Nell still didn’t have her license. The thought had bizarrely occured between all the shock and crying that had taken place since she’d woken up next to her sister’s headless body, Nell covered in blood that wasn’t her own. Generally one to have a strong stomach, it’d only taken a moment of looking between Bea’s body and the red splatters on herself to make the connection, and she’d promptly retched, body refusing to handle the reality of her situation. But she still didn’t have a license, and here she was driving to Nic’s home, hands clutching the wheel as if her very life depended on it, and trying not to think too hard about what was in the back of Bea’s car. It was the only way she could move the body. Nell refused to think of it as Bea’s, some part of her brain choosing to protect itself from that reality, as well. As she advanced on Nic’s door, the panic rose in her throat again, mixed with the black hole of pain that threatened to suck everything into its center, so massive and raw that she could barely make sense of it. “Nic!” she called out, voice broken and rough from her screams and cries. “Nic, please!” The words became more desperate, trying to keep herself together, but the composure quickly slipping. “I need help! Please.”
He hadn’t gotten to bed. Between what had happened with Skylar and his own thoughts, it was hard to shake the concern of what might happen if he wasn’t there. An unknown feeling that sat in his hands as he sharpened knives and cleaned guns. It was irrational, Nicodemus knew it, but sleep could wait. So when he heard a car approach and a familiar voice that didn’t sound familiar in the way he knew it, he was already moving. Senses alert, nerves near to shot. I need help. It was Nell. He knew it before he opened, no, threw the door open. Caught it in time before it cracked against the wall. Something had happened. He could smell the blood, heavy in his nose. A hand hovered towards Nell. Stopped before it reached her. The way she looked at him, he was afraid she might collapse to dust. “Nell,” he called gently. “What happened?”
Faced with the first live person she’d seen since everything, Nell crumbled, her body and hands covered in her sister’s blood beginning to shake without her so much as realizing they were beginning to do so. Everything was moving so fast, too fast, and yet seemed to be stuck in a statis in the same breath. She looked up at Nic, somehow both seeing him and looking through him with an utterly lost expression on her face. “I need help,” she repeated, quieter this time, still thoroughly in her state of shock. Tear tracks were still fresh on her face, running through the blood that had fallen on her when Bea had launched herself in front of Nell. “She’s- she’s-” her voice broke again, a dry sob coming forth, afraid to say the words aloud. “He killed her. He was supposed to kill me, but he killed her.” It was difficult to make sense when your head wouldn't stand still, when you weren’t sure if the world was still there, or if you were simply wishing it wasn’t.
She was falling apart in front of him and all Nicodemus could do was stand there. Breathless, throat wrenched tight. Something terrible had happened and it was wrecking through her, he could see it. He looked down at her, blood cold and senses eerily still. Blood covered her face and hands. From what he could tell, it was fresh. Was it hers? Goddamn it, what was happening? These things happened. He knew these things did. It wasn’t the time to think about when he had likely been the cause of such things. It was a far off thought and one day it would catch up to him, but looking at Nell, he decided it would not be then. Someone had died and it hadn’t been her. Lightning struck him and his eyes opened by a slim margin. It wasn’t with relief that he breathed. “What’re you talkin’ about, Nell? Who got hurt?” His voice was quiet as he spoke to her, his brow furrowed. Blood had stuck bits of her hair to her face and like his grandmother had once done for him, one of the handful of times he saw her, he brushed it back.
The hand was the only thing steady in Nell’s world for a moment, but the feel of it also reminded her that this was real. She was actually- “Dead. He- he took her head.” Processing wasn’t going all that well for her, unable to make sense of the world she’d woken up to, a world that was much changed from how she remembered it. “My- my sister.” There it was. Now that she’d said the words, she couldn’t get them back. Now that she wasn’t the only one who knew...fuck, this was actually happening, wasn’t it? Tears came to her eyes once more, unbidden and somewhat unnoticed as she shook her head, trying to dispel the thoughts that were ricocheting off the walls of it. “Bea.” Her voice cracked on the single name, the wetness on her cheeks only growing damper as she went on. “Bea’s dead. It’s supposed to be me!”
He. Was it a trophy killer? The way she spoke about it, that seemed to be likely. God damn it. But whose head was--Sister. Nicodemus didn’t blink nor breathe nor move. He went still. The realization seemed to cut into them both. Fuck, he couldn’t begin to imagine. Didn’t know where to start. His hand settled on her shoulder, light but present all the same. Looking at her, his eyes started to glaze. It was strange, the pain that came over him. He wasn’t wounded but she was and he could feel it in his own bones, his own skin. Bea. He had met Bea. Laughed with her, dealt with a brownie infestation. There and then gone. Her kitchen would be empty. Quiet. Hollowed out. It wasn’t alright and he refused to say as much. There was no comfort to bring to this that he knew of. “Nell I’m...” He didn’t know what it was that compelled him to move. Maybe it was her shaking, her trembling, that knife edge she was balanced on of completely collapsing that he could see. Not like this. Slowly, he brought one arm around Nell and then the other. Held her because he was afraid that if he didn’t, she might fall away.
Once his arm went around her, Nell instinctively reached out to cling to him, his motion somehow making things both worse and better at the same time. It was as human as they could be in that moment, unsure of what to do and simply reaching out to offer physical comfort when words couldn’t be found, but it was also a reminder of why she needed comfort in the first place. Finally, she crumbled fully into the moment, and though it was terrible and cutting, it was needed, and something she couldn't ignore or bottle up. Pain this raw simply demanded to be felt, to wreck its havoc on whoever it inhabited. So she stood there for a few minutes, letting herself break into pieces as she cried against Nic, knowing that no one had ever seen this like this before, but feeling safe enough to have the emotions flood over her while he was here. It took a long few minutes to remember that she’d come here for a reason. She needed help. So finally she lifted her head, trying to vainly wipe away the new tears that had gathered on her face. “I need help,” she repeated the same words as before. “The body- I have it. I need- I don’t know where to put it. I can’t put it-” at the house. What if her dad came by? At least her mom was in Turkey. God, her mom. Nell had taken the thing she loved most in this world. “I don’t want- people can’t know. Not yet.”
Nicodemus didn’t say anything as he held her. Just stared out at the distance beyond and the Beetle she had driven there. Emotion, feeling or understanding it, wasn’t his strong suit. But he knew that sometimes a wound needed to bleed before it could heal. This wouldn’t heal anytime soon but if Nell needed to bleed, he could at least be there. That much he could do. The hunter didn’t know who he was, the one that had taken Bea’s head, but he reckoned the man couldn’t do much anymore if he didn’t have his. That thought grounded him. “I’ll help you.” It wasn’t a matter of I can. It was an I will. He let go of her to give her her space as she spoke. Christ, she had the body. Had driven all the way to his home with it. When he looked at her, his face bled with concern that he couldn’t quite restrain. He couldn’t quite keep the body with him. If Skylar just so happened upon it… He refused to think about it. It was easier to think of it as a body and not as Bea Vural’s. “They won’t,” he assured. It was alarming how quick the name came to him. Erin. She’d get it. Hell, it wouldn’t be the first time he waltzed in with a body over his shoulder. But it would be different. Wholly different. His expression softened as he looked at Nell. “Do...Do you want me to wrap her up, Nell? I can do that for you.”
