Not insane.

Who: Alexis and Charlotte
Where: The Library
When: Afternoon

On Sunday morning, Alexis' father deemed it "safe" to go out. It had been a full twenty-four hours since the shadow creatures had attacked, and after twenty-four hours he could no longer hold his daughter hostage as a method of safety. At some point, he had to take the chance, and it was better to do so before cabin fever got to the both of them. Alexis took off, relieved to get out of the house for the first time since Thursday, and she moved through town without a destination until it was there before her.

While she knew a library wouldn't have all the answers, it had to have some. Most of the time, her father knew what he was fighting, or knew enough to kill them, but this time that hadn't been the case. It had been an experiment, learning where they came from and how to keep them gone longer, but in the process they'd broken every mirror in the house and that still wasn't always successful. So Alexis was searching for answers. She planted herself in the aisle and went through the books one by one, building a little pile around her. One of them had to have something about the shadow creatures-- even a name would be more than she had now.

Charlotte had been going back and forth to the library all week - not necessarily because what she found there was overwhelmingly helpful, but because it was easier to set up there for her research. Her mother would be taking Edom downstate tomorrow, and until then, she didn't want to risk her mother freaking out over Charlotte's new reading material.

The material the library had stocked had only been slightly helpful, though Charlotte had been able to put in requests for books from other state libraries. It had gotten to the point where the librarians no longer looked at the titles of the books and then Charlotte as if she was crazy. Then again, they'd probably seen the shadows, too.

After grabbing her latest order - a large stack sent in from a library in Lansing, she headed back to the little section she'd been all but living in the past few days. She turned down an aisle to head to what had become Her Chair, and paused at the sight waiting for her. A girl her age, surrounded by books. Every time Charlotte had ever come here she'd never seen anyone looking at these books. Probably because of the shadows. It had not occurred to her before, but now Charlotte wondered if books on these sorts of subjects would suddenly skyrocket in demand. I better go to Nevermore tomorrow while mom's gone. Buy or order what I need and find a place to hide it all.

She felt horribly shy and awkward, but she couldn't ignore the nagging need to help out. "Um... I've read most of those." she said, softly. "Are you looking for something?"

Alexis was well aware of the mess she'd made, but then she hadn't expected anyone else to come along. In her experience, most people wrote off supernatural events rather than research them, but then she'd never lived in a town that seemed so highly susceptible to supernatural occurrences. Had she taken that into consideration, she might have realized she wouldn't be the only one haunting a library on a Sunday afternoon.

"Just trying to put a name to the things that attacked this weekend," Alexis said, looking up from the current book with a small smile. "They're not ghosts, but most of these don't get into specifics and it's hard to browse the table of contents when I don't know exactly what to look for. Any ideas?" she asked. The girl looked her age, and she was pretty sure she'd seen her around school, but then she hardly knew everyone. She was used to moving though, and had learned that if she was shy she wouldn't meet anyone at all.

Charlotte blinked down at the blonde, a little surprised to hear something just come right out with it. Everyone was talking about the shadows, but no one was talking about it. It was whispered and skirted around in vague terms, as if everyone was certain that saying things straight would land them in a mental institution. She shifted slightly, crouching down to set her stack of books down and give her arms a break.

"Anything I found here was only the vaguest possible reference, nothing really concrete." Charlotte answered, her voice quieter now, and for the blonde's ears only. Even if they weren't talking about shadow monsters, they were still in a library - right? Sure. "I found a few more references on the internet, and at books at Nevermore. I thought I had it kind of figured out, but it's hard to say. And I can't find a name for them."

Alexis was glad the girl hadn't turned and fled, freaked out by the fact that she was openly speaking about something that some people would continue to deny, despite witnessing it with their own eyes. It made it far easier when they could actually talk about it; maybe they could actually get somewhere. "What's Nevermore?" she asked, keeping her voice low to match Charlotte's. "I know they came from the mirrors. And I know what doesn't kill them. But they're not like anything I've ever heard of, so I don't know if they're coming back or what."

Feeling a bit more at ease - it was a bit of a relief, not having to tip-toe around the truth - Charlotte went from her crouch to sitting on the floor. "It's a supernatural bookstore, I guess." she answered, not sure how to better describe it. "I have a friend that just started working there." And she'd met the owner when she was being compelled to go to the mines, but she wasn't bringing that up. "I don't know if they are either. I thought I knew what they were - they were attacking very specific people every day for a few days before they went after everyone. And now it's stopped, and it doesn't really make any sense."

She would have to look up the supernatural bookstore, as it's selection had to be a bit better than this. Then again, it wasn't the library's fault that half the books contained bullshit. Some people didn't know better. "Who were they attacking?" Alexis asked, surprised by this new bit of information. "My dad saw them Friday, or maybe Thursday, and attacked them then. And then they attacked back. And it only got worse, up until they disappeared. Looking back at it, they might have just left us alone if we'd left them alone, at least for a while."

