#zedd*

[ghoulluck]

Since he had moved in, Zedd was in charge of taking care of Guy. Miss Daphne Lewis-Clark's paralyzed husband. He was only impaired from the neck down, but the man did not speak. He was a bit on the thin side, he had dirty blonde hair and deep brown eyes. It was hard to place where he knew the eyes from.

Today, Guy refused to eat at all.

Zedd didn't know what to do. He figured the older man was resigned to die. He figured life in a wheelchair maybe wasn't life at all. Maybe there was an element he was missing. Zedd sat down next to the man. They were facing a big bay window. The garden outside was beautiful. Every rose was white, propped up against a pink house with silvery trim.

It looks every bit magical to the outside world. He felt it was more of a horror house. A one up on the Stepford wives nightmare. Recently alone, Zedd and Ryan's closets had been gutted of their things and replaced. All he knew was that the school was happy to have him looking like everyone else.

Ryan was suffering the most under Daphne's regime. She had the girl by her side all day and night on the weekends, leaving Zedd alone to explore the house and do his chores. He looked at his watch. It would be a complete twenty four hours since Guy had eaten. Turning to the older man, he got on his knees, "Your wife is going to kill me if I don't make you eat something."

Normally Guy was glassy eyed and distant. Today he was present. His eyes shifted. Not towards him. Zedd looked behind himself and he found her standing there. "You can-- see her?" he asked as he turned back to Guy. The man narrowed his eyes if slightly before blinking. Zedd had to take that as a yes. It was unmistakable.

Chills ran through him. Most people didn't see unless they were gifted or nearly died. He imagined the situation in which Guy ended up in had to be too close to death

[ghoulluck]

Zedd eyed the bruise that was blossoming over the side of Indy's face from behind his pair of sunglasses as he put them on. He had seen it on his way to go get Julien himself from the living room. The sheer panic in her sleep, her quick action to silently jab Indy as hard as she could and to push away from the couch to avoid disturbing Ryan. Watching her shake as Indy tried to contain her until she could recognize him still made his chest tight with anxiety. He didn't know where Coté had disappeared to, but he knew what had happened to Morpheus. He just hoped where ever their third friend was, that she was safe, mostly from herself. 

Indy licked his lips, "You wanna fucking stop staring?" Normally Zedd was safe behind his sunglasses. Not today. "Excuse you," the teen retorted with a sharp huff as he instead turned away to look at what was on the aisle. They were in the candy section. At the same time, the men reached for Paulina's favorite chocolate.  Zedd didn't let Indy claim it. He yanked it out of the other's hand and he put it in the basket. "The fuck is wrong with you, boy?" Zedd gave another huff. He didn't answer as he went back to the basket. Indy caught his arm and the teenager flinched before yanking it away. He hated his reflexive response to want to cry when someone that wasn't Julien grabbed him like that. 

Indy gave a matching exhale like a silent threat.

"What's up with you and these fucking sunglasses anyways? You look like a damn douche bag." The older man plucked them off Zedd. He could recognize the hang over on the teenage boy's face. Mostly he could see the clear upset he had provoked. He watched Zedd go through a multitude of emotions before just plucking a spare pair from his coat's breast pocket and  placing them on his face as he roughly pushed past Indy. The older man looked at the pair before putting them on. 

They shopped on in silence, looking like a pair of dicks and he let Zedd choose things. The teenager really paid attention. He could see favorites, even Ryan's favorites -- that made him soften a little bit. The boy was a lot like Julien. It wasn't a wonder he and the girl were best friends. They were just... sensitive and blessed with abilities he couldn't really wrap his fucking head around. Indy chose a few things himself and made note of what Zedd liked before shelling out the dough at the register. 

The teenager looked up at the older man. Indy looked good in the sunglasses. Maybe he'd let the older man keep them. Without thinking he leaned a bit against Indy's arm, like he would with Edmund who was very welcoming and receptive of the boy. He missed the older man and he missed Eddie too. He just hoped the woman was okay. Like with Ryan, he just sort of squeezed the boy's head to his side briefly to reassure Zedd things were okay before letting him go.

 The teenager gave an exhale of relief and wiped at his face roughly to hide that he was crying. His head hurt way too much for this shit.