The first positive emotion to cross over Nell since she’d regained consciousness was one of relief. It barely registered as it washed over her, it being hard to outclass the pain, but at least it was something to feel other than the gaping hole in her chest. I’ll help you. She wasn’t alone in this. Nic was going to help. It meant more to her than she could even begin to process in the moment. “Thank you,” she managed to strangle out. “Thank you, Nic.” Nic was providing what she needed most in these moments. A direction. If she had direction, it would give her something to focus on rather than these feelings running rampant in her chest- stomach- head. Wrapping her up. That was something that should happen, shouldn’t it? “Are you sure? She’s just- it’s just-” she switched pronouns quickly once again, her mind already trying to create a wall between her and the pain, one that would make it so she could at least function without dissolving into the ground. “In the back of the car. I Summoned a tarp- I didn’t want- her car- she wouldn’t want-” She cut that train of thought off, some foolish part of having wanted to at least try to keep the car clean like Bea would have liked it. As if that mattered now.
“Ain’t gonna leave you out in the cold, kid.” Nicodemus said without hesitation. Focusing on that steeled the rest of him. She had come to him for help and that was all he needed to think about. He patted her shoulder, held it for a moment, and glanced at the car again. Bea was in the back of the thing. Good lord. He glanced at Nell and nodded once. “Yeah, I’m sure,” he said as he started past her. Paused a moment to look at her. “Ain’t gotta be you. You got here. You did good. Let me do this for you.” He didn’t know if it would help. He didn’t know what place words had when grief buffeted her like unrelenting storm wind. It was a grief he couldn’t know, but whatever she needed, he could try. He walked slow to the car and when he got to the back of it, where that blood smell sat heavy like a living wall, he paused. He was used to the smell of blood. Used to it enough that he could ignore it more often than not. But he knew Bea and Nell, her blood, was just a few steps away. It was different when it was the blood of someone he knew, he found, and it sat uncomfortably in his throat. “You ain’t gotta see this, Nell.”
She wouldn’t be left out in the cold. Something was comforting about that even if it had been meant in a more literal sense than anything else. Nell didn’t have to face this completely alone. She had someone here, someone on her side, someone to help guide her through the endless night that had gathered on the path in front of her, leaving her blind. Nic would be the flashlight, to show the next steps that were needed. She’d done good? He’d said that, hadn’t he? Nell hadn’t imagined it? Part of her rebelled instinctively against the words, knowing that Bea was dead because of her. Nothing about that was good. And yet— if Nic said it, that meant he believed it, right? So she clung to this as well as her feet followed Nic on autopilot, grateful for all he was offering her tonight. “I’ve already seen it, Nic,” she offered quietly, still by his side. The thought of not being next to him was daunting. Part of her felt like if she was even relatively alone, she’d fall back into that panic without an anchor to keep her in place. And Nic was her anchor tonight. “I just- I can’t- touching her-” Nell didn’t want to feel it, the absolute lack of life and the clamminess of Bea’s skin beneath her fingers, that fire that lived in her sister finally extinguished, the hearth empty. “I’m sorry.”
She was right. She had already seen it. He heaved in a heavy breath solemnly. His hands wrung around each other before Nicodemus lifted the trunk of the car. Ignored the way the blood clung to his fingers as he pulled his hands away. The smell was overwhelming and he tensed as his guts roiled. Nell had been spared from having to smell that heavy copper. It wasn’t much, but it was something. The body--Bea’s-- was on the tarp, just as Nell said. But it didn’t feel right to wrap her in plastic. Didn’t feel right to crinkle her up like she wasn’t Bea Vural and her baby sister was looking at her. He murmured to Nell that he’d just be a second as he went over to his truck, not too far away, and returned with a faded plaid blanket. It was old, a relic in comparison to most things he had, but it would do. With the blanket over his shoulder, he shook his head. “You ain’t got to.” There was nothing to be sorry for, no apology that needed to be said. What had happened was beyond it and Nell Vural was the last person on earth that night that needed to seek absolution. Bea’s skin was frigid as he carefully bundled her in the sheet, a bit of plastic around where her head had been to keep the wound from sticking to the fabric. He went about it as efficiently as he could. Bundled up as she was, she was alarmingly light, small even, as he lifted her out of the back of the car. “Think I know someone that could keep her for you,” he said as he glanced at Nell. “Until you’re ready.”
Seeing Bea, even from this distance, was more than enough for Nell. Headless, bloody, grotesquely fit into a trunk that certainly wasn’t meant to hold a body. But instead of sending her back into emotional turmoil, the sight caused a numbness to begin its spread. Was this her body’s response to the pain? Shut everything down because seeing this— and knowing her sister was dead was far too much for her psyche to safely handle at the moment. Better to just push it away and feel nothing at all. If she let herself be carried away by these tidal waves of emotion, there’d be no making things right. Not that things could be made right. Things weren’t anywhere close to right so long as Bea was gone from this world. And yet seeing the blanket in Nic’s hands, it broke through that nothingness for a single moment, her throat tightening once again. It was such a small gesture, but one that caused tears to prickle at the corners of her not yet dry, eyes. When he hefted Bea, she finally looked away, not wanting to see the sight of her sister being carried, as limp as any other carcass. “Thank you,” she repeated once again. “Thank you, Nic,” she barely breathed, clinging to this gift he’d given her, something she could put her energy into that wasn’t the feeling of the fabric of her life and mind unravelling. “I don’t know how to-” How could she possibly let him even begin to know how much he’d been here for hers, the thing that had kept her from slipping through the cracks into a heap of nothingness. “Just thank you.” She didn’t even say anything along the lines of owing him, somehow knowing for once that this was something he was giving free of any strings whatsoever, even those that she might generally draw for herself when it came to paying people back. Besides, she was sure he knew that she’d do the same for him in return. Anything at all.
He didn’t know how to mourn. Had never been properly taught how to welcome the absence of someone that had been there one day and then gone the next. As he held Bea and looked at Nell, Nicodemus felt secondhand grief come down like heavy rain. It wasn’t secondhand. He couldn’t claim immunity and God knows he didn’t want to. Not for this. None of it was fucking right. His hold on Bea was stalwart as he carried her to his truck. The hunter reached for his phone but paused when Nell spoke, his gaze pulled towards her. His thumb hovered over Erin’s name before the phone slipped back into his pocket. It could wait. That sensation of heavy rain gathered in his eyes as he walked towards her. “Ain’t gotta thank me, Nell,” he said, throat tight as a drop slipped from the inner corner of his eye. “I’ll get her taken care of.” Speech proved difficult, with the way that emotion choked, but he tried. Unsure of what else to say, he put his hands on her shoulders. Looked her in the eyes. Ignored her sister’s blood on her face. He shook his head and carefully, slowly, pulled her into another hug. Why she had gone to him, he didn’t know, but it meant something. Rain continued to fall from a well he didn’t know had been filled. He might not be good at it, his hands too good at breaking shit, but he could try. “I got you, kid.”
TIMING: the day after squidward was revealed.
LOCATION: the white crest...zoo ?
PARTIES: @nelllraiser and @bountybossier
SUMMARY: nic and nell come clean to one another about a few things, and absolutely no one cries. (including the muns)
The last place Nicodemus thought he'd be in less than 24 hours after ritualistically murdering someone was folded into the clown car sized sidecar of Nell's motorcycle. His truck was out of the question. August Trudeau's blood was all over the passenger seat and he was going to need a lot more bleach than what he had on hand and he couldn't even bear to fucking consider what they had done. He was crushing it down deep inside himself, into one of those dark corners where everything else too weak and too palpable went. So, Nell's sidecar it was. At least the helmet was of human proportion. Even if small pieces of dog hair kept fluttering up from somewhere, tickling his nose and compelling him to sneeze. He looked up at her and raised his voice over the wind. "When did you get a dog? You always had one?"
