Sweetheart

“Luca, hey bud, what’s up?” She’s already clambering out of bed, “Why are you crying, are you ok?” 

“I’m fine but-” There’s a miserable sniffle and Babs has to start pacing around her room before she runs out into the blizzard in her pajamas. “I don’t know what happened, I was driving around in the snow- I was being careful! I know it’s stupid ok, but I…” 

Luca trails off and phone statics, Babette is almost panicked that the call is about to drop but their connection manages to hang on. 

“I think I crashed?” Luca says, “I don’t know, I can’t tell where I am, the snow is coming down so hard and I can barely see outside my windows.” 

Babette will have time to yell at her brother for driving around during a blizzard later, right now she needs to get him to calm down. His breaths are coming in too panicked and too fast and Babette doesn’t want him to have a full breakdown by himself, stranded somewhere in the haunted snow. 

“It’s ok! Is your engine still on? You have heat, right?” 

Luca lets out a quiet affirmative hum and Babette breathes a sigh of relief. 

“Ok. Do you have gps or something? Can you look at that to tell me where you are?” 

There’s silence for a moment, Babette gnaws on her lip and doesn’t care that she definitely breaks skin with her fangs, the tangy and heavy taste of her own blood flooding her mouth. She hasn’t stopped pacing since she pushed herself out of bed, clomping back and forth in her room until Luca speaks up again. 

“I’m by Columbus park” He says eventually, sounding hopeless. It’s music to Babette’s ears, though. She knows Columbus park, she goes past it in the mornings when she jogs sometimes, she could probably find her way there blindfolded. It’s a bit of a trek, but she knows she can make it, cursed snow or not. 

“Ok. Stay there. Don’t leave your car and stay warm ok? I know where that’s at and I’ll come get you.” Babette says, already opening her closet to pull out as many layers of coats that she can. 

“What? Babbit, are you crazy? What if you get lost?” Luca sounds panicked, the phone struggling to adjust as he shouts into his phone. 

“I won’t! I know where you’re at. I have friends around there. I’m coming to get you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”