[ghoulluck]

A hazy eye focused on the door man. A weak pink color wormed it's way to the surface of the filmy eye as Julien's mouth pulled into an saccharine smile. She reached out to touch the door man on the back of his hand, a pink leather glove clutched in her opposing hand. His eyes lit up, a distant foggy pink and she leaned on her right foot as she leaned in to whisper into his ear.

She pulled back with honey like smile, batting her long dark fake lashes at him as he smiled with a near perfect imitation of her's.

Julien exhaled as he turned away from her with his hand drawing his gun. She touched the back of her naked palm to her nose. A drop of blood hypnotized her for a moment too long. The sounds of gun fire made her lift her eyes to the glass doors. The splatter of blood cast a shadow over her face in her reflection. She touched her bare neck before gloving her hand yet again.

She may not have worn the collar, but he did.

Zedd appeared a few steps behind. She turned on her heel and smiled at him. Nothing mattered as long as she still had her best friend. She reached out for him and he gave a forced smile. It hurt him to see her submit to slavery on his behalf. He drew their hands up as the doors parted for them. There was a calculated kiss to the other's hand as they focused just on each other in silent communication. Their time to escape would come soon.

Blood leaked down from her nose on to her white blouse as she walked with him. They parted, her in front, him staying behind as she drew in long harsh breaths. The door man lay dead at the elevator entry. He hadn't gotten far much to her dismay. She nudged him with her shoe as she studied his aged face. "Don't be so sentimental," a voice behind her warned. Julien's mouth opened and closed. She would have said she was only human, but these days she wasn't so sure of that.

The woman in green picked out the keys that Julien had tasked the man to find and to kill for. Eddie placed it in the palm of her gloved hand when Julien offered her hand for it. She stared at herself in the reflection of the elevator. She was the only image distorted so inhumanly on it. She let her eyes drop and she plugged the elevator key to the door. When it hit the first floor, it's door's drew back. Julien avoided the pooling blood as Eddie stayed behind.

A slow filtering of golden light filled the metallic spaceas the door closed. The smell of sand and a river permeated the air. She cast her eyes aside as a woman began to manifest beside her. They were not so different. Dark brown eyes. Unclean hands. The fear of losing a loved one. "My condolences," the woman beside her remarked. Julien hastily wiped at her face as she nodded. She had already paid a price once for disobeying. "I still have him," Julien stated. Paulina turned her head of chesnut and gold hair to the pink haired girl, "Doesn't make it hurt any less."

To that she could more then agree.

She sniffled before recomposing herself. When the doors opened, Paulina looked at the charms that hung from the ceiling. She could enter no further. Julien lifted her gloved hands to pluck one down. They both had limitations. Their bodies were just vessels to something more powerful then them.

She breathed in as Paulina took something from her coat's breast pocket to place it into each of her ears.

Below, Zedd remarked as he eyed two ominous dark eyed siblings standing guard at the main door way, "Begin."

Julien reached up easily, her eyes focused on the door at the end as she pulled down charm after charm and dissolved them to dust in her hands. Paulina's strength grew with the destruction of each one. They had many floors to go.

She tilted her head when the sharp sound of a bullet being fired into the wall sounded as a threat from the inside of the room at the end of the hall. Julien breathed in sharply as she felt the second round hit her shoulder. Paulina stood back. Her body couldn't sustain damage the way the girl's could. She gave a compulosry smile as she twisted the lock, breaking it in her hand as her eyes once more drew in the light. She took her energy from the electricity around her.

The building hummed with the slow draw of power. Zedd watched the mercenaries at the door lift their heads to the flickering lights as his skin began to itch with the static filling the air over the intercom speakers. It didn't take much more then twenty agonzing minutes for the pair to descedent.

Paulina held relics in her hands, things that made her more powerful and the glow about her was brighter like the sun was under skin. Julien on the other hand was pale and sickly. She kept her composure only long enough to get to Zedd. He met her half way in the foyer as she collapsed into him. He didn't have the strength to pick her up as  her body began to sieze violently.

Eddie huffed in frustration.

She looked to the hired hands and Indy took a step away towards the door to hold it back for Paulina. Zedd knew better then to swat away the merenary. He let the dark eyed woman take Julien from him and he was kicked in the leg to get ahead of her. He surrendered to the order, walking ahead of Ryan and Eddie as crew flooded the room to clean the aftermath.

