It felt all sorts of strange for Lily to be alone. It had been such a long time since she'd been by herself. As she drove Jesse's truck towards New Orleans, she caught herself feeling so unusual. With the window beside her down, she finally felt the true feeling of fresh air and sunshine - those things just didn't seem to get into Angelville, like there was some awful barrier that stopped good things from penetrating the grounds. Part of her felt like it had all been a weird fever dream, like everything in Angelville had just been a horrible, neverending nightmare that she finally woke up from. She moved her one hand on the steering wheel, facing the palm up to herself as she stared at the awful scar - almost black in color it was so dark red, and was reminded that the nightmare was still in fact reality.
She'd tried calling Tulip a few more times on her way, just in case. Every part of her hoped she would have just picked up and ended the slow burning worry that was growing larger and larger inside of her - but she had no such luck. No answer, yet again. Before she made it to New Orleans, Lily had stopped to grab something to eat - it was the first bit of normal food she'd had in what felt like years. When she was on the road again, she grabbed her phone, looking at Tulip's location and coming near to it as she ventured into the congested area of New Orleans.
When she saw on the map how close she was getting to Tulip's phone location, she dropped her phone, her eyes scanning the area as she saw the signature purple Chevelle. Lily felt her heart flutter at the sight - feeling hopeful.
Lily pulled up behind Tulip's car on the side of the road, parking the truck directly behind it as she kept the truck running. When she approached the car, she saw no one inside. Her eyes caught a flutter of paper on the windshield. Under the wipers was about three or four parking tickets. Not uncommon for Tulip, but it meant she hadn't moved her car in a while. Lily grabbed the tickets, noting the time stamps on them. The time added up for the amount of hours her location on her phone hadn't changed.
When Lily grabbed at the car door handle and pulled, it was unlocked - which was a bad sign. Tulip never left her car unlocked. Leaning into the drivers side, Lily saw the keys on the ground under the steering wheel - an even worse sign. Now Lily's heart was racing. The pit in her stomach became much more obvious to her as she felt the small fire of concern shift into an explosion of worry.
Suddenly, she heard a beep. It was Tulip's phone. Lily moved her hands around the seats until she found it had fallen between the center console. On the home screen displayed all of Jesse and Lily's missed calls and text messages. Lily locked Tulip's car and moved back into Jesse's truck, which was still running. She sat inside the cab of the truck, trying her best to stay calm as her mind raced on what to do next. As she took a deep breath in, Lily looked up and out of the windshield of the truck, her eyes studying the area for several minutes.
Finally, she looked to Tulip's phone again thinking there might be something that might tell her what Tulip may be up to. Lily flipped through the notifications, dismissing everything from Jesse and herself that they had sent to Tulip, not finding much else. She tried to look through her apps and see if anything may tell Lily anything, but she had no luck. Finally, she went to her phone history.
As Lily's finger swiped at Tulip's phone screen through the dozens of missed calls from Lily and Jesse, she finally got to the timeframe before Tulip went missing. It took Lily a moment to process, but she saw the phone call before she'd left Angelville that Tulip had made and it burned into Lily's eyes:
CASS - Outgoing Call - 4min22sec
After the initial shock wore off, Lily felt herself relax somewhat - Tulip could just be with Cassidy, she thought. It wasn't unusual that Tulip would leave her phone behind... but to leave her car unlocked and her keys inside the vehicle? Lily felt herself stiffen slightly again. That fact was still very out of the ordinary. With a groan of confusion, Lily decided to track Cassidy - something she hadn't even considered doing up until this moment.
A bit confused when the location loaded, Lily felt her brow scrunch. Her eyes moved from her phone to the buildings across the road. Cassidy's location was not current by any means, but about ten hours prior it had picked him up in one of the buildings directly across the road from where she was right now. There were apartment buildings and the odd house, and it was hard to tell exactly where his location was being picked up just staring across the way. Lily stared at the two phones in her hand and sighed. No part of her wanted to shatter the illusion that Jesse had created to push Cassidy away from Angelville, but this was about Tulip - and something told Lily that whatever happened to her wasn't right, which meant that Jesse's lie about Lily being dead would soon have to be exposed - if Lily could even find Cassidy.
