"You're remarkably calm."
"Don't equate my terrified stillness for calm. I'm trying to decide whether I should be running or getting the blowtorch."
"Don't forget the wooden stake."
"...You're a bitch."
A Late Night Walk - Part 2
Getting the mystery girl to be lucid enough that Lisa's instincts weren't utterly screaming at her to run the fuck away as fast as possible was difficult. Difficult enough that by the time they got back to her apartment, Lisa was both exhausted and just shy of preening. Going for the blood bank in the nearby clinic had been a stroke of genius that she'd only twigged on to by seeing the way Dead Girl was eyeing the veins of almost everyone they passed even sort of near on the road.
Not that she had let Dead Girl be seen - seriously, who in their right mind was going to just let Dead Girl walk around looking like…that? Lisa suppressed another shudder at the flash of the horror show that probably would've resulted if someone had managed to sufficiently startle her, or worse, try to manhandle her. Yeah, no cops, no capes. Nobody in this city had any fucking tact. Not that she did either, but she at least knew when to tread lightly instead of rushing in like a bull. Usually. Sometimes.
She did feel bad about ripping off the blood bank though. She'd had to find a way to pay them back in the next day or two. It shouldn't be that hard to funnel some rich asshole's money into their accounts. It wasn't quite a one for one, but it was better than nothing and now they didn't have to worry about Dead Girl going psycho on anyone as a bonus. She'd need to find a more permanent solution to the horror hunger, but that was a problem for the morning.
"So, this is where I live. You still have no idea where your home is right?"
Dead Girl turned to her, her eyes focused, but they took far too long to blink.
Bodily functions optimized for nocturnal activity. Bodily functions are not fully revitalized from meal. Will need more blood to resume an illusion of life.
Illusion of life. Perfect. She was dealing with the undead. Because that made sense. Once again, Lisa questioned the wisdom of actually taking this girl home with her. She should've just called the PRT and taken her chances with getting out of town before that Coil asshole realized she'd cut Dead Girl loose.
"I…I think my home is…I think my mother is dead…I don't really…I don't…I'm sorry…"
And then Dead Girl had to go and say stuff like that. She'd been doing it all night. Little things completely at odds with the sheer existential terror that she had inspired when Coil's mercs had accosted them. Lisa sighed and forced a smile. "It's fine, it's not a problem at all. You can stay here as long as you want."
"It's not safe." She grimaced and her eyes dropped to the floor. "I'm still hungry. I…I don't remember anyone…Everyone else I saw just ran away…I don't want to hurt you because I get too hungry…"
Blood bags weren't ideal. Needs blood from living creatures to satisfy urges. Will not hurt you unless turning feral. Terrified of being alone again.
"I'm not worried; if I was scared you would hurt me do you think I would show you where I sleep?"
Dead Girl's eyes shut, her fists clenched, and she shrugged, clumps of dirt breaking loose from the rags of her dress - her funeral dress - to fall to the ground at her feet. "People can turn on you. I don't want to do that."
Previous friends turned on her. Doesn't want to be like them. Terrified of being alone, terrified of being a betrayer.
"I promise you'll be fine. We'll figure out how to get your hunger under control in the morning okay?"
She just nodded.
Lisa stepped closer to Dead Girl and gently grasped her shoulder. "Let's get you cleaned up and into some real clothes, I think I have a big shirt and some pants that might fit. You probably won't fit into any of my bras though."
She winced. "I…don't think I wear a bra. This thing doesn't have one at least and I don't remember needing one…"
"Okay, well, that makes things easier. Come on, shower first. You're going to feel a lot better once you get all of that dirt off and start looking like a real person again. Trust me."
Dead Girl didn't react, though she did let Lisa lead her into the bathroom. She didn't even react when Lisa managed to get her dress off, still staring at the floor.
Doesn't think her body could be viewed as attractive. Knows she's not normal. Knows she's not healthy. Reactions ingrained from before body's changes. Issues with body image were pre-existing.
Damn, the rabbit hole just kept getting deeper. Lisa bit her lip trying to force aside the growing, nagging thought that maybe Dead Girl had wound up dead as a result of her isolation. If her parents were dead too…on top of her problems with her friends and her body issues…Lisa shook her head and plastered another smile on her face as she settled the girl under the shower head and started to get her cleaned up.
