August 9 2007

Who: Maddie and Billy
Where: Their place
When: Afternoon

Who: Cyril and Lullaby
Where: Text Messages
When: Morning

Lullaby was sitting up and in her room after breakfast, waiting a bit nervously for the whole mine thing to start. To get the message that they were coming to pick her up or whatever, and go...wandering off to do whatever. She was staring at her phone, and had been for like five minutes before she finally hit 'send' on the message she had typed up. It was to her father.

I'm being forced to write in this thing again. Who cares about rabid cats, and you know all the other weird shit going on around here. My leg flipping hurts, and I just feel like shit ever since those damn cats attacked everyone. But I'm not going to hole myself up in my room because I don't feel well. If I pass out somewhere, at least it won't be here. Mom is just driving me crazy. I'd take rabid cats over her anyday.

Who: Olivia and Wicked
Where: Lakeshore
When: Late, late night

Olivia wandered farther than her hotel after leaving Mathias outside of the bar. Her feet simply wouldn't stop walking, and she knew if she went to her room, she'd simply pace all night, since she couldn't sleep anyway. The drinks she'd had slowed her down a bit, but she didn't care.

Instead she found herself walking along the lake shore, her shoes in one hand, her purse in the other. She had come to a small town to escape this kind of trouble and she was finding herself deeper in it now than ever. She'd tried hard to avoid complications. She'd been too afraid for too long to help people and the moment she thought it might be safe to try, at least a little, suddenly she's a conniving bitch being paid to leave town. She almost embraced everything she'd been running from in what, a few days? It was ridiculous! The whole thing would have been laughable had she'd not been drinking. Right?

Who: Isaac and Lulu
When: afternoon, around 2:30
Where: over the invisible phone waves ... things. Text!

Hey. You ok? -Isaac

Who: Charlotte and Herbert
When: Mid-afternoon.
Where: Charlotte's yard.

Isadora was having one of her classic hissy fits. She was just so good at them. After what had happened at the bonfire the previous night, Charlotte was strictly forbidden to go anywhere without the car. Which wasn't such a big deal, but Isadora had driven to Harvey for the day. So Charlotte was stuck inside.

That wasn't so bad, really. She was feeling a bit better, but most of the day was still spent pondering fire elementals. And whether or not Kaysen could be one (probably), and whether or not Kaysen knew she was one (the jury was still out, though Charlotte was leaning towards probably not), and how Charlotte would ever approach the subject with her. Probably best to give it a day or two for the shock to calm down. And then... what? Crap.

The dogs whined to get outside, though Charlotte had already been on her way to the back door anyway. If Kaysen was an elemental and didn't know it, how would Charlotte tell her something like that? Would Kaysen think she was crazy? ...Probably. So how could she--

Her thoughts were cut off by the way both dogs turned and all but flew back inside the house. After which, they both hunched over between Charlotte and the still-open door, baring their teeth and growling at some unseen enemy. Charlotte had never seen either of them act like this before. She blinked, and first tried to touch Anna's mind. She usually had the easiest time with her, maybe because she had been her grandmother's dog. She didn't see anything, but she felt things. Something outside was distinctly Not Right, and dangerous. The phrase 'doesn't belong' repeated over and over in Charlotte's mind.

Who: Mac & Chance
Where: The Beach
When: Early afternoon

Mac had decided to go to the beach. Sure the temperature was cooler than yesterday, but there were no clouds and she thought the beach would make a nice setting for the afternoon. Originally she was going to bring her guitar with her since she had a tune stuck in her head which she felt confident could be made into a good song. But no, she'd stuffed a folder full of blank sheet music into her messenger bag and had gone to get herself some food to bring with her. She didn't bring a blanket though. Mac thought sitting in the sand would do just fine. So when she finally found a spot - far enough away from the shore line that she wouldn't get wet - she sat herself down, snuggling into a nice cool patch of sand. First she made it through her cheeseburger and fries before settling in with her milk shake and her blank sheet music. She hummed and tapped the eraser of her pencil to the paper and occasionally looking up at the waves or some of the other people strolling along and beach and such before getting back to drawing in notes or writing out words. It wasn't long before she got wrapped up in her own thoughts sitting there with her jeans cuff up to just below her knees and the white long sleeved shirt under her T-shirt bunched up to her elbows. Mac barely noticed the cooler temperature. Her temperature was a good few degrees above normal on a regular basis so this temperature felt pretty good to her as she dug her toes into the grit of the cool sand.

