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May. 22nd, 2023 at 8:56 PM
[So this is how he gets away with it, then. Cruz, a skeleton, with a skeleton horse, lives in a skeleton of a house with a skeletal barn attached - and he remains unseen, his home apparently abandoned, all the way on the outskirts of this thing that's barely a town.
Well, you do what you gotta do, and Johnnie won't turn down a kind offer of a safe place to stay the night. He can't help but grin at Chrissy having such a good time riding that bony horse as he pulls the bike in through the barn door and parks it to the side, then hops off.]
Hey man, we owe ya for this. Here.
[See, this is yet another reason it's good to stock up on alcohol. He finds their most recent stolen bottle of tequila and pulls it out as he saunters over to their host and offers it in an outstretched hand.]
On us. Uh, if you drink, that is. You do drink, right?
[Normally that would be a dumb question to ask but the guy appears to be actual bones. But, bones that can smoke, without lungs, so he can probably drink without a mouth, right?
That earns a laugh from Cruz.]
I sure do, fella. You don't have to, though. I'm not looking for any kind of repayment, just helping out a couple folks in need.
[Johnnie shakes his head and waves that attempt off.]
Nah, it's all yours. Or if you really insist, we can all split it tomorrow, the three of us an' the rest of your crew. Can't wait to meet 'em. They all skeletons too?
Well, you do what you gotta do, and Johnnie won't turn down a kind offer of a safe place to stay the night. He can't help but grin at Chrissy having such a good time riding that bony horse as he pulls the bike in through the barn door and parks it to the side, then hops off.]
Hey man, we owe ya for this. Here.
[See, this is yet another reason it's good to stock up on alcohol. He finds their most recent stolen bottle of tequila and pulls it out as he saunters over to their host and offers it in an outstretched hand.]
On us. Uh, if you drink, that is. You do drink, right?
[Normally that would be a dumb question to ask but the guy appears to be actual bones. But, bones that can smoke, without lungs, so he can probably drink without a mouth, right?
That earns a laugh from Cruz.]
I sure do, fella. You don't have to, though. I'm not looking for any kind of repayment, just helping out a couple folks in need.
[Johnnie shakes his head and waves that attempt off.]
Nah, it's all yours. Or if you really insist, we can all split it tomorrow, the three of us an' the rest of your crew. Can't wait to meet 'em. They all skeletons too?
Comments
Along the way, she notices the little bandage that was put over her belly button piercing has come loose, and she just shrugs and pulls it off the rest of the way. It's too bad he wasn't able to really see it just a minute ago, she thinks, and fiddles with the stud a little. It's tender and sore, but nothing too bad.
Feeling that makes her briefly touch behind her ear and her back.]
Do you think it's okay if I take off these bandages now?
[The one over his coyote came off at some point when taking off his pants in the last day or so, and it's fine. He runs a hand over the inked lines, then shrugs and gets up to go find clean clothes for himself.]
At least, the tattoo ones. I don't really know about the piercing but I bet it's fine too. Gotta be, right? Fresh air's good for healing, or something.
[Maybe he's making that up, actually. Hm. Sounds right, though.]
Supposed to put lotion or whatever on the tattoo. You got lotion? 'Cause I don't. Shoulda picked some up. Maybe Cruz has olive oil, that shit works too.
[And also it's not something he carries around with him. And out here, the chances of anyone having real olive oil seem pretty low. What do cowboys cook with? Bacon grease? Lard? Probably not things that should go on healing skin.
Well, he'll just go with a t-shirt and underwear for a second until he knows what their options are.]
[It's finally her time to shine. Her silly little beauty products will come in useful. She quickly gets dressed again, but makes a note that she'll need to wash this outfit soon. She'll probably start smelling if she doesn't. For now it passes the sniff test, and she shrugs as she crouches down at their bags and starts going through them.
