Tulip smashed out the last of her cigarette into the mountain of butts at her side, immediately sparking another one. Jody had taken Jesse and Lily down to the Tombs with him, while Tulip stayed upstairs.
With nothing but the sound of the broken window clanking against the rotten frame it was barely still wedged into, Tulip sighed to herself. She sat in a chair in the room Jesse and her had been staying in during their days in Angelville, her knee bouncing as she stared out the window into the darkness of the night. She hoped for an answer to all their problems to smack her in the face, but nothing came. Stress riddled her. She'd felt like she'd made mistake after mistake the past while. How could she have forgotten about the crucial fact that Lily needed Cassidy more than just a companion?
With a scoff to herself, Tulip fidgeted, looking at her phone again. She had to fix this. There had to be a way to get to Cassidy and get some of his blood without letting him know Lily was still alive. Tulip knew that it was best that Cassidy was as far from Angelville as possible.
In the call history of her phone for about as long as she could scroll was the many trials she'd made to reach out to Cassidy - but each time, it hadn't even rang on the other side. Each time she was given the same message, but she tried again. As she held the phone up to her ear she heard the automated message once again, "The customer you are calling cannot be reached at this time. Please hang up, or try your call agai-" In a fit of rage, Tulip tossed the phone across the room.
With her mind moving to the Custers, Tulip thought about them for a moment - hoping that whatever it was they were going through in the Tombs that it wasn't as bad as Jesse had worried it would be. Of course Jesse had told Tulip about the Tombs in the past few days that he had been running around getting things ready to open them back up again. It sounded like it was about as awful as you'd expect out of something in Angelville.
Tulip tried to remember everything Jesse had said, going back to a conversation she and Jesse had just a couple days ago.
She thought about it again...
Jesse shook his head in frustration, "Damn it, Tulip, don't you see?" He said, "I had to tell Cassidy that Lily was dead so he'd leave, it was the only way to get him to, and look!" He reached his arms out, "It worked. No sight of him in days." Tulip was slumped over in an armchair in the corner of the bedroom, her arms crossed as her stomach twisted and turned in all directions, "Well, maybe she is dead, Jesse." Tulip sighed, "And it's all my fault. For fuckin' everything up, as usual." Tulip had gotten in the middle of things when Jesse was close to getting Genesis back, she'd misinterpreted everything completely. She couldn't help but feel the way she did. If she just hadn't gotten in the way of things, they'd all be on the road out of Angelville by now.
With a deep breath, Jesse tried to remain as calm as possible, "What's done is done, Tulip. No sense dragging it on." He said, "And Lily is not dead." Jesse assured. Tulip looked up to him skeptically, it had been almost two days at that point that she was nowhere to be found. With thoughtful eyes, Jesse scanned the room, his hands on his hips as he adjusted his weight, "She's probably wishin' she was, but she's strong. She'll make it out of wherever it is gran'ma's putting her through." He shook his head, suddenly sounding much more somber, "They know I've been through all sorts of cruel forms of torture here. They know by now I can outlive anything they throw at me, but they also know it hurts me more to know Lily's in there instead of me."
Tulip had nothing to say, she just stared at Jesse, her stomach still twisting into a tighter knot each moment that passed. Jesse looked up to Tulip again, the hurt very obvious in his eyes, "Tulip." He started, before exhaling deeply, "They were gonna kill Cassidy. They were gonna hang him up outside and wait for the sun to come up, until I convinced them to keep him for the Tombs. Luckily I got him out and made it look like he escaped, but I had to say what I did to push him away, otherwise he wouldn't have left and they would've killed him."
With her eyes suddenly burning hot, Tulip understood how good Jesse was at saying things to push people away. Even if Jesse had best interest in his heart, he put on a good enough performance to make the words he said feel like he punched his fist directly into your chest and ripped your heart out himself.
Feeling a tightness in her throat, Tulip nodded once.
Next, Jesse slammed the suitcase down - the suitcase they'd stolen from Madame Boyd's safety vault just earlier that day. It had some souls in it, but not a whole lot. It had been enough to convince gran'ma to hold off on doing anything rash until they opened the Tombs to get more - but now it was empty. Tulip looked at Jesse with a confused look on her face, wondering what an empty suitcase had to do with anything. She watched as Jesse took his finger and pointed at the logo on the front - underneath it was symbols - whether it was Chinese or Japanese, Tulip wasn't sure - regardless, she couldn't understand it.