With yet another huff, Lily turned the truck off, placing the keys into her pocket along with Tulip's set for her car and followed the last location Cassidy's phone had picked up. Lily felt her shoulders drop unwillingly as she walked past the half-decent looking apartment buildings and instead saw the set location on the phone to be just next door. With a groan, Lily's eyes studied the beatdown, crooked excuse of a house. The windows were boarded with plywood, and there were graffiti markings all over it. The roof looked like it was going to cave in at any moment and the siding was torn off. At the front door, two people slumped side by side on the porch. They looked like standard crackheads. Tucking the phones into her pockets, Lily started walking towards the building she deemed to be a crack house. "Hello." Lily said simply to the two strangers on the porch, "Have you guys seen a loud, tall, tattooed Irishman around here?" She asked. The one, who was a woman, looked up to her. Her eyes were glazed over and her hair was tattered and greasy beneath her hood, "Who's askin?" She asked. The man beside her looked up to Lily with droopy eyes, his mouth hanging open for Lily to have a chance to see some serious meth mouth, "Uh," Lily started, "Me. I'm asking."
The woman's mouth moved slowly into a smile as she laughed feebly, "Huh. Huh huh huh.." She laughed a little harder, leaning into the man at her side who laughed back, not knowing what was going on let alone what planet he was on.
With a frustrated grunt, Lily shook her head, walking past the two to the front door that was already half open anyways. Inside, it smelt about the same way it looked - awful. There were sleeping bags strewn across the floor, garbage and clutter of all sorts of things. Lily held her breath and grabbed her phone from her pocket, tracking Cassidy's location again. She was much closer. As she followed the icon on her phone, she turned the corner into another room, where a man sat in the corner, startling Lily at first - until she realized he was also out of it. Finally, in the corner of the room, she saw something she recognized all too well - a whiskey bottle. Slowly, her eyes noticed more empty whiskey bottles, among other things. Needles, empty baggies, and finally - Cassidy's phone, sitting face down. Lily leaned down to pick it up, pressing on the home button. It was dead, which wasn't a shock. She struggled to find space in her pockets to shove yet another abandoned phone into, "Ugh!" Lily growled in annoyance, "Cass!" Lily yelled out loud, "Cassidy!" She tried again. The man in the corner groaned, "Quit your yelling, woman." He shook his head, grabbing at a small bag in his pocket that was empty, "Ugh." He groaned, rubbing his red eyes.
Lily grabbed her phone, remembering that weeks ago when she was back in Worthington that Cassidy had sent herself a picture of him, Jesse and Tulip. She found it, zooming into Cassidy's face and walking up to the man in the corner of the room, "This guy, you've seen him here?" It was a question, but it came across as more of a statement. The man looked up reluctantly, his brows furrowed, "Yea, I've seen him." Lily nodded, "Good. Okay, when's the last time?" The man shook his head, "I dunno... a day ago? Two days?" "Was it a day ago?" Lily asked impatiently, "Or was it two days ago?" The man's brow narrowed, "I don't fucking know where he is, lady, get off my fucking back."
Lily stood upright, her eyes glued to the mountain of empty whiskey bottles and drug paraphernalia. It was likely he'd gone to fill up on what seemed to be missing here. "Thanks for nothing." Lily mumbled, storming quickly out of the crack house and walking up to the road. Taking a deep breath, Lily looked both ways of the street before her eyes went back to Tulip's car and Jesse's truck that Lily had driven. Finally, Lily's head dipped down as she closed her eyes. Frustration was taking over very quickly. She was on a wild goose chase and every bit of her really hoped that both Tulip and Cassidy were just out having a drink together somewhere but the worst part was, her gut instinct told her something different.