A bottle of lotion is pulled out, surprisingly not strawberry scented. It's just a basic, unscented kind. But it makes her skin nice and soft and that's what counts. The tube is tossed over to him, before she pulls out some of those jars of food she had bought back at the gas station in New Orleans.]
This stuff will come in handy right now too. I'm starving.
[She struggles with the lid to the jar, but eventually is able to twist it off and get to the jerky inside. She sits on the floor, eating from the jar before she pulls out a piece and offers him one.]
[That's to the lotion, initially, but right as he's about to open it he glances over and sees she's got food now, too, so he grabs the piece of jerky and sticks that in his mouth while he pops the cap on the tube of lotion open and spreads some on his new tattoo.]
You got all kindsa goodies with you.
[And he's genuinely surprised the lotion is unscented. Once he's done, he tosses that back toward her and tugs his jeans and socks back on, then works at the jerky for a bit. Good to have something in his stomach, even if lunch is probably not far off. Then again, who knows. Maybe cowboy lunch is late.
And he finds himself hoping it is, in fact, as he goes back over to that locked trunk and sits down next to it as he examines the padlock.]
I probably shouldn't open this, right?
[He's totally going to try to open it, regardless, he just needs to see what he's working with here. Basic tumbler, normally opened with a key. It's possible he could pick it if he gets lucky with a bobby pin, but maybe it'll be easier to just look for where the key is stashed.]
I was wondering what's in it. Why would he keep it locked like that?
[She doubts it's weapons or anything. Most people wouldn't leave those in a secondary bedroom. It's probably not money or jewels, because he doesn't have any need for them. So she's insanely curious about what it could be.]
I've got my hairpins, if you think you could get the lock open. But he has to have the key around here somewhere. Let's try looking around.
[There's absolutely no issue in her mind with stealing the key and looking inside. They're just curious, it's not like they're going to take what's inside. It's all innocent, good fun. She grabs his hand and pulls him off the trunk, and laughs as they make their way out of the room to see if they can find a key.]
The main room does have hooks by the door, but no keys on those. Shelves with food and plates and cookware too, and even a butcher block with a drawer inserted into it, but no keys anywhere obvious.]
If I had a key an' wanted to hide it around here... Under the floor, maybe?
[Thing is, with the house in this state, most of the floorboards are already pretty loose. He kicks at one until he gets his toe underneath and pries it upward, but it's just dirt under there, so he lets it drop back into place.]
Or out in the barn? Or inside the mattress in his bedroom?
[Oh, but there's no obvious bedroom. The only other room connected to this one is a tiny bathroom with a tub that looks like it gets used more for washing clothes than anything else. Hm. No fair, why does he have to sleep and this guy doesn't? The storage room they're in must be the old bedroom.]
Maybe it's in that room we just came out of, actually.
Then again...
Maybe he knows how people are and knows hiding things in plain sight is usually the best course of action. She goes from door frame to door frame, standing up on her tiptoes to feel around. She's able to produce a key on the door frame leading into the bedroom they're staying in.]
Babe, look! [She's giddy as she runs over to the trunk and tries to stick the key into the padlock. Only...it doesn't fit. At all. She huffs and puffs as she tries a few times, but it never goes into the lock. In a fit of frustration, she throws the key across the room.]
That stupid key unlocks something else. But there's nothing else with a lock on it in the house. [As soon as the words come out of her mouth, she remembers something from earlier.]
But there's a cabinet in the barn with a lock on it! Maybe this will open that, and the key to the trunk will be in there.
[Yeah, smart call, but even if this key isn't for that, he scrambles after it to retrieve it anyway. If they don't need it, better to hang it up where it was to make it less obvious they went poking around.
He picks it up, then gives it a toss and catches it again.]
All right! To the barn.
[He trots his way on outside and blinks at how bright the sun actually is once it's not filtered through the rickety walls of that shack. He can get a better feel for where they are now, too - dirt road, old fallow field overgrown with weeds, but there's a property line just back in the direction of town and that field is full of greenery in neat rows. And people, bent over as they tend to the crops. People who, he can only assume as he watches, are there against their will.
