it's another day of waking up alone.

stella aline garcia. twenty eight. guidance counselor at cassel high. boston native. cuban. lover of food, coffee and wine.                  & it would have been sweet if it                       could have been me.

[stllagarcia]

                             MEET STELLA GARCIA // A QUICK NAVIGATION.

     biography && meet stella garcia.                        story && musings                                     aesthetics && portraits                                                 soundtrack && about      

[stllagarcia]

cvrsedhands​:

Shaky fingers running through messy hair as Rosalie glanced at the woman’s face, the same look of exhaustion was written on her features as clear as day and the nurse felt a sense of understanding. This town drained everything from you and left nothing for you no matter how much sleep you seemed to get; but time rolls on and you need to pay the bills, so you keep fighting that sense of exhaustion no matter what. 

Rosalie what to ask what was wrong, she could see something was troubling the guidance counselor ( hell a blind person could )  even in her haze of bullshit but she wasn’t Stella’s friend, hell she had just met her on the damn street corner. So she did the only thing she could do in this moment, bury those thoughts and bite her tongue until the moment called for it. 

“Well the only person I could call right now is at some damn house party so i’m afraid i need your lock picking ma’am” Rosalie smiled awkwardly, pulling out her ID and turning it too Stella. “Thanks for this by the way, It’s too fucking cold to be out here with just my bunny slippers to keep my warm. ” The thirty one year old joked, her laugh’s coming out in little puffs of smoke as if to prove her point. 

Stella laughed, a little relieved that the other was honest and willing enough to prove her residence - she barely glanced at it before pulling a bobby pin tucking her ponytail into place out, kneeling down in front of the door. “I haven’t done this in awhile,” she admitted, “so it might take me a few minutes. But if I can get into as much trouble as I did when I was a kid, surely I can figure out the mechanism for this door.” 

Her nose scrunched, her ear pressed close to the lock as she waited to hear the tell tale click! that meant she was in. True to word, it took almost two minutes, but when she heard it, she stood up, holding the door open with something akin to pride on her features. 

“Voila,” she presented with a flourish, keeping her foot on the door to keep it held open for them. “Now you’re set - thankfully, nothing in Cassel seems to have been updated since 1983 or we might have had to call in a real expert. I’m Stella, by the way - I work over at the high school. I think I’ve seen you around the hospital some; you’re a nurse, right?” 

[stllagarcia]

teddyashcroft​:

For a moment Teddy stood there stupidly, staring back at her before he slipped past her into the apartment. He stood there uncertainly, looking around before his gaze landed bac on her. “Oh, sorry for interrupting.” Though he wanted to offer to do this another time, the idea of waiting seemed worse.

There were no glaring issues with her, that was the thing. Teddy found her to be relatively easy to talk to and beautiful in the kind of way that made him incredibly nervous when they first started talking. She was the kind of woman he imagined his mother would gush over excitedly, maybe compare her to some old Hollywood starlet the way she always tried to his last girlfriend serious enough to bring home. The problem was that something was missing between them. With everything going on, he would have thought he’d want to be there for her more, but they both seemed to get sucked up by work and other things until they realised they hadn’t been speaking. 

As she offered food, he shook his head, though he hadn’t yet eaten and the smell was definitely making him wish he could say yes. “No, it’s fine, I’m all good. Thank you for offering.” He gave a small smile and then lowered his gaze. “I guess I just wanted to say that I’m sorry we haven’t spoken this week… first of all.”

Stella waved off his decline, moving to finish up the food she’d been preparing and taking down an extra plate anyways. She doubted he’d eaten all day, and he always worked himself to the bone. Unless he planned on hitting a drive thru on his way back to the park, she was his best option - even if things were ending between them. 

“It’s okay,” she told him honestly, “it’s a two way street, isn’t it?” She gave him a small smile, holding out a plate for him to take before piling food onto one of her own. “Things have been...chaotic, down at the school, and I’ve barely gotten more than a few minutes to myself, but I wasn’t exactly reaching out either.” 

