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Post by GABRIEL DOBREV on Aug 26, 2016 13:54:34 GMT -6
Oh... where the hell is he now? Tugging one headphone out of his ears, Gabriel slowed to a crunching halt, glancing down the dead side of the road. He'd lived in this place for how long? All of it looked the same come sundown; all the midwest did. Trees or no trees, golden grass or dead corn. When you were wandering away from home, holding hands in letter jackets or shoving them in your pockets, you walked until you didn't recognize where you were, and you didn't turn back. He always had, though. This time, he turns toward the woods, and after a long pause in the chirpy twilight, he disappears into the dusky wood.
This place had been on the news recently, crackling over his truck's radio and dancing around on his tv screens. Some mess of blood had been found in the park nearby, skirting the woods like some classic movie from years gone by. No cougars to blame here, no coyotes or wild dogs. No stupid kids who killed a hog, no nothing. They hadn't said a word. There were no bodies, no missing local animals. Just a ghost story, and the rumors that floated through bars and rest stops to follow it. Living in a haunted house himself, Karma felt very little for the spooky tales the bargoers and car garage workers murmured about murderous drifters and creepy blondes in their locked houses.
That didn't mean his curiosity wasn't piqued, though.
With no flashlight, he picked his way through the fading blue light, waiting for some expected wolf howl or rustling branches as his thick boots crunched leaves and sticks underfoot. There was no reason not to look around for what might have caused the sudden hubbub around town, and if anything, he'd return home with a few more chunks of wood to carve for his own enjoyment. Turning to look back where he came, he could just barely spot the park through the trees, even with one slate grey eye squinted in his false depth of field. No, he wouldn't turn back this time. Not just yet, anyways.
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Post by JOEY MILLS on Aug 26, 2016 21:54:51 GMT -6
oh, crap, it was late.
joey had been out in the woods, investigating. ever since the police were called in to a scene of blood all over the edge of the industrial park, the runaways had been abuzz with theories and plans to figure it out. still, this was the biggest and craziest thing any of them had ever encountered, so joey had little faith they'd be able to figure it all out on their own.
so why were they out here tonight? they had a sense of curiosity that wouldn't die down.
but time slipped away from them, and it was dark. oh, jeez, it was so dark, and joey was starting to get a little scared. sure, they knew that all the stories about monsters and aliens or whatever were (probably) fake, but if there was some rabid animal out here who attacked people, joey didn't want to be stuck in their territory in the dark. they were at a serious disadvantage here.
and it had to be a rabid animal, because normal healthy animals didn't just attack people. and that was even scarier because if joey didn't die they'd probably get rabies which means they would probably end up dying anyways. it's not like rabies had much of a survival rate anyways, and joey hadn't had any of the rabies boosters -
there was a rustling in the woods, and every nerve in joey's body went aflame, prickling at their spine and making their hair raise on their neck. it was right about now that fight or flight instincts would hit in, and...well, as brave as joey could be, this was spooky. flight it was.
they ran for a bit until they ran square into a very, very solid...thing. at first they thought it was a tree, but it felt...warm? like it had flesh? and there was a dark, towering figure in front of them. crap.
"i-i'm sorry!" they squeaked, scrambling backwards, nearly falling on the damp leaves. "i-i...i was just..."
the words wouldn't come.
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Post by GABRIEL DOBREV on Aug 27, 2016 20:31:31 GMT -6
You don't take him off-guard - not with the sudden collision, at any rate. He hears your stumbling feet, crunching on the same sticks and dirt and leaves. Running, just over the shoulder. His head only just turns as whatever's running through the woods all but crashes into his arm, a stiff grunt whuffing through his lips. He barely has time to register what it actually was - a kid, for christ's sake - before the bespectacled teen lights up with sudden, shaky babbling. All Gabe can think of at first is how irritating the loud noise is against the quiet forest backdrop.
He holds up one large, rough palm. To anyone else, it might have looked like an it's alright - he meant stop talking, but if it was interpreted as the former, it wasn't necessarily wrong. If you're that skittish, you shouldn't be out here. One silvery eye narrows in the dark, rooting around for his phone in his pocket and thumbing the flashlight app on unceremoniously. He doesn't mean to shine it in their face like a cop might, but hey, he's trying to get a good look.
Yep, a kid. Jesus. "I ain't your monster, kid," Gabriel rumbles, giving their glasses a sharp, barely-disapproving glance before lowering his flashlight and shoving a hand in his pockets. His nose twitches, and with a broad roll of his shoulders he turns to keep walking, an expectant (though stern) glance offering the kid a place at his long-strided side. "You don't actually expect me to believe you're out here lookin' for whatever you think made that mess the cops found." With that response? He'd sooner throw his chickens to a coyote and tell 'em to bet their odds. You can't play a hand in poker if you ain't got nothing to bet with, right? Though it's barely a question, his eye flashes with the expectation for an answer before turning back to his footpath, holding the flashlight to the woods ahead politely.
He didn't need it - war, 'n all that - but he figured the kid would tell him if they were lost, and he'd worry about taking them back to where they started from that point. For now, he'll keep right on his merry damn way, thank you.
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Post by JOEY MILLS on Aug 28, 2016 16:00:26 GMT -6
so it wasn't a monster. well, some part of joey's brain that was rational always knew it wasn't a monster because monsters don't exist but your head does fnny things when it's late and you're lost in the woods.
just as their eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, the man shone a light on them, and they blinked, shielding their face from the sudden light change. they caught a glimpse of silvery hair and a tall, broad figure. was this the guy that moved into the haunted house, the one that no one had ever really seen much of before?
it was hard to tell in the dark, but not many people in anytown fit that description. making contact with the reclusive man was also kind of exciting (from joey's adventuresome side) but they were too shaken to really register that at the moment.
