"What the fuck?" Revy gawked with a furrowed brow as he laid on his stomach on top of his bed. He was staring at a computer screen in disbelief, surprised and irritated by what he had just discovered.
"What is it?" Samantha inquired as she sat in his floor with her back leaned against the bed. It was surprisingly clean, since the Phantomhives had a butler. In fact, it was one of the cleanest places in the lad's bedroom. His walls were covered with posters and his desk was covered in clutter. The chair next to it was equally full, as he used it to store his jackets instead of the closet.
"Remember that fic I was telling you about?" asked the revenant.
"Which one?"
"The one I was talking about where the guy gave the Queen the finger to her face?"
"Oh, yeah. What about it?"
"Well, it hasn't updated in forever, and finally, it looks like there's a new chapter up, but nope! It's fucking discontinued!"
It was the afternoon after the demonic duo returned from their mission. The people in the house were still peaceful, as few of them had been informed yet of what had occurred. Alois was still resting and the Westleys hadn't gotten around to heading home just yet. So, as far as Samantha and Revy knew, it was still business as usual.
"It happens." the girl said. "It sucks, but maybe they just lost interest or have other stuff going on."
"No, she said why she quit! It's 'cause she wasn't getting enough reviews or whatever." huffed the redhead. "Why's this always happen? People quit just because they aren't getting enough attention all the time. Like, why's it matter? You write stuff because you like writing stuff, so who cares? They shouldn't worry so much about that shit and just do it for them!"
"Maybe they do keep writing, but only share it with close friends?"
"Then why not just post it?"
"Why would you post something in a public space if you don't think people are going to look at it?" Samantha asked with a raised eyebrow. "That doesn't make any sense. The whole point is to share it with other people, so if they think nobody's reading, then why bother?"
"I read it though! People read it, so what's the problem? There might be people who still wanna read it, so why's it so hard to continue it?"
"Okay, uh, well… What about you? Do you say anything? I mean, how to they know that you're reading it? If they can't tell, then why would they continue to put the effort into it and post it? What do they get out of this? It's not magic, Revy. It doesn't come out of thin air."
Revy thought about this for a moment before groaning. "Ugh. Why do you gotta overanalyse everything?"
"Because I'm the smart one of the group."
"Then what am I and Gerry?"
"Gerry's the muscle and you're the idiot." the girl snickered with a smirk.
"Oh, fuck you..."
"Not a chance in hell, Macken."
"Shut the fuck up." huffed Revy, turning his attention back to his screen. "What am I supposed to read now, though? Everything I like always gets discontinued!"
"You could like, read a book." offered Samantha.
"Ugh, but you have to buy them and it's hard to figure out if you like it or not right away."
"Then lay there and wallow in misery."
"Isn't Gerry supposed to make threats?"
"She's not here, so somebody has to."
The two teens chatted away like this for quite some time. It was nothing of any real importance, but they were both having fun. There was a silver lining to the dangerous situation that both families were in. Samantha and Revy got to have a sleepover at the lad's house, which has never happened before due to bizarre demon nonsense.
Yet, all good things must come to an end, as elsewhere in the building, Ciel was explaining the situation to the girl's brother. They were going to have to talk to the teens about this. Daniel was going to have to have a serious conversation with his sister and Ciel was going to try and have the same conversation with Revy, despite it being more of an "Alois" thing to do so.
When the adults knocked on the open door and entered the room, they informed them that it was time for the Westley's to leave, so Samantha needed to get her things together. They also told them what had happened. They assured them that Geraldine was physically unharmed, but was to go see a psychiatrist to sort through what she had seen. They firmly stated that she needed their utmost support while she was doing this, and that they shouldn't press her too hard on the matter. It wasn't their place to make her recall traumatic events to soothe their own curiosity.
"Is that understood?" questioned the Watchdog, arms folded.
"What did she see, though?" Revy inquired, thinking that if he asked Ciel, he wouldn't feel the temptation of asking Geraldine anyway. "Was it something bad?"
Taking a deep breath, Ciel rubbed his forehead, saying simply: "Constance Belmont has passed away." That startled the teenagers, causing them to raise their brows and widen their eye as they looked at the Watchdog with shock. It wasn't just the casual way with which he said that that shocked them, they were genuinely surprised.