That was the saddest part, she knew; as nice as Teddy was to her, and as fun as they could be together, he hadn’t been someone she could confide in. Someone she could let all the secrets out to, tell her innermost fears to. 

It sucked, but it happened. 

“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun while it lasted,” she offered, twirling spaghetti around her fork as she moved to sit down at the table, kicking out a chair for him to sit with her. “Sometimes it just doesn’t click. We just weren’t meant to be long term.” 

[stllagarcia]

williamdeuxfois​:

“Yes. It came as a surprise to me too,” Will nodded, relief flooding his system as he was finally able to confide in someone. He had been keeping his feelings about the situation to himself ever since Harding had gone missing, the fallout from it surely nowhere near the anguish that Casey Andrews’ family was experiencing. But there was a pressure building, a paranoia coming from parents who were now seeing danger present around every corner where before there had only been light.

“I understand that parents are afraid, and I know that I can’t simply say that there’s no room in the school budget to provide such a thing, but I don’t know how to tell them that their children are safe in my class and club and have that be… enough to be reassuring.”

A frown settling onto his face, William was able to entirely tune out the pre-show commercials playing before them as he instead took in what Stella was sharing with him.

So it wasn’t only the male teachers who were experiencing heavy fallout. The school guidance counselor… it made sense.

“What do they even think you’re telling them? You know how to do your job! If we hear something, we’re mandatory reporters. We can step in and report things to the proper authorities. No one at that school is about to encourage-”

He stopped himself.

There had already been one impostor among them, so it was understandable that parents would be desperately trying to find any others. But the need that students had to speak to someone about their problems wasn’t about to go away, and not everyone could afford therapy for their kids. William would take double the suspicion if it meant Stella could get a reprieve from prying eyes.

“For both our sakes, yes, I hope so. And it’s reassuring to have that validated. But until I joined the Wandering Souls I was on the outskirts of the social scene, which seems to make me in their eyes an unpredictable loner. This town has a long memory. I just hope that everyone gets some answers soon.”

“I don’t think anything would be reassuring right now,” Stella sighed; she dealt with it all day long, trying to assure parents and teens they were safe. A few had stopped showing up - she knew it was only a matter of time before the school administration would have to send out notices to parents that their students had to come to school - but she didn’t quite blame them. As far as they knew, Todd was well liked by students and staff alike, had given the town some notoriety around local sports, and had a loving family - including a teenage son that spent most of his lunches hiding out in Stella’s office these days, just for a reprieve from the gossip mill around the high school. 

“I mostly feel bad for poor Andrew,” she admitted; she didn’t know if William had him in his classes, though she suspected if he did it wasn’t any better in a classroom than it was in the hallways. “Having to face what your dad did every day? I’ve been letting him hide out in my office during lunch hours - giving him the chance to talk, if he wants to, but I think he knows I’d have to report almost anything he says to the police so he mostly just sits there and reads. It can’t be easy, though, knowing your father took one of your classmates.” 

She chewed on her bottom lip, it made her so nervous to think about - to dwell on. She knew Andrew had answers inside of him, but if she wasn’t the one he wanted to confide in, all she could do was hope that someone was. 

At the name of the vaguely familiar local celebrity crew, Stella cocked her head to the side - “You were in that little group?” she asked, genuinely curious and eager to change the subject. “I never watched - I’m not a huge fan of the supernatural myself, but I know a bunch of the kids still talk about it. Aren’t most of you back around in town now? Does that mean there’s a reunion forthcoming?”

[stllagarcia]

salvagingsloan​:

Check engine light, weird noises – - Sloan could work with that. After the initial wince from an imitation of the car’s defects, she held her hand up and waved in a way that towed the border of dismissive. “That’s no problem; I can fix anything.” Which was true, as far as she was concerned, though the stockpile of broken bits and bobs in her stock room might beg to differ.

After a bit of fumbling, she sought and procured a pen and a scrap of paper. “I’ll need your name. And the keys. You got a way to get home or do you want to sit in the shop while I look it over?” Either would be fine, though she internally cringed at the idea of having to do anything more than menial work after a long night. “How soon are we taking this thing to Chicago, anyway?” 

