Topic: Sharks In The Deep

Riley ORourke

Date: 2010-07-15 18:25 EST
After waking up, naked, bloody and covered with filthy bits of decaying, rotting Judah Bishop, Riley found herself in Mesteno's bed, lying next to Salvador.? Once her heart started beating again, she screamed and cursed at Sal, finally throwing a flurry of punches at him.? He wisely stepped sideways and disappeared, leaving Riley alone, still naked, and quite confused. She raided Mesteno's closet and stole a shirt before quickly leaving his shack, committing its location to memory of course, and streaking through the streets of Rhy'Din back to WestEnd and the safety of Zen Gardens.

She held it together pretty well - not crying, not sobbing, not breaking down into hysterics - during the trip home.? Once inside the building, she paused at the bottom of the stairs that would lead to the second floor, and peered inside the Bodhi Tree.? Danny was still hard at work, tending to the dinner crowd.? She wanted to run into the cafe and throw herself into his arms, but the place was filled with customers and she didn't want to scare them off, so she ran up the flight of stairs and into 2A instead.

David looked up when the door swung open, opening his mouth to say hi to Riley or Dan, whomever it happened to be.? When he saw Riley coming in covered in what looked like blood and possibly bits of flesh and wearing a man's shirt, the words froze in his mouth and he dropped the glass of juice he'd been holding, not evening hearing the crash when it hit the floor as he ran over to her.? "What happened?" he asked, working to keep some semblance of calm in his voice.

She stumbled and fell into his arms, tripping over an amoeba that had rudely decided to park itself in the middle of her threshold.? She clung to him, smelling strongly of death and fear and evil, and let loose wracking sobs that shook her entire body.? "Oh, god," she keened and buried her face in his chest.

He cradled her against his chest, heedless of the gore splattered all over her.? "Shhh," he whispered, "Shhh.? It's okay."? His first thought was that someone had attacked her on her way home, but he quickly realized that didn't make much sense.? For one, he couldn't imagine an attack affecting her this badly.? For another, the shirt she had on, while unfamiliar, was pretty much clean, so she hadn't taken it from the unfortunate person who dared attack her.

Still clinging to him and sobbing wordlessly, she slowly collapsed to an untidy and extremely unhygienic pile on the floor.? "He was eating the body, just...just gobbling it up like it was a f*cking turkey dinner.? And there were these shadows and f*cking words on their heads and they were talking and oh, god, the screaming."? Her voice was threaded through with panic and hysteria and she was shaking and trembling as if she were in imminent danger of dying of hypothermia.

He knelt down and scooped her up in his arms, carrying her into the bathroom.? Whatever it was that had happened, it had clearly been scary as hell, and he wasn't going to try to get answers out of her now.? He set her carefully in the bathtub and turned the water on, then gently removed the unfamiliar shirt she was wearing.? The shirt got tossed aside before he picked up washcloth and adjusted the water coming out of the faucet to a few degrees below hot.? Then he began to clean the foul mess off of her as tenderly as he could, all the while telling her that it was okay, that she was safe.

His voice, the water, the steady motions of his hands, his scent relaxed her slowly and she unwound by inches, shoulders slumping with relief, sobs and keening tapering off.? She sat forward in the tub, letting him wash her back and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and concentrating on the sensual input, forcing the past six or so hours away, out of her head. After he washed her back clean, he picked up the shampoo and began on her hair, trying to clean the mess out of it without hurting her.? Washing someone else's hair wasn't something he did very often, so he went slowly and carefully.? He didn't stop talking, even when the crying ended.?

Riley ORourke

Date: 2010-07-15 18:30 EST
"I'm sorry," she said softly, eyes still clamped shut, hands gripping the sides of the cast-iron tub with white-knuckled strength.

"For what?" he asked, startled out of his stream of reassurances.?

"For this.? For making you do this."

