I jerked awake from the sort of sleep I was used to when I didn’t have even Lord to keep me company — barely remembered dreams, a jaw that would hurt for the few seconds it took to heal from the clenching, and barely rested. The cat having, at my insistence and with the knowledge he’d spend time with his favorite Golden Retriever, staying with Snake.
The room’s alarm clock spun around before I fell asleep and too scared to pick up my phone, I laid back on the soft mattress tapping out the ashes from my cigarette into the glass bowl on the night stand. Not sure of the time, scared to look at the news, not even fully sure if I wanted to know. My mouth dry, body hurting, a disgusting grime feeling like it clung to my skin I couldn’t tell if was from guilt, nightmares, or just swimming in the James. Whatever urge I had to get up, shower, clean my eye, try and act human kept away by the knowledge of what I’d done.
Humans knew we existed.
Maybe people thought it was fake, or there was some debate about what they’d actually seen, but they knew more than they did last night. Some might realize it meant all the other things — vampires, ghosts, fey, and all between — were real too, while likely others were going to just assume it wasn’t even a werewolf.
Well, maybe thinking it was a cryptid or something else would have been the normal response, but who knew? If Vergil left the guns too the police were going to find silver bullets and maybe that would help things along, but… well, it was a good thing we were working on getting word out there. As risky… as fucking stupid this was now I’d gotten some sleep, I at least had ripped off the bandaid the Purists were going to make so much worse. They’d think I killed two people revealed as mercenaries, but no grand massacre or family slaughtered as first discovery.
I went to take another deep drag from my cigarette, finding it burnt to the end and tossing the filter in alongside the three others I’d gone through. A fifth fetched from my pack and lit before I noticed the flash of gold hair in the bed next to me.
A sigh escaping me even as I asked, “is this your way of saying it’s time we talked?”
“We’ve been putting it off,” whoever was wearing Barbie’s face countered, and yeah I couldn’t argue with that. I’d slept, I was feeling a little angry just looking at her, and she seemed to understand as she asked, “you good to talk about this, or are you attempting to kill yourself again in the next couple hours and we don’t need to bother?”
“Think I’ll see how things are looking around dinner, but I’m not really considering anything right now,” I admitted with a small shrug, the woman laughing at that at least. The words sounding hollow on my tongue even as I asked her, “is it bad I don’t even know if I feel… I’m not exactly happy, but I’m also not exactly about to kill everyone.”
“I think that’s a normal state for most people,” she admitted, her face rather blank as we stared each other down for a long moment. Not something I could really argue with, as much as I wanted to, even as I shifted to sit farther up on the bed and took a long draw of my cigarette.
The woman next to me not saying anything, just watching me smoke as I let out another cloud of acrid smoke and asked, “what can I call you at least, to start? Feels weird calling you Barbie, got a real name?”
She flinched at that, an actual look of fear crossing her she forced down a moment later. Whether it was real or performance impossible for me to even start guessing at the moment even as she whispered, “I… don’t have a name, sorry.”
Either lying, some fucked up spirit, or both, and I probed, “you a ghost, demon, spirit, what the fuck are you?”
Another moment of hesitation, and uncertainty in her voice as she told me, “I think… something in between? It’s complicated.”
“Try me.”
More hesitation, and she admitted, “I think I was alive once, I’m not sure I ever died, and I’m not human anymore.”
I was going to assume this was witch shit, I didn’t exactly know that all too well, and I probably should have called Elizabeth and told her everything. For all I knew the ghost was a demon or some other thing I was going to regret not getting rid of at the first opportunity. She’d already shown up wearing Barbie’s face, lied to me, manipulated me, and I still wasn’t even sure why.
And for as much as I felt the dull anger in my chest, the idea of getting rid of her hurt even more.
Elizabeth would probably exorcise her immediately and I’d never see that face again, never even be able to pretend for a second I hadn’t failed Barbie. I’d be willingly throwing away someone I’d loved, and it was probably why she chose the face. The idea I was aware I was being manipulated not even making me stop, sick as it was, as I sighed and asked, “why are you still wearing that face then? Know you were tricking me at first, but… well, what do you look like?”
More silence, the woman looking away from me, mouth opening and closing a dozen times, avoiding an answer with all she was worth. Me patient all the while as I half-focused on my cigarette and tried ignoring the dull buzzing of my phone ringing. Whoever it was, probably about the news, able to wait and give me a little peace even as the girl finally sighed.
Her voice small as she begged me, “please don’t make me do that. I… I think I’d like being someone else for a while.”
Probably manipulating me, and all I could do was admit, “you and me both,” my phone finally recovered off the nightstand before I told her, “I’m not calling you Barbie though, Midge work?”
She laughed at least, following it with a near silent, “fuck you,” before admitting, “I can… I can change my appearance some if it helps. I mean, would it help if I was a guy or… I don’t know, I don’t really have a strong preference on gender, don’t really feel that much for it.”
