too young to fall asleep

Date: October 12, 2020 Time: 12:30 pm Location: Krule & Co.

One of these days she’ll get through a lunch break in peace. That though coincides with Evi’s sigh when the amaryllis on the sill blooms, announcing an incoming customer. The typical cheery salesman isn’t here to address them, so it falls on Evi, who has just wiped potting soil from her hands and emerged from the back room when the door opens. The girl looks young, but not young enough for Evi to turn her nose up. But she appears to be completely out of her element, too, which is enough to make the witch step forward and pipe up. “Looking for something in particular?” Hands on her hips, she goes on, not sure what calls for it. “This is usually the part where my business partner brags about our current sale, but the change in the weather has made things a bit sparse. In the plant department, anyway. Can still point you in the right direction, though, if you need it.”

@mackbrennan

Mack shook her head quickly before hesitating, starting to change her mind on the answer. “Actually... I... I don’t know, I’m kind of a health nut but... I’m a hybrid. So I guess I just want things to help me... Live a little longer, for my sister. I, uh... I’m pretty sickly and... Since this place is supernatural, I thought maybe you could help me..” She cleared her throat awkwardly and shifted her stance. “I’m Mack,” she said, holding out her hand in greeting. 

Maya wanted to let go of her sister’s hand to guide her to the couch, but Mack’s squeezing wouldn’t allow her to raise her hand to the younger’s back. Oh well, whatever Mack wanted Maya was here to provide. “Hey, the soup will take at least an hour with prep and everything. Do you want water or some juice to sip on? I think we’ve got orange or pomegranate-apple.” Maya sat on the couch next to her sister, rubbing her belly lovingly. If she were on her stomach or side, it would be easier for her to rub her back, but she used this action to take some of the hurt and fatigue away from her sister. Even if it didn’t last long, even if it wasn’t a perfect fix. She hated to see her in so much agony. They had just gotten back together, she wanted to make memories that were good, not sad. 

“Okay, I know you wanna hold hands but I have to prep the food, okay? Do you wanna watch some TV?” she asked, running her hand through her hair in contemplation. 

“Pomegranate-apple, please,” Mack said softly, looking up at her sister with adoring eyes. It seemed surreal, to be so domestic with her sister again and for them both to be safe while they did it. that hadn’t happened since Holden.  Groaning a little, she let go of her sister’s hand. “Okay, be responsible big sister,” she said playfully, though she knew her smile said she appreciated it. “Thank you... And yes, please. Anything funny. Or scary. One or the other, please.”

She looked down at the drawing on the sidewalk. Peter was a little artist but she liked to make fun of his artwork; couldn’t let him know she valued him too much, otherwise he’d get the wrong idea that she loved him or something. Which she did, like a brother. “You do know its supposed to rain next week, right?” she asked Peter Cadoc without lifting her gaze. “Common sense was never your strong suit, but this is a bit much.” Her friend scoffed and walked away from her. “Tell me I’m wrong!” she called after him, then turned to someone she had never met before. “He’s my best friend. I’m allowed to speak to him that way, actually. He likes it.”

Mack saw her two friends from Seattle and smirked, watching the interaction. With a small nod to herself as Peter walked away, she grinned as Tate rounded on a stranger staring at her. With a small yelp, Mack ran up behind Tate and leaped onto her back, legs easily falling on Tate’s hips. Even though Mack had three inches on her friend, Tate had more muscle. Mack tended to struggle to keep a decent weight at all, what with all of the illnesses. “It’s true, he likes it when we tease him. But cuz it’s out of love. If you do it we will literally wipe you off the street after we kill you.” She smiled sweetly at the person as they left before jumping down from her friend’s back with a laugh. “Tate! My dear friend, just the person I was hoping to see on this fine day!”

@mackbrennan

They laid in bed holding hands. Maya didn’t care if she got sick, she could ask Javi to heal her the next day at work. “I can make homemade soup. Get your favorite crackers. Ooh, or cookies. That might cheer you up,” she thought aloud, as if into the abyss. “Come on, Mack.” She turned to her side, elbow supporting her cheek. “Let me wait on you. It’s been ages. Now you have your big sister to help you. I’ll even walk you to the couch so you’re not alone in your room. That way we can still chat from the kitchen to the living room. Okay?” She put her free hand on Mack’s belly like she used to when she tickled her little sister. That felt like a lifetime ago. Technically it was, about twenty years ago give-or-take. “What’s the point of having a roommate if they can’t help you in your hours of need?” she pouted, jutting her lower lip out exaggeratedly. 

