Chapter 2: Storms We Cannot Weather
"Hey V, wake up."
She burst awake, eyes widening violently as the girl began flailing and struggling and searching the area for a means of escape. Adrenaline was bursting through her veins, and the tiny heart within her chest was fit to burst at the rate it was running at, grabbing at anything she could with hands numb from the cold. Her throat was now wide open and exposed, but she was still gasping for air, and as she grabbed onto the handle of the door with the intent of bolting, she began to recognize where she was. No longer was she in a state of danger, but nestled safely between the cushions of the front seat of the Mystery Skulls van: a place that was safe, something calming. She sunk back into her seat, releasing the door as she allowed the light whirring of the empty freeway beneath their tires lull her back into a state of relaxation. What had just happened to frighten her so?
"You alright there? We're only thirty miles away from our next job, one day earlier than expected. Thought we could sleep at the rest stop up ahead and have Arthur drive us into town tomorrow morning. Sound good?"
Lewis still had a hand placed protectively over Vivi's shoulder, restraining the girl and preventing her from ramming her head into the windshield just above her, his eyes still on the road as she woke from her nightmare. Usually, it took the world ending to wake Vivi up from a deep sleep, and so the large boy had been prepared to put his football player-esque weight into shaking his friend awake, maybe a few raps on the mainly metal ceiling with a watch or a ring would get her to her feet, or a cold drink to the side of her neck. Still, something beside his touch had risen her from slumber, and the blue-headed girl was now looking around disorientedly.
As she came fully to her senses, the freeway still flashing beneath them, she fully absorbed what the boy had said with a little bit of confusion, "If we're stopping to sleep, why'd you wake me up, Lew?" She yawned, stretching her arms out wide and curling her toes as she tapped the pink-haired boy playfully on his cheek, smiling at him through drooping eyelids.
He smiled a little bit, taking his eyes off of the road to look at her fondly and push her hand out of the way before merging onto the exit ramp towards the rest stop, "Because you asked me to, sleepyhead."
"Oh. Yeah, I remember now." She scratched her stomach, embarrassed by her forgetfulness and feeling the hunger pains as they rose to remind her in their own way. That evening, she had fallen asleep hungry after Mystery had found their secret stash, and even if she had her dinner, Vivi would never pass up the chance for food.
Lewis parked on the far side of the lot, a beautiful park-like rest area surrounded by thin forests and thick grasses, a stop that had clearly been well taken care of by those who owned it. The Mystery Skulls had seen some pretty skuzzy places on the road, but this place was actually really nice; if it had been warmer, Vivi probably would have tried to convince Lewis to gaze at the stars with her. As the old van was brought to a screeching halt upon the pavement, Lewis jumped out of his seat and into the chill of the mid-October air, a flurry of fallen leaves dancing around him in a sort of greeting as he quickly set to work turning the back of their van into a bed. Vivi, nearly skipping as she hurried over to the vending machines along the concrete walls of the bathrooms, was looking around in content wonder, just a little more appreciative of the world around her-whatever she had dreamed about, she was glad to be alive and in such a beautiful, safe place.
The girl paid for two granola bars, got three by luck, and began heading back to her boxy orange home. Lewis' backside was sticking out of the back gate as he rummaged around in the blankets and pillows he had thrown down, setting it up as best he could to resemble a warm, comforting mattress with sleeping bags and comforters galore.
"I got you one." She lied, knowing full well that Lewis would decline her offer for the granola bar as he always did. Vivi could eat twice as much as Lewis, and so it had become a habit of his to give her his share of a meal even if he probably needed it more. Just as she expected, he shook his heavily gelled head and continued to lay down the blankets with a gentleness that wasn't necessarily required for the task, taking the job very seriously as he made the back of the van into a sleeping space rivaled only by the comfiest of mattresses.
