Sorry for being gone for so long I did a massive trip to Asia and just finally am back and in the swing of things! Usually I leave my pre-written chaps to a friend of mine (Thank you miss Tee :-) ) to upload and proof for me but the next chapters I have written are so scrambled I didn't have time to leave her with anything making sense to upload. Thanks to those of you for sticking with this fic! Onward we go!
Inside, Cassidy had been in the room with Tulip, nervous as Hell as he worried what might be going on with the Custers. "Cass." Tulip whined annoyingly, still relaxing in the bed, "Will you stop fuckin' pacing around the damn room and sit back down!?"
Adjusting the sunglasses on his nose, Cassidy frowned, "Sorry," He said dramatically, his voice fairly loud, "It's jus' the last time they were off alone, they' formed some sorta... demented... blood pact that jus tied their entire lives to their ugly shit faced grandmother's control, n'next thing I know, Lily's stopped breathin' entirely, n'her grandma almost fuckin' killed 'er then n'there, like!" He ranted in concern.
Tulip leaned her head back against the wooden bed frame, her eyes closed as Cassidy rambled. "Cass." She sighed, "You said that already."
With his eyes wide, Cassidy shook his head and shrugged, "Alright, well you were out dead, so, maybe y'don't think it's quite as serious as I do, like, but you really should-"
When the bedroom door opened, Tulip was relieved to see Cassidy had stopped mid-sentence. It was Jesse. Almost immediately, he smiled at Tulip, reassuring Cassidy that nothing terrible had happened this time him and his sister went off on their own this time.
"Where's Lily?" Cassidy asked right away.
As Jesse walked further into the room towards the bed Tulip sat up in, he tilted his head back, "She's in the bedroom getting ready for the day." He explained, "We got some work to do." Cassidy's momentum quickly shifted for the door, until he exchanged a quick look with Jesse, stopping him in his tracks a moment. There was silence, and Tulip watched from the other side of the room as the two of them stared at one another - their energy very different. Tulip could see how stiff Cass was compared to Jesse, who seemed to be the loosest he'd been in years. Although Jesse didn't look his best at the moment, Tulip could definitely see the Jesse she fell in love with in the first place begin to emerge for the first time in too long. Tulip's eyes shifted back to Cassidy. He was uptight and rigid, like he had far too much tension built up in him. His eyes burned over his sunglasses as he looked directly into Jesse's tired eyes, almost expecting him to say something.
Jesse had lots to say, but he knew it wasn't the time or place yet. After a few seconds, Cassidy dragged his eyes from Jesse and walked out of the bedroom.
It was only a few quick strides before he was in the room Lily and himself claimed as theirs during their stay at Angelville. He was relieved to see her as she turned to see who it was walking in. Her eyes were red and puffy.
"Wot's amatter?" Cassidy asked quickly, "Wot happened this time?" He worried.
"Nothing." Lily stated, shaking her head. As he approached her side, he was relieved to see her smile as she rolled her red eyes, "Well, that's not true. I just got a major dose of reality and I think I'm so fucked up from everything that's happened lately that I don't know if I'll ever process anything the same again." Her voice was a bit muted, due to her stuffed nose. She must've known how foreign she sounded, trying her best to sniff through the build up in her sinuses.
Letting out a choppy breath, she collapsed back onto the bed and sat down, taking a moment before she looked up at Cassidy, her voice was quiet, "Jesse told me about what happened to our parents." Cassidy flinched the slightest on spot, staring at her broken face as she swallowed a lump in her throat. He remembered her telling him how sensitive of a subject that had been their whole life and how she always wondered. No wonder she was so shaken. Pressing her lips together she sniffed again, "He told me."
Lily's eyes fixed on the tall wooden dresser in front of them against the wall, and she wasn't sure why. Her eyes began examining it, following down to the floor to see a variety of things tucked underneath it on the ground. Part of her wondered if her mind was trying to distract herself from everything else going on inside of it.
With a shallow exhale, Cassidy sat at her side, grabbing her leg in a supportive manner as his mind wandered. He remembered the night they were out in New Orleans together and they'd found a poster advertising Angelville, she'd been dead set that since Jesse had the same tattoo as the symbol on the poster that they had something to do with each other, and she'd been right.
With his voice softer than ever, Cassidy leaned towards her gently, pulling Lily out of her sudden fascination with the piece of old, boring furniture her eyes had been picking apart in front of her, "Well, that's what you wanted, right?" He recollected, remembering her talking about how much of a mystery her family's past had been and how much it had bothered her.
