(Skeleton Keys) The Enemy

Aug 26th, 2014 08:53 AM

Give me hope in silence
It's easier; It's kinder
Tell me not of heartbreak
It plagues my soul, plagues my soul

Water drips from David's hair as he finally comes into the courtyard of Cedar Fields. His near-ruined clothes stick to his beanpole frame and his movements and motions are stilted as though the Mortician moves solely on autopilot. It's all he can do from simply sitting down and waiting for sunrise. David barely acknowledges Emma on the journey, making a long walk even longer. For the Shadow, the walk is like the walk down Death Row. The storm of sorrow that eats away at David's soul is unbearable; he knows what it is to die.

David looks the way he feels.

Flashes of memory lance through David's thoughts all the while: Aïleen's whispers, her smile, her voice. David holds to them jealously, unwilling to simply let her go.

Water oozes out of David's shoes, making low sucking noises with each step. Heavy, exhausted, and hungry, he isn't sure how he made it to the front door let alone ring the bell. Just after, his legs give out beneath him and though David braces himself against the door, he still comes to a crumpled heap.

“Please come back to me,” David whispers to a world that won't grant his wish, his hand flat against the front door and his head leaning against his hand.

I have no hope
In solitude
Mumford and Sons - The Enemy

Mentions: Chrisie Wolven Pryde Psychangel

**Martha Villiers** · Aug 26th, 2014 02:26 PM

Blissfully unaware of the terror and horror that has unfolded tonight, Martha makes her way to the door to answer the bell.

Opening it it takes a few moments for her to make sense of the sight she's faced with.

The water... The rank smell of smoke and ash... She blinks.

"D...David...?" she asks, wondering at his wellbeing and reaching down to hold him up, she struggles to pick him up. Her C-leg creaking at the unfamiliar extra mass.

"You'd best come inside...here, let me help you." she offers. Wondering at what had brought him to such a sodden and miserable state, she looks about to assess any dangers before taking David carefully inside.

Aug 26th, 2014 03:10 PM

In a thin, reedy voice that is hoarse from too much screaming, David replies lamely, “She's gone.” The Libitinarius attempts to get up on his feet, but it's hard going. His feet are uncoordinated in his state of despondency. “Aïleen is gone,” he repeats, clearer this time and confirming the worst fears from earlier in that evening.

A quick overview reveals that physically, David is fine.

“How can I live without my life; without my soul?” The Mekhet asks Martha abridging the Heathcliff monologue in a single, strangled line. If the Grand Wyrm didn't know about them, she might now.

“I couldn't save her,” David says faintly, a litany of his own failings said more for his own hearing than Martha's, “I couldn't get to her in time. I couldn't catch her killer. I couldn't rescue her remains.” David steps inside with Martha's help but he hasn't seemed to register that the rain has stopped over his head.

**Emma French** · Aug 27th, 2014 08:00 PM

Emma quietly follows David through the door. His grief was so obviously overwhelming he didn't seem to know she was behind him. Emma's shoulder hurt to move it much, most likely a bruise and pulled muscle. She felt bedraggled and a failure. The what if's were running in her mind. She longed for a hot shower and would head into the locker room the first chance she got. "We were a few seconds too late. Time was against us." She said quietly.

**Dillon Connery** · Aug 27th, 2014 08:41 PM

Dillon is there, not long after Martha. He signals her with a settling hand on her back, and takes the burden of David from her if the man takes any time to adequately find his footing. His gaze shoots across to Emma, worried, and silently checking her for any damage.

The expression on the Gangrel's face tightens in sudden grief at both the revelation of Aïleen's destruction, and her apparent connection to Regan, which he had not known about.

It's a punch to the stomach. Far more than the Beast's lurch at Emma, when it senses hers. By now, she's so familiar to him that it's really just going through the motions for the sake of posterity. Dillon had gotten quite used to Aïleen's quiet presence on the fringes of Court and in Elysium. She'd visited him at Moore house only very recently, and he thought they were forming a friendship. At the very least, he'd wanted her to know that she could count on his support.

But where had that support been, tonight?

Raging over Francesco Giovanni, and that he'd put his filthy hands on Martha Villiers.

This news has sucked all the cool, murderous fury out of him. For the moment. He knows once the second stage of loss takes hold, it will be frightfully easy to kill again. And yet, the knowledge of that fact does nothing to ward against it.

Guiding them all inside, he remains silent. Not really knowing what to say.

Dillon is Emma's Priscus. He's the Reeve and protector of The Law for all of them. He's a Sanctified Bishop that is supposed to be a resource for spiritual guidance for those that seek it. But right now, he feels very much unlike any of those things.

Right now, he feels very weary.

"I'm sorry," he says, weakly. When Dillon's husky voice is 'weak', it just comes out as a hoarse little scratch.

He reaches out and offers Emma a reassuring grasp as she passes, giving her arm or hand a simple squeeze before letting her go do whatever it is she's going to do.

