experimental weirdness, part 9
Title: An End Has a Start
Rating: R
A/N: so... I never meant for this story to be this long, but it just keeps going. I hope that's ok.
A/N 2: all info comes from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is my god.
A/N 3: I've been waiting to use this icon for like... forever.
I don't feel like listing the other parts, so just follow the tags.
This was not ok.
This was… just so not ok.
Her current boyfriend was talking to her ex-boyfriend.
Her ex-boyfriend, whom she had loved, who had crushed her and left her to go traipsing around the country hunting demons.
She’d been working in this room for a year and a half, but it had never felt this small before.
Ryan.
Parker.
Seth.
Her.
It wasn’t the people filling the room. It was the baggage.
“So then Ryan cuts the thing’s head off and it starts spewing blood everywhere,” Seth grinned, leaning forward, like that would make Parker hear him better. “And we’re heading out of the building and who do we run into? The little old lady from the Inn. And she sees us, just like, drenched in blood and she starts freaking out.” Parker started laughing. He looked like he was having the time of his life, and it made Taylor a little nauseous. She knew he’d wanted to be a hunter, but this was just…
He was getting along way too well with Seth.
“Did she call the cops?” Parker asked, glancing at Ryan, who was glaring at the wall.
“I dunno,” Seth shrugged. “We ran, made it to the Inn, grabbed our stuff, and got the hell out of town. Who knows? The FBI could have bad artist renditions of us up on their wall for all I know. I just hope she didn’t give them a description of what I was wearing, cause that was back when I was still experimenting with hunting outfits.”
“Oh god,” Ryan spoke, finally, letting out a pained groan. “I forgot about that.”
“Hunting outfits?” Parker asked.
“Yeah,” Seth nodded, like it was no big deal. “You know, I wanted to see what worked best when hunting. Little tip: lycra? Not so much.”
“Lycra?” Taylor cut in, speaking for the first time as well. “You wore… lycra to go hunting? You know what, scratch that, you wore lycra in general?”
“Oh god,” Ryan groaned again, shutting his eyes tight. “Stop saying it, I’m trying to block it out.”
She found herself smiling and wondered if maybe this would get better. Like… maybe she could just forget everything that had happened and try to be ok until Ryan and Seth left. And the way her heart tightened painfully when she thought about them leaving wasn’t unsettling at all.
Not at all.
At least when they left, she wouldn’t have to do this research anymore.
She wasn’t sure why she’d been doing it in the first place, but she’d come to Georgetown… because they had a good International Business program.
Not because she’d heard about this library.
Of course not.
That would be crazy.
Looking back, it seemed so stupid. Of course when Ryan and Seth disappeared, she knew, on some level, what they were doing. She just wasn’t sure why she’d done a year and a half of research when she had no reason to think she’d ever see them again.
God, she really was insane.
…
“So what’re you guys looking for?” Parker asked, leaning against one of the shelves.
“Demon,” Ryan grunted, not looking up from his book.
Parker frowned.
He wasn’t sure what Ryan’s deal was, but the guy never talked. And if he did, it was always one word answers and grunts. Plus, Parker was getting a seriously hostile vibe from the guy. He wasn’t sure what that was about.
“Well,” he said, wanting to help so Ryan would like him, “if you wanna know about demons, ask Taylor. That’s what she’s been researching. She knows this place better than I do.”
Ryan didn’t say anything, but Seth had looked up with a really weird expression on his face.
“Thanks, man. We’ll ask her next time she’s here.”
“Oh,” Parker said, frowning deeper. “Didn’t I tell you? You’ll have to call her or something, cause she said she wasn’t gonna come here anymore until you guys left. Said she didn’t want to be in your way.”
“Oh,” Seth nodded, eyes going quickly to Ryan, then back to him. “Could you like… call her for us?”
…
Taylor glared at herself in the mirror as she picked up her purse.
Damn it.
Parker had called her ten minutes ago and asked her to come down and see if she could help Seth and Ryan with their research. But she’d told him she had plans with Claire tonight, so no, she couldn’t.
She didn’t have plans with Claire.
