They whistle through the lonely wind

[longblueshadows]

WHO: Wendla Bergmann, Scotty Wandell
WHERE: Outside the school (building 9)
TIME OF DAY: Afternoon
POST SUMMARY: Wendla and Scotty land in the city.

Comments

[caterwaiter]

After their nostalgic sex romp, Kevin and Scotty don’t say much. He supposes there really isn’t a whole lot to say because they both know this is wrong; Kevin’s got a boyfriend and Scotty’s the problematic ex who can’t keep himself out from between Kevin’s sheets. Just when he thought maybe he’d been getting his life together, cleaning up his act, getting a real job, finding something he loves to do, really starting to like himself in a way he hasn’t really before, he does this. He falls back into bed with the man who makes Scotty feel inferior and small and only sometimes like he should strive to make himself into a better person

[longblueshadows]

Wendla froze when she heard footsteps -- she had wanted so badly to find someone but now that someone was quite possibly coming she was in a panic. What if they wanted to kidnap her, or... or... or what if it wasn't a human at all, but some animal with rabies? What if this really was hell and it was Satan or some monster or something coming to punish her? A slew of irrational thoughts fluttered through her head as she waited, wincing, for what she could only assume was footsteps coming for her. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything at all.

When she saw the man stop in front of her she lept up. She was not going to hug her arms to her body again, that was vulnerable looking, so instead she kept them at her sides, firmly against her thighs, her fists balled. Okay, now what? She needed to figure out this person's intentions -- what they were doing dressed so strangely in this otherwise empty town. "Wer bist du?" she called out, trying to sound confident and at ease, but it was more of a sort of frightened chirp.

[caterwaiter]

...

Scotty stares at her in horror as he feels his stomach sink down to his ankles and a feeling of dread, cold and heavy, seeps through his veins, leaving behind an uncomfortable tingling in their wake. She doesn't speak English. He's trying to rewind in his head and remember what she had said before, what he had heard, but he can't remember; he thought it had been hello, but it was so distant, so swallowed up by the city and by his own panic, that his memory is garbled. Just like her words. Just like the words on the buildings.

Oh God, he's here and no one speaks English.

Okay, breathe, Scotty -- don't be stupid. You get along with the Mexicans at the restaurant and they barely speak English, and you barely speak Spanish. Deep breath -- he takes a breath, and another, and he nearly wonders if he should do some yoga to calm himself down.

"Do you speak English?" he asks, nervously, keeping his hands at his sides too, mimicking her show of defiance.

[longblueshadows]

Wendla didn't move, still staring at him with caution. She willed her hands to stay still at her sides. She took a deep breath to try and look more relaxed but it was futile.

"Yes," she said carefully. So this man didn't speak German -- and he spoke English with an accent that didn't feel like how she was used to hearing it, though she was hardly an expert on accents of any sort. "Who are you?" she repeated in English. Don't fidget. This was becoming... increasingly more strange, and that was saying something. She tried to think of what she would say if he asked her... who she was, how she got here... but she couldn't focus or think ahead. She felt caged into the moment, just waiting with baited breath for his response, not knowing quite what she'd do with it when she got it.

[caterwaiter]

The house looks quaint and homey, or maybe it would've if it weren't so eerily empty with dust in the corners and the unnervingly cold feeling of the absence of people. He lingers in the hallway, looking at the artwork on the walls, as he tries to process first Wendla's question, then an answer to it. "Yeah, you know. Scary movies. Or maybe you don't watch them?" he asks, glancing over at her. "I shouldn't. They make me too paranoid." Especially in situations like this, but he bites his lip at that

[longblueshadows]

Scotty must have misunderstood Wendla's question, but there were more interesting things going on so she let it go.

When Scotty pulled out the newspaper she grinned excitedly -- even if they couldn't read it it was... something, wasn't it? But her expression immediately went blank when Scotty started talking about the date. She felt her heart pick up speed.

Was Scotty out of his mind?

How long had she been... sleeping?

"What do you mean?" she said weakly, not being able to form a more coherent question.

[caterwaiter]

Wendla asks weird questions. Cell phones, movies, dates. He gives her a tired look and points back at the date on the paper. "It says 1986, and that's the only thing here that could be the date, as far as I can tell. It's 2007 now so that's just about 20 years." He rubs his hands over his face and drops them with a sigh, glancing over his shoulder at the living room. "Maybe there's a recent paper in there... Or in one of the stores..."

[longblueshadows]

Wendla wanted to be annoyed with Scotty for talking to her like she was stupid when he was the one that was speaking insanity. Her first thought was that she'd been in... a coma or something, and she even looked at her hands as if to check that she was still the fourteen-year-old girl she had been when she could remember last. She'd felt like she'd lost time, hadn't she? But no, her brain was starting to jolt forward from being unable to comprehend to seeming to run a mile a minute, like her heart. "No, it's not," Wendla whispered, still completely shaken. "It's impossible. I'd be dead."

She grabbed the paper off the desk, staring at the date and paging through it as though she expected some sort of explanation -- as if Scotty hadn't just confirmed what it suggested. 1986? 2007? The years meant nothing to her, either way -- just some far-off idea. Something she never would've known or had to worry about. She half expected Scotty to go just kidding, just trying to lighten the mood, but she looked back at him and he looked completely