thom

who: kaysen and thom
where: text
when: night

Kaysen had been sitting on the text message for ages, and knew she ought to just send it and be done with it. Rolling her eyes, she sat on her window seat and just sent the stupid thing. So. Things that look human and spit sparks. Any ideas?-K

To: Peyton
When: 11:31am

"Hey, it's Leija. Um ... sorry I've been out of touch for the past few days. I kinda got hurt in the whole ... thing, and now my aunt's sick, so I won't be back for a while. They don't really know what it is. I would've called earlier, but I left my phone behind, and I just got your number back. Um, please call on this number, and let me know if you're okay. I hope things are ... okay there. I'll keep in touch. Bye. Oh, I'm in Pennsylvania, with family, sorry. Bye."

To: Kaysen, Herbert, Thom, Isaac, Joshua, Dean, Peyton, Sammy, and Stacey
When: 9amish
Where: Text message

Just checking to see if everyone's alive.

To: Charlotte, Kaysen, Herbert, Thom, Isaac, Joshua, Dean, Peyton and Stacey
When: Late evening.
Where: Text message

To: Kaysen, Herbert, Thom, Isaac, Joshua, Dean, Peyton, Sammy, and Stacey
When: Lunch time
Where: Text message

After leaving school at lunch the previous day, Charlotte had not returned to day. She'd explained to her mother that she'd thought she was ready to go back to school after getting back, but it turned out that she wasn't up to it. Isadora had been nothing but sympathetic. Charlotte felt guilty for lying to her mother, especially about grieving over her uncle, but something had to be done. And nobody else was doing it. It was her frustrated opinion that what she was doing should have been done well before now, and by someone who'd actually been in the state for most of it.

She'd spent all of the previous afternoon and evening in the library, and had gone straight back there today when they had opened. Once she felt she had more than enough to support her theory, she took a deep, supposedly calming breath, bent over her cellphone, and got to heavy texting.

Who: Thom and Isaac
When: night
Where: Harkin household

Isaac was tired. Really really tired, in more ways than one. His arms and back hurt like hell from all the swinging and the knew scratches he'd picked up. One of them had caught him in the face, and while it wasn't too deep, it still throbbed like a bitch. He'd been continually hoping that this would stop at some point, but it hadn't. But then, it hadn't picked up to where they couldn't handle it, either. So maybe that was something. Kaysen was resting somewhere -- which had taken some cajoling, but at least she was doing it -- and Isaac found himself dying of thirst in one of the lulls after dark. He trudged into the kitchen, bat in one hand, the knife he'd been using tucked into his belt, and started rummaging around in the fridge for a bottle of water.

Thom had watched as Isaac left the basement and he took a moment to check on the sleeping Kaysen before he followed him upstairs, needing to double check for his own peace of mind before he left her, even though he knew she was fine. He firmly closed the basement door behind him - they'd found the shadows could open doors, but at least it was something as he headed into the kitchen to find Isaac. "How you holding up, man?" he asked his friend.

Who: Thom and Kaysen (guest appearance by ashbelle)
Where: The treehouse in Thom's back yard
When: Early afternoon

The morning had been chaotic. The shadows hadn't reached Thom's house straight away. That made sense once they realised they were coming from the mirrors - Thom's house, thanks to his utter paranoia - had no mirrors anymore. It didn't matter too much though since the moment that he'd realised what was happening, he wasn't at his house anymore either - he was next door, where lived his best friend and his protected.

To: Kaysen, Herbert, Thom, Isaac, Joshua, Dean, Peyton, Sammy, and Stacey
When: Early morning, before school.
Where: Text message.