"A bunch of people. A few of my friends..." Charlotte answered, frowning as she bit her bottom lip. "I was still trying to figure it all out when they attacked in my house. Now everyone thinks they're going crazy." Aside from her step-father, who just thought Charlotte was crazy. It didn't matter that he'd seen it too, he claimed the supernatural was nothing new to him, and that stuff would leave them alone if they did the same. Charlotte had admitted to researching the shadows, so now - naturally - Charlotte must have invited them into the house. Logic was not one of Valen's strong points.

"It's a reasonable assumption for those that don't know, I guess," Alexis said, having witnessed the same before. "Seems hard, though, when the whole town saw it. I'm Alexis, by the way." It wouldn't hurt to introduce herself, especially to someone who wasn't going to think she was insane. Last week she would have had to keep half of what she knew to herself, so this made it far easier when she could actually talk and ask questions. It was hard to make friends when people deemed the new girl as crazy.

"Charlotte. Charlie." Charlotte returned. "People are pretty good at denial, the human race has been masters at it for centuries." I'm starting to sound really jaded. Oops. "It would probably be quite a shock to someone..." Blessedly oblivious? "Well, someone new to this kind of stuff. I guess I'd think I'd gone crazy, too."

"Do you prefer Charlotte or Charlie?" Alexis asked with a grin. "I could go by Alex, Lex, Lexi... the possibilities are endless." While she didn't have a preference, she liked to see what other people preferred. "So, you're not new to this kind of stuff?" she asked. Now she was probing, hoping to understand what Charlotte knew and why. It always seemed safest to understand those around you, to better know their motivations, though Charlotte didn't seem like a threat in the least.

"I go by either." Charlotte admitted, smiling faintly as she shrugged. "To friends it's usually Charlie." She wasn't sure how to answer the second question. A few months ago she would have thought she was, even if she talked to animals and her mother talked to plants. "Well. Not so much anymore I guess. Marquette's kind of a weird place. I've been on and off reading about this kind of stuff since I moved here last month. How about you?"

Alexis had picked up on Marquette being weird. It was hard not to, and she'd only been there a couple of months. She couldn't even begin to imagine what had transpired prior to her arrival. "My dad's kinda into this stuff," she said. "He told me about it when I was little, so I've kind of always believed. Kinda like if you were never told that Santa Claus didn't exist, I guess. So while the weirdness isn't new, these things were."

Again, Charlotte felt a little more at ease. She wasn't about to start explaining talking to animals and elementals, but at least she wouldn't be going through the horror of 'crap she thinks I'm crazy what now' like she had with Kaysen. "That's good, that you got a head start on it." Charlotte replied. "I know people just starting to learn and it kind of turns your world upside down."

"It's nice here, cause everyone's seen it," Alexis said, laughing softly. "Anywhere else and I'm the crazy girl that believes in monsters. I usually keep my mouth shut, but... everyone saw what happened Friday, right? I know some people will still act like nothing happened, but the probability that I'm not insane has dropped drastically." Plus, Charlotte had said she'd read these books in the beginning. The chance that she'd been reading up on all things supernatural without being somewhat of a believer was extremely low.

Charlotte smiled and giggled softly into her hand. "You're not insane." she said, shaking her head. "This place is. Nothing like this ever happened when I lived downstate." Though she wondered about that, too. Auburn Hills was a big place, and not far away from areas with higher crime rates. Had this kind of stuff been happening all along without anyone noticing? How many random deaths were because of the supernatural? Charlotte found it too egotistical to believe it only happened here. Maybe it was just harder to hide in a small town, or maybe there really was something Else about this place.

"We move a lot," Alexis admitted, "And I've seen it everywhere. But most places it... it's in the background? Like, unless you were looking for it, you might not notice? What happened the other day was bigger than anything I've ever experienced." And though her father was a hunter, neither had he. It had taken them both by surprise, a monster that they knew nothing about yet just kept on coming, no matter how many times they killed it. "I've been trying to watch the news to see if it happened anywhere else, but even if it did, I don't think it would be reported."

That made sense to Charlotte. And she certainly hadn't been looking for it. Here in Marquette, it was just unavoidable. It found you. "I looked around on the internet and didn't find anything. But it's kind of hard, because when you search this kind of stuff, ninety percent of what comes up is actually insane. Either completely nonsensical or a total glamorization." A lot of what she'd found had been from people that wanted this kind of stuff to happen to them. It had weirded her out.

"Yeah," Alexis said, stretching her legs out across the row. She'd been camped out there for a while and it was nice to move around a bit. "It's hard to separate what's real from what's just complete nonsense, since... if I'd read about this on the internet? I wouldn't have believed it." Which was probably why most people didn't bother, but she wasn't sure. Finding real information on the supernatural wasn't exactly an easy task. "So, have you lived here long? You said you used to live downstate."

Charlotte wondered if she would have or not. Probably not, but after the mines, and the cats-that-weren't-cats... too hard to say. "We moved up here last month from Auburn Hills." she answered. "How about you?"