The Mystery Skulls van was old, but volatile, and when Lewis got his hands on it and began to transform it from a ratty, dilapidated Westy, into a nest of warmth and closeness, there was nothing on earth that could compare in comfiness. Lewis had a special touch with the car, and whereas Arthur kept it from falling apart totally, Lewis turned it into a small, compacted, travelling home. Vivi preferred sleeping in the car to some of the sketchy places they had stopped at before and come to know so well, feeling a lot safer surrounded by her friends than alone in a big, empty room. Even if the boys were only a door or two down, she felt so lonely and cold when it was just her and Mystery, her dog; not to mention she loved to cuddle the two younger boys, three if you counted the eager mascot.
Arthur, their last companion, was dozing on the couch seat behind the driver's side, snoring very softly to himself with his ginger head wrapped tightly in his arms and his elbows resting on his knees. He was curled up so small, compacted into a little, invisible box by habit rather than necessity. Their friend was the opposite of Vivi in many ways, and whereas she could sleep through a hurricane, he was a very light sleeper and often couldn't even sleep in a moving car with all of the noises going on about him: this changed when he stayed up for two days straight without so much as a wink of rest. Vivi was just glad that he had, in fact, found the time and state of mind to partake in slumber-she knew he was falling ill after depriving himself of most basic needs, and after he downed ten energy drinks the day prior, she was pretty certain he needed this rest more than anything.
Vivi's dog, Mystery, was curled up by Arthur's feet with his head resting on top of the boys shoes, eyes looking up at Lewis and Vivi as they prepared the back for sleeping with the attention of a sentinel. His little bunny tail wagged rapidly back and forth as Vivi approached the two, munching noisily on her granola bar while she climbed into the back of the van and grabbed a large comforter before Lewis could lay claim to it. With the gentleness of a kiss of morning dew upon the abandoned webs spun by spiders, she tucked the comforter around both the man and the dog, feeling the chill of the air outside and knowing they must feel it, too. With her best friend and tiny companion taken care of, Vivi offered a hand to Lewis and pulled him into the back of the van with a very strong grip and a pat on the back.
Crawling into their sleeping bags, the two huddled together beneath layer and layer of blanket, curled into tight balls with faces towards each other in the hope that their breath and warmth would heat each others' frozen noses and chilled chins. Their extremities had grown numb with the cold, and they wrapped as much of each other as they could in their arms, attempting to retain some warmth as it left their bodies in synchronized waves. They shivered together, trying to take their mind off of how cold the floor of the van was, waiting for the blankets to do their magic and keep the two from catching too many colds. At some point, Mystery slipped between the two, fitting like a puzzle piece between the curled in bellies of his owner and friend as he attempted to donate his own warmth to them, but as time passed, it was still too chilly.
Lewis inhaled sharply, looking down at Vivi with bright pink eyes as he tried to pull his own thoughts away from how insanely cold he was, "Vivi, how did you and Arthur meet?" he whispered, still wide awake as he pulled his sleeping bag just a little bit closer to his chin, "He said you met a long time before I knew either of you, yet you guys are like night and day. How did you two actually, you know, tolerate each other for so long?"
The girl reached up to tussle her hair quickly before pulling her fingers back into the growing warmth of the blankets. This was a little hard for her, the time she met Arthur being her all time low in terms of emotional stability. Even thinking back to her childhood was hard with the memories she had made there, and she kind of wished that she didn't have them to begin with. She looked at her hands, hardly opening her eyes as she spoke silently to her friend, "Well, you know I lived in the slums my whole life. My mother was dead, my father was as good as dead...I didn't really have anyone in my life at that point. I guess I felt I needed to protect anyone who was anywhere as lonely as me, without friends or family or hope-I wanted to make a connection," Vivi pushed her glasses onto the couch's armrest, exposing her torso to the cold once more before diving back into the comfort of the nest she rested in, "I saw him walk beneath my window every day for three years, even prior to being so lonely. One day, a pack of bullies followed him with no good intentions, and so I beat them up before they could do the same to him."