Nell really didn’t understand how Nic had ended up in her sidecar that was meant for Greg rather than...in his truck or something but- if this was what he wanted to do...she wasn’t going to say no. Nevertheless, she was a little amused as the sneezes kept coming, though she felt somewhat bad she hadn’t had time to clean up all the dog hair. “Oh- yeah- I don’t know- I got him a few months ago. His name is Greg! He’s really cute, though.” For a moment she paused, wondering if this was a good time to tell him about the other three demon dogs that she often had around in the form of hellhounds, but figured that might be a bit too much. After all, the zoo was meant to help him relax after he’d experienced all the stuff that was in his worrying online messages. “But enough about dogs. Are you ready for...gators?” she yelled back with a grin as she pulled into the parking lot of the zoo.
“Your dog has a person name,” Nicodemus mused, loud and slightly entertained. As entertained as a man in the process of numbing everything inside him could be. “Sounds like a fuckin’ dog accountant.” He tried to shuffle in the sidecar but the slight fear of accidentally dislodging himself entirely kept him immobile. The promise of alligators did work to soothe him some. He hated home and just about everything there, except for the alligators. They couldn’t be bothered to give a damn unless bothered. An existence worth envying. When they pulled into the parking lot and he saw the sign, he brightened some. When he first met Nell, nearly busting up one of his bounties, he didn’t expect...this. Meeting Nell was a good thing, in the same way meeting Alain or Erin was. Most folks in town, really. And it terrified an unknown part of him. A ghost of a smile came and went as he pried himself out of the sidecar with maximum effort and minimal grunting. “You better fuckin’ believe it,” he muttered as he straightened himself out, aches and all. Although his eyes were on the sign, he spoke to Nell. “...Thanks for this. Before I forget to say it.”
Nell chuckled a bit herself, glad to see that he at least seemed somewhat more grounded than he had online. At least...for now. “Hey! Greg is a very successful accountant. I’ll have you know he found a piece of wood in the yard the other day, and now he’s been promoted to assistant branch manager.” Nell waited for her horrible joke to land as if she were a dog waiting for a ball to be thrown, eager to please. It was better left unacknowledged, but she’d certainly fallen into the old trap of latching onto someone in hopes she might be able to gain their approval. But even beyond that- she liked Nic, and she wanted to help him through whatever it was that was going on. “Also- I didn’t name him. I’m much better at naming dogs.” She was pretty sure Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy were proof of that. Another, somewhat snarkier smile took her as he unfolded himself from the sidecar, glad she had already snapped a picture of him looking ridiculous in it. But it morphed once again into a more genuine one, and she glowed under his appreciation. “Don’t even mention it. It’s just a trip to the zoo. And I’m- well- I mean-” As always, she was shit when it came to baring her own emotions to the light of day. “I want to um- help. You know?” As she headed for the entrance, she took out her phone, having already bought the tickets online. “I’m glad the sun came out for it, though.”
The hunter’s eyes slid over to look at her, the life nearly gone from them. Nicodemus couldn’t find it in himself to complain. A bad joke was better than listening to ocean song and torn flesh. By quite a few fucking miles. “Bet he bought himself a fancy fuckin’ tie for that promotion,” he said slowly, as if trying to acclimate his tongue to speaking anything other than praises for what the hell was in the water at the lake. “Took himself to a five-star restaurant and got the best damn kibble they could offer.” It felt...normal. Whatever this was that they were doing. Almost too normal for him and he wondered if when he blinked, the sun might die again and Nell would be gone. He’d be back at the water, chanting words he didn’t understand and surrounded by strangers. He had been keen to throw himself back into the fire, even if it meant carrying in the dull butter knife he felt like he currently existed as. As soon as he pulled back into the Traveler, he had tried to pick up the knife he had tossed onto his passenger seat. But he couldn’t. Could barely wrap his fingers around it. Then, standing between Nell and the zoo, they hurt from where he had punched a crater into the drywall of his hotel room hours earlier. “Figured. You’d probably name a dog somethin’ like Rot Gut, right?” He shook his head and followed behind her. He had never been to a zoo before. He knew werewolves and ahuizotls before he even knew that things such as normal dogs and river otters existed. “I get it and you...are. Helpin’.” He said, recognizing enough how difficult the more...emotive side of things could be. As their tickets were scanned and they were waved in, he took in a deep breath. The place was large. Or, he thought it was. He didn’t have zoo standards to measure by. “...I don’t know where to start.”
Nell’s smile dropped a fraction of an inch when she saw that emptiness behind his eyes, having seen...something similar in another’s gaze before, and it lit a fire of worry in her stomach. Maybe she’d have to keep a closer eye on Nic. After all, she’d kept Evan’s ghost around for a reason, right? To make sure she didn’t lose any more people she cared about. To make sure to remind herself not to let them get hurt. Nevertheless, she carried on with their banter, wondering if it might ease things. “Oh no- he went all out with the surf and turf. Kibble? That’s for peasants. I do have a picture of him in a tie, though…” she said, half asking if he wanted to see it without actually saying so much as that. Something about Nic continued to seem far off, like the world was slightly out of focus for him. Then again, it very well might be if his sleep patterns had still been struggling, and he’d been ending up in strange places after his sleepwalks. She wanted to ask about them, but wasn’t today also supposed to be an escape from all that? So for now, she stayed silent on the matter. “What? No! I’d name it Nic,” she shot back in her teasing tone. “Because he’s hairy, and likes to chase anything that moves.” She swore her heart grew three sizes that day as Nic did his best to return an semi-emotional phrase, and just like that her smile was back in full force. “Then I’m...glad.” Her eagerness was also quick to return as she bounced a little on her heels, watching his expression and reaction to the zoo. “Well do you wanna go straight to gators- or explore first? Do you have any other favorite animals?”
The sun hovered over them and he couldn’t quite bring himself to look at it. His night vision had been so attuned to the lack of light for days on end that the sudden reappearance of the sun had him squinting. Nicodemus reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the lone Excedrin he had tucked away. It wasn’t Nell’s potion but it was something to get him through the day. The hunter rolled it between his fingers before he dry swallowed it. “Sounds like one of those fancy dogs that got standards now. Need that high quality dirt or they won’t even raise a leg,” he said as he expelled air through his nose. “Is the tie from before or after his promotion? I wanna see.” The back of his hand still burned something fierce and he made sure to tighten the white bandage around it, looking like a boxer half-ready for a fight. The thought almost made him laugh. If he hadn’t looked ready for a fight before, he sure as hell did now. He didn’t think that he and Nell would find any bounties at the zoo. Even if they did, he wasn’t in the mood. Both of them were fighters. A few hours of rest might not kill them. Just for a few minutes, they could just talk and walk and not think about tomorrow’s bruises. He rasped a laugh at the idea of having a dog named after him. “You’d do a dog dirty like that? Hell, be better off stickin’ with Rot Gut or Greg.” As tired and rundown as he was, as much as the skin around his bones felt stretched beyond limits, he pushed through it to smile for Nell. No matter how small. He didn’t have to look hard to know that she was worried about him. That made exactly one of them and she didn’t need that weight on her. Something like care urged him to prevent that and he nodded. He mulled over her question as he continued to walk in no particular direction. “Y’know...Guess I saw so many gators that I just kinda stuck to them, but...they got any, uh, red pandas here? Or somethin’. Always hear about ‘em…”
Nell was very much a night crawler, just as her sisters were, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t also happy to see the sun. Mostly because of her garden. Sure— she didn’t entirely know what she was going to do with the possibly ridiculous amount of UV lamps she’d bought during the darkness, but at least her plants would be happier with the natural light. Watching as the little pill passed his mouth, she bit the inside of her cheek. Did he not want to take the potion? He had said he hadn’t tried it yet. Was there something wrong with it? “Did the potion uh- not work?” She didn’t want to be overbearing, but she also didn’t want him feeling like there was a man pounding an anvil inside his head during all hours of the day. Despite that, she pulled her phone out perhaps a bit too quickly as she retrieved the picture of Greg, holding it up for his consideration, the new grin also showing a hint of pride in its depths. “This is him! And it’s after his promotion, of course. Directly after. He has a name plaque and everything, now.” Nell made a mental note to remind herself that the picture she’d shown Nic had been of Greg as a Golden Retriever. Greg often liked to switch dog breeds which...would obviously raise some questions with people who didn’t know he was a demon if she didn’t keep up appearances. “I like to think Rot Gut and Nic have a pretty similar ring to them,” she offered with a shrug of her shoulders, a glint of amusement in her eye as she looked up to him. At least he smiled, though. That was something, right? The next time she spoke, it was with a seriousness that was so extreme, it almost made her words comical. “Red pandas are, quite literally, some of the cutest creatures in the world. We’re going to see them now,” she finished before reaching out to grab his forearm in an attempt to drag him towards the appropriate exhibit.