Lily had spent too much time hopping from bar to bar around the area close to where the search had began. She was beginning to feel hopeless as she opened the door into yet another establishment. With a quick pace, Lily let her eyes scan the bar before she caught the attention of the bartender, "Hey, sorry to be a bother, but my uncle's got Alzheimer's, and he's been missing for a few days and we're really worried about him." Lily lied, "Before we get the cops involved we were hoping to find him ourselves..." Lily turned to show the only picture of Cassidy she had on her phone. The bartender popped two beers open as he looked at the picture, handing the beers over to customers at Lily's side, "Yeah." The bartender said, "I've seen him, just today." Lily didn't have to fake the relief she felt, "Oh," She sighed, "Thank God. Did he say anything? Might know where he's off to?" Lily asked hopefully. With sad eyes, the bartender shook his head, "Sorry, honey." He said honestly, "He didn't say. But if you don't mind me saying..." He moved closer to Lily, keeping his voice low, "He seemed very out of it. We had to cut him off and he wasn't very happy about that." Lily nodded, "He's been off his meds for a while now." Lily lied, "I'm sorry if he behaved poorly."
Already shaking his head, the bartender waved a hand, "Nah, it's no problem. You said he's your uncle?" The bartender asked, to which Lily nodded. "But he's got an accent, right? Like, Scottish or Irish or something?" With her face softening to a smile, Lily nodded, "He gets confused, sometimes. His disease... it makes him believe crazy things. He goes on about being a fighter for the Irish Republic sometimes, that's classic of him." With a soft smile in return, the bartender nodded, "I see. Well, I'm sorry to hear you and your family have to go through this. I'll try and keep an eye out, if you want to give me your phone number I can call you if he turns up again?"
Lily gave a polite smile, "Sure." She decided, giving the bartender her phone number rather than risk him calling the police on Cassidy if he turned up instead. "Thank you for your help." Lily said honestly, at least knowing she was doing the right thing by searching within close vicinity of the crackhouse.
As Lily made her way out of the bar, she stood on the crosswalk, wondering if checking to see if Cassidy had made it back to the crackhouse was a good idea. As she looked at the time on her phone, she groaned. Time was of the essence, and she couldn't spend all day bar hopping for mediocre clues. As she began walking, she unlocked her phone, the picture she'd been using to show people Cassidy's face still open. She pinched her fingers on the screen, the image was of Cassidy, Tulip and Jesse. Their arms were around each other and they had smiles on their face like it was the happiest moment of their lives - it looked like just a spur moment of bliss. It was the only picture she had of Cassidy, and it was because he'd taken it and sent it to her himself. She couldn't remember the last time she took a picture with Tulip or Jesse. With a sad huff, Lily stared at it for a while, wondering if they'd all ever have an opportunity to have a reason to take a picture like that all together.
Suddenly, a crash caught Lily's attention. She turned her head to the right, down an alley way, where two people were pushing at each other, one of them falling into a dumpster that had caused the crashing noise that caught Lily's attention. She hadn't thought anything at first, until she noticed the bottle of whiskey in one of their hands - it was the brand that was Cassidy's go-to. With her brow scrunched, Lily turned to face the ruckus, knowing that neither of the men were Cassidy. "You have the meth!" The one of them yelled, "Let me at least take the whiskey!" The man walked over to the wall, reaching into the pockets of someone who was slumped completely over unconscious. It didn't take Lily long to figure out that the knocked out person that the two men were robbing was Cassidy.