As she bobbed her head one side to the other, she sniffled again, "I mean, yea, but now I kind of wish I could go back to just not knowing about any of this at all." She admitted, her red eyes looking to him at her side as her lips made a crooked smirk.
Cassidy recalled telling her the exact same thing. Back in New Orleans, he'd mentioned it was probably reasoning Jesse had been so closed up about it all. It made him think about how he'd cut ties to his family completely when he was turned into a vampire. Sometimes, things were harder to bring to the light than keeping them in the dark forever - but he wasn't about to go on about that to her now. With his throat a bit dry, Cassidy swallowed, keeping his mouth shut and his thoughts inside for once. He had to remind himself how young she was and how many lessons in life she still had to learn.
Lily's voice pulled him out of his train of thought, "Jess told me Angelville used to be a busy tourist attraction. Guess after he left things sort of went to shit and our grandmother's holding the downfall of their business against him. Along with a shitstorm of other history."
With his brow lowering, Cassidy listened as Lily began explaining everything that her and Jesse had just covered. It was a lot to take in for Cassidy, but as Lily talked about it and explained it all the way Jesse had, she began ingesting it more herself. Inside, she felt her core begin to burn as the emotions and feelings stirred together. The pain and suffering this place held inside of it. The Hell they would likely go through being here - it all began to make sense to her more and more.
Finally, she'd regurgitated everything the best she could - and Cassidy, for once, had very little to say. Taking a breath, Lily stared at him, "So we have to do what we can to convince gran'ma that we're in her best interest while Jesse works on getting his soul back from the Grail." Simply nodding, Cassidy agreed, "Alright." He said lowly.
With her voice even quieter than it was before, she leaned close to him, "You need to be careful here, Cass." She warned, "Don't let anyone know you're a vampire and just try and lay low, alright?" Given everything Lily had just explained in mind, Cassidy couldn't argue, "Alright." He repeated, wanting her to feel as in control as she could be in the situation where they entirely weren't.
He watched her mouth go a bit crooked, "Something tells me leaving Angeville won't be as simple as delivering our paid debt to our grandmother and just walking out of here." As he continued to nod, his gut told him the same thing. With everything that had already happened, it wasn't hard to piece together that getting out of Angelville wasn't going to be anything short of a nightmare.
"That picture of my mother you took from Mike's for me..." Lily asked, "Do you know what happened with it?"
Cassidy shook his head, "I gave it to you after I stole it."
Nodding her head slowly, Lily remembered placing it in a drawer back at the apartment in New Orleans. It must've been packed in her stuff somewhere, she thought, glancing at her couple of bags in the corner of the bedroom. "Your hair looks nice like that." Cassidy noted, trying his best to divert the energy into something completely opposite.
Lily side eyed the mess of hair framing her face. It was in frizzy curls, a big poof of a mess. Styling herself hadn't been her priority, for obvious reasons. With a soft laugh, Lily ran her hands through her hair and tied it up in a knot on the top of her head. Cassidy's eyes were soft as they peaked above his sunglasses frames, "You didn't sit still very much through the night." He stated.
"Sorry." Lily said, "Couldn't have been good company to try and get some rest beside."
"I didn't sleep." He stated. Lily's brow raised slightly, studying how awake and normal he was, "You're not exhausted?"
In the crazy moment, it was nice to see Cassidy grin as wide as he did and laugh, "I don't need to sleep at'all Lily. I told ye, I drank a glutinous amount of those blood bags we 'ad stocked in the boot o'the car, there. I'm as fit as a fiddle." He insisted, once again letting her know how on his toes he was.
With her brow crinkling, she shook her head softly and glanced around his face, "Then why do you?"
His lips straightened as they pressed together and he bobbed his head back and forth, "Make me feel more normal, I guess."
"Hm." Lily hummed quietly, her eyes moving forward to the dresser again. There was a few seconds of silence before Lily broke it, "You could get so much more done without sleeping." She stated, still looking forward.
"Ah." Cassidy groaned, "Not my thing. Yer the productive one, 'member?" He swung his head back to her and he was grateful to see her gaze move back to him as both of their straight faces broke and they halfheartedly laughed.
Considering the facts of everything and the darkness of the moment they were in, it was nice to have a moment of humorous banter to just pretend that there weren't a million things wrong around them.
Less than an hour later there was a soft knock at their door, followed by Jesse's voice on the other side, "Lil? Cass?" Lily popped out of the washroom that was attached to the bedroom, drying her hair with a towel as she'd taken it upon herself to have another bath, "Yea?"
"Can I come in?" Jesse asked.