Goddamn this place. So fucked. He gives a short frustrated huff and redirects his attention to the barn and heads inside.]
This cabinet?
[The paint is flaking, but it has several locked drawers inside. The key sticks in the first lock, but he rattles it until the tumbler gives up, only to find nothing inside.
The second lock, second drawer, now that opens smoothly. This one gets used sometimes. And in that, there's actually a ring with two keys on it - but one looks small enough to fit in a padlock.]
When the second drawer produces a keyring, she reaches in to take it out. No alarms go off, but she still looks around to make sure nothing bad will happen for taking them. After she's sure they're in the clear, she hurries back to the house, taking care to not look back out toward those fields on her way.
She goes straight into the room with the trunk, and crouches down so she can work the smaller of the keys into the padlock. It clicks and unlocks, and she hurries to get the trunk open. Despite all the clues they had been given when talking to Cruz the night before, she's not really prepared for what they find inside.
There's plenty of things in there, all of them things that must be purely sentimental. They all belonged to a woman, one that she finds a picture of. There's a few other pictures she pulls out, ones that must be her with Cruz when he was alive.]
They looked so happy.
[She whispers passing the picture off to Johnnie. All of a sudden, it doesn't feel right to be looking at these things. Her frown grows as she looks at the back of the picture.]
Her name was Elizabeth. I think she was his wife. I wonder what happened to her.
But maybe before they head out of town he'll have a better answer. Cruz will know.
Soon he finds himself kneeling beside the trunk, back inside, and taking an old photo in hand as Chrissy passes it over. He'd put as much together after what Cruz told them - poor guy fell in love with a white girl and was probably hanged for it by some lynch mob. It's one thing to guess at that, though, and another entirely to see their faces, preserved side by side.]
Yeah. I wonder. Fuck.
[It's times like this he just isn't sure what to say, but he feels it all strongly - feels awful for Cruz and Elizabeth, but meanwhile, his skin prickles with anger at what these people must have done in retaliation.]
See if you can find a last name. I bet her family lives here.
[He'd bet hard money her family is responsible, in fact. He pulls out a necklace, a comb, then frowns and puts it all right back. It just feels weird to be handling her things.
But then there's one more item he can't resist - a folded piece of paper, but filled to the brim with more. It's a collection of letters.]
Oh, here. Elizabeth Auclair.
[So yeah, her family definitely lives here. She can't help but wonder what it would've been like if she had been alive and Johnnie had tried to be with her back in Hawkins. How her parents would react, what they'd do to the both of them. They'd definitely try to have him killed or arrested. They'd probably send her away - if not something worse.]
I don't think she's alive anymore either, Johnnie.
[Because it would be one thing if Elizabeth let her family tear them apart, let them hang Cruz. She isn't sure he'd be holding onto these things in quite the same way at this. This is something else, far more than simple loss and regret.]
I think maybe she died before he did. Or at the same time, maybe. It wouldn't surprise me if her family had something to do with both of them dying. But if they were both killed, why isn't she here with him?
[It's with a sigh that she puts everything back where it belongs. Poking around here just doesn't feel right at all. It makes her incredibly guilty. Once everything is in, she shuts the lid and makes sure to lock it back up. It bothers her that they don't know where Elizabeth is or what happened to her. But she thinks maybe it only bothers her as much as it does because she identifies pretty strongly with her. ]
[Awful thought, though. He scoots away from the trunk, back onto the blankets, and frowns as he mulls all of it over.]
Maybe that's why he keeps her stuff, though. Not just for him, but for her, if she finds her way back. Kinda hopeless though, right? Considering she's probably just... gone.
[That's the thing about this shitty universe, not everyone gets what they want. In fact, most people don't, and the ones who do, it's just coincidence. So on the one hand, he hopes Cruz isn't waiting too desperately, looking too hard, for someone who's just not around anymore.