"We moved here last month from Tucson, Arizona, but I grew up in Florida," Alexis said. It was better not to go into all the places she'd been in between. That made it harder to explain and explanations... they got sticky. While she didn't mind saying that her father was into such things, she wasn't going to touch on what he did and why they traveled so much. It just didn't make her feel safe. "It's a lot colder than I'm used to, but it's nice. I get to wear a jacket and actually have seasons," she laughed.

Charlotte smiled again. "We'll see how you feel about that after eight months of icy winter." she said, shaking her head. "I really like it here, though. Even if things are kind of crazy. What brought you guys so far north?"

"My dad's in sales," Alexis explained. "He goes where they tell him to go. It keeps him busy, but at least he's where the work is." It was a well-worn lie, one that rolled off her tongue with years of practice. Even before she'd started traveling with her father, she'd had the explanation there for those who asked. Telling people that he hunted "monsters" just wouldn't cut it. "Icy winter could be interesting. At least it's something new. What grade are you in?"

"Eleventh," Charlotte answered, which she still found odd - seeing as she still didn't know that many people that were actually in her grade. "I'll be seventeen in December. What about you? I know I've seen you around school, but..." She wasn't very good at noting who was actually in her classes.

"Same here," Alexis smiled. There were still so many people she didn't know, so it was nice to finally meet someone that she seemed to be connecting with. "I won't be seventeen till the spring though." At some point, she was hoping to get a car. Turning sixteen hadn't resulted in such a gift, so instead she was still using her bike to get places. Luckily, Marquette was small enough that that worked, but as it got colder, she'd have to find another solution.

That was good to know. She knew at least one other junior. After a month. My mom is right, I do need to get out more. "So will you and your family be staying in Marquette, or is it like a temporary sort of thing with your dad's job?"

"I'm usually in one place for at least a year," Alexis said. "His company understands he's got a teenage daughter with him, so they at least allow that. It'd be too hard if I was switching halfway through." Though it had happened before. It was something they tried to avoid at all costs though. "We could always be here longer. I think it depends on how much work he has up here."

"That's good," Charlotte replied, "I'd hate switching schools all the time, I'd imagine it gets kind of disorienting." Since she was sitting there, she opened her messenger bag and started putting her books inside. She also fished around for a stray pen and paper. "I can give you my number or e-mail if you want it - at the very least maybe we can help each other out of things go crazy again." She'd lost all faith in the group system she'd attempted to organize. From now on, easier to just try and be prepared.

"It gets old, but it's my life," Alexis said, still upbeat. She was used to it. Plus, she loved her father and she'd rather be with him than somewhere else. "Sure!" she said, glad to do the same. "Can I have both? I can give you mine as well. It'd be nice to have someone to touch base with. My dad kinda freaked out this last time and locked us both in." And even if he wouldn't let her out, she could at least call Charlotte and see how she was doing. That was far better than how she'd fared this time.

"Sure," Charlotte answered, smiling again. She neatly printed her info and ripped the piece of paper in half, before handing both and the pen to Alexis. "My mom kind of went into paranoia mode yesterday, but on Friday she was still too out of it. Otherwise she tends to hover where she makes sure I'm in one piece."

"She sounds like she'd get along well with my dad," Alexis laughed. Overprotective parents were common, and even more so when there were monsters around. It didn't matter that there was little they could do about it once the monsters were gone. At some point, they had to be let free. Alexis did the same, scribbling down her name, number, and email on the paper Charlotte handed her. "Can I call sometime? Just to hang out? Or is this only for emergency the town's gone crazy type stuff?" she asked, teasing lightly.

Charlotte chuckled softly and her ears went a little pink, embarrassed. She still felt new to this making friends thing, even if things had seemed to go well with Kaysen and Herbert. "Of course, call anytime. I'm rarely ever doing anything." And by rarely ever, she'd actually meant 'never'.

"Thanks," Alexis said. She'd have never guessed that she'd make a friend in the library, as it wasn't exactly her favorite place to go. While she liked to read, she'd rather be spending her time with friends, but they were hard to make when she was having to lock herself up in her room. "I'll look for you at school tomorrow."

"Sounds good." Charlotte replied, smiling again as she slowly pushed herself to her feet. "I'll let you read though... maybe you'll find something I missed." Which was doubtful, considering how obsessive she got over books, but it was a nice thought. "Oh - and if you decide to check out Nevermore, it's on Washington street."

"Maybe," Alexis grinned. "Or maybe I'll head down to Nevermore. It was nice to meet you, Charlotte. Thanks for your help." And more than that, what she didn't say, was the thanks for talking to her at all. It was hard meeting people in new towns, no matter how many times she did it. Alexis liked to think she was getting better at it, but when things like this happened, it got so much harder. She'd have never thought that a crazy event would allow her to meet a new friend, but she didn't mind being wrong.