"What?" Tulip had asked Jesse. "This," Jesse started, "I recognize it back from New Orleans. When I had to retract some of my soul for the Saint. There was a truck - an armoured truck full of soul viles." He explained, "I know the Grail needs me more than I need them. They'll be back. If I can get the Grail to make a deal with gran'ma, maybe they can get their hands on some more souls for her, trade for my services, I get Genesis back, then boom - when my time's up with the Grail, I come back here and finally take care of things. All gran'ma wants is souls, to live longer and become stronger. And it doesn't matter if she consumes all the souls in the world, no matter what power she's got, cause Genesis is stronger. I'll get gran'ma to let go of you. Of me, and Lily." Tulip looked up to him, nodding as she struggled to understand completely, but never opposed to a plan.
As she replayed the conversation to herself, Tulip huffed, not understanding any better than she had before. With a groan to herself, she leaned her head to one side, puffing at her cigarette between her fingers. Jesse had told Tulip that the only thing gran'ma wanted was souls - that was Jesse's debt payment - to get Madame L'Angelle more souls to devour so she would not only live longer, but become more powerful like she once was.
The Tombs had to open to keep souls coming in, but it was a temporary plan until Jesse could find a way to make the plan he'd told her become a reality...
With her eyes flashing to her phone laying on the ground on the other side of the room, Tulip lifted herself up off the chair and went to pick it up. Desperate, Tulip tried calling Cassidy again. When the other side began ringing, Tulip dropped her cigarette in her other hand and nearly burnt herself. She stopped moving when the ringing stopped and she heard the other side of the line pick up.
"Cass?" Tulip asked, "Cass, I thought you lost your phone or somethin'." She sighed, "Thank fuck you answered. What took so long to pick up?" It took a while for Cassidy to reply. Tulip heard some shuffling and a grunt come out of him before he spoke, "Phone was dead." He finally groaned in a short manner.
With a heavy breath, Tulip closed her eyes, shaking her head with the phone in her ear, "Jesus, Cass, where are you?"
When he spoke again, he sounded nothing short of miserable, the worst Tulip had ever heard, "Why's it matter?" He mumbled.
Tulip kept her voice low and soft as possible, "I just wanted to ask if you were okay, and... and I wanted you to know that I... I miss you. A lot." With a sudden pit in her stomach, Tulip cleared her throat, "I need to know you're hangin' in there." Tulip paused, not entirely sure how she was going to keep the fact that Lily was alive a secret while at the same time trying to find a reason for needing Cassidy's blood.
"She's dead." Cassidy stated with little to no emotion, "N'yer tellin' me that you want the first thing to do with me?" Tulip was speechless, tears welling up in her eyes as she struggled to find the right words. It was obvious Cassidy had felt the guilt for Lily's fake death - he had lost his mind days ago when he launched himself towards Madame L'Angelle, exposing himself in the sunlight and taking on Jody the way he had. Jesse's words rang in Tulip's head, "They were gonna kill him."
There were all kinds of emotions inside Tulip - as desperately as she wanted to tell Cassidy the truth and cure his obvious slump, she couldn't. Jesse had made it clear that if Cassidy was in Angelville that Jody and Gran'ma would kill him. If she told Cassidy that Lily was still alive, there wasn't a doubt that he'd come back on his own no matter what Tulip said to deter him from doing so.
Cassidy's sorrowful murmur of slurring words pulled Tulip out of her inner tuffle of emotions, "Askin' if I'm okay?"
Tulip felt a lump in her throat as she listened to him speak. He was slurring more than she'd ever heard, and the tone he was using was foreign to Tulip. Still not sure of the right words, Tulip found herself barely able to whisper out, "Cass-" With a broken crack, she was about to burst into a fit of emotion if she didn't gather herself. "Tulip." Cassidy interrupted, "I've been through this hun'rids if not thousands o'times." Cassidy groaned, "I don't hang in there fer anyone." He said coldly, "Leave me alone." With a rush of adrenaline running through her, Tulip was able to muster the courage to speak, "Wait- Cass, please." Tulip choked out, "Tell me where you are. Now."
The Tombs had been just as awful as the memory of them that Lily had seen buried inside of TC. Lily had no idea how so many people could pile into the dark basement in the building just beside the Angelville house. She watched as her brother, the ringleader of the treacherous event, introduced and claimed the winners of each round.
Jesse had told Lily that he had to sell that he was doing his best, but it was hard for Lily to tell whether it was all just an act once Jesse stood in the ring. His shouts and bellows to the audience as he enticed the actions, the scuffle of Jody and TC as they brought out one contestant after another - it had been a much larger operation than what Lily realized.