"I love your hair. It's basically the perfect length and once we get rid of all this crap, I'm fairly certain it's going to be naturally curly. Mine is always straight. You have no idea how much effort I have to put in to get curls."
"I…think I liked my hair…"
"Well then I'll make sure to get it into whatever style you loved once we wake up in the morning. No sense in doing anything fancy tonight, we just gotta make sure to get out the gunk so we have something to work with."
Dead Girl nodded.
Lisa switched tactics, studiously ignoring the wood chips that were swirling down her drain from the clumps in the girl's hair. "So, I need to call you something, because the name I have in my head is just not super pleasant."
"I don't - "
"I know. That's why we're going to play a game. Can you turn around so that you're looking at me?"
Dead Girl turned and met her eyes. "Great! Now, just relax, let the water knead your shoulders, loosen those knots. Just look at my eyes and listen to my voice. Don't consciously reach for your name, just know that you have one." She nodded. Lisa smiled, dropping her hands down to take the girl's in her own. "Alright, here we go." She let her power ramp up, pushing aside the growing headache, and she started to sing, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G…" As she went through the alphabet, Lisa watched for the telltale widening of recognition in the girl's irises and the involuntary squeezing of her hands. This girl may not consciously remember much about herself, but she knew enough that the memories were there. And Lisa was the perfect one to find those threads.
The girl's hands spasmed ever so slightly and her eyes widened. Lisa cut off and smiled. "Awesome. So your name starts with a 'T' then."
The girl's hands tightened again and she took a reflexive breath even if her body didn't seem to need it. "How do you know?"
"Can you keep a secret, Tee?" The brunette nodded. "I'm a cape. I can make good guesses. Really good guesses. I just need something to start off with and then I can get who's sleeping with who, passwords to accounts, or even just names."
"My name was 'Tee'?"
"Well probably not just Tee," Lisa said shrugging. "But it almost definitely started with that. And with that I can figure out your full name. I have enough information about you that it'll just take me an hour or two on the internet and I should be able to track you down."
"I'd…I'd like that…But I'm…really tired right now…" She wasn't just saying that. Lisa saw her swaying now that she had mentioned it and her eyelids were starting to droop.
"Okay, I've got you cleaned up, so let's just get you dry. Then I can get you some clothes and you can sleep for a bit while I try to figure out who you are. Alright?"
Tee nodded. She tried to smile at Lisa too, but it was strained enough that it almost physically hurt to see the pain in that expression.
"Come on, Tee. Let's get you to bed."
"Sunlight burns her too," Lisa murmured to herself as she set the laptop on her knees. "Thank god for migraines and blackout shades. But, god, can you get any more vampire cliche than being burned by sunlight, drinking blood, and clawing out of your own grave? At least she doesn't quite seem to realize that last one…yet." Lisa shuddered. Fuck, how terrifying must that have been? To wake up trapped, alone, underground. Then to literally have to punch and claw and scramble just to get out of the -
"Nope, nope, nope, not thinking of that, thank you very much. Stupid fucking imagination. Stupid fucking power. Okay, let's find who you are, Tee." She started tapping at the keyboard, gnawing on some jerky to avoid having to get up and make food. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long…
Twenty minutes later, Lisa was scowling at her computer screen. "No wonder she fucking triggered…They really need to get the Lazarus tables at this city's morgues. Could've avoided this shit if the asshole penny-pinchers had been willing to spring for the good shit. Wouldn't have been hard to realize she'd regenerated while on their fucking slab then would it? Fuckers."
She tried to ignore how if they had gotten the fancy weight sensors, Tee - Taylor - would never have been wandering around just in time to save her from 'recruitment'. Unable to fully suppress the shudder that ran through her, Lisa set her laptop to the side and stretched. "Okay, time to find out more details."
She grabbed a pad and wrote a quick note to Taylor, stepping into the bedroom to leave it on the side table. The odds of her waking up before Lisa got back were minimal, but better to be safe than sorry. She paused as she stared at Taylor's body, curled up in Lisa's sheets, hand clutching at the stuffed dog that Lisa had left her with.
No breath. Minimal pulse. Body no longer requires direct oxygenation. Breathing is muscle memory only, not required.
