Lifeblood - Chapter Eleven
Mar. 20th, 2021 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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i_read_whatSo last time, Charles saved Jack and we got a lot of exposition. It was accompanied by flirting, so it wasn't a chore to read. I am very worried about Bobbi though!
Also, it's probably worth noting, we've made it to the penultimate chapter. One left after this.
The chapter begins with Gordy's arrival. Jack doesn't like the weather. It's raining hard and Jack remembers how it'd been raining on the lake when he'd been murdered. I think Jack really really would benefit from a therapist.
More fun memories, because the car Gordy is driving used to be Slick Morelli's. Jack tells himself that "it was just a car". Oh Jack.
Anyway, Gordy's provided more than that: a cartridge of wooden beads. Ammunition. Jack thinks they'll work, but only at short range. Escott and Gordy have a moment:
Escott looked uncomfortable. Gordy noticed.
“You know how this could end up; stay in or get out,” he said in an even tone.
Escott locked eyes with him a moment, then put his hand over the seat for one of the shotguns.
It was enough of an answer for Gordy. He gave me an up-and-down. “You look like hell, Fleming.”
That was his way of saying hello, how are you.
I know Bobbi said Gordy wasn't gay, but I feel like Gordy might want a fun vampire boyfriend himself.
Anyway, Gordy asks about their own "iron". Escott has a huge, "odd-looking" revolver: It had a ring in the butt, which tagged it as an army gun to me. The cylinder had a kind of zigzag pattern to it and it looked like the top part slid back, as though for an automatic. It even had a safety. I’d never seen anything quite like it and neither had Gordy.
Escott's your rogue sidekick, Jack. It's his job to have a mysterious backstory and eclectic skills and belongings as the story requires. Anyway, it's apparently a "Webley-Fosbery 'automatic' rifle".
Jack claims to be happy enough with the shotgun that Gordy gave him, not admitting that he hasn't even held a gun since the armistice. I tend to forget about Jack's war backstory. He's got so much trauma now that it almost doesn't register. Until it does, of course.
Jack ends up doing some scouting, heading inside the hideout before the others. He's able to verify the location. He also finds a box: about five and a half feet long, two feet wide. There's earth inside, and the imprint of a body.
Crap.
He fills in the others. He warns them that Gaylen will probably look Bobbi's age now, or a little younger, and she can kill them very easily. If they get a clear shot, they shouldn't hesitate. Honestly, of the three, Jack's the only one that I really think would have a problem there. Gordy and Charles are cold SOBs.
So they break in. Gordy gets to be startled when Jack does his mist trick. Jack gets a window open so that Escott can climb inside. It turns out to be too small for Gordy though, so he ends up as rear guard until they can get the back door open.
Escott and Jack start the search. They find a bedroom with women's clothing on the floor, including a crumpled mass of fabric on a chair that looked like the dress Norma had been wearing. They go into the next room. And...oh...oh no.
Standing out starkly on the walls and ceilings were red splashes—a lot of them. My eyes dropped to the body on the floor. She was on her back, half-covered with a bedspread, her legs tangled in its folds. The red dress still looked new, the bloodstains blending invisibly into the bright color.
Blood was everywhere.
Everywhere. There was no head.
Jack does not react well.
I must have made a noise or been too long. I was dimly aware of Escott quitting the basement and approaching. I had no memory of leaving the room, but he found me on my knees in the hall next to the open door.
“Jack?”
I blinked. I was staring very hard at a corner where the wall met the floor. There was dust in the crevice. I had to look at that and concentrate on it or I would see her instead.
Oh no. Noooooo.
Charles gently coaxes Jack out of the room and gets him into a chair. He lets Gordy in from outside too. Jack notices that there's lipstick left on the rim of a coffee cup. He recognizes the color.
The crash inside was louder than the storm and brought Escott and Gordy right away, but by then it was over. The table and all the junk on it were now in a shattered heap with the wheelchair in the living room. I pushed past them into the rain. Water streamed down my face. It was a good enough surrogate for tears that would not come.
Noooooo.
Escott tells Gordy that he wants to take Jack home. Gordy, uncomfortable with this Emotional Stuff, gives him the car key. He intends to wait for Gaylen to come back to his box.
They make it home in grief-stricken silence.
I stared out the back window. A pale shape lurched toward the car. Rain streamed past, blurring the view. The shape stumbled and fell against glass, and the face, anxious and white, looked inside. Our eyes locked with mutual incredulity.
Numbed only for a second, I tore out of the car, afraid she’d disappear, but she came into my arms, solid and real, moving, laughing, crying.
Alive.
Some joys are too much for the heart to hold and can even supersede grief for intensity. The tears that had not come before now burned my eyes and finally spilled out onto Bobbi’s upturned face.