"Oh..." Samantha said. "That's… That's terrible..."
"What happened to her?" asked the other teen, but before the bluenette could answer, Daniel opened his mouth.
"I don't think it's really the time for that, Revy." the Westley man stated. "One thing at a time..."
Wordlessly, Samantha turned back to her suitcase and resumed packing before closing it and standing up. She seemed a little shellshocked, but that was to be expected. While Revy sees his brother and his brother-in-law coming home from missions a bit beaten and battered, Samantha was not. It was a shock to her. She had a hard time wrapping her head around the idea of Geraldine getting involved in something like this. She felt like it was something she had to confirm with the other girl, herself.
"Okay..." she sighed, her arm limp even though she held a firm grip on her suitcase. "Time to go, I guess? I'll text you later, Revs."
The lad wore a slightly perplexed expression on his face as he watched his friend leave. "Okay? See you later." He wasn't sure what to say in this situation. The air had gotten heavy all of a sudden and he felt like that response wasn't really sufficient. It's what he could manage, though.
With that, Samantha quickly made her way out of the room and walked past her brother, prompting him to glance at his own friend with a shrug. "Laters, Ciel." He said before following her.
"Goodbye, Daniel." Ciel replied with a small wave, staying behind with Revy while the Westleys walked away.
They found their own way out of the building and made their way to Daniel's car. They were still shaken even though they had received an "all clear" from both the Phantomhives and HELLSING. Samantha wanted to be home, though. She wanted to be by herself, yet at the same time, she wanted to see or at least talk to Geraldine. The two siblings sat in silence while she tried to figure out whether to call her friend or not.
It was an uncomfortable ride home. There were no words and no music was being played over the stereo, for once. All that could be heard was the sound of the engine and the occasional noise from outside.
"Did you have fun with Revy?" the man finally asked, trying to shatter the silence.
"Yeah." Samantha replied. "It was fun."
"I thought you'd like the house." her brother continued. "It's not everyday that you get to be inside an authentic Victorian-era house with a history like that."
"Mm-hm." This was going nowhere. Both of them could see that. Daniel knew that his sister was thinking only about what happened. Sighing, the older of the two decided that he needed to talk about it.
"You should call Geraldine when we get home." he said. "Or text her. Your call. Maybe talking will be harder so texting would be better, I dunno. But she's gonna need your help through this."
"What happened, exactly?" the girl questioned. "You didn't tell us earlier… Only that Constance..."
"She… Geraldine…" Daniel struggled momentarily to find his words. "She saw her die. Ciel said that the other girl was the sister of the guy they were after and knew how dangerous he was. She pushed him off a skyscraper. She fell, too, and… Geraldine saw that… She's gonna be shaken up after that people always are."
Lowering her gaze, Samantha faced straight ahead as the two continued driving. That seemed so uncharacteristic of Geraldine. She was the tough one. She was level-headed, always knew what to do and wasn't afraid of anything. Geraldine was the toughest person in their school, but even she had her limits, it seemed. Even she wasn't invincible. Samantha knew this to an extent. They were best friends, after all. In reality, Geraldine was an ordinary girl when they spoke and yet, it was still somehow hard to believe. Perhaps Samantha just couldn't wrap her head around the idea. The more she thought about it, the more she suspected that she would panic as well. It's a natural reaction to witnessing something traumatic.
"I will." she said finally. "Is she still at HELLSING?"
"No, Ciel said her parents came and got her."
"Do you think I'd be interrupting anything?"
"I don't know..."
Pausing, Samantha thought for a moment before saying. "I'll text."
More silence followed as the pair made it back to town. Samantha stared out the side window while her brother looked straight ahead, keeping a careful eye on the road. When his eyes glanced to the side of it, however, he spotted a mailbox and tutted.
"Do you mind if we stop by the post office on our way back?" he asked.
"Go ahead." was all he got in return. Minutes later, they were stopped and Daniel got out of the car. He was in and out of the office in no time at all. Samantha hadn't even moved until he got back in and handed her the mail.
"Can you hold this?" the man questioned.
