After waking up in a strange room and suddenly filled with a sense of dread and anxiety that triggered a half-asthma, half-panic attack that led to tears and more anxiety, the morning had definitely been rough for Eddi. She had been hesitant about leaving her room, and took most of the day coming to terms with the fact that this was definitely happening.
What eventually pulled her out of the room was a hunger that was no longer able to be ignored, so tentatively, she stepped out, clutching tightly onto her emergency inhaler in the front of her hoodie pocket.
...She sort of wished she hadn't been kidnapped in her pajamas.
Slowly, Eddi stepped forward little by little, and quickly realized she had no idea where she was going. She hadn't realized how grand the house was, and it was obvious now that it wasn't just her room, but every room was spacious and immaculately decorated.
Not feeling quite up to descending the stairs yet, she poked around and headed to the room across hers whose door was slightly cracked open.
Carefully opening the door wider, she only stepped half in before quietly calling out: "Is there anyone here?"
The response was less of a greeting and more of just a hand raising above a couch with it’s back to her. It was followed quickly by the sound of gagging.
Marco had ended up in the lounge at least an hour ago. He’d been aiming for his room, of course, but had ended up a floor short when his insides had turned against him. He felt like one big cramp, like every muscle in his body was turning against him. And fuck, his cravings were getting bad at this point. Worst of all, he had at least a few more days of this, and it was going to get worse before it’d get better, Every time he’d gone through this before, he’d had doctors to help him through.
He hadn’t heard back from the one nurse that was stuck there with them yet, sadly.
He wasn’t sure he was ready to have a conversation with someone else yet, but then there was… someone. And it didn’t seem right to tell her to get lost. Plus, it was hard to when his face was in a trash can.
He gagged again.
Eddi cringed out of sympathy for whoever was getting sick behind the couch. As worn out as she was (and her eyes and face were probably red and puffy from being a big baby all day), she was definitely not as bad off as they were.
Walking towards them until she spotted the young man, she kneeled beside him and rubbed circles onto his back.
"Do you need anything? I can try to find water or... something," she mumbled vaguely.
Marco looked up to the girl who was now touching him, and he couldn’t decide if it was comforting or strange. At that moment, it didn’t matter either way. “Got water,” he murmured, pointing to his water bottle absently as he spit into the trash can. He’d run out of stuff to throw up a while ago.
When he finally pulled his head up again, he looked over this new girl. Had whoever had taken them decided to take children, too? This girl looked so young. Maybe still in high school. It was one thing to take a bunch of random people, but a kid? That had to set off bells, somewhere. That was harder to cover up.
Or maybe it wasn’t. He’d ended up on the street when he was a teenager, after all, and no one had given a shit.
“You look like you’re twelve,” he told her, arching an eyebrow. “Where the hell did you come from?”
Eddi smiled sheepishly, chuckling lightly at the comment. There had been a couple times where she tried to buy a ticket to an R rated movie and the employee just looked at her.
"Um. I... My room is over there." She pointed towards the door. "Or did you mean where I was... " She paused, swallowing thickly. Saying it out loud was like confirming everything that was happening... but that was stupid. Of course it was happening.
"Taken from? I'm from Washington... What about you?"
So she was taken, and hadn’t just come out of the woodwork. That would have been crazy, if they just had kids running around doing the muscle work. But what about this wasn’t crazy to begin with? Marco shifted, starting to push himself up so he could move over for her, but didn’t get far at all before wincing and laying back down. Fuck, everything hurt.
“Um, a bit outside LA,” he told her. He lay his head back down, still watching her despite being horizontal. “Seriously, how fucking old are you? You look like you shouldn’t even be here. I mean, none of us should, but…”
That was so far away... Eddi wondered, where was everyone else from? Maybe she should double check that message board and properly read through it when she got back to her room.
"Um. I'm 18..." She frowned, her brow furrowing in worry. "Do you want me to help you back to your room? Or maybe I could try to find some medicine...?" They'd left her both her inhalers, so maybe there was other kinds of medicine they could find?
“There’s no medicine,” Marco hissed through gritted teeth. His irritation clearly wasn’t directed at the girl, but he couldn’t hide it anymore. “No fucking medicine and they just fucking watch us with their fucking cameras, knowing that we’re fucking suffering…” He cringed and buried his face in the couch cushion, while raising a middle finger and hoping that one of the cameras could see it.
