bathed in moonlight & silhouetted by stars

***

“Neither of those really strike me as fantastic options, no offense.” Johnny called back as he followed her into the kitchen, content on just watching her help herself to his things and set it all up. “I suppose, if we really needed something to drink to, it could be to our health. Lord knows the town doesn’t have a lot of that right now.” Getting dark wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do at the moment, but the truth was the truth and working where he did, well Johnny was met with it often. “So, where did your roommate run off to anyways? Not that I’m complaining. With her gone, I get you all to myself.”

―

“Speak for yourself. I think I know where my health and it isn’t something to be toasted but I will drink to it. Maybe that’ll help it out tonight,” she replied back with a slim smile as she cracked open the bottle and began to pour out two drinks for the both of them. “She’s always working some story or another which means it’s another late night at the newspaper to get the exclusive for Redding. Normally I wouldn’t mind helping her except that they didn’t need me tonight. So I’m all yours,” she told him as she turned to offer one of the two glasses to him. “I warn you, if you let me stay for a glass. I might stay for one more.”

***

“Somehow that sounds even more depressing than drinking on a weekday evening, just watching you drink.” He certainly wasn’t opposed to the idea, but it also didn’t hurt to tease Alana about it just a bit as he watched her enter his apartment. “Well, you know me. I’m such the social butterfly that I need all of the attention basically at all times.” That wasn’t entirely untrue, but he had been a bit more reserved with his time lately, something Johnny was sure wasn’t the best thing for him. Yet, as long as no one called him out on it, well he was perfectly fine. “So, are we drinking to anything in particular?”

―

          “To each their own, I suppose,” she replied with a shrug, setting the bottle down on the counter as it seemed that he was content to let her take the lead for the moment as she began to open and close cabinets to find two glasses for them. “Oh, I could tell from the first time that we met. You couldn’t help but want all the attention on yourself and none left for anyone else around you.” A smirk played in place as she found the glasses and set them beside the bottle before she glanced back at him. “Boredom? Or is that too sad. We could drink to friendship, unless that’s somehow worse,” she teased lightly.

***

Nights off were rare to come by, especially lately as it seemed more and more people came rolling in with illness. The town wasn’t overwhelmed with illness, but he had noticed the numbers of patients rise and as they did, the hospital needed more hands on deck. Tonight, though, was all about him and resting. At least, it was until he heard a knock at the door. Confused and curious, Johnny went to answer it, smiling slightly when he saw Alana on the other side. “Oh I see. Your roommate is out, so now you want to hang out with me? Always knew I was second-best.” Still, he stepped away from the doorway, gesturing for her to come in.

―

          “I mean I could be back in my place and all alone, but I thought that you could use the company. So came to share,” she answered with a slight smirk as she stepped through the opened door and into the other’s apartment. It was always easier to make it seem that someone else could use her company, rather than the other way around as she head towards the kitchen. “Or I can keep it all to myself while you watch.”

“I’m glad that someone’s lucky around here.” She teased. Maggie certainly didn’t get lucky these days. Not that she did, ever, at all. Not since college how embarrassing was that? She digressed, her sorry love life wasn’t at all the point of this conversation. Alana and Frankie deserved all the luck in the world. “If you end up needing anything, I know a few good shops that aren’t expensive. I don’t even mean that in the Alex way where he just quietly buys you things.”

Maggie nodded, completely agreed. “You’re not wrong. If someone stepped up the whole town would feel better, I bet.” Even if it was just one of the gangs. Sometimes gangs could do good for their communities, too. Not often but sometimes. She’d seen weirder things in the world. 

“Hey, I’d bring it back in the end.” She stuck out her tongue but she was still smiling. It felt nice to start making friends again, for real.

***

Alana nodded. If not for Frankie, then she would still be living in the Sherwood Hotel and it had been more than a stroke of luck to her way into living in the spare room of the other’s apartment. “I would prefer not to be bought things quietly or otherwise, not when I can still afford it for the time being,” she remarked, even though as work slowed to a crawl meant that she would be in more of a need than she was willing to admit. Most of her money that she’d brought with her went to the room she’d been staying in in hopes that it would be enough to get her feet underneath her without needing additional help from her family back home. 