But on the other, he totally gets it and hopes that fucker never fully gives up his search.]
Let's get those keys back before they all get here.
[She lowers herself down to her knees on the blankets, and then leans down so she's on her hands and knees beside him. It's easier to crawl in close, so her head is over his and she's able to comfortably kiss him.]
No matter what, I wouldn't let anyone hurt you.
[He has to know that by now, but it still feels pressing for her to say it. There's some kind of guilt she can't describe that's floating within her now. Like if he sees these things and realizes Elizabeth didn't save or try to stay with Cruz, then maybe she'd be the same. He's not the type to do that, but the itching sense of wanting to reassure him helps her feel better all the same.
Her nose brushes against his as she smiles, and just takes a few seconds to appreciate that quiet moment between them. The promise of a day of adventure stretches out before them, and she's not looking to dampen that with too many emotions.]
I know, babe. You fuckin' jumped off a moving motorcycle into shotgun range once. I'm pretty sure if you thought you could plant your feet in front of a train an' stop it for me, you'd try.
[Too damn cute, too damn devoted after just barely three weeks. Or three centuries, maybe.
He stands up and offers her a hand, but instead of leading her to the barn he pulls her into his arms and kisses her again.]
He says anyone can make her feel understood like that, but so far everyone else has only ever disappointed her. He's the only one that ever has bothered to see her as she is.
As the kiss ends, her hand slides down his arm so she can link their fingers together. They've got to put the keys back in place, so no one knows they were snooping around.]
Do you know what? [She breaks the silence when they're halfway out to the barn, laughing before she says what's on her mind.] I'm really glad I don't have to dress like the other women here do. The clothes look so...sad and boring.
[He's quick to respond with a big grin.]
The whole fuckin'... Long sleeves, dress down to your fuckin' toes, like you're wearin' a tarp? It's not like it's even practical for farm work, either. I don't get it.
[Then again, maybe most of the women in the saloon last night weren't the kind that do much work, since they have people to do it for them. Ugh. Once inside the barn, he shakes his head and kicks at an ancient dried pile of horse shit, sending it flying in pieces.]
An' speaking of farm work, I dunno how anyone could live here without bein' fuckin' depressed about what's goin' on all around. I wanna get some of those people out. Dunno how, an' I know it won't fix the whole system, but there's gotta be a way to help at least some of 'em while we're here. You can't keep people penned up like fuckin' livestock, it's pissing me off.
[He'd noticed Chrissy's attempts to just not look earlier, but that's just not his tactic. He can't ignore shit like that.]
[She whispers, bracing her hand against a wooden post. She has no idea how to help those people, but remembers the upset and disgust she had felt when she first saw them out having to work the way they were.]
We could set the farm on fire. Use it as a distraction to get them out. But where would we have them go to? They don't have anywhere to go, and it's not safe for them to just run out in the open.
[They'd probably be killed on sight, which doesn't sit right with her.]
But maybe that's something Cruz can help us figure out. He and his friends could get tons of people out of here if we found them a wagon or something!
Yeah. I figure it's worth asking Cruz. Dunno why he an' his guys haven't tried it already, though. Maybe 'cause his house is right here. We gotta make sure the fire can't come this way.
[Or, okay, maybe they haven't set the field on fire because that's not typically what people first think of doing. So maybe they have other ideas. He can't let himself believe Cruz and his friends are fine with slavery right next door.]
We gotta talk to them, too. The slaves, I mean. Gotta let 'em know so they can be ready to fuckin' high-tail it outta there. Maybe they got ideas too an' just need an opportunity. An' we gotta get our hands on shit that burns real good. Old straw in here will just turn to ash before it gets hot enough.
[She crosses over to wrap her arms around him from behind, rising up on her tiptoes to press her chin against his shoulder.]
But it would be worth it to get to help people.
