Anne Barnes stared at her sister, wondering where it had all gone wrong.
Things used to be so simple when she was younger. Back then, all she worried about were her grades, getting into a good college, making sure Emma and Taylor didn't do anything stupid when she was the only one in the house, and finding someone who was worthwhile boyfriend material…or
girlfriend material, as it were. Anne didn't realize she swung the other way until she started college and met her roommate. Their first meeting involved the latter stark naked and in the middle of changing.
The first thought that crossed her mind at that moment was,
Oh, holy shit, she's hot.
That was the first sign she was gay. The second sign was when she started taking second glances at her roommate whenever they hung out. The way she dressed, how she did her hair, how soft her lips looked, etc. What really cinched the deal was when her roommate, in a drunken stupor, kissed her. It was a chaste kiss all in all, but Anne could safely say she did not hate it.
It was around that time Anne started experimenting, wondering if she just found the right person or if she really was attracted to girls. She looked up certain bars and took a few ganders, and after a few times, she safely concluded that, yes, she was indeed gay. When she broke the news to her father, he was surprised but no less supportive. Emma barely even reacted, having somehow figured out she was gay well before she did and told her it was about time.
Zoe, on the other hand…
She seemed disappointed for some reason. She didn't outright
say she disapproved, but at the same time, she didn't say she liked what she heard. Every now and then, Anne caught her mother making small remarks, sometimes giving her little glances when she thought she wouldn't notice. It was clear she did have problems with her eldest being gay, but she had the decency not to say anything.
In hindsight, that was probably when the cracks first started to show up. Anne had been so absorbed in her own thing and trying to get her mom to understand, or at least accept this was
her now, if only begrudgingly, that she failed to notice what was going on with Emma. She offered quiet apologies and told her sister things would get better, but they were half-hearted. She did not understand how badly the ABB fucked her up, not until
Sophia Fucking Hess bulldozed into the Barnes' life.
The girl's demeanor rubbed her the wrong way. She wasn't a total bitch, but the way she acted set off all kinds of warning bells. However, she was a friend of Emma's so she kept her mouth shut. College started ramping up and took away most of her attention, letting Sophia sink her claws deeper. She heard her parents arguing more often. Sometimes it was about her, sometimes it was about Emma, and other times it was about them. Whenever she was there, Anne tried to be the voice of reason. Her efforts were lukewarm and barely a stopgap. The cracks were getting worse, and she was scared what would happen if her family broke apart.
Just when it felt like something was about to go right, the camel's back finally broke when Alan exploded at dinner, cornering Emma and demanding answers about what happened to Taylor, her friend since childhood.
Who she shoved into a waste-filled locker and put in a coma. She hadn't learned
that tidbit until it made its way on the news.
Emma looked like a cornered mouse, shrinking and flinching with each word. Zoe joined in, though instead of siding with her husband she fought with him. Her father wanted to get Emma help, get her to see a shrink. Zoe wouldn't allow it. Ultimately it didn't matter. By the end of February, Emma was sent to the Brockton Health for Troubled Youths.
Her mother wanted a divorce.
Everything was happening too quickly, too fast. Anne was struggling to keep up, to do something, and yet all she could do was look back at her failures and realize how badly she screwed up. How she was never there for Emma, how she didn't realize what was going on until it was too late.
It had been one month since all then. April was a week away, and things looked like they were quieting down. The city wasn't trying to tear itself apart, and for once Anne could take a moment to breathe and get back to her life.
Emma…did not look well. The hair she prided herself on maintaining was unkempt and tangled, her arms looked skinny, her skin was pale, and her eyes…
Anne closed her eyes and took a deep breathe. She opened them again and collected herself. "Hey, sis."
Emma barely even reacts to her words. She sat with her knees curled up to her chest, head bowed. If not for the fact she was making eye contact, Anne would have thought she was dead. Another reminder of her screw-up.
"How have you been?" she asked. "Are the people here treating you well?"
