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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
[The thought of photos has him smiling. He's really taken to her little camera, though his favorite use remains sexy bedroom shots. Maybe if they wind up in the right time again they can grab more film.
They're nearly to the border with Arizona when they finally wind up in a town that's a real town, and not just a shack along the highway. Lordsburg, though, what a name. The road itself has become narrow and barely paved, and as they approach the small stand of buildings, he can see that the current label for it is not, in fact, 10, but State Road 14.]
All right, what's this, the 40s? Maybe early 50s?
[He speculates as he looks around at the dated buildings and style of the signs. But hell, it's still modern enough to be a place they can get food and coffee, surely. And it doesn't look terrible - there are lights here and there, including several at the town center around a pretty majestic-looking stone courthouse that must date back to when all this was actual Mexico, minus the "New".
Just outside town, actually, there are a lot of lights, all in a line. Odd, for the time of night and a small town like this. But they're not moving, so he figures it's a fence or building or something like it, and parks the bike under a sign reading Lordsburg Market and Cafe.]
Should have everything we need. You wanna try your lockpicking out again?
[He'd noticed earlier, and definitely approved, it's just a shame they had to hurry. But here? Chances are good nobody's going to come by any time soon.]
So, any tips?
[She's joking around, grinning and laughing. But she's also serious, because when she straightens out the bobby pin and pushes it into the lock to start turning and twisting it, she's just leaping in blind. That method seems to work pretty well, because as luck would have it, the lock clicks open the second the words leave her mouth.
Her jaw drops as she glances up at Johnnie, absolutely stunned she managed that on her first try. It's definitely just beginner's luck, but she still looks pretty proud of herself.]
Nevermind. I guess I should be teaching you, huh?
[He laughs as he swipes a hand through the air in her direction, then stretches his arms up into the air and cracks his back. Fuck, that's better. Been sitting too damn long this whole trip, and as much as he likes driving, he's looking forward to not having to do quite so much of it for a while.]
That's your lucky bobby pin now, better not lose it.
[Beginner's luck is right, though, and he's happy for her either way. Hell, maybe she'll get legitimately good with it after a confident start like that. His little thief would be even better at her job.
He slips on inside after her and starts grabbing a few things. Once upon a time he had a thermos, but he hasn't seen it in over a week, meaning it probably got lost in Virginia. Time to pick up a new one, while they're in here - a sturdy stainless steel thing that ought to keep coffee nice and hot on the road. Maybe they can make a little sunrise campfire and boil some water - so he grabs a jug and a little tin of instant coffee.]
Man, I wish we'd had more time back in El Paso. I really gotta stock up on Pop Tarts next time we're in the 80s or 90s.
[She sounds amused as she suggests it, but she's actually pretty dedicated to the idea now. He really loves Pop Tarts, and she wants to make him something similar that's even better. He seems content with his instant coffee for now though, and she's smiling as she browses the aisles to find things she wants.
A jar of cherries aren't great for breakfast, but they sound yummy. And a tiny little box of powdered donettes is good too, and so is a box of graham crackers. She has to go grab a paper sack to start putting everything in eventually, her arms get so full. The bag is carried over to him so he can put his things inside too, and she pauses to give him a kiss. That bag that's been in her arms is passed over to him in the process, leaving her smiling in amusement as she pulls away.
Something catches her eye, and her head turns with a swish of her ponytail.]
Oh look, they have flowers over here. That's really cute!
[Sitting on the tables in the little cafe are vases with daisies inside. She hurries over to pluck one out to stick into her ponytail, and another to tuck behind her ear. A third is grabbed and she chases him down with it so she can try to tuck it behind his ear too.]
And all right, that's a fair distraction. She looks cute with them in her hair. He's even about to say so until she raises the third one and starts toward him, and he has to quickly turn and duck to playfully attempt to avoid her - but ultimately lets her catch him because really, what kind of asshole dodges a girl having fun?
He grins as he submits to her floral decoration, then stops to look at a reflection of himself in a window, then winks and tips his head.]
That's gonna be the new fashion, you know. Guys with flowers behind their ears. You wait, it'll happen.
