The day had arrived for the Westleys where they would finally move from the expensive flat into what was going to be a first for them both. Daniel had parked the rented moving van as close as he could so that they wouldn't have to both cart all of their belongings not only out of the building, but also through the parking garage as well. Fortunately, it wasn't just Daniel and Samantha moving everything. They had enlisted help, thank God. Geraldine was there to assist and so was Audrey. Revy was there too, but mostly because he would feel left out if he didn't get to go. He helped carry a few boxes, but complained the entire time while Daniel and Audrey did most of the heavy lifting.
Shockingly, it was more difficult to haul bookshelves down a tall stairway than they had anticipated. When it came to the beds, they decided it would be best to take them apart and assemble them when they arrived. Meanwhile, the youths were tasked with carrying boxes and small pieces of furniture that would fit in the elevator with them and loading them into the van. Everyone was thoroughly exhausted by the time they were finally ready to go. Unfortnately, they also had to unload and carry everything up the stairs to the new apartment. Fortunately, there was only one flight of stairs this time. Unfortunately, they were still stairs. They were narrow ones, too.
Everyone tried to force the thought from their minds momentarily as they loaded up into their respective vehicles and took off. Daniel drove the moving van with Samantha, Audrey drove his car, Revy drove his moped, and Geraldine drove her motorcycle. They could have all loaded into Audrey's Mustang, feasibly, but he had somewhere else to be afterwards, leaving them with no way home, otherwise.
Passage through the gates of Gehenna was simple enough. The gaurds checked everyone who was in line and they were allowed safely through. It wasn't as simple as everything seemed. Not for one of them, anyway. Samantha tensed up as soon as she saw the massive structure, hidden on a minuscule street between two buildings. The Westley woman had no idea how she was going to react upon crossing the threshold, although she had some very, very vague idea as to what to expect. She had an entire encyclopedia of the various species that called this place home, so she knew about them and had seen illustrations of them. Seeing the real thing, however, was going to be a lot.
As she began to see people, she sank in her seat, shrinking herself so that they could not see her. Cars weren't plentiful in Gehenna, so naturally, when one drove down the street, people looked. So far, she had seen a few people who appeared "normal," but then she spotted a man with the legs of a goat and her heart nearly leapt out of her chest. For a split second, she thought it might burst as she let out a loud yelp and shrunk back down. Her brother, however, placed a hand on top of her head in hopes of reassuring her.
"I know it's a lot, but you'll get used to it." the man said. "They're harmless, I promise. Everyone's very friendly."
"I don't want to accidentally stare at them..." Samantha replied. "It's rude, and I'll make no friends by being rude."
"I think if you just explain yourself, people will understand. You're not the first one who has never seen a bunch of supernaturals before to move here and I don't think you'll be the last." Daniel stated before parking. "Here we are. But seriously, just act natural. Everything will turn out okay, I promise."
"I'll do my best." The woman let out a shaky sigh and unbuckled her seatbelt. She looked up at the building and was surprised at how normal it looked. It was nice. It was a small building with an apartment on the bottom floor and another on top of it. They would be staying in the one upstairs while the one below was still vacant, waiting for someone to move in. Yet, as she grabbed the doorhandle, she froze, her nerves getting the better of her.
"What's the matter?"
"I can't get out..."
"Is the door stuck?"
"...No."
"Do I need to get the others to drag you out?"
Considering the glee with which her friends would most definitely pull her out of the vehicle with, Samantha took in a deep breath to gather her nerves before stepping out onto the sidewalk. The others pulled in behind the van and parked along the curb as well. The youths got off of their respective bikes and Audrey stepped out of his car and looked up at the building as well, placing his hands on his hips.
"Quaint, but nice enough." the reaper nodded. "It's a cute place, Dan."
"Well, not everyone can live in a basement apartment underneath a secret organisation Bones." The Westley said. Twirling his keys around his fingers, he added: "Let me open the door and we'll figure out where to put everything from there, okay?"
"Sounds good." Bones agreed, following his friend up the steps. "Lead the way."
The two men walked up the steps while the others looked around for a moment, although Samantha was really tempted to run after her brother and hide in the house. Instead, she waited for Geraldine and Revy as they both dismounted and removed their helmets. Revy had to roughly ruffle his hair with his fingers in order to cure his helmet hair, while Geraldine simply had to shake her head for her curls to fall perfectly in place.
