The sun was beginning its dip beyond the horizon; the sky was a wonderful assortment of striking reds and deep golds.
"Charon."
A few clouds billowed over the rocky mountain outlines on the skyline: a deep purple of ridges and snowcapped peaks.
"Charon."
Aromatic scents of dried grass and salted earth met his tongue. The ghoul subconsciously inhaled deeply, drawing the taste into his scarred lungs to preserve the memory of it.
"Charon, Charon, Charon, Charon! Chaaaaaaroooooooon!"
There was no response. He had never been ordered to answer her childish antics, and so he never gave her the satisfaction of his attention when she annoyed him at such lengths. He wanted to see how long she'd last before she finally just shut the fuck up. Sometimes it took a few hours…or, like his current predicament, days. Charon had not spoken a single word to his employer for nearly a week, now. Mostly just for some malignant form of entertainment; the ghoul had gone decades without speaking to another soul, during another point of his life. It was now second nature to him.
"I swear to God," she blathered, flipping knobs on her Pip-Boy almost aggressively, as though trying to find some form of release for her pent-up frustration towards his cold shoulder.
The radio stations all crackled with static; they were too far from any source of a signal. A terse sigh escaped her nose, and she made a loud hmpfh! Her hands went to her hips; her blue eyes scathed over the broad backside of his person. The ghoul's sharp stare was attentive on the far-reaching landscape of the sprawling suburban wastes, pointedly not meeting her own.
"Oh no!" she mockingly cried. "I'm bleeding!"
Charon did not turn, but rather, continued his steady march along their predetermined route.
"Look! I think I see a yao guai coming our way!"
Not even so much as a turn of his head.
Evelyn bit her lower lip, chewing it ravenously. She cupped her hands around her mouth as the distance between them grew.
"I just took off my top!"
Nothing. Not so much as a fumble, a twitch, or even a Charon trademark disgruntled sigh. Her companion was nothing more than a walking statue, entirely made of stone.
Fine, she thought, wiggling her legs together to take a plop on the ground in a cross-legged stance. Two can play this game, jerk.
She sat there, arms crossed and brows furrowed as she glowered at the retreating ghoul ebbing farther and farther down the cracked road. Only until he ascended a small slope did he finally turn.
Hah!
And then he continued on, disappearing around the bend.
What?!
A frustrated growl escaped her lips, and she unshouldered her pack to lean against it with her arms behind her head, staring up into the heavenly painting of the sky. The minutes passed…then an hour. Then two…four. The night was beginning to settle, and with it, a whispering chill that warranted something warmer than her leathers. With a loud brrr, she rubbed her hands down her arms and blinked at the shrinking landscape. It was dark…and things were heard crawling around in search of food. She had played a rather poor strategy in stubbornly waiting her companion out, smack dab in the middle of fucking nowhere.
"Ch…Charon?" she tentatively called out.
He couldn't have gone that far…could he? Did he really just leave her here!?
"Charon!" Her head spun a 360, voice a tad bolder. When there was only an eerie skitter in response, she grabbed her shit and hoofed it where the ghoul had last been seen.
Charon was presently keeping a close eye on his employer from the rooftop of a Red Rocket gas station. He had patiently watched for any threats in the distance as she parked her ass in the fucking dirt. The ghoul tossed an empty can of pork n' beans over his shoulder, peering down with interest as she began high-tailing it down the road, her boots slapping the pavement like an elephant on steroids. There was nothing giving chase…she must have heard something. His eyes scanned a bit farther from where she had come; a lone radroach was exploring the area.
A shake of his head and a deep sigh, and another can was fished out, popped open, and he noisily scraped his spoon around the aluminum interior to devour its contents. He was sure she was hungry; he was the one carrying their food supplies.
She came up the small slope, spun around in a tight circle in what he assumed was looking for a sign of his presence, and had the good luck of heading his way. Charon left the tip of the spoon in his mouth as he crushed the newly emptied can between his powerful hands. He stood, took careful aim, and frisbeed the flattened disc in an arc at her feet. The can made a loud scraping sound across the asphalt, and rather than giving his position away, (like it would to any normal fucking person), she gave a high-pitch squeak, and tripped over her own foot as she tried to scurry from the sound.
"Charon!"
The ghoul rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and glowered from his high ground. She was going to attract real danger if she didn't stop screaming for him like a child.
"Evelyn," he ground out with impatience and extreme annoyance.
She instantly halted in frenzy step and looked every which way but his own.
"Up here."
Her neck snapped to his disgruntled tone so quickly she was lucky to not receive whiplash. She blinked at his contrasting outline against the backdrop of shadow; she had terrible night vision.
"Charon?" she asked cautiously.
The ghoul merely grunted and grumbled some indignant nonsense, and then waved a hand at her. Come up here.
When she neared the top of the ladder, he stooped down and grabbed her by the forearm to effortlessly haul her up, but not without a proper throttle before setting her to her feet.
"You are loud," he scowled, and if the darkness wasn't concealing his facial expression, she would have a welcome sight to how pissed it was.
"You left me!" she accused with a hiss.
"I did not," he argued flatly. "You neglected to follow."
"You've been ignoring me!"
"You are being a child."
"You're being a fuck!"
Charon snorted, taking a step back and leaning his head from her slightly. The glow of his eyes remained motionless in the air as he studied her, unblinking. There was a loud, grumbling whine, interrupting the tense atmosphere between them.
"…are you hungry?"
"No," she bit out doggedly, and he could see the flush of red creep up her neck from her bald-faced lie. Another peal from her gut.
"That is good…I ate your snacks while you made me wait," Charon fibbed in his most deadpan voice, and the sight of her jaw dropping open in such disbelief almost brought a smirk to his face…almost.