Courtney Whitmore ✮ Stargirl (cosmicpowered) wrote in valloic, @ 2020-10-10 00:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: courtney whitmore |
They were a break from the clutter and noise of modern life. Somedays, it seemed like the world had just gotten too damn complicated. Being snatched off to another world was just one more complication on top of that. Even if Mike and Barbara didn’t know they were gone, it being away from them still hurt more than he was willing to admit. He still had Courtney, at least. And a house full of super-kids. Which really wasn’t that different than back home, honestly.
But somehow, it suddenly wasn’t their usual walking path, instead, a strange building towered above them. The Overlook Hotel. The name tugged at a memory, but he couldn’t place it just now. But something about it just made his blood run cold to even look at. He’d fought along the Spectre and Doctor Fate and some faced some dark foes in the process. This absolutely reminded him of that.
“Creepy place, huh, Court?” he asked. “What say we don’t stick around?”
Courtney liked spending time with Pat. Having him around really made this place a lot better. And yes, she had Yolanda, too, who was probably her best friend back home, but it was nice having family around. She really missed her Mom and Mike, so having Pat around definitely made things a little bit better. And the father daughter time they had nice. And she knew that Pat probably liked getting out of the house of super-children he ended up adopting every once in awhile. Though sometimes, when they went on walks, Courtney would see if she could drag Yolanda or Billy with them.
She loved Pat, but sometimes, he definitely a got a little caught up in how he wanted to take a “break” from modern life. Courtney would swear that if she didn’t know any better, Pat almost talked like he was from a different time. Especially with his love of classic cars, music, and movies. Also, the way he talked sometimes, he just sounded like he was from a different time. Courtney shrugged it off. Pat could be weird sometimes, sure, but he was the closest thing that she’d ever known to a father and honestly, she wouldn’t change him.
A shiver went down Courtney’s spine and she almost wished that she had thought to take the Cosmic Staff with her. There was definitely something horror movies about this place. And Courtney hated horror movies. She could never manage to sit through them. Or at least, if she did, she definitely didn’t watch them in the dark. Courtney nodded. “You don’t have to tell me twice,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Pat kept himself between Max, Courtney, and the ominous hotel. If it was going to do anything creepy, he wanted to make sure it got him first. He didn’t enjoy horror movies; he’d seen too much horror in his life already, but he knew enough about them to know that teenage girls were frequently the targets of horror creatures. And he’d be damned if he let anything happen to Courtney. They’d already come close enough to losing her already.
And that should have been the end of it. They should have just turned and walked away. It was the plan. It was a good plan. A sensible one.
But it seemed like the hotel had other ideas. Somehow, inexorably, no matter much they tried to walk and even run, it drew them closer and closer, until the doors themselves flung open.
It didn’t make sense. There was no moments that he could recall when they actually went through the doors. He was simply outside one moment… and inside the next.
”Court!”
Courtney didn’t like this at all. Everything about this situation was making her want to run for the hills. She’d already had a near death experience back home...she wasn’t looking to relive that in Vallo. Especially since there was still a lot about Vallo that she didn’t know. Like what a creepy horror movie hotel was doing there.
Courtney was really wishing that she had the staff now. She could’ve just flown away with her and Pat. Or STRIPE. Having a giant robot suit around would’ve definitely come in handy right now. Even running her hardest, it didn’t seem like she was going anywhere. In fact it seemed like she was going backwards into the hotel.
The next part happened too fast. Her and Pat went through the doors, and Courtney heard a loud slam. Then...nothing.
She looked around, seeing only darkness. And no Pat. Courtney’s heart starting pouding loudly in her chest.
“Pat?” she called out her voice shaking.
No response.
“Pat?!”
There was no sign of Courtney. No sign of Max either. Both absences sent Pat’s heart racing. How could he have lost them? They’d come in together, hadn’t they? Damn magic, never made a lick of sense. No wonder Sir Justice had called it the dark arts.
