Entry 05, Intruder
Title: Intruder
Entry Number: 05
Author: dtsguru
Fandom: original
Rating: PG-13 (for some language)
Genre: urban fantasy
Spoiler Warnings: none
Word Count: 1761
This is set in ‘The Family’ ‘verse. Self beta’d so all mistakes most definitely are mine.
I threw my pillow at the intruder, along with a less than lady-like curse. But I kept my face buried in the mattress. I deserved another day of moping. “FUCK. Why won’t you just leave me alone? I went out yesterday and let me tell you that ended spectacularly.”
“Who the hell are you?” The voice was young and had that aggressive quality that was supposed to let everyone know the speaker wasn’t afraid of anything. Except she was. She was terrified. And she was young.
I scrambled to my knees. That was not Joe. Who was in my room?
“What are you doing in my room,” she asked.
April. She looked exactly as Joe had remembered her. Except in his thoughts she was bold, with her chin thrust out and ready to fight the world. Oh, she’d fight me alright, but only if she had no other choice. She looked more like an abandoned golden retriever backed into a dead-end alley.
She hadn’t even bothered to brush her hair before she ran away that morning. Or maybe it had been in the middle of the night. She wasn’t thinking about how long the drive had been so I couldn’t get a read on it. The girl’s walls worked for shit. Thoughts were leaking out all over the place.
First things, first. “Joe is letting me stay here now. I’m Cass.”
She cocked a hip out. “So? Why are you in my room and not his?”
“This is the guest room. I’m a guest. Do you mind? I’d like to get dressed now.”
She eyed me up and down. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
But she turned and walked out. Of course she had that nice big block on her shoulder so she left the door wide open. I closed my eyes and concentrated. This was always so much harder for me than the others. None of my thoughts ever drifted from my head. Intentionally sending them out had taken years for me to master.
Finally, I pinpointed the unique signature of Joe’s mind, gave a little mental tap at the door so to speak and sent my message. Your lovely little cousin April has come to town and she’s just a peach. Deal with it.
When I opened my eyes I was sweating from the expended effort. I wouldn’t receive a response from Joe. It was rare that anyone could make it through my wall with mundane messages. The image of April from that first night had only made it through because I had been so emotionally and physically worn down and Joe had been so irritated with her.
After dressing and making a quick pit stop in the restroom I walked into the kitchen to find April polishing off the cake. The brat had eaten my piece too. Dammit. Maureen’s German chocolate cake was legendary. It was the first dessert anyone grabbed at a funeral.
Hey, coffee! The kid was good for something after all. I filled a mug and made my way to the table, eyeing the empty cake plate jealously. “So, April. What are you doing here?”
“Same thing you are. Taking advantage of Joe’s hospitality.”
There was that front again. She was hiding something. Hmmm. Maureen knew why the kid was here. She’d known April was coming after all, so she had to know why. Right? But did I care enough to interact with the older woman just to learn that reason? No. No I did not.
“Joe will be able to tell you’re hiding something, you know.” I dropped the bomb then calmly took a sip of my coffee.
I hid my grimace and wished desperately that Joe would keep some creamer in the house. And that I had remembered the damn creamer while I was at the grocery store. I couldn’t get up and grab some sugar while I was trying to interrogate the kid though. Besides, drinking the coffee black looked more badass, right? Right.
She folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. Fear exploded out of her. “I don’t have anything to hide. And how would he know anyway? I’m not a kid anymore. I do know how to shield my thoughts like anyone else.”
I just won’t think about it.
She might as well have stood on the table and yelled that one.
I swallowed another horrendous black mouthful before responding. “Oh, it’s just this thing he does. He knows people’s hearts, or something like that. If they’re being honest. If they’re hiding something. What kind of person they are on the inside. That kind of thing.”
I set the mug down. I’d prove myself some other way. Creamer was a must. I’d go to the grocery store as soon as I finished talking to little Miss I’m A Grownup Now.
“So Joe is Santa Claus?” She snorted in derision. She dropped her hands and her gaze to the table. “I don’t believe in all this talents bullshit anyway.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “Wait. What? How can you not believe in it? You’re living it.”
