As the sound of the truck revved directly behind him, Cassidy felt another blood bag hit the back of his head, smacking to the ground. He stared at the crackhouse he walked towards, the sound of the engine becoming more distant by the second. It took him longer than it should've to realize he hadn't been moving forward anymore. He stood in the middle of the road he'd been crossing, a trail of blood bags behind him as his fury became less and his head quit spinning quite as fast.
This was a crossroads for him, he quickly realized. Lily had managed to get some blood into him when she'd found him unconscious - the first of any he'd had in many days, giving him the first bit of stability compared to what he'd been doing to himself instead. His eyes moved down briefly to his arms, covered in track marks from the copious amounts of substances he'd been injecting into himself.
There had finally been some bit of clarity in him when he first woke up, but it would take more than a couple of bags of blood to undo all the damage he'd done to himself the last few days. He'd been his nastiest when he first came to, and unfortunately it was Lily who had to endure it.
His emotions took over again as he groaned in frustration and eyes shot back up to the crackhouse, but Cassidy caught himself unable to begin taking another step towards it.
He wasn't sure how long he'd been in the routine of drinking and overdosing to death, it could've been a month for all he knew - but it had only been about four days now. He could easily sink into this slump for an indefinite amount of time like he had so many times before.
As his head slowly began feeling more straight by the second, he huffed. It was either going back to smoking crack and sticking himself with heroin, or turning around and grabbing all the bags of blood Lily had tossed after him. He'd been completely broken when he was told Lily was dead. He mourned the only way he knew how - getting as numb as possible, and so out of touch with reality that his mind would simply shut down. It was the second closest thing to a true death for him.
You'd think after the amount of times he'd been through this, it would be easier, but the case seemed to be the opposite for him. He felt so weak and pathetic, only causing his addiction to anything that could make him as numb as possible more intense. However, the reality was Lily wasn't dead, and he had to stop acting like it. He had to stop acting like he didn't care about any of them.
With a growl of frustration to himself, Cassidy looked out to the end of the street, as if he was expecting Lily to have stopped, but she was nowhere in sight. With his shoulders dropping, he hung his head. Behind him, a car was trying to drive by. They honked at him, the horn blaring loudly at Cassidy who stood, unmoving in the middle of the road. Cassidy hadn't moved, let alone flinched. FInally, the vehicle maneuvered their way around Cassidy, running over one of the blood bags on the road and causing it to burst like a water balloon. The scent from the blood that had just been spattered along the road moved towards him immediately. Taking a deep breath in, Cassidy felt the encouragement he needed. Cassidy gathered all the rest of them he could, throwing them back one by one as his eyes began scouring a half decent looking house with no one home.
It had been a good couple of hours now. A couple hours Lily had wasted just sitting in the truck cab feeling awful for herself, feeling utterly hopeless and even more useless. She'd parked the truck on a back road, staring out to the river as she struggled to find a direction to go with little to no information to where Tulip's whereabouts could potentially even be. Grabbing at the pack of cigarettes she'd already almost finished, she grabbed another, sparking it up as she let out a choppy breath.
The longer she stared and the harder she thought, the hotter her eyes got. Lily caught her reflection in the rearview mirror, staring into her own eyes that felt so foriegn. She was weak. The days spent in Angelville had been grueling on their own, but the few days spent in the pit didn't do her any good on top of it all. Not to mention the night before she'd spent spectating in the Tombs. She finally felt like she was going to break down from it all. The runes she'd made sat in her pockets, and she wondered if any of them had worked. With all the pain she was in, it was hard to tell whether the discomfort was the trails she'd been through in Angelville, or whether any of it was from her reliance to Cassidy's blood.
It had been several minutes before she realized she was crying. Finally, she laid her head against the steering wheel, letting herself cry as hard as she felt she needed to. In the midst of her breakdown, she felt her pocket buzz. Her eyes were still closed and she felt tears stream out of them before she pushed her forehead off the steering wheel and reached for whatever phone it was that was getting a call.
It was her own phone, and through her tear filled eyes, she saw a blurry image on her phone to realize it was Jesse who was calling her. "Ugh." She groaned to herself, her nose clogged as she sniffled a few times in hopes to suppress her runny nose.
Lily lifted the phone to her ear, "Hello?"
"What's goin' on?" Jesse asked, "I'm taking it these crazy emotions are comin' from you, since I have no reason to be cryin' over this shitty sandwich I just made for myself." He teased, "Or maybe I do." Jesse added, staring down at the miserable sandwich he'd put together.
"Ahh." Lily groaned again, looking up to the ceiling of the truck cab as tears streamed down her face, "I can't find Tulip." Lily stated with a disheartened and shaky voice. She stared at the cigarette between her fingers, the ash longer than the rest of the smoke that was left as she flicked it outside the window of the truck before taking another puff.