“I only live a few blocks away,” Stella sighed, relieved Sloan ( according to her nametag on the coveralls, at least ) would be able to fix it for her. She knew it was past time for an upgrade - a Honda was forever, but did forever really span almost two decades? - but she was so attached to it, she couldn’t bear letting it go yet. It had been her first, and only, car and came all the way with her from Boston. She’d drive it until it literally shattered around her. 

“The name is Stella Garcia,” she added, “S-t-e-l-l-a G-a-r-c-i-a,” because somehow people still asked her how it was spelled, despite her own belief that it was one of the easiest names she’d ever come across, “I work at the high school, so I can walk or bike if it’s going to take a few days. I don’t have to be in Chicago until next week - I have family visiting that I need to pick up from O’Hare. Is that going to be enough time?”

[stllagarcia]

southby​:

date: early afternoon location: main street status: open

“Now,” Southby hooked his thumbs through his duty belt. “You don’t look like the smartest individual I’ver ever seen, but I don’t think you’re blind either on account of the lack of a dog, or cane, or sunglasses, or some other such paraphernalia–so I know you can see that that curb is clearly red.”

Stella whirled around at the sound of a voice; one of the cops, probably one of the 900 who had interviewed her in the wake of the Casey situation, and she knew she should have been....nicer, perhaps, but she wasn’t exactly in the mood. “Don’t you have something more important to do,” she snapped, “than harass me for parking just slightly in the no parking zone while I grab something to make for dinner?”

[stllagarcia]

salvagingsloan​:

Rise & Shine ——;;

Fingers pressed into the bridge of her nose, pinching the spot right between her eyes that had been throbbing incessantly since she rolled out of bed and stumbled her way into a pair of coveralls. The previous night’s poor decisions were written all over her face, etched into deep frowns, forehead creases, and dark circles beneath out-of-focus grey eyes. Nursing a hangover in the shop was difficult enough, but trying to carry on a conversation at the same time was nearly impossible. Never one to mince words, Sloan lifted her free hand in the universal sign for ‘stop for one fucking minute, please.’

“Listen, you’re gonna have to repeat that.” The hand on her face shifted slowly, the heel of her palm coming to press into her left eye so she could at least crack open the right and do her company the courtesy of looking at them, “I’m off my game today – - so just lemme hear it one more time.”

Stella sighed; she didn’t know the first thing about cars, so when her own started acting up, she had no choice but to bring it in. Sure, there were corporate places surrounding the small towns, but rumor had it that the girl from Harry’s Garage was the best, and truthfully, Stella didn’t feel like having some guy mansplain to her her vehicle. She just wanted it fixed. 

“The check engine light came on,” she said, “and then it started making this awful noise - “ she tried to mimick it again, a high pitched squeaking, but she was sure it wasn’t helping. “I think it’s just the breaks, but I don’t see why that would put the little light on. I don’t know the first thing about cars, though, so it could be anything - I just want to make sure it’s okay enough to take to Chicago soon. Do you think you can make it stop making that noise?

[stllagarcia]

desmurphy​:

“Jake G, my lord and savior. That guy got me laid in high school. He was the pioneer of hot dudes who look like they’ve never slept more than five minutes in their entire life.” It was dark in the theater, but Des leaned slightly toward Stella’s seat, raising his eyebrows to emphasize his own perpetually drowsy gaze.

“Antiques and previously owned goods are sold by my whims and fancies,” he replied, settling back in his seat. “We don’t have a busy day… or a busy season… ‘busy’ is not a word that exists in our vocabulary. And I’m still figuring out how to be a business owner. I was hoping they’d be playing Boss Baby today, but you can’t win ‘em all.” 

Sit next to the boy you think is the cutest, Drew Barrymore said on screen. Des physically cringed. “Do movies like this hit different now that you work in a school system?” he asked curiously. “I mean, the adults in this are the worst. And especially right now… this is sort of like your busy season, yeah?”

“You’re out of luck, babe,” Stella laughed, shaking her head. “Whoever decides on the movies is in a total Jake mood. The other day they were playing The Good Girl, with him and Jen Aniston? What a flashback - I don’t think me or anyone else has thought about that movie since it came out. And even then, I don’t think anyone cared.” 