Nicodemus glanced over at Nell, the pill leaving a bad aftertaste in his mouth. He considered whether or not he should have stayed back. But he’d promised Nell and he didn’t want to be alone. A thought that rang alarm in the hollow of his chest. “No. It ain’t that. There’s nothin’ wrong with it,” he said with a shake of his head. The fact that he hadn’t tried it yet seemed to bother her. “It’s like, uh, I’ve been runnin’ on instinct the last few days. It’s, uh, instinct to go for the pills…” He trailed off as she pulled up a picture of the dog with a person name and leaned forward to look. “I’ll drink it when I get back. Y’know, that dog looks more fuckin’ professional than I ever have. Good on him for gettin’ a job and shit,” he muttered, almost grumbly. He wasn’t a dog person. Wasn’t much of any kind of animal person, save for the critters he spent time with in the swamps. But if Greg was Nell’s dog, maybe he wasn’t so bad. “Probably gonna get you to start doin’ his taxes, you know.” It was easier to talk about dog taxes and not the way the sun made his eyes hurt or the pain that still seared the back of his hand. Or maybe it was the memory of it that seared. He felt like his insides were rotting out. Either due to lack of any proper nutrition or because his body had been puppeteered by a goddamn squid. It was a toss up. He huffed. “Yeah, you ain’t wrong.” Then she was deadly serious and he was being pulled full force, animals and exhibits just sideline blurs. Cute wasn’t a word he would use to describe anything in a serious manner. Facetiously, yes, absolutely. But then there was a red panda tumbling off a log less than five feet in front of him and his eyes started to get watery, his throat tight. “Yeah, they’re...alright,” he said, voice light as he finally found it and looked between Nell and the pandas. “They’re bigger than I thought they’d be...”
Nell nodded along with his words, as if trying to also convince herself that there was nothing wrong with the potion. Instinct made sense, right? “Is that ‘cause of the uh- troubled sleep and stuff?” She’d never been all that accomplished at more emotional talks, but...she wanted to help, even if she was shit at it. Seeing Nic so downtrodden- it was like watching your father cry for the first time, realizing that a man you built up to be unbreakable and ever-strong was only human in the way everyone else was. Today was meant to be happy but— maybe they needed to work past all the heavier things in order to break through to the lighter times. Thankfully, it seemed they still had managed to hold onto a smidgen of the silly talk. “He’s already making more money than me which- is not exactly something to sneeze at, thank you. I’m thinking I’ll ask him to set me up with a trust fund, soon. Then I can just live off that for the rest of my life.” Did Nell know how trust funds worked? No. Did she particularly care? Absolutely not. The red pandas, as always, were utterly adorable, and Nell watched them with a growing smile of her own. How was it that such a silly little creature could make her mind go silent for a few, long moments? Make her forget everything that was going wrong in White Crest, her life, her family. Parts of it were quick to come crashing back as she picked up on the change in Nic’s tone, concern gripping her features once again. “I- they are, aren’t they? I wish I could- pick one up and put it in my pocket.” What the hell was she saying? No doubt these words were spurred on by her uncertainty when it came to what emotion was entering his voice.
His gaze cut sideways at Nell and he nodded. “Yeah,” he said slowly. He wasn’t much for words but he couldn’t weigh the benefits of trusting anything else over his mouth. Trust didn’t come easy to Nicodemus or most people like him. But trusting Nell, in that moment, did. “I, uh, get these headaches. Hunters got these...senses, y’know? Mine ain’t all...really right. Haven’t been since I left home. And then all this other shit…” He raised a hand vaguely before it fell to his side again. Being in White Crest had pulled more words out of him than most other places. So used to the cut and dry exchange of just pure business. Talking to Nell was like pulling something not yet dead out of the dirt. Dusting it off. Showing it the sun again. He tried to warm up but he couldn’t. It would take time. It would take work. One of which was never guaranteed. What was guaranteed was that he could laugh, even just a breath of one, at dog nonsense. It was something slim, just enough to grab onto. “Gonna be a trust fund kid, huh? Start wearing cardigans and boat shoes when you ain’t even got a yacht?” His voice was coming back to him. It didn’t sound like a stranger’s the more he spoke. The red pandas tumbled over each other. Stretched out lazily in the newly returned sun. Unbothered. Unfettered to the world and its issues. They didn’t care how the sun came back, just that it did. He reckoned most of the town was the same way. And if he hadn’t been compelled, he might have been the same way. But he did care and that care caught like a fish hook in his neck. He would pull it out. One day. Maybe soon. He looked over at Nell with a slow blink. Met her concerned eyes with his bloodshot ones. Cracked but not broken. “What’s stoppin’ you? Greg could use a business partner.” He glanced at the map, blinked the slight glaze from his eyes. “D’you wanna go to the, uh, gators? I’ll tell you what happened.”
Nell nodded with Nic’s words before saying, “No, yeah I just-” The answer he’d given wasn’t really the one she’d been looking for, having told her mom about the Hunter headaches when she’d made the little potion. But she didn’t want to push Nic just yet as she decided to bite her tongue. “Yeah,” she simply finished, wanting to let him have this moment before the rain clouds that seemed to be gathering over their conversation decided to pour down. Though the sun was still bright about them, she couldn't help but feel a shadow had still been cast, though it was unseen to them, only felt in their words and movements. Greg was much easier to talk about anyway. “That’s the plan. He won’t want for a single thing in his entire life. I’m planning on getting him a nice couple of polos as soon as I get home. The yacht’s in the mail.” she said wryly, faking indignance at the exposure of her obvious lack of boat. The red pandas were too cute to ignore for long, and Nell turned back to them with a softer grin, watching them carelessly move about their enclosure. Sure, some might consider them to be held within a cage, but at least it kept them safe....didn’t it? There were times Nell wished she could put her own friends in safe places such as this, even though she abhorred whenever anyone tried to do it to her. The small smile grew as Nic spoke of a potential red panda escapade. “I don’t know— wouldn’t you rather have one of the gators? I feel like they’d notice if we took two animals.” With that she led the way to the alligators exhibit, glad to find them sunning themselves in the new sun. “You don’t- you know you don’t have to tell me,” she said, not wanting him to feel pressured. “But I just- if you want to...I’m glad to be...here for it...for you.”