"Well, relax." Jesse said softly, "It's only been, what.." He checked a clock hanging crooked on the kitchen wall in the house back in Angelville, "Five... six hours? Tulip's been missing for far longer before." Jesse laughed softly, but Lily wasn't enlightened. She was already shaking her head, as if Jesse could see, her eyes moving around the environment outside as her mouth was stuck in a crooked shape, "I found her car, and her phone was in it, but the keys were laying on the ground in the driver's side."
Lily could tell by the long pause before her brother spoke that he too realized how unusual that was for Tulip. She would never willingly leave her car far behind, but her keys to be inside of it too was a sure red flag.
Jesse let out a deep sigh, "Ah, shit." He groaned, "I can see why you're so worked up, then." Sniffling again, Lily dragged her jacket sleeve against her nose, "Well that, and I realized she was coming here to find Cassidy. Probably because she felt bad about forgetting about my reliance to his blood." Jesse listened intently, his sister's stuffed up and nasally voice something he wasn't used to hearing often, "And then," Lily continued, "I found Cass, but he'd overdosed on God knows what." Lily scoffed, staring at the blood stains on her jeans as well as Jesse's truck seat from Cassidy slicing his hand open and shoving it at her. Lily's voice was strained as she struggled not to cry some more, "And so I got him a bit coherent, and I thought for sure he'd help me figure out what happened to her, but instead we got into a big fucking fight and I almost ran him over with your truck." Lily finished off the last of the cigarette and flicked it out the window.
Jesse couldn't help but let out a soft laugh, "Hm." He hummed, "Well, I'm sure he's just pissed off that I had to lie to him to get him to leave. Too bad that cat's outta the bag." Jesse sighed. Lily closed her eyes, her shoulders dropping, "I'm sorry Jess, but I had no choice. I thought he'd be able to put together some of the missing pieces, but he didn't give me anything."
"No, I get it." Jesse assured, "It's fine. He probably just needs some time to cool off." Lily swallowed the lump in her throat, remembering how angry and harsh Cassidy had been. The hurtful words he'd said still stung in her, but Jesse was right. This wasn't the first time Cassidy had stormed off from Lily. He'd always come back around - but she'd never seen him in such a downward spiral. The worst she'd seen Cassidy before that was when he'd come home and told her that he'd killed his own sun. There'd been lots of drugs involved even then, but not nearly as much as there had been now. Jesse heard his sister let out another choppy sigh of frustration, "Listen," Jesse began, "If you can't get anything before you're supposed to be back tomorrow morning, I'll convince gran'ma to let me come help you. Somehow... Might have to give in to bringing Jody with me or somethin'..." Jesse began thinking out loud on how he'd convince their grandmother to let that happen, it wouldn't be easy, but as long as there was something in it for her, she'd usually settle.
With Lily still quiet, Jesse tried to keep conversation going, "Did you give her car a really good look?" He asked.
"No.. No, not really." Lily admitted truthfully. Things had gotten out of hand quick, and she hadn't really pulled apart Tulip's car at all.
"Go check again, see if there's anything else that might give us an idea, alright?" Her brother said, "I mean, worst case - you don't find anything, it's fine. If there's one place Tulip's sure to come back to it's her car. Might have to just stake it out there for a bit." Jesse stated confidently.
Lily sighed, thankful for her brother's reassurance and guidance, but not feeling any less useless. With his heart sinking a bit, Jesse adjusted himself where he stood in the middle of the kitchen in the Angelville house, staring out a dirty and broken window as he couldn't help but feel the heavy emotions Lily was feeling, "Lil, things are gonna change for us real soon, okay?" He said softly, "I promise."
With her hand on the keys in the ignition, Lily nodded, "I'll call you when she turns up." She stated, trying to throw some confidence back at her brother.
Cassidy had found a house empty of anyone around to break into, and made himself at right at home. He cleaned up from the horrible state he'd been in, and even got some fresh new clothes out of it. He'd found a new pair of sunglasses, too, keeping the ones Lily had given him in his pocket for safe return. He'd downed every single blood bag Lily had thrown at him, feeling more at ease and straightened out by the second. He was now making his way back towards Tulip's car, hoping that Lily - and maybe even Tulip - would have ended up back there.
When Cassidy came back to where Tulip's car had been parked, he immediately noticed the Angelville truck. With his heart skipping a beat, he took a quick breath in, not prepared yet to approach Lily the right way. He knew he had to apologize, but he hated having to even begin thinking about the things he'd said to Lily and the way he'd acted. Finally, he gained the courage to continue walking towards her. But as he walked closer towards the car and truck, he still couldn't see her. Using all other senses, Cassidy listened intently, not hearing her either. Finally, he took a big breath in, knowing that if there was one thing he could do, it was smell Lily's beautiful scent.
When he took his deep breath, he wasn't greeted with the mouthwatering and heart wrenching scent he was expecting. Instead, there was an overwhelming smell - one that stopped him in his tracks. Feeling his stomach turn and his heart drop, he felt all sorts of emotions arise before he realized the fury in him came back to him tenfold within seconds.
That smell.
That fucking smell...
It was Eccarius.