She cringed; she never really had a not-busy season; even in a small town - or maybe because it was a small town - her door was open and students came buzzing in all times of the year. Usually in the summer, they’d find her in the park or come to the school specifically to look for her. She kept a few appointments with students who needed a little extra attention but couldn’t exactly afford a real psychiatrist - she might not have been able to prescribe them anything, but she could help them to the best of her abilities. “It’s been busier than normal,” she admitted, “though that might be because the parents think they can monopolize my time now too. Jenny Schneider came in and spent thirty minutes yelling at me for not listening to the girls on the soccer team - not that any one of them ever gave me any indication about....I listen to them, I help them, I report what needs to be reported. If I had known....”

[stllagarcia]

teddyashcroft​:

closed starter location: stella’s apartment tagged: @stllagarcia​

Teddy waited a good two minutes standing at Stella’s door before he finally let his knuckles knock on the wood. He was feeling all kinds of awkward showing up at her door after a week of not seeing her, which was likely mostly on him for going M.I.A. the way he had. It wasn’t intentional, but that didn’t necessarily make it okay. They were dating in the way that being flirted at for two hours, asking her on a date and making out in the back of his truck when he finally got some courage was dating. And it wasn’t even that he didn’t like her, it was just that… Teddy was starting to think he was better off alone. Or maybe he just wasn’t her type. Or…

He had to stop thinking so hard about it, because the door was opening to reveal Stella and he put on a polite smile and stood up straight, trying to remember all the things he’d thought to say in his car that had suddenly disappeared from his mind now. Tucking some loose hair that framed his face behind his ear, he forced himself to let something out.

“Hey, uh, can I come in? I figured we should probably talk.” Not as smooth as he would have liked, but he supposed it was the best he could manage. 

Stella was a heartbreaker. That’s what her brother always said, at least, when they caught up and she mentioned the name of another man she was dating. The latest was Teddy - or, he had been, until he’d all but disappeared on her which was strangely easy to do in such a small town. Still, she went into every relationship the same : eyes open, ready to jump. How was she supposed to know who the one was if she didn’t give them all the same opportunities? 

Still, she was pretty sure it was time to give up on her latest adventure. Something hadn’t quite...worked. Maybe it was that they were too different - opposites attract, but often fizzle out before too long. Or maybe she was too busy throwing herself into her work - with the upset of Casey, she’d been working longer hours trying to do her best to help the friends of the girl through the crisis. Or maybe - 

There were a zillion reasons, but she was still surprised to find him at her door, and she stepped aside to let him in graciously, closing it softly behind her. “I was making dinner,” she offered, knowing that talking about a break up rarely went well, especially on an empty stomach. “Nothing elaborate, just some pasta - have you eaten? I have plenty of garlic bread and spaghetti to share.” 

[stllagarcia]

williamdeuxfois​:

“That would explain quite a bit,” William nodded conspiratorially. It would rile up his arthouse cinema acquaintances from college to hear him speak of the movie like there weren’t some out in the world who somehow understood it perfectly… but William hadn’t liked any of the films they’d suggested to him anyway. He had a disturbingly high IQ and even he failed to pick up on exactly what was being done in the Tenet of the early 2000′s. If the only two people in the theater had seen the movie before and both failed to understand it, it said more about the movie than the people.

Luckily they didn’t riff on the complexity of what they were about to see for too long. Instead, William followed Stella’s lead and made himself comfortable, relaxing into the seat and taking a sip of his overpriced pop.

William had already been candid with Stella about his desire that day to have his mind occupied, so the next logical step was a little elaboration. And he was prepared to do that… but he still found himself feeling thankful that she went first.

“Until you asked after the plot, I didn’t know that was what I was about to watch. I don’t know what it says about me that when I said ‘surprise me,’ the kid at the counter gave me a ticket to this. I would have watched almost anything, though.”

It was nice to know that they were in the same boat, that he wasn’t alone in feeling the need for some sort of escape from the heavy atmosphere that had clouded encircled the school and the lives of everyone who had a touchpoint there.