"i-i'm sorry," they spit out automatically. apologizing usually was a good place to start, and they had just ran into him, of course.
"i...well, i was, um..." could they admit what they were really doing out here, which...well, the man had guessed spot on. "i was just exploring and time slipped away from me and i got really really lost."
it was basically the truth, after all.
but the man had already turned on his way, and joey supposed he must have...places to be. in the woods, at night time, in the pitch dark. hey, they weren't gonna judge anyone, they were out in the woods too. then again, all they really wanted right now was to be home and in bed.
"do you know which way is out...?" they asked meekly, their voice sounding much too feeble; if there was a wind, it would've swept the sound away like sweeping dust under a rug. "sorry..."
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Post by GABRIEL DOBREV on Aug 29, 2016 2:22:20 GMT -6
Stammering. He was beat 'til his mouth was little more than black and blue, and he still managed to stand strong in his words. Was it just a thing of his bygone era? Whoa, Gabe. He swallowed some dry patch in his throat. You're not that old, jesus. But the kid's apparently lost, which means a.) home situations not that bad or b.) kid's got a sense of duty to get home. That was the midwestern thing to do, if anything. Sure, you could wander until nothing was familiar and nobody knew your name, but you still felt the tug in your gut to go back to that four-wall, dusty living room with the beer-stained Lazyboy and hands that hurt.
He's content to keep crunching along, even when the kid doesn't take up the proffered gait at his side. Their loss, he's content to think, until that same meek little voice crackles behind his shoulder. Gabriel steamrolls to a halt, shuttering down not unlike a rusted machine coming to rest. Sigh. It's a tired, husky exhale that sits thick in his throat, letting his eyes slip closed in a brief flash of don't do it you sappy codger don't do it.
Knocking his bearded chin to his shoulder, the one-eyed man gives a caustic look to the four-eyes at his mercy. He's half-tempted to reply with all ways are out if you walk long enough, but he bites it down with another reluctant grit of his molars, jaw tightening. The bright beam from his flashlight cuts in the growing darkness, from his booted feet to the bottom of theirs, and Karma crunches back through the wood, lumbering toward his new plus-one for the night with a silvery brow cocked over the white socket of one useless eye.
"The way out?" he repeats, voice like gravel. "You mean the way out to the crime scene, or the way out to get you home?" It was a valid question; he assumed the kid could figure it out that he'd already been heading that way, what with (in his own opinion) the obliging way he spoke, but who knows? Kids addled with 80's monster movies and a whole TVTropes archive of archetypes to rifle through about dark woods and bloodstains - well, they could make a horror movie out of a dark hallway, now couldn't they? Jamming his thumb into his pocket, flashlight still lifted, Gabe didn't bother not boring into the kid's face, eyes narrowed on gently in impatience.
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Post by JOEY MILLS on Sept 1, 2016 20:01:59 GMT -6
the man keeps walking ahead, and joey knew it might've been too much to think that he would help. then again, it was a little strange; people usually helped other people out, right? in joey's experience, that was the case. then again, it was getting difficult to decide if this all was real or some weird dream - lost in the forest, finding a giant ghost of a man, trying to find their way back home.
but he stopped, eventually, and turned back to look at joey. they felt small, smaller than normal, and even smaller in that gaze of his. it probably wasn't too hard for this guy to make others feel tiny and insignificant, given his size and demeanor and aura. and given joey's size and demeanor and aura, it wasn't too hard for them to feel tiny and insignificant, either.
his words rumble out into the still night, and joey can feel their skin go cold, like the nerves right under their skin all turned to ice. had this guy seen them out with the renegades the other day? did he know why they were in the woods earlier that night? joey really didn't like to lie but he didn't want to get in trouble.
they'd trust the man to point to the way out of the woods, but that's about it. joey didn't know a thing about him.
"just...out. back to town," they said, their voice still shaky and small. "all of the stuff with the recent um, m-murders, it's freaky...and i just wanna go home."
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Post by GABRIEL DOBREV on Sept 5, 2016 12:02:06 GMT -6
Hm. Smart kid. He'd figured they'd at least want to let him think they could get out by theirself, then loop back around and follow him to the crime scene. At least, it's what he would have done at their age - which he can't guess, at all. 12, 16? They all start looking the same around that age, especially to a man nearly three times that and some change. "Yeah," is all he rumbles in reply, turning fully and crunching his way back toward the kid, past the kid, and onward. If he was smart, and he liked to think he was (or, at the very least, resourceful), he could remember the way the wood looked in the dim blue light of dusk, and work off that. Besides, close enough to the road, anything was within walking distance really.
"You know anythin' more about it?" What was better than passing the time talking about potentially creepy things, hm? He was well-aware of about three 80s movie scenarios and one Twilight Zone episode this mysterious "coyote attack" could account for, and all of them either ended with government interference, or monsters. He preferred monsters, but the kid might have actually heard something - from friends, parents, otherwise. He'd never been a cop, but he watched enough Law and Order that it counted, right? "I heard the police haven't said anythin' more about it. Spooky, huh?"
There's an edge of a smile in his voice. He might be a jerk, but he's all tense with the possibility of danger around every corner, and walking slow so the kid can keep up with him. He's got the Nice Old Grampa checklist at least halfway filled, he can allow himself a little leniency with the oOoOooO spooky.
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