Her eyes slowly moved up to mine. She didn’t say anything. Tension built as the silence stretched. What was she saying? Was she…no. That didn’t make sense. -not a damn- It cut off again, the intermittent wall slamming back up. She was throwing off a lot of frustration though, along with that ever-present fear.
“April, are you saying you don’t think you have a talent?”
With a shrug she finally broke eye contact. “It’s not like I’m the first one. Right? There’s gotta be others like me out there.”
Maybe all those drugs broke me.
Okay, so I was a bit of a hypocrite, but I thought about slapping her for a second there. Telling her to snap out of the pity party. Especially if she’d screwed up her talent because she chose to party. Too damn bad if she made some bad decisions and had to live with the consequences. Welcome to growing up.
Thankfully the doorbell rang before I could do something stupid. It felt kind of strange to open Joe’s door to greet a visitor, as a visitor. In the few days that I had been staying there no one had stopped by while he wasn’t around. I felt like an imposter, posing as the lady of the house. I just knew the person waiting outside was going to accuse me of lying as soon as I opened the door.
The day just kept getting better and better.
“Where’s the girl,” Greg asked, stepping past me.
Huh. I’d spent a good two seconds there working myself into a frenzy about him coming to harass me about our future or past or whatever. And he wasn’t even there to see me. He was hunting down April. Doing his finder of lost things, or persons in this case, gig.
I followed him, feeling kind of useless. April was attempting to slip out the sliding glass door just on the other side of the kitchen table when Greg caught up to her. She’d lost time bending down to remove the long wooden pole Joe kept in the runners of the sliding mechanism to keep burglars from sliding the door open. Which always seemed stupid to me. If I were going to break into a house with a glass door, I’d break the damn glass, not try to jimmy the lock and slide it open. I sure as hell wouldn’t let a wooden pole stop me.
Greg used his longer arms span to reach around and slide the door closed again, trapping her in the house.
“Your mother is frantic,” he stated neutrally.
April tried to stare him down but Greg had a good six inches on her. Her neck was going to get tired long before his resolve wore down. I knew this from experience.
“Why don’t you call your mother to let her know where you are while I make breakfast,” I suggested.
Greg nodded at my words, his eyes sending me a grateful look. April chewed over the idea for a long moment before finally breaking down. I think it was the sight of the bacon I pulled out of the fridge that really made up her mind.
Joe stormed into the house five minutes later, zeroing in on April immediately. She waved at him with a sheepish grin. “Ho, ho, ho.”
That made him pause. He sent me a questioning look. I shrugged. No idea what she’s talking about. Heh. His eyes narrowed at me but he just shook his head, blowing it off.
He swiveled back to her. “What are you doing here, April?”
She tried for a sweet and innocent smile. Since her face hadn’t arranged itself into that particular expression in about a decade, it looked forced. “Can’t a girl visit her cousin?”
Greg’s chair creaked as he shifted, reminding everyone in the room of his presence.
Her eyes darted around to us all, searching for support. “It’s just tough at home right now. Okay?”
Gotta get outta there before- no, can’t think about- And there was the wall again.
Joe’s face contorted as the muscles fought over portraying suspicion and worry. They settled for both. It was a strange look.
“Can I have the couch for a few nights? Until I find a better place?”
Joe glanced toward Greg. “Your mother must be looking for you.”
Greg nodded.
“If you talk to her she’ll let me stay,” April begged.
“You can’t stay here if you won’t even tell me why you need a place to stay. Besides, the spare room is occupied at the moment.”
Frustration exploded off of her. “That’s bullshit! Why is she even living with you? Her husband is sitting right here!”
I froze. The only sound in the room was the sizzling of the bacon. And then the sound of me setting down the fork I had been using to flip the bacon. I may have set it down firmly, loudly even. It might have bounced on impact.
“You told your fifteen-year-old spoiled brat cousin about that? What the hell?” I glared at Joe.
His eyes were wide as he shook his head. “I didn’t say a damn word.”
My glare swiveled immediately to Greg. His face was calm. It was an expression he had adopted sometime in the last eight or nine years and it was infuriating. He shrugged. “Not me.”
When I turned to her April was staring back at me with mutual shock. Figures.
“No talent my ass.”
