Geist the Sin-Eaters
I'm in a short Geist game at the moment. So I figured I'd post my characters background and all that jazz here.
Travis pushed open the door to the bathroom in the office building. He noted the two urinals and the two stalls. He could see that the handicap stall door was shut and feet in some very shiny black shoes were perched next the toilet. He made a note of it and went to the urinal. As he stood there he said to himself. “No peeking.”
“Like I’ve never seen that before.”
“Dirty, dirty girl.” He mumbled. He glanced up as he heard the toilet flush and the guy in the stall begin to sing to himself.
“Earth Angel, Earth Angel, will you be mine?”
Travis could hear her screaming. She always got like that when she heard that song. He shook his head, annoyed, and hopped up and down a few times to make sure there would be no spillage.
He was zipping up as the portly mustached man came out of the stall. “Earth Angel, Earth Angel, the one I adore.”
“Hey man.” Travis joined him at the sink.
The man looked at Travis in the mirror. “Young man.”
Travis looked into the mirror too. Travis stood next to the man in the well-tailored suit in his shabby flannel shirt, Bon Jovi T-shirt, and worn out jeans. Behind Travis stood a girl with long curled blonde hair that was matted with blood. Her broken tiara still managed to catch just a little light. She wore a pale blue prom dress that was ripped between her legs all the way to her belt. She wore an old letter jacket over her dress, which was far too big for her. The high-heeled shoe on her right foot was missing and her right foot was curled up. Blood ran down her legs and cuts covered her face. She put her arms around Travis with her left hand on his left shoulder and her right hand resting on his stomach. She stood behind him so that he could really only see part of her face as she peered out from over his shoulder. Her right eye was bruised and twisted in her fury. She had very well manicured nails though. The nails on her left hand had blood under them that didn’t belong to her. Travis looked away from her and at the man who had begun singing again which caused her to scream. Travis could feel her clench onto him, her nails digging into his arm and stomach. “Hey don’t sing that song.”
“Excuse me?”
Travis shook his head. “That song, yeah don’t sing it.”
“I can sing whatever I want.” The man stood up and frowned at the apparent homeless kid telling him what to do. “I’m Cole Younger. I’m the head of security at this office. Who are you?”
Travis pointed at him. “Oh you’re Cole Stout.” Travis smiled and put his right hand to his forehead. “Man that’s great. That saves me a lot of time.” Travis dropped his hand but kept his smile. He watched the man for a minute and just as Mr. Stout was about to speak Travis said. “Do you remember that little girl?”
“What, what the hell are you talking about?” Mr. Stout began to reach into his pocket for his walkie talkie.
Travis leaned his butt against the bathroom counter. “Let me guess. You were late for work? Late to meet your mistress? Well,” Travis shrugged. “Whatever it was you were speeding. Sara Beth just wanted to go to school that day.” Travis looked the man in the eye in all seriousness. “The bus has a stop sign for a reason.”
Mr. Stout dropped his walkie in a panic. “How- how did you know? Who are you?”
Travis pushed himself off the counter but didn’t step towards Mr. Stout. “See, she was angry, really angry. You should see her parents too. Well, her dad anyway. Her mom killed herself after her little girl died. Some parents huh?” Travis smiled sadly. “She can’t rest either you know. Not until justice is met.” He looked at the aghast fat man curiously. “But you got out of it somehow? Oh that’s right. Your car was stolen huh? Sure it was.” A letter jacket seemed to form from bits and pieces on Travis’s torso until he wore a full red letter jacket with white sleeves. Where the actual letter for the jacket should have been there was just a piece of torn material.
“B-b-but that was years ago.” Mr. Stout backed towards the door.
“You should see her. She’s a cute little girl. She would’ve grown up to be cute I bet. She says she wanted to be a chemist. What kind of little girl wants to be a chemist?” Travis shook his head. “You should see her.” He repeated.