***

He couldn’t help but be even more amused as she kept talking. Johnny found himself hoping that she stuck around for a while. The building could use a touch of life in it and though she seemed over everything in a way, she also seemed to be just the level of vibrant everyone in the building needed. “Yeah, well, I’m not too worried about you coming into my place to rob me. If we actually got into any sort of a fight, I’m pretty confident that I could take you down.” He was beyond confident, but that was only because he had already sized her up well before they started bringing the boxes upstairs. It was something about himself that drove him crazy, but once he had started, he couldn’t turn it off.

His life had gone from something wonderful, like a scene out of a Hallmark story to a horror story. Such events had put him on edge, plain and simple. Now, it just felt natural to size up everyone he spoke to, look for exit strategies and just remain on high alert. That was his natural state.

Though he masked it with a chuckle as he pulled out his apartment keys and began walking towards the door to his own place. “Forgive the bit of mess in the living room. I obviously wasn’t expecting to have anyone over so I didn’t really tidy up the place.” Though naturally he was a rather tidy guy, every now and then the chaos in him took over and clothes were tossed over the back of the couch and empty coffee mugs were left all over. The chaos hadn’t been too bad as only three mugs were out and about – one on the coffee table in the living room, one on the small bar facing the kitchen that he used as a dining table for one, and one on an end table. He was getting better apparently.

“Make yourself at home. Do you have any food allergies I should know about?”

***

          “I would not underestimate me.”

While she might have spent most of her life shipped off to boarding school where fencing had been the extent to her ability to fight back, it hadn’t stopped the curiosity and desire to feel stronger and more in control of her own life. Or the way that she’d found herself exactly where her family tried to keep her from and with people that taught her how to fight back, and fight dirty. It never lasted, when did the good ever last?

Every part of her life away from home had never lasted, always brought her back and dampened her back into the box they sought to fit her in with nothing more than a pretty smile and a quiet demeanor. It was horrid. Alana could see why Ari left when she did and never looked back but defying her parents for too long had never been her strong suit. This was as far as she’d come to leave them behind enough that they wouldn’t be able to follow, or so she hoped.

***

“Yeah well, this weird person is making sure that you were standing out on the sidewalk with all your stuff, so I Think I get some credit.” Though Johnny would have been lying to himself if he said there was anything she could have done that would have made him not help her. That just had never been the type of person he was. If someone needed help, they got help and that was that. Despite all the hardships he had gone through in his life, it hadn’t made him cold. Really, it seemed to do the opposite as Johnny just wanted to keep people from feeling the same pain and dismay that he had felt at several points in his life. If he could do that, well he would consider it a good day.

It didn’t really surprise him when she set conditions on the entire thing. He probably would have done the same if someone had been offering him so much help then insisted that he come back with them to their place for dinner. Suddenly, Johnny couldn’t help but wonder why in the world she had even agreed to talk to him in the first place, only then realizing how odd it was to invite her back to his apartment for dinner without it seeming like some lame attempt at picking her up.

“I’ll accept the help. As for if I always invite strangers in, no. Though, to be fair, most strangers don’t keep holding a conversation with me as you have long enough for me to invite them into my apartment. Besides, we’re hallway neighbors. We’re not strangers.”

***

           “You offered help without any information given as to what kind of help you were offering,” she pointed out with a sharp look that softened around the edges, because he wasn’t wrong. Too many others had completely ignored her or offered help only to laugh as they walked away, leaving her confused and frustrated with the fact that she still could not get a hold of her roommate or remember the number of their apartment. “I did not know at the time that you even lived in the same building.” Technically, she still didn’t.

If she believed him, then it was easier to see why he wanted to help as they would run into each other more at the building and have to face ignoring her one time with every pass they made in the future. “Then you invited me into your apartment without knowing your name,” she added with a hint of a smirk as she shook her head and glanced back down at her boxes before she moved a few around to make the pile seem smaller than it actually was. “But you are not as weird as you might have seemed at first because you did help me.” And she appreciated it.

