experimental weirdness, part 5
Title: I said last time that I would title it whatever song I was listening to at the time, which happens to be 'An End Has a Start' by Editors
So let's do this again.
Title: An End Has a Start
Rating: Rish?
A/N: this one didn't flow as nicely, and I'm not that happy with the first half, but I only have two more days before I go back to school (ugh), so I wanted to post it now. Enjoy?
part one
part two
part three
part four
“You know,” Seth drawled, leaning against the wall as the guy skidded across the floor, “I don’t think that’s the answer he was looking for.”
“I told you,” the man said shakily, trying to stand up and back away at the same time. “I don’t know.”
Ryan looked over at him and he nodded.
“See,” Seth said as Ryan moved forward and grabbed the guy’s collar, “we think you do. Maybe if my good buddy Ryan here punches you some more, you’ll remember back… oh, say three years, when you met up with a demon in Toronto?”
“Toronto?” the guy said, “I don’t…” Ryan sighed and shook the guy, hard. “Right! Toronto. I remember now.”
“Damnit,” Ryan sighed, letting the guy drop to the floor.
“Good,” Seth said, moving forward now that Ryan’s part was done. “Now, this demon, he didn’t happen to have glowy red eyes, did he?”
“Red? No, his eyes were like, black,” the man said. “Really creepy.”
“But the deal you made,” Ryan cut in. “Was if you killed a pregnant woman for him, he’d make you all high-powered and whatnot.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the man said, backing up a bit more. “But his eyes weren’t red… I swear to God, I’m not lying.”
“I don’t think you get to ‘swear to God’ anymore after you make a pact with a demon, buddy,” Seth sighed.
“This woman, why did he want her baby?” Ryan cut in, glaring at Seth.
“Her baby?” the man asked. “He didn’t… the woman was some kind of monster hunter and she’d been on his ass. He just wanted her dead.”
Ryan groaned and turned to Seth. “So this isn’t about the baby. We drove halfway across the country for nothing.”
The man was still backing up and Seth rolled his eyes. “Dude, I’d run now before Ryan decides to beat on you some more.”
…
Ryan sighed and shifted, trying to ignore the stupid metal spring poking into his side.
After nearly four years of sleeping on the pool house bed, he’d been spoiled, apparently. He’d forgotten what a crappy spring mattress could feel like. He shifted again and in the dark, he could see Seth on the other motel bed, snoring.
Seth could sleep through anything.
Even if he had a comfortable bed, Ryan decided, he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Hadn’t been able to… well, since Sandy and Kirsten were killed. But after the vampire hunt and his subsequent spiral into supernatural hell, he was even worse at it.
Shit, these past six months had been a blur.
The planning, the research, selling the house, starting their demon tour of North America. When he closed his eyes and tried to remember what had happened where, in what order, he could never remember.
Did they sell the house before or after he’d broken up with Taylor? Had he fought the werewolf in San Diego or San Jose?
Names, dates, places; they all blurred together.
What use did he have for them? He’d spent the last six months on the road, living off vending machine food and sleeping in cheap motel beds, trying to get information from demons and ghosts and vampires and the scum of humanity that went with it.
But this red eyed demon was like looking for an evil needle in an evil haystack. So far they’d only come across one sighting - in Chicago, thirteen years back, where another woman’s womb had been torn open and…
Thirteen years and no news of this thing.
Seth’s new theory was that it was some sort of monster that fed every thirteen years on an unborn child.
Whatever, that was fine. Seth could have all the theories he wanted, if that helped him sleep better at night. Ryan just wanted to find the damn thing and kill it.
Maybe then he could actually have his life back.
…
“Why are we here?” Ryan grunted, shifting on the bar stool.
Seth sighed. Ryan was always so grumpy. Not that he hadn’t been before… but he’d been getting so much better after Marissa’s death. He’d been joking and laughing again - actually, laughing a lot more than when he was with Marissa. But still. He’d been getting better and Seth hated seeing him back in… well, Chino guilt mode.
“Business,” Seth said.
“In a bar?” Ryan asked. Not that he seemed to be complaining, what with the way he was knocking back shots of whisky and all.
“It’s a hunter bar. Like, hunters come here to talk and share info. I figured we could find something here.”