[Snickering, he beckons her over for a one-armed hug while the other is occupied by the bag, tips his forehead forward against hers, then reaches up to remove his daisy and slip it into her cleavage.]
On the other hand, that's even better! They'll call 'em, uh. Bra blooms.
[Her nose scrunches up as she laughs, and plucks that flower right from her chest. It's too tempting to bring it up to tap against his lips for daring to say something so ridiculous. But it's pulled away a second later, and she kisses him quickly before putting it behind her ear to join the other. She's all decked out in daisies, and is in a really good mood as she takes one last look around the little market.]
Do you know what would be really fun to try?
[She decides she's finished, so she goes to take hold of his hand.]
The next time we're naked, we should see what flowers feel like against our skin.
[He takes that hand of hers but stands still a moment, lips against her ear as he explains.]
'Cause I could blindfold you an' cuff your hands back, and make you guess what kinda flower I'm touching you with. The sooner you get three right, the sooner you get what you want. Hm?
[Pretty damn good game for something he just invented on the spot, he thinks. Chuckling, he pulls away and tugs her along with him as he heads back out toward the bike.]
Those thoughts are still in her head as they get on and head back out, and it isn't until they're back on the road that she finally responds.]
I think that if I don't get to play that, I might die all over again. So we have to do it. Or else!
[Like she's at all threatening, especially when she's grazing her teeth against the back of his neck before softly kissing the spot she's just reddened.]
Maybe we can tomorrow night?
Sounds like we better do tomorrow night, or else.
[Or tomorrow day. Tomorrow any time, after they've both had a chance to clean up and get some sleep, probably. He can tell it's been a busy, tiring one that's just now starting to catch up to him when the graze of those teeth doesn't quite start getting him hard, even though he feels that shiver run down his spine. They'll get their picnic breakfast, find somewhere to crash, and then after he can cover her in desert flowers.]
We'll be in Coachella Valley by tomorrow evening, before the sun goes down. We'll get us some flowers there, they oughta have a bunch blooming right now. I'll give you a little history tour, too. That's technically where the gang started, you know that? That's where the Ender was, back when he was alive.
[Palm Desert by evening. That means Los Angeles by midnight, if everything goes smoothly. Just under 24 hours away, so close he can almost feel it, if a city is a thing that can be felt. But it has a heartbeat of its own, a pulse that beats to the rhythm of traffic and music and dance and good food, and all the best things.]
[She knows that's a silly idea though, and shrugs it off. She's more excited about the fact that they're entering Ender territory soon. They'll be home, and she'll finally be able to be a part of a family that accepts her for who she is.]
Can I tell you something though? [She already knows she can, but she still struggles with shifting to something more serious that she wants to say.]
We're so close now that I'm getting nervous!
[Okay, maybe it's not that serious. But it's a real thing she's feeling. She's going to be meeting his brothers in a day or two. And she knows Johnnie will vouch for her and he swears that both brothers will adore her, but that doesn't stop her from letting some of that social anxiety creep in.]
At her admission of nervousness, his smile softens, and he reaches back and around to cup the back of her head and scratch his nails against her scalp for a second.]
You're too damn cute. You'll be fine, no need to be nervous about anything, babe. Get excited, how about? You're comin' home to a way better place than the one you left. You'll have more friends an' more fun than you know what to do with.
Oh, I'm really excited. Honest! I'll finally have a real home. One that I want to be in.
[Which is a pretty big deal, in her opinion. She knows that he's aware it's a big deal to her, so she doesn't bother saying so out loud.]
It's just hard to believe we're finally almost there. We've been through so much to get to this point.
[Her arms tighten around him, and she smiles as she relaxes.]
[Well, not by himself always, since obviously he was planning to pick up the occasional girl here and there on the way. But mostly by himself, and look how long that lasted? And look how much good she's done him, too? Knowing what he does now, if he'd really had to tackle any of that stuff alone he might've landed in a lot more trouble than he did. Either that or he'd still be out there starting a firestorm across the whole south.]
Anyway, almost there's not the same as bein' there yet. Still got a whole state in between us an' California, and hours of California before LA. Anything could happen, you know how shit goes for us. That highway up there could drop off into some ocean that turns up a few thousand years later.
