baby baby, i'll be good to you

Laura had to get away from all of it. From the vigil, the revelation, death, everything. It felt like she drowning in it and she couldn’t reach the surface. She hadn’t felt like it since the day she found out about her parents. The vigil was two days before, but Laura couldn’t shake it. The Morgue even felt like it was suffocating her, the place she called home felt like it was out to get her. That was how she ended up at Ray’s. It had become her escape from the chaos since her freshman year. She set herself up in a booth by the door, laying out her laptop and a textbook even though she knew no work would get finished.

The news blast from earlier that day kept flashing in her mind. The Red Avenger. Who could it be and why did they decide they would be Lovell’s masked vigilante? How did they know who did it? The door chiming caught her attention and made her raise a brow when she noticed who it was. She plastered a smile on her face, pushing whatever thoughts were plaguing her to the back of her mind. 

”The seats open if you want it. But first, you have to answer a riddle. A box without hinges, lock or key, yet golden treasure lies within. What is it?”

Location: Front Square Time: Right After Memorial Unveiling Status: OPEN

As his gaze scanned the large crowd gathered at the vigil, he couldn’t help but feel nostalgic, and not necessarily in a good way. The divide was clear - Gravemakers on one side, Pax Aurea on the other - separated like oil and water even under the so-called truce in place. “Things never change,” he stated under his breath, the slightest of smirks appearing on his lips before he was pulled back to reality by the collective gasp from the people surrounding him.

After over a year working in homicide, Niles had become a bit desensitized to the evil shit that mankind was capable of. It was true that over time, things had seemed to surprise him less and less, but Marcus Abernathy’s bones appearing miles away from their resting place was definitely cause for a stir. And now also a pointed message for whoever murdered Abernathy - red, like the blood they spilled. It was something out of a horror movie.

“Did you know him? Abernathy?” he asked casually to the person beside him as he nodded to the memorial, never one for your typical pen-and-notepad interview. “Always heard he was a  dick.” 

Laura teetered on the edge of the crowd, ready to run at a moments notice. She stuck with the crowd she knew best, only saying hello to others when it was someone from her class. Staying on the outskirts was the perfect location for her to chain smoke the entire time - and go unnoticed by campus police if any shit went down during the vigil.

Low and behold, shit did go down at the vigil. Marcus was hunting them from beyond the grave and he had to do it in the most dramatic way possible. A voice next to her grabbed her attention, almost spooking her back to reality. Niles. When did he arrive at the vigil nonetheless show up next to her? She entertained the idea of him asking her questions as if she didn’t know what was happening.

“Are... you interrogating me right now, Niles?” She tilted her head to the side as she looked at him. If he was going to question her, she was going to play her own little game. “Is that even legal?”

Location: Front Square Status: Open  Time: End of the vigil, directly after the portrait was shown

   Most of Wesley didn’t want to be looking when they pulled the tarp down - she’d hated every second surrounded by her fake peers, in this fake silence, giving fake fucking care - the whole vigil was bullshit, her hands were frozen, and the black hoodie didn’t retain nearly enough warmth. 

  Wesley had been miserable ever since her curiosity had dragged her from her room, down the steps reluctantly, and into the chilly winds of the vigil. She’d kept her head down, hands stuffed into her black denim pockets, hair in her face - hood pulled low. Wes wanted to be as much of a ghost as Marcus now was, floating through her classmates, in a sickening silence.. until-

  “Jesus, fuck!” Wesley jumped, heart leaping into her throat and a hand flying to her mouth as she jerked backwards, slamming her shoulders into the poor person directly behind. Her gaze ripped from the blood red words to glare at the person she’d damn near knocked over. “Fuck, some personal space, maybe?” 

  No apology was given, but Wes was clearly shaken, and she only hoped the other couldn’t hear the thudding in her heart drumming through her ears. The picture they’d chosen was shit, even without the vandalism, and all Wes could think was - Finally,Marcus. A secret you never told me. Who did kill you?

Laura had been knee deep in her phone for the last 15 minutes. The candle she held in one hand was burnt out and the young Gravemaker she came with was long gone. Not that she had noticed any of that. She was too busy watching a Twitter fight go down between two people in her major after two hours of vague tweeting from the both of them. It would make for an interesting ethics class the next morning.

