A Den of Dreamwalkers?

Who: Corwin and Billy
Where: Corwin's house
When: Around six in the evening

Corwin had been sitting in the basement since five-thirty. He wanted to be ready when Billy showed up, rather than scrambling to get downstairs and get him inside, so waiting in case he was early was the only thing to do. He sat on the stairs, muffled up in all his usual "going out" clothes, from scarf to hood to gloves to boots, and stared at the basement door a little anxiously. This wasn't something he'd ever done, hiring someone to do... pretty much anything for him. Not even when he was alive. Now that he wasn't? Much more nerve-wracking.

It was worse with Theresa appeared, leaning on the stair's handrail and grinning with delight. You honestly thought I'd miss this? she asked when he looked at her in surprise.

"I'd been hoping," Corwin answered glumly.

Hell, no, chulo. I want to see you make an idiot of yourself and give away that there's still vampires in Marquette.

"I'm really hoping nobody thinks that. Please, Theresa, it's just business. Don't bother him, when he comes, all right?"

The smug look she gave him was not promising.

Billy was running to schedule, but only just - he'd been up since dawn and running to keep up ever since. His life had been thrown a loop in the past week and whilst he was never going to bemoan his change of fortunes, he was taking some adjustment. A couple of weeks ago he'd been living almost hand to mouth with the amount of work he had in from his business and he'd been a guy who, from most people's perspective, lived alone with a tendency to talk to himself, since his long term girlfriend had been dead for seventy-odd years. Now he had more work than he could handle and his dead girlfriend had been resurrected. Both were great, positive, wonderful things, but happening at the same time didn't leave a great deal of time for the little things - like sleep.

But, Billy wasn't going to turn down the work, especially now that he didn't only have himself to support. For him, he could live half the time with cupboards that were almost bare and not buying anything for himself. But Maddie deserved better and he wanted to be able to give her the best. And for that, you needed money. And so, rather than heading home once he finished the job that had lasted him all day, he did as he'd promised this morning and headed over to see the potential new client, walking up to the door and knocking, hearing muffled voices from behind it.

Ghost and vampire both looked to the door as Billy knocked. "Just keep quiet," Corwin pleaded at a whisper, before calling, "Go ahead and come in, it's open!" The sun shouldn't be shining through the open door at this time of day, but it never hurt to be careful, so he was going to stay well back on the stairs and let Billy let himself in.

He did stand up, though, brushing dust off his cargos and shifting a little nervously from foot to foot.

Billy had expected someone to actually answer it, but he heard the call and push the door open, stepping inside and looking towards the two people standing there. "Afternoon - I'm Billy Gardiner, you asked me to call round about your floor," he said with a note of confidence. He was nothing if not self confident, afterall.

And Corwin was the opposite. He smiled shyly, behind the scarf so Billy couldn't even see it except for a slight crinkling of skin around his eyes, and came over, out of the deeper shadows but still making sure he wasn't anywhere near the vague sunlight. "I appreciate you coming," he said, trying to speak as clearly as possible despite the scarf and the fangs it was hiding. "I'm Corwin. This is the room I need the floor put in. I'm not looking for anything fancy, just something other than packed dirt."

Don't you sound professional, chulo, Theresa sneered. Unlike Corwin, she had no problems coming out into the light, circling Billy with predatory interest-- unaware she could be seen and completely un-self-conscious about her torn-out throat and bloody front.

Billy didn't even glance twice at the strange get up of the guy before him - though internally he noted it and internally he wanted to stare. He'd learnt long ago though to not let his emotions show through in his body language though. And then there was the other fact - the fact that as he scanned from the man to the girl, he noticed that she was, very clearly and very obviously not right. It was the blood - unsurprisingly. That got a blink. Ghosts didn't look like ghosts to him, but someone whose throat was missing? Yeah, that was a pretty damn big clue there as he met her eyes and wondered if the man even knew she was there.

Theresa blinked, back, then her eyes narrowed. Why can every other person in this damn town see me? she demanded of no one in particular, backing off from Billy with a sour expression.

And that got Corwin's attention, as he looked from Billy to Theresa and back again. "You can see her?" he asked, and realized too late that he was practically stating the obvious, since he obviously could see her, if he was looking right at her and she could tell. But still! That was, what, four people in town, now, who could? "Er, Theresa. Her name's Theresa." Might as well introduce her, if there was seeing going on, right?