“I’ll take it when I get back,” Nicodemus said as he shifted on his feet. His eyes felt both dry and wet, his muscles ached beyond anything, but he kept standing. Kept awake and breathing. “Promise, Nell.” As much of a side-eye as he gave most magic and their sometimes loose or deliberate connection with demons, he trusted Nell. If she wanted to kill him through some kind of witchcraft or wizardry, she would have done it. The conversation shifted back to the dog and he cracked a smile, let the light come through for even a moment. “Hell, gonna pay his way into Harvard and everythin’? That’s the real American, y’know,” he chuckled, just as amused as he had been when she first showed him the dog. “Can’t believe a fuckin’ dog’s gonna have a yacht before I do…” His voice devolved into a messy, grumbled garble of disgruntled sound. She looked happy, looking at the pandas and the simplicity they had. They had been through a hell of a lot over the last couple months, hadn’t they? Shit from the sea, town madness, the usual violence. She had quite literally forced her way into his self, headfirst into a dumpster of all things, but he hadn’t shut it on her. And he was...glad for it. More than that, but he didn’t have the word for it and hell if he’d say it. “You got a point. Don’t know shit about raisin’ a panda,” he admitted. “But gators? Reckon we got a better chance with that one. Get ‘em a tie too.” He scoffed and walked by her. Adjusted the bandage he had wrapped around his hand. The skin felt tender but he didn’t wince as it rubbed against wounded skin. When they came to the front of the gator exhibit, he breathed easier. It was such a strange thing to be comforted by creatures that inspired little to no comfort in others. But he did. They had been there for him at a time when nothing was. And now Nell was there, with him, and that hit him square in the chest. “Nah, want to,” he said as he looked at her. “Not wantin’ to keep it up here.” He tapped at his head. Now that it was his again, he would do as he wanted. Hell, they were both bad at this, weren’t they? He about started laughing, if only to keep from crying. It didn’t last long and he took in a heavy, shaking breath. “I wasn’t, uh, myself, y’know? Somethin’ crawled up inside my head and just took over. Somethin’ with the lake and the sun, fuck if I know. It’s gone now,” he said quietly. Didn’t acknowledge the strange hole it left. “But it--I hurt people, Nell. I didn’t want to. But I’m me now and that shit don’t just...leave.” He paused and took a moment to settle into the bench. He looked at the ground. “It’s me now though. It is. And I’m...Glad. That you’re here.” He wound his hands together, looked at her. “That, uh, we’re here. It’s a lot to put on you, I get that, but I can’t...just keep it locked up top. Much as I want to.”
Nell was more than content with the promise, even though she was trying her best not to be like Bea in moments like these. She knew how infuriating someone looking over your shoulder could be, but this was different...right? Either way, she was glad to hear the words come from Nic, and she simply nodded in return, giving him a small, “Thank you.” It would help put her at least a portion of her mind at rest, one less thing to worry about when it came to those she cared for...even if she didn’t remember making the active decision to care for Nic. Yes, she’d wanted his approval, his time, his lessons, but everything else that had come along with those? The little thread that seemed to connect her to him just as it connected her to other people she’d met after moving back to White Crest? It was there, and she knew it. Somewhere along the way he’d gone from fascination and prestige to becoming fleshed out into a real person, not just something for her to seek the attention of, but someone she wanted to give to in return. She played with dropping the conversation of Greg once more, but decided to keep it. Maybe it’d bring balance to this, and a sense of normalcy when everything was decidedly...abnormal. “Any Ivy League will do. But I know Harvard has definitely been eyeing him. You know he’d be a legacy there. After all, I graduated from there back in ‘78. He’s just a red-blooded, American lad.” Her smile was still present while she continued on. “A tie to match Greg’s. Business partners, indeed.” Watching as he fixed the bandage, she told herself not to nag anymore, knowing he was a grown man and could most likely take care of himself, even if she wanted to offer some sort of healing salve from her mom. Then it was time for silence to fall over her, not wanting to interrupt as Nic went on with whatever it was he needed to tell her. If he needed to get it out, she was going to let him do it unimpeded. As each word fell, her heart sank, knowing perhaps a little too well the feeling of having a hand in pain you wanted no part of. Of course, it had never been against her will. “It...possessed you?” was the first thing she asked, her natural curiosity and need to help already trying to figure everything out. If she really wanted to help Nic, she first had to understand. And whoever it was that had put Nic through this would certainly pay, whether it be with their blood, life, or both. “It wasn’t you,” was her next, reflexive response. “You didn’t choose that. You know that, right?” She didn’t hesitate to sit herself next to him face etched with concern as she watched. “It sucks, though.” What else could she say? Sorry? Nell knew from experience that the empty words didn’t do shit to erase anything, to make the thoughts do away. “It fucking sucks, and you don’t deserve it. To have to think about it- to be saddled with...the knowledge. The memories.” He was glad she was here? Already she could feel a warmth blossoming in her heart despite the heavy topic, wondering when he’d become such an important figure in her life. “I’m glad, too. That I’m here...with you.” Her head shook without hesitation. “No- that’s what...friends are for, isn’t it?” Were they friends now? It didn’t feel like exactly the right word, but what else would they be? “That’s what I’m for. To be here with you or for you or...whatever you might need. You know- if it helps...keeping busy always made me feel better. And- and-” she teetered on the edge of her next words, uncertain whether she should reveal all her to Nic just yet. But she trusted him, that much she knew. Perhaps more than she’d come to realize. “I could maybe help. Make sure it doesn’t come after you again.”
He had given her his word and didn’t say much after it. It would be enough. Giving his word meant something different in White Crest. Nicodemus didn’t give it away freely or easily, never quite had before. It wasn’t weighted in money or reward. There wasn’t a price point that needed to be reached before he gave it. Words like that didn’t apply to promising Nell. It was weighted in blood and for once, for him, blood meant something. It was a struggle to acknowledge it and his hands wound, calloused fingers caged together. A fear rose up in him, fingers wrapped around bone as it settled against his spine. Rested its head on his weary shoulders and waited. Everything meant something different in White Crest. He was a stranger in a strangeland. Or he had been. He wasn’t anymore. He couldn’t call himself that when he made a simple promise to Penelope Vural. Strangers didn’t do that. Flitting across the state lines, chasing after creatures from dusk until dawn. More a phantom than a man. People knew his name, knew him enough to tell when things weren’t right. Being made tangible was painful. Regrowing flesh and blood and bone to become solid again. Such things exhausted but also revealed. Sitting by Nell, speaking with her, laughing about dogs in ties. It was as human as human could be. As human as he likely had ever been in forty years of existence. “‘78, huh? Dog’ll write one hell of a tell-all book about this.” His eyes traced the grooves in the cemented pathway underneath his boots. A worm was making its way along, inch by inch. Nicodemus traced the lines of his uncovered palm absently, face neutral and eyes half-open. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “It did. Didn’t sleep, woke up in weird fuckin’ places. Time was...I dunno, it just wasn’t.” He picked his head up by a fraction and looked at her as she spoke. He knew it wasn’t him, but what he was made it a hell of a lot easier for the...squid, demon, whatever the fuck, to get the job started. It was what it was but he didn’t make anything feel...less than what it did. He made room for her as she sat, his side pressed against the armrest. “I do, yeah. Wouldn’t have done any of it otherwise.” Except for killing Karen when Jeff came near under fire. That he still would have done. Most likely. He huffed a laugh through his nose. If it had been Nell, he would have done it too. “Yeah, shit fuckin’ sucks, but it’s, uh, done now,” he said as he sat back up and looked at the gators that floated in the murky water. “Just gotta...fuckin’ carry it now. All I can do, y’know?” Carry it. Find a space atop everything else and strap it in. Keep walking. Keep running. He couldn’t help the deep furrowing of his brow or the confusion that came in at his eyes. Out of some nervous reaction or complete social uncertainty, he started to laugh. A quiet, faint sound. Strained. “Partners ain’t cuttin’ it anymore, huh? We friends now?” His voice trembled in the hollows. Echoed louder in his ears than it should have. “You, uh, too. Here for you and all that shit.” The hunter leaned forward and turned his head away slightly, eyes obscured. His chest compressed. The movements of his fingers against his palm increased until he finally clenched them together. He shook his head. Glanced up. His vision watered down. He took in a heavy breath before he looked at her again. “How’d you mean, Nell?”