In fact, it wasn’t until she felt someone's shoulders slam into her chest that she finally looked up from her phone. “The fuck, Wesley? You crashed into me,” her accent coming through along with her anger. The least the girl in front of her could do was apologize and she didn't even do that. 

It was only when her gaze shifted from Wesley to the picture frame in front of the crowd. “Oh, shit. This just got interesting, don’t you think?” It wasn’t that Laura was insensitive to the whole thing, but from the one time she had met Marcus, she could see why someone would kill him. And could name about 15 other people who would do it. 

Laura had been on line for a cup of coffee for at least 15 minutes and she was beginning to get impatient. The fact that someone had set up a stand was both genius and a bit distrubing to Laura; while she wasn’t going to complain because it was freezing out, she was curious as to why someone would capitalize on people life her during a vigil. She glanced down at her watching, rolling her eyes when she realized the time kept on ticking as she stood there. 

Finally, she made it to the front of the line and placed her order. One large black coffee and she was happy. She shoved as many sugar packets as she could into her pockets and was on her way. Laura spoted Nat and jogged back over to dug her chin in the girls shoulder a bit, trying to get her attention. “Do you think it’ll look sketchy if we just bounce? This vigil is making me start to think about my place in life. Too deep for this early in the night.” 

location: the common room of the Morgue date: 23 January time: late evening      ( open ) 

     “Please don’t tell me you’re going to that dumb fucking vigil.”

She’d watched, honestly, more Gravemakers than she’d expected, head out of the house in order to go to the bullshit candlelit vigil from her perch on the windowseat in the common room, where she was sat with an ancient and heavily annotated copy of Thucydides and a rainbow of Beaux’s highlighters, and she still didn’t understand the appeal. None of the lower classmen had known Marcus, and the upper classmen like her who had knew that he wasn’t shit. Wasn’t worth mourning, from what she’d heard about him, from the little she’d seen freshman year of the way he interacted with people, they were all better off he was dead. 

She hadn’t even humored the idea, honestly; she’d heard about the vigil, sure, but had settled in for a normal evening getting some much-needed work done on her dissertation. She’d been neglecting it all week in favor of the Netflix account someone had left open on the house TV, and her advisor was starting to get antsy. But the sound of yet another person heading out of the house was enough to pull her out of the book in front of her.

     “Seriously?”

The second she heard Silva’s voice, Laura stopped in her tracks. 

Hearing her almost made Laura embarrassed that she was going. She should've guessed that the blonde would opt out of the vigil, but that didn’t stop her from turning around and trying to convince her to go. “I’m going for Beaux. If none of us show up it doesn’t exactly look good. Plus, I haven’t updated my Finsta in, like, two weeks. It needs new content.” She had voiced her opinion about the whole vigil and how stupid it was that they were even holding it in the first place. 

Laura had better things to do that included a paper, a presentation, and a half empty glass filled with a smoothie that was begging to be finished. “You’re not going to let me go alone would you?” She crossed her arms as she made her way towards the girl. “I thought we were friends, Silva.” If there was one thing Laura was good at, it was guilting others into doing something with she wanted; it usually included something fun like a concert or a hockey game. Not attending a vigil for some dead douchebag. 

—“well well, isn’t it nice to see you outside the library. the lack of florescent lighting is doing wonders for your complexion.” she doesn’t bother to look around to see who’s watching her approach laura. pax and the gravemakers were in a truce, after all. they were supposed to be friends. if emily didn’t like it, emily could go fuck herself. only stupid people cared what anybody else thought about them, and jen knew she could get just as far by not caring. she would rather talk to f a s c i n a t i n g people than be bored any day. laura d’altuin was fascinating, an enigma and a somewhat open book rolled up into one creation. if it was a choice between speaking with laura than anybody else in her immediate proximity, she would pick laura. besides, she was beginning to think laura might prove useful to her someday. “the macabre of all of this really is your style, isn’t it?” a look around, a glance at some crying people and then back. “but a bummer, none the less. i can feel sad people vibes getting all over me.” 