“That’s true, I just don’t think I’d be willing to do it all day, every day. I don’t enjoy the spotlight, I’m not sweet and people? Well they can get a bit too much and I wouldn’t know how to handle it,“ a smirk. At least her patients at the hospital had a legit reason to be constantly grumpy. “I grew up here, on these streets, I know them like the back of my hand. Almost every street is associated with some memory and my Nana used to tell me stories about local heroes and town legends before bed.” Whether she liked it or not, Grimmbrook was a part of her, it’d given her more than she deserved and the least she could do was give something back; to the town itself, to its people. “You move around a lot.” Edith stated the logical conclusion to Alana’s words. “Because of work?” Fog as some unexpected consequence of the climate change was the best option she could come up with and tell herself on repeat to make sense of it all. Yet, Edith’s nature pushed her to keep looking for answers. “Do you have a better explanation?” Asked she casually. The brunette had seen the world apparently so maybe she was more informed, even though the tone of her voice implied she wasn’t. Still, it didn’t hurt to ask. Edith would need something to get her mind off the heavy boxes in her arms. Aware the philosophical discussion wouldn’t get them anywhere, Edith grabbed the nearest box without a word and turned her head to look back at Alana. “Lead the way, let’s do this.”

***

            “At least you’re being honest about it,” she replied with a noncommittal tone of voice, trying to figure the other out but finding it difficult to do the more they talked and opened up about their ties to the town. Alana didn’t have any other than the form of her cousin, but even that was tense and hard to understand how to fix at this moment when her entire life was in boxes, literally. “Lucky you, to have such ties to one such place.” Her own memories of home were strained and littered with all the ways that her parents wanted to fall into line with them, rather than let her be her own person. It wasn’t until she was sent to live overseas did she finally begin to realize that there was more to the world than what they told her, something that she was struggling to rediscover since moving to Grimmbrook. Alana nodded as she picked up her own box, not one to open up so easily as her cousin must have been to find herself at home at a place like this. “Yes, because of work. There isn’t one place that I would call home out of them, but they all hold better memories than ― “Well, she gestured with her arms full back towards the mist as she took the lead into the building to finish moving the last of her things inside as the other offered help that Alana wasn’t sure that she should have been given, or deserved. Not after the way they’d gotten off on the wrong feet, or that she didn’t trust as easily as she once had which left her wondering more about the other person than the fog at the moment. “If I did, then I wouldn’t be looking to others for answers. It feels as if I am in the same ship as everyone else in understanding what is wrong with this place,” she replied, meaning more to do with the fog than anything else as she momentarily hesitated as they hit the bottom of the stairs. “Thank you,” was all she spoke before she began up the stairs towards her new apartment.

It wasn’t often the Cage got women into the ring. Jesus chalked it up to the fact that most of them were smart enough not to think that fight clubs were a healthy or productive way to spend their time. So he was surprised when he realized that he’d be stepping into the ring that night with a woman he didn’t recognize, out of the few who sometimes popped in. 

“Javi gave you the run-down, right?” he said, approaching through the milling crowd to where she stood just near the ring. “You win, you get a percentage from anyone who bet on you. You get seriously hurt, you’re not allowed to call 911 no matter how much it hurts; we got a medic to sure you don’t die. Pretty much anything goes as long as you’re not biting or aiming my eyes.”

@alanalopez

Alana opened and closed her fists, an outlet for everything pent up inside had presented itself in the form of a fighting ring that was not too unlike ones that she’d seen and participated in back home. Yes, they had gone easy on her at first when she was simply seen as the girlfriend to one of the members, but eventually Alana began to be able to hold her own. A strength that she focused on in the months since the shooting with running and working out, but it was never enough to completely escape the memories of that day.

           “This is not my first circus,” she simply stated, quick to take a fighter’s stance that she’d been taught even as it mixed in with lessons from boarding school and harder ones in the streets. “I would not even know the number if I tried.” A flicker of a sardonic grin touched her lips before it was gone again, nodding as she understood what she faced even if the task was daunting along with the person that would not hold back. She wouldn’t either as she raised her arms. “ A mí la muerte me pela los dientes,” she whispered under her breath.

“You must be new,” he gathered quickly, smiling mirthlessly as he looked downward with a nod. Only someone new in town would have the brains to gather it was a hellhole so quickly. New and somehow tenuously connected to the Enriquez case? Brandon’s curiosity was piqued. 

“Rest assured that you’re not the only person worried,”  he countered, though it seemed like only those affected seemed bothered to care. “And we have a team of specialists working on it.”