“I’ve gotten emails from parents, but I can only imagine what you’re going through. Science Club is on the verge of being disbanded. Some parents are also wondering if it might be possible for me to have a female Teacher’s Aide in my class until they feel comfortable having their children with a male teacher again. This is very much not something I had even held as being in the realm of possibility for my first year as a teacher. Or ever.”

“They want you to have a teacher’s aide?” Stella asked, incredulous. She’d had nonstop phone calls since it had been released that Todd Harding, jackass extraordinarire who cared more about soccer than his wife was also missing. She’d had calls before then, of course, but people had been able to write it off as Casey merely running away. 

Stella didn’t know how to explain to people that, no, she didn’t think Casey would be stupid enough to just disappear without a trace. Not unless she had means and a method. 

( There was a secret part of her that wondered if Todd had really had to do all that much to convince her. But she’d kept her mouth shut about that, because no matter what the circumstances, a co-worker had disappeared with a student, and she was sick to her stomach every time she passed the gymnasium. ) 

“I mostly have parents who want to know what I’m saying to their kids. Which hurts the kids more than it hurts them, because then the kids think they can’t trust me. And obviously I don’t tell the parents anything they’re telling me in confidence - though they want me to. And I know it’s going to bite me in the ass - “ 

like it did with Casey goes unspoken, but she wonders if Will can hear it anyways. If any of them think about how Stella had been one of Casey’s closest confidantes at the school. 

“They’ll calm down soon enough,” she sighed sadly, swirling the ice in her soda with the straw, anything to keep her hands moving. “And they’ll definitely see they have nothing to worry about with you. Todd was always a creep. You’re just smart - sometimes that intimidates people who are small minded.” 

[stllagarcia]

isidorescastillo​:

open. location & time: early evening, ink anchor tattoos, the lone studio

    Into the yonder treeline of Cassel, the orange-hued rays of sun and light began to sink, the promise of darkness quick on the heels of the moon as it began it’s slow descent into the sky. With the light waning, faded shadows danced on the cement of the walk in front of the tattoo parlor. It was modest, and small, hardly able to fit into the corner shop slot of the building, and far too easy to miss if not for the neon LED sign occupying the majority of the front picture window. Inside, an empty, well lit lobby awaited a daring creative soul to find solace in the chairs, and various aquatic and sailor-themed decor spattered the walls. 

   One of the LEDs in the sign reading Ink Anchor was out, flickering in dimming shades of green, causing the shadows just outside the shop to leap about, and partially illuminating Isidore’s body, leaned up against the stone ‘n brick walls of the shop outside. As often the case, a half-smoked cigarette perched between his fingers, and his leather biker jacket hung a size too large on his frame. Once, it had fit him well, but it had been 5 years since Isidore called himself a Marine, and he’d all but withered away into something more ghost-like than his previous self. Even the smoke tendrils that lifted from his lips cast his black clad denim in a strange light, the hint of art and design poking from his collar, his sleeves. 

   Footsteps, a scrape of shoe versus pavement, is what first alerted Isi to the arrival of another friendly Cassel face, and with the hopes of being polite, turned his face to ensure what smoke exhaled with him, didn’t assault the passerby. He gave a pleasant, standard head-nod; the Midwestern hello, the accepted greeting in passing, but to his slight surprise-

   The passerby stopped. Somehow, in the wake of Casey Andrew’s disappearance and it’s curious circumstances, so much of life in Cassel felt like it’d come to a grinding halt, and business at Ink Anchor was feeling that deeply. Isi flicked the cigarette, jerking his head to the door of the tattoo parlor mere feet away. “You here interested in the ink, or just lookin’ for a light?” 

A smirk twitched at her lips; she wasn’t really interested in either, truthfully, but she could be persuaded to take a light. “Maybe both,” she hummed, fishing her own cigarettes out of the pocket of her worn leather jacket that kept her warm in the early beginning of spring. It wouldn’t fully hit for another few weeks - then she could go back to her summer dresses and skirts instead of hiding her body under swarths of clothing, but at least she had her armor around her for the moment when everything felt so....raw around them. 

