TWs: a character has a panic attack when informed that someone has been stalking them, someone uses demeaning terms to refer to a deceased sex worker, and descriptions of people getting shot
"I don't… I don't know Sunny very well, please just...please be careful...when you tell her. And you should tell her, but-"
"I know."
"No, you don't know. You know how you felt when you saw that picture? Well, it's going to be much worse for her. Just remember that."
Sunny had been to a couple of funerals throughout her life. Only two of them had been for Fables. Her father's and now Lily's. Part of Sunny wanted to dissociate from the whole thing. Just bury the memories that kept trying to crawl to the surface. That went out the window when she found out that, apparently, everyone was meant to speak.
"I didn't know Lily personally," Sunny started, but had no idea where she was going with it. She kept looking nervously over the small crowd. For some reason, she kept hoping to see Catriona and Liena. Her aunt had apparently been an old customer of Holly's and wanted to support her, but she decided the last thing Liena needed was to go to a stranger's funeral.
Instead, she saw a lot of people who were unfamiliar to her. Snow, Lawrence, that blonde woman from the club, Nerissa, Gren, and, of course, Holly.
The strange thing about seeing Nerissa and other people from the club was the ribbons. It looked exactly like the ones on Faith and Lily. Sunny supposed it may have been some kind of way to show solidarity outside of work.
"But I have lost people, and it's never been easy. I'm not gonna lie and say it gets easier quickly. Hopefully, she'll be able to live on in the hearts of the people who loved her. I hope she would be happy knowing-"
Sunny stuttered when she spotted Bigby at the back of the crowd. "-that there are people who truly cared about her."
Sunny finished up her speech, rushed to the back of the crowd, and made her way over to the sheriff. "Bigby, is everything okay?"
The thing was, Sunny wasn't the only one to notice Bigby's arrival.
"No, not you," Holly stood up with a snarl.
"Holly, it's-" Sunny tried to say.
"He wasn't fucking invited," Holly stomped up to them. "He has no right to be here. Not after what he did."
"Look, Holly, I'm not here to start trouble," Bigby told her.
"You throw my sister down the Witching Well...and you have the nerve to show your face here?!" Holly shouted. "After you lie...after you promise me?"
"Holly, wait, that was Crane, just Crane." Snow defended. "He was the only one there when we stepped out for that hour."
The two of them had tried to tell her this before, but it seemed Holly was set on blaming Bigby.
"Bigby couldn't do anything about it. I was with him all afternoon." Sunny said.
"Don't cover for him!"
"I'm just saying what happened," Sunny stood her ground.
This was the last thing Sunny wanted. She wanted Holly to be able to say goodbye to her sister without any issues. She had been through exactly what Holly was, and she just wanted to help her get closure. Now she was standing in front of everyone, yelling at the woman.
"You can't tell me Bigby gives a shit about this!" Holly shook her head in disgust.
"Holly. It's gonna be okay," The woman in purple from the club (who Sunny had learned was named Vivian) tried to calm Holly down.
"I'm sorry, Holly. I didn't know he put her down the Witching Well," Bigby said.
"He's just trying to work this out, Holly," Sunny breathed. "He's just trying to help. Just let me talk to him."
"What's he doing here anyway?" Gren asked suddenly.
Sunny turned back to Bigby with a concerned look. "Everything okay?"
"I just need to talk to Sunny," Bigby told them. Trying not to start anything.
"Oh, really?" Holly said. She still didn't seem to believe him.
"Yes, Holly," A little of his annoyance peaked, though. "This is serious."
"What's going on?" Snow asked in concern.
"Okay, okay, look, the three of us will just step away for a minute. It will be like he wasn't even here, alright?" Sunny said to Holly.
"If he does anything," Holly stared Sunny in the eyes.
"I've got it," Sunny nodded to her.
Holly looked like she was considering it. She made a loud huff and looked over to Bigby again. "Don't fuck anything up. Don't bother anybody. And when the first sign of trouble comes, and it will come, because you're a goddamn walking trap for it, I want you the fuck out of here. You hear me?"
"Of course. Like she said: you won't even know I'm here," Bigby shrugged.
"Let's just continue, okay?" Vivian placed a hand on Holly's shoulder.
"This is such total fucking bullshit," Holly sneered as she turned around.
"Let's go, Holly," Nerissa added.
"It's your turn to talk." Vivian reminded her.
Sunny couldn't help but glance back. She knew it was only gonna get worse. She knew naively thinking, 'well it can't get worse than that' would just be asking for it. She only hoped Bigby had found a good lead at the hotel.
"Any luck? Sunny asked once they were a good distance away.
Bigby hesitated momentarily as if he was trying to find the right words. "Crane murdered Lily."
"What?" Sunny and Snow said in unison.
"I followed the lead to that shithole motel. The Open Arms. Crane had a room there, and he's been taking prostitutes...or, at the very least-"
"But Crane? He gets the frickin' shakes when he has to order food," Snow said in disbelief. "Him killing someone? I just can't believe it."
Sunny couldn't help but agree. She didn't know Crane on any kind of personal level but knew his type. Someone like him would fall apart over a stiff breeze. The sex worker part she could believe. Anyone could hire their services. But murder? No, Crane didn't have the stones for it.
"That's not all-" Bigby shifted uncomfortably.
"Is it about Faith?" Sunny asked. If Crane had, in fact, murdered Lily, had he killed Faith too?
"No, it's… he had been making Lily look like you while he was...you know. He seems obsessed with your family's story or at least a version that exists in his head."
There was a sudden twitch in Sunny's eye. "That better be some kind of sick joke."