Entry Number: 05
Author: dtsguru
Fandom: original
Rating: PG-13 (for some language)
Genre: urban fantasy
Spoiler Warnings: none
Word Count: 1761
This is set in ‘The Family’ ‘verse. Self beta’d so all mistakes most definitely are mine.
I threw my pillow at the intruder, along with a less than lady-like curse. But I kept my face buried in the mattress. I deserved another day of moping. “FUCK. Why won’t you just leave me alone? I went out yesterday and let me tell you that ended spectacularly.”
“Who the hell are you?” The voice was young and had that aggressive quality that was supposed to let everyone know the speaker wasn’t afraid of anything. Except she was. She was terrified. And she was young.
I scrambled to my knees. That was not Joe. Who was in my room?
“What are you doing in my room,” she asked.
April. She looked exactly as Joe had remembered her. Except in his thoughts she was bold, with her chin thrust out and ready to fight the world. Oh, she’d fight me alright, but only if she had no other choice. She looked more like an abandoned golden retriever backed into a dead-end alley.
She hadn’t even bothered to brush her hair before she ran away that morning. Or maybe it had been in the middle of the night. She wasn’t thinking about how long the drive had been so I couldn’t get a read on it. The girl’s walls worked for shit. Thoughts were leaking out all over the place.
First things, first. “Joe is letting me stay here now. I’m Cass.”
She cocked a hip out. “So? Why are you in my room and not his?”
“This is the guest room. I’m a guest. Do you mind? I’d like to get dressed now.”
She eyed me up and down. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”
But she turned and walked out. Of course she had that nice big block on her shoulder so she left the door wide open. I closed my eyes and concentrated. This was always so much harder for me than the others. None of my thoughts ever drifted from my head. Intentionally sending them out had taken years for me to master.
Finally, I pinpointed the unique signature of Joe’s mind, gave a little mental tap at the door so to speak and sent my message. Your lovely little cousin April has come to town and she’s just a peach. Deal with it.
When I opened my eyes I was sweating from the expended effort. I wouldn’t receive a response from Joe. It was rare that anyone could make it through my wall with mundane messages. The image of April from that first night had only made it through because I had been so emotionally and physically worn down and Joe had been so irritated with her.
After dressing and making a quick pit stop in the restroom I walked into the kitchen to find April polishing off the cake. The brat had eaten my piece too. Dammit. Maureen’s German chocolate cake was legendary. It was the first dessert anyone grabbed at a funeral.
Hey, coffee! The kid was good for something after all. I filled a mug and made my way to the table, eyeing the empty cake plate jealously. “So, April. What are you doing here?”
“Same thing you are. Taking advantage of Joe’s hospitality.”
There was that front again. She was hiding something. Hmmm. Maureen knew why the kid was here. She’d known April was coming after all, so she had to know why. Right? But did I care enough to interact with the older woman just to learn that reason? No. No I did not.
“Joe will be able to tell you’re hiding something, you know.” I dropped the bomb then calmly took a sip of my coffee.
I hid my grimace and wished desperately that Joe would keep some creamer in the house. And that I had remembered the damn creamer while I was at the grocery store. I couldn’t get up and grab some sugar while I was trying to interrogate the kid though. Besides, drinking the coffee black looked more badass, right? Right.
She folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. Fear exploded out of her. “I don’t have anything to hide. And how would he know anyway? I’m not a kid anymore. I do know how to shield my thoughts like anyone else.”
I just won’t think about it.
She might as well have stood on the table and yelled that one.
I swallowed another horrendous black mouthful before responding. “Oh, it’s just this thing he does. He knows people’s hearts, or something like that. If they’re being honest. If they’re hiding something. What kind of person they are on the inside. That kind of thing.”
I set the mug down. I’d prove myself some other way. Creamer was a must. I’d go to the grocery store as soon as I finished talking to little Miss I’m A Grownup Now.
“So Joe is Santa Claus?” She snorted in derision. She dropped her hands and her gaze to the table. “I don’t believe in all this talents bullshit anyway.”
I stared at her in disbelief. “Wait. What? How can you not believe in it? You’re living it.”
