A classic love story, boy meets girl, boy and girl date, boy tries to elope with girl, things go wildly wrong- like bonkers-crazy-somehow-ending-in-three-people-triggering-at-the-same-time-and-one-of-them-is-the-boys-sister kind of wrong. Boy flees town like the little bitch he is.
Girl and sister date? Yes. They're also going to kick the boys ass. See! Basically a meet cute.
Hello! I'd like to state that I'm very sorry for not updating anything, and doubly sorry for working on this completely new thing instead! Nothing is cancelled or going to be unfinished, I'm just waiting until I can kick my own ass into gear.
On the positive side, I've always found the concept of cluster triggers to be really interesting, so this was a lot of fun to write! The chapters will be alternating perspective between the two main characters, but their will be various interludes from others as well. The MC's are original characters, and while some familiar faces from Worm will appear the story will mostly be focused on non-Brockton-bay shenanigans. This story is not necessarily chorological, and does skip around a bit between events, though a good portion of it will be in order. Please share any questions or comments you have, and have a good time!
Content warnings for: Child abuse (verbal and physical), and abusive relationships in general, and light mentions of blood and injury. This story will have a fair amount of dark subject matter.
The wooden walls surrounding them shiver and shake like a little old grandma getting out of a lake, wrinkled lumber and slivered hairs soaked with rainwater.
It's pouring outside like gods weeping, cold and hard and ugly. The tall ass pines surrounding the shack are barely visible in the dimness of the flood, the tops of the trees sticking out of the mist- horror movie monsters ready and waiting for the jumpscare.
Luckily, they'd made it indoors- (if you could call an old leaky decade abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere indoors)- before the weather had turned, which meant they didn't have to sit around on dusty planks in silence while also freezing their tits off. Though she wasn't sure it was quite cold enough for that yet- hypothermia kicked in once the body dropped below ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit, but it'd have to be below thirty degrees to get frostbite.
(Man, where the hell had she even fucking learned that?)
It was getting kind of awkward anyway though.
Coleman hadn't said a word for a good couple of minutes, just mutely staring at the mossy floorboards with a closed off expression. Or Will thought it was closed off- the truth was it could be pickled with glee or more pissed than hell- but either way, Will couldn't tell cus' they didn't know each other worth shit.
Hell, Will didn't even know what Colemans first name was- she only remembered her last name because Mrs. Sprout made them go watch debate class practice while she was nursing her hangover in her grade nine social studies class.
It'd had been boring and awkward and just plain embarrassing to watch a bunch of dumb teenagers- (kids only one year older than them at that)- fumble and stutter through a practice debate.
The teacher had called everyone by their last name for some reason, and over and over it felt like all Will could hear was 'Fisher! Keep your argument on subject!' and 'Coleman speak up!' and 'Coleman we can't hear you muttering!' and on and on. Absolutely miserable experience.
It was humiliating though, to only know the girl her brother was going to essentially up and elope with by her fucking last name.
Surely Leo had shouted her name sometime this morning? (God was it almost nighttime already?) He'd certainly bellowed Will's own name enough that Leviathan could probably hear it, sleeping down in the Mariana trench or whatever.
But it would be weird, wouldn't it? To ask her name now? Like 'hey I know we're stuck running from the police together for the foreseeable future and also we both almost narrowly dodged death and I was bleeding all over the place like five seconds ago and now we have fucking powers somehow, but I incredibly don't know what your name is even though you've been dating my brother for a-'
"Hey. Will- are- are you doing okay?" Coleman asked, rudely breaking Will's panic spiral with her infuriatingly calm voice.
Will looked up, giving the other girl her best cheerful grin. Colemans eyes widened a little bit in response, but she otherwise maintained her poker face- warm brown eyes cast puke colored in the dark almost blue light that trickled through the rain.
"Ohh yeah just peachy! Aren't you doing peachy? Look at us! Out camping underneath the stars-" The sky remained solidly filled with a thick grey mush- " warm and safe in our delightfully quaint little cabin-" The shack took it's cue beautifully, letting out a particularly ominous groan as the wind pushed it to it's structural limit- " dressed in sleek but appropriately water-proof clothing for the weather!" She topped off fantastically, throwing up her arms and further exaggerating her problem- mainly that the edges of the bottom of her shitty t-shirt were mangled and sacrificed to the worthy cause of trying to keep Ms.Linebrook from bleeding out all over her stupid plastic gnomes.