Keeping to herself in a far corner close to the exit, Lily simply watched for the hours and hours the same routine of brutal combat happened. Jody had brought another one of the contestants who'd lost around the corner, his eyes locking with Lily's as she couldn't help but move them away, staring at the person he pushed around, who was now soulless. It was a feeling that gave her shivers every time she looked into their eyes. The life they'd had moments ago before they lost their round in the Tombs was gone. It was as if they'd become zombies, and each one of them had sacrificed their soul just so her grandmother could become stronger. The heat inside Lily burned, but she remained still, simply studying the environment.
After several hours, there was a period of turnaround, while TC and Jody moved things around, Jesse found an opportunity to touch base with his sister. She watched her brother swerving through the crowd to get to her. With her eyes glued to the top hat on his head, she felt her stomach turn. "How you holdin' up?" Jesse asked her quietly. With a simple shrug, Lily stared up to her brother - a judgemental streak in her eyes, "Not as good as you are.." She said, "Looks like you're quite comfortable." With a huff, Jesse let his eyes scan to ensure Jody and TC weren't near them, "I told you, I gotta sell the part." He justified. Lily shifted her weight, taking a sharp breath in, "How'd you get Cass to leave?" She asked. Jesse's eyes moved back to his sisters immediately, wanting to lie, but knowing that their lies to one another had only caused a setback, "I told him you were dead." He admitted. With her brows slowly rising, Lily nodded, "You told him I was dead." She repeated. Jesse nodded, short of patience as he placed his hands on his hips, "I realize how ironic that is now, but that was before I knew you were the bloodsucker of the two of you.." He groaned bitterly, his eyes scanning around the Tombs once again.
Lily's brow was immediately scrunched in offense and she was already shaking her head as she leaned in closer to him, "I don't suck blood fro-" She stopped on her hissing words, scoffing as she realized it was useless to begin trying to justify it - especially when time was so sensitive, "I'll find a way around that whole fucking thing." Lily huffed. Nodding, Jesse raised his brow to his sister, adjusting the top hat on his head, "That's really the only option, cause you can't try and reach out to him, Lily. He's gotta stay away from Angelville. And if he finds out you're still alive-" "Yea." Lily interrupted her brother, "Yea, I know, Jesse."
With his eyes still lingering onto hers to make sure she was being honest, he finally dropped his shoulders, "You promise?" He asked. Lily nodded, "Promise." She stated truthfully. No part of her wanted Cassidy in danger, and it was obvious Angelville didn't have any good intentions for Cassidy. Her brother nodded, making his way back into the brutal ring of the Tombs. The offputting and hellacious environment of the Tombs should've been enough to distract Lily, but still, the fear of her reliance on Cassidy's blood proved to be the larger distraction.
By the time the night was turning to day and the sun was coming up, Lily hardly hit the bed before she passed out. Subconsciously, Lily had hoped she would have a dream that night - anything to help her try and figure out a way to fix any of the mess they were in, but she proved to have a blank sleep.
...
It felt like she'd hardly let her head down when she was woken up again. With a sharp exhale, Lily lifted her head, her eyes adjusting to notice that Jesse was at her side, "Sorry." He said, a soft hand he'd used to push at her to wake her up still resting on her side. A bit disoriented, Lily sat up in the bed, trying to gather her bearings as she woke up completely, "What's wrong?" She asked, her voice hoarse as she cleared her throat. Her body was sore and she seemed to have a permanent headache seeing as it hadn't left in the past few days.
"Tulip's not answering my calls." Jesse said, "She was gone when I went to bed a while ago but I woke up and she's still not around." He said, "Can you do that thing you do?"
Maybe it was the pounding headache, or maybe it was because she wasn't fully awake yet, but it took Lily to process what that meant. "Oh." She finally said, her eyes slowly glancing around as she looked for her phone. Finally, she saw it - on the other side of the room. With a deep breath, Lily moved off the bed - the stiffness of her sore body was amplified by her clothes she had slept in. She had been too exhausted to even change after the entire night in the Tombs, the decision to sleep in jeans was one she had only made years ago in the past after a long night out drinking with Jesse and Tulip. She'd wished that had been the case this time.
As she grabbed her phone, she groaned. This was the first time in a long time she resorted to technology. In the past, tech was her go-to, but with all the supernatural things taking over focus of things, technology wasn't exactly something that she thought would help out.
She began swiping her finger on her phone, struggling to remember what application she used to track each of them, having installed the corresponding software on each of their phones. "Hm." Lily let out a disgruntled groan. "What?" Jesse asked, a little nervous. "Oh, nothing," Lily said, "Just trying to remember how I did this. It's been a while since I've used my phone for anything."