who: lulu & pretty much to everyone who was at the party
where: text messages from her room
when: throughout the day

Hey, I'm checking in on everyone to make sure people are okay. Please let me know if you are, and if there's anything I can do. I can try to get messages to other people too if you need me to or want to know how anyone is doing, email me or text me and I'll get back to you. I'm really sorry for everything. -Lulu

Who: Jordan and Chance
Where: Text Message
When: 10:10am

Jac - checking in to see if you're okay and also, do you know how I can get in touch with lulu? I told Kaysen I'd find out if everyone is okay and I don't know the first thing about how to go about doing that myself, considering I didn't really know any of those people. hope you're doing okay - C

Who: Kaysen and Chance
Where: Text Message
When: 9:10am

Just wanted to check in with you and make sure you're okay. - Chance

Who: Aiden and Dorian
Where: Voicemail
When: Morning

Okay, mate, I need a drink. And I'm betting you do too. I think I'd become a fucking alcoholic if I had to live here. Anyway, I also have a job, if you're still interested in tagging along. Details can be discussed later. Give me a ring.

Who: Harper and Isaac
When: 8am (and possibly later in the day as well)
Where: Harpers Home/Phone

Harper had gone to sleep early the night before. It wasn't exactly like her, but she got home from work and just felt beat by the day. So she went to sleep. Nightmares plagued her. Nightmares of eyes in the darkness, creeping around a large fire. Nightmares about grey cats, cats like the ones she'd seen in her vision before. Cats that she knew could kill. It was a nightmare she couldn't pull out of. It sucked her in. She watched as cats attacked kids, people she didn't know and a few she recognized. She'd seen them at the party Isaac had invited her to. Floating above the chaos, her dream seemed to put her as an observer. It was madness, and worse of all she couldn't wake up. Then she saw him- Isaac.

Most of the rest of the dream Harper watched in a daze, sure that it was happening as she lay sleeping in her bed. She couldn't wake up. It was like watching her parents die all over again. She was helpless to stop it. Then, the dream stopped- or at least -that- dream stopped. Her mind drifted into REM sleep and at five in the morning Harper started up in bed. Cold sweat still clung her hair to the skin on her back, and her tank top to her skin. Isaac... she had to see if... Her body was moving before her mind could finish the thought, her phone was in her hand and her fingers poised to dial. It could have been a dream.... but it might not have been. Harper chose the safer of solutions and sent Isaac a text.

5:02am
Hey, it's me. Please... Please call me when you get this. Please!!!!
-Harper

Who: Evan and Buttahfly
Where: Around the cemetery area
When: Early hours before dawn

Evan was a mercenary at heart - he did whatever he was paid to do, whenever he was paid to do it. Within limits - but what those limits were were defined by Evan himself at the time and didn't necessarily have anything to do with 'normal' morality. In short, he wasn't the type of guy for whom 'public service' was high up on his list.

But he wasn't stupid either, or blind. Or deaf for that matter. And it was stunningly clear that this sudden increase in cats around was something out of the ordinary - a fact that Seven first alerted him to, if he was being honest. And so he'd been hunting all night - cats mainly, with an eye out for the guy who'd scared Molly so badly some nights ago. He always had an eye out for that guy.

Tonight though, so far at least, he'd only found cats. And when he found them, he killed them - he weapon of choice for this was a knife. Quieter - he was hunting on the town streets, afterall, and the other day had shown how much gunfire was a stunningly bad idea. He wasn't looking for attention. It'd bee easy at first - they didn't seem overtly hostile towards him and he'd been able to kill them fairly easily. Now, it was harder - which probably had to do with the cat corpses he had slung from his belt. But he did so like to keep score. And he didn't have a problem with upping the challenge.

Evan stalked through the darkness, heading towards the cemetary, on the lookout for his next kill.

To: Leija
From: Thom
Time: 01:34
Subject: You safe?

Leija - let me know you're okay. I got away with Isaac and a few other people - it was just madness. Please let me know you're okay. Thom

*****

Hi - message for Leija. It's Thom. Could you call me when you get this please.