Her pants weren't doing much better- entirely covered in dark brown-red blood that had crusted over and was now a constant irritant. Also, y'know, the giant hole on her right thigh, which almost made it look like something impaled her through that particular spot! Something like maybe a stupid stick of stupid rebar in her stupid garden!
Coleman was dressed a little better, but she still had splotches of blood on her nice blouse, a slightly singed ponytail, and an angry looking hand shaped bruise wrapped around her wrist.
Coleman winced slightly, tapping her fingers anxiously onto the sogging floor beside her.
"…right. Yeah. W-well- yeah. Things are…not going well for us today huh?" She murmured rhetorically- voice a little more wobblily at the end than Will was comfortable with.
God, she was such a dick. Out of everyone in this shitshow Coleman was probably the least responsible for this mess- why the fuck was she basically shouting at her?
Will groaned pathetically, rubbing her hands exaggeratedly over her own face in an attempt to lighten this funeral of a mood.
"Ugh, god, I'm sorry- I'm just freaking out because like- we have powers now y'know? Actual powers! And like, we're criminals! Or- or at least suspects right? Even though it was all my stupid motherfucking cunt of a brother who- uh-"Will paused in her tirade realizing a little too late that brining Leo up so casually was probably a little bit of a social faux pas considering how fresh their 'breakup' was.
But Coleman didn't look offended exactly, more like a combo of stressed and amused (stremused), the corner of her mouth twitching up and her hand running anxiously through her long-ass hair.
"Yeah. It's alright you didn't- you didn't upset me or anything, I'm just…a little overwhelmed." Coleman said, exhaling visibly in that same sort of tired-sad combo Alice used to when she was looking over their bills.
Will let her head conk back against the wall behind her- immediately regretting the action when she felt her hair get wetter- probably a lot more spider-web dense too.
"Man if you're just a little overwhelmed then you're doing just fine- I feel like I'm about to explode like when you take one of those little weird ass hard candies and plop it into a coke- y'know what I'm talking about, where it goes 'fwhhhoooooom'?" She asked (at least a little rhetorically) spreading her fingers out to encapsulate the motion of the foam.
Coleman blinked.
Will cleared her throat.
"While I'm on a roll here in terms of questions, what the hell is your name?"
"You- Leonard never-?" Will shook her head sympathetically, feeling a stab of pity in the other girls direction- it didn't say great things about your relationship when your boyfriend didn't even bother to update his least homicidal blood relative on your goddamn name. It didn't say great things about their sibling relationship either, but that wasn't exactly fucking new.
"Oh. Cool." Will answered back extremely lamely, rolling up a ball of soggy green moss with one finger and gently pushing it along the uneven floor.
Heavy silence.
"We need a plan. We need- we need a list or a direction or something."
Will scoffed, but bit back any disparaging comments at the looping scratchy record player memory of Quinn gripping her brothers' shoulders and asking, 'What's going on- what- what are you doing?' in a voice that had made her want to crawl under her bed and put her hands around her ears.
Maybe a plan wouldn't solve any of their problems, not really, but it might make Quinn feel better, which would make Will feel better so…so.
'Alrighty, um, lets see then- uhhh we need food, and water- somewhere not haunted to sleep, to be super far away from the cops- never met a cop I could trust more than a pimple on a pigs ass- money would be nice, um, sweet sweet revenge on my brother?" That last part she'd tried to inject some humor into, but even still her anger felt solid and hot in her chest. Under her skin, in her blood- bubbling and hot like grinding your jaw to dust, like metal melted until it was cherry red, like a bruise pressed on.
Quinn looked a little surprised and unnerved, delicate fingers continuing tap tap taping- one on the floor, the other on her leg.
"…he's your brother. I know that he- that he really, really fucked up- but he's your brother." As if she could ever forget. That was what made it worse- she wouldn't have given a shit if it had been some random stranger- it was a dog eat fucking dog world after all. She scoffed.
"Yeah, and my dad is still my dad and I'm glad that fuckers dead." She gritted, feeling exposed and naked. All of this was so close to home- all the shit she wanted to bury- to leave behind and forget about and never even consider again.
