D A Y 9

[founds]

CHAPTER 2

NOV 08TH | 47℉☂

▸ --*CHSKSSS--*-Breaking News! In the light of yesterday's hunt on Black Rock Lake, a body has been found. It has not ye--*CHSKSSS--*-n identified, but has been confirmed to not be either of the missing children.

▸ Another fall storm is roaming through today,--*CHSKSSS--*ed to pick up after dark so stay safe or stay insi--*CHSKSSS--*-

▸ Blackwell's First Methodist Church is holding its annual Thanksgiving food drive from now until Thanksgiving. Donate now! Anything but turkey,--*CHSKSSS--*-pped over on the interstate the other day and donated hundred--*CHSKSSS--*-urkeys to feed people for the holidays. What luck!

▸ Back to our regular--*CHSKSSS--*-uled programming

HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT

Comments

[inheritable]

We're all right. Dad wasn't at the plant when the tree went down, thank God. Uncle Ben looks like he's moving back for good, which is fine by me if not him. Aunt Alex is... Aunt Alex.

[you know aunt alex. she is how she is.]

Y'all doing okay? I assume you must not live on the first floor.

[stacks two cans of pumpkin pie filling on top of each other and passes them off to the desserts table. frowns at another can of green beans, but this one's legit. you may live.]

[ex_vacuous481]

I'm fine. I think Atarah is on another mission out of state, so I haven't spoken to her much these past few days. [ repenting for her sins, yatta yatta. away from cypress, that's all that matters. ] My apartment is lovely. Just had a get together with a few friends that turned out well.

[ for her, anyway. ] It looks like my luck is far better than some others, which is why I'm doing everything I can to make this drive as good as it can be. I'm glad you chose to volunteer. I tried to get Alexis out here but she took a lot of the shifts I chose to pass up to be here.

[inheritable]

Mm-hmm.

[nods and makes appropriate listening noises at the appropriate times. she i listening, too, she just isn't usually this active. cypress is just so together, you know? she acts way more like an adult than uncle ben, even though hailey is pretty sure she's younger. not that hailey doesn't love uncle ben! he's just kind of a kid and that means she can kind of be a kid around him.]

Well. Aunt Alex. She kinda does what she wants, when she wants. Me, I got a lot of free time on my hands all of a sudden.

[not quite true, she just knows less what she wants to do with herself when she does have free time.]

[ex_vacuous481]

You can volunteer! I'm always running something or other and the shelters and food banks always love the helping hands. [ yes, hailey. use all the free time to help the needy and get to know cypress a little better. ] It's a great way to use all that free time of yours when you're in Blackwell. And just wonderful to put on those college applications.

[inheritable]

Yeah... Yeah, I guess I should.

[is it what bela would have wanted? it was the kind of thing she talked about doing, but hailey was never actually sure if she was actually doing it. hailey never got too involved in community stuff at any rate.

makes a face at the mention of college like most 16-year-olds do.]

I can't think about college stuff yet.

[that's not what dad thinks. or mom. both of them have been leaving fliers lying around since she turned 15.]

[ex_vacuous481]

Oh trust me, now is prime time for college stuff. Or you'll end up like me and get behind and end up not going at all. Wouldn't want to do it to Trent, would you? [ she's teasing. cypress smiles at her and nudges her side. ] Do what you want. You're young. That doesn't last forever.

[inheritable]

Ugh...

[gives cypress the best teenage exasperated sigh and eye roll on record. it's really very good.]

You sound like my mom. I just keep thinking of college like it's something that's not gonna happen to me for ages, but it's not. I'm supposed to start getting ready like now. And then I'm just supposed to leave.

[granted, that's not going to be as hard as it would have been a few weeks ago. it's horrible, but it's true. she doesn't even want to be in elkins anymore.]

[ex_vacuous481]

Leaving may not be so bad. You have the whole world to explore, why would you want to stick around in West Virginia? [ cypress has a few reasons. ] Or you could just study at the university in Elkins and stick around. I bet your parents would just love that.

[ there's another smile. she glances down at the can in her hand before stacking it with the other corn cans. ah, corn. ] Or you can stick around here. The cool thing about your life is that it is your life. You get to do whatever you want with it.

[inheritable]

Yeah, I dunno. I guess I got family out in Illinois, too, if it came to that, but I never lived anywhere but here. I dunno. My dad...

[well he'd have his sister, and now his brother too, but it'd still feel like abandoning him a little bit if she left. even though it's what he wants for her.

sets down a can without paying attention to what she's doing, nearly misses and has to catch the stack before it topples and goes everywhere.]

Sorry. Uh. How's the hotel doing? Y'all got power back after the last storm finally?

[ex_vacuous481]

It's fine. [ her dad would just be heartbroken if hailey left, hm? a pity. she helps hailey with her can debacle and watches her curiously before returning to her own task. ] Of course. Hopefully it won't go again with this one. Guests don't really like staying in a dark room.

[inheritable]

I can see why they wouldn't, yeah. The place gives me the creeps.

[more now than it did before, and it definitely did before. now, she doesn't think she'd set foot in it again for love or money. how cypress can stand going to work in a place where someone was so very murdered is a mystery to hailey.]

[ex_vacuous481]

Surprisingly, I think the creepy factor has actually brought more people in than scared them away. [ she's saying it like it's surprising and kind of disgusting rather than how she really feels about it. of course. cypress reaches up to adjust the headband in her hair before her hands return to the cans. ] Which is good for my paycheck but makes me question humanity a bit.

[inheritable]

That's sick.

[not in the teenager way, she means it in the disgusting way. of course before halloween she might've been right there with the other spooky types, but it's a little different when you knew the deceased.]

[ex_vacuous481]

I guess it's the same sort of draw people have with Lost Lake. It can't be helped. [ well, people could stop dying. that would help it. ]

[inheritable]

Lost Lake was ages ago. This is different.

[sets a can down a little too hard again and this time she misses catching the stack of corn before it can topple over. fixes her eyes on the ground as she crouches to pick them up, and definitely not on anyone who may or may not be staring at her.]

[ex_vacuous481]

Hailey...

[ she crouches down beside her, shooting a look at some of the other volunteers. they scramble to help pick up the cans. cypress' hand goes to rest on hailey's back and she coaxes her back up with a don't worry about it, leading her away from the crowd of people giving her strange looks. ]

I didn't mean to upset you, I'm sorry.

[inheritable]

[it's not as bad as school because most of these are old people and she doesn't really care if they talk about her behind her back, but hailey's still cringing as she lets herself be led away from the table by cypress. ]

I'm sorry, Cypress, I keep thinking I got it together.

[mashes at her eyes with her shredded hoodie cuffs.]

[ex_vacuous481]

It hasn't been that long. [ softly, soothingly. cypress reaches forward to pull hailey's hands from her eyes, squeezing them tightly before she darts away momentarily to snatch her purse from the line they were just standing at. she pulls a handkerchief from it, handing the pastel pink over to the distressed girl. ]

What happened was truly a tragedy, Hailey, and no one is going to expect you or anyone even remotely related to what happened to have it together. Don't think anything of it.

[inheritable]

[takes the handkerchief gratefully and dabs a little more gently at her eyes.]

Thanks. I'm sorry. Thanks.

[at some point she needs to stop bursting into tears whenever something makes her think of bela. at some point she hopes everything will stop making her think of bela. ]


I came in here to ask about the turkey. Christ. Sorry.

[this last one is not for cypress but for the building in general, addressed sort of in the direction of the nearest prominent cross.]