"Hmph." Jesse chuckled softly, "Usually you're glued to that thing. I'm surprised with how great you are with that kinda stuff that you haven't found a way to get out of this mess." He teased. With her eyes still glued onto the phone screen, Jesse saw his sister's brows raise as she took a deep breath, "Ya, well, can't exactly google 'my psychotic grandmother killed my parents and runs a Hell on earth to profit off of desperate people, devouring their souls and remain young, now she's set a blood compact spell on my brother and I, we're trapped here and worse than that, we can feel when the other has an orgasm, how do I fix this?' " She stated flatly, "Well, I mean, I could, but something makes me seriously doubt I'll find any results."
Without restraint, Jesse couldn't help but laugh - it sounded insane, and yet, it was all true. He had no choice but to find some kind of humor, "Suppose that's true." He stated, thankful to see a lighthearted streak in his sister's eyes.
Suddenly, Lily's brow narrowed, her fingers pinching against her phone as she zoomed into Tulip's phone location, "She's back in New Orleans." Lily stated, shaking her head, "What the Hell is she doing there?"
Jesse shook his head back from the bed that he was still sitting on as Lily walked up to him, showing him the location. "I don't know." Jesse said. With his sister standing at his side, she crossed her arms while Jesse held onto her phone, "She didn't say anything before she left?" Still looking at the phone screen, Jesse shook his head again, "She texted me. Said she was going out and she'd be back, but that was a while ago, and she's not responding to my texts or answering my calls." Lily didn't say anything, but her brother looked up to her, "Is this live? Where she is right now?" He asked. With a sharp breath in, Lily grabbed her phone from her brother, checking the information on Tulip's location and seeing it was last updated two minutes ago, "Yea." Lily stated, opening the options more to see Tulip's location history. When Lily's face scrunched, Jesse turned more towards her, looking up at his sister, "What?" He asked.
"She's been in this same place for..." Lily looked at the period of time Tulip's location hadn't changed, "Four hours?" She said in disbelief. The both of them locked eyes - it seemed weird. Lily opened another option to ping the phone with a message, "I'm using a default setting for when people lose phones to send a message - maybe she silenced her phone or something." Lily tapped away at the keyboard:
Call Jesse ASAP
With a nod, Jesse shifted his weight and stood up beside Lily, "Thanks, Lil." Jesse said, "Give her an hour to respond to that. If she hasn't, then..." He trailed off. Lily raised her brow, "She will." She assured, thankfully sounding more confident than what she felt.
When Lily got out of the shower, she groaned at the dull but sharp pain all over her body. Grabbing at some painkillers, she downed a few with some water and quickly made a point to grab her mother's notebook, finding the pages she was struggling to remember the day before. Turning the pages, she finally stopped when she saw the symbols she'd vaguely remembered. Her mother's writing and notes went on about something called manifestation and immunity runes.
There were spotty notes on how to create one, but it seemed like they were unfinished. Lily shook her head in frustration. She wasn't sure how they worked exactly, but it was worth a shot. Her eyes glanced to the towels and rags coated in Cassidy's dried blood. With a heavy sigh, she consumed as much knowledge as possible from the book before putting it back in it's hiding place in the wall.
She quietly made her way out the front doors of the house, hoping she wouldn't see anyone on her way. When she was outside she walked a ways out to an open area. Even though when her eyes scanned the open space around her, she couldn't help but feel watched - slowly, she leaned over and grabbed a few small stones and placed them in her jacket pocket.
When she went back inside, she was relieved that she hadn't bumped into anyone, quickly making her way back up to the bedroom. With a knife, she began carving the symbol into each of the rocks. There were three rocks, and three different symbols on the notes she was trying to replicate. Spending a lot of time, she tried to mimic what she'd read about to the best of her ability and understanding - which wasn't very much.
She'd dampened some of the fabric that had Cassidy's dried blood on them, smudging each of the supposed runes she'd made out of the stones she had gathered and carved into. She clasped each of them individually in her hands, repeating the words that she remembered in her mother's writing. It hadn't felt any different each time she had done it. Part of her was expecting a powerful glow, or a feeling or sound - anything to make her believe everything she just did had done something.
But instead, she was left at the end of it all just sitting there in silence, feeling as though she'd just wasted time, left with simply three stones she'd scratched at and smeared some old blood on. With a disheartened grunt, Lily shoved them into her pockets. Just in time, as she heard someone approaching her room. There was a knock, and Lily felt herself get nervous of the various paraphernalia she'd just used sitting on the ground in the open, "Uh, hello?" She stuttered anxiously. "It's me-" Jesse said, "Can I come in?" He asked.
