AN: Hey guys. This is a revision of a story I attempted a little while ago. I hope you like it. Let me know!
Chapter One
Season 1, Episode 5
Amanda was bored. With Dirk and Todd off doing who-knew-what and Farah supposedly the same, she was bored. As a result, she dug through her phone and called someone who might be able to offer some levity, or at least distract her from the mundane.
As she rolled herself a joint, there was a knock at the door. Amanda glanced up in time to see the wooden slab swing open under the force of the half-hearted raps. Her friend Elizabeth stood in the threshold with a delicate brow arched high in confusion and her hand still raised.
"Izz, hey." Amanda chimed happily as she stood.
"Hey," she mumbled in response. Izzy removed her sunglasses, setting them atop her head as she stared at the scene surrounding her. "Holy shit… What'd you do to Todd's place?"
"It wasn't me." She smiled.
"Suuuure," Izzy openly teased as they hugged one another briefly before parting.
Her bright green eyes danced around what was left of the apartment. It was chaos, in shambles, and clearly on the wrong side of whatever tantrum had erupted within its walls.
Amanda loved Elizabeth. When the young woman was dating Todd, the pair hit it off immediately. Their personalities just clicked and even when Izzy's relationship with her brother faded and ended –albeit amicably- Amanda was sure to keep in touch with the only chick she got along with that didn't bug the hell out of her.
"So," Izzy slid her jacket off her shoulders and tossed it onto a broken chair. "What brings you over here, Hermit?"
While the nickname could have easily been seen as insensitive to anyone who knew Amanda's situation, Izzy only ever meant it as a term of endearment. The two had known one another for nearly six years, well before Amanda was diagnosed with her nerve disease. Of all the friends to flee when Amanda became a shut-in, Izzy remained and to show her friend the disease was nothing, gave her the nickname.
It wasn't one-sided teasing, either. Some time before she met the Brotzmans, Izzy's hair had begun turning grey. When people didn't believe that a young woman's hair was naturally losing its color, she simply told them it was like Steve Martin -hair turning white decades before it should have. After naming Amanda Hermit, the youngest Brotzman shot back with calling Izzy Old Lady, because now, her entire head was grey and white.
It looked good, though. It wasn't the color of snow or anything like that chick on Game of Thrones. Instead, it was silvery with different shades of grey and white to give it some kind of dimension. Amanda always joked that Izzy was lucky because there were girls who paid salons hundreds of dollars to do that shit to their hair, while she just grew hers.
"Dude," Amanda breathed with a level of excitement Izzy was glad to see her feel again. "There's so much going on. Come here,"
Amanda motioned for Elizabeth to take a seat on the couch, which she did. Almost immediately, Amanda began to unload the weirdness that had been surrounding her for a little over twenty-four hours.
During the explanation that honestly made Izzy's head stir just a bit, Amanda had reached for some discarded markers and began coloring in Izzy's tattoo. Her entire left arm was covered in ink. A massive, ornate Viking serpent began at her shoulder and winded its way down Elizabeth's arm, through ring-like banners with runic symbols representing a poem she loved and had translated, and between waves. It was shaded by stippling which meant color stood out easily. For some reason, Amanda loved to use her like a coloring book, and Izzy was fine with it.
"So, now Todd and Dirk are looking for whatever the map said is buried in the park." She said as she swept a pale blue marker along the serpent's body.
"Wow," Izzy mumbled. "I don't really know what to say to that."
"I know, right?" she laughed. "I mean, he's a psychic detective." Amanda looked up as she continued to beam. "How awesome is that?"
Izzy chuckled and shook her head at her friend. It was good seeing her so happy again. It was a rare sight anymore. Amanda had become so engrossed in fear that it was stifling every time they hung out together. She was afraid to leave the house, to do anything with her hands because she might suddenly feel needles stabbing through them. The only thing that usually helped was smoking some weed, and her meds.
"And those guys in the van," her voice was distant. Izzy watched as she grabbed a red marker and began to color in the waves. "I still don't know what to make of them, man."
"Tell me about them."
Amanda had only glanced over their involvement before, but with Izzy's prompting, she opened up about the strangers in dirty leather jackets, with wild hair and even wilder eyes.
"But, they don't freak me out, y'know?" she said after explaining about the strangers. "I mean, looking at them, yeah, they'd probably scare the shit out of people, but they kind of saved me."
Izzy leaned forward and narrowed her gaze. That was something Amanda hadn't mentioned before. "What do you mean?"
Amanda's strokes of the marker hesitated before they stopped completely. Reticently, she looked up and Izzy could tell she was a little embarrassed about what she was about to say.
"I went to the grocery store by myself." She said, noting the mild surprise that touched Izzy's face when she did. "And I had an attack,"
"Jesus, Amanda. Are you okay?" Even though she clearly knew Hermit was fine, Izzy felt compelled to ask for obvious reasons.
"Yeah, totally," she nodded. "Thanks to them." Elizabeth's eyes narrowed further and her head tilted marginally. "They did this thing to me," she motioned to herself as though she could somehow explain what happened through mime, but it didn't really work. "I don't know what it was, but like… I felt them draining all of it out of me." Izzy's face went blank. "Kinda like what you do, but a thousand times more."