[She laughs, but playfully reaches up to press her hand over his mouth.]
Don't say things like that, they might actually happen!
[She's giggly though, and getting squirmy in the seat. They might need to find a place to stop and have their breakfast picnic in the next couple of hours, or she'll wriggle her way right off the bike.]
If we run into another monster or something, I'm blaming you.
Okay, but wouldn't it be cool? Knowing this is all ocean some day, out here in the fucking desert? We're the only people who get to see all this shit. Nobody's gonna believe our stories when we get back.
[Maybe there are others, though. He's open to the idea of that, because if he's learned anything through being black-brained it's that each individual person is nothing special and very little that seems unique actually is. They're all just pointless grains of sand in the whole beach that is Earth, after all. Fucking dust drifting around in the dark.
It doesn't upset him as much as it should, probably.
He drives on until they finally cross the border into Arizona, and onward still until the faint pink-green glow around the rim of the sky hints that sunrise is coming. They're up in the foothills of big low mountains, some tail end of the Rockies where it's desert, but the desert has trees, and a sign for a viewpoint makes for a good excuse to pull off the road, finally and look out at the landscape below.]
All those lights out that way must be Tucson, then.
You're like a walking map, babe. [Which she finds amusing, but not enough to laugh about it. She's busy looking all around and committing the view to memory.]
Do you want to sit out over here? Or drive a little longer and see if we can find somewhere else? We could eat here, but I don't know if we'd be able to stay and sleep.
And with the chill, he's glad to wrap her up in his arms and nuzzle close.]
Seems like a good spot to eat, don't you think? We can spread everything out, see the sunrise from up here real easy, then cruise on down that big long hill into town an' crash at a motel. Or just camp out here if you want, go find a nice shady spot in the trees to sleep, but we gotta get farther from the interstate if we do that.
[Camping actually sounds pretty appealing, as long as it doesn't get way too hot. But it's still April, it'll probably be fine. They had worse back in Florida.]
[so she's all for finding a nice spot off the interstate to do that. They've stayed at a lot of motels and all kinds of places in between. But she has a certain fondness for crashing outside. Her hand rubs at his arm and she hums a little, still taken with that view. It's hard to make anything out, but the sky itself is so pretty.]
Let's eat now, and we can find -
[The sound of loud footsteps make her go quiet, and she turns to try and see where the sound is coming from. She can't make anything out, but the sound of crunching gravel is unmistakable.]
Do you think that's an animal on the other side of the road?
[Wonder if it's edible, more like. If he wants to start a fire to heat his coffee up, maybe he can also cook some wild game and feel super accomplished and nice and full before he dozes off.
Time to investigate. He tries to keep his own footsteps quiet and moves slowly as he creeps back toward the road and looks over the edge, where gravel slopes away from the road bed and leads downhill. There, in the thin predawn light, is a thing his mind wants to read as "deer", but it's like no deer he's ever seen, and it's certainly not one he wants to eat. Its hide thins as he looks up from feet to the shoulders, and by the time his eyes reach the head, it's entirely skeletal. Flesh stretches, weblike, around the ears and the base of the antlers - and those antlers, holy hell. They're ghoulish, clawed hands that writhe as the creature nudges its bony nose through prickly shrubs.
Well, there will be no shooting this thing for breakfast, that's for sure. He mouths what the fuck in Chrissy's direction, and then silently watches, puzzled and kind of fascinated, as the earliest rays of light coat it in gold and pink.]
It looks like a nice deer.
[She whispers to Johnnie, keeping her eyes on those antlers. Is that thing a deer? It's hard to tell.]
I don't think it wants to hurt us.
[Right at that moment, it slowly lifts its head and looks straight toward them. The antlers seem to writhe in a way that signal they're the ones listening instead of the animal's skeletal ears. After a few drawn out moments of staring, it goes back to grazing. Chrissy glances up at him with a look that says wow, before rushing back to the bike to get her camera out of the bag.
It doesn't take her long to get it, but by the time she's back, the creature is already gone. Guess it doesn't like getting its picture taken, she thinks.]
Too late.
[He frowns, still a little bewildered by the sighting, and stands and brushes dust off his jeans. But he hasn't looked away from that spot. He motions to it with a hand.]