She just couldn’t be in the same room with Ryan anymore.
If she spent any more time enclosed in a small room with him, she’d end up punching him.
Or kissing him.
Which was not good.
Hot and incredibly satisfying, yes, but totally not good.
But then Seth had called a few minutes later and god, he was just being so pathetic and then he played the dead parents card and here she was, on her way to the library.
The entire way down, she tried to walk as slowly as possible. She tried to make herself not go, but damnit, Seth had talked about Sandy and Kirsten. She knew he’d done it just to make her feel bad, but it worked.
She’d loved Sandy and Kirsten.
They were the only adults that had ever accepted her.
Her teachers had only liked her because she did all her homework, Dean Hess had only liked her because she gave him orgasms, Julie had only found her vaguely amusing, and her own mother… well, she wouldn’t go there right now.
But Sandy and Kirsten had invited her to dinner and talked to her and laughed with her.
They’d smiled at her.
They were the reason she was finally at the library, taking a deep breath before heading down the flight of stairs into the basement portion.
The part no one really knew was there, unless you really looked for it.
Ryan, Seth, and Parker were in the research room and she forced herself to go in.
Parker smiled at her, Seth gave her a half-apologetic look, and Ryan leaned against the far bookshelf and glared at the wall.
God, he even leaned hot.
“Alright,” she said, setting her purse down and sitting across from Seth. “What’s up?”
“Parker told us you knew a lot about demons,” Seth said, smiling like he knew something. “We were wondering if maybe you could help us find our demon. You know. Since you know so much about demons.”
She wanted to slap the bastard, but Parker was in the room.
“Alright,” she said, glaring when Parker wasn’t looking, “tell me about your demon.”
Seth smirked.
She already knew about their demon, but they were going to keep playing this game, apparently.
“We don’t have much info. Dressed in black, hooded, glowy red eyes.”
“I thought demons had black eyes,” Parker said and she sighed.
“Hey,” she turned to him and smiled as sweetly as she could. “I was supposed to go to dinner with Claire, and I didn’t eat anything. Do you think you could go get me something while I try to help Seth?”
“Sure, babe,” Parker shrugged, leaning down to kiss her. It felt awkward with Seth staring at them and Ryan being Mr. Ultra-tense in the corner. “I’ll hit the diner. Want your usual?”
“Yeah,” she said, nodding and trying to keep her smile.
She hadn’t realized she’d been dating Parker longer than she’d dated Ryan.
She hadn’t realized she had a ‘usual’ with him.
She hadn’t realized she’d been floating through this relationship for almost a year.
“Taylor?” Seth said and she snapped out of her daze. Parker had gone, so she turned to face Seth.
“Alright, I’ve been through a lot of these books, and honestly? I haven’t found any demon with red eyes mentioned. Well, I have, but he was exorcised a long time ago and he killed warriors, not… well, he didn’t fit the MO.”
“But… what the hell?” Seth groaned, leaning back in his chair. “How can there be nothing?”
“Are you sure you saw that?” she asked. “I’m not calling you a liar or anything, but you were under stress that night and… are you sure?”
“Yes,” he said, but she saw the lie. He wasn’t sure at all; he’d probably been doubting himself for a while.
She let it go, because Ryan had turned to look at them and Seth was avoiding his eyes.
He didn’t want Ryan to know he wasn’t sure.
“Well,” she said. “Maybe it wasn’t a demon. Maybe it was some other kind of monster. Something that has red glowy eyes and kills…” she trailed off and looked at the table.
“Babies, Taylor, you can say it,” Ryan said. “It’s been a year and a half, you can say it.”
“Fine,” she said, trying not to glare at him. “Maybe it’s something that that kills and possibly eats babies and fetuses.”
Seth flinched.
“Look, if you still think it’s a demon, I, like, took notes and stuff, but I didn’t bring it with me.”
…
Ryan stared up at the ceiling and tried to ignore Seth’s snoring.
It had been a long day.
They’d gone back to Taylor’s place to get her notes and he’d been thrilled to learn that she was living with Parker.