"That's so not fair." the revenant stated while his friend moved one of her golden locks behind her ear.
"What is?" she asked.
"Nothing. Nevermind." Revy huffed. "Let's just go inside. I wanna see Sam's new house."
"So do I." the Westley woman stated. "I haven't seen it yet… I hope Dan picked something okay..."
"Fingers crossed." Geraldine chimed in as they all marched up the stairs. They led up into the sitting room, and surprisingly, it didn't seem too bad.
It was a simple flat with two bedrooms, a sitting room, a kitchen, laundry room, and all of the fixings. The only downside was that there was only one bathroom, it seemed, which was the scariest part about it. Otherwise, it was all well and good. Barren, but that would be fixed shortly.
"Sam needs to pick which room she wants to be hers, then we'll put her bed and mattress in there. We'll assemble everything later, but it needs to be hauled in here by today." Daniel discussed with his friend. "We can put the TV and everything over there… the couch here… We'll pretty it up later, naturally, so it doesn't really matter where we put it for now. It's temporary."
"Right, right… Where do you want the bookshelves?" Audrey asked.
"Sam's go in her room, and the other ones go out here."
The pair discussed things while the youths looked around. It was cozy. Nothing special, for such a bizarre town. Samantha would get used to it in time. She had already decided which room she wished to claim and wished to move to quickly do so before anyone could say otherwise.
"Hey, Dan? You want us to start moving boxes in?" she asked, hoping to haul in her books and plant them within the bounds of her new domain.
"Sure. Don't haul too many in, though. We still need to put in furniture." the man answered, allowing the others the freedom they required.
With that, the manual labor began. The trio figured out how to open the back of the van on their own and began looking for Samantha's things. It didn't take long, as she had several boxes worth of books alone. It would appear that she was trying to start her own library.
"Jesus, Sam! This shit's heavy!" Revy declared as Geraldine set a box in his arms. "How many books to you have?!"
"Lots. Quit complaining." Geraldine instructed. "You came to work, not whine."
"You don't know that..." the revenant protested, moving out of the way when the Midford girl threatened to pile another box on top of the first. "Jeez! I'm going, I'm going!" Although he said that, he still grunted as he tried to make his way up the steps into the house, causing his friends to shake their heads.
"He has complaining down to an olympic sport." Geraldine stated, placing the comparitively light box in Samantha's grasp. "You got a good grip on it?"
"Yeah, I should be good." the other woman said as she took it, their fingers briefly brushing against each other. "Did you give him a heavy box on purpose?"
"Maybe." the Midford cryptically replied, carrying her own box as she headed toward the steps. "He goes on and on about how in shape he is, so I thought I'd test it."
"You just like messing with him, don't you..."
"Don't you?"
"Well, yeah, but you mess with him a lot."
"I mess with everybody." the blonde stated. "Just ask my brothers. And my parents. And my cousins. And classmates. And strangers."
"You don't really mess with me, though?" Samantha pointed out. "Is it not fun if it's me?"
"I mess with you sometimes, but it's not fun to mess with you like I mess with Revy. It feels mean."
"It's not mean when you do it to Revy?"
"No." Geraldine bluntly stated, voicing her opinion on the matter quite clearly, as per usual. The pair reached Samantha's new room, only to find Revy hunched over on the floor. The two walked right past him in order to stack their boxes on top of his in a neat fashion.
"You're not even gonna comment?" Revy asked.
"No. I was already aware you're a wimp." the blonde stated. "Anything I could possibly say would be stating the obvious."
"I think these are enough books. We should probably wait for Dan and Audrey to bring in the furniture before we bring in any more." suggested the Westley.
"Sounds good."
"Stop ignoring me!" the revenant barked, but his cries for attention only made the girls want to disregard him more.
"Let's go bring in some of the other stuff." Samantha said.
"Alright." Geraldine replied.
"HEY."
The ladies allowed their friend to suffer for a while as they left and brought in some more things. They brought in kitchen appliances and the like before wiping off the counters and unpacking them. Samantha organised them so that they were in similar locations as to where they were in their previous house, while her brother and his friend tried to haul in a bookshelf and place it in her room in a place that hopefully made some reasonable sense.