     ( @lauradaltuin )

“Jen.” Laura recognized her voice in the sea of whispers around her. A smirk made its way onto her face as some of the people around them noticed they were speaking to each other. A Gravemaker and Pax member actually speaking to each other? Unheard of. But, that’s what happens when peace treaties are drawn. “If I’m being honest, I’m surprised you showed up to this. Following orders from the queen bee?” If they were forced to attend this pity party, at least they would be entertained by the other. Laura couldn’t have picked a better person to spend the vigil with if she plucked Jen out herself. 

Location: Front Square  Time: 9:30pm Status: Open

She was torturing herself. It was absurd, coming here tonight. The whole thing was absurd – a candlelight vigil for a boy that ruined more than one persons life during his time at Lovell. Marcus Abernathy had been the worst person Beaux had ever known, and she knew all the Gravemakers, so that was saying something. She shouldn’t be here, but she couldn’t have stopped herself if she tried. It was a morbid curiosity. 

As she looked around the crowd, she felt paranoia settling in. Someone had gone to the Gravemaker estate. Someone had dug up Marcus’ body and dumped it right here, on these cobblestones. God. It had all gone tits up. It was all fucked. She clenched her hands inside her pockets, keeping the rest of her body as calm as she could get it. She was thankful, at least, that everybody else seemed to be as grim as she was. When a student came around with the candles, she had to unclench the hands. She took one with a grim smile, letting them light it for her. The glow made everything seem softer, but she knew that it never actually would be. 

It was all fucked. Marcus didn’t deserve vigil. He’d deserved what he got. But she couldn’t stand here rolling that thought around in her head for hours. Another glance around, still half paranoid that the mastermind of these dramatics would jump out at her, though she’s slightly comforted by the sight of a familiar face. Her feet take her over to them without much thought, her shoulders relaxing. “Fancy seeing you here.” She gives them a wry smile, arching an eyebrow at them. “You don’t happen to think this is as fucked as I do, do you?” 

If there was one thing Laura knew, it was that the worst people always had the best vigils. Marcus was no exception to that rule. The outpouring of students who apparently loved him made Laura roll her eyes. How many of these kids actually knew the prick who died? And how many of them actually cared? Laura sure as hell didn’t and if it wasn’t social unacceptable she would have been leading the parade down the street. Plus, showing her face kept the peace between them and Pax and the last thing either of the groups needed was a feud to break out because none of the Gravemakers showed up to the vigil. 

She took a sip from the cup in her as she watched people cry and huddle together. Thank God she poured some Bailey’s into her coffee before leaving the Morgue. If she was going to get through this night, she was going to need alcohol. The dramatics of the whole was too much - even for her. She could hear people sobbing over how terrible it was and how he didn’t deserve it when he did. 

A familiar voice snapped her out of her thoughts, a smile sliding onto her face when she realized who it was. “Oh, I do. This whole charade makes me think we’re stuck in The Twilight Zone,” she lowered her voice before continuing. “Do any of us really want to be here? No. But, our fearless leader is and who are we to let her face this morbid display of affection alone?” She offered the cup to Beaux, knowing if anyone needed alcohol it was her. 

“It’s got to be my accent. It even gives me a headache sometimes.”

"Never. Pax is filled with trust fund babies who have too much time on their hands.” 

“Xander, of course. Who else would it be?” ( @desaixan )

FREDDY: If you could bring any person back from the dead, who would it be? 

“That would have to be my Ma. I miss her every day.” 

JULIAN: Have you ever gotten someone else in trouble for something you did? 

“Have I?”

ANDREW: Do you believe in true love?

“As a wise woman once said, do you believe in life after love? I can feel something inside me say, ‘I really don’t think you’re strong enough, no.’“

JENNIFER: If you had three wishes, what would they be? 

“Now this is an easy one. First, erase that memory of the year I had a fringe. That was a dark time that I’d rather forget. Second, pass POL 488 with a C because C’s get degrees. Third, another almond milk latte to survive the rest of the day.” 

IMOGEN: what is your happiest memory?

“I guess it would be the day I met everyone. I had been lonely for a long, long time and they became my family.”

SILAS: What do you do to relax?

“I put some Glass Animals on full blast and dance it out. I’m sure Andrew loves it.”