YAAAAAY!
We clung to each other in the car while Escott watched with a mixture of happy indulgence and indecision. He looked ready to leave us alone, but Bobbi saw his intent, hooked an arm around his neck, and held him in place with a hug.
My OT3 Liiiiives!
Bobbi's alive. She seems to be okay even. Her face is swollen and red from crying and her hair is still chopped off and dripping, but Jack thinks she's the most beautiful woman in the world. Escott gives her a handkerchief.
They share mutual "I thought you were dead" sentiments, and no, actually, I'm going to share this with you.
“I thought they’d killed you,” she told me with a hiccup.
“We had drawn the same conclusion about you,” said Escott.
“What do you mean?”
“We traced down Malcolm’s house. There’s a woman’s body there, wearing your red dress.”
“Jesus, no wonder Jack looked so strange.”
“Who was it? What happened?”
“That was Norma. We had a fight and she lost.”
...WHAT...
Escott, hilariously, asks her if she could be a little less succinct. And she elaborates. She'd heard Malcolm and Gaylen talk about Jack being dead. Then at some point they left. They'd been keeping Bobbi drugged and tied up in the bedroom. She was aware enough to hold her breath when Norma tried to chloroform her again though, and she faked being asleep until they left her alone. She got herself untied.
Oh god:
“What was her voice like? Old or young?”
She thought a moment. “Young, I think. I was still pretty woozy, but it was strong, at least. She and the man left, and then it was just me and Norma. When she came in to check on me she had the shotgun, but I hardly saw it because she was prancing around in my new red silk. It was a stupid thing to get mad about after thinking you were dead, but it just set me off. I jumped her, the gun came up, I pushed it away, and it—just—”
...Bobbi fucking Smythe, ladies and gentlemen. When Jack needed rescue from their mutual boyfriend, Bobbi goes and rescues herself. AND does this by blowing the fucking head off her captor. Bobbi fucking Smythe. Two time MVP of this series.
Anyway, Bobbi grabbed one of Norma's dresses and ran for it. Eventually she was able to get a lift from a couple in a car, claiming she'd had a bad date. She'd come to see Charles, to tell him about Jack.
Bobbi wants to head back to her place. But Escott needs his key. Jack, euphoric, enthusiastically, races up to get it. He sieves into the place, heads to the kitchen, opens the door and waves at them to show off. Only to then get knifed in the back, literally.
Someone had been waiting for Escott. They'd been waiting at the front door, not the back, so they didn't see Jack come in. They heard the door open though. There are two people there and only one of them is breathing.
Fortunately, it's dark and Malcolm doesn't have night vision. Jack and Charles are very similar in height and build, recall. So when Malcolm checks Jack's pulse, he assumes that he's killed "Escott". They go.
It takes Jack a LOT of effort to get on his feet. He goes after them:
I shoved the table away and went to the front of the house, trying to ignore my back. I made it to the door and twisted the knob. They were down the steps and walking quickly to their car parked down the street. Her coat was too long, but her figure fit it; it might have been one of Norma’s spares. Her hair was full and dark, her walk light and strong. I didn’t have to see her face; it would look like the photo she’d given Escott. Her skin firm and smooth again, an image of a girl in her pretty youth.
Their heads were down because of the rain, so neither of them saw it coming.
There's a pretty funny bit where Jack notes that Malcolm is "no gentleman", as he's walking on the inside of the walk. There's a noise like thunder: Escott with the shotgun. Sadly, Malcolm took most of the blast, but he barrels into Gaylen.
Gaylen got to her feet, dazed and staring at Malcolm, then looked down the alley. She took a half-step toward it, but lights were coming on in the surrounding houses. Malcolm moved and moaned, pushing himself up and reaching for her. She hesitated; there was blood all over his left side, head to toe, but he was somehow still alive. He sobbed her name. She made her decision and got him standing and helped him unsteadily toward the car. They were too busy to notice as I followed in roughly the same condition. I glanced down the alley in passing, but Escott had sensibly left.
I like this bit. I actually expected Gaylen to abandon Malcolm, but I like that she didn't. It's a humanizing touch. She's still horrible, of course, but I like that she isn't 100% evil.
Jack manages to get onto her car. He holds on tight. For whatever reason, he's not able to shift and get into the car in mist form. He attributes it to the knife still in his back. The next time she stops the car at a stoplight, Jack reaches back and manages to pull the thing out. It's an eight inch long chef's knife. Nasty.
But admittedly, quick. Escott would have felt the initial shock and pain, but died not long after that. Malcolm was an efficient sort.
