beyond this illusion.

indy stumbled to the front door when she heard a knock in the middle of the night, moving fast in hopes that whoever it was wouldn’t wake cara. she smiled wide when she heard who it was, though, opening the door quickly, wishing she had thought to change into something other than a crop top and the sweatpants she wore to bed. “nico, hey,” she said, the stench of alcohol too strong for her not to notice as soon as she opened the door, “of course i’m down, i can’t sleep anyway. are you okay, though?”

Cara’s jaw seemed to lose its hinge at Nico’s accusations. They were certainly tall and illogical tales, but offense immediately swept through Cara and blinded her reason. “Um, I’m sorry, but what? It’s my fault he was found just for hoping that he was okay and not dead? When I didn’t even find him? It’s my fault for caring about other people? Also ‘fault’ like it’s a bad thing that a human being lived? Um, what?” If she could somehow speak “????????????” aloud Cara would.

oli raised an eyebrow, taken aback by the girl’s rudeness. and her horrible impersonation of him. “i am sorry… i did not mean to offend. i am not sure what you mean by ‘bullshit line,’ but if you are asking if i ask a lot of people if they come here a lot, no, i do not. i have never been here, actually.” he took a sip of his beer, trying to look as though he was unbothered, but it was a strange interaction. everyone in cape hazel had been so nice so far, she was the first slightly rude person he’d encountered. or maybe he’d been the rude one. he wasn’t sure, so for good measure, he added, “my apologies again if i offended you.”

layla might have not heard her, had she not glanced up when she did. she was listening to music on her headphones, and editing, so she saw nico approach before she spoke. she took her headphones off, and tilted her head. “hey, no, feel free,” she said, gesturing to the empty seat across from her. “it’s ridiculously busy.”

discomfort. was that the right word to describe what he was feeling? everything about their interaction felt abnormal, and the feeling that crawled up his skin was unsettling. augustus forced a smile onto his face to try and convince karen that everything that nico had said was true, and fortunately for him, she was none the wiser. he let out the breath that he didn’t realize he was holding, only to suck in another one. he was alone with nico, and there was no escape now. not unless he called karen back for a do-over. “i just–” he stuttered, looking anywhere but her eyes. he didn’t know what to say, not after listening to his voicemail repeatedly to make sure he had heard right the first time. “thank you,” he finally whispered, brave enough to glance up into nico’s eyes for a brief moment. “how… are you?” stupid question, good going, tate.

It was nice to run into Nico in their normal habitat. Roslan snorted out a laugh. “Do I? Good. My skin feels like it was attacked a hundred tiny bears and I wasn’t sure this sweater was big enough to cover all my battle scars.” Actually, they had been a hundred tiny mosquitoes, and any evidence of battle scars were hidden by bandaids that littered his neck and collar. The sweater had done a good job of hiding those, though. Roslan caught himself reaching to itch, and the motion turned into an awkward rub of his neck. “Were you about to go in?” He tipped his head towards the diner and the cheerful we’re open! sign hanging out front. “Sorry, I can’t do much about Zeff, but I’m pretty sure the rest of the curse can be lifted with, like, a milkshake.”

“Tell me about it,” she groaned. “My skin is so dry I might as well use it as sand paper.” Usually, Nico would have said ‘no’ to company when she was in such a negative mind frame, but what harm could Roslan do? “Are you confessing to being a witch, Ro? Because if you’re saying that all curses can be cured by a milkshake, you might be my brand new witch doctor.” Nico chuckled as she walked into the diner, holding the door open for the man. “You’ve got to teach me all of your wicked secrets.”

Cara ran low on sleep and nourishment as she locked up the garden, eager to flop onto her bed for the foreseeable forever (aka until the morning). Of course the universe was hardly so gracious, and another person rammed straight into her as she stepped away from the door. Even worse, it was Nico. “Uh, don’t worry about it. Are you okay? And, yeah, I’m glad he’s all right, and I hope he’s recovering okay.” Cara didn’t understand why Nico made it sound like a bad thing to have a little empathy.

“I don’t, at all. Indy is... I’d fuckin’ give everything to Indy to make sure she was safe and happy. Don’t you fucking dare accuse me of hating her.” // @violentparties

“of course it’s true. you honestly think someone would spend every moment they could teaching kids and not want them? i’m just startin’ to think it’s not in the cards for me.”