"Yea." Lily repeated, seeing Cassidy's brow lower and his body language change almost immediately. When Jesse walked in, he closed the door behind him, glancing at Cassidy laying on the bed with his phone in his hand and looking to his sister who was in new clothes and nearly ready by the looks of it. Jesse walked towards his sister, his voice low, "Tulip needs to rest a little longer. She should be good by tomorrow." Jesse explained, "Cass-" He turned towards the bed, "Would you mind staying here and keeping Tulip company and helpin' her out with anything?"
Hardly moving his glance from his phone, Cassidy pressed his lips together and raised his brows, hardly showing his eyes behind his sunglasses, "Sure."
Turning back to Lily, Jesse shifted his weight, "Unless you wanna stay here with her." Jesse stared at his sister. Lily thought about that for a moment, her hands holding the towel that was scrunching her wet hair freezing on spot. She didn't know what she wanted at first.
"I'd rather get out for a bit." She quickly decided.
"Alright." Cassidy agreed.
Jesse walked over to the other side of the room, to the dresser that caught Lily's attention a few times now. "This was our mothers room." Jesse picked up a picture frame sitting on the top of the dresser, "Lots of her stuff still scattered around here. Didn't really clean much of her stuff after she died." He stated bitterly, staring at the picture of his mother standing miserably beside their grandmother. It was eerie, her belongings practically untouched - left to an eternity of gathering dust and being entirely disregarded. Angelville never truly laid her to the rest that she deserved - just another thing that made her death impossible to accept for Jesse.
"Hm." Lily hummed, finding odd she'd just had a weird moment of fascination with the dresser her brother decided to walk up to. She dropped the towel from her head to her side and followed her gut on saying something, "What's with that?" Jesse raised the picture frame in his hand, "This is her and gran'ma-" He started, referring to the picture in the frame he held. "No." Lily interrupted, walking towards him as she held an arm out, pointing at the dresser, "That."
"What?" Jesse asked, shifting his weight back. He stared at the old piece of furniture in front of him, "The dresser?" He asked, confused. Lily nodded, dropping her arm finally. Shaking his head, Jesse crinkled his brow, "Nothing's with it." He said. Jesse took his foot and gave a soft kick to the leg of the dresser, "It's just an old dresser that's been here longer than I can first remember."
There was a concerned look on Lily's face that she didn't even notice herself. Cassidy watched intently from the bed, and suddenly, Lily realized how her face must've looked considering the looks both Jesse and Cassidy were giving back at her.
"What?" Jesse finally asked. Lily felt her face rest, shaking her head, "Nothing." She said, grabbing a hairbrush from a bag sitting on the floor in the bedroom, "Just losing my mind, maybe." She mumbled. With a soft chuckle, Jesse placed the picture back down on the dresser and walked towards his sister, giving her a playful soft slap on the back as she slowly gathered her things for the day, "That seems to be the normal thing as you get older, but try not to let it happen. I rely on that young mind of yours." He teased.
"Pff." Lily let out a halfhearted playful scoff at her brother, when suddenly, there was a loud SMACK that caught all three of them by surprise. Lily jumped upright from the bag she'd been leaning in and Jesse had spun around, their eyes moving to the dresser. The picture frame Jesse had put back down had fallen flat on it's face.
The three of them stared at it, the same look of pure shock on all of them. Even Cassidy had placed his phone down and didn't hide the clear shock written on his face.
"Weird coincidence." Jesse stated quickly, "Must've put it down wrong and it slid." His heart skipped a beat, but he also knew this place and he knew it was more likely it hadn't been a weird coincidence, but he tried to make himself as well as Cassidy and Lily believe otherwise.
"Fuck let's just go, already." Lily huffed, clearly not buying Jesse's efforts to dismiss the situation. She was out of breath suddenly as she hustled around much quicker to gather all of her things.
"Alright I'll be downstairs." Jesse stated, glancing first at the dresser again before his eyes moved to Cassidy, "Call us if anything comes up, Cass."
"Yea." Cassidy stated, nestling back into the bed as he lifted his phone to his gaze again. There was a few seconds for his mind to wonder if the house was haunted before Lily's voice broke his paranoia, "Cass?" Lily asked, walking up towards him.
"Yea?" He asked. He put his phone down, sitting up and looking at her.
"Can I ask you to do something for me while me and Jess are out?" She asked.
"Anythin'." He stated, his eyes fluttering a bit as he couldn't remember the last time she'd asked something from him. She moved her head from him to the dresser at their side, "Tear that thing apart and see what the Hell is in there." Without asking anything, he let his eyes look at it a moment before looking back to her to see her eyes intently locked on him. "Yea." He said, nodding softly, "Yea," He repeated, "O'course."