And now Quinn knew basically all of it- or could at least guess at a fair amount.
In response to her less than kind words about her dear ol' papa Quinn winced, eyebrows furrowing and eyes squinting. She almost looked to be in pain, and the fidgeting with her hands increased.
"I-yeah that- Leonard mentioned that…I'm sorry. He never said anything about him hurting you as well." Quinn seemed to be shrinking into herself further and further as the sentence progressed. Will tried to imagine having a conversation like this with a near stranger from the other side and found that she probably wouldn't have fared much better. This was all so uncomfortable.
"It's fine- I mean, it's not fine obviously- my dad was a piece of shit. I guess Leo wouldn't have talked about it much, never mind, uh, stuff involving me." She finished awkwardly. There was no graceful way to talk around 'my dad has hit me and my brother ever since we were kids'- at least none that she'd found.
It didn't help that the gross stilted awkwardness was only going to be increased throughout this next bit.
"And, um, about my brother- he- listen, we had our ups and downs, and he did a lot of stuff for me, especially when I was younger but…" Will trailed off, mouth suddenly dry. It was one thing to tiptoe around what dad did, but to talk about her brother with anyone- to discuss or contemplate his actions and motivations anywhere but her own head… it felt like prying a fingernail off with her teeth.
Quinn had paled considerably, shoulders tense. She was probably filling in the blanks by herself, at least some of them.
"He was- he was pretty shitty to me too, sometimes. Said stuff that- that really fucked with my head, um, stole my stuff and sold it- um, he- h-he was rough with me, like dad." She said, and every word was like glue- stuck to the back of her throat and choking her on its way out. She felt sick.
It still felt like a betrayal- like she was running to Alice to tattle on her big brother- but- but how fucked up was that? Why should she feel fucking guilty? She wasn't the one who trashed talked their abusive father and then turned around and did the exact same shit to-
Fuck. This sucked. This was stupid. Why the goddamn hell was she even telling Quinn this- why was she explaining herself? If she wanted to kill her ugly fucker of a brother, then so what?! She was probably already headed for jail.
Quinn looked almost like she wanted to cry, but her eyes were desert dry. Will didn't take it personally- her cheeks had been spotless even when Leo had been hauling her around and shouting at her, or when Wills leg had-
Quinn was kind of badass, in a quiet sneaky way.
Neither of them said anything for a few moments, before with a sudden feeling of cold horror Will spoke again.
"…My brother he- I saw how he was treating you when he- when he was first trying to get you into the car. Did…he wasn't…" Again, words fell short, and she was left helplessly staring at the other girl, her spit feeling like heavy concrete as she swallowed.
Quinn looked to the side, biting her lip. She was running her fingers along the palm of her hands now- it made a sound kind of like extraordinarily quiet sandpaper.
The ominous silence only served to make her feel worse.
"Not- not really. Sometimes I thought…but he never did anything." She answered after a tense few seconds. It didn't make Will feel any better really- sometimes the waiting, the agonizing and the panic and the nail biting when you knew you were going to get punished- it was almost worse than the pain itself.
So that was it then. Even out of their shitty little trailer- with no more broken glass or cigarette buds or mold on the edges of walls- even then he was still…
She just didn't get it.
Oh, she got being angry- understood the feeling of wanting so badly to hurt someone else for once, of revenge or justice or relief- but to do that shit to your family? To your girlfriend?
"Okay. So maybe we don't kill him. But he can't- he can't just take all of our money-"The money Alice had given them before she'd left- to pool together and share, to give them a head start on getting out of that flimsy excuse for a home the same way she had- she still couldn't believe he'd tried to just-"-and kill dad, and fucking- he didn't even check to see if our neighbor was okay! He basically crashed a car through her house and didn't even care! And after everything he-"(blood, blood everywhere, leaking so so fast from her, like a sprinkler- and wasn't that funny? That wasn't how blood worked was it? If this was some cheap flasher movie she'd be booing at the screen and- and why wasn't Leo helping her, why wasn't he looking at her- she needed-) "- he did to- to both of us- he can't just-"
"Get away with it." Quinn finished, and her voice was solid and almost unfeeling compared to Wills own.
"Yeah." Will breathed, words more exhale than syllables. She felt weirdly drained.
This time, the lack of words between them wasn't nearly as horribly uncomfortable or tense.