Billy inclined his head. "Nice to meet you, Theresa - Billy. Which I said," he added with a smile, before looking over to Corwin. "And, okay, so that answers that one. Sorry - I didn't know if you knew you were haunted," he added, his tone suggesting that being haunted was a perfectly normal, everyday, event - which, of course, for him it was.

Theresa gave Billy a speculative look at being addressed politely by a stranger. Who built floors. Pleasure's mine, she answered, a little dryly.

"Never really called it haunted, exactly," Corwin admitted sheepishly. "That sounds a lot spookier than it really is. But yeah. Two of them. Eric's not here right now-- er, obviously. You're not a dreamwalker, too, are you?" Like Delilah and Shannon and that boy he hadn't actually seen since Eric confronted his ghost.... God, how many were there in this town? Did they ever run into each other?

"Too?" Billy asked, blinking at that and then frowning - actually, for once, surprised and showing it. "I... Actually, yes," he admitted. But it was the 'too' that got him. He'd never met a dreamwalker before - the only other people he'd met in his life who could see spirits were mediums and spirit elementals. So someone who actually went straight to 'dreamwalker' had his full, complete and undivided attention.

"Well, erm, yes." Corwin had actually never met a spirit elemental-- didn't even know they existed-- and as for mediums, well, he'd never met one who actually could see spirits, though he'd met a few fakers. So dreamwalker it was. He shifted again, feeling awkward but pleased, at the same time. "Everyone else in town who can is a dreamwalker, too. I didn't even know it had a name until I moved here. Four people in the same little town with the same ability, that's just... weird." But pretty cool, actually. Four people, now, who could do the same thing he used to do before he died.

Billy stared at that, actually, really stared. "Four people? Four. People?" And here was he thinking that he was the only one. And now there were four - four. In one town. How - how did that even work.

"Well, three that I know are still here. I don't know what happened the boy with the angry ghost, he hasn't been around since I met him. He might've left when the Acherus hit, I know a lot of people did." Corwin didn't think twice about mentioning the vampires; surely a dreamwalker knew about vampires. Apparently he'd been the only one who hadn't, in his experience. He paused, then asked sympathetically, "Do you want to sit down?"

Before he falls down? Theresa put in snidely, grinning at Billy's astonishment.

Billy looked sharply across at the ghost. "You know, I am here," he said, snapping out of it, used to dealing with Maddie's sharp tongue. What was it about spirits that made them that way - was it just the years of solitude, or that only that kind of person ended up being made into a ghost? He had no idea. He shook his head as he looked back at the guy. "No, I'm fine - just. I never met another dreamwalker before. I didn't think I ever would - it's... To think there are some here in town... Do you know where?"

I've met scarier boys than you, chico, Theresa said with derisive amusement.

"Just ignore her," Corwin suggested embarrassedly. "She's bad-tempered."

And don't you know it, Theresa put in. Corwin followed his own advice and ignored her.

"You want to know where they live?" he asked, his tone turning a little warily towards the end of the question. Now that he thought about it, Corwin wasn't so sure he wanted to be telling people where Shannon and Delilah lived. Not without asking, at the very least. He probably should have kept his mouth shut, or lied and said it was him-- if Billy didn't think that already, too-- but he really wasn't so good at the lying thing. Or the thinking ahead thing, apparently.

"I want to know who they are," Billy told him, honestly. "Seriously - it wasn't until recently that I even knew that I wasn't the only one, that I wasn't just... That I was a type. I've never actually met anyone else like me." He spoke with boyish enthusiasm, showing emotion in the way he normal didn't, his face that was so usually carefully blank was now animated as he spoke.

Seeing as Corwin knew exactly how Billy felt-- hadn't he felt the exact same way, first meeting Delilah? albeit with a hearty dose of "why couldn't I have met her before I died!", but it amounted to the same thing-- he sighed a little behind the scarf. Maybe he was just a big push-over; he knew he was, when it came to his pets. And anyone who wasn't afraid of him. And friends.

And, apparently, other dreamwalkers who had never met anyone like them before. Damn it. "Come on upstairs," he said, motioning for Billy to follow him to the stairs into the house proper. "I can give you their phone numbers, if you like. But if you make trouble for them, I'll know," he warned, protectively.

