The time is 1700 hours, and a man has just turned into a ******** monster right before your eyes. Or rather, not before your eyes, but close enough that you probably could've seen him become a monster if something hadn't gotten in your way.
That's not the problem, though. The problem is the cordon of state police outside the library: who knows why. There are bleeding people in here, dead people, but until the scene is provably secure not one of the law enforcement personnel can enter. You could've left in the first rush of panic, but you didn't.
Why didn't you leave?
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Aodh goes at his parents insistence. He is happy with the work he does with Jaro. It isn't a career, his parents tell him, it is a stop gap. It is not good enough for someone with an education, it is not-
He goes just to make them shut up, to stop talking. Aodh never yells at them or tells that how much it bothers him that they're not supporting him. The words never come out and he just keeps it all bottled up on the inside.
So he finds himself at the job fair. Aodh visits booth after booth after booth. Most of it doesn't even register and he's talks to people out of necessity versus wanting to talk.
When he thinks he catches sight of a familiar flash of auburn hair and dark skin is when things go to hell. He sees the man as he starts to convulse, sees the nurse as she runs to him. There has never been something to prepare him for what happens.
For the blood that sprays, for the woman that falls to the ground, for the eyes of the other young man to lock onto him briefly for a moment. They are wild and feral and animalistic; chills run up Aodh's spine.
He needs to move but he does not. He is rooted to the spot, fight or flight broken, and it costs him.
The changed young man breaks through the crowd and Aodh is in his path. There is no chance to move anymore, none at all, and pain burns across his side as the man nearly slams into him. He ends up stumbling to the side, wavering, and falling onto a booth table only to then slide to the floor and hit his head.
The pain fades away but only because he is knocked unconscious.
The time is 1830 hours, and the first of the casualties has arrived from the crew clearing the upstairs. Oh, there have been civilians, two of them. There's been the woman now sitting near-catatonic near the stairs, cradling a bloody bundle and tended by a nursing student. But this one. This one is really ******** up, and the men and women tending him speak only in hushed whispers.
The police still haven't let you out.
How are you doing? Are you okay?
He is the opposite of okay. Aodh is found bleeding and unconscious. Wakes with a hand against his cheek and a familiar voice saying his name. Jaro had found him when he had not been seen heading upstairs or with the group that was trying to plan how to get out. The man knows him too well; knows he would never not help.
Aodhan giggles almost immediately upon gaining consciousness, pain racing through him and his head spinning. He always giggles when he is in pain and cannot stop himself; fear sometimes triggers the same response. It takes him a few breaths to steady himself, having to bite the inside of his cheek to get it under control.
At least everyone is so busy that they don't pay attention to the injured blonde who giggles in pain. There are slices across his right side, where claws raked him, and a his head had been bleeding (and hurts in a way that is not unlike getting clocked with a solid left hook). He's not sure how much of the blood on the ground is his and he does not want to think about it.
Eventually Jaro leaves him, makes sure that he can sit up on his own, and goes to get something else besides a tee to hold against his side. He looks around and sees the injured. The man who they work over in hushed tones and the woman who cradles a bloody bundle and others who are in need of help.
It makes him want to push himself up, to do something and help. He tries.
His vision swims and he sinks back down in a giggle fit of pain as his side starts to bleed quicker again.
Word Count: 288
Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 10:09 pm
Quote:
waiting--1830 wednesday may 18
The police are slow to believe the efforts of the negotiating team. Insisting that help is required has no impact on the negotiator from the state troopers, and the CDC requires evidence of hypertrichosis before it'll clear the area from suspicion of being a biological attack site.
You're getting by, but how? What keeps your mind off things, if anything does?
Bandaged and with another shirt on, Aodhan finds that he still has trouble staying put. A nurse in training finally comes by to look at him. Orange juice is pressed into his hand and he is told to stay put.
He does not want to.
There's strength in him, he knows this. He is a boxer.
Was a boxer, his mind helpfully reminds him. Aodh threw that away because he did not like the feeling of having his clock cleaned. Which was partly why he was having trouble thinking anyway besides the blood that he's lost.
(you don't have a concussion, she tells him, but you're going to likely need a transfusion and a lot of stitches)
Don't move.
Stay put.
Jaro sits with him. Distracts him while they listen to the exchanges over the bullhorn. He hears the whispers of truth and he can't help but think of all the stories he grew up with. Aodh never outwardly believed them but in the back of his mind ...
He fears them.
The truth of the matter is that there is a side of Ashdown he knows exist and has ignored for years. Now that there is concrete proof - what he sees, what he hears, what he feels in pain - there is little that makes him feel better.
Nothing distracts from this truth or the situation he is now in.
Somehow, the police have been convinced that they are better served helping than waiting for news. There are paramedics swarming the first floor, people being carried away to ambulances and triaged in the concourse.
You survived.
How does that make you feel?
He feels terrible.
His head swims as he is helped to his feet and to an ambulance. Jaro disappears and part of him wants to know why (couldn't you stay?) but then again there's nothing left. The older man has no reason to stick around once he knows the blonde will be in safe hands. It was more than enough that he had even stuck around in the first place with him.
Aodhan finds himself pushed outside of Blackfriars. Watches as the dead body of the nurse is covered up and wheeled away. Everything settles in at once and he finds himself on his hands and knees as he throws up.
There's little on his stomach and so it burns in his throat. An EMT is there next to him immediately, a hand against his back that then helps him to his feet once it seems like he is done. Was this what his hometown was really about?
All those rumors and stories true? A wave of dizziness hits him and he stumbles on his feet. Luckily the EMT has a good hold on him and he does not fall. The only thing that he can think, as he is escorted up and into the ambulance, is that he is lucky to be alive at all.
... and that perhaps he could have done without learning these truths about Ashdown.
They give him something because this time the giggles do not stop.
Darkness claims him again.
Word Count: 242
Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 10:11 pm
Quote:
victory 2: finale-- 2000 wednesday may 18
Someday, the police, your family, someone will ask you: what ******** happened in there?
There will be news stories to direct them to, of course, but they're asking for different reasons. They want to see the look on your face. Record the facts. Hear the trembling in your voice.
What will you tell them?
"I told you everything already," he replies, while holding his right arm up above his head and giggling every so often. Stitches are being put in and he stopped counting after fifty. In his other arm there is an IV and he's trying to not think about that either.
Aodh had to inform the hospital staff he was not having a nervous breakdown or mental break or whatever it was. His natural response to pain and fear was laughter. Okay, maybe he is not right in the head but that's for another time.
"You're one of the few we've got that actually had a clear visual of the attacker, Mister Beverly. You have to understand that we need to get every detail we can from you." The officer is dressed in the uniform of one of the APD. He's not a detective, that much Aodh can tell. There had been two at the Blackfriars, both of which had been part the group that had went up stairs.
He wants to tell the officer that if he wants whatever real truth there is to talk to them. Instead he just sighs and nods.
Recounts again, from the beginning, the moment when he saw Edward Grey tear flesh from the nurse's neck. If he omits details about what his eyes looked like or anything else ...
That's because he's still not quite ready himself but he knows the truth all the same.
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