You'll Think I'm Crazy

Who: Jules and Olivia
When: Early evening
Where: Jules's house

It had been a horrible, painstaking long week. After Judiel had disappeared, she had gone back to the tent to wait. She stayed for two days, sitting outside and watching the mountain. Waiting for him to come wandering up to her. But he never did. She went searching for him on the third and fourth days, but found nothing. She hadn't known what to do, or who to call. She went through a variety of emotions. Fear, panic, distress. It was a never ending cycle. She felt helpless and useless, not being able to help him when he needed her to. And now she didn't know where he was - other than he was somewhere in the Dreaming - and more painfully, she didn't know if he was even alive anymore. When Monday hit, Olivia finally packed their things into the rental car and after getting lost many times and having to stop for directions, she drove - slowly and carefully - back to the airport.

She sat in the airport for hours, staring blanky ahead, too numb to do much else. Olivia simply went through the motions, boarding the airplane, flying back to Michigan alone. She stupidly cried a couple times mid-flight, but thankfully people left her alone. She cried again once she got their things back to Judiel's car and sat in the driver's seat without any clue as to what to do next. She didn't know how she got back to Marquette in one piece, or without getting pulled over. To say Olivia didn't adapt well to driving was a major understatement. She'd never heard so many car horns blaring at her as they sped past.

She stopped at Judiel's apartment first, dragging everything up to his door. She unlocked it with his keys and put his things on the couch, disappointed that she'd allowed herself to think maybe he would be there. Keeping his keys and cell phone on her, she locked his apartment back up before taking his car to Jules's place where all her stuff currently resided. She got her bag and walked up to the door to knock. It was her place now too, but it felt strange to Olivia barging in after having been gone for so long.

Jules raised a brow when she heard the knock at her door. She hadn't been expecting anyone. She wondered if it was Aiden, but tried not to look too hopeful as she pulled the door open. "Olivia." she said with a little smile, but the smile quickly faded because the girl didn't look happy at all. "What's wrong?" she asked, tilting her head a bit in confusion. "Shouldn't you look happy after a boyfriend trip?" she questioned, stepping aside and letting the other woman pass her.

"And... you don't have to knock." she added on. "You do live here." She couldn't help but notice the car outside. She raised a brow at that, wondering who's it was. If it was the boyfriend's car, wouldn't he have been in it?

"Oh. I know... I just... got to get used to the arrangement, I think." She stepped inside the house and wished for a moment that she had just slept over at Judiel's. His bed was familiar and smelled like him. She had a feeling she would just stare at the ceiling all night here. And Olivia really had no clue how to explain her situation to Jules. My boyfriend got sucked into the Dreaming and was led into a mountain by a strange ghost-coyote and I don't think he's coming back. Yeah... no. She carried her things into her bedroom without answering Jules's other questions. It took her a few minutes but when she remerged, she slipped her hands into the pockets of her jacket and frowned. "It's been a long week... I don't really know how to explain it without sounding insane."

Jules' raised a brow at her as Olivia left to deposit her things in her bedroom. She shrugged and shut the door, settling herself in on the couch. When Olivia came back in the room with talk of sounding crazy if she explained, Jules couldn't help but be curious. "Try me." she said with a smile. After all, she'd been in a town which had apparently been overrun with werewolves. Crazy was suddenly becoming her forte.

Olivia knew she shouldn't say anything, but it had been such a draining week, both physically and emotionally, that she knew she needed to let it out to someone. She walked over to sit on the couch and briefly wished she had a drink in front of her. "Judiel disappeared while we were camping." She would have to leave out the Dreaming and the coyote for it to make sense to Jules. "All of his things were still there when I woke up. But he's gone. I waited for days, went searching for him. I don't know where he is." She inhaled deeply to calm her nerves. "I don't know what I'm suppose to do now."

She blinked at the girl. "What?" she asked, regardless of the fact that she'd heard her. She just couldn't understand why the girl hadn't reported it or something. "Oh, god. Olivia, you need to report him missing or something." she said. If there were werewolves in Marquette, Jules wondered if there were werewolves in other places. Wondered if maybe Olivia's boyfriend met a fate that wasn't the best. She pushed that aside however. "How long has he been gone?" she asked.

"I can't!" The police would start asking her questions, questions she couldn't answer. And then they were start suspecting her of having something to do with his disappearance. She would be stuck in California. They would call Judiel's parents. She needed to be here where she could... somehow figure this whole thing out. "I can't report it. It's nothing the police would be able to help with." Olivia ran her hands over her face again. She was so tired. "A week... he went missing last Tuesday," she said miserably. "I waited... I searched. It's been a week." She didn't know how the Dreaming worked for Muses. She didn't know how easy it was for them to get out. All she knew was he hadn't come for her.

"What do you mean you can't report it?" she asked. "He's missing. You have to report it. They could be looking, maybe find him." She wondered why the girl seemed so adamant about not wanting to tell the police. She couldn't help but feel that there was a lot more to the story than what had been told to her. She pulled her voice back to a soft tone. "Olivia, start at the beginning, what happened? Honestly."

