2019-11-21 - Return To The Murray House

August had something happen to him in Portland, something that left him a bit tired and worn, and though he doesn't particularly want to discuss it with anyone, also a little angry and edgy. So when he feels it, hears it, he remembers all those months ago, that first time he and others faced the ugliness, met it head on and stole back the little girl the house had taken. And he drives to that house again, knowing maybe he shouldn't, but not feeling particularly careful for the moment. He parks his Outback in the same spot as last time, walks up to the house slowly, hands in his pants pockets, like he's approaching an old enemy.

As if not ominous enough, the cemetery caretaker's truck pulls up near the house. The engine rumbling to a halt, Thewlis steps out, shoulders hunched, looking up at the house with a drawn frown, brow knitting. Spotting August, Thewlis shuffles towards the house, holding his tongue.

Nicole isn't really all that sure what she feels, but she's been learning that sometimes, it's important to try to figure it out. She remembers stories about the house from long ago, but is lacking in her own experiences. It is her steps that bring her up to the house tonight, phone in hand to snap photos along the way of anything she deems worthy. She stops short of it when she sees Thewlis pull up and get out of his truck. Lifting her hand, she gives him a small wave before walking closer. Once she is within speaking distance, she says, "I wasn't expecting you here." Looking to the house then, she says, "I wasn't really expecting to be here myself though either." Her eyes simply watch August. Curious.

Lyric has been here before and like before she was drawn here again. Her steps are light as she approaches, she doesn't much care who went in before her, when it calls or summons, she comes. She walks towards the front door, not even pausing to greet the others any more than an almost vacant look wards them as he steps carry her closer. To the porch and to the door. The open door. Glancing back once, she notices others moving in so she hesitates right there a moment. Enough for them to catch up if t hey wanted, then she steps inside. "I'm hooooooome."

"That's how this place works," August says to Nicole, tone dry. He gives her and Thewlis a quick once over, then turns his attention to Lyric. Her, at least, he remembers, so she gets an up-nod. And then she's heading in, so he sighs and says, "Careful," to Nicole and Thewlis. "This place likes to eat people." With that, he follows Lyric in.

Jade hops out of the truck as well, adjusting her leather coat over the oversized flannel she wears. Scooting around the front of the truck, she moves to join the others, nudging Thewlis lightly and smiling up at him before turning that same smile towards Nicole. "Hi, Jade Rivera. I think you were there briefly at the diner my first night in... going out as I was coming in?" She offers a hand towards the woman while glancing around the house. "Certainly looks the part of a haunted house."

"The hands are upstairs. The handprints." But Lyric opts to follow the blood, wandering through the main part to the deeper regions of the house. "Helloooo. I'm hooooome!" She continues along.

While watching August, Lyric strolls up and just walks past them all, right into the house. August's words make Nicole's eyes go wide then look toward Thewlis for a moment before she looks back toward the house. She catches her lower lip in her teeth and is standing there staring still as Jade gets out. "Oh, um. hi. Nicole Stein... nice to meet you?" Her words are a bit distracted as she sees August now follow Lyric inside. She starts to head that way, pausing when she sees the blood. "Um..." Looking up towards August and Lyric's back she asks, "this... doesn't make you a little concerned?"

"A lot concerned," August says over his shoulder. He points at himself, says, "August," then Lyric in front of him, "Lyric. Won't lie, this is going to be dangerous."

He makes a face at the direction the blood is going in. "The hole we made," he murmurs to Lyric. "Which maybe means the basement."

With a sigh, Thew approaches as he's nudged, heading up right behind Jade. "Nu-neh-nehhhv..." he shivers and shuts back up, looking around as they step in. He notes the dust, the 'old house' problems an frowns savagely. The place needed a good scrub, for certain. At handprints he looks up instinctively, and when someone mentions a basement. "I ca-cahh-cah-call being... the fu-fu=funny... The funny. The one. The funny one."

"There's mostly always blood here. Or handprints from lost kids." Lyric smiles when August introduces her. "Nicole lives in the same trailer parl I lived in most of my life. And we see each other at my work too." And she knows Thew so maybe Jade too. But she hurries after August, staying nearby him.

Jade gives a small squeeze to Thew's arm and chuckles, "I call being the Thelma." Then she's heading after the rest into the house. The blood gives her pause for a moment, the drag marks. Stuff she's seen before but still.. it never seems to bode well. "Did anyone remember to bring a dog? I feel like we need to have a dog with us..." A beat and then, "And someone in an ascot telling us to split up so we can cover more ground. Dibs on creepy kid's room!"