Nell should know that a Hunter didn’t make promises lightly, after all she didn’t these days, either— not with all the fae running around White Crest. But beyond that it meant even more coming from Nic, a man she hadn’t even known a few months ago, a guiding force in the form of a person she hadn’t even known she’d been looking for, even if the craving for it had been there. And it had been long for her as well, hadn’t it? Travelling the world didn’t exactly make for long term friendships. She’d barely been in places more than a week before having to set off again. Even before that, people had been few and far between, not many willing to stick around for the storm that was Penelope Vural. So even though she wasn't entirely sure when or where it had come from, she wasn’t going to let this go. “I hope he does,” she added in a softer tone, emotion unexpectedly gripping the funnier portion of their conversation as well, apparently taking no prisoners today. “It’ll just add even more onto the money pile.” One of the gators lumbered into the water, as if taking a break from the heat of the sun for a moment piling against another of the large reptiles, blissfully unaware of the unfolding conversation happening outside its exhibit. “Yeah. Yeah,” she echoed almost to herself, knowing that the only way out was forward. “At least you don’t...have to carry it alone though, right?” The words were tentative, hoping she wasn’t overstepping her bounds as she offered to shoulder some of the burden, to make sure he didn’t get crushed beneath the weight of it all. In the quietness of the moment, her self-conscious nature when it came to friends and the like was quick to find her, the usual fire that colored her words dimmed by the gravity of this all, making it impossible for it to outshine some of her insecurities. “I mean- I just- if you want to be friends,” she seemed to backtrack for a moment, as if worried she was about to be denied or rejected. For a beautiful minute the fears were wiped aside in the confirmation that they’d have one another in the coming weeks, months, maybe even years if she was so incredibly lucky. However just as quickly as it had come, it departed, and her eyes fell to her hands, now restless in her lap as that same fear of abandonment began to metastasize, wondering whether he’d accept the proposal of friendship, but toss it aside in the next breath once she revealed her actual nature. “I can help because- well- you might have already suspected-” she started, as if gearing herself up. Why could she face down a Pricolici without so much as blinking an eye, but it was things like this that made her feel small and helpless? “I’m um- you know- well- magic. I can do magic.” And then, a little quieter, “A witch.”
“Nah, I ‘spose I don’t.” Nicodemus said, confusion twined loosely around his voice. He had resigned himself to going it alone. Any legacy he made would be his own. No family name attached. No burdens. Wishful thinking. That shit didn’t leave. He could leave, wander, but that never did. But it didn’t have to be heavy. He had to be realistic about these kinda things. The slightest step above nihilism. What was that? Progress? Hell, there must have been something in White Crest’s water. He looked out at the alligators. “Sure I do,” he muttered quickly, as if it were the easiest thing. Comparatively, it was. “Ain’t sayin’ no.” The hesitation from Nell kept his eyes forward. Didn’t want to risk her cutting herself off. Whatever it was, he understood. It was never easy to gut yourself and show it. Easier to gut others than take honesty to yourself. Magic. His brow twitched. “Huh.” Was all he said for a moment. It made sense. The stake that had conveniently appeared when they dealt with Lugosi. The karkinoid she had...yeeted herself through, in her words. It wasn’t something he personally liked to deal with. Superstition, or maybe just that thin line between magic and something demonic. Habitual thinking that he couldn’t quite shake. While the ‘demons’ his grandfather had him gift a quick death to hadn’t all been demons as the books knew them, the thought still hovered over him. He couldn’t stop that slight lurch in his gut. The hunter stopped looking at the alligators. Instead, he looked at Nell. “A witch,” he repeated. And she was telling him, a hunter, that. The gravity wasn’t lost on him. It pressed down. She trusted him. Him. Not even when he hardly trusted himself. “Yeah...Yeah, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. I’d appreciate it.” A cold wind passed over, through the spaces between his fingers. He shifted slightly. Angled himself toward Nell, his expression serious. “I can help you too. If anyone--” He paused to take in a breath. It shook. Goddamn it. That blood shiver from before returned. His gaze hardened. Caring was new to him, but if he could liken it to something... “If anyone tries to hurt you, Nell.” Anyone like me. He huffed out a breath and looked away. He started to fidget. “New to this fuckin’ shit,” he said, not elaborating on what this fuckin’ shit was. She was important to him. It was simple as that. “But I wanna try.”
The confusion in Nic’s voice tugged painfully at Nell’s heartstrings, recognizing that tone of voice when she herself had used it on occasions. Just how isolated did Nic feel if the concept of people being there for him was so foreign? But maybe his acceptance of her words was hope blossoming before her very eyes. Next was his confirmation of being friends, and a grin nearly as bright as the recently reappeared sun broke over her face. To think that not only she’d gained a friend, but he had as well. Even though the road might have been lonely, it didn’t mean one had to be utterly alone on it. “Friends it is, then.” Nell released the breath she’d been holding, waiting for Nic to say something about her revelation when it came to being a witch. Relief was quick to wash over when he seemed to accept the news with little fanfare or condemnation, honestly relieved that his reaction seemed at least neutral. That was much better than negative. “Perfect,” she simply said, glad to hear that she’d get to help protect her friend. “We can get started right after the zoo. They won’t come near you again if I can help it.” What she hadn’t been expecting was Nic’s nearly echoing words, offering her shelter and safety should she need it, too. And so in that moment, the realization that he cared enough to offer her such a gift was overwhelming, her throat tightening as it was her turn to focus on the alligators, and try not to be embarrassingly emotional. “Thank you, Nic.” They were simple words, but the only ones she could think to say. “Seriously...thank you.” But perhaps the words on their own were more effective than any others that could have been flowery or polished. After all, the two little words held what she most wanted to convey to Nic in those moments. Gratitude for all he was offering her, and all he’d already given her. “We’ve got each other, now. And we can figure it out together.”
LOCATION: the drive-ins.
PARTIES: @bountybossier and @nelllraiser.
SUMMARY: stab ? stab!!
TIMING: sometime in March
Nell had been staring for...probably much longer than was socially acceptable, squinting into the darkness towards the truck a few spots over to see if it was, indeed, who she thought it was. She hopped off her motorcycle as the movie continued to play on the drive-in screen, passing annoyingly in front of those that were trying to enjoy the film. As they grumbled about her getting in the way, she could see the vaguely familiar outline, and wasted no time in popping up next to the truck, her eyes barely managing to clear the side of it as her hands gripped the edge, her feet on tiptoe as she said in a horrendous attempt at a whisper, “Sam Hill- is that you?”