Everyone's still alive, right? Is it bad that that's the first thing I ask? That's bad, isn't it? Well I'm back - we flew in late last night. I'm going to school though I am a little sleep deprived. Can someone catch me up on what I missed? At lunch maybe? I hope things have been okay, or a reasonable variant thereof. Thought of you guys lots. -Charlie

Who: Chance and Thom
Where: School
When: Morning

It had finally stopped raining, so Chance took advantage of the dry weather to skateboard to school. He'd been lost in thought on the way until something dark caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. It was that shadow. The one he had seen when he woke up the day before. Or maybe it was a different one. How the hell was he suppose to know? It was in the distance, but he could see it. He stared at it for a long time, but it didn't move. Chance considered approaching it, but thought better of it and turned to continue on his way to school. He was more aware then, his heart pounding in his chest, his palms sweaty. He'd glance over his shoulder every now and then and it was still there. Still the same distance away, but still there. It was following him. It had to be.

Who: Thom and Kaysen
Where: Text
When: Late evening

Thom wondered whether he should be moving down to the basement again - he seemed to spend the majority of his time down here, after all. And added to that, the shadow he'd woken up to this morning, and the ones that had followed him round school all day. He felt safer down here, so down in his basement was where he was.

Who: Thom and Leija
When: late evening
Where: phone

Leija hadn't been aware that terror could last so long. It seemed like it should be a quick thing, like the drop in a rollercoaster, or the jump-scare in movies. A startle, the urge to run and scream, and then it was either over or you got eaten. She'd been very, very wrong. She had screamed, the day before, when she'd first seen the shadow. Her mind had been grinding over Caleb, where he could have gone, if he'd come back, whether or not she should try and call him, or go by his house again to check for Mathias's car, when she looked up on her way toward the shower and there it was. She'd dedicated a good chunk of the morning -- once her heart had slowed down a bit -- to taking down the mirrors in the main rooms of the house. Except in the bathroom, she couldn't get the goddamn thing off the wall, and couldn't stand being in there for long enough to work it loose.

Who: Thom and Geo
Where: Outside Fenton's Music
When: Midday

Avoiding reflective surfaces had been the order of the day, which hadn't been too hard, given that Thom Harkin had spent the morning downstairs in the basement getting in some last minute practice before the party tonight. It'd all been going great until he broke a string and found that he'd been lax lately in keeping a store of replacements. Which meant a trip out down into town to Fenton's. That had been the plan, anyhow. And it had gone perfectly well until he reached the store.

Who: Thom, Dean, Herbert, Peyton, Sammy, Isaac, Kaysen
Where: MSHS, side lawn
When: Lunchtime

To: Kaysen, Herbert, Thom, Isaac, Joshua, Dean, Peyton, Sammy, and Stacey
When: Early morning.
Where: Text message.

Who: Thom to charlotte, dean, herbert, isaac, joshua, peyton, stacey, kaysen
Where: by text
When: evening

Weird things happening. Meeting lunch tomorrow. Same place. Thom

Who: Sammy and Thom
Where: The park
When: Shortly after four

If Sammy had honestly thought about it, he wouldn't have headed for the park. He might have earlier - since school was in session - but he wouldn't have now since it was out and more people were likely to be around. But, he didn't think about it, as previously stated. Up until then he hadn't seen anyone in his walkings - it was kind of like being nowhere, when no one saw you and you didn't see anyone - but now, here, he was no longer nowhere. There were several people he could see, which meant that they very likely saw him, too. Sammy managed to avoid nearly everyone, pulling a very worn black-denim jacket closer around himself to ward off the chill that was in the wind.

Who: Thom and Isaac
When: morning
Where: on the way to school

Isaac hadn't gotten a chance to really talk to his best friend the day before. While that alone wouldn't ordinarily make him twitchy, but the fucked up feeling that had remained between his shoulderblades as he took a shower that morning was just ... well, to put it absolutely simply, he wanted Thom's opinion. Sure, he'd had little bouts of lingering paranoia since they'd gotten home, but this had lasted all day yesterday, interfered with his sleep to the point where he got up in the middle of the night to toss a blanket over his dresser mirror, and hadn't gone away with the light of a new day. It was a concentrated feeling of being watched, instead of the usual mild feeling of skin-creeping around mirrors in general. Like one might suck him right back into that fucking place.