This, of course, was a trained lie—what specialists did Grimmbrook have to offer, other than overworked medical staff at the hospital? Calling in the National Guard had been discussed quietly among the precinct, but the decision hadn’t ever been made official. It seemed as though everyone was simply…waiting. Waiting for things to get better. Or worse. 

“But I do apologize if the town isn’t everything you’d hoped for,” he offered sardonically, knowing completely that her disappointment was well-founded and not finding it within himself to care too much. “We’re working on improving things as quickly as we can.”

***

Alana opened and closed her mouth for a moment, unsure of what about her called for being new other than the fact that no one else seemed as concerned about the changes in the air as much as they were already used to it. She had been there a few months, but hadn’t been able to see how it could be ignored as blatantly as some made it out to be as she simply nodded in response.

It wasn’t what she expected when speaking to the town Sheriff, but then again — most of her experience talking to law enforcement was minimal before her father and his security team stepped in to put as much distance between her and the unrest that she’d been in the middle of back home. Her name was kept out of the papers, photographs taken were confiscated or destroyed to the point where no one other than herself and her family knew what she’d been connected to, not even her cousin.

~~~~~~~~~

Ursula had been watching the girl for a few minutes now. Long enough to watch the glares she shot after every passerby that didn’t offer a hand. It begged the question, where had Alana Lopez lived before Grimmbrook? Some rose colored town where you could ask any neighbor for a cup of sugar and expect to get it? Did you have people falling over themselves to offer her assistance? 

Do no help others unless you are also helping yourself. That was Ursula’s mantra. She had plans for Alana, plans that involved winning over her trust, which meant well…the Good Samaritan card simply needed to be played. Her manicured nails are not unfamiliar with a little physical labor now as she leaves behind the little cafe she’d been observing the girl from. Heels click clacked across asphalt, confident intention as she approached the brunette. 

“I assure you that no one in this town thinks this is normal. They’re just in an intense limbo of helpless denial.  Do you want some help with that? That’s an awful lot to try and move by yourself before the window closes on moving about outside safely.”

***

Staring at the boxes once more, Alana felt the growing sense of restlessness and hopelessness the longer that her phone stayed silent despite her numerous texts to her soon to be roommate. Frankie was supposed to meet her there, but the driver had left her without a helping hand or much else to go on as she sat near the boxes and waited. There wasn’t much more that could be done, other than reach out to Ariela but that bridge wasn’t one that she was certainly ready to cross. Not with the luke warm welcoming that had been felt on both sides.

So she was stuck at the moment, growing concern towards the ever increasing fog that most everyone else that walked by didn’t seem to pay attention to beyond the casual glance over their shoulders to see if it moved any closer. Perhaps that was how she missed the voice that called her out of her thoughts and into the moment, a thinly pressed smile in place of the outspoken worry towards the unknown and nodded once. “It’s not a feeling that I particularly enjoy,” she conceded with a slight shrug, having felt in denial and helpless long before she’d come here.

           “Is it not good to be out here at night?” An innocent question that raised the hairs on the back of her neck, trying to find a way back to being more like herself now that she was far from home. “I’d appreciate any help, but it’s gotten to the point where I feel like I live here now. My roommate isn’t answering any of my texts or calls and the driver that was to help me move, left me here.”

***

Had he really not given her a name? Johnny thought back on it as a blush came to his cheeks at the realization that she was correct. “Sorry about that. Maybe let’s start over there. Hi, my name is Johnny Miu, I live in this building, and I promise that I’m not as weird as I must seem.” He held out his hand as if to shake hers then pull it back. “You’re not asking me; I’m offering it to you. Pretty sure when you’re offered, you’re allowed to say yes.” Though he wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to. He was a stranger, and even if she knew where he lived, there was some level of sketchiness to it that he wouldn’t have blamed her for picking up on.

“Well, if you are up for it, I can fix something up to eat and then we can wait for your roommate to show up.” It would be a bit and leaving her just out there alone felt wrong for him to do. “Maybe, over lunch, you can tell me a bit more about yourself. What made you want to come to Grimmbrook, what do you do for a living. You know, those sorts of questions.” No one had ever said that he wasn’t a nosy boy and it was a label that Johnny wore with pride.