"It's okay," he assured her.? "It's what people who care do."? He continued washing her hair until it was clean and shining.? It was actually kind of nice, doing that.? When he finished with her hair, he sat back.? "Will you be okay on your own for a minute?" She nodded, eyes still closed, not turning to look at him, though her grip on the sides of the tub slowly relaxed.? She curled up, pulling her knees up under her chin, and wrapped her arms around her legs.

He stood and went back to the kitchen area, pulling out a mug and quickly filling it with water.? He put it in the microwave for a few minutes, then dug out some chamomile tea.? Dan would cringe at the thought of making tea from the microwave, but the kettle was too slow.? He didn't want to leave her alone that long.? When the microwave beeped, he pulled the mug out and prepared the tea quickly, adding a generous dollop of honey.? He carried it back to the bathroom and knelt beside the tub.? "Here," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder and holding the mug in front of her.

She startled when he touched her, pulling away from him quickly with a tiny squeal of fright.? She turned too-wide eyes on him and then offered a quicksilver, contrite smile.? "Thank you," she said softly and took the tea from him, sipping it tentatively.

"Sure," he said softly.? That little jump when he'd touched her was a real indicator of how rattled she was.? Normally, she'd have smelled him coming before he'd even entered the bathroom.? He rubbed her back gently as she sipped the tea, not saying anything else.

She finished the tea and just sat quietly until the water turned cold.? Then she stirred and handed him the empty mug.? "I want to get out now, dry off.? Is there any food in the house?"

He stood, grabbing a towel and holding it out for her.? "Yeah," he said.? "There's some leftovers from the lunch I had with Dan.? I'll go warm it up."?

She pulled the plug from the tub and stood up, dripping water slowly falling into the tub.? She reached for the towel and wrapped it around her body.? Carefully stepping out of the tub, she nodded and stood in the bathroom, looking too pale under the harsh fluorescent lights. He squeezed her arm lightly, then turned and went back to the kitchen to warm up the food.

She dried off, moving slowly like a robot.? Hanging up the towel on the bar, she carefully avoided looking at her own reflection.? She left the bathroom, crossing the loft to the bedroom area on silent bare feet, and went immediately to her closet.

He set the plate of food down on the counter and waited, giving her a few minutes to come out.? If she wasn't out shortly, though, he'd be going in after her. She emerged a few moments later, dressed in an old Penguins away jersey that had the number 77 and the name Gavin on the back, and a pair of loose-fitting black yoga pants.? Still moving as if she were swimming underwater, she headed back to the kitchen and climbed up on the stool and applied herself to her plate, without looking at what she was eating.? He could have fed her Brussels sprouts and fried okra for all the attention she was paying to what she was shovelling in her face.? To her, right now, it was about feeding the machine and nothing else.

He waited quietly while she ate, watching her, but making sure not to stare at her for very long.? He had a feeling it would make her uncomfortable right now.? He really wanted to know what had happened to freak her out this badly, but his instincts, honed through long years on the Force told him to sit tight and wait for her to speak in her own time.

Finally, the plate was as clean as it could be without her picking it up and licking it.? She sat back and looked him in the eyes.? Her face was still too pale, her eyes still too big, but she was no longer shivering or breathing fast and shallow.

"Want some more?" he asked, giving her a soft smile when she looked up at him for the first time.

She shook her head slowly.? "I'm good for now," she replied in a wooden voice.? She sat still for a moment longer and then slid off the stool, standing a little wobbly for a moment before she turned and moved across the loft again to the bedroom area.? She laid down on their bed carefully on her side, facing the huge, floor-to-ceiling windows that looked over the docks and water in the distance.? She grabbed Danny's pillow and hugged it to her chest, lowering her face so that her nose was pressed into it.

He followed her and sat down on the edge of the bed, near her, but not too close.? He knew it was Dan she wanted right now, but the clock told him it was only eight, which meant another half hour or longer before the Cafe was clean and Dan came home.? That meant either going and getting him, or trying to comfort her himself, something he wasn't terribly good at.