With quick speed, Lily made her way into the commotion, "Hey!" She yelled, "Cassidy!" He didn't move. He was out beyond belief, and only when Lily stepped much closer did she notice the three needles sticking out of his arm. The two men weren't taken aback by Lily's presence whatsoever, watching simply as Lily leaned down and grabbed at Cassidy's eyelids, trying to open them, only to see his cloudy eyes rolled into the back of his head. Lily placed her fingers on his neck, which was covered in needle markings, to notice that there was no pulse. Dropping her hand and staying crouched down to him, Lily sighed - relieved to have found Cassidy, but upset to see the state he was currently in - which at this moment was dead. "Ah, Cassidy.." Lily sighed, "Jesus, what's going on with you?" With no response, Cassidy's lifeless body just laid against the concrete. "He overdosed." One of the men behind Lily said. Lily turned to them, each of them with hands full of the drugs and alcohol they'd robbed Cassidy of, "Yea," Lily nodded, "I see that." She said flatly, turning back to Cassidy as she pulled out the needles sticking out of his arm. With a groan, Lily ran her hand through her hair and shook her head, still staring at Cassidy as she spoke to the druggy strangers, "Give you fifty dollars to help me move him."
Lily hopped back into the truck in the hospital parking lot with the bag around her shoulder full of blood bags - yet another thing that took up more time than she liked to use, but she didn't have much choice if she wanted Cassidy to come back to life. When she turned to her right, she lifted her jacket she'd placed over Cassidy to protect him from any sun. He was still passed out on the passenger side, his neck at a ninety degree angle as his head rested against the window. With a heavy exhale, Lily let her eyes scan the area once more before she opened the first blood bag and placed it into his mouth, pushing on it until nature took over. Slowly, Cassidy's mouth suctioned to the opening of the bag, the rest of his body not yet moving as he slowly sucked the blood out of the hospital bag it was in. Lily placed her coat back over him and her eyes wandered to Cassidy's phone - which Lily had placed on a charger she'd brought to plug into the truck. The screen was covered in sticky filth, but Lily was able to open the phone up and try to find any correspondence from Tulip. Sadly, there was no more to find on Cassidy's phone than what Lily had already found on Tulip's. Tossing the phone back down, Lily began driving back to where she'd found Tulip's car.
After several minutes, Lily finally felt and heard something from Cassidy, a slight rustle movement happening beneath the coat over top of him. With her eyes still on the road, Lily grabbed at another blood bag and used her teeth to open the cap off the top of it, blindly reaching her hand under the coat and trying to place it into Cassidy's mouth with the other bag that was almost empty now. It was a few more minutes until Cassidy slowly sat up, the coat still partially over him as he struggled to open his eyes. "Here." Lily said, handing him her sunglasses.
Slowly, Cassidy grabbed the sunglasses and placed them on his face. Trying to keep her attention to driving, Lily glanced at him quickly, seeing the obvious discomfort Cassidy was feeling. Lily could only imagine how awful it would feel for your body to start up again after overdosing. "There's more bags at your feet." Lily said, "I tracked your location, though it hadn't been updated in a long time, took me to a crack shack. Is that where you've been all these days?" She asked.
It took a while, but Cassidy finally spoke, "Yeh." He croaked quietly.
Needing to use time wisely, Lily tried her best to compress everything as quick as possible, "Jesse convinced gran'ma to let me leave Angelville to go find Tulip. She's missing. Not answering any of my or Jesse's calls for almost a whole day now." When Cassidy didn't respond, Lily continued, shoulder checking as she made a lane change, "She forgot that I needed your blood to survive so I'm guessing that she was trying to fix that problem." Lily sighed. There was still no response from Cassidy, "So when I got to her location, I didn't find her. Just her car, with the keys still in it, which is really fucking weird... and her phone, and when I went through it to try and find something, I saw that she had called and talked to you. Did you see her?"
When Cassidy was still silent even after everything Lily had said, she finally took her eyes off the road for a moment to see if Cassidy was still even there. His eyes were covered partially by Lily's sunglasses she had given him, but she could still see how broken they looked.
Cassidy's voice was hoarse, and his tone was flat with little to no emotion, "Jesse told me you were dead. N'I believed 'im. Cause I never thought he'd lie about somethin' like that."