"Yeah, I got that before, power, thanks a bunch." Sighing, she pulled the covers back up over Taylor and double-checked that the shades were sealed. Finally satisfied, she pushed the brunette's hair away from her temple, her hand lingering for a moment longer on Taylor's cold skin. "Thanks for saving me, Taylor. I'll be right back. I just gotta go and check on what happened to your old man and see if anyone is looking for you. Don't go anywhere okay? Please. I'll be back, I promise."
Taylor clutched the stuffed animal tighter and whimpered in her sleep.
"Sleep well, Taylor."
The cemetery was more depressing than Lisa had expected. It brought back too many painful memories and regrets and she could practically feel the itch under her skin to just leave and never look back. She'd never even come to the cemetery when Rex died and here she was for a girl she didn't even know? A girl who couldn't even remember her own name?
And yet…Taylor had saved her. She could endure a little discomfort if it meant getting answers for the amnesiac brunette. Squaring her shoulders and straightening her blouse, Lisa sauntered forward. It only took her three minutes to find the right gravesite.
It wasn't like it was hard with the small group that had gathered near the gaping hole in the ground.
Lisa bit her lip as she got closer, stepping just far enough off the path to see around the four people at the grave.
Dirt displaced to the sides in even amounts. Came up from below. Imprints on the ground are handprints. Imprints further out are shoe prints. Walking away from grave. No imprints walking to the grave. Onlookers: police, one PRT agent. Called by maintenance for assistance. Maintenance was alerted by crying girl.
Lisa frowned, clamping down on her power. The confirmation that Taylor actually had climbed out of her own coffin and grave - instead of just looking like she had - set her stomach roiling. And yet…panning her gaze across the scene one more time, Lisa nodded to herself. There was a girl crumpled against the tree nearby. Lisa had mistaken her for a distraught visitor to one of the other graves, but her power hadn't missed the cues.
The redhead's knees were pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. She was staring with laser focus at Taylor's gravestone. Not so much the hole in the ground as the gravestone itself. The tear tracks down her cheeks and the wet spots on the ground to either side of her gave a clear impression of just how long she had been sitting in that spot. Lisa's eyes narrowed. Taylor had given the distinct impression of not having any friends who would be that distraught over her 'death'. Who the fuck was this girl?
"Hey," Lisa said, coming to a halt next to the crier and bending down. "Sorry to disturb you, but I came here to say goodbye to a friend. Do you know what's going on over there?"
"Someone-someone stole her," the girl gasped. "Who would do that? Why?! It wasn't bad enough, everything that we did to her? It wasn't bad enough that I killed her? Why, why can't she have peace even when she's dead?!"
Responsible for locker event. Not ringleader. Still responsible. Knows she's responsible. Knows it was too far. Accepted the idea anyway.
Lisa barely managed to keep the first five things she wanted to say from spilling from her lips. "Don't be the bull," she whispered to herself even while clenching her fists hard enough that her nails drew a bit of blood from her palms.
"Generally if someone killed a teenager they'd be behind bars pretty fast. I haven't been here too long, but Brockton Bay doesn't seem that far gone that if you'd confessed they'd have let you walk. Why do you think you killed her?"
"I did it. I killed her. I killed my best friend," the redhead sobbed. Her head dropped onto her legs and her hands left her knees to snake through her hair. "She was supposed to fight back. She was supposed to show Sophia that she was strong. I knew she was strong! Her mother died and she just kept going. Why didn't she fight?! Why didn't she push back? Just once, just once and I could've proven to Sophia that she was strong like me! I could've stopped! I could've told her everything if she just fought back!"
Sophia was the ringleader. Sadist. Twisted redhead into a follower for gratification and self-justification. Redhead has trauma that left her vulnerable. Redhead is Betrayer.
"Not everyone fights in the same way." Lisa rubbed at her temples. God her head was starting to hurt. She needed to be more careful with her power. It wasn't even 10 o'clock yet.
"I thought she would fight back if I let Sophia put her in there. She said she'd let her out…I didn't know Taylor was still in there. I didn't know. I didn't know. I killed my best friend. I killed her! I'm never going to get to tell her anything. I'm never going to be able to explain! I killed my best friend…" She trailed off into sobs again.