Mr. Stout began to scream as hundreds of faces that resembled the little girl he hit seemed to fly out from behind Travis. Mr. Stout clawed at his own face trying to get the images away as he screamed. A janitor ran in and banged Mr. Stout’s head with the door.
“Watch out!” Travis called out. “I think he’s having a heart attack.”
The janitor didn’t see Travis smile as he moved to help Mr. Stout.
Travis smiled as he stepped behind the janitor and out the door. “I think it was fatal.”
* * *
Travis watched her as she combed her hair. She had long beautiful hair, just like his girlfriend.
“Yes remember you are my boyfriend.”
Travis nodded. “Yeah yeah, I know. Look at her though.”
“What is there to look at? Some girl who you are paying attention to for some reason. You are my boyfriend, you wear my jacket.”
Travis nodded. “Yeah and I appreciate the whole being alive thing again let me tell you, but…but Erin.”
“Do you think she’s prettier than I am?”
“Of course not Princess. You are the fairest of them all.” Travis smiled to himself.
“So why are we sitting in this tree stalking your ex?”
Travis leaned back into the branches of the tree on the campus of the University of California at Santa Carla. “She was never my girlfriend.” He said longingly. “She was the most popular girl in school. Not to mention the prettiest. At my school that is.” He quickly added.
“Now you’re with the most popular girl in school.”
Travis closed his eyes and grinned. “Yeah that’s right. You’ve got me right.”
“I do.”
He opened his eyes and stared into the sky. The moon was merely a sliver and you couldn’t see any stars because they were in the city. “Is it really her?”
“Those ghosts want justice.”
“But ghosts lie. What if she didn’t…”
“She did. You know she did.”
Travis sat up and looked into Erin’s room. He watched her pick up her gym bag and take dirty clothes out of it. “Killing sorority girls. I guess you can’t kill just one.”
A ghost materialized beside Travis in the tree. The ghost was a girl wearing a UCSC sweat shirt and shorts. She had a thin red ring around her neck. “She killed me. She killed me to cover up when we killed that pledge. Then she killed Ginny and then Kristy. She’ll kill again if she has to.”
Travis leaned back into the tree. “Yeah, yeah, I get ya.” He looked at Erin who was taking off a golden heart shaped locket. “I gave her that locket during my senior year. Her boyfriend didn’t appreciate it.”
“And that is why you are my boyfriend.”
“Yeah that’s right.”
The ghost sorority girl pleaded with Travis. “Please, please, she can’t get away with this!”
Travis nodded. “Yeah I know.” He sat up and began to climb down the tree.
The ghost followed him down. “Please, the necklace, it was the necklace.”
Travis glanced up to the window as the light went out. “Man…that’s a good chain.”
“I wouldn’t expect my boyfriend to buy anything shoddy.”
Travis smiled at one corner of his mouth. “Yeah Princess, only the best for my girls.”
“Let us put an end to this. To her.”
Travis glanced at the ghost who was standing beside him. “All right, get ready to rest…” Travis picked his baseball bat up from where it lay beside the tree trunk.
* * *
Travis lay on the bed with his hands behind his head. His clothes were still on, his usual attire of flannel and worn jeans. His band of choice this week was Nirvana. “Hey.”
“…yes?”
“Why do you scream so much? When its just us sometimes you just start screaming.” He raised his eyebrows. “Especially late at night when I’m trying to sleep.”
“Why is that any of your business?”
“Well like I said, when I’m trying to sleep.”
“Do I bother you about your pain? Do I bother you about your dead ex?”
Travis sat up angrily. “I never dated her!”
“But you wanted to. You wanted her more than you want me. Didn’t you?”
“I didn’t think women were really like that. On TV sure, maybe even some immature teenage girls, but come one, oh wait, I forget.”
“You’re not funny.”
“Hey you aged well for a 64 year old.” Travis suddenly tensed up grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand. “Hey easy, easy.” He relaxed and took a breath. “I think we are both just on edge. I still don’t know who killed you, I don’t even know where you died or what your name is. I’ll find whoever’s responsible and if he isn’t already in the ground we’ll put him there.”