Oh. Eddi shrunk back a little bit, her hands hiding in the sleeves of her too big hoodie. If she stopped to think about it, her clothes still kind of smelled like home... or maybe she was being crazy. And maybe she was about to be selfish, but tentatively she leaned over the man and wrapped her arms around him in a light hug.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could help more..." She said quietly.
Marco flinched at first, both surprised and uncomfortable. But the discomfort was more a general thing, constant now, whether he was being hugged or not. He awkwardly bent to lower his hand, and gave her a pat on the head. “Okay, okay, down girl,” he said, his tone gentle again. “Dude, I’m drenched with sweat right now, you can’t honestly want to be touching me.”
Still, he couldn’t quite hide the half-smile as he tried to sit up again. “Ah, oww. You, uh… You got a name?”
Eddi hadn't intended to make him uncomfortable, but maybe subconsciously she hugged him because she wanted the hug more than anything else. She was so... pathetic. If they were all stuck in this house together, she didn't want to be seen as the baby, or as dead weight. She couldn't let her insecurities dictate her actions...
"It's not so bad. I thought maybe it would make you feel better, but..." That was kind of dumb of me, wasn't it? "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable." She pulled away, slipping her hands in the hoodie pocket and fiddled with her inhaler.
"Eddi. Eddi Fierro. It's nice to meet you... sort of. I wish it wasn't under these circumstances, though," she smiled awkwardly.
Marco just shrugged. “I was gonna be uncomfortable either way,” he assured her. There was no helping that. Now that he was upright, he stretched his hands above him, grunting as he did, hoping it would alleviate some of the pain, but no dice. “Marco. Vasquez. And I really wish it was under different circumstances. Though, under different circumstances, I can’t see us actually talking to each other. No offense.”
Eddi shook her head. “It’s no problem… I mean, we’d be in different states anyway, right?” She knew that’s not what he meant, but… She hugged her knees, resting her chin on top. “Maybe that’s one good thing about all of this. We’ll get to meet all sorts of different people we’d never be able to talk to before. Not that I think anyone would’ve wanted to trade their lives for something like that... but at least it’s better than going through all of this alone?” She offered hopefully.
Marco arched an eyebrow. “Oh. You’re one of those, huh?” He rubbed a hand over his face, wiping sweat away, despite it being a futile effort. God, why did the withdrawal always make him sweat so much? “You would be one of those easy marks, at work. Just say three things about how you’re close to your mother and how you’re going to find love when you’re not expecting it, and then done. That…” He chuckled. “That’s funny. Wasn’t expecting that here.”
Eddi looked over at Marco, frowning deeply and with a furrowed brow. As much as she turned over his words in her head, she didn’t quite exactly know what he was implying.
“What do you mean?”
He put two fingers up to his temple and squinted one eye, doing his best impression of Professor Xavier from X-Men. “I’m a psychic,” he said, keeping a straight face before cracking a sideways smile. “Well, no, I work as one. If I were reading your fortune, you’d be easy. You’re finding the good in the fact that we’ve all been kidnapped. You’re a little too happy about it, honestly. All that optimism, and I can say that any number of good things would happen, and you’d be eating it up.” He shrugged.
Eddi's frown had eased into a more relaxed expression of interest as he spoke. That was a pretty cool job...! She bet Marco had a bunch of interesting stories from his work, and that he met all kinds of different people every day... But when he finished talking, she went back to pouting and looked away.
"T-that's not true... You don't know that." What was so bad about looking at the positive side of things? It didn't mean she was gullible... Most of the time. Maybe.
Whatever, it wasn't true!
Marco tried to hide an eyeroll. He wiped his hands on his jeans, hoping to dry them at least a little, then grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand into his and making her hold it palm-up. He traced a few of the lines with a finger, humming thoughtfully as he did.
“Okay, look, see here? This is your life line,” he explained, tracing it. “See how it curves like this? It means you have a lot of vitality. You’re energetic, you’re lively. You’re going to have a nice, fulfilling life, with people who love you deeply. That’s this line. This line,” he traced another, “says you get heartbroken easily. Which isn’t a bad thing, it just means that you make deep attachments. You love the people that come into your life, and you hate to see them go. And this one, with the positioning down here, see this? This means that you’re going to take control of your life, you’re going to grasp it and mold it and you’re going to make it your bitch, and you’re going to come out of that amazing.”
He held his hand flat to allow her to take her hand back. “What’d you think of that?”
Eddi watched Marco curiously, easily trusting him with taking her hand. As he spoke, she tried to take everything he said with a grain of salt, especially considering his earlier comment!
But as he continued to speak, she was sucked into his words and she was completely stunned.