Lewis looked genuinely surprised, his eyes widening as he looked at the short, chubby girl in front of him, "You, really?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I'm actually really muscular beneath all of this fluff, you kind of have to be in a place like where I grew up," her eyes were closed again, and she was smiling to herself with fondness towards the memory, the moment she had found someone to love like family, "I jumped off of my balcony and landed in front of him, taking the punch that was thrown at him before it could reach the poor kid. He says he thought I was an angel, the way I fell from the sky like that." She finished, speaking as silently as was possible for the naturally boisterous young lady. Lewis was smiling with laughter in his throat.
"I can see that."
Vivi mimicked his grin, blushing and smiling profusely as she continued, "He said my arms were thrown back like spread wings, and my headband a blue halo on the top of my head. Afterwards, i guess we two lonesome teens just became best friends." she was smirking into her blanket, continuing to recall the good memories, "We have our rituals: every Friday, we eat at a restaurant, where he has to order his own food and at least try to look the waiter in the eyes, and whenever we have a TV we have to play Mario Kart, but I always beat him. We've been like that for at least ten years, now that I think about it. I was eleven and he was nine."
Lewis yawned, tightening his grip on his blankets and looking at Vivi through half closed eyelids, "What about Mystery?"
"I basically just found him on the side of the road in a box labelled 'free'. He was the last mutt of the litter, I don't know why no one wanted him," Vivi recalled to Mystery's chagrin, clearly insulted by the name she had called him and any of his brethren, if they existed, "Sorry, bud, but it's true: I have no clue what the hell you are. I dyed him all up when Arthur told me to turn his hair that amber-orange color for fun, and we all really liked the red along with the black and white when it was all said and done." She patted the dog on the back with a rough hand, knowing that he wouldn't mind the extra bit of attention. The dog looked as though he were going to hold a grudge, but after glaring at her for a bit, he forgave the insult and continued to snooze between the two.
Lewis was quiet for a time, strolling through his own mind at a leisurely pace along his memories, thoughts, and dreams. He looked around the van, and it hit him that, just a few months ago, he would never have imagined a life like this, sighing to himself in his little state of bliss, "I can't believe how fast all of this is going. I mean, I didn't even know you three a few months ago, and here we are, hundreds of miles from home and sleeping in the back of a little old van. It's all kind of surreal, but I feel like I've known you both forever." Lewis wandered, looking up at the ceiling happily. Even if it was unexpected, he couldn't say that this life wasn't the most fun he'd ever had, and he was actually kind of relieved that he could distance himself from his family, if even just a little bit.
"I guess we were all ready for a new friend. I don't know about Arthur, but I was starting to feel a little lonely with only him and I hanging out for so many years, I just had to...I don't know, spread my wings a little, find someone new to latch onto. Plus, you know so much useful stuff about ghosts…"
"It runs in the family alongside a love of spicy food and the size-of-a-giant gene. My abuela hunted them full time, you know, travelling all around the continent and learning and trying all these new techniques. She left me so many amazingly annotated books; I just had to read them, add my own input and findings alongside hers, if there was anything she possibly missed," his gaze turned thoughtful, "maybe someday, I'll pass it onto my children, or grandchildren even. How cool would that be, just a family of ghost hunters."
Vivi nodded, glancing back over at her best friend on the couch, his snoring growing louder as the night progressed. Even if he could be a buzzkill during haunts, she really loved having him here, and she couldn't imagine not having all four of them together, "I'm so glad that Arthur agreed to come along in the first place. He hates anything mysterious, scary, supernatural-well, you've seen him in even the tamest haunted houses, he's near tears. I tried to get him to go ghosthunting with me all throughout our knowing each other, but he was adamant about staying safe and only taking jobs he knew for a fact weren't haunted. He was too busy trying to keep himself safe, he never really explored."
"I don't think that's necessarily true," Lewis interjected, thinking aloud and surprising himself with how accusatory his tone sounded, "I think he just wanted to keep you out of any trouble he couldn't get you out of, and thats why he came along with us in the first place. To keep you safe in a way, to make sure you didn't end up dead or in pain. He's just keeping an eye out for his friend is all."