“Definitely in need of a light,” she admitted, leaning against the wall as she did, holding her cigarette to her lips to allow him to light it for her. A deep breath in, the nicotine seeping into her pores - she was quitting, she swore she was quitting - she just needed to find the right time, and one of her closest students being kidnapped was just...not that. 

“Don’t you normally have to have an appointment to get a tattoo?” she asked instead, letting the smoke swirl around them as she turned to lean her arm against the wall, facing him instead of the deserted street around them. “I know when I got my last one, I had to make an appointment three months in advance. Have you had that many cancellations with everything going on?” 

[stllagarcia]

streetoffire​:

His instinct was for his posture to go rigid when he felt somebody enter his space.  Except it’s hard to be angry when he sees it’s Stella who takes the seat next to him.  As much as he was hoping to turn off his brain and watch one of the movies from his heralded emo days, maybe he needed to fight that instinct to be alone.  Fletch accepts a handful of popcorn with a smirk before offering up some of his peanut m&m’s, the box would surely be empty before the ad reel was finished.  

“You’re not meant to understand it,” he teases.  “That’s all apart of the mystique or whatever.  I’m just here ‘cause Drew Barrymore is the hot teacher we all wanted,” Fletch jokes as he stretches out his long legs in front of him as best as possible.  He hadn’t been comfortable in these old seats since his growth spurt in high school.  

“Looks like we’ll have the place to ourselves,” he notes as the lights come down.   

“I’m hurt,” she jokes back easily; it was easy to be comfortable around Fletch, though the two of them normally saw each other at Buck’s more often than anything else. “I know I may not be a teacher, but I am an educator of sorts. Am I not the hot teacher of your fantasies these days?” 

She hums in agreement, taking another one of his M&Ms as she settles into her seat, letting her body lean against his lightly. There’s more than enough room in the empty theater to be anywhere else, but she can’t deny that she’d been....drawn to Fletch more and more lately. She could joke that it was the height - she might literally need a ladder to reach his face sometimes - but the truth was, he wasn’t as dangerous as his persona tried to appear. He reminded her something like home sometimes. “I don’t remember the last time I was in an empty theater and paid attention to the movie,” she grins wickedly, an eyebrow raised. “I think I might have been too young to actually take advantage of it at the time.” 

[stllagarcia]

itskittylee​:

date: march 2021 location: hillarie’s hair

when kitty had graduated with a fashion design degree, she could honestly say that she had never thought that the mini course on hair would ever come in handy. and yet here she was; back in cassel, working in hillarie’s hair, constantly using their own stock to top up the bleach-blonde chunky streaks in the front of her head. business was slow, her regulars really didn’t want to seem vain by going to get their hair done when a girl had gone missing. still, the few customers she did get gave her more gossip about the whole situation than she knew what to do with.

“i know i’m good but i’m not a miracle worker.” she jokes with the person who’d walked into the store. she pushed herself up from where she’d been sat ( sitting on the countertop was apparently not good for business. ) “what can i do for you?”

it seemed absurd to care about her vanity at a time like this, but it had been a month since casey’s disappearance, and she’d always enjoyed a small trip to the salon for her own sanity. a couple hours of pampering, in a town as small as cassel, the best way it knew how to provide. it was hardly a massage at a world class spa, but hillarie’s had always been good to her in the years since she’d moved to cassel. 

the girl at the counter was new - or, new to stella at least. a former native returned, from what she could tell; she probably would have graduated high school the year or two before stella started at cassel high. “i forgot to call and make an appointment,” she admitted, scrunching her nose, “but i was hoping you had time to fit in a cut and dye? i normally don’t go light until summer, but i need some sort of change or i’m going to go crazy.”

[stllagarcia]

darcydelgado​:

The school guidance counselor was a figure she’d loathed back then and a figure she wanted little to do with presently. Unfortunately, Stella was potentially a wealth of information - both on Cassel in general and Casey herself. Darcy could disguise the sharp spines of her personality long enough to make a necessary connection. If she was lucky, Stella would be a huge gossip, and she could get good info with as little effort as possible.