Nicole nods towards August when he mentions his name, then again when he points out the other woman. "Yeah, I know Lyric. Hi Lyric." She frowns a bit at the information Lyric offers, the handprints and blood. She however follows swiftly after. "I am not going to be the last one down if we are going into a basement... wait up."

August pauses as the room changes, sucks in a breath. His stomach turns at the sight of the body, and he has to look away and cough. "You fucking asshole," he says, voice ragged. He turns to face the figure on the couch, and holds up a hand. A teardrop shaped fireball forms in it, growing steadily, a lavender and pink cast to the yellow orange of the fire. "I'm sick of your bullshit. How about we burn this place down to the foundation, see how you like that."

Lyric just looks at Jade and her joking around but she doesn't really joke back. Instead she walks through with August towards the room. The voice startles her and she jumps, but she gives it a glare anyway. "What are you doing? And why?" Then she watches August and she steps behind him. Oh yes she does!

Thewlis flinches and cringes when the room shifts, and almost calls out when it speaks. Then August is making fire. The tall man frowns, brow knitting. Fear and disgust welling up, head down... but then the thing is a bully... and August might need a hand. Thoughts of well wishing being sent towards the man with flames. He's the man with the plan, and knows what this thing is.

"OH FUCK!" Jade jolts suddenly, and not just for the change in the room. Her eyes are glued to the talking skeleton with its corpse bodypillow. Now THAT is NOT a prop. She edges a bit closer to Thewlis and settles a hand at the back of her hip, eyes never leaving the creepy sight of the talking bonepile.

Nicole has never been here before, so the room being repaired gets no reaction from her. What does, however, is how the room comes alive when they enter. The hair rises on her arms and she feels her senses go on full alert, preservation mode.

The voice makes her gasp and turn abruptly towards its location. What she sees then has her go still, eyes wide as her nose wrinkles a touch. She doesn't even realize it when her hand moves to rest upon her stomach after a sudden feeling of nausea bubbles within. Swallowing the urge to vomit, at least for now, her eyes are then drawn towards August. More precisely, to the fire forming on his hand. She is dumbfounded, no way around it. She is thankfully already behind August, and Lyric, likely in the middle of the pack.

Usually Lyric managed to be so composed about these things, but something about the figure, something from her childhood. She stumbles backwards, falling to her rear and crab walking back in horror, she screams and screams again. "No! Don't burn the house, burn HIM! BURN HIM!"

August hesitates when the figure--Skeletor, as Finch and Ignacio so aptly dubbed him--starts egging him on like that. Lyric's suggestion has way more merit, and Thewlis powers him up a bit.

"I like her idea," he says, voice trembling. "We'll just burn you." And he lobs that fireball, as hard as he can.

A kerchief is out of Thewlis's jacket pocket, but he doesn't put it on himself, no. He moves to put it over Jade's mouth and nose, coughing as smoke begins to billows forth, even trying to get it tied around her face to keep her filtered.

August pulls out a handkerchief as well, covering his mouth, even as he reaches out to douse the flames he created. It's slow going, but he grimaces to see Skeletor has bailed on them again. And now, there's a charred body.

He sighs. "So, fire doesn't work on him now. That's great."

Jade reaches up to press her hand to her nose and mouth, nodding to Thew that she can hold it there and he should see to his own wellbeing. "What the fuck WAS that thing? Or.. who? And who was that poor bastard there?" She motions with an elbow towards the smoking corpse on the shitty couch, not moving her hand from her hip jsut yet.

Nicole doesn't have a handkerchief. When the smoke starts to build quickly in the room, she coughs and pulls the sleeve of her longsleeved tee down over her hand. Using that hand, she covers her mouth and nose, coughing a bit. Eyes squinting, as she tries to see through the haze, she asks, "did it used to?" At Jade's question, she nods. "What... indeed."

Smother the fire, smother the fire, smother the fire. Lyric repeats that to herself over and over and over, and her and August seem to manage to do just that. When she is finished with her part she notices that Skeletor is gone. "I'm going looking for him. In the basement." Obvious choice right? "We can't know who the guy is unless the fingers and all aren't burned. Can someone call the cops to get the body? Call Yule!"

Thewlis nods at Lyric and Jade as he ties his own kerchief on, "Go-ohh... With. Going, Basement. With, down. Going" Thew stumbles over himself while others tend the fire. Too many cooks and all. "I'm goi... goi-hiing... to be... Be. Man. Burying." he looks to the couch, brow furrowing. "Should... be... Help."