The truck ride made Julien feel dizzy. She wasn't allowed to take comfort in front of Eddie. Instead, she sat still across from the mercenary who had carried her, studying the other's face and the similarity between her and her brother. Ryan was staring back. She dropped her eyes after a while.

They were each returned to their cells. Even if the inside was dressed up like a home, they couldn't leave. The door locked behind them and Zedd's collar beeped as it opened. Julien swallowed as she gently took it from around his neck. They would survive this just as they had everything else.

He was her weakest link.

The pair tensely joined hands to try to replenish her strength. She needed more. She wasn't healing like she once had and she leaned in almost to kiss him, but faltered. Only Coté could replenish her so well. He followed through to kiss her forehead as he pet back her soft pink curls.

[ghoulluck]

It’s not the first time he’s seen julien.

Zedd doesn’t mention her to Ryan. The ghost stays in the house. Under cupboards, on top of the fridge, on the banister, in the tub that doesn’t work anymore and mostly where the sun is. Her eyes are dark, or at least one is and the other is foggy and white. That’s all he really sees of her when she’s around because she’s disappeared.

Zedd reaches up for the cereal where she is and she gently pushes it towards him. He looks up at her, catching her eyes before he can see anything else. “Hey, is there anymore cereal?” Ryan’s voice cuts him from his trance and he looks back at the fellow goth. He shakes the box. It’s only enough for one and he gives it to her. He’ll find something else to eat.

He glances back at the top of the fridge, but she’s gone and he’s disappointed.

Since zedd could remember, he could see things other people couldn’t. A lot of times he wouldn’t react to what he saw. That’s what they wanted to grow strong. Attention. Energy. The sad eyed ghost however in this house was something he dedicated a lot of attention to. He wanted to know who she was.

Ryan shook the box. Eyeing zedd she poured out a box into a bowl, “You okay over there cowboy? You’re doing that spacey thing again.” Zedd opened the pantry in search of something else to eat. He lucks out with a banana and a pack of instant oatmeal.

Their foster descends the stairs and they do their best to look well behaved. Daphne is a business woman. She has big blue green eyes and she’s built like a model, both in height and slimness. Her eyes are starting to crinkle in their corners and it's the only sign of aging. She puts both hands on Ryan’s shoulders and it makes him uneasy.

He feels the pin prick of the ghost’s presence return.

“You guys weren’t home when I was here.” He sees that Ryan is uncomfortable under her hard grasp. “Your curfew is not negotiable.” Zedd closes his eyes the second Ryan’s face gets planted to the table. The cereal goes crashing down. “I warned you.” Before they know it, daphne is back to her regular demeanor, artificially beautiful and he can see Ryan’s shaking from rage.

Zedd tries to save her cereal, but to no avail. He gives her his instant oatmeal. “Here,” he tells her, “or the shakes will set in.” Ryan only agrees because he’s right and the shakes feel worse then Daphne’s burst of violence.

He turns and he can see julien over his shoulder. For the first time, he can see her see her. Whole. She’s a red head like the woman. She looks a little like daphne but more like someone else he can’t name. Her eyes are full of tears and he can see the way her fingers curl through the refrigerator that she’s also angry. He sits down and she blinks mechanically at him.

“Ryan— do you see any cereal up there?” Ryan looks up, she shakes her head no and continues eating. She doesn’t see julien. This is more disappointing for him. “Yeah, I didn’t think so either.” 

[ghoulluck]

Julien cooed a little as she hopped up on the counter next to him. He looped his arm around her to feed her like a little bird from his bowl of soggy cereal. She noted a little piece of something just floating through his cereal. She gave him a big smile and he grinned back in confirmation of what it was. She opened her mouth big for another spoon full. "So needy," he stated as he got his arm free of her to feed himself. She hummed as she carefully chewed. She felt it was dumb to be limited by her jaw. He flicked her ribs to get her attention, "Come on needy, another mouth full."

[ghoulluck]

She felt the lowest notch of her spine get crushed up against the kitchen counter. Just the jabbing edge. Without fail, the squeeze and jerk of her hips would make freeze up. 

“You could be with us.” 