“Think that’s your choice what you look like, you um…” I paused, not sure how to phrase it and a little surprised I was going along with it this much to ask, “still she/her like Barbie used, or more like, they/them or something else?”
A long pause, and the ghost admitted, “that… works actually, the latter I guess. You’re being very…”
“I’m aware, really just…” a long sigh escaped me, and I crushed out the remains of my cigarette in the tray, “I’m tired, and I really want to trust things are going to work out, because I’ve had a long fucking week. We did this conversation a week ago, I’d have texted Elizabeth already, but at this point I’m accepting anything if it means happy ending. So, any ideas on names before I start calling you Midge?”
More silence, I didn’t even look at her as I pulled my black tie-on skirt over the shift I wore as a nightgown and pulled a matching coat over it. Nicer than I’d dressed all week, I’d been saving the outfit for Christmas, but I felt I deserved to look nice for today. Instinct bringing me to reach up to fix my hair and stopping as I remembered how short we’d cut it, and a sigh escaping me as I still did my best.
Not horribly short, though I was sure Tara would need to cut a little more off to fix the amateur hack job, but still shorter than I liked as it barely brushed my shoulders. Too short for the sort of braids I liked, couldn’t get too ornate with the buns or shaping, and even my ponytails would need to placed a little more strategically. The fact hurting more than a little even as I gave it a morning brushing all the same and hoped it would grow fast.
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The thing behind me finally answering as I was struggling to get all my hair into one ponytail as they announced, “Estelle works.”
“And can you make other people see you once things work out better?” I asked, looking back to see they hadn’t particularly changed their appearance at all, as many questions that would probably raise if the wrong people saw them.
Estelle taking a moment to answer before admitting, “probably, but…”
“Yeah, don’t want Elizabeth finding out, works for me, don’t make me regret this,” I sighed, a check of my phone seeing a wall of missed texts and calls from pretty much everyone in my contacts. Not even knowing where to start as I asked, “anything else?”
Estelle taking a moment before they rose to their feet, walked over to me, an ice cold hand resting on my shoulder as they started, “I can… if it helps, I can still pretend to be her and you can-”
It took everything in me to pull back, pulling through their grip on my shoulder as I flatly told them, “don’t. I… Not now, or… I need to handle some stuff.”
My back turned to the figure, trying to get the image of taking up the offer out of my mind as I checked all that had been sent. Mostly the obvious, though I did note The Lady hadn’t bothered with a message, with the general consensus being did you fucking see what happened.
The truth of it hard to ignore even as I slowly opened the internet and typed Richmond in the search bar.
No need to specify, guess, or look around as the first news stories to show at the top of the page all had to do with last night. Unknown creature filmed running streets of Richmond, ‘werewolf’ attacks police in Richmond, Mutilated bodies discovered after ‘werewolf’ sighting, Bomb threat and ‘werewolf’ shake Richmond’s Downtown.
Everyone seeming to understand what it was at least, not that I was sure if that was a good thing or not, and the tab quickly closed as I started into the bathroom. Whatever news I could have continued reading probably not worth the time for now as I quickly relieved myself, took a quick shower, brushed my teeth, and cleaned the gunk that had gathered around my bad eye. My cheek healed more than it had been, a quick scrubbing of what little makeup was left on it finding the flesh less red and pulled tighter together. Healing nicely enough into something resembling a lightly knotted line of flesh stretching an inch and a half from the corner of my mouth.
All well enough, could have been worse, and I fetched my black eye patch from the medicine cabinet where I’d stored it and slipped it on with a little gauze under the patch. Ready as I would ever be as I stepped out and walked right past the ghost still on the bed and out into the main room.
Snake already up and sat at the poker table in the center, in the middle of a game of cards with Scorpion, Vergil, and… Lord. My cat sat with the card holder we’d put together for him spread out with two cards as Vergil dealt out a few more cards and people made their bets. Only Vergil seeming to acknowledge my existence as he raised a hand to mark my approach and nodded to an empty chair on the other side of Lord from Snake.
The cat knocking his head against my arm as I took my place while he proudly called out raise me twenty dollars!
My own hand about to reach out on instinct, and Snake quicker as he took the chips and announced, “he’s raising twenty.”
Everyone else seeming to already know he could do that as I looked at the kid confused and asked, “you can talk to animals?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” he shrugged, nodding to the cat, “he said you can too… Also you apparently sing a really mean Regina George in the shower. I… don’t know what that means, but he said it’s worthy of bragging, and kept telling me when I asked about you.”
Scorpion looking a little impressed as he asked, “musical fan?” even as I quickly defended myself, “he made me add a bunch of songs from musicals he likes to my playlist, they play when we’re hanging out in my room a lot.”