“Actually, a little less subtle than that,” she said. “It’s more along the lines of imminent death, unfinished business… all the classics. I suppose it could work if you already had children, but something tells me you don’t.” 

The something was literally the very words Stella had just spoken, but it was all about the phrasing. It made Darcy seem more intuitive than she actually was.

“I doubt one book has been Cassel’s downfall, but the little things add up eventually. Enough darkness in one place, it’s bound to manifest. Especially in little towns like these… Sorry, I’m being a total downer. Maybe we should start over. I’m Darcy.” She held her hand out, offering it in the space between them.

Her eyes briefly narrowed, but she allowed the ramblings on of the other. “Stella,” she offered, shaking hands easily enough. “You’re new in town. I hope you got here before all this nonsense that’s started up.” She’d seen a few lurkers around - tragedy whores, really, people who wanted to involve themselves in a case for fifteen minutes of fame or some other bizarre nonsense. Podcasters hoping to align themselves with the news, capitalizing off of it so that they could have their moment while Casey was suffering at the hands of someone Stella had once thought of as, if not a friend, a peer at any rate.

“Maybe Casey was looking at it before everything happened,” she mused quietly, pushing the book back onto the shelf with a sad smile. In truth, she probably knew almost as much about Casey as her family did - they had regular weekly meetings, a substitute for the girl actually seeing a therapist outside of school - a compromise, put together by her parents when Casey’s grades had started slipping a couple years prior. “Then again, it could have been Todd. Not that I think I ever saw him with a book in his hand - truthfully, I’m not sure he could even read.” 

[stllagarcia]

desmurphy​:

The Golden Cinema was another of Cassel’s hidden gems. It was a tiny piece of the world that capitalism and mass marketing hadn’t been able to touch. They played whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, regardless of its current popularity. There were no mad midnight rushes for CGI-filled superhero blockbusters. They made their money by marking up the popcorn like any self-respecting theater, but Des never minded much when he was paying so little for the Saturday matinee. 

He jumped when he saw movement in his peripheral, settling down when his eyes adjusted to see Stella. He hadn’t expected company, but he wouldn’t shun it. He took a handful of popcorn, shoving it into his mouth and munching while she spoke.

“First time I ever saw this, I was really high for it. The whole movie made perfect sense. Then I sobered up and lost whatever clarity I had,” he said once his mouth was clear. He had a box of Buncha Crunch that he tilted towards her in offering. “I think it was something about aliens, if that helps.”

“I think that was everyone’s experience when it first came out,” she laughed easily, grateful for the sharing of his chocolate. “Though, I don’t know if being stoned made me appreciate it - I think I just spent most of the time thinking about what a babe Jake Gyllenhaal was.” 

She settled into her seat easily, glad she wouldn’t be alone for the afternoon. Even if they would end up sitting in relative silence through the confusing cult classic, it was better than sitting at home watching HGTV in silence, letting her mind wander around the streets of Cassel even if her body didn’t. 

“Someone else watching the shop today?” she asked, tossing a kernel of popcorn into her mouth as she did, “or did you just decide Saturday was a day without business anyways. Come to think of it, what is the busy day for the antique shop?” 

[stllagarcia]

darcydelgado​:

open starter.  location: bookends

Darcy had been in Cassel for a week. She’d hated every second of it. 

Cassel, Illinois was so much like the nowhere town in Georgia she’d sprouted from. Both places had the same sleepy population, the same crumbling buildings, the same hazy concept of time. Days were measured only by the appearance of new wrinkles, in faces or on sidewalks. An entire town slowly disintegrating while those who lived in it had long ago accepted their fates.

It made her miserable, but there were few places Darcy lived that had ever made her happy. She put up with it for work, knowing it was temporary. Once her money was made, she would be off to the next place. Some other sad town with sad occupants. In the in between, she found small ways to make the days interesting. 

Thus far, Darcy had been exploring the town, getting to know its inhabitants from afar. It was always how she acclimated to a new place, learning its ins, outs, and avenues. A successful con was always a well-informed one. When she discovered the bookstore, she’d finally felt like she found a personal haven. Just like when she was a young girl, Darcy lost herself in novels. 