The hunter had to do a double-take when he saw the drive-in theater on one of his nightly drives. Romance wasn’t exactly for Nicodemus and classics were fine, but what really caught his eye was the horror double-feature on Sunday: The Wolf Man and Dracula. What better way to forget about the shit of reality than to immerse himself in what humanity thought was actually going on? One large water bottle and bag of popcorn later, he was posted in the back of his truck and watching the opening credits of Dracula. He snuck a sip of his flask and reclined back against a bag of salt. He hadn’t heard the whisper at first, or maybe his subconscious chose to ignore it. He only looked over when he felt eyes on him. It was her. Nell. To keep from loudly swearing and interrupting, he shoved a fistful of popcorn into his mouth. He squinted and whispered back. “You here for the movie or are you stalkin’ me?”
Perhaps Nell had a similar reason for being here. It was simply amusing to see what twisted tales of the supernatural had managed to leak into humankind, and then see how they thought how it could make a better story if they just entirely messed it all up. Nevertheless, she still enjoyed the movie Practical Magic. Not that this was that film. Dracula was always a good way to unwind as she perhaps laughed a little too loud at the parts that were meant to be...well...scary. But it was ridiculous! Nevertheless, her bottom lip jutted out as he seemingly ignored her. “You didn’t answer my question,” she said stubbornly when he posed his own query. In another moment, she’d clambered over the side of the truck and into its bed, apparently inviting herself. “Can it be both? I choose both. Except you’d have to be cool enough to stalk.” He was definitely cool enough to stalk, she just wouldn’t admit it.
Nicodemus watched in quiet resignation as she clambered over the side of the truck like a child at the play area of a McDonald’s. “Well, fuck I’d hope it’s me,” he muttered in response as he looked between her and the screen. He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he shook his head. Honestly, a run-in at the movies was the least troublesome encounter he’d had in the last, what, three days? His sour mood sweetened some, not by a lot, and he tipped his head. “Sure, it can be both.” He paused and squinted at her. What, was he not cool enough to stalk? Why was he even entertaining that thought? Lugosi was supposed to be entertaining him. “Oh, me being not cool is the reason you’re here? Good to know, I’ll remember that.” With a grunt, he jutted the popcorn bag at her and looked away. “...I ain’t gonna eat all of it.”
Nell’s amused grin was already sliding into place at his response, settling into the truck beside him as she folded her knees up near her chin. “That’s for me to know, and you to not find out.” She wasn’t exactly in the business of telling bad-ass bounty hunters her rather...lengthy history of latching onto people she found undoubtedly cool. But she hummed for a moment as he seemed to give in a bit to her tease, and she figured she’d give him a little something. “Alright fine- it’s both, then.” Nell looked down as she said the words, fixating on the popcorn in case his reaction to her admission was negative. Hopefully, her tone might have been joking enough to pass it off as no more than a joke if need be. As the popcorn came her way, she wiggled a bit in her excitement, always quite thrilled to have food at her disposal. “Thanks!” Her exclamation was perhaps a tad too loud, earning a replying ssssh from another drive-in goer a car over. Without hesitation, she stuck her tongue out at them before turning back to Nic. “So you a horror guy?” she asked before taking a healthy handful of buttery goodness and popping it into her mouth.
Instinctively, Nicodemus shoved himself to the other side of the truck like a socially awkward dog at his first day of daycare. He took a long drag of his water bottle as he side-eyed Nell. It was troublesome trying to figure out why she seemed so keen on following him lately. And even more so, trying to figure out why it didn’t piss him off as much as he initially figured it would. He huffed and leaned his head back. “Give it time, kid, I ain’t bad at sussin’ shit out.” A snort followed at quick addition. “Annnd that was quick.” He took a massive handful of the popcorn and held it on his lap. The hunter didn’t mind her outburst, but the car over did and Nico picked his head up to stare at them. The next person that shushed them was getting a knife in their tire. His head tilted at her question before he nodded. “It’s either this or historical romances,” he said, completely deadpan. “There’s no inbetween.” Bela Lugosi stalked across the screen, cape drawn. Nic squinted. For all his night vision was worth, it didn’t help much with a giant screen behind it. It looked like someone was mimicking Lugosi just a few rows ahead. “Was this a costume showin’ or what?”
It was impossible for Nell not to notice Nic’s apparent aversion to where she’d sat in the truck, though she did her best to brush it aside. Maybe he just didn’t like sitting next to people. She tried not to take it personally. Besides, she was too wrapped up in her popcorn eating to take any prolonged notice of anything he was doing, far too pleased to have something to eat in front of her. “You don’t get that one,” she replied stubbornly. “You didn’t ‘sus’ anything. I just decided to tell you so it doesn't count.” She wasn’t sure what to make of his reply about movie preference, but tried her best to tamp down the excitement that came with the thought that they might have something in common. “What like...Gone With the Wind and stuff? The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?” But she finally looked up from her precious popcorn at his question, joining him in squinting into the night. A light snort dropped from her. “No- it looks like maybe someone’s just really into Lugosi. Their cape isn’t even that good.”
"Nope, I sussed it with keen precision," Nicodemus said, hands slightly splayed at his sides. The slight annoyance in her face was enough to spur him on and he damn near cracked a sly grin, gaze sliding to the corners of his eyes to look at her. He adjusted in his seat, sat pretzel style, and leaned forward with his elbows in his knees. "Yup, secret of mine. 'Spose you earned it, but frankly my dear, I don't give a fuck." Proud of himself for his own spin on a line from a film he finally watched about five years ago, he tipped his head at her. Shattering his senses to make himself useful outside of his grandfather's idea of demon hunting had him constantly on edge, but there was something about the drive-in that particular night that had his teeth tight. "Fuckin' cosplayers." Except, the man ahead looked eerily like Bela Lugosi but stiffer. Like something pretending to be a human-shaped person and he was lurking close to cars, trying to snatch at something. Someone. He sat up and reached into his jacket. "That ain't a cosplayer, Nell."
Nell gave a soft eyeroll, the corners of her mouth upturned as her amusement grew. “Sure you did, old man. Just keep telling yourself that.” But her slight grin turned full force the moment he confirmed their mutual taste in films, along with a laugh that tumbled into the air with his doctored quote. “Okay, but do you watch-” Her excitement and smile were cut short as she watched the strangeness of the supposed cosplayer unfold, eyes straining to see what was going on with a bit more fervor as she leaned forward. Crawling towards the tail of the truck, she frowned, that strange sense of something being not entirely right crawling up her neck. Shit. Nope. Definitely not a cosplayer. Nell was already making her way out of the truck to go confront the Lugosi wannabe when she hesitated a moment later, looking back over her shoulder at Nic. Sure, he was a badass bounty hunter amongst other things. But she’d rather keep him safe from any supernatural shenanigans. “You know, I’m just gonna- go- talk to them. You just uh- stay here. Or leave. Leaving would be better. Or you know actually, I think we need more popcorn. Maybe you should go get some. Please.”
The hunter lost track of their initial conversation, far too focused on the Lugosi that he couldn’t quite get a read on. Fucking damn it. Nicodemus just wanted to watch the movie, not have to deal with stabbing or shooting shit for at least twelve hours. So much for that idea. It was back in one of Dracula’s coffins. His fingers skirted along the stake held up tight in his jacket but he didn’t move. Damn it. She didn’t need to get involved in this but then there she was, urging him to go get more popcorn. He shot her a look. “You’re gonna go talk to ‘em?” He shook his head twice and pulled up into a crouch before he threw himself over the truck bed. “How about you go get the popcorn? You seem more about it than me there, Nell.” The utterance of please confused him. Was she...worried about him? He looked between her and the fake Lugosi. He had already placed himself between her and the approaching figure, a subconscious action that he’d think about later. “I’ll go talk to ‘em, alright? Get this shit sorted.” He bit at the corner of his lip. “Alright?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna talk to them!” Nell insisted, a frown furrowing her brow. Couldn’t he just go get the dang popcorn? The longer she waited, the more squirrelly she got thinking that something unsavory might be occurring only a few cars away. “No!” She insisted stubbornly, perhaps even stomping a little with the word. “You- it’s- gentlemanly isn’t it? The guy gets the popcorn? You’re from the South, right? You know!” What the hell was she even saying? This was almost as bad as telling Kaden that her biting him had been performance art. Her frustration only grew as he seemed to block her path, and she bent to look around him towards whatever was still going on with the Lugosi character. “No, I’m talking to them! Look just- please just- don’t go over there, alright?” Nic getting hurt was something she certainly wasn’t willing to risk, and her features grew a little less intense as she spoke the request. And then she was doing her best to step around him and in the direction of the disturbance, jogging her way over there.