The BHTY, despite its appearance, was not an insane asylum. It was a mental health care facility dedicated to helping children with unique problems. Autism, asperger, the whole nine yards. Other problems involved traumas, much like what Emma experienced. It was relatively new, but it was the only place in the city that could reasonably help her. The alternative was to send her to another city, which her parents refused to do.
"…fine," Emma murmured. "I guess. Some people are annoying."
"Anyone in particular?"
"Some stupid kid who has trouble sleeping. Insomnia, I think. Anytime someone gets loud he starts screaming at us to shut up. Doesn't matter who."
"Sounds like a pain."
Emma's smile was brittle, but it was better than the last time she saw it. "He kind of is." Her smile faded, expression turning more somber. "How… How is everything at home?"
Anne sighed. "Not good. Dad's rarely home these days, and Mom…" She chewed on her bottom lip, finding it difficult to look away from the floor. "We haven't really spoken since the stuff at Winslow went public. Has she visited you lately?"
"A few times, yeah. She said she was going to help get me out of here," the red-haired girl shrugged. "The other day I overheard getting into it with a doctor."
Somehow, that doesn't surprise me, Anne thought bitterly.
She wasn't sure if Zoe had always been like that or if this was a new development. Not that it mattered anymore, seeing as how their family was broken to hell and back.
"…how's…" Anne looked up. Emma was struggling to get something out, but the words were lodged in her throat. She looked like she swallowed a lemon. "H-how…how is…?"
"Sophia?" Anne hedged a guess. Emma's face tightened and nodded. The older Barnes sister grimaced. She hoped Emma wouldn't bring her up this time. "I don't know. She hasn't swung by the house. To be frank, Emma? I…" She took a deep breathe. She needed to be calm. She
needed to be
calm. "I really don't want to see her."
"But she's my friend!"
"So was Taylor. Though I guess you couldn't give a shit about that anymore." The words hurt for both of them. Emma recoiled as though she had been struck, and Anne's mouth tasted like vomit. She wanted to bite off her tongue, but her mouth didn't stop. "Seriously, Emma, what the fuck were you thinking? I have no idea what happened between you two, but did you hate Taylor so much you wanted to ruin her life? You almost killed her for fuck's sake!"
Emma looked away, out of shame or unwilling to look her sister in the eye anymore. Frustration bubbled in Anne's chest, unsure whether to blame herself or Sophia for her sister being like this.
She wanted to say something else, anything else, change the subject, but found she could no longer muster the will to continue. Anne sighed, feeling like a failure once more. She glared at her lap, at her wringing hands. "…I'll come by again later," she said after a moment. "I'm taking a break from my studies for a while, so I'll be able to see you more often."
Emma didn't say anything, not even as she left. Anne exited the room and closed the door shut behind her. The moment she was outside, she leaned against the wall and glared up at the ceiling in dismay. "God, this fucking day…" she groaned. "Damn this city to hell."
Brockton Bay had always been crazy, even before she was born. The age of capes turned it into the madhouse it is today, giving rise to freaks and monsters of all kinds. The Empire was the first to rise up, and before long, the Teeth and ABB made themselves at home. Nowadays it was just the Empire and the ABB, and whatever that gang calling itself the Merchants were.
In recent days, however, Anne found herself dealing not with the drama that came to be with capes, but rather something else. A worthwhile distraction enabling her to vent her frustrations.
Sighing again, Anne walked away from Emma's room. Once she was outside the building, her phone rang. She looked at the ID and frowned, flipping it open. "Hey, Rodin."
"Hey, yourself," the bartender greeted. "How's things?"
"Shitty. Metaphorically, anyway. I just got done visiting my sister."
"She getting' any better?"
"At this point, I don't know." Anne raked her fingers through her hair. "Do you have a job lined up for me? I need to do something."
"Sorry, nothing special tonight, darlin'." She swore under her breathe. "But if your up for deliveries, I got something for you. A customer of mine made a request or two and the items arrived the other day. Client confidentiality keeps me from telling you what, but the stuff is volatile and needs extra care."
"How bad we talking?"
"Let's just say there'll be some property damage and leave it at that."
Anne should have been surprised at this point, but given that this was
Rodin and that she worked under him for close to three months at this point…
"Alright, I'll be right there."