Things were pretty damn dark right now.
“Court!” he screamed again. “Max!” No response. Not even the echo of his own voice. He was alone. Completely and utterly alone. Pat had been alone before. Lost nearly everything and everyone important to him. There had been times of great despair.
That despair gnawed at him now, as though something was bringing it bubbling up to the surface.
”Paaaaat…” A voice, harsh, raspy, the voice of the dying, split the silence. A voice he hadn’t heard in years.
Sylvester’s voice.
Courtney wandered the hallway, keeping her eyes peeled for Pat or Max. She tried to ignore the pounding of her heart, and the spinning thoughts in her head that they’d left her behind. No. She had to find them. She would find them. Courtney ran down the halls, trying to escape and find her stepfather at the same time.
Her entire body was screaming at her. Get out get out get out. And she wanted to. But she had to find Pat and Max first. She couldn’t just leave them here. She knew that he wouldn’t leave her behind.
“Pat! Max!” Her voice rang out, all of the fear and terror in her voice. Courtney felt like the time she’d lost her mother at the mall when she was five all over again. Only this was easily ten times more terrifying. At the mall, she could just find a friendly sales associate who had a calmed her down with a lollipop who called her mother over the loudspeaker while she waited.
There was no such luck here.
Courtney paused, taking a moment to catch her breath. Then she heard it.
”Courtney….Courtney…”
Courtney perked her head up. She knew that voice.
“Mom?”
It was Sylvester, in his Starman uniform, just as Pat last remembered him, down to the injuries. Possibly the worst night of his entire life. The memories came rushing back, along with the feelings of helplessness. He’d been too late to do anything but pick up the pieces. His best friend, a man he’d considered closer than his family, his best friend in all the world had died in his arms.
“You couldn’t save me, Pat,” Sylvester said. “Couldn’t save any of us. The JSA died!”
He raised the Cosmic Staff and pointed it at Pat, energy glowing in the point. “What makes you think it’s going to go any different now? Those kids, your new family, you’re going to lose them too!”
A bolt of power lanced out, missing him by mere inches. “You’re a curse, Pat. Everything you touch dies. And sooner or later, that curse is going to take Barbara. And Courney. And Mike. And all the rest of those kids you’ve convinced you know what you’re doing.”
”How long do you think it’s going to last, Courtney?” Her mother asked. Her hands were on her hips, as she sneered down at her daughter. ”How long do you think everyone’s going to stick around?”
Courtney tilted head, confused. She’d never heard her mother talk like this before. Or look at her like that, either. A chill shot down her spine. This wasn’t right. None of it was right. Her mother was back in Blue Valley, with Mike. She wasn’t here, and she certainly wasn’t in some creepy hotel. Courtney attempted to move past, but her “mother” moved in front of her, blocking her path.
”It’s not going to last, Courtney,” her mother continued, ”This ‘happy family’ that you think we have right now...it’ll all blow up soon. Your father left. He knew that you weren’t sticking around for. Honestly...I think he had the right idea. He just left before I could. I was stuck with you.”
Tears stung in her eyes. “You don’t mean that,” Courtney said, balling her fists. “You’re not real. None of this is real.”
Sylvester’s words hurt, each one of them worse than the strongest punches he’d ever received, and he’d gone rounds in the ring with Ted Grant. They were the same doubts Pat had had ever since the JSA had died. He’d been too late to save them. And the new kids… sometimes it felt like they’d been more lucky than anything else. He could barely run his own life. Sometimes it felt like Mike, Barbara, and Courtney were just about the only good things in it.
“Sly, I…” he began, but further words died in his throat. “I didn’t… I’d have given anything to be there with you. You know that.” Sly had even tried to warn him away. Who knows what would have become of the Cosmic Rod then? Or Rex, would he have made it?
Those were the logical arguments. But logic had very little to do with any of this.
“How long until you get her killed too? Letting her play hero, how long, Pat? How long?” Slyvester punctuated each word with a point of the staff. “How long do you think your family will last after you get Courtney killed?”