It took her a moment to find the words, but as she pulled her hand away, she mumbled lamely, "...I don't know about making life my bitch..." Was she really that easy to read? They had talked to each other for, what--less than 15 minutes?
"Are you really good at your job, or am I that transparent?"
For probably the first time that day, Marco grinned. “I’m really good at my job,” he assured her.
“Look, here’s all I can tell you for sure.” He held his own hand flat, and traced the lines along his palm, naming them as he went. “Heart line, head line, life line, fate line. The rest doesn’t matter. You’re energetic and lively. That’s just an observation, you’ve been in here long enough that I could guess that. Nice, fulfilling life with people who love you deeply? That’s… Anyone who’s energetic attracts a certain type, that have to like to be around them. Heartbroken, deep attachments, that’s a lucky guess, but it applies to most people. Hating to see your friends go, that’s every single person. And knowing what you’re going to do with your life? That’s bullshit, but it sounds great as a finisher to say that you’re gonna make it out okay.”
He paused to take a drink of water, at the same time choking back a wave of nausea that he hoped she didn’t see on his face. “Sorry. I spoiled the illusion. I’m not sure I can pretend to be psychic while I’m here, while everyone’s looking for real magic to get us out.”
Eddi shook her head. “I think what you can do is better than magic… I dunno, maybe it sounds stupid, but people talk about magic as like… this thing that just pops up and solves whatever problems you have, which would be nice…” The especially right now hung in the air as she paused. “It’s this random thing that’s not really measurable, and no one really knows what it is, just that it’s amazing. But you can do and say that stuff with your own abilities, and it seems like magic. Something that you have the power, something that you can control yourself… it’s definable… I think that’s cooler, but… I dunno,” she smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I’m just… saying stupid stuff.”
She looked at him with worry on her face though--”Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you back to your room? Or I could go down to the kitchen and see what food there is… Maybe I could heat up soup…” She recalled someone had said something about making food earlier that day, but…
Marco tried to smile. Most people were really disappointed when he told them how it worked. That was why he didn’t tell most people. This kid was sweet, though. She just praised him for it. That was new.
Unfortunately, at the mention of food, he just felt sicker. He put a hand up, waving it like he could ward off his nausea. Then, quickly, he grabbed for his trash bin again. He gagged and threw up the small amount of liquid he’d just drank, and stayed over the trash can as he continued to cough and heave.
Eddi winced, once more reaching over to gently rub circles onto his back. "S-sorry... Are you okay? Well--" She caught herself, of course he wasn't okay. Not sure what to say, she simply mumbled pathetically, "...Sorry."
She wished she could do something useful.
For a long moment, Marco just stayed quiet as he tried to control his gagging, and the trembling that had come back with it. He spit a few times to try to get the taste out of his mouth. Fuck, he didn’t remember it being quite this miserable when he was in rehab. It had been miserable, of course, but they’d at least given him pain killers.
“I think… I think I might take that help back up to my room,” he said softly. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he pushed himself up off the couch. He tried to keep his pained moans to a minimum. “I just, um, wouldn’t mind a spotter for going up the stairs.”
Eddi nodded, standing up with him and the emptiness in her stomach pushed to the back of her mind.
"Do you need me to help you walk?" She offered her hand.
Marco hesitated, then shook his head. “Nah, I’ve got it for now. I just need someone to make sure I don’t fall down the stairs. It’s a lot of stairs, you know?” He forced a laugh. “I think I’m just gonna try to get some sleep. Maybe they’ll tranquilize us again. I’d… I’d be okay with that.”
Eddi vaguely remembered that... sort of. Yesterday was just a complete sickly haze and only bits and pieces of her brief moments of consciousness were retained. Maybe there was some kind of bug going around? But... it'd be kind of scary if that's why they gathered them all up here for, to test out how they reacted to different diseases or something.
She gave a small smile. "I kind of hope so too so you can get some rest." She began to walk out of the room slowly, but waiting for Marco before she got too far ahead.
Once again, Marco groaned, and it took a moment to mentally prepare himself to move again. When he did, he moved slower than Eddi, but he had a feeling that she didn’t mind. “Thanks,” he said, smiling softly back. “You’re nice.”
Eddi shook her head, smiling softly herself. "I'm just trying to do the right thing. We should take care of each other... And I want to help you as much as I can, that's all." She held open the door for him to pass through first.
“Right. Nice.” Marco smiled again as he passed her. He couldn’t help but feel like it would end up getting her in trouble. Still, in the meantime, it was appreciated.