Ryan nodded and stared intently at his shot glass before downing the thing. Seth made a face; he wasn’t that fond of alcohol and he really had to resist the urge to ask the bartender if maybe he had a Yoo-hoo back there.
God, he’d kill for a Yoo-hoo.
Well, apparently he’d kill for a lot of things, but he could really go for a nice, cold Yoo-hoo right now.
“Beer,” some guy said as he and another guy sat at the bar next to Seth. Seth watched them - obviously hunters - and when they noticed him, the shorter one looked at him funny. “Gotta problem?”
“No,” Seth backtracked, trying to placate the guy. Especially since Ryan had heard him and was getting all tense and twitchy. “You hunters?”
“Yeah,” the short one grunted again. “What’s it to you?”
“Nothing,” Seth backtracked again. “But we were hoping to get some help. Information, you know.”
The shorter one gave him a skeptical look. “Aren’t you a little… scrawny to be a hunter?”
“Dean,” the taller one hissed. “Sorry about him.”
“No,” Seth waved his hands. “It’s cool; I’m scrawny. I’m the research and development part of the operation. Ryan here’s the enforcer.” Next to him, Ryan gave the other two a once over before giving a brief nod.
“So we were wondering,” Seth said, turning back to the pair, “have you guys heard anything about a demon with red eyes? Or anything with red eyes, really. We don’t know if it’s actually a demon…”
“Red eyes?” the taller one said. “Not that I can think of.”
“Damn,” Seth muttered.
“Why?” the shorter one asked.
They all flinched when Ryan slammed his shot glass down on the bar and stood up.
“Because it killed our parents. I’m going, Seth, this is pointless.”
Seth watched his brother stalk out of the bar and sighed.
“Sorry,” he apologized to the other two. The shorter one looked less scary now and the taller one looked like he was about to apologize himself. “Thanks for the… well, not really help, but the attempted help. Bye.”
He grabbed his jacket and raced after Ryan.
…
Ryan sighed and leaned against the Rover and watched the meter on the gas pump run.
It was hot as hell out and he wished the gas station had a shade over the pumps. Wasn’t Rhode Island supposed to be cold? Sure, it was only September, but still. He thought Rhode Island was supposed to be cold.
They shouldn’t be in Rhode Island anyway.
Seth had some inside information that someone knew the red-eyed demon out here, but Ryan knew that was bullshit.
Seth was keeping something from him.
He was a suck liar; Ryan could always tell when he was lying. But a couple days ago, Seth had gotten a phone call and said he’d gotten some ‘inside information’ about a red-eyed demon up in Rhode Island. And it wasn’t just that Seth was a suck liar, but the fact that he hadn’t been able to elaborate on the information had tipped Ryan off.
People saw red-eyed demons all the time; mostly it turned out to be a cat or something, whose eyes had reflected red light. They’d stopped taking off after every ‘red-eyed demon’ sighting months ago.
Whatever. He knew this was something else. And even if it wasn’t her, the fact that she was here definitely tipped the scales.
Summer.
Not that she knew they were coming. He’d offered to call her, but Seth had said no.
He was totally over her.
Apparently.
Whatever, Ryan would let him have his ‘dignity’. Or something like that.
Ever since Summer had left, nearly seven months ago, Seth had been pretending he was totally ok. Like he didn’t care that the love of his life had walked out on him and thought he was insane.
And then he gets word that someone all the way across the country may have information on the demon and trekking out here has nothing to do with her.
Bullshit.
“Hey,” Seth came out of the gas station shop, “I bought you some Fritos.”
“Thanks,” he said, catching the bag Seth threw at him.
…
Seth stole a quick glance over at his brother.
Ryan was driving, which meant they were listening to Journey, again.
Seth had an entire iPod’s worth of music and Ryan had a grand total of five CDs.
Two of which were Journey.
But driver chose the music, passenger shut the hell up.
And he wasn’t about to complain, because Ryan was extra cranky today. Actually, he’d been extra cranky ever since they’d crossed the border into Rhode Island, and Seth had a sneaking suspicion that Ryan knew he was lying about the demon.
There was no demon.
Not here, at least. But he couldn’t tell Ryan that. He couldn’t tell Ryan the real reason; the phone call he’d gotten a week ago.
He just had to do this and Ryan would never have to know.
…
She sighed and checked the time on her cell again.
Seth was late.
Like, she knew he usually was, but this was important, and she was getting antsy.