With a wave of relief consuming her, Lily dropped her shoulders, "Yea." The door opened and Jesse looked to the ground of the bedroom. A screwdriver, a pair of scissors, a knife, blood stained fabric and some rope laid in the open. "You figure something out?" He asked curiously. With a huff, Lily shrugged a shoulder, "I'm not sure." She said with a ton of self-doubt, "Any word?" Lily asked, wondering about Tulip.
When Jesse shook his head, Lily felt the room fill with a disheartened gloom. "I gotta keep the Tombs running." Jesse stated, "You have to go find Tulip." With a heavy sigh, Lily crossed her arms, "And just how the Hell am I supposed to leave here without getting choked to near death and tossed into another pit for the second time this week?" Lily stated more than asked.
Jesse reached a hand and rubbed the lower half of his face, his eyes staring anywhere but towards his sister, "I already handled that. You can go." He stated. Lily's brow lowered, her head turning slightly as she leaned towards her brother, "What's that mean?" She asked skeptically. Jesse finally looked back to his sister, his hands on his hips impatiently, "I convinced gran'ma to let you go find her. I told her the truth, that Tulip's been missing now for too long and isn't responding and that I'm worried about her." He confessed. Instantly, Lily felt her brows loosen again, the obvious concern in her brother bothering her more than anything. Jesse walked closer to Lily, "Listen," He said, "I would rather go myself, but the Tombs have to stay open. And I don't want to leave that with you."
Lily didn't either. She nodded slowly, "Alright." She stated, "Let me just clean up here and get my things."
When Jesse and Lily filed downstairs, Jesse's hand was on his sister's back as he urged at her gently to go faster. He was determined to get Lily out the front door before anyone could interrupt, but against his desire, their grandmother's voice called out to them from the other room. "Here." She demanded.
At the same time, Lily and Jesse stopped in their fast momentum, the front door just inches away from their grasp as they both reluctantly turned around to make their way into the living room their grandmother had called from.
When they walked into the room, Jody and TC were there, of course. If they weren't doing something for Madame L'Angelle, they were instead at her side. As Marie L'Angelle's eyes scanned the two of them, they landed directly attached to Lily's eyes. Feeling a cold chill through her, Lily found herself suddenly aware of how tight she was keeping her mouth shut. The stones she'd carved into an manipulated clinking in her pockets gave her sudden anxiety.
While her grandmother's cold eyes stared through her, Lily stayed still, until finally, she spoke, "You're gonna take Jody with you." Madame L'Angelle demanded. Both Lily and Jesse were surprised when Jody groaned immediately, "Ahhh, c'mon Miss Marie. The Tombs are finally back up'n runnin' and you want me to go babysit?" He whined, lifting one of his massive arms, "Can't ya just give her the ol' twist if she's not back before she says?" Jody asked.
Lily and Jesse stared at Madame L'Angelle, who's eyes were still on Lily as her mouth twisted every which way thinking about Jody's words. Every part of Lily was thankful that Jody had attested to going with her - the last thing she wanted was to be alone with him. Normally, Jody and TC would never argue with Madame L'Angelle, but with the Tombs being open again, Jody wasn't keen on missing out on something that he enjoyed so much.
Lily was surprised to hear Jesse's voice pipe up close to her side, "I could really use Jody here." Jesse started, "We got a good system going in the Tombs now to get as much of a turnaround happenin' down there." He justified, knowing his grandmother would care about production rate of getting more souls more than anything else.
With her dry and cracking lips going still, Madame L'Angelle reached a boney hand up to her chin, "Fine." She hissed, "New Orleans." She stated, going off what Jesse had told her earlier, "While you're there, you'll get me a few things." Madame L'Angelle ordered, pointing at TC, who scurried over to Lily with a piece of paper. Lily hardly glanced at it before putting it in her pockets.
"Be back before the sun goes down." Marie L'Angelle ordered. Lily opened her mouth, holding her words for a moment as she tried to make sure she was speaking carefully, "New Orleans is quite the drive," Lily finally said, "And Tulip's location hasn't updated in hours... I'm afraid something bad might've happened to her and it's going to take me awhile to find her."
With piercing eyes, her grandmother stared into Lily again. Lily felt the cold chill switch to a hot burn inside of her. Lily let out a feeble groan, unwillingly. She felt like she was a teenager, arguing with a parent for a later curfew.
Madame L'Angelle narrowed her eyes at Lily, sticking a boney finger out at her, "You're not back by this time tomorrow, you'll feel it." Her grandmother threatened. For a moment, Lily thought she could suddenly feel that feeling her grandmother was referring to, her throat suddenly tightened. Lily swallowed and nodded simply. Even with a whole day, she wasn't sure if it was going to be enough, but she was going to have to make it enough.