There’s a growl under Coté’s voice in juliens dream. She can smell the sulfur coming off the others breath. She refuses, but coté kisses her anyways. She fought the saint. It hurt. “You’re hurting me.” It was the first time she had said anything concise. 

The rest of the dream was just a blur of pain and zedd jolted from their shared dream. He got them water. He came back to bed and he turned on the tv for them. 

It was three in the morning. “Hey, you wanna go snuggle ry? See if that makes you feel better?” She opened her arms up instead and he dropped into bed again, “okay, but you’re paying me overtime for this cuddle session.” She laughed as she locked her arms around his shoulders. Zedd sighed comfortably before feeling too guilty. 

“Come on, ill get over my fear of the super buff person you’re dating and I’ll even hug my fear straight on.” He pouted a little, “dare I say I can even sleep on the floor, granted indy doesn’t smash my head by accidentally stubbing his foot on me.” She laughed again as she agreed.

[ghoulluck]

"Hey, bambi."

Julien smiled when she recognized Zedd's voice. He put a red solo cup in her hand as he gave her a half hug. She put it to her nose to smell it. It was hard cider. She took a sip and nodded with a smile of thanks. He gave her shoulder a light clap, "Sure you don't want company?"

She had been hanging around Ryan an awful lot. Naturally he was concerned. Even if they shared an aesthetic, he knew Ryan was pretty rough around the edges. He had heard a thing or two about her, but he wasn't the kind to buy into rumors. Shit, Julien had her fair share of rumors too. Shit running around about being a slut, the usual for pretty girls with a lot of damage.

She shook her head, "Waiting."

He pretended to be surprised, "Alright, well, hit me up. I'll be man-slutting my dick around." Julien rolled her eyes. He was ever annoying, but a good friend. She gave him a pat on his chest to send him on his way and she leaned back against the wall to wait for Ryan to show up. She looked down at her phone to check when Ryan had sent the last text.

The blonde sighed a little. She hated waiting for the goth to show up. She felt itchy and anxious. Adolf leaned heavily against her legs, looking up at her with his big puppy eyes and she cooed at him softly. She never knew what kind of state Ryan would even show up in. It wasn't that the goth was all over the board, but she sort of was. She'd be fine and then she wasn't. Julien figured it had more to do with things she hadn't been told about yet. Things would come in time.

Their friendship was a fragile thing the blonde didn't want to ruin.

She rolled her eyes when Xavier approached her. She had slept with him a few times after a football game in his sports car. Terrible lay, but she was lonely and even if it was bad he was a good cuddler. She could tell quickly he was drunk. "Hey, sexy." Julien felt the urge to throw up in her stomach. His presence was agitating her anxiety. She just wanted to see the goth. Adolf turned his head a little and he went personally to go try to find Ryan. Xavier put a hand by her head. She swallowed down the lump in her throat and flinched when his hand made a sound that probably wasn't more then an average smack of a limb against cabinets or something like that.

She kept tight lipped. "How about you and me --" His other hand touched her on the cheek. Something registered as she splayed her hands out on the wall behind her. She had no where to go. The room was full of people. She couldn't exactly teleport herself where it was safe. "We should go fuck, like old times." His hand locked behind her ear as he made her look up at her instead of the floor. She slowly dipped her head away from his touch to try to get out from under the bridge of his arm. Xavier blocked her way. She had never seen him act like that. Usually he just let her go.

"Hey," her voice was low and threatening.

Her head snapped to Ryan and in his distraction she managed to get out from under his arm only to get yanked back. Panic swallowed her up. She fought his arm and she got behind Ryan as she gripped at the goth's hoodie to try to get the other girl moving. She couldn't breathe. All she could see was her father's blood creeping up closer into her line of vision when he punched Ryan. All she saw the blonde saw was red. It was getting closer. It was staining her clothes. Julien pushed Xavier down. Her hands became fists against his face. She wailed on him with all her might even if it hurt.The party around them had stopped when she was done smashing her hands. She could feel the goth trying to get her to stop.

People were staring.

He wasn't moving.

Zedd's face was making it's way through the crowd of people. She felt Ryan pick her up and before she knew it, she was in Zedd's van laying on the mat he kept in the back. Adolf was crying softly somewhere and she took the sleek dog into her arms as she curled up into her self. She sobbed into his chest until the van stopped. Zedd opened up the back and climbed in. She smacked his hands away hard enough to make him rub where she had hit him. It was the first time she had ever been opposed to being touched. She loved being touched. It didn't matter if it was a good touch or bad touch anymore half the time. She always wanted to be touched.