At her tears, Barbara’s expression turned to one of mocking. ”Did I strike a nerve, baby girl?” she asked, taunting her daughter. ”You know I’m right. Pat, Mike, your new friends, me, we’re just going to leave. You think you have this happy stable family...but you know better. Sooner or later, it’s going to go away. And you’re just going to be that sad little girl, waiting on Christmas for someone who’s never going to show up.”
Courtney wiped her tears from her eyes, her expression turning into one of anger. “You’re wrong,” she snarled back. “My real dad was a jerk. He never cared, sure. He left me. I face that. It stung, yeah. I hated waiting like that, thinking that he cared only to find out...he didn’t. And I was so desperate, I even tried thinking that he was some superhero that died rather than admit the truth. But he didn’t leave because of me. I know that now.”
Courtney found herself standing taller in front of her mother. This wasn’t real. She didn’t feel scared anymore. Or sure, she was still scared, but her anger was pushing it down.
Pat was reeling from the verbal assault, but something was screaming in the back of his mind about just how wrong this was. Sylvester had been his friend, his partner. He’d trusted Pat with his life, even after his got his fancy Cosmic Staff and JSA friends. They’d been partners, no matter how many people tried to call him a sidekick. He’d told Pat to stay away from the JSA’s last battle because he’d wanted to save him, not because he thought he’d bring them down.
No, Sylvester would never, ever, have talked to him like this.
“My family loves me,” he said. “We’re already faced certain death together and come out stronger. Yeah, it was scary. And yeah, I’m terrified of losing them. But that’s a fear that comes from love. I’ve got a great son. A fantastic wife. And a pretty damn amazing step-daughter. And if facing certain death together didn’t break us apart, nothing will.”
Determination made me take a step forward and he brought his fists up. “I don’t know who you are, but my daughter’s in here somewhere too. And no Goddamn ghost is going to get in my way!”
Courtney looked at the sneering version of her mother in front of her, wiping the tears out of her face. Anger bubbled to the surface, and right now, she really wished that she had the cosmic staff so that she could blast this entire place into bits and pieces. But she couldn’t do that. Pat and Max were still there. She had to find them first. That was all that she cared about right now. And even though her mother wasn’t with her right now, Courtney knew that she would never treat her like this.
“My dad might have left me,” she said, “But that doesn’t mean that everyone is going to leave. It’s okay to let people in. It’s okay to make room for someone else. I know that now. Pat isn’t going to leave. My mother would never leave me. Mike isn’t going to leave me. And my friends are going to be there until the end. And I don’t know who you are, but you are definitely out of my mother, and you don’t scare me, you bitch.”
Courtney pushed past the illusion of her mother, continuing down the hall. “Pat! Max!”
The thing that looked like Sylvester opened its mouth to throw more taunts at him. Pat punched it right in the face. It didn’t go down--something told him you didn’t beat a ghost by punching it--but damn if it didn’t feel good.
“I’m not a curse,” he said. “I’m a survivor. And I’ve survived because of my family. And nothing you say can change that.”
He broke into a sprint. No sense in giving the thing time to respond. “Courtney!”
Courtney’s head perked up when she heard Pat’s voice. “Pat?” she called out, a cautious tone in her voice. She started down the hallway, heading in the direction of the voice.
Eventually, she saw him, breaking into a sprint. “Pat!” She ran towards him, nearling barreling into him for a hug. She would just cling to him for a second, making sure that he was real and not another illusion.
And as quickly as they’d been pulled in, the room shifted, and they were suddenly in the lobby, Max looking up at them with an expectant look on his face.
Courtney looked up at Pat, breaking the hug. “I think that’s a sign to get out of here,” she said.
Pat held onto her for a good long moment, relief flooding his body. Even with his own sense of self under attack, he’d been terrified for what she might have been going through.
He quickly scooped up Max. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”