awesome_lilly | (no subject)

(no subject)

As she steps through the door and into Duncan's bedroom, Lilly's looking around carefully. The room had appeared deserted when she looked through, but it didn't hurt to make sure. It's disturbingly unmessy, and a lot of Duncan's stuff is missing. Maybe he's gone on a trip. Maybe he's moved out. The thought makes her smile, a little, and then she takes another step in and the blood is trickling down her forehead again and the smile fades away.

She turns back to Alain.

"All clear."

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Alain settles into the passenger seat. "You say true."

Celeste is not the Kane he's talking about, here.

Lilly doesn't bother with doors, stepping through the car to curl up in the back seat. It's all kinds of weird being in her mom's car again.

"Okay, tell her to drive us out along the cliff road towards the stadium. And that if she tries to go the wrong way, like towards the police station, that I'll know, I'll tell you, and you'll be mad."

She smiles a little.

"She should realize by now that making you mad isn't a good idea."

Obediently, he says, "Drive us out along the cliff road towards the stadium."

Beat.

"The more direct you go, the quicker I'll be gone. And Lilly will know if you turn wrong."

Celeste presses her lips together and just nods, turning the key and then peeling out of the driveway.

The sooner this is over, the better.

The drive is almost entirely silent, the waves crashing at the foot of the cliffs practically the only sound.

Lilly's watching closely out the windows for any signs of the bus coming along. Every so often, she steals a glance towards the ocean.

And then as they curve away from the cliffs she spots the turn off to a gas station and stiffens. It's the one from her dream.

"Alain, tell her to take that turn and pull up behind the gas station."

Her voice is fainter, now. Hard to hear, and her body is far more transparent.

It worries him a little, but it doesn't really surprise him. Ghosts always haunt the same house, they say in Mid-World. Lilly knows her limits.

"Turn here," he says to Celeste. The commanding tone is automatic. "Pull up behind the gas station."

Celeste does so in silence. She turns off the car and turns to Alain.

"Is this it, then?"

She's desperately hoping he says yes.

Alain glances at Lilly. Inquiring.

"For the moment, any road."

"She can go," Lilly says dismissively, moving through the door to stand outside the car.

"Veronica'd run the other direction if she saw her here."

She's looking around the gas station, now. It looks like it did in her dream, same signs, same graffiti... and the feeling that something's wrong is growing again. This is the place.

A nod, to Lilly, and he gets out of the car.

"This is it. Go on."

A small smile. Not a nice one.

"Long days and pleasant nights."

The car door shuts, and he turns away.

Celeste loses no time in restarting the car and driving away as fast as possible, her hands tightly clutching the steering wheel.

She never wants to see that man again.

Lilly doesn't even bother watching her drive off.

"I remember... the bus pulls in, and they all get off, and... Veronica can't get back on. I still don't know why, she just... she can't. Something will happen to her."

She's looking around, trying to think of a way to make this work.

"We just have to figure out a way to keep her behind without the teacher noticing."

"Will your teacher count that all are there? Or could she slip away unnoticed?"

"She could slip away, I think," Lilly says slowly. "But we'd need her to want to and I'm not sure how to do that."

She glances at him.

"I don't... I don't know if I can make her see me. It's harder, away... away from the house."

Alain frowns, thinking.

"If I beckoned to her, or some such, would she come, or stay well away?"

The roar of cars in the background gets louder; a motorcycle is approaching.

"You're a strange guy with a gun," Lilly says, "and she's a sheriff's daughter who might actually notice it. She'd stay well away from you-"

She breaks off as the motorcycle roars into the station and parks along the side. The rider takes off his helmet, and Lilly starts to smile.

"However, that guy? She'll talk to him."

His face lightens in answer.

"All right."

"What's for us to do, then?"

Lilly's staring thoughtfully at Weevil.

"If I could make him see me, that'd probably get him to stick around... we used to kinda date. But I can't, so..."

She watches as Weevil walks into the gas station.

"Okay, when he comes out, tell him you like his bike but it's a shame the exhaust pipe is crooked. That'll keep him here for a while."

Alain snorts.

And moves to study the bike with carefully faked familiarity. When Weevil reemerges, he does exactly that.

Weevil's indignant response makes Lilly smile. He always took so much pride in his bike. Alain moves away and Weevil bends to study the bike intently. He's still looking at it, buffing the chrome idly with his bandana, when the bus pulls in.

Lilly's instantly alert, motioning Alain back against the far wall. She watches almost hungrily as the students pile off the bus, Veronica one of the last. Her hair's longer again. Lilly approves. She sees Meg and a few other students she recognizes, but mostly she's just watching Veronica.

And then she realizes something and swears under her breath. Weevil's parked along the far side of the station, Veronica'll never see him. Alain's out of the way and Veronica's already pushing through the doors...

Lilly takes a deep breath and concentrates as hard as she possibly can.

"Veronica!"

Veronica's head turns, sharply.

"Lilly?" she breathes.

Lilly forces herself into visibility, head wound and fading be damned. She runs around the corner of the building, and Veronica follows.

Lilly has time to turn her head, watch Veronica notice Weevil, see the fight start. As she watches, though, her concentration's failing and she's fading, the noise of the world around her growing muted.

She knows Veronica can't see her anymore. She wonders if Alain can.

Veronica is with the motorcycle-boy, thoroughly distracted.

It'll have to do. Right now, that's not where his focus is.

He can barely see Lilly now; she's a shimmer in the air, like heat rising in a desert.

Low and urgent, "Lilly?"

Fuck, he thinks.

He can't touch her physically, but all the same he's reaching out with the touch, a formless call reinforcing his words.

He can only guess what's going on. Let alone how to help.

Lilly can hear Alain's voice, faint but growing more audible, feel him reaching out for her. It's a long moment or two before she can even think about pulling herself together enough to respond. For a second, she thinks she might not manage it.

Whatever else Lilly is, though, she's stubborn as hell. She's still very, very faint as she moves over to Alain, but more visible than a shimmer.

"s'ok, 'lain. I'm still here."

"Good."

The students who piled off the bus a few minutes ago are gathering again. Some of them are getting back on the bus; others are still grouped in scattered clumps, talking.

Alain lifts a hand, briefly, to Lilly's. He feels nothing, of course; just air. The thought is there, anyway.

Lilly's watching the bus now instead of the argument Veronica and Weevil are having. The bus pulls out, with no Veronica on board, but... the feeling that something's very wrong still hasn't gone way. She frowns.

"Something... something's still wrong. Not Veronica anymore though..."

Weevil circles around, tosses a helmet to Veronica. Lilly barely even notices her get on the bike.

"It's the bus. Oh god, something's wrong with the bus."

"The--"

The bus. Full of kids, and pulling out into the crowded road.

"Fuck."

His gaze snaps back to her. "Is there anything--?"

Alain knows next to nothing about cars. Not what would go wrong with them, and not how to fix it.