Loved Taylor. Trauma prevented expressing it. Needed to show that Taylor was strong to be able to justify putting herself below Taylor even in a relationship. Needed to be strong. Sadist instilled 'strong vs. weak' mentality. No home support for trauma. Trauma left her vulnerable.
"Should've just cut her loose, this is more fucked up than I thought," Lisa mumbled. The pain was spiking again and she wasn't even getting anything useful. Any idiot could see that the redhead was fucked up. Any idiot except her family apparently.
"I killed Uncle Danny too," the girl wailed. "No one even cares!"
Fuuuck! There went her last hope for a happy ending. "Uncle Danny?"
"Taylor kept notes. It should've been enough to get us what we deserved. But the police said it was hearsay. They said that someone needed to back them up. No one spoke up. I tried to tell them the truth, but they said that they couldn't trust anything I said so soon after she died. They didn't listen. I tried telling the PRT and then the police just stopped! They wouldn't even see me anymore! They said it wasn't their jurisdiction!"
Sophia is a cape. PRT took over when proof was found of wrongdoing. Sophia is either Shadow Stalker or Rune. No other teenage female cape would be in high school with redhead. Media blackout implies Wards, yet Wards attend Arcadia which implies Rune.
"Danny," Lisa prompted. She hissed at the lance of pain in her skull. She'd have to rely on her own abilities for the rest of this conversation or she might not be able to get back home. Especially if her power was going to start circling itself with this Sophia bitch's identity. She didn't have enough information to figure that out. Her lips curved into a silent snarl. Fucking useless police. Fucking useless PRT. Whether the sadist was a Ward or a gang member didn't particularly matter; she was still being shielded by the PRT. Bastards. No one else was going to get punished for this because then they'd have to reveal the bitch being at the center of it.
"He was angry. He came to yell at me. Daddy stopped him…Daddy should've let Uncle Danny have me. It's what I deserved."
Came to kill her. Father killed him. Father is 'detained Divorce Lawyer in relation to secondary death' from research. Father well connected. Father not well enough connected. Father will be made example of by PRT as proxy.
Lisa screwed her eyes shut and breathed deeply long enough for the spike of pain to pass. The redhead just kept crying next to her while she recovered. Fucking power.
"Do you know if she had anyone else?"
"No one came to the funeral. Just the people her father worked with, me, and Madison. You…you weren't there. If you were her friend why weren't you there?" the redhead finally lifted her head from her knees, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Lisa.
Lisa just shook her head, trying to ignore the way the world swam a bit at the motion. "I'm not a big crowds person. That's why I'm here now. We didn't know each other for long. I helped her out with a few things at the library. Just wanted to pay my respects by my lonesome. Looks like I'll have to come back, considering this hubbub."
The redhead turned to stare at the grave marker again and another sob escaped her. "I wish…I wish I could tell her how sorry I am. I can't even do that anymore because some sick fuck stole her. She's never going to have any peace and it's my fault. I'm so, so, sorry Taylor. I'm sorry."
Lisa stood, laying one hand on the tree to keep her balance as her headache tried to beat her to death. "What's your name?"
"Emma."
"Emma, I'll make sure Taylor finds out that you're sorry. One day. Somehow. In the meantime, you need to promise me something."
Her head snapped up and her arms fell to the ground. "Anything!"
"Keep away from whoever this Sophia character is. She's…poisoned you. If you're not already over the edge she's going to push you over it the next time you see her. Stay away. Stay away and I'll get a message to Taylor."
Emma stared, eyes wide. "You can get a message to her? How? Who are you?"
"Just a friend of the girl you betrayed. She saved me. Now I'm driving myself into a corner to help what's left of her. Remember, stay the fuck away from Sophia."
Emma's breathing stopped entirely as all of her focus narrowed down to Lisa, and only Lisa. Behemoth himself could be attacking the cemetery and this girl wouldn't care. Lisa winced; she'd said too much. "She's alive. She's alive?"
Sighing, Lisa shook her head. "Something like that. Go home, Emma." Lisa turned on her heel and strode away from the scene before Emma could react. The small crowd was still by Taylor's empty grave, taking pictures and measurements, it looked like. Lisa didn't pay them any further mind. She just walked out of the cemetery, heading back to the bus.
She had a vampire to look after.