Izzy wasn't sure what to make of the statement and Amanda could tell, but that was the best way she could relay what happened.
About two years ago when her fear was at its peak and Amanda felt like she was going to just disappear within her disease, she had an attack in front of Izzy. It was the first time that'd happened since she was diagnosed and –foolishly enough- while her body was engulfed in acidic pin pricks and she was racked with pain, Amanda was embarrassed for her friend to see her like that. But Izzy didn't care. She leapt right into the fray, grabbed Amanda's meds and practically force-fed them to her. As she did, she pulled Amanda up into a seated position, held the young woman's face in her hands and forced her to concentrate.
For about five minutes or so –however long it took for everything to kick in- Amanda stared almost unblinkingly into Izzy's lime-green eyes. She told Amanda to look at the different shades of green in her eyes, to focus on that and breathe, and it worked. Amanda began to relax faster than normal. It was like magic, as far as she was concerned. After that, Amanda never feared having another attack in front of Izzy, not only because Elizabeth didn't run away, but because she was like a med booster, making those pills work faster than normal. And she made Amanda feel safe.
But even with that, Amanda was still in awe of what those guys did to her. It took seconds for them to wipe away everything. Yeah, she kind of passed out afterwards, but still…
"Weird," Izzy finally managed to say.
"I know, right?" Amanda replied.
Elizabeth smirked and shook her head slightly. Amanda's glee was infectious.
The two continued to hang out for a while, laughing and talking, and even sharing a joint when they heard it. In the distance and through the busted window, the pair heard the deep roar of an approaching vehicle. Amanda perked and jogged for the widow immediately.
A wide, but uncertain smile tugged at her lips as she saw the vehicle idol near the curb. Everything inside her told her she should go downstairs. She wanted to –badly- but she wasn't completely stupid, either. The little trust she had for the guys who'd leapt out and helped her the day before –twice, no less- wasn't enough to make her jump into their van. It may not be white and cruising through a school zone, but it was windowless which made it no less creepy.
"Come on," Amanda said as she bounded through the living room to her jacket.
"Um, what?"
"Let's go." She turned excitedly to Izzy, but quickly noticed her friend's apprehension. It made her falter just a bit. "Oh, come on." She nearly whined. "It could be fun."
Izzy raised her brows as she stared at the nearly vibrating brunette. Her intrigue and eagerness rolled off Amanda's shoulders like smoke, saturating the small square footage of Todd's apartment with little effort. But still, Izzy didn't reply.
"Fine," Amanda sighed as she shrugged her jacket into place. "But I'm still going."
Elizabeth opened her mouth to protest, but Amanda never gave her the chance. Instead, she disappeared through the busted door before a single word could be uttered. Izzy was immediately annoyed and afraid. There was no way she was going to let Amanda out of her sight –let alone to join a bunch of strangers the brunette admitted were weird- and the young Brotzman knew it. She'd been betting on it, in fact. She knew that if she left without her, Izzy would come running.
Amanda barely had a chance to open the door to the building before she heard a heavy foot stomp from behind. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Izzy eying her sternly as she threaded her jacket on. Amanda didn't bother hiding her victorious smirk which caused the grey-haired young woman to roll her eyes.
Alongside her friend, Amanda approached the rumbling van. Music blared from inside and for a moment, nothing happened.
The sliding door suddenly swung open, revealing the inside of the van to look the same as the out. But now, they could see each other, the four men inside, and the two young women standing on the sidewalk. Amanda may have hesitated briefly, but a wave of bravery shot through her, sending her into the van without a second thought, quickly finding a seat near the open door. Attention soon shifted to Elizabeth.
"Izzy," Amanda smiled, "Come on."
Whether she wanted to or not –and she honestly couldn't decide- Izzy stepped into the van. She found her seat on a bench beside a kid who looked like he was ten, bouncing repeatedly in his spot as though it were impossible to sit still.
The moment the two were inside, the guy with a beanie slammed the door shut and the blonde behind the wheel took off.
Elizabeth couldn't breathe. Amanda radiated enthusiasm and delight. She couldn't control herself because she's on an adventure for the first time in years, but Izzy didn't share her joy. She couldn't. Something about the guys surrounding them didn't sit right with her and she couldn't place what it was. The air around them was different, they smelled different. To someone on the outside, they may assume she meant something along the lines of BO, cigarettes, or leather. But that wasn't it. No, they smelled familiar, and that's what she didn't like.
"You catch on pretty quick." Martin chimed from the front seat, the cigarette smoke coming from his lips carrying his smooth words to their ears. "But I bet you know all 'bout us cause of your friend there."
His words trickled down Izzy's spine and forced her into the conversation more than she had been for some time. Her eyes slowly traveled to Amanda on instinct and when they meet the brunette's gaze, she can tell Amanda was confused. An uncertain, crooked smile lingered on her lips for a moment. She waited for Izzy to refute Martin's comment, but it never came. Instead, Elizabeth looked nothing but guilty and Amanda's grin faded as a result.
"What's he talking about, Izz?" she asked in a calm, but apprehensive voice.
Elizabeth felt her nerves beginning to fray, she felt the air turn thick, and a lump form in her throat. She desperately wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't immediately spring forward.
"There's something I should tell you."