Sunny knew it wasn't. She desperately wanted it to be. Some kind of horrible practical joke to play on the newbie would be better than the truth. Sunny knew better. She knew Bigby wasn't the type to pull this kind of thing. But that didn't mean she wanted to accept it.
"Please just tell me it's a joke," Sunny stepped towards him.
"I'm sorry, Sunny...and I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you," Bigby said with guilt-ridden eyes.
Sunny started shaking. Finding it hard to breathe. All she could choke out was a broken. "Fuck, I feel sick."
"How do you know all this?" Snow asked with a horrified look. She tried placing a hand on Sunny's shoulder to steady her.
"Crane has been taking photos, Snow. Lots of photos."
"Don't… I don't-" Sunny was starting at the ground. Her vision was starting to go blurry.
"We should go," Snow said but kept her eyes on Sunny. "Back to the Business Office. I doubt Crane is there at this hour, but...we need to talk, and this isn't the place."
They started walking away, only to have a familiar face approach them. "Sunny, Snow?"
"Nerissa. What is it?" Snow asked.
"I'm sorry, but Holly's asking for you."
"Are they starting the burn?"
"Yes. Everyone who spoke should really be present for this part... She's kind of distraught. You're not leaving yet, are you?"
"Can you give me two minutes? Sunny just, um…"
"No, I understand."
"It's just that something's come up."
Sunny couldn't bring herself to say anything. She just knew that if she did, she'd lose control and start freaking out. That was the last thing Holly needed. She just kept staring at her feet. Silently hoping she would just wake up from this nightmare.
"Are you okay? You don't have to do this right now," Bigby said. Somewhat knocking Sunny out of her daze.
"Let me just… I'll stay for just a few minutes." She and Snow started walking back to the procession. Nerissa seemed to stay behind for a moment, but it was the least of Sunny's concerns.
As Sunny stared into the fire pit, she tried to centre herself. To push away a boiling feeling in her gut that wanted to hunt down that sick fuck. She wasn't even sure what she really wanted to do with him. She mostly just wanted him to suffer.
Sunny needed to stop and think. She clenched her fists. If she wasn't careful, she might lose control. The last time that happened… It didn't end well for anyone involved.
It had been years since she had actually used her powers. She had been pushing them down for so long, but now it was like they were fighting to get to the surface.
Sunny spotted Bigby standing where they left him out of the corner of her eye, but he wasn't alone. The suspect from that morning was standing there. Along with a twin (it was Dee and Dum, Sunny tried to remember). They were all facing towards the funeral and talking, but Bigby didn't seem happy about it.
It seemed to be becoming a bad habit when Holly followed Sunny's eyeline and saw the same thing as her, and she wasn't happy about it one bit. Everyone seemed to follow suit.
Holly started marching over along with the rest of the funeralgoers trailing behind. Holly was no doubt ready to scream her lungs out at the interlopers. Sunny didn't blame her. In fact, she was just about ready to join her.
"Ladies! Gentlemen! Invertebrates! Please! Rest easy, this is not-" Dee waved. Flashing the shotgun in his hand in the process.
"What the hell is going on?" Gren demanded.
"What's happening?" Snow frowned.
"Very sorry to impose, but we only had a deal to work out with Bigby," Dee smirked. "And we're unhappy to report that things didn't go as smoothly as planned."
"Just get out of here. You're not welcome," Sunny sneered.
"Now, now there's no need to be rude-"
"Did I fucking stutter?!" Sunny raised her voice. Which seemed to catch the twins off guard a bit.
"Settle down, settle down, now," Dee tried to sound confident but wasn't doing it very well.
Yeah, everyone, just stay where you are, nice and natural," Dum added. Also, trying and failing to sound brave.
"I'm not making any deals with you, so just get the fuck out of here and leave these people alone," Bigby snarled at them.
"Naaaaah," Dee mocked. Raising his gun at them.
Holly and Gren didn't back down. Removing their glamours and standing over the twins with snarls and claws out.
"What did I tell you? What did I say!?" Holly glared at Bigby.
"Holly-" Bigby tried to warn her calmly.
"You think you motherfuckers can come here uninvited?!" Gren screamed in rage. "You think you can just fuckin' interrupt Lily's funeral?!"
"Calm down, darling. It was just a simple business transaction," Dee said. Gun pointed right at them.
"No, wait!" Snow worried
"Listen to your lady, love," Dee joked like an idiot.
"Things don't have to turn sloppy, now."
"It's not worth it, Holly," Bigby told her. "They'll leave on their own."
"Yeah, let's spare all the fuss. It's just a dead whore."
Sunny saw red at that moment. If you asked her to recount the events later on, the best she could give you was:
Holly and Gren rushed forward. Only for Holly to get shot in the chest. Dum tried to shoot at Gren but got his gun whipped away. Thanks to a rapidly growing weed springing from the ground, leaving Gren a chance to tackle Dum to the ground and start beating the ever-loving crap out of him.
Dee attempted to shoot Gren off his brother. Only to get his gun grabbed by Bigby. Who tried to wrestle it out of Dee's gasp. Causing a shot ricocheted off the wall and grazed the flesh between Sunny's shoulder and neck.
In the confusion, Dum somehow reached for his gun. In a matter of seconds, Bigby, Sunny, Gren and Holly were all on the ground, bleeding from various injuries.
Sunny didn't know Lily but knew Lily didn't deserve a funeral like this.
Hey! If you've been meaning to donate to the Palestinian Children Relief Fund but keep getting distracted for one reason or another like me, this is your reminder to do so now!