Mack groaned, even though that sounded really good. She squirmed under her sister’s hand on her stomach, giggling a little even though no tickling was even happening and it had been so long ago. “Okay, okay. Let’s go.” She got to her feet and followed her sister to their living room, eyes tired and drooping as she rubbed at them with the hand not intertwined with Maya’s. “Soup, crackers, and cookies,” she reminded her sister with a tired smile. The thing about being so sickly in general was that it didn’t take much in the way of sickness for her to feel like she was on her deathbed. Her head pounded, her body ached, her chest felt like it might rupture from congestion, her nose hurt, and her throat was making it hard to swallow at all. And that was all without the cough that was threatening to become bronchitis. “Maya, I feel awful,” she moaned as she sunk onto the couch and stretched out. “But I’m really glad you’re here.”

“Do I have to have some sort of permission in this town to hit them?” Sky replied as the form of a guy walking away started to fade. She had been in town long enough for people to recognize her voice so people who listened to Hammer Horror, were starting to trickle it. It was that time of the year after all. When some only loved horror occasionally, it was her life. “ I will tolerate a million comments about myself, cause they are true I am the bitter asshole they called me. But we do not insult my show” Sky replied rolling her eyes

Mack grinned at her boss with an amused glint in her eyes. “I do think it’s still frowned upon. But personally, I say go for it. Violence is always the answer. That is the saying right?” She reached to rub at her eyes, the dark shadows beneath them evident. Her head ached from the lack of sleep that came from trying to pick up the slack from Clark’s death, still doing her job at the station that she loved, and also the nightmares that were keeping her up when she did have down time. “No one should insult the show. It’s honestly one of my favorite things in the world. Legitimately, I’m glad to be a part of it.” And I hope I don’t mess it up.

“Oh, nice to know there are more like me. I’ve already met a couple around town. Honestly I might suspect that a lot of people wandering around at night–” she gestured to Mack’s person “–are liches because, you know, no sleep. But as you said, you got problems, we all do.” Henri nodded her head when the youngster asked that she still needs haircuts. She probably didn’t, but after thirty years and who-knows-how-much-longer of, well, ‘life,’ she didn’t want to promise to go cold turkey and have it grow too long in a hundred year’s time. “Oh, well I’m glad you didn’t die in the womb, sweetie. You’re much too pretty not to have lived, but I am sorry you have health issues. Why don’t I be your bodyguard on your way home? I just was made a cop, anyhow,” she grinned proudly. “Since before you were born, sweetie. 1991. You’re what, 18? 21? Still a child.” She felt bad for the girl. An early grave, what was that like? Sure Henri herself had died at 29, but she came back, her story wasn’t finished. 

Mack chuckled and shook her head. “A lot might be liches, but I know quite a few who just don’t sleep.” or some like herself or Hale who tended to party instead, or work themselves to death. The truth was that the younger Brennan hadn’t slept well since the day she saw her father dragging her nanny's dead body. She ducked her head with a shy smile and said, “Thank you. That’s sweet. But you know what? That sounds great. Congrats on joining the force!” She chuckled as she walked with her and nodded slowly, “Yeah, I know. I was born in 1996, so I’m 24.” 

Date: September 19, 2020 Time: 4:12pm Location: Clark’s House

@mackbrennan

“Be careful with that knife, the handle is wobbly,” she warned, studying the younger werewolf carefully. She knew bits and pieces about her history, but Mack was always a little more private with Mira than she was with Clark. Not intentionally, Mira thought, but because they spent a lot less time together and that was a shame because the Brennan sisters seemed like the type to need someone at their backs. “Not that you couldn’t heal yourself in a jiffy, but its no fun to wait for that and my kit is in the car.” She shouldn’t be stitching anyone up, perhaps, but Mira would do it anyway. There was a reason she was keeping her license up to date. “I imagine Maya and Clark will be a while. We can probably shove the lasagna in the oven for a while when we’re done…”

Mack smiled at the older woman and nodded. “Honestly, I try not to. I usually wait for Maya to show up since... I mean I get nosebleeds or coughs or something bad so I avoid it altogether.” Her tone was still light, but it was such a fact of her everyday life that if she didn’t think about it too much, she never really got too bothered by talking about it. “Yeah, that sounds great. I love lasagna, this will be awesome.” She glanced at Mira, thinking briefly about how she had been wanting to get to know her and what a good chance this was with the other two gone. “How was your day?”

“‘Look forward.’ I’m… I’m staying at a shitty motel-inn place… Do you have… do you have some couch I can crash on?” She honestly wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with her sister, at least temporarily until they could find a place that suited both of them. “Javi pays me well, he… I can… I can pay rent. God, I’d love to live under the same roof as you again, but I…” She understood if her sister didn’t want that, but she didn’t dare put that into words, let it out of her mouth, because the nightmare might come true and she’d be alone all over again. She couldn’t bear that. Maya put her hands on either side of her sister’s face then brought her close to her, kissing her on the top of the head. “I love you, too. Better late than never, okay? Look forward, baby. We’re good. We’re better together, and only blue skies now, okay? What.. what do you do in town? I work for the councilman but you…?”