Lily shook her head, her brows furrowing as she'd realized that she'd completely undone what her brother had to do to push Cassidy away from Angelville to keep him safe. "He didn't lie. He really thought I was dead," She lied, "I was shoved into a fucking pit in the ground for God knows how long. At least a few days." She explained, "Jess and Tulip didn't see me for a long time. I had to tell Jody what felt like a hundred times that I had no idea about you being a vampire just to get me out of there."
Lily was left with nothing but the truck engine running, so she just left it at that, letting Cassidy try to get his baring back a bit better. Clearly he was hurt, emotionally and physically. He looked the worst she'd ever seen him and he'd done it all to himself. It was silent for the remainder of the drive. When Lily parked down the road from Tulip's car, she turned to Cassidy, who felt like a stranger to her. He sat facing forward, his eyes low. With a quiet deep breath, Lily grabbed his phone that was still attached to the charger, "Charged your phone." She stated, holding it out. When Cassidy didn't seem to care, Lily placed it back down and let out a frustrated huff, leaning her elbow against the door at her side and laying her head in her hand.
With a twist in her stomach, Lily turned her head and stared at Cassidy's awful appearance. Even worse from that was the energy coming from him. It seemed to consume the small cab of the truck, "Cass-" She started, feeling a bit hopeless at the sight of him, "I need your fucking help." She begged, "I need you to get back to being-" Her words stopped as her eyes studied him again up and down once more, struggling to find the right words that didn't seem too harsh, "Not like this." She settled with.
With his head hanging in shame, Cassidy grabbed another blood bag, ripping it open in a sloth like manner as he stuck it into his mouth. He was filthy. It didn't look like he'd showered or cleaned himself in a month. His skin was covered in bruises and scabs, track marks from needles among all sorts of other things.
"I'm alive, okay?" Lily said, "I'm sorry everyone had to go through thinking I wasn't." She lied again, but she didn't want Cassidy to have any reason to resent Jesse again - knowing that Jesse's reasoning of just wanting Cassidy to be safe was never going to be a fact Cassidy would swallow. Lily swallowed the lump in her throat, "And I'm glad I found you, and that you're okay and didn't go too far, because I need you." She added, hoping that if she pulled at his heartstrings that he would wake up from the terrible slump he seemed to be stuck in.
When Cassidy moved his mouth from the blood bag, Lily was surprised to see him smirk slightly, a feeble laugh escaping his nose, "Hmph." His head bobbed. Lily leaned slightly closer to him, wondering what he was going to say, hoping it was something that would make her feel like the Cassidy she knew and needed would shine through. He looked to her at his side, the silence between them full of confusing tension. Lily felt herself holding her breath for a moment as she studied his face. Soon, he lifted his hand and ran his teeth against it, making a larger than normal slit across his entire palm. As he reached his hand out towards her, Lily leaned back, her brow narrowing as she was lost for words while she stared at the blood pouring out from the slice he'd made. "You need me?" Cassidy repeated her words laced with bitter mockery, "Youneed me." He repeated again, his voice was harsh. Soon, the blood from his palm was pouring out faster and it had begun dripping off onto Lily's lap, "Well here you fuckin' go!" He yelled, moving his palm closer to her, "Here I am!"
Finally, Lily retaliated, her patience wearing thin as she struggled to believe she'd gotten anywhere close to finding Tulip, "Not like that!" Lily yelled back, pushing at Cassidy's bloody palm, "I need you by my side, Cassidy. I need your help." She specified. Suddenly, in this moment, she wasn't so sure if Cassidy was able to be of any help. Although he was a vampire, he felt awfully human. It was an awful spiral that he'd gone through, Lily couldn't begin to imagine after a hundred and nineteen years how many things were piled up in the dark corner of Cassidy's mind. He seemed to be completely consumed by them, and it was beginning to feel a bit naive for Lily to just throw a few blood bags at him and expect him to be back to his normal self she knew.