And pacing her apartment wasn’t helping. It was a small apartment and she just didn’t have the room to pace.
Her dad had decided to get her an apartment this semester, so she didn’t fall into the wrong crowd again, like she had last year. That had been a disaster.
There was a knock on her door and she stood abruptly, heart beating wildly. She hadn’t seen Seth in so long…
“Hey,” she said, quite calmly, thank you very much. But when she really caught a glimpse of him, she flinched because for a second, she didn’t even recognize him.
He wasn’t in his normal sweater vest and cords, clean shaven and bright. He was in ragged jeans and a simple tee, sans witty quote or band logo, and it looked like he hadn’t shaven in days.
“Hey,” he said back, voice a little rougher than she was used to, and came in when she stepped aside.
“Wow, long time no see,” she tried to laugh, shutting the door behind him.
He turned to face her, eyes hard and completely serious.
“You said this was important,” he reminded her.
“Yeah,” she said, suddenly nervous. She wasn’t sure whether about the situation or this new Seth.
“So what’s going on, Anna?”
…
“So I guess we’ll start at the beginning,” she said once they were comfortably seated in the diner down the street.
She’d been oddly put off by this new Seth and for the first time since she’d met him, she was nervous to be alone with him.
And not in a good way.
“Beginning’s usually good,” he said.
“Drinks?” the waitress said, cutting off her story.
“Coke,” she said, not even looking at the menu. Seth did, scanning the drink section, and she saw him smile.
“I’ll have chocolate milk,” he said and she giggled; half in humor, half in relief. He was still Seth, somewhere in there. “So the beginning,” he prompted once the waitress left.
“I’m a witch,” she said, deciding to get the worst out of the way as soon as possible. “Not like an evil curse-y witch,” she continued quickly, seeing Seth’s raised eyebrow. “Like, my mom is, too. Most of the women in my family are, it’s kind of a tradition. We’re not powerful or anything and we don’t do anything big; mostly protection charms and minor spells and stuff. We try to help people.”
“Um,” Seth said, crinkling his forehead in confusion. “How did I not know about this? We dated for months.”
“Yeah, it was more like one month and you were focused on Summer the whole time; which, by the way, we have Sociology together.” She tried to gauge his reaction, but he kept his face carefully controlled. “Plus,” she sighed, getting back on topic, “it’s not the kind of thing you just… announce to people. My mom didn’t tell my dad until after he proposed.”
“Right,” Seth said, looking a little pale.
“So anyway, last year I was a little freaked out that I’d have no friends, so I joined this magic group here on campus. I thought it’d just be like… people messing around and stuff, but they were real. It got kind of bad for a while, but I got out of there.”
“Are they after you?” Seth asked, leaning forward.
“No, no,” she said, shaking her head. “But I did learn some powerful stuff in there, and I thought, why not use it to help people? So this woman finds me and tells me she thinks her daughter’s under a love spell. Turns out, the daughter was, and I lifted it, no problem. But what I didn’t realize was the guy who put the love spell on her was a demon.”
“And now he’s pissed,” Seth guessed and she nodded.
“I’ve managed to keep him away, but… Seth, I just don’t have the mojo to go fighting him. And then one day in Sociology, Summer was telling me about your… breakup, and oh my god, I forgot. I’m so sorry about your parents, Seth. You got my card, right?”
“I got your card,” he said, suddenly tense, so she decided to move on.
“Anyway, Summer was telling me how you’d started to like… think you could hunt vampires and how Ryan believed you, and I figured… why not give it a shot? I thought if you guys hunted demons, you could help me.”
“We don’t,” he said quietly. “Hunt stuff, I mean. Ryan’s very specific about that, which is why he can’t know about this.”
“Then what…” she started.
“We only go after stuff that might have information about the demon that killed my parents. We don’t hunt anything else.”
“Oh.”
“But it’s you, so I told him someone out here might have information. I’m not sure he believed me, but I don’t care.”
“Thanks, Seth,” she said, smiling slightly. “And in case you were curious? Summer’s ok.”
“I didn’t…”
“But you’re thinking it. She’s ok, Seth. I mean, she’s definitely messed up about the breakup, but she’s healthy. She’s doing good in school, she has some new friends. She’s doing ok.”
Seth didn’t say anything and she didn’t push, and the waitress finally brought them their drinks