Jack realizes that the car is heading into a familiar neighborhood: Malcolm's house. Where the box of earth is, and where Gordy and his men are waiting.
And at this cliff-hanger, the chapter ends.
Also, it's probably worth noting, we've made it to the penultimate chapter. One left after this.
The chapter begins with Gordy's arrival. Jack doesn't like the weather. It's raining hard and Jack remembers how it'd been raining on the lake when he'd been murdered. I think Jack really really would benefit from a therapist.
More fun memories, because the car Gordy is driving used to be Slick Morelli's. Jack tells himself that "it was just a car". Oh Jack.
Anyway, Gordy's provided more than that: a cartridge of wooden beads. Ammunition. Jack thinks they'll work, but only at short range. Escott and Gordy have a moment:
Escott looked uncomfortable. Gordy noticed.
“You know how this could end up; stay in or get out,” he said in an even tone.
Escott locked eyes with him a moment, then put his hand over the seat for one of the shotguns.
It was enough of an answer for Gordy. He gave me an up-and-down. “You look like hell, Fleming.”
That was his way of saying hello, how are you.
I know Bobbi said Gordy wasn't gay, but I feel like Gordy might want a fun vampire boyfriend himself.
Anyway, Gordy asks about their own "iron". Escott has a huge, "odd-looking" revolver: It had a ring in the butt, which tagged it as an army gun to me. The cylinder had a kind of zigzag pattern to it and it looked like the top part slid back, as though for an automatic. It even had a safety. I’d never seen anything quite like it and neither had Gordy.
Escott's your rogue sidekick, Jack. It's his job to have a mysterious backstory and eclectic skills and belongings as the story requires. Anyway, it's apparently a "Webley-Fosbery 'automatic' rifle".
Jack claims to be happy enough with the shotgun that Gordy gave him, not admitting that he hasn't even held a gun since the armistice. I tend to forget about Jack's war backstory. He's got so much trauma now that it almost doesn't register. Until it does, of course.
Jack ends up doing some scouting, heading inside the hideout before the others. He's able to verify the location. He also finds a box: about five and a half feet long, two feet wide. There's earth inside, and the imprint of a body.
Crap.
He fills in the others. He warns them that Gaylen will probably look Bobbi's age now, or a little younger, and she can kill them very easily. If they get a clear shot, they shouldn't hesitate. Honestly, of the three, Jack's the only one that I really think would have a problem there. Gordy and Charles are cold SOBs.
So they break in. Gordy gets to be startled when Jack does his mist trick. Jack gets a window open so that Escott can climb inside. It turns out to be too small for Gordy though, so he ends up as rear guard until they can get the back door open.
Escott and Jack start the search. They find a bedroom with women's clothing on the floor, including a crumpled mass of fabric on a chair that looked like the dress Norma had been wearing. They go into the next room. And...oh...oh no.
Standing out starkly on the walls and ceilings were red splashes—a lot of them. My eyes dropped to the body on the floor. She was on her back, half-covered with a bedspread, her legs tangled in its folds. The red dress still looked new, the bloodstains blending invisibly into the bright color.
Blood was everywhere.
Everywhere. There was no head.
Jack does not react well.
I must have made a noise or been too long. I was dimly aware of Escott quitting the basement and approaching. I had no memory of leaving the room, but he found me on my knees in the hall next to the open door.
“Jack?”
I blinked. I was staring very hard at a corner where the wall met the floor. There was dust in the crevice. I had to look at that and concentrate on it or I would see her instead.
Oh no. Noooooo.
Charles gently coaxes Jack out of the room and gets him into a chair. He lets Gordy in from outside too. Jack notices that there's lipstick left on the rim of a coffee cup. He recognizes the color.
The crash inside was louder than the storm and brought Escott and Gordy right away, but by then it was over. The table and all the junk on it were now in a shattered heap with the wheelchair in the living room. I pushed past them into the rain. Water streamed down my face. It was a good enough surrogate for tears that would not come.
Noooooo.
Escott tells Gordy that he wants to take Jack home. Gordy, uncomfortable with this Emotional Stuff, gives him the car key. He intends to wait for Gaylen to come back to his box.
They make it home in grief-stricken silence.
I stared out the back window. A pale shape lurched toward the car. Rain streamed past, blurring the view. The shape stumbled and fell against glass, and the face, anxious and white, looked inside. Our eyes locked with mutual incredulity.
Numbed only for a second, I tore out of the car, afraid she’d disappear, but she came into my arms, solid and real, moving, laughing, crying.
Alive.
Some joys are too much for the heart to hold and can even supersede grief for intensity. The tears that had not come before now burned my eyes and finally spilled out onto Bobbi’s upturned face.
YAAAAAY!