August stares at the couch for a spell, very much avoiding so much as a glance at the body. He shakes his head. "It...well, maybe it did," he says to Nicole. "He definitely didn't shrug it off like he did just now." His eyes flick to Jade. "We don't know who he is. And," another not-glance towards the body, "I didn't recognize them. Not sure who Yule is but if he's a cop, that'd work. You can trust de la Vega with the freaky shit, if you know him."

Jade frowns as Thewlis makes to head for the basement before sighing, "Should we really involve the police in this? I mean... the man is dead. We would be stuck for hours at the station being grilled over and over about an even that is not going to sound any less the insane with each re-telling. And that's IF they let us go without deciding someone looks shifty enough to charge with homicide. At the very least we've got breaking and entering, destruction of property, desecration of a corpse, tampering with evidence.... and those are just off the top of my head." She flicks a glance around, "My dad would kill me if he heard me say this but... it might be easier to just.. wrap the poor guy up, put him int he back of Thew's truck, and let us quietly bury him in the cemetery..."

"I know who Yule is, but not his number. Uh..." Nicole breathes in a bit too much smoke and starts to cough. Clearing her throat, she fixes the material over her hand. "Gabriel. I could call him but. I don't know weird shit. Joey knows Ruiz. I could... uh..." She frowns at Jade and shakes her head a bit. "I would rather not. There'es shit... I don't know all that it means, this shit... but I know shit like this..." She gestures to the room with her other hand. "Happens. And some people, get it." Cough. "Not sure if Gabriel does. I tend to not have a lot of cop friends..." Looking to August and Lyric, she adds. "They seem to know more about this shit.... so uh..." Asking them directly then, she asks, "suggestions?" Cough. Cough. "I... don't understand it all, I just.. anyway. If I can help. I was brought here for some reason."

"I know de la Vega." Okay, that's an overstatement, but August is reasonably sure he can post Ruiz would rather be told and have this handled quietly than not. "Having...Thewlis?" He says the name carefully, like he's making sure he's understood it. "Having you take it to the cemetary and keep it--in a tarp, in a shallow grave, until de la Vega can decide what he'd like to do, is probably easiest." Then he moves towards the couch to...have a look at it, with his mind gift. This is maybe a bad idea, but here goes nothing.

"Medical examiners office." Lyric says, "Dial 4-1-1." She looks to Jade. "We have to know who he is, who murdered him. We won't get blamed. Call Yule. Or even call de la Vega?" Lyric knows him also. She touches the icky smelly burnt clothing and part of the corpse. She touches and she closes her eyes and then she throws up.

Just a little. "No don't. Don't call anyone." She stands and runs to the window and breathes outside air. "Take him and go bury him." Lyric looks back but not at the body. She looks at August but talks to them all. "He don't have anyone. He's homeless no one misses him. He got in here and Skeletor murdered him. Bashed his face in with the not sharp side of the axe. Then he ripped off his skin trying to make it his own skin but it didn't work."

Thewlis stands, blinking, looking to Jade, then the others. Lyric's vomiting. Attention on him. The description of what occurred. Attention on him. The idea of... a shallow grave, a tarp... waiting. He blinks, makes a 'guk' sound and promptly goes into a violent fit of twitching and convulsing, moving as if he is being struck, repeatedly. His arms even coming up as if to fend off blows.

"Let's get him out of here. Is there a tarp in the truck? We can wrap him in it and then take him to the truck." Thew gets a look of apology and Lyric steels herself for what they must do.

Nicole looks horrifies towards Lyric, her eyes wide. If her hand wasn't already covering her mouth, she'd have moved it there now. The vision of the body and Skeletor still fresh in her mind when Lyric explains what happened. "What... Clearly you two were here before. Know this guy. What can I do to help end this... cycle?" And then Thewlis is having an episode. She starts to go to him, but thinks better of it. The man doesn't know her well yet. Looking to Jade, she asks, "can you help him?" Then to Lyric, "I'll go with you and look."

Jade didn't need to be told even a single time. With Thewlis convulsing, she moves towards him, flinching and watching until she can duck under his flailing arms and get inside his personal space. Wrapping him into a tight hug and leaning up to whisper into his ear. Her hands rub gently at his back, soothingly, and she works at getting him calmed.

August tries to get Thewlis to calm, but either his own moods or Thewlis' stubbornness (or both) are having none of it. He sags, defeated. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

As he is hugged, Thewlis actually mewls and with some recognition of who is in his space he tries to keep his arms from flailing. Any attempts to move him at least work to push him where she wants him, but his head remains down and he keeps ducking to avoid strikes, head jerking as if he was being yelled at.