In short, he was weirded out. He left the house a bit early, without eating anything, and crossed the side yard, debating on whether or not he should just go in, or wait for Thom to come out. He settled on waiting, planting himself on the front porch steps and trying not to feel like he was losing it. ... which really wasn't working out too well for him. The hair on the back of his neck started to stand up, and his head whipped around, half-expecting in that insane way to see somebody there that shouldn't be. But it was just his reflection in the storm door, looking back at him. Fuck.

Who: Dean to Charlotte, Herbert, Joshua, Isaac, Peyton, Sammy, Stacey, and Thom
Where: Text Message
When: Late evening

Have been doing some thinking about group stuff. Want to email some stuff out - what's your email? Dean

Who: Thom and Isaac
When: 9am ish
Where: Thom's house

The thing about having bandmates -- or being a sort of wayward bandmate, really -- was that they thought they could call you at ass-early in the morning on Sundays. Or Jason felt he was entitled, at least. He'd woken Isaac up and began haranguing him about doing his part to get people motivated and getting the band active again. Because sure, everything was all kinds of fucked up, but that was when people needed music, right? They needed social events to go to, and stuff to distract them, so henceforth, it was Promise Theory's job -- nay, duty -- to get themselves practicing again so they could do shows. And yes, he'd already called Tyler and Thom about this same thing, Isaac should be grateful that he was last on the list, it was nine o'clock already for fuck's sake ... hello?

Who: Thom and texts sent to Charlotte, Dean, Herbert, Joshua, Peyton, Sammy and Stacey
Where: Text
When: Mid-morning

The text Thom sent to people was simple, straightforward. If he was going to offer, he may as well make sure people knew that he'd stand by that offer. So, everyone who'd been at the meeting got the same message. Well, asides from Isaac, because, well, it was Isaac and he was already covered.

Just to say the warding offer still stands. Let me know if you're interested. Thom

Who: Charlotte, Dean, Herbert, Joshua, Isaac, Peyton, Sammy, Stacey, and Thom.
When: Lunchtime.
Where: Side lawn at school.

Charlotte would have felt much better about this if Kaysen was there. She hadn't been nervous about this until she woke up this morning and realized she had no freaking idea what she was doing. Or maybe everyone would think she was crazy, or that it was a waste of time. They won't. she kept telling herself. If they agreed to show up in the first place, they must think it's a good idea. She just kept telling herself that.

Who: Claire and Thom
Where: English
When: Morning

For it being the first day back to class in what felt like forever, Claire knew she ought to be down and depressed like the atmosphere in school suggested. But she wasn't. She was, in fact, feeling pretty relieved and mildly happy that she didn't have to hang out at home anymore. The threat seemed to have left Marquette, things were getting cleaned up and people were beginning to cope. That's all anyone could really ask for. Trading in her calculus book for her Advanced English, she shoved it into her book bag, shut her locker and headed off toward class, adjusting her book bag on her shoulders and keeping an eye out for someone she knew who didn't look overly sullen. When she spotted the familiar mop of brown hair ahead of her, Claire quickened her pace a bit to catch up to him. Thom was rarely smiling but he was also very rarely actually sullen. From what she observed in class anyway. And given they were both placed in several advanced classes, they had more than a couple together, so Claire observed a lot. "Hey Thom," she said breathlessly, falling into step beside him and hoping he didn't mind. "Walk a girl to English? It's been so long I've kind of forgotten where the classroom is."

Who: Thom and Isaac
Where: Isaac's room?
When: Late afternoon?

Who: Thom and Kaysen
Where: Thom's basement
When: Morning

Thom had stayed overnight at Isaac's house, though his friend had been quieter than usual. He wasn't happy with where things were right now, but in the middle of vamp!crisis when his protected had knocked herself out doing shit - really not the time for friendship talks, so Thom had been kinda avoiding, just for now.