"I don't make trouble for people, sir," Billy said, politely and immensely grateful. This was another thing to add on to the massive changes that were going on in his life right now. It seemed like everything he'd never been able to have but always had secretly wanted was suddenly deciding to fall into place. Things like this didn't happen to him, but Billy wasn't going to question his good fortune. He'd had enough shit in his life that he would take it if the gods or whoever were smiling on him. Very definitely.

"You never know about some people," Corwin said with a little, mostly-hidden smile over his shoulder at Billy. "I've been taken by surprise about people more than once, and they're my friends... I try to look out for them. Watch this step here, it's loose."

As Corwin led Billy into the kitchen, he was also leading him into darkness. The windows were all tightly shuttered, and covered with black paper besides. Corwin helpfully flipped on the nearest light, so Billy could see, and called back on his way through the dining room, "Look out for Georgia, she's laying across the doorway into the dining room. And Kirk, he's--"

The tan, skinny, three-legged dog bounded past Corwin and right up to Billy, barking excitedly and wagging his long, skinny tail.

"--a bit over-excitable," Corwin finished, amused.

Billy stepped carefully over and around the animals and fended off the dog, looking around in the darkness. Weirder and weirder, this place was, but if the guy had information about dreamwalkers, Billy would follow him anywhere - he was occasionally an idiot like that, never really thinking things through, trusting strangers without pause, believing them without question. His friends despaired of him on a regular basis, but Billy only ever learned on a short term basis before reverting to type. "Nice dog," was therefore his only comment.

"I've had him a couple years, now," Corwin answered absently, continuing through the dining room, which was cluttered with various gaming equipment and just as dark and shuttered at the kitchen, to the living room, where he turned on another small lamp, shooed a long-legged Siamese cat off the armchair, and sat down, giving a little laptop touchpad a tap to wake the computer up. Kirk followed after them with an awkward but obviously well-practiced gait, sniffing at Billy's shoes and ignoring the fact that he could get kicked-- accidentally or not-- at every step. "Do you have something to write on, or should I get you paper and a pen?" Corwin had that, around here somewhere.

Theresa had followed them up, too, suspiciously quiet but Corwin was ignoring that in favor of the guest. Now she was looking from one to the other with narrowed, thoughtful eyes.

Billy put his hand in his pocket and drew out a pencil and a small notebook, held closed with a rubber band. "No, I'm all good - and I appreciate it," he told the man, leaning in to stand more in the lamp light so that he could see properly as he opened the book and found a clean page to write on.

Corwin bet he did. He pulled up his contacts-- there really weren't all that many, so scrolling through them was quick and easy: he didn't even have to scroll-- and read off Shannon and Delilah's phone numbers and first names, to go with them. He closed the program quickly enough after finishing, feeling oddly exposed with all nine or so people in the list visible. "There you do. Two more dreamwalkers." He looked up, smiling a bit behind the scarf again.

Which Theresa made a stab at grabbing. Oh, perfect. "Theresa, cut it out!" he exclaimed, but fending off a ghost never worked very well. He stood up and backed away from her, instead.

Billy scribbled down the numbers with a nod, before putting the pad away and watching the interaction between Corwin and Theresa, feeling bad for the guy. He coughed, lightly. "Did you want to show me the floor?" he asked him, hoping that maybe the distraction would help. And, of course, it was the reason why he was here, even if they'd got a little sidetracked.

"Yeah. If we can get down there without trouble." Corwin tried to keep out of Theresa's reach, one hand holding his scarf resolutely in place, as he started back through the house. Kirk bounced along with them, apparently not content to be chased away just yet, and Theresa just looked amused that she was making him so uncomfortable. "It's the basement," Corwin continued, flipping off lights as he passed them and stepping over various cats, of which there were now three: white Georgia, Davey the Siamese, and JP the tuxedo. "That we were in a minute ago. The walls are already fine for making it a real room, but the floor is just packed dirt."

Billy followed him down, then got out his notebook again - wondering absently why he'd bothered to put it away in the first place as he had to find his page again - and made a note of the address and date. "Okay, so - what are you looking for? I'm assuming proper flooring, but are you after just something like concrete, or more like boards or wood?" he asked, looking around as he did so and making some preliminary calculations.

"Whatever's cheapest, really," Corwin said, a little sheepishly, as he sidestepped Theresa's mischievous attempt to grab his clothing, the hood this time-- nearly tripping over Kirk in the process. The dog yipped and ambled over to Billy again, instead. "I'll have to put in extra hours working to afford it, anyway, but I think it'll be worth it." He was tired of sleeping in what felt like Konnor's room, and he thought the basement might be quieter, too. "But less overtime is better than more."