After the back breaking process of moving the large furniture was complete, Audrey had to take off, leaving Daniel, Samantha, Geraldine, and Revy to do the rest. All of them were breathless and all of them wanted a break. Geraldine had even removed her leather jacket and tied it around her waist while Revy took off his sunglasses to wipe the sweat from his lenses. Tiredly, the Midford girl leaned her head on Samantha's shoulder, which ordinarily wouldn't be a big deal, save for the fact that the Westley's brother was watching. Seeing the pair, he let out a snort with a poorly-concealed smirk, prompting the woman to tell her brother to "shut up" with her eyes.
"We could lock things up for a bit and head down to the bakery, if you kids are hungry." Daniel suggested, ignoring his sibling's glaring.
"I'm always hungry." Revy stated.
"Do they have blueberry muffins?" questioned Geraldine.
"They have all kinds." Daniel informed.
"Yes."
"Well, if everybody else is going, I will too, I guess." Samantha chimed in, standing up. "What are supernatural bakeries like?"
"Regular bakeries, but with supernaturals there." her brother stated, shutting the van and locking it. "It's just around the corner over there. It's run by this nice old lady and her family. Let me lock the front door and we'll go."
"Okay." Samantha said while her sibling then went to lock the door to the new house.
They had started out early in the day, so by the time they decided to take their break, it was already past lunch time. The bakery was recovering from the lunch rush, so they might have to wait a few minutes for food, but they hardly minded. Everything was dying down already and the group wanted to sit for a few moments anyway. There were no problems with this.
The problem was walking down the street. There were supernaturals walking as well and the sight of them was still a bit overwhelming to Samantha. It probably would have been best to interact with a few in their natural states a bit more before completely submerging herself into their space, but she couldn't go back now. All she could do was try to adjust and press on. There were people with goat legs and many with horns. Some were various non-natural colours and had tails. Others looked human, but she couldn't be sure. There were people who looked like bulls and people who looked like tigers. There were more still who loomed tall over the entire group and then there were some who were short enough to only go past their waists. Hair, claws, fangs, cloven hooves and horns adorned the majority of the population here, and admittedly, it made Samantha feel out of place. Geraldine allowed her to cling to her arm as they walked down the street and passing Andrea's around the corner. Right next door to it was Pendleton's Bakery.
"Isn't that Kris' shop?" asked Revy, having never gone inside.
"Yeah. That's it." Daniel answered. "We can go in after we eat, if you want. Dunno if the clothes will fit you, though."
"I don't really think it's my style." spoke the revenant, putting his hands in his pockets.
"If it's not Hot Topic, he is physically incapable of wearing it." Geraldine stated.
"Not true. This shirt is from Rue 21."
"Fuckboys 'R' Us, then."
While teasing the revenant, the group headed inside the bakery and immediately, Samantha wanted to run. There was another group of youths sitting at a table and she worried that she was being judged for being human. Still clutching at her friend's jacket, she and the others regardlessly approached the counter. Daniel seemed to be on friendly terms with the woman behind the counter as they both greeted one another.
"Hey, Erica." the man said. "You hanging in there?"
"Only just." the woman said with a light sigh despite her smile. Samantha wasn't certain as to what exactly she was, as she appeared human from a glance. Given the nature of this town, however, she knew that this might not necessarily be true. "We've just got done baking a lot of stuff to restock after the lunch rush, so it's a bit hot in here. What can I get you?"
"Uh… Let me see..." Daniel pondered aloud while looking in the glass case for a moment. Turning to the others with him, he made a suggestion. "If you guys know what you want already, you can go ahead and tell her what you want."
"Two blueberry muffins." Geraldine said, holding up two fingers.
"You got it!" spoke Erica Pendleton, the baker extraordinaire. While getting Geraldine's order, she kept her ears peeled for the next one.
"Two glazed doughnuts and a coffee." added Revy.
"Would you like cream and sugar?"
Revy paused for a moment, wanting to look cool yet not wanting to drink plain bitter coffee. "...Yes."
Erica got their orders and placed them on a small plastic tray. She had just finished making Revy's coffee when she turned around and laid her eyes on Samantha. Squinting momentarily, she felt compelled to ask: "You wouldn't happen to be Sam, would you?"
"Uh, yeah. I am. How did you know?" the Westley questioned.
"I'm a witch. We know many things." the baker jested with a while wiggling her fingers. "Just kidding. Dan's in here almost every day and he talks about you sometimes."
"Good things, I hope..."
"Good things. He says you're a good kid." Erica stated. "A little nervous about moving to town, but it happens to almost everybody."