Vivi shook her head, somewhat irritated by the thought, "Maybe, but it's not like he needs to protect me. I'm more than strong enough to protect him and myself both."
Lewis was yawning again as Vivi curled her knees even closer to her chest, blue eyes growing tired as her blankets reached the optimal temperature and she began to relax even deeper into the soft nest around her, "There are storms we cannot weather by ourselves. I'm sure you'll need him someday just as much as he needed you back then, and he understands that too."
With that thought, Vivi began to daydream of the future they would hold together and what it would mean for the four of them as they travelled around, scrambling for jobs and exploring the unknown. Money was scarce, but what they lacked in material wealth was made up with closeness and hope. They were far from their place of origin, hardly a memory within their young heads of the life they shared apart prior to, but with their wide hearts they made a home. Each of them had given up what might have been bright futures, lives of normalcy and comfort, for an adventure into the great darkness. None of them truly understood what they were stepping into, and frankly, none of them cared so long as they were all together in the end.
Vivi had been the manage of a used comics and books store, climbing the ranks after illegally working there at the age of thirteen by winning the hearts of her customers and coworkers, transforming with her smile the old and near abandoned store into the most beloved shop in town. With every moment she could spare, she learned of the supernatural world, reading books both fictional and probably real with wide eyes and the hope of a future shared with the ghosts and phantoms she so adored. After years upon years of research, speculation, and a little bit of doubt, she had left behind a well paying job and a brand new apartment for a best friend, a stranger, and a van of what to her was gold. Every ounce of her soul had gone into the making of this team, and she loved with every bit of her heart the life she had stumbled so blindly into.
Arthur, only nineteen, was well on his way to inheriting his Uncle Lance's mechanic shop, running it himself half of the time and fixing vehicles in back with the little bit of time he had left. The boy had a gift with metal, and knew the maze within the hood of a car as though it were a children's ten-piece puzzle: it was a little too easy without any form of challenge to him. When the old orange Westy came into the shop with an order for scrap metal and overall destruction, nothing could've stopped Arthur from taking on the project, and with a little bit of pleading on his part, his Uncle gave it to him as an early Christmas gift. Painted in his color and made to run good as new, he had left his world behind in the rearview mirror of the orange van, trading everything he knew and thought he loved for the love of the best friend he knew he couldn't live without. Nothing but Vivi kept him in this, even as Lewis grew on him, and Arthur was always stuck with one foot in the door in preparation to bolt.
Lewis, after graduation, had worked as a waiter, dishwasher, and very occasional chef in his father's restaurant. After his amazing achievements academically in school, Lewis had big plans with a letter to Harvard in his abnormally large palms, hoping to one day bring smiles to the faces of sick and injured children as a pediatrician through one of the best pre-med schools in the world. When his parents had called upon him to help keep the restaurant running, knowing they couldn't keep up shop without their multi-tasking master and secretly not wanting to lose him, he couldn't say no, and so when he found his grandmother's books just waiting to be read and an eager young ghosthunter wannabe, a part of him knew he needed to free himself of the responsibility and worry that came as the eldest son in a young family. His siblings were older now, his dreams as a doctor smothered in the strong-smelling spices of the kitchen, and the boy needed to truly spread his wings out, to experiment in a world of the unknown. He had given up the only thing he had ever known, his family with their trust wavering in him, for the thrill he had never received while babysitting and waiting tables. His love for them may have been an ocean, but sometimes you need the land to stand upon, a stage with which to raise yourself up; with ghosthunting, Lewis got just that.
Their new lives as adults fell as soon as they dawned, yet with the inferno and burning ash came the freshness of the soil and a promise of pure revival and growth. Vivi truly believed that, together, they could take any and all hardships that dared to attempt to sink her ship and fight through any situation or shadowy figure that might arise, just because they had each other. As she dozed, eyes growing heavy with the tiredness of lead, the blue girl grew optimistic and bright, and when her eyes finally closed she wore a smile on her face all throughout the night.
Everything would turn out fine.