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]

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.]