***

Alana noticed but kept it to herself the way his cheeks reddened when she called him out on having invited her to stay at his place without so much as a name in either direction. All she’d given him was the name of her roommate and the floor that she would be living, but everything else was unknown. A fresh start was how she had painted her life to be here, but things were complicated when it came to even finding a way to reconnect with her cousin again. “You offer your home to a stranger without asking their name or giving your own. I am afraid that you seem as weird as you claim,” she told him with a small smile as she took his hand with a gentle but firm handshake. “Alana.”

He hadn’t asked, but she wasn’t about to make him squirm when he had helped her this far along and it fell on her shoulders to either wait out the time until Frankie returned or take him up on his offer. She glanced from her pile to him again, hands resting on her hips as she considered her options and knew that they were limited, but his actions spoke more than words at this point. “You would think, but you were not raised as I was ― “ A thought she didn’t want to remark on as she shook her head and smiled, brushing that off her shoulders and sought the feeling she got when she started over somewhere new ― somewhere that wasn’t home but could be. 

          “I accept but only if you let me help or else I will stay out here with my boxes and wait. You have already helped me this far and I’m not going to let it continue without giving something back.” Even if she didn’t like the idea of talking about what brought her there. “And then I too can ask the questions like do you always invite strangers into your apartment or is this a special occasion?”

“For the larger pieces, you’ve got me.” She said firmly. No friend left behind. Moving was the worst part of coming or going and doing it alone made everything seem so large. Maggie knew this for a fact, she’d not had any help on at least a few of hers. With company everything felt more doable.

“No, she’s probably a fine person but I can’t really say she’s been doing a job lately.” Someone probably had the mayor in their pocket. Town this small it felt inevitable honestly, but to have the mayor on strings and not even let her help while people died? Whoever controlled her was just as culpable for this horrid response as the mayor. 

Maggie nodded and headed for the stairs. “I can help until Frankie gets here at the very least. And after that if you think you two have it handled you can kick me and I’ll go get food y’all or something.”

–

***

            “You are in luck that this is all I have at the moment. There is already a bed and dresser in the room.” And the rest she would eventually find for herself one day, building her life back together piece by piece for as long as she stayed in town. It wasn’t meant to be temporary, but everything felt that way when her entire life there was packed into the few boxes between the two of them and whatever else was left by the doorstep to the building. “Luck was on my side with this room.” And finding Frankie.

Though as they carried the boxes up the stairs and neared the third floor, Alana listened to the other speak of the town’s mayor that seemed to be quiet at the time when most had more questions than answers. She knew what the Rose siblings had concocted about the mist from her time spent with them, hearing what others would gossip, but there was still a lot left to the imagination. It wasn’t helpful to those that lived where the mist now lay. “It feels as if no one knows what all to do and could use help, guidance ― but it is missing.” It was only her opinion having been there only for a few months, but Alana felt as if she could see it in the eyes of those around her.

——————–

“I just like to keep my opportunities open,” Drake shrugged simply. He smiled again. He knew about that all too well. The phrase, innocuous enough had saved his skin more times than he wanted to count. And had landed it in trouble just as much. If not more. Maybe he needed the saying on a t-shirt, one of these days.

A light chuckle left him, hardly registering the way she grasped for words. She was new about town anyway. She probably had no idea exactly how truthful what he said was. Nor how bad things could end up being. It was behind him now, but he could still remember it. Though he had tried to make the best of what he’d had. He’d tried. “Now there’s a thought. Maybe we should get you in touch with city council. Or something.” She would be a step up from what they had now, in his opinion, even though he didn’t know Alana well. Hardly at all really, outside of the gym. She kept her cards close to her chest and honestly he couldn’t blame her. He did too. He wasn’t as open of a book as people thought of him or as much as he liked to seem. He didn’t do it on purpose. If he really thought about it, he didn’t exactly know how to stop. He wasn’t sure how. 

Drake ducked his head down a little as she placed the strap of the camera around his neck, readjusting the boxes in his arms so the body of it was seated carefully on top of them. With how serious her eyes looked as she said the words, he’d hate for the piece of tech to get crushed under the weight of the boxes. He took a few steps, warily watching the camera should it slip and slide around with the movement. “Lead the way,” he said.  

***

          “Or you know how to avoid the ones that you don’t like,” she countered with a hint of a smile as she readjusted the boxes in her own arms as she glanced at the ones left behind by the two of them. They were easily replaceable, but the items that they both carried were the more important pieces to her life here now. Everything else that she had didn’t exist to her anymore, not as long as she wanted to keep a safe distance between this place and her life back home. “But I won’t tell that you gave up running so that you could help me move my boxes.” Mostly because it meant that there was an extra set of arms to help move some of her things.