"Perfect. See you then, kid."
"You know I'm in my twenties, right?"
"Kid, you could be in your hundreds, and you'd still be younger than me." With that cheeky remark, he ended the call, making Anne stare at her phone in befuddlement. A thought crossed her mind. When the thought started to sink in her head, her spine shuddered and quickly banished it. Some things were better left unsaid.
She stashed her phone away and began making her way to her workplace. By evening, Anne Barnes retired for the evening. Even on quiet nights like this, however, Gemini was ever the busy-body.
Rodin chuckled to himself as he set his cell phone down on the table. "Kids these days, always thinking they hafta rush into things," he mused, chomping on the bit of his cigar before casting his gaze to the guns sitting on the workbench next to him.
The first was a flintlock rifle, vaguely reminiscent in design to Colonial era weapons. Of course, Colonial rifles never had demonic sigils carved into the metal, nor was said metal pulsating and seemingly writhing and shifting with purple lights throbbing within the sigil's carvings. The wood was also replaced by a tanned leather skin, rough and coarse and warm to the touch.
The second was a double-barreled shotgun with a similar aesthetic to the rifle, albeit a tad bigger and the metal comprising the barrel of the gun sporting a somewhat more "heavy metal" design, with quils and spikes running along the sides and top of the barrel respectively. The mouth of the muzzle resembled a pair of gaping jaws, looking to take a bite out of someone.
"A bit shabby, but this should tide the kiddies over a while," Rodin smirked. They had been begging him for new weapons for a while now. Mostly Gemini, though that was because the girl was looking for an extra edge in combat. She was working with normal weapons and material after all, and after fighting a big fish like Colossus… Well, it was only a matter of time before they stepped into the big leagues. After this, things were going to get a lot tougher for them.
Especially Taylor. The girl's half-breed status, artificial though it was, made her a target for demons of all shapes and sizes. And the stronger she got, the more appetizing she'd be.
"But, she'll be fine," Rodin said to himself. "Kid's got spunk." His lips curled into a wry grin as he looked over his shoulder, just in time to see someone enter the bar. "Kind of like you, just without the strut and style."
"My, my. Looks like this vacation's done wonders for you if you took on an apprentice."
"More like picked up a stray is all. So then…" Rodin flicked his cigar into the ash tray and leaned on the countertop, looking his customer in the eye. "How's Italy been treating you, baby?"
And viola. Muscle is finally wrapped up after several months of waiting, and I've pulled back the curtain. Of the few Worm fanfics I've read, do you know what I've noticed? How Anne Barnes is criminally underutilized. Emma and Alan usually take center stage in the ones I've read, the former for obvious reasons, but we hardly see or hear anything about Anne or Zoe.
Hence why I decided to make her part of the Gates of Hell's entourage alongside Victoria. I actually had to fight about her inclusion with my co-writer since hers was a last-minute decision. He only came around to the idea when I started fleshing things out rather than just make it a one-and-done impulsion.
Anne's Trigger Event mainly involves the shit surrounding her family. The start of it was when Zoe quietly disapproved of her daughter being gay and Anne wanting her mother to accept that, even if she didn't like it. Things really started getting problematic when Emma got jumped by the ABB and her parents started arguing, with Emma starting to distance herself from her sister and spend more time with Sophia. This builds up for a year or so before the locker incident kickstarts the Trigger Event and her parents start planning a divorce and Anne trying, and failing, to get them to reconcile. That she failed to notice Emma's problem only made matters worse and blamed herself, causing the Trigger Event to kick in.
As I said previously, the next arc will be filler and set-up the last two arcs of Devil Trigger, though Arc 4 will be relevant all the same since I'm taking the moment to have Taylor focus on something that isn't her Devil hunting job and her relationships, building the foundation of what will be her team. Oh, and dipping into something I haven't done before when it comes to characters. And probably something other writers haven't done before.
I think. (shrugs)
Anyways, with this arc said and done, I'm shifting focus over to A Worm in the Gulch. It's been far too long, and I'm itching to get back to Blood Gulch.