I don't really get how it left, though. It was right there, then it took a few steps and it was like it just walked through a hole in the world.
[In fact, he wants to go check this out. Food can wait another minute. He picks his way down the hill to where the thing was, and looks at the grass, the bushes, the prints in the dirt, circling the spot so he can see it from different angles. But there's nothing to see, not that he can find.]
I dunno. I wonder if that's what it looks like to other people when we slip through different times, though.
[Like the monsters. They just came through a hole in the world. And she and Johnnie, they just travel through time, and somehow she's in his version of Earth. She must have fallen through to it in that dark, scary place.]
I think maybe that place where I died beneath Hawkins, it's one of those holes in the world. There have to be a lot of others like it.
[She glances back up in the direction they came from, before looking in the other direction. Standing about ten feet away from them is the same animal as before, curiously watching them as it munches. It's glowing so beautifully in the pink and gold glow that the sight actually takes her breath away, and she feels
a little choked up.]
Johnnie, look. Turn slowly so you don't scare him. [She reaches out and touches at his arm, both to brace herself and to signal to him that he really needs to turn right now.
Things that come from the darkness must feel the same energy coming of one another. It would explain why those ocean monsters were so drawn to them back in Wilmington, and why this animal now is so fascinated with them. It shows no sign of aggression, no sign of fear. Chrissy could raise her camera to get a picture, but she's so taken with the dark beauty of seeing this up close that she actually doesn't want to share the memory of it with anyone else.
This is better remembered by just Johnnie and herself. She isn't sure anyone they're going home to will really understand or even believe them.]
Edited 2023-06-17 06:08 pm (UTC)
Oh.
[He barely lets the sound out, almost just mouths the word, as he stays still and watches it. Whatever this thing is, it's kind of magnificent to watch, and he's content to let it be. It's almost like he feels some kind of connection to it, like they're both things that shouldn't quite be here but are, and maybe this deer-thing feels that too. It's probably nonsense to think that, but whatever, he doesn't have to explain himself to anyone.
For as long as they stand still and quiet, the creature slowly noses its way toward them as it plucks green leaves off the tough desert plants. It clearly isn't ignoring them, as it seems to be watching them just out of the corner of one hollow eye socket, and the hands of its antlers remained cupped toward them like listening ears. But it comes nearly within reaching distance anyway, until it picks up its head and looks uphill behind them, toward the highway. Eventually they can hear it too - the sound of a truck approaching on its way to Tucson.
The thing looks directly at the both of them, then, before turning away and again stepping through some unseen gap in reality, a glistening oil-black split in space that swallows the deer-creature and leaves no visible trace just as the large truck and its trailer pass on by.]
[She's completely awestruck after that encounter, and has a bounce to her step as she takes him by the hand and leads him back up toward the bike.]
Come on, let's eat.
[The walk over to their things doesn't take too long, but as soon as they've crossed the road she's pulling him in close for a kiss. It isn't anything pressing, just sweet and lingering contact. But when her stomach growls, she pulls away with a laugh and goes over to open the saddlebags to pull out what they "bought" at the store earlier.]
I didn't find a big blanket, but they had normal ones at the end of one of the aisles. I think we can both fit on it.
[That's at the bottom of the paper sack, but it's easily pulled out and draped over her arm. With a sweeping nod of her head, she motions for him to lead the way over to find the perfect place to sit out and enjoy the sunrise.]
For sleepin' on? Sure. Here, how about over this way.
[Back down the side of the road a ways, then off it to where they can face east. The turnout looks north toward the city, but this is better for the sunrise itself, since that's what she's after.
It's a little steep in places, but he finds a spot where some rough old rocks make decent seats, and where the tree branches don't overhang the view. Before sitting down, though, he scrapes a spot down to the soil and piles up his armful of kindling to start his fire. No pot to boil water in, but the thermos is stainless steel, and so it'll just have to do, once they get out all the stuff in that bag. He has a long drink of water from the jug before filling up the thermos to boil, then makes himself comfortable on a big flat rock.]
Want some?
[Water, that is. He'll share the coffee when it's ready. Meanwhile, he pats the spot beside him for her to come join.]