She hadn’t said anything, but Parker had been all too willing to explain that she’d hated her dorm mate and he’d offered his spare bedroom to her. This was before they’d started dating, apparently.
He didn’t want to even think about where she was sleeping now that they were dating.
He’d always had problems with his ex’s dating other guys.
He’d hated Eddie… well, he was hitting Theresa, so that was valid. And whenever Marissa started dating someone new… although she tended to make bad decisions, too. He’d always been a jealous guy, it made sense that it wouldn’t be any different with Taylor.
He sighed and closed his eyes and willed himself to fall asleep.
…
Seth closed the book he was reading and looked up at his brother.
He looked like hell.
Well, he kind of got that. Seeing Summer had complete destroyed him, so he kinda got why Ryan was so broody. Like, extra-broody. Plus, Ryan wasn’t a research guy. He was the killing guy.
Seth was pretty sure that killing things was the only way Ryan could forget his guilt, even for a couple minutes.
So the fact that they hadn’t killed anything for almost two months was probably wearing on him.
“Alright,” Seth said, making Ryan look up. “I found something.”
“Yeah?” Ryan asked, rubbing his hand over his face.
“There’s a ghost-type thing called ‘La Llorona’, which is like, Spanish for ‘the weeping woman’. It’s like, a Mexican legend. Apparently it’s a woman who killed her children, or something like that. Some of the legends say she kidnaps children.”
“Kidnaps,” Ryan clarified. “She can’t kidnap a fetus, it makes no sense.”
“Yeah,” Seth sighed. “It was a long shot. Apparently these things just cry a lot, not so much with the kidnapping, even. Kind of like a more emo version of a woman in white.”
Ryan snorted and Seth tried to glare.
He’d made one mistake, and Ryan wouldn’t let it go.
They hadn’t been familiar with the supernatural for long. He didn’t know the woman was a ghost.
And in his defense, she was hot.
But that was totally the last time he ever went home with a woman who was that pale. He probably should’ve realized something was off when she asked him, not Ryan, to come home with him in that creepy voice.
“Ok, so did you find anything?” he asked, wanting to wipe the smirk off Ryan’s face. Ryan picked up the piece of paper they’d been taking notes on and sighed.
“There’s this Abyzou thing, which is apparently a demon woman. Uh, there’re legends from all over Europe about this thing. She was blamed for miscarriages and infant mortality out of jealousy because she’s infertile.”
“Ooh, good one,” Seth said, reaching over to grab the paper from him. “Maybe that’s why we haven’t had more reports on this thing. We’ve been looking for something that kills fetuses only. We didn’t look for something that kills children. And maybe when she ‘causes miscarriages’ she doesn’t only do what she did to…”
Ryan looked up at him and he didn’t finish his sentence.
…
Taylor took a deep breath and knocked on the motel door.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“No,” Taylor said through her clenched teeth.
The door opened and Seth’s mouth dropped open.
“Summer, what are you doing here?” Ryan asked, coming up behind his brother.
“I called her,” Taylor said.
“Why?”
“I’m doing what you should’ve let happen months ago,” she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him from the room.
“Seth doesn’t wanna talk to her,” he hissed
“He may not want to, but he needs to, Ryan. Summer’s still in love with him and you can’t tell me he’s not still in love with her. I called her to let her know you guys were alive and she decided to come out.”
“Fine,” he said, looking over his shoulder at the motel room. Summer had shut the door after she’d gone inside. “So I’m supposed to sit here until they work things out? That could take hours.”
“Well, deal,” she said. “Don’t interrupt them.”
“Wait, you’re leaving?” he asked when she started to walk away.
“Yes, Ryan,” she sighed, turning back to face him. “Haven’t you noticed how much I’ve been avoiding you? It’s not like I’m being subtle about it.”
“What, so we’re not even trying the friends thing?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“We’re not friends, Ryan. I mean… we were never really friends. We were barely acquaintances and then we were making out in closets. There wasn’t really an in-between.” She looked back at the motel room, but she couldn’t even see Seth or Summer through the window. “I can be civil with you, but I don’t think we’ll ever be friends.”
“Yeah,” he said.
She turned around and walked back to her car.