#not hershel

It was because Randall hadn’t spoken to his friends in a while that he’d opted to now, while Hershel was busy with spring planting and store things - and probably Scotland Yard things - and was thus significantly less liable to notice.

“Yeah - yeah, we found him.” He’d said, expecting the fuss made from the group likely huddling around the phone. Henry, Angela, and even Dalston had all been waiting for any new regarding their lost friend. “He’s doing pretty good now - or, as good as can be expected, considering what he went through.” Henry was the only one besides him who really knew the details of why, exactly, Hershel had vanished, and knew very well that spilling those secrets could jeopardize a lot.  All the others knew was that he’d been kidnapped.

How exactly did one even begin to explain it, anyway? A curse? A curse that made one eat people? There was no way that he could possibly frame  ‘Hershel was run out of town for becoming a gods-damned magical cannibal’ in a positive light. No, it was easier to tell them that he’d been kidnapped, stolen away by some nefarious organization for nefarious reasons after Stansbury had so suddenly and mysteriously decided that Hershel was evil and had to go.

Even though being adamant that he, too, was as lost as the rest of them had quite damaged their relationship with almost everyone else in town, since, neither would they provide a satisfactory answer that was believable. ‘Hershel is a murderer’ just hadn’t been realistic to them. Quiet, calm, gentle Hershel - a killer? 

Funny, then, that in the end it had been true. Randall still refused to tell them. So too, did Henry. It hadn’t been willing in the beginning, and from the sounds of it, continued not being entirely willing on his part for all the years to come.

“What do you mean, ‘what he went through’?” Came Angela’s concerned voice.

“W-well, the people that kidnapped him... didn’t exactly... treat him well.” He explained slowly, pacing in Hershel’s apartment. Hershel wasn’t there. He was in the Garden, and would be for hours. “They - they, uh... How to word it...” Blessedly, his friends didn’t interrupt, though if he knew them well enough, they desperately wanted to. “From what I know, and from what he let me know, they tried to... well. Break him. Mentally.” Gasps and other assorted noises of horror as they all rattled off questions at once, dying out as Randall immediately began hushing them. He wouldn’t answer anything if they were that noisy!

“You said tried, right? That mean they didn’t succeed?” Dalston, sounding as though he was hoping for a better story than was implied. 

“I mean... Like I said, he didn’t tell me much.” Technically Hershel hadn’t really told him anything, Simon did, but Randall would happily lie if it meant the man’s identity stayed out of all this. He was paranoid enough already. “But from what he did tell me, after he escaped, it took a long time to...put himself back together.” Another pause, Randall grinning just a little as he heard Henry preemptively shushing them all.  “He’s not the same as he used to be.” Randall added, eventually. “Really prickly. Apparently he thought I sold him to the people that kidnapped him, so he... might have... just maybe threatened to - to commit violence.  A lot of violence. On me. But we sorted it out - everything’s fine now!” Preempting the outrage. “He likes his solitude. Apparently one of the reasons he was so hard to find was because he changed his name. I don’t blame him, what little I know is enough to give a man nightmares... But yeah, he’s doing really well for himself now. Got a business and everything~” That got their attention, and Randall gladly latched onto it. Anything to get the topic off of Hershel’s sordid history. 

But at least they knew he was okay, now. He’d had to. Even if he didn’t tell them where Hershel was (which he wouldn’t) and what Hershel had changed his name to (which he also wouldn’t) they deserved to know that he was, at least, alive and well. Maybe one day even meet up with them again.