There'd been a note from his mom when he got home, telling him to watch the news and informing him that it looked like the vampires had moved on. Which was so great he couldn't express it. School still wasn't back in session though, so he headed down to the basement to start clean up, converting it back to the band's room. Maybe he'd be feeling better about things if he could just get that space back. It'd at least give him a neutral topic with Isaac, something he could get the guy over for, something they could talk about that he wouldn't be left feeling that there were undertones about.

Kaysen, when she was physically able to get up and go over to the Harkin's household, did that. She had decided she was going to go shout at Thom after her conversation with Isaac, and she still planned to follow through on that. So, there she was. She paused outside the back door for a moment or two, wondering if she should knock. The past few days had kind of been in and out between both houses, so she actually wasn't totally sure. And anyways, she was there to yell at the guy, would it be weird to knock first? She was thinking about this too much. In the end, she walked in, and checked the basement first, since that was where they'd spent most of their time when she was there, and whenever she was over the house in the first place, that was where she went. "Thom! You in here?"

Who: Thom and Isaac
When: mid morning
Where: Thom's house

Even after it had been determined that Kaysen was fine and the sun had come up, Isaac had had trouble sleeping. Not that that was unusual lately or anything, but it was even more difficult for different reasons. Eventually he just gave it up for bad and got up, rubbing his hands over his face. He wanted to talk to Thom, and despite the both of them really needing sleep, he had to do it now, or his brain would never shut the fuck up. The familiar dark head wasn't down there, so Isaac stood up from the air mattress in the basement and headed for the stairs.

Who: Thom, Kaysen, Isaac, Chance
Where: Thom's house / front lawn
When: After dark

Who: Kaysen and Thom
Where: Thom's basement
When: Around lunchtime

who: thom and kaysen
where: the treehouse
when: morning

Kaysen was not in a good mood. She hadn't slept well, she'd had a bad night, and generally speaking, she was of the opinion that Everything Sucked. So when dawn had hit, she'd left, being very quiet about it, but she did in fact take off. she'd considered going inside her house, back up to her room to sleep or something, but in the end decided she probably wouldn't do that anyways. So she'd climbed up into the treehouse, and sat up there, curled up with her hoodie pulled over her knees, arms hugging them, even her hood up as she sort of glared out at the dreary world. She could see little lines of smoke in between the leaves, and tried to resist the urge to push the branches back to see them better.

That she managed...she probably wouldn't see the source anyways, she'd probably just see more smoke, and have it pounded home even better that the world had gone to hell. She was really heavily down in her own mind, not paying attention to most of her surroundings as she brooded.

Thom had missed Kaysen leaving - once dawn had come, his guard had dropped somewhat and with the texts from Leija and generally being dead on his feet, he'd headed up out of the basement to brew some really, really strong coffee. It was only when he'd down his first cup and poured himself another that he realised that she was missing. So, he went looking for her, carrying a couple of mugs of coffee and some granola bars that would pass for breakfast. In actual fact, the tree house was one of the first places he looked - mostly because he doubted she'd hang around his house and he didn't particularly want to face her parents, so down the garden seemed like a plan. And he was rewarded by the sight of Kaysen-feet, though obviously drawn well back. "Can I come up?" he called. "I have coffee and, er, breakfast," he offered, suddenly realising that he didn't actually know whether she drank coffee or not. Oh well.

Who: Leija and Thom
When: a little after dawn
Where: across phone lines

Another sleepless night, with the TV staying on the news channels, muted and close-captioned so her dad could sleep in the single bed next to her's. She'd been lucky and hadn't been called out. Very lucky. But that didn't stop her stomach from feeling like someone had jerked ten or twelve knots in it. Leija had left the gauzy curtains on the window open, so she could watch the sky. Once it had lightened, as promised, Caleb called to check in. Which was a relief in and of itself. The exchange was brief, but he was okay. After hanging up, her thumb hovered over the contact list. Thom had said she could check in, so that was what she'd do.

You ok? -L

Short and simple. She put the phone down and hugged her knees to her chest, glancing at the clock and waiting -- or hoping to the point of nausea, whatever you wanted to call it -- for a reply. Waiting was the absolute shittiest.