Riley ORourke

Date: 2010-07-15 18:35 EST
She was quiet for a long, long time, her face pressed into Danny's pillow, the scent - love, home, safety - of him filling her nose, calming her slowly, her eyes watching the sun slowly sink down to kiss the water at the horizon and then disappear slowly by inches. Once it was gone, and the gloaming had wound its way through the streets of the city, she spoke silently, softly, hesitantly. "Mesteno took the bodies," she began.

"What? Sal's brother? The creepy one?"

She nodded. "He took the bodies to his house. He has a...a morgue or a torture chamber or something underneath it." Her voice was still soft, dreamy, far away. He sat silently, trying to puzzle that one out. It didn't surprise him about the dungeon or whatever under Mesteno's house; the guy set off every cop instinct David had, but him getting the bodies, now that was surprising.

"I was too late to stop them. They'd already started and there was nothing I could do except go along for the ride."

"Started?"

"The...whatever. Ritual, I guess."

He mouth twisted. "Magic," he said, softly and unpleasantly. He was really starting to hate that stuff.

"Magic. Dark, evil, greasy, oily magic, like sharks in the deep and rotten teeth falling out, leaving behind black, oozing gums." She swallowed and took a deep breath, realising she was beginning to feel a bubble of panic again, rising up from her stomach and threatening to ruin the control she'd reasserted over herself. When she spoke again, it was slowly, deliberately. "He was up to his elbow in Judah's chest and then...then the bodies sat up and they started screaming. Oh, god," her voice broke, a noise like a strangled hiccough escaped her throat and she hunched into a smaller ball.

He reached over tentatively and put his hand on her shoulder. "Shhh," he said, just like he had before. "You don't have to talk about it."

"I do. I do have to talk about it, otherwise it'll never get out and it'll fester and grow and then...then...I'll want to go back and watch him do it to someone else. Worse, I'll want to do it."

"No, you'd never," he said firmly.

She stiffened and slid out from under his hand, leaving the bed and Danny's pillow behind. She went to the window and pressed against it, like a trapped moth batting its wings against glass in a fruitless effort to get out into the night sky. "I liked it, David." Her voice was softer, barely above an audible whisper. "The torture, the suffering, the...the power Mesteno had."

"You don't mean that," he said. "You're just freaked out."

She snorted a little laugh, but didn't argue with him. Nor did she turn away from the window. She moved on to a safer, saner topic. "Someone is pulling his strings. Someone has given him the...ability to come back over and over and over."

"Someone?"

She nodded and finally turned to face him. "Eiderdown, the Keeper of the Balance, his lord. That's what he said."

They were just words to David, though. No meaning in the name or the title. "Who's that?"

"I have no idea. It meant something to Salvador."

Of course Sal had been there, too. Seemed like every time something f*cked up happened, he wasn't far off. "Figures," he said. "More mysterious bullsh*t."

She glanced at the clock over David's shoulder and then looked back at him, a darting, sneaky look, like she couldn't bear to meet his eyes. "I have to find out what he meant." He nodded in agreement, watching her. She stood there, silent now, staring off into the middle distance. She couldn't look him in the eyes, couldn't speak to him, couldn't do anything but stand there.

He stood, sighed softly. "I'll go see if Dan's done cleaning up."

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"Forget it," he said, walking to the door. He didn't bother with shoes or a shirt. The residents of this particular building were pretty used to half-naked people walking around at odd hours.

Caramel-brown eyes tracked him as he moved to the door, a slight frown pulling down the corners of her mouth. He was worried about her and she felt guilty for causing him pain, for letting him see her undone, and for wanting more of what she'd seen in Mesteno's basement. He pulled open the door and went out, closing it quietly behind him. She went back to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, bracing her elbows against her knees and pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes, hard enough that she saw a black-on-black kaleidoscope of paisleys dancing across the insides of her closed lids. Danny would be there soon and everything would be okay. She had to believe that.