Drake was someone that she knew from the gym primarily, but they seemed close with Maggie who was one of the few people that she knew before moving here through her work that took her across the globe. Funny how it landed them in the same town as her cousin, but she kept that tidbit to herself as much as anything else that was supposed to be kept private. “I would speak to them, if I thought it would make a difference. Though I am not sure they would listen to someone who isn’t from here.” A small admittance on her part then as she shrugged and nearly lost the box in her hands at the same moment.

—————-

Maybe if it was a different time Ariela wouldn’t have held herself back. Maybe if it was a different place and maybe if she’d done things differently she’d have bright smiles and inviting encouragements to say. Maybe if she’d never left home and never found Grimmbook. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But none of those maybes were the reality she stood in right then, behind the bar of The Midnight Pub and so she didn’t do any of the things she might have otherwise. 

She forewent shyly suggesting they split a bottle, just the two of them. Noah wasn’t around and she couldn’t be blamed for wanting to celebrate familia, she would have said. Family was important. Ariela still thought that. That had never changed. But it was a lot harder to put it into practice when… when-

She had a hard time putting it into words. She had a hard time thinking about it. Everything had been so much simpler when the prospect of her relatives were all locked behind the safety of a computer screen or a cellphone.

“You never know what might happen,” Ariela replied with a gentle shrug. It was as close to the actual her her cousin was probably going to get that night. 

She looked down, a faint blush tinting her cheeks as the other woman mentioned her coworkers and the luck they’d had in finding her. Was it embarrassment that made Ariela drop her head? No, not that. She could never be embarrassed of the two women she held in such high regard. But still, she felt a pang in her chest at the words. It rang in her ears more as an accusation than just a mere comment. 

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m sure they’d want me to have a chance to talk with family.” She even managed a smile as she looked up again, though it faded quickly from her lips. She doubted Ida or Ella even knew why she was spending so much time talking to one random girl. Nor why the one random girl managed to dampen the light she usually carried with her so easily. She’d never talked about her family with either of them. What would they think now?

Oh Ariela, que vamos a hacer? 

She was grateful for the reprieve Alana allowed her as Ariela turned to look at the shelf of bottles behind her, pretending to consider them carefully as she thought of what drink her cousin might like. “Well, there is the mojito. Tried and true, you know? A little taste of home?” She regretted the words as soon as she said them and quickly tried to correct course, the last half of her sentence coming out in a breathless rush. “But if you’ve become more of a tequila person, people do say I can make a mean margarita.” 

The other wasn't wrong, Alana had gone this long without knowing what might happen but there was little reason to celebrate and it hadn't changed in months now. Maybe even longer if she stood back to think about the last time there was a cause for it. Their family hadn't been together in years, broken pieces that seemed to be whole when looked at by anyone on the outside. Picture perfect. And Alana knew how to smile at the right moment but the effort cost her more than enough with every trip home as she let with less than she had at the start.

It hadn't been enough to deter her actions or the reason behind her move to the states and specifically Grimmbrook, wanting to be with her cousin there despite all the warnings against it. Ones that were glaringly obvious the longer that she lingered at the bar's edge, glances shot back and forth for unspoken answers as she came to terms with the distance herself. And the answers that weren't so easily found.

Though there was no where else to look but at her cousin, who was avoiding her eyes more so than usual as Alana frowned and glanced back at those closest to where she now stood and wished they would move away. "Do they know that you are talking to family?" An innocent enough question, but one that Alana knew wasn't so simple to answer considering they hadn't done more than talk over the phone or internet since Ariela left home. Then again, hadn't that been on her as much as the other with how often that she traveled the world to be anywhere but home.

That was until things tied her home for various reasons, none of which that Ariela knew but would find out eventually as she pressed her lips together in mild confusion as she watched the other turn away from her. "If you're busy, I can go. It is not a problem," she added once more, in case the other felt the urge to flee as much as Alana did while she wanted to disappear rather than feel the awkward tension that couldn't be shook.