We clung to each other in the car while Escott watched with a mixture of happy indulgence and indecision. He looked ready to leave us alone, but Bobbi saw his intent, hooked an arm around his neck, and held him in place with a hug.
My OT3 Liiiiives!
Bobbi's alive. She seems to be okay even. Her face is swollen and red from crying and her hair is still chopped off and dripping, but Jack thinks she's the most beautiful woman in the world. Escott gives her a handkerchief.
They share mutual "I thought you were dead" sentiments, and no, actually, I'm going to share this with you.
“I thought they’d killed you,” she told me with a hiccup.
“We had drawn the same conclusion about you,” said Escott.
“What do you mean?”
“We traced down Malcolm’s house. There’s a woman’s body there, wearing your red dress.”
“Jesus, no wonder Jack looked so strange.”
“Who was it? What happened?”
“That was Norma. We had a fight and she lost.”
...WHAT...
Escott, hilariously, asks her if she could be a little less succinct. And she elaborates. She'd heard Malcolm and Gaylen talk about Jack being dead. Then at some point they left. They'd been keeping Bobbi drugged and tied up in the bedroom. She was aware enough to hold her breath when Norma tried to chloroform her again though, and she faked being asleep until they left her alone. She got herself untied.
Oh god:
“What was her voice like? Old or young?”
She thought a moment. “Young, I think. I was still pretty woozy, but it was strong, at least. She and the man left, and then it was just me and Norma. When she came in to check on me she had the shotgun, but I hardly saw it because she was prancing around in my new red silk. It was a stupid thing to get mad about after thinking you were dead, but it just set me off. I jumped her, the gun came up, I pushed it away, and it—just—”
...Bobbi fucking Smythe, ladies and gentlemen. When Jack needed rescue from their mutual boyfriend, Bobbi goes and rescues herself. AND does this by blowing the fucking head off her captor. Bobbi fucking Smythe. Two time MVP of this series.
Anyway, Bobbi grabbed one of Norma's dresses and ran for it. Eventually she was able to get a lift from a couple in a car, claiming she'd had a bad date. She'd come to see Charles, to tell him about Jack.
Bobbi wants to head back to her place. But Escott needs his key. Jack, euphoric, enthusiastically, races up to get it. He sieves into the place, heads to the kitchen, opens the door and waves at them to show off. Only to then get knifed in the back, literally.
Someone had been waiting for Escott. They'd been waiting at the front door, not the back, so they didn't see Jack come in. They heard the door open though. There are two people there and only one of them is breathing.
Fortunately, it's dark and Malcolm doesn't have night vision. Jack and Charles are very similar in height and build, recall. So when Malcolm checks Jack's pulse, he assumes that he's killed "Escott". They go.
It takes Jack a LOT of effort to get on his feet. He goes after them:
I shoved the table away and went to the front of the house, trying to ignore my back. I made it to the door and twisted the knob. They were down the steps and walking quickly to their car parked down the street. Her coat was too long, but her figure fit it; it might have been one of Norma’s spares. Her hair was full and dark, her walk light and strong. I didn’t have to see her face; it would look like the photo she’d given Escott. Her skin firm and smooth again, an image of a girl in her pretty youth.
Their heads were down because of the rain, so neither of them saw it coming.
There's a pretty funny bit where Jack notes that Malcolm is "no gentleman", as he's walking on the inside of the walk. There's a noise like thunder: Escott with the shotgun. Sadly, Malcolm took most of the blast, but he barrels into Gaylen.
Gaylen got to her feet, dazed and staring at Malcolm, then looked down the alley. She took a half-step toward it, but lights were coming on in the surrounding houses. Malcolm moved and moaned, pushing himself up and reaching for her. She hesitated; there was blood all over his left side, head to toe, but he was somehow still alive. He sobbed her name. She made her decision and got him standing and helped him unsteadily toward the car. They were too busy to notice as I followed in roughly the same condition. I glanced down the alley in passing, but Escott had sensibly left.
I like this bit. I actually expected Gaylen to abandon Malcolm, but I like that she didn't. It's a humanizing touch. She's still horrible, of course, but I like that she isn't 100% evil.
Jack manages to get onto her car. He holds on tight. For whatever reason, he's not able to shift and get into the car in mist form. He attributes it to the knife still in his back. The next time she stops the car at a stoplight, Jack reaches back and manages to pull the thing out. It's an eight inch long chef's knife. Nasty.
But admittedly, quick. Escott would have felt the initial shock and pain, but died not long after that. Malcolm was an efficient sort.
Jack realizes that the car is heading into a familiar neighborhood: Malcolm's house. Where the box of earth is, and where Gordy and his men are waiting.
And at this cliff-hanger, the chapter ends.