She picked up Adolf and slid out of the van.

Ryan was sitting there in total silence, chewing something in her cheek and turning her bloody lip ring over. Julien didn't wait to go to her door. She heard the van whizz away, then the sound of footsteps as she sank down on the porch to sob again. She curled up against Ryan when the goth slung an arm around her. The other was saying something, but she was too far gone into old memories to hear it.

[ghoulluck]

The house was just as alone as when he had first met her. She had given him a key after his aunt passed so that whenever he fought with his uncle, he could seek refuge with the Peritas. His boots thudded hollowly as he explored each level of the house. Every floor looked like someone had once been living there, but abandoned as if the christian rapture had actually happened.

Zedd looked down at his phone when it buzzed in his hand.

Stop there, it said.

His brows crinkled in slight confusion until the ladder of the attic dropped out before him. Dust rained down on him. Suffocating stagant air invaded his lungs the higher he climbed it and he found himself standing in the attic, alone and amongst endless canvases and photographs. On the wall closest to him, there were still sample poloaroids he had developed for the art final concept for his friend.

When Zedd turned, he found Julien curled up against the window. He had an incredibly hard time recognizing her now that she had made the red permnant. It was tied neatly away from her face and sat on the top of her head in a perfect coil. If it wasn't for her brown eyes, he would have easily mistaked her for the woman that Julien claimed was her mother.

He came up to the first stack of canvases to his right and he began to thumb through the images. They started much like how he had suggested. Small comparisons, maybe something to get in touch with who she was at her core after her abilities had started to increase. Now, it was obvious exactly how lost she was.

The more he studied the images, the more he felt maybe her identity was spread thin. There were so many versions of herself, all of them imprinted on canvas and overlapped with an acidic filter that looked too precise to be developed on a program. Every image was darker then the last until he came across a depiction he wasn't sure was Julien at all. It was a skinny, tall, and deformed woman. Her body cast a long shadow and the light behind her seemed to dim when he turned his head just slightly. The image drew him in, then she moved and he jolted back from the painting, letting the other cavases cover it from his sight.

"I send some out," she said finally and his head snapped in her direction. Zedd had been so lost in the dark wonderland of her art that he had forgotten that she was there at all. "Send what out, bambi?" He still used his familiar nickname although now it wasn't suiting at all. She looked tired as she handed him an open letter. Zedd handled it carefully, unsure of what he was looking at until he read the first few lines.

"A scholarship?" He felt his chest tighten a little when he read about the location of the school. They would be attending college at opposite ends of  the united states if she accepted it. Julien nodded as she stared numbly at the window. Her eyes were hazy. The cataracts had gone from one eye to the other and steadily getting worse. He had to wonder how she could see at all. When she turned, she had a sort of paleness he didn't quite feel fond of.

He came to sit next to her. She smelled like cigarettes, no doubt from Indy and Ryan. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head. "Have you told scowly?" He had nicknamed Ryan a while after he had his first interaction with the goth. He still remembered how badly beaten she was, but she had an expression that stated 'you should see the other guy'. He was still terrified of the younger teenage girl.

"No. Not going."

Julien was graduating that incoming decemeber. Ryan still didn't graduate for another year. He felt her shakily sigh and turn her artificially pink lips against his shoulder before she broke down into his arms. "You wanna talk about it?" She shook her head as she wrapped her frail arms around him. He settled back against the wood. "What's going on? Come on. You can trust me." Slowly, she leaned back. She had the expression of a wary animal in her eyes and her posture. Zedd grimaced. He wasn't so sure now if he wanted to know.

"Too loud," she stated quietly as she vaguely gestured to her head, "Stopped taking medication." It hadn't improved anything. It just added her nuerotic hysteria. She had stopped smoking. She had to be clear headed, but her head felt more foggy. "Why'd you do that?" She licked at her lower lip as her eyes caught the light. They were red like her hair.

"Wanted to make better art."

"And did you?"

Julien's head turned a little, "yes."

He nodded some, "Okay then. Keep going."