"Really?" the younger woman questioned confusedly. She didn't know how that was possible, since most of the people moving in were already supernatural beings.
"Oh, yeah! Most of the new arrivals are people who were bitten by vampires or werewolves who have never seen half the types living here. Some haven't seen any other supernaturals before at all! It takes some time to adjust. Don't worry about it. Most people will just assume that's the case."
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude..."
"Like I said, don't worry about it! Most of the folks here are perfectly understanding." the baker said. "Just go outside and try to get into the community. Some people lock themselves away and it only makes it worse because they never get used to it!"
"I'll do my best!" Samatha replied while Daniel finally decided what he wanted.
After they all got their food, they found a table and sat down, finally glad to do so. In truth, Daniel wasn't athletic enough to be carrying half of the things that he did, so he would rather be laying down. Occassionally, he rubbed his back and grumbled.
"I wonder if I can get Kris to help carry the rest..." he said aloud, mostly to himself.
"Did you hurt yourself?" his sister questioned.
"I'll be fine, I think… I just need to chill for a bit. I need to take back the van by the end of the day, though, so we need to get that stuff moved ASAP." Daniel stated. With a grunt, he twisted in his chair and his bones let out a loud crack. There was a moment where all of them wondered if he was feeling better or if he just broke his spine. Daniel wondered this as well until he decided that it helped somewhat.
"Doesn't Kris work, though?" asked Geraldine.
"Yeah, that's why I don't really wanna ask him." Daniel replied. "I'll just need you guys to keep doing what you're doing."
"I could stay over, if it'll help." the blonde suggested.
"It would. I don't think I'll feel like putting together beds when we're done. If you do that, then I'll buy you three muffins in the morning."
"Deal."
"What about me?" Revy questioned. "What if I stay and help?"
"You won't help, though." said Samantha. "You'll just sit there and look through my magazines."
"No, I won't. You have boring magazines."
"Thanks, Revs…" the Westley woman said with a roll of her eyes. Although she had gotten more comfortable as time passed, she couldn't help but shake the idea that she was being watched. The local youths were seated at the table to her back and she was certain that they were staring. Unfortunately for her, she was correct. They were.
It wasn't for anything she did or even that they knew what she was. As far as they knew, she could have been a witch or a werewolf, or even a vampire wearing shade gel. It was because they had never seen her before in town and were curious. They weren't very familiar with Geraldine, either, but they knew who Revy was. They definitely knew of him. He was the brother of Mister Lion and the brother-in-law of the Watchdog as well as a former police officer. Of course they knew. But he wasn't what was important. What was important was the curiosity they felt about this new face. Try as they might to whisper, their actions were still noticed by her brother and Revy seated across from her and Geraldine, who seemed unfazed.
Samantha tried her best to focus on her food, but still couldn't quite shake her anxieties. Yet, she knew that this was going to be her life for a while. All she could do was press on and try to make the best of it. It was just then starting to sink in how very real this was and as horror and fear started to take hold of the Westley, Samantha wondered just what exactly it was that she had gotten into.
A/N: Hello, hello. How is everyone?
I'm at a bit of an impasse, as I really want to write this idea for a mini arc I came up with, but I also feel like I should explain what Audrey is doing... Maybe I can do both in one chapter? We'll see...
I'm into the supernatural bullshit again, you guys. I can't stop watching documentaries about the shit. I LOVE it so much. I want there to be another season of LORE on Amazon, but it'll probably be a while before that happens... (It's really good, you should watch it if you've got Amazon Prime) I've also been really really into subcultures that are "monster-centric" and imagining them in this context how they would be different.
I've also got ideas for murder storylines, but they're unrelated (maybe?) All of them are horrific and ghastly. This "black book" system is doing wonders, but I wonder what would happen if anyone else ever read it! That's a scary thought... Anyways, the point is: I'm back in a position where I have a million ideas and want to write them all at the same time. That's awesome, yet sad because I have to prioritize some and put off others.
Ah... What is the date again, in DLTD? I wanna say around September, but that might be a bit of wishful thinking... I have a thing that I need to do soon for it to make sense, but if it's winter in DLTD-time, I'm screwed.
What else... what else? For some reason, I listen to a lot of musicals while writing for the Westleys? This time, it's the soundtrack to Le Miserables, which I have never seen. Last time, it was Fun Home, which is absolutely smashing.
That's all I've got for now.
Until the next chapter, my duckies~!