“Like your father?”
Travis nodded. “Yeah.” Travis walked out of the bedroom and stepped over the face down body of the man in the door way. “He beat me all through my life. When I got older I beat back.” Travis smiled proudly. “But…”
“He lied to you. He killed your mother and said she left you. He said she left because of you.”
Travis opened the door to the fridge and grabbed out a bottle of Yuengling. “Yeah.” He popped the top off. “That.” He took a swig of it as he walked into the living room and jumped on the couch. “When I saw my mom though. Out at that old grave I would frequent. I loved playing my guitar out there.” Travis mimed playing his guitar and sang. “I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride.” He took another swig. “Yeah, her grave put me at ease. It wasn’t marked, just a stone. But I guess I knew. I always knew. Shadows. They always seemed alive to me.”
“That’s why you’re my boyfriend.”
Travis took another swig of his beer. “Yeah. That’s why.” He looked up at the ghosts who had been yelling at him about a short guy with a knife. The man, his little boy, and his wife. “Yeah I hear you guys, I hear you.” He drained the last of his drink and walked to the recycle bin outside to drop in the bottle. The wife lay out here with her head bashed into the wall. But in her death clenched fist she held a few strands of blond hair. He glanced at the strands before going back into the living room. He picked up his tire thumper and stood in front of the mirror in the living room. “Show me the short blonde man who stabbed these people to death.”
* * *
Travis carefully reached into the man’s pocket and withdrew his wallet while he was standing in the crowded train station. He slipped back into the crowd and headed outside and into the street. “Well this should keep me fed for at least another day or two.” He thumbed through the wallet and found thirty dollars in cash and a couple of credit cards. “Score! And a gift certificate to Target.”
“You could use some new clothes.”
“Hey I only get my clothes at Wal-Mart. Low prices every day.”
“That explains why your jeans tear so easily.”
“If you had your way I’d probably have my hair greased back and wear a leather jacket everywhere I go.”
The only response Travis got was screaming.
A young man sitting outside of the train station was watching Back to the Future on his laptop. They were at the part with the Enchantment under the sea dance when the band is playing Earth Angel. Travis walked over to the guy and shut his laptop. “Hey don’t. Just don’t all right. You don’t want to know.”
The guy held up his hands in the universal what the hell motion then in the universal go fuck yourself motion. “Fuck off man!”
Travis shook his head. He grabbed the guys lap top and threw it out in the street. “Seriously. Don’t make this worse. She’s in a bad mood as it is.”
The guy ran off after his laptop before a car could hit it and Travis walked in the other direction.
“That’s why you’re my boyfriend.”
“You keep telling me that.” He could feel her tighten her grip just a bit, maybe lovingly, sometimes it was hard to tell with her.
“So where are you going to take me for our date?”
“Well I don’t have much money, but I think I have enough to get us to Las Vegas. Maybe we could honeymoon there? Get married by Elvis?”
“You want to gamble.”
“You’re damn right I want to gamble. I think I’ve earned a little vacation.” He held up his thumb and pointer finger on his right hand. “Just a little one.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of people who deserve it in Vegas.”
“Without a doubt.”
“Then you should buy a shovel.”
“Well.” Travis grinned at the wallet in his hand. “I do have this Target gift card. And I have been needin’ to pick up a few things.” Neither of them spoke for a while as he walked down the street. “So are you ever going to tell me about that song?”
“It was our song. And it played when I was…he was waiting for me. He probably asked them to play that song over and over again so I would enter prom when it was playing. But it just played over and over while I was…”
Travis nodded and didn’t say anything else for a while. “So do you want to watch the Back to the Future Trilogy? I bet I can get it cheap at Target. Boxed sets are pretty cheap.”
If you want to read more about it, check it out at your local library. No wait, go to http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=477822 or http://forums.white-wolf.com/cs/forums/t/14249.aspx