t show up in it’s True Form. All he could see was a skinned cat, crying from the pain. “Sorry,” he murmured, pointed the gun at the poor creature, and pulled the trigger.
If Henry had been the man he’d been a few years ago, he would have left the kitchen and gone into his bedroom and put his hands over his ears to block out the noise and let Leon to do what needed to be done. But now, Henry didn’t so much as flinch or look away when Leon raised his gun and fired.
BANG! The sound of the report was like an explosion bouncing off the walls of Henry’s apartment. What followed was a strange and overwhelming silence. It took Henry a full second to realize that the deep hum that accompanied all the hauntings, the one that could be felt deep within in one’s bones had stopped. The crying in the fridge had stopped. Where the poor mass of flesh had been curled up had been replaced by the normal contents of Henry’s refrigerator. It was almost as though the cat had never existed and Leon had just killed Henry’s leftover pot roast. There was also now a hole in his crisper drawer. However, Henry didn’t really care. He also didn’t much care that his neighbors on either side (and likely the one under him) had heard the gunfire. All that mattered was that the haunting was over.
Henry looked up at the man next to him. He almost didn’t want to speak for fear of breaking the silence. When he did manage to force his voice to work, it came out practically a murmur, “Thank you.”
Why the fuck can’t anything be fucking normal in this god forsaken place? Not that Leon was terribly disappointed that no one needed to take care of the body of the poor creature, but seriously. He shook his head, then reholstered his gun. Maybe someone had heard the gunshot, and maybe they just thought it was a car backfiring. Or maybe they were glad it just stopped at one gun shot instead of having some crazy woman literally shooting a door down.
He turned from the fridge to Henry, swinging the fridge door closed. “You can thank me by buying me a beer,” he said, carefully keeping his voice void of emotion. “You want to go somewhere?” Somewhere not here.
Henry had long accepted that his life would never be normal again. He’d gotten somewhat accustomed to his apartment doing weird freaky things at inappropriate times, but this had really shaken him. He hoped that like the door chains, this was a one time deal. He really didn’t want to go through this again.
He also didn’t have any desire to be in his apartment anymore, either. “Yeah, I do,” he nodded. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll buy you whatever beer you want.”