Her eyes slowly moved up to mine. She didn’t say anything. Tension built as the silence stretched. What was she saying? Was she…no. That didn’t make sense. -not a damn- It cut off again, the intermittent wall slamming back up. She was throwing off a lot of frustration though, along with that ever-present fear.
“April, are you saying you don’t think you have a talent?”
With a shrug she finally broke eye contact. “It’s not like I’m the first one. Right? There’s gotta be others like me out there.”
Maybe all those drugs broke me.
Okay, so I was a bit of a hypocrite, but I thought about slapping her for a second there. Telling her to snap out of the pity party. Especially if she’d screwed up her talent because she chose to party. Too damn bad if she made some bad decisions and had to live with the consequences. Welcome to growing up.
Thankfully the doorbell rang before I could do something stupid. It felt kind of strange to open Joe’s door to greet a visitor, as a visitor. In the few days that I had been staying there no one had stopped by while he wasn’t around. I felt like an imposter, posing as the lady of the house. I just knew the person waiting outside was going to accuse me of lying as soon as I opened the door.
The day just kept getting better and better.
“Where’s the girl,” Greg asked, stepping past me.
Huh. I’d spent a good two seconds there working myself into a frenzy about him coming to harass me about our future or past or whatever. And he wasn’t even there to see me. He was hunting down April. Doing his finder of lost things, or persons in this case, gig.
I followed him, feeling kind of useless. April was attempting to slip out the sliding glass door just on the other side of the kitchen table when Greg caught up to her. She’d lost time bending down to remove the long wooden pole Joe kept in the runners of the sliding mechanism to keep burglars from sliding the door open. Which always seemed stupid to me. If I were going to break into a house with a glass door, I’d break the damn glass, not try to jimmy the lock and slide it open. I sure as hell wouldn’t let a wooden pole stop me.
Greg used his longer arms span to reach around and slide the door closed again, trapping her in the house.
“Your mother is frantic,” he stated neutrally.
April tried to stare him down but Greg had a good six inches on her. Her neck was going to get tired long before his resolve wore down. I knew this from experience.
“Why don’t you call your mother to let her know where you are while I make breakfast,” I suggested.
Greg nodded at my words, his eyes sending me a grateful look. April chewed over the idea for a long moment before finally breaking down. I think it was the sight of the bacon I pulled out of the fridge that really made up her mind.
Joe stormed into the house five minutes later, zeroing in on April immediately. She waved at him with a sheepish grin. “Ho, ho, ho.”
That made him pause. He sent me a questioning look. I shrugged. No idea what she’s talking about. Heh. His eyes narrowed at me but he just shook his head, blowing it off.
He swiveled back to her. “What are you doing here, April?”
She tried for a sweet and innocent smile. Since her face hadn’t arranged itself into that particular expression in about a decade, it looked forced. “Can’t a girl visit her cousin?”
Greg’s chair creaked as he shifted, reminding everyone in the room of his presence.
Her eyes darted around to us all, searching for support. “It’s just tough at home right now. Okay?”
Gotta get outta there before- no, can’t think about- And there was the wall again.
Joe’s face contorted as the muscles fought over portraying suspicion and worry. They settled for both. It was a strange look.
“Can I have the couch for a few nights? Until I find a better place?”
Joe glanced toward Greg. “Your mother must be looking for you.”
Greg nodded.
“If you talk to her she’ll let me stay,” April begged.
“You can’t stay here if you won’t even tell me why you need a place to stay. Besides, the spare room is occupied at the moment.”
Frustration exploded off of her. “That’s bullshit! Why is she even living with you? Her husband is sitting right here!”
I froze. The only sound in the room was the sizzling of the bacon. And then the sound of me setting down the fork I had been using to flip the bacon. I may have set it down firmly, loudly even. It might have bounced on impact.
“You told your fifteen-year-old spoiled brat cousin about that? What the hell?” I glared at Joe.
His eyes were wide as he shook his head. “I didn’t say a damn word.”
My glare swiveled immediately to Greg. His face was calm. It was an expression he had adopted sometime in the last eight or nine years and it was infuriating. He shrugged. “Not me.”
When I turned to her April was staring back at me with mutual shock. Figures.
“No talent my ass.”