"The police won't believe me," Olivia explained numbly. "And then they'll think I did something..." She looked at Jules and realized the girl wasn't going to understand unless she told her the truth. Olivia didn't fully trust her yet, but she also knew she needed someone to tell. The only other person she had in town was Mathias and she wasn't sure she could go to him with something like this. "Do you... you know Marquette is weird, don't you? I mean, beyond the normal weird things. Like... weird things."

Jules nodded. "Unfortunately. Course I didn't find out much of that until recently. Be glad you went on a trip. Apparently werewolves were all over town." she explained. "So seriously, nothing you tell me is going to surprise me." she told the girl. She understood a little more if Judiel's disappearance had something to do with the weird. She probably wouldn't have told the police either.

Well, if she knew werewolves existed, maybe she would believe Olivia. She wasn't surprised to hear werewolves had attacked. She and Judiel had thought it best to leave while everything in town was quiet. Apparently that hadn't lasted very long. "Okay." She took a deep breath and leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees. "We were camping... sleeping in the tent. When I woke up, I thought I heard him calling for me, but he wasn't there. It was dark out, but I went searching... I waited. And then he was there, only he wasn't. It was just his voice, like he was a ghost or something." Licking her lips, Olivia dared a glance at Jules. "Have you ever heard of the Dreaming? Well, probably not if you've just recently found out about things. There are other dimensions out there... realities. One is called the Dreaming. It's a different world and there are... gates that allow you to leave and enter. Somehow a gate opened over our tent site and Judiel disappeared into it."

She raised her brow. "So he's... like... stuck in dreamland?" she asked. Dumbing it down a little for herself because, well fuck, it was confusing when you had no idea that there were other realities out there. Jules wasn't even sure how she'd made herself understand werewolves and now there were other realms?

"Sort of, yes." She nodded, thankful that Jules wasn't staring at her like she had spiders crawling out of her ears. "I could communicate with him, but he wasn't there. I don't know if maybe the gate was just close, or... I don't know. There was this animal that was leading him to the gate so he could come home, but they ended up going into this cave that wasn't there on my end. That was the last time I heard him." Olivia sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down hard to keep from getting emotional. "If I told the police, I would either be arrested or thrown into a loony bin."

Jules frowned. "Well fuck." she muttered. This was definitely a fucked up position to be in. Right between a rock and a hard place. Telling the police wouldn't do any good. Then Judiel would still be gone and Olivia would be a suspect, or thought to be a psycho, perhaps both. She sighed and leaned back against the cushions of the couch. "So what happens if he just... appears again? Would he be where he left from or back home?"

"I don't know," Olivia said honestly. That was the worst part. "I don't know much about the Dreaming other than the basic stuff. If he finds his way out, I don't know if he'll come out in California, or here, or Florida... I just don't know. I don't know if he'll even come back." Running both hands through her hair, Olivia closed her eyes, not wanting to show any vulnerability. She felt like crying again. "I feel like I should have been able to help him, but I didn't know how. I just have to figure out how to find a gate and see... see what I can do to find him."

Again a frown moved across Jules face. She could tell the girl looked like she wanted to cry and for some reason, Jules felt the need to at least try to comfort her. She might not be her best friend or anything, but, well, she looked like she needed it, so Jules shifted enough to pull the girl into a hug. "Well, I don't know shit about the dreaming or anything... but..." she shrugged. "If I can help, I'll help." she told the Olivia.

"Thanks," Olivia whispered, tensing for only a second when Jules hugged her. It was a thoughtful gesture and frankly, it was something Olivia probably needed. She had been alone for a week without any help or comfort. Pulling back from Jules, Olivia managed a small smile. "I think I'm going to go lay down... I'm exhausted."

Jules nodded. "Yeah, get some rest." she told her. "Nap it off for a while, I can make some dinner or something for when you get up. You're probably hungry too." Jules really wished she could do more but she wasn't really sure where to start or what she might be able to do. She knew nothing about 'the dreaming' as Olivia called it. So just listening would have to be enough, at least until she knew more.

"Don't worry about dinner," Olivia told her with a small, grateful smile. "I'm not hungry." She stood from the couch and rubbed her forehead. "I'm just going to lay down for a bit, and then maybe check on Judi's apartment... mail and everything." Pretending things could be normal might help her keep her sanity in check for a bit. "Thanks, Jules."

"You're welcome." she told her. She'd probably make dinner anyway. Leave something for Olivia to microwave when she did decide that she was hungry. She gave her a little smile and silently wondered if maybe it was time to check out that store. Dorian's store. Maybe he had books on that. The dreaming. She'd have to check that out for sure.

Olivia felt only mildly better being able to tell someone what had happened, but she still didn't know what she was going to do to fix anything. Leaving Jules, Olivia headed into her room and shut the door before stripping down and climbing into bed. She could try to sleep and once she woke up, she would think of something to do to help Judiel.