"Concrete'll be cheaper, assuming that there's no damp problems," Billy mused, walking over to cheap the base of one of the walls with his palm. "Seems okay," he said, looking round. "So concrete's probably your best bet. When did you want it for? I've got a lot on at the moment, what with everything that's been going on in town and all, and it'll take me a day or two...." he said.

"Whenever you have the time is fine," Corwin answered, glad that Billy could even take the job. Having another dreamwalker in his house meant, at least, that Theresa couldn't freak him out and chase him away, thought it meant one more person that might wind up in his dreams on accident... Especially if he worked by day, so Corwin would have to wind up sleeping at night. Yuck. Maybe he'd be lucky and just not dream, like usual. "Just let me know the day before you're ready to start so I can... er, be sure to be here." Or be sure to be up, anyway.

"Sure, will do," Billy told him. "It'll probably be early next week, but I can drop an estimate round tomorrow, make sure you're good with the price and everything," he said, knowing there'd be less hassle all round if the customer knew the price up front.

"All right. What time tomorrow? Do you know?" He'd have to set his alarm, if it was too early. "--Theresa, please," he added in a distracted undertone, trying to sidestep her again.

But it would be so funny, she smirked at him. He just shot her a beseeching look before stepping away again and focusing back on Billy. "She gets worse when people can see her, I think."

Billy laughed a little. "Yeah, I know how that one gets," he told the guy in a definitely knowing tone - not that he thought that these two had anything like he and Maddie had had, but he knew what it was like to have a spirit with you. The few times that people had been around who could see, or even sense, Maddie, she'd been like a little girl. He loved it when that happened - unfortunately, it hadn't happened very often. "And I can just post it through the door, if you're not going to be around. It's no big deal," he offered.

"I just tend to... erm, keep odd hours, is all," Corwin admitted, hoping that was more normal than he was afraid it might be. "I'll be here, I just might be asleep. That's why I didn't quite catch your call this morning, I had to scramble downstairs to get to it." He really needed a phone upstairs... He didn't really enjoy tumbles down staircases. "So I suppose if you put it under the door, I'll at least get it and you won't be subjected to just-fell-down-the-stairs-Corwin."

Sometimes I just don't have to say anything at all, Theresa muttered, and Corwin would have blushed if he'd had enough blood in him.

"Okay, well I'll just slide it under the door then - I don't want to wake you up needlessly. You work nights?" Billy asked, ignoring the ghost simply because she seemed dead set on embarrassing Corwin.

Good excuse, working nights. "Yeah. A lot of my co-workers and my boss are all in the eastern hemisphere, so it pays to be awake when they are." Half-true, anyway... he did have a lot of compatriots in India, but it wasn't as if they ever actually spoke. And, since it seemed silly to say how he worked without saying what he did, he added, "I'm a programmer."

Billy nodded - computers were largely beyond him, though he did have one that he pecked at when he was attempting to get his accounts in order. He wasn't generally a hitech guy though. "Nice work," he commented, blandly, just giving pleasantries more than anything else - it wasn't like he could get into an indepth conversation about the subject, or even know what it was a programmer really did. "Well, I guess I should get going then," he added, holding out his hand.

Corwin put his hand in Billy's, glove and claws it was hiding and all, and shook gently. His handshake wasn't exactly the strongest, but that was easier... no worrying about accidentally hurting anyone, or accidental gouges with claws. And if people assumed he was tentative and wimpy from it... Well, they'd be right, anyway. "Thank you again for coming out, and for taking the job."

"Thanks for calling me," Billy told him, pulling his hand back and wondering about the guy, the almost limp way he'd shaken hands. He definitely was an odd one, that was for sure. "And thanks again for the numbers - you'll hear from me tomorrow," he promised, before heading for the exit.

Letting Billy show himself out the basement door while he caught and held Kirk's collar to keep him from rolling on out after him, Corwin slumped back against the central beam with relief once he was out of sight. Well, he'd survived his first attempt to hide someone-- another dreamwalker, of all people; he hadn't decided if that was a good or bad thing yet-- and apparently hadn't let on the vampire thing at all. "That went well," he murmured to the dog, who didn't answer except to make one final lunge for the door, against the grip on his collar.

This time, Theresa put in darkly, looking after Billy, too.