She found a custom shelf the owner or an employee had created of town favorites. She ran her hand along the dusty spines, learning about Cassel through the titles of their favorite books. When she spotted movement out of the corner of her vision, she glanced over without turning her head.

She hadn’t spoken to many people yet. She was always hesitant to feed the animals, so to speak. Now felt like as good a time as any. If she wanted good information about Cassel before she approached the Andrews family, she would have to get it from the people who knew best.

“That book is cursed,” she said, raising her voice in their direction. She pointed to the copy of The Orphan’s Tale that they held in their hands. “Read at your own risk, but I’d pick up something else if I were you.”

Stella had stopped in the bookstore for something to distract herself, something to do. A new book to add to her collection in her office at the school - half of them borrowed by the students, half of them unread but there for decoration, a chunk sitting in a pile in the corner that she’d yet to put away on the shelves. She’d read a few pages, get bored, and toss the book to the side. 

It was something to do. And in a town like Cassel, half the battle was merely finding something to do. 

“Cursed?” she asked, an eyebrow raised but playing along. “I’m a little too old to become an orphan myself, so are you saying any children I might have down the line are destined to become orphans, or is it more subtle than that?” A smirk, a glance at the stranger. A new person, just like she’d been once upon a time. “I never thought our little bookstore was capable of holding onto cursed objects - though, maybe that explains the fate of this town.” 

[stllagarcia]

cvrsedhands​:

OPEN STARTER*

Rosalie could still smell the scent of bleach and antiseptic in her nose like it had been burned into her skin, dark bags formed under her eyes like tattoos from long sleepless nights from demons that owned her brain. It didn’t help that she was pulling long nights at the hospital to avoid thinking about the things that were keeping her up but she wasn’t in the place to deal. She sat on the front steps of her apartment building sucking down a cigarette hoping to replace one smell with another and hoping to replace one thought with another. 

As she smoked she was becoming more and more worried about the Casey Andrews case, the longer it went on she knew that the less chance the girl stood of coming back alive but their was a shred of hope living in her. Rosalie hoped that someone in her town couldn’t be that cruel, but she also knew damn well what people we’re capable of if they wanted to be monsters so she really shouldn’t question it too much.

Rubbing her arms as she noticed the sudden drop in temperate Rosalie took one more long drag and stubbed out the cancer stick, before pushing off the ground to go back inside. Reaching into her pockets as she moved to unlock the door she growled, as she noticed the one thing she forgot was the key back into the main door. Yanking harshly on it for a moment and crying out. “GODDAMNIT!” she just sighed her head resting on the glass plane of the front door, her eyes watery as she breathed before turning around before catching someone’s eye. “Sorry…I wasn’t trying to break in locked myself…out…” she whimpered awkwardly, eyes darting anywhere but the person’s face. 

Stella was used to doing the walk of shame late in the night, sneaking back from the bar down the street or just wandering around the quiet streets of Cassel. They’d never felt dangerous, not even after the news of Casey had spread. Now, more than ever, she found herself desperate to be out of her small apartment - as if she could erase the trauma her students were going through, as if she could fix the empty Thursday slot Casey had used to come in every week to discuss her academics, her goals, her dreams - her desire to flee. 

She’d been at the police station again, giving them everything she had on the teen and everything she knew of about her co-worker. The fact that she hadn’t seen anything, hadn’t even suspected - it left her feeling cold, bitter, uncomfortable. She was supposed to be a line of defense against things like this, but all she could do was tell the cops the same thing: she never said anything. 

“It happens all the time,” Stella shrugged, not really afraid that the other had been attempting to break in. She’d barely even noticed her, truthfully, but she could see now that she was on the break of an edge that Stella herself was just barely keeping herself off of. “Is there anyone inside you can call to let you in? If not, I’ve been known to break a few locks in my day.” It was something to do, at least, something to focus on - then again, the prickling thought of Todd snuck up on her, causing her to look the other woman over one more time. “Provided you can confirm somehow you live there.”