“Not judging,” Vergil admitted with a small shrug, the laugh he gave surprisingly jovial as he stretched, “well, you slept in, it’s… four I think. Not complaining, I slept in pretty well too, was a long night even after I finally got home.”
“Lots of fires to put out?”
And Vergil looked like he was about to answer that when the door to his bedroom opened, Red walking out in a shift much like I slept in with Calliope floating beside her. The two walking past our table, as Scorpion looked on wide eyed, and to the kitchen. A pizza box fetched wholesale from the fridge before the two of them started back. Calliope stopping to kiss Vergil and share a few half-whispered words I did my best to ignore and Red, after a moments hesitation, walking back and gripping Vergil’s hair; jerking his head back to give a kiss that looked like it was a long time coming.
Red looking down at Vergil for a long time before finally asking him in a flat voice, “how the fuck did you spell Virgil wrong? I bought you the fucking Comedy, I know you didn’t just listen to me read it,” before storming off with her pizza.
Both retreating back to the bedroom, door closed behind them, as Scorpion finally asked, “You two back together?”
“Complicated,” Vergil admitted with a cleared throat, his smirk a little proud as he told us, “not a good story for, um, present company,” he gestured to Snake and Lord, “but we caught up last night. She was telling me she dropped some ashes off at The Lady’s office and was going out of town… well, was supposed to be this morning.”
“And you’re the Big Bad Wolf?” I asked, still not sure how to take that.
“Yeah figured you’d put that together a while ago,” Scorpion admitted rather bored, gesturing around the room, “like, pretty much everyone who works here is a story, figured you’d know, or at least… I mean, Misha knew at least some of us were he was sleeping around with Hannah on and off. I mean, know we’re not all famous but-”
“Vergil,” I interrupted with a deep sigh, gesturing to the man who’d just been talking, “did I trust… the fucking Scorpion, as in, Scorpion and the Frog, with what happened last night?”
“Mary, we’ve all done better than the worst part of our pasts did,” the man tried assuring me.
“Kinda a dick move, kinda just judging a guy like that” Snake agreed.
Scorpion at least shrugging as he admitted, “no she’s right, I kinda do have a reputation for fucking people over, and I will do it again. I used to just lie and say I saw you and Red cheating on each other just to feed off you two fighting all night.”
Vergil looking ready to speak again before quickly changing the subject, “well, we should probably get you and Snake back to the Covenant, it’ll be dark in a couple hours and the mayor declared a state of emergency a couple hours ago.”
My heart dropped at the news, mouth opening and closing a few times before I muttered, “that bad?”
“Well, most people… most people don’t know what to think so far I think,” Vergil sighed, the man rubbing his eyes a long moment, “but, a lot of people saw you and there’s already rumors going around about the people that got discovered having silver bullets. I’ll give it until tomorrow morning they run the prints and realize they’re mercenaries, and most hunters are going to know they weren’t the real thing once they see the guns, but… well, you know.”
“People are panicking because werewolves are real?”
“I think the mayors more worried about armed vigilantes running the streets looking to kill werewolves and hurting others on accident for now,” Vergil said, that a small comfort in a twisted way, “curfew starting at six tonight for anyone not going home or getting food basically, and everyone not working is supposed to be indoors for non-emergencies by eight. Winter’s making that a night curfew a bit harder to enforce short notice, want to keep people from being out at in the dark, but… we’re going to need to do some brainstorming for the club if this keeps up more than a few days.”
I nodded, my throat dry as I croaked out, “anything else I need to know?”
Vergil hesitating a moment, the man smacking his lips a moment before admitting, “The Lady came by asking if it was you, I told her it wasn’t and even had security footage to back it up. Scorpion spliced some stuff from you sleeping in the guest room a few months ago with-”
“There are camera’s in the guest room?”
“I have camera’s everywhere on this floor, all offline on its own system,” the man brushed off like the security was the main concern there, “point is she’s seen proof you were sleeping here at the time of everything, so we’re safe there. Thank you Scorpion.”
“I also finished getting those stains out of your shirt,” the man added on with some pride.
“Percy called here an hour ago, he got out of the hospital this morning and couldn’t reach you. I told him you were doing fine and he said he’d tell your Sigyn friend. Her apartments in the city so she’s apparently staying in the Covenant too for a few days until everyone’s sure things are safe,” Vergil continued with a sigh, the man tapping his fingers like he was trying to remember something else, “it’s been a little over twelve hours, world’s freaking out but no one knows what to think yet. Some people are already assuming other shit is real, other people are trying to find a way to explain it as a prank or fucked up hoax.”
I was about to ask more when my phone buzzed again, a sigh escaping me as I finally pulled it out and saw Samuel’s name waiting for me. The urge to ignore it or hung up stopped with a sigh as I answered with, “I’m about to head home now, I saw the news and-”
“Mary,” the man interrupted, his tone dark, serious, a sobering clarity to it, “we need to talk, I know what you just fucking did.”