Cassidy turned to her more, his face was hard as stone, and his stare was intimidating, "So yer tellin' me Jesse really did believe ye were dead." He tested. Lily nodded simply, "Yes." She said, as convincing as possible. "Hm." Cassidy stated, "N'yer two little connected thing couldn't tell him that y'weren't dead?" With her heartbeat suddenly increasing, Lily felt her throat tighten. Cassidy brought up a good point. If Jesse and Lily could feel an influx of emotions from each other, surely Jesse would've been able to tell whether Lily had truly died. Shaking her head, Lily struggled to find the right words, but Cassidy spoke before she could anyway, "So Jesse lied to me. N'now you just lied to me." He stated. Lily felt his angry eyes burning through her and she wasn't sure what the right thing to even say was, but it seemed Cassidy went off on his own, "Which means you knew Jesse told me y'were dead, n'ye couldn't've let me know y'weren't!?" He barked harshly, "Do you even know wot kind of shite went through my fuckin' mind!?" He asked. Quickly, Lily tried to get words in to try and defuse his angry state the best she could, "I'm sorry, Cass. I'm here now, okay? I tried-" She was quickly interrupted, her soft tone drowned out immediately by his much louder tone, "All ye ever give two fuckin' shits about me for is when ye need somethin'!" His face was redder by the second and his teeth were bared furiously.
Although Lily tried her best to remember that Cassidy was clearly damaged beyond her comprehension, and this was about more than just what he was yelling about, it was hard not to raise her voice to try and get words in, "That's not true." She stated loudly, but he was already talking over her, "I've been through all sortsa shite-" He said, "But with you n'Jess n'Tulip, lie after lie, over n'over." Cassidy shook his head and it looked like steam was going to come out of his ears, "I can't take any more." It was clear Lily had no control over this conversation, she bit her tongue long enough and she found herself quickly matching his volume of voice, "Have you even fucking listened to a word I've said?!" She shouted, "Tulip is missing!" Cassidy leaned forward to her quickly, "I don't give a fuck about Tulip!" Cassidy barked in her face, "Or Jesse, or you!"
With a furious growl, Lily shook her head at him, "Shut the fuck up, Cassidy! You know damn well that's not true, stop acting like such a victim-" Cassidy interrupted her again, his voice so loud it was hurting her ears, "It might've been a lie this time, but one day yer all gonna die!" Lily's face stiffened, and the words built up inside of her vanished as Cassidy continued on his vicious rant, "N'I've been through it, many fuckin' times, I've lost more people than y'could ever understand, so jus know I don't need ye 'ere showing me yer alive, 'cause one day I'll go through all this again, anyway! So spare me the fuckin' need to do it all over again and jus' fuck off n'leave me alone."
Cassidy's harsh words burned into Lily. Her face hadn't changed, her head moved back slightly as she struggled to believe he'd even said those words. She stared at his face - nearly purple in anger, his body trembling as he struggled to hold still. Of course, Lily knew he couldn't possibly have meant what he just said, but it didn't hurt any less, and it didn't prove that she was on the right path seeking Cassidy's help given the state he was in. With his eyes glaring into her, his chest puffed out as he panted like a wild animal, Lily tore her eyes from his, staring forward and shutting down completely. Soon after, the passenger door opened and slammed shut, shaking the entire truck into a rocking motion. Lily's eyes caught Cassidy as he already marching across the road back to the crackhouse.
It was frustrating seeing Cassidy's inner demons getting the better of him, turning him into this awful monster that Lily didn't recognize. Feeling her insides boiling suddenly, Lily glanced to the pile of blood bags on the passenger floor. She turned the key in the ignition and rolled down the window, driving out to the road and tossing all the bags out towards where Cassidy was walking. Leaning out the window, Lily shouted as loud as she could, "Fuck you!" She hit him with two of the blood bags and he kept walking, unfazed by her attempt to piss him off, "Enjoy sticking your dick with meth, you selfish piece of shit! I'm not scraping you up off the street again." Cassidy kept walking, lifting a middle finger up with his back still to her.
It took every part of Lily's being not to run him over with the truck first before driving away, but somehow, she resisted the temptation.