"Sure." It was something to momentarily take her mind off things, although it wasn't particularly interesting. It was just bills, for the most part. A pair of magazines were in the pile, too. One of them was some guy magazine that Samantha had no interest in and the other one was some girl magazine that Daniel had no interest in. Nothing out of place until she got to the manila envelope. Squinting, she read the name on the return address with a confused expression.
"'The Office of Falchion A. Grey'" she read aloud. "From Gehenna?"
"U-uh… Yeah. I set an appointment with one of the doctors, there." Daniel replied with a blush on his face. It was embarrassing to talk about, and he hadn't discussed these sort of problems with Samantha at all. In order to set up an appointment with Mister Grey
"What for?"
"He's a client of mine. He's looking for a secretary." the man informed, trying to buy enough time to think of a decent lie. "I need to know what all the job entails so that I can put it in the description."
"Oh." Poor Daniel. He couldn't tell if Samantha bought it or not. Either way, they were home soon, so they were able to part ways.
They both locked themselves in their respective rooms. Samantha wanted to be alone to process her feelings and buck up the courage to send her friend a message, while Daniel had to fill out the papers that Mister Grey had mailed him. As he sat down at his desk and opened the envelope, he found that this was going to be a lot more extensive than he had thought.
Daniel's face flushed red as he red some of the questions. One of them was the most obvious one. It asked why he was requesting a visit. Simple enough. Other questions, however, asked things like how often he masturbates or views pornography. He was asked if he would feel more comfortable with a male or female therapist, which was strange, because only Falchion's name was on the sign, cards, and envelopes. Then again, incubi could become succubi at will, if they wanted to. He was also asked about his sexual orientation, which he still wasn't entirely certain of. He knew he liked men, but wasn't sure about women, so that is what he put. He was also asked about any other sexual habits he may have. All of this was over the span of five one-sided pages.
He would have to turn it all in before he could actually schedule an appointment and since he wasn't able to mail it back due to the mailing system between London and Gehenna, he would have to hand deliver it to Falchion's office. Absolutely fantastic. The poor man's face burned at the thought.
While Daniel was suffering in his own way, Samantha simply laid on her bed while staring at her phone. She had it open so that she could type up a message, but hadn't the slightest clue as to where to begin. Samantha wanted to ask if Geraldine was alright. She wanted to ask about what happened, but knew that was a bit inappropriate, given how she was just told by her brother. She wouldn't make Geraldine suffer just so that she could get all of the juicy details.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to start with something casual. She propped herself up on her elbows and began typing. "Hey, we just got home. Are you back yet?" she asked before second guessing it, but it was too late. Her thumb hit "send" before she could make any alterations. Dropping her phone on her mattress, she dropped her head face down onto her pillow after it. She didn't expect a reply right away, but she had hoped for one soon. She didn't think she would have to wait a full hour before Geraldine felt up to it.
"I got home last night." Geraldine said. "I've just been tired."
Samantha didn't know how to respond to that. Did she show her hand and reveal that she knew what happened? Did she play dumb and pretend that she didn't? She had no idea. The Westley girl didn't know what to do, so she fussed with the idea for a while. Then, Geraldine sent another message.
"I don't feel too great right now."
"We can talk later, if you want." Samantha offered.
"No, it's fine. What have you been up to?"
"Oh, y'know. Stuff. Trying to endure Blink182 on loop."
"That sounds horrific."
"It was. He did switch it up with All Star by Smashmouth when I brought it up, though."
A/N: Hey kids! I have no idea what I'm doing.
Also I have nothing to talk about.
This is going to be a very lackluster A/N.
I DID get a question that I missed on accident, though.
Guest: "Of all of your ocs you've made for the series, which do you think has had the biggest effect?"
I don't know, actually. A lot of them have been important and brought about significant change. You could argue for any one of them. Gabriel Bailey was important for being the FIRST OC in the fic and setting the trend of OCs showing up. It could be Preston Omid, for inciting change in other characters and even causing Alois' ongoing discomfort and fear around the ocean. Take your pick.
I would probably pick Bailey, though, if I had to pick. That was the moment that this fic took the turn in the direction that it was going to go from there on. He's the reason why there's OCs at all and why the fic became longer than it's original planned five chapters. That, and he's one of my personal favourites!
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