[It's something she likes to do, whenever she's able to. And if they're able to create enough chaos in this time and place to free a bunch of slaves, then she thinks it would be well worth the effort.]
What if Cruz says he's not interested in helping though?
[They have all the way until dawn to do something. Okay, so maybe it makes it harder to get word out, if anything, but whatever. He doesn't want to miss out on the opportunity to hang out with cool cowboy ghosts and hear more about what they get up to, and then he can ruin the lives of some asssholes who think it's cool to try and own people.]
If Cruz an' his buddies aren't in, then we'll figure something out. Hell, look what we've done so far, just the two of us? We can set fucking fires without anyone else's help.
[She hesitates, pulling away from him so she can pace a little. Her small hands are balled up into loose fists, and she starts worrying her way around in circles.]
Do we really want to spend all day riding around with people, if they don't care about the fact other people are being treated like property?
[But he's right. They can get things done on their own. They make an amazing team, so she's not worried about that. She's far more worried about her idolizing Cruz being ruined by his just not caring.]
[Okay, now he's being an asshole. At least he recognizes it, though, but it doesn't stop him.
And, really, after about a second, he shrugs and holds up a hand before she can try to reply to that, since it wasn't really the kind of question that needs an answer.]
Let's see what the guy says before we get all worked up about if he does or doesn't, all right? I don't wanna sit here an' dream up imaginary situations, fucking waste of time.
[He shakes his head and starts toward the barn door. He wants another look at that field, maybe figure out the best way to tackle it if they have to do it themselves.]
[She flinches at that first part, and it stops her dead in her tracks. She knows that he doesn't mean to snap at her, and he probably isn't intending to be dismissive in how he holds up his hand. The fact remains that it feels like he's being a jerk, but she doesn't want to call him out on it right away because she doesn't want him to get angry at her or even more frustrated than he seems to be right now.
That means giving him his space, so she can also have hers to try to soothe her hurt feelings without being needy about it. She lets him watch the fields, and instead of standing out there with him, she makes her way back into the little house. She wants to finish getting cleaned up and ready for the day, and also wants to get their things packed.
If he doesn't want to stand around and think up imaginary situations, he's free to take all the time he wants outside figuring out a plan. Whenever he's ready to come back inside, he'll find her sitting on the floor beside the trunk, using it as a table so she can write in her notebook. She spots him and smiles a little, but closes the cover to her notebook.]
I was just writing about when we got to Nashville. [Not that he needs to know, but she tells him anyway.] Did you figure out a plan?
Of course, it's no more than a few moments of being alone that he tries to change that - not by seeking out Chrissy, but by trying to wave over one of the men picking beans in that field. He gets a pause and a wary look - not like the look of a man afraid to approach for normal reasons, but rather, the look of a man looking through a shadow that might leap out at him at any second.]
Hey. D'you see me?
[Worth asking, but he doesn't get a response. Well, shit. Maybe he doesn't, or maybe the guy doesn't speak English, or maybe he's that terrified of being reprimanded if he's found talking to someone outside the farm. Man, he hopes it isn't that, just for how fucked up that is.
Well, whatever. They can fuck up a farm, they can tear down a fence, but Cruz is the one who will know if there's a route these people can flee down, or if there are people who can help them get far away.
So a few minutes later he strolls his way into the house, a half-burned cigarette in hand, and smiles down at Chrissy, then shrugs.]
Nah. Tried to talk to a guy but I dunno if he even knew what he was looking at. So fucking weird how inconsistent it is. Like, what is it that means some people see ghosts an' others can't? 'Course, he mighta just been freaked out someone was trying to talk to him.
I've had some time to think it over just now, and I think you were wrong to snap at me like that. It scared me and made you sound like a jerk.
[There's a flinch right after she says it, like she's conditioned to bracing for impact. But there's never a need for it, and she relaxes with a shaky exhale.]
And I just think you should know that.
[Her hands flex against her legs, and she slowly moves to stand up, so she can pack away her journal and pen.]