“Well maybe I wanna talk to ‘em too, huh? Ask ‘em about their...cape an’ shit.” Nicodemus didn’t have time for this. Fake fuckin’ Dracula was getting too close for comfort and he still wanted to watch the fucking movies. At her mention of him being from the South, he let out a loud, annoyed sigh. “Oh yeah, because if there’s anything I am, it’s a southern fuckin’ gentleman.” If she meant to distract him by having him go into a Cajun French rant, it almost worked as she started to slip around and away from him. Why was she so damn keen on dealing with it alone? He grunted and spit off to the side as he took off after her. “Fuck that, we’re both talkin’ to ‘em. Just get behind me if they do anything fuckin’ weird.” He said it with finality and he looked at her as they neared the stranger. “Hey, fuckass, what are you do--” Fake Lugosi rounded on him and Nicodemus was prepared for the lunge that followed, arms up as the body hit him. He maintained balance and shifted on his feet, grabbing the back of Lugosi’s jacket to flip him over. Thankfully, he was parked off to the side to avoid people. Sans Nell, apparently. If no one noticed a goddamn thing, it would be for the better.
Damn, the Cajun French rant bait hadn’t worked. “Or you could get behind me!” Nell replied stubbornly, in much of the same tone that this entire conversation had been spoken within. Nevertheless- it was...nice that he seemed to care. But she didn’t want him to get hurt by some lame-ass vampire! The conversation slipped away as she watched the fight already beginning to unfold, and a simple exclamation of “Nic!” fell from her. The single word was mixed with worry and annoyance, not at all pleased that he was being put in this situation. She quieted quickly, though— not wanting to draw even more attention to the little scuffle that was happening over here. With reflexes that were a little too fast, Lugosi was back up, and lunging once more. “Stay down!” Nell growled between gritted teeth as she took her own turn, dropping to sweep a leg out to kick Lugosi’s feet out from underneath him. He didn’t look feral, not having that sort of crazed aura about him that vampires generally did when they were starved which meant...was he simply hunting for sport? Or just shits and giggles at a vampire movie?
The hunter’s eyes shot to look at Nell. Jesus, she was concerned. That was a funny thing that Nicodemus would seriously wonder what the fuck was about later. The vampire didn’t seem to care that there were two people actively trying to put his ass down. Nic grunted and watched, impressed, as Nell put the vampire’s ass to the dirt again. He pressed a hand against Fake Lugosi’s cold neck and pressed his face into the dirt, fanged mouth open and full of mud. “Alright,” the hunter murmured as he shifted on his heels. “Don’t know what your fuckin’ deal is but this ain’t the fuckin’ place for it, sharptooth. Don’t try it again.” The vampire hissed, or tried to, with a mouth full of dirt. He glanced up at Nell, then over to the cars not that far away. His ears picked up someone talking, whispering about what was going on over there. There being where Nic, Nell, and the vampire were. He grumbled. “Just doin’ security, keep watchin’ the goddamn movie,” he said, voice raised by a thin margin. His grip tightened on the back of the vampire’s neck as he tried to pull him up by the scruff like an angry cat. “Nell, got a feelin’ he might bolt. I ain’t got a stake. You?” The vampire went rigid at that and threw his head back, clocking Nic right in the face. His grip faltered enough for the vampire to shrug him off and do just what he said he would: bolt. Right for her.
People were watching. Which meant that magic wasn’t really an option. Nell had been trying to use less of it in situations like this even moreso than usual, all to aware of how Miriam was slinking about these days. Plus….she didn’t exactly know Nic’s opinion on witches, and wasn’t entirely sure if she was ready or not to discover it. Nevertheless, she was somewhat amused by the picture of Nic holding the pitiful creature. If it hadn’t been clear that this particular piece of trash was...exactly that, she might have fought the mention of a stake. Instead, she simply shook her head. “Not on me.” Next thing she knew, the thing was charging her, and brown eyes widened as it grew closer. A snarl curled her own lips as it closed in, and she dug in her heels. What she did next wasn’t the most graceful of fight techniques...but raising a foot to harshly kick the vampire in the privates certainly proved effective enough as he doubled over. Then she was darting towards a nearby, empty car to duck behind it under the guise of searching in the mud. Taking the chance to perform a bit of clandestine magic, she summoned a wooden stake from seemingly thin air. “Found one!” she called out before making sure she muddied up the weapon that had been sitting in her room at home not seconds ago .”Catch!” With that, she was launching the piece of wood towards Nic, for she was no longer in stabbing proximity.
Nicodemus realized the absurdity of the question right after he asked it. Right, most people didn’t normally carry fucking stakes on their persons at any given moment. Even he barely did. Only when the situation called for it. Needless to say, he didn’t expect fucking movie night to be one such situation. As he shook off the headbutt, he looked over in time to see Nell handle it about as tactfully as he would and tried very fucking hard to not grin. It failed and it lit up his face, just by a slim margin. Then she was running away and that grin faltered. Was she about to fucking leave his ass after they’d shared some shitty popcorn? The audacity. As she returned, stake in hand from who knows where, he was glad to be proven wrong. He reached up and caught the stake. In as smooth of a motion as he could, he pivoted and went weight, plus stake, first into the Bela Lugosi wannabe. The vampire gasped for a second before the burst into dust, which Nicodemus promptly blocked with his body as a couple curious humans glanced over. “Part of the show, folks. Regular fuckin’ mindfreak,” he said gruffly. Maybe it was the tone but it was enough to get eyes back on the screen that the real Lugosi stalked across. The hunter looked at Nell, forehead furrowed and eyes squinted. “Don’t you say it. Don’t you dare say we make an alright team.”
Nell couldn’t even begin to describe how beautiful the scene was while Nic caught the stake and promptly turned the vampire to dust. There might have been fireworks. The mayor might have been there promising the pair of them keys to the city for being such upstanding and badass citizens. Either way, her fists punched into the air in tandem, a wide smile on her lips! “Yes! Amazing! We kicked ass!” But didn’t this mean...apparently she wasn’t the only bounty hunter around who did other forms of hunting on the side. After all, he was the one who’d asked for a stake. “Yeah, nothing but a loser!” she called out after Nic finished his own explanation. “I’m helping,” was the only explanation she offered. Her grin had already been wide, and it wasted no time in looking as if it might split her face, eyes crinkling in a way that was also a telltale sign of being up to absolutely no good. “I wasn’t gonna say that.” Nell bent at the waist, retrieving the stake from the pile of dust, and pressing it back into Nic’s hand. “I was gonna say we make an awesome team.” With that, she began to lead the way back to the truck, intent on finishing the movie. “Do you think the popcorn’s still there?” Then, because she never knew when to stop, shit-eating grin and all, “And next time you get to be the one getting behind me. We’ll take turns.”