**Wolven Pryde** · Aug 27th, 2014 09:07 PM

Kacey swiftly brings up the rear, still barefoot and clad in ill-fitting scrubs. Her now mostly-blonde hair, with much of the orange streak having been washed out, is returned to a ponytail. At the news, even though she has no idea who they're speaking of, the little Daeva's hands fly to her mouth to cover a small gasp of horror. Her brow pinches in a wad of grief. And it's not hard to see that, if the Blush of Life had not long ago faded, her eyes might be tearing up.

It's awful. This seems to be a night of death and violence. It only compounds the loss of half of her own Coterie and their entire herd, earlier.

She also feels a profound sense of shame, that she'd ever been tempted to blame Sacramento for the hardships they'd stumbled into. As though the Domain were a bear trap, waiting for ignorant neonates to stumble into.

No, Sacramento itself hasn't laid out pits for outsiders to fall to. If its own Herald and Sheriff can be disturbed by such events, then it's clearly no malicious intent on their part.

But given what she's been led to believe about Domain hierarchy, and the terrifyingly dark demeanor of the big handsome Gangrel when he arrived, Kacey doesn't risk offering any verbal condolences.

She does the only thing on her plate that feels safe: She follows Emma.

**Emma French** · Aug 28th, 2014 09:40 AM

Emma pulls herself together in the shower. She needs to pull on her inner strength. When she saw Kacey's face she knew she needed to pull it together if only for her sake. And the fact that her beast didn't even pull at Dillon's meant she was really spent. Francesco was in a drawer, Aileen was dead and missing. Martha had been attacked. The mess at the ball field. Her own failure to catch the mad woman on the motorcycle. Uggg. She pushed herself hard to put it all in a box. Her family needed her. Emma examined the very dark bruise on her shoulder. Then a thought hit her. She needed to try and remember what the motorcycle woman looked like. Could it have been the woman who controlled Francesco? "Kacey, can you grab me a towel and let Dillon know I may have an idea?" Lets hope this helps some. Maybe if she can get everyone to focus on solving the issue they can work through their grief later.

**Martha Villiers** · Aug 28th, 2014 12:17 PM

Martha is glad Kacey and Dillon are there. She helps David to a sofa and rests him down and begins to take off his shoes and socks.

"I shall need some dry clothes and towels too, please." she quietly asks Emma and Kacey before they make their way to the shower area.

"I am sorry, David. Truly, I am. I too held Aileen in deep affection. We shall help you recover her remains." she nodded to Dillon. Clearly this was the least she could offer right now.

Martha looks to Dillon. Still trying to stroke David's hair to offer what pitiful comfort she can;

"Sir, please... I suspect we'll need to find out from Emma if there's still a lethal threat present. I would love to allow Emma time to gather her thoughts, but if Aileen is dead... Who, or what, slew her? Is the threat coming this way and do we need to warn anyone else or gather reinforcements? Does she think the Prince the next target?"

She pouts as she regrets allowing Emma time to head out towards the shower area.

Lifting David's head, she tries to gently place a pillow under his head for him to rest and wonders what lullabies he might need.

Aug 28th, 2014 01:46 PM

As Dillon gingerly takes David off of Martha's hands, David's Companion urges the Man to run. It expresses to David that they didn't survive a murderess on a motorcycle or a fire in their vision to be destroyed by the angry, snarling Cerberus that is helping them stand. It's a trap it tries to say, but there's no energy left in it to even attempt to run. The Man secretly hopes that it is a trap.

The Reeve's apology washes over the Mortician that is only caught in the fringes of his stricken mind.

David doesn't fight them when Martha and Dillon sit him on a sofa. He doesn't fight them as Martha removes David's socks and shoes with a wet, heavy, sodden noise. The Mekhet stares straight ahead as he attempts to answer Martha's question, “It was planned.” Scratchy voice and all, he tries to explain, “Thralls waited, like the colorless shades in the Underworld. One led Aïleen to her doom; he ran past us after burying our way to her beneath pipes.”

Another pause, “Oh god, the sound I heard as Aïleen hit the floor; like Eurydice after being bitten by a snake.” David shudders a little beneath Martha's hand, as though a sob would have wracked his body. “I should have run faster. I should have sent a message. I should have done something else. Emma, turned into a Mountain Lion and tried to tear down a door... but, it was too late. Aïleen's head ...” David trails off here, everything else is just flashes, “Boots. A woman. A motorcycle.”

“Then Fire.”

**Emma French** · Aug 28th, 2014 04:10 PM

Emma took a very quick shower. When she was done she came out to the waiting area with the others. "Thank you for giving a moment to gather myself." Emma said politely. "Where would you like me to begin? This night has been rather eventful and long, however I am sure you both need a report on everything which has happened." Emma's voice had a trace of exhaustion to it but she felt revived from the shower.

(Skeleton Keys) The Enemy

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