“I got a two-bedroom place as soon as I got here,” Mack said in one breath. “I just, I- I believed you’d find me. I knew you’d come.” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, afraid to look away long enough to even do that, afraid that her sister would vanish altogether. She smiled at her sister and nodded as she kissed her head, her eyes closing a little at the feeling of it, at how familiar and close it felt. “I, uh, I’m-  work at the radio station. It’s a good job, it’s fun. I’m a researcher but I fix stuff too and sometimes I even go on the air. And I work with a local handyman. I’m really good at that.”

Viktoria had grown used to seeing the girl that Mallory had more or less adopted and taken under her wings. The she wolf had grown used to seeing her around Lackadaisy more and more and she liked seeing the young girl around. She had started to grow warm towards Mack as well in the time that she hung around the cafe, usually with books or notes spread out next to her. In a way, she was starting to become a little protective of the girl, maybe she blamed it on Mal taking the girl under her wing to. When her best friend took in a stray, Viktoria found herself starting to think the same way. 

She had just finished setting a table she had cleaned earlier and was coming back to the bar. Dropping the rag in the soap bucket, she smirked at the girl who was trying her best to act like the tea was good. “Don’t worry, I won’t rat you out to Mal.” She winked. Leaning around the bar, Viktoria made sure that Mallory was busy in the kitchen and not paying attention. Leaning under the counter she pulled out some sugar packets and a jar of honey before sliding both of them in front of Mack. “Go crazy. I’ll even sneak you a cookie.” She winked. 

Mack gave the other owner of the Lackadaisy a grin as she poured sugar and honey into it, surely defeating the purpose. “She knows it tastes terrible,” she said with a chuckle. “She makes it upon request. It’s an old recipe that’s healthy but... It just tastes terrible.” But I’m dying. She thought to herself, even though she didn’t say it. “I’m a hybrid,” she said instead with a shrug. “So I’ve always been a bit sickly.”

“I mean the stalls are probably empty but… they’re making noises and shits.” Brad pokes his tongue out making a gesture of throwing. Why would they do… those things in public? People are weird. “Hm? Oh, yeah, don’t worry about it. I’ve been getting these random nosebleed lately. Maybe I need to eat more, I dunno, carrots.” He picks a random vegetable because he doesn’t know jackshit about nutrition. But carrots are red. It may be good for your blood? Who knows. At her offer, Brad shakes his head. “Oh, thanks, but I’m good. I’ve got my drink– wait…” he looks at his hands, which are decidedly empty, and realizes that he left his drink in the bathroom. “Ah, fucknuckles. Well, guess I’ll have to get a new one.” 

Mack chuckled a little and shook her head. “Gross.” Nosebleeds weren’t foreign to her either, but it was probably a very different reason than his. “Do carrots help that? I haven’t heard that,” she said with a small chuckle. Shiloh was determined that nothing would help hybrids and their symptoms, but she couldn’t help but to hope that he was wrong. She grimaced in sympathy and said, “Come on, I’ll go with you to get another if you want. I’m almost ready for one too. I’m Mack by the way.”

“Charlie is fine, no one’s called me Professor in years,” she chuckled, realizing her age though that had nothing on the centuries she had under her belt. Her and Grey really were an old married couple by human standards, weren’t they? Soulmates some may say, but she was getting off track. “You used my office hours quite a lot, always had a question bursting from your mind. It made you memorable. If you ever need a letter of recommendation, in Lethe or after, let me know. You now have my address. Actually… Want to come inside for something to eat, drink? I can give you all my contact info, a hard copy.” 

Mack smiled at her and nodded slowly. “Charlie,” she said to try it out. It seemed a little strange, to call her old professor that, but it worked oddly enough. “Yeah, that would be wonderful.” She followed the older woman into the house, chuckling a little as she repeated Charle’s words in her head. “I guess I always did have a question. I’m tempted to ask you a thousand right now even. I had no idea you were supernatural.”

Her last appointment had ditched her, giving her a whole hour to sit around exploring options that were growing slimmer by the second. Aliza had, in a fit of boredom, sent Jacob home rather than make him suffer along with her. It was just her when she sensed a figure standing behind her and whirled around, face to face with a younger girl. “You’re my 3 o’clock appointment then? A little late, I was expecting you an hour ago,” she pointed out, eyebrow raised in question, gaze trailing down to the bottle in her hand and then back up to her face. Hm, that might pose a problem, but Aliza smiled, slightly, eyeing her. “Well, no time like the present. I’m Aliza Mor, what can I do for you, McKenzie? You’re not a lich, no, hmm, a Riverborn or a hybrid?”

Mack swayed on her feet a little bit as she watched the woman. “I- Shit, is it four? I’m sorry.” She could hear the slight slur to her voice and might have cringed if she wasn’t far gone enough that she didn’t care. “I’m, uh, ‘M a hybrid,” she said finally, blinking as if that might be the thing to focus her vision. She was painfully aware of the inability to hear out of one of her ears, entirely frustrated by it today. It wasn’t fucking fair that her only crime done was being born and she had all of this to deal with. Tears threatened to sting at her eyes but she blinked them away. “Sorry I’m late,” she said again, almost bracing for a hit, old habits kicking right in.

“‘Didn’t quite fit.’ That sounds like the essence of a hybrid’s life, actually.” He shrugged in nonchalance; what was he to do? There was no turning back the clock, no changing the past. Just live with whatever shit you had gone through and take on the next ball of shit that was hurled at you. “My mom woulda believed me had she lived. Cancer. So I have that going for me as well. My dad on the other side was sure I am just a nymph faking a disorder. But… I dunno.” He didn’t know what to say to someone who was so new, someone who didn’t know his life story. Everyone knew Shiloh Seddik. Except her. “I mean. ‘Eat and drink for tomorrow we die,’ right?” he asked, raising his glass of water to hers as if it were ale. 

Mack chuckled with a nod and something between a smile and a grimace. Not fitting had been her entire life, easily. That was a lot of why it was so comforting to meet another hybrid, to have someone to talk to. “I’m sorry to hear that, about your mom. And your dad, really. That sucks.” She laughed a little and nodded, taking a drink of her water easily. “Yeah, I guess so. If we’re not going to live long anyway, we might as well do the things we really want to.”

Mack sat up from where she had been laying against the armrest of the couch. “I can’t believe we had never talked about supernatural stuff before. That’s why I was sick all the time; because I’m half and half.” She and Aeryn had kept contact over the years, but not as well as they might have if things had been different. Part of Mack couldn’t help but think that Aeryn might hold some resentment for the fact that if it wasn’t for the Brennan family Holden would never have died at all. It wasn’t that Aeryn was that kind of person, it was just that... Well, Mack would understand the feeling. She had had it most of her life herself. 

“You’ve been here for two years? How’s it been? What have you been up to? With the smelly sisters not here, you need to tell me everything,” she told her old friend playfully, reaching out to gently push at her shoulder. “Do you want a beer or something by the way?” She got to her feet, grimacing apologetically. “But either way do you mind if we move it to the kitchen? I need to fix our cupboard while I’m home.” She worked so often that things around the apartment often went unnoticed, but she also rarely slept so she tended to find enough hours in the day one way or another.

Usually, Mack was good at keeping herself situated. At getting through the day so that nobody could tell that she enjoyed alcohol as much as she did. Sometimes though, it got away from her and she’d drink earlier than normal. Sometimes she couldn’t handle the memories any other way. Sometimes, she could remember the feeling of her father’s belt. Sometimes, times like today, all she could think about was hearing Holden’s murder and being held by her sister, tears rolling down her cheeks, too afraid to do a damn thing.

So when she showed up for her late appointment at Aliza’s office, she was already drunk and had a bottle hanging loosely from her hand as she hovered in the doorway. “Hi, I, uh, I had an appointment. McKenzie Brennan.”

Mack was laying on the floor with her container of salad on her chest as she leaned against a wall with a pillow behind her head, her left arm folded behind her head as well as she grinned at her boss and friend. “Okay, so, some personal news. I know I told you my sister is in town but... Well, steering away from the trauma behind it cuz no one wants that stuff, our nanny died when we were kids. But my sister found her. I guess she’s a lich. I mean, can you believe that? What are the friggin odds?” She pushed herself up, wincing a little. She bruised easily, due to her health she was sure, and currently, she had several on one of her arms from some tumbles she’d had drunk a few nights ago.

Date: September 2020 Time: 00:12 AM Location: a bar in downtown Lethe

“Uhhh, I wouldn’t go back in there, bud” Brad warns someone as he comes out of the men’s bathroom. There is a trace of red on his cheeks from alcohol, and a quizzical look that lands somewhere between grossed out and confused. “There’s… a couple making out on the sink. It’s pretty gross.” There is a paper towel with spots of red on his hand, some dried blood under his nose. He has been getting this nosebleed a lot lately. 

 Mack wrinkled her nose lightly. “Gross. You know, I was totally thinking about using that because the women’s has a line but uh... That’s a big no now.” She grimaced and shook her head, about to roll her eyes when she caught sight of the blood. “Shit, you okay?” She knew about nosebleeds, had a few of them herself. It was one of the many issues with being hybrid, which seemed to affect creatures on varying degrees. They weren't all as sick as she was. Hell, maybe she would have been sick anyway. She took another drink from her glass and offered it with a slight grimace.