missing spirits

who: billy and oz
where: osbourne residence
when: mid morning

Another night of not being attacked by vampires had passed and the sun was, once again, well above the horizon. Billy had watched the morning news, which had served to remind him that the rest of town was still suffering - though the glow in the night sky and the drifting sounds of sirens had told him that already. People were still dying out there and the town would never be the same again, of that he could be certain. He'd attempted to dreamwalk last night, just to get a feel for people, but had found that many of the people he would 'normally' visit weren't there. He assumed they were awake, on watch, fighting - or possibly they were dead. Not a pleasant thought. He'd found a few sleepers, but each and every time he'd faced nightmares. He'd done what he could, the key was always the same - the vampires, or the monsters if the dreamer hadn't cottoned on to what was happening. A few more people would have had better sleep because of him. It had left him tired, as it always did, but he'd never intended to get proper sleep last night anyway - he'd catch up this afternoon.

Now, though, he was going to enjoy the sunshine as he poured himself a coffee and fixed it to his liking before wandering, barefoot, outside to sit on the wall in the back garden, closing his eyes for a moment, letting the sun play over his face. It was peaceful here - far removed from town, the neighbours fled, the sirens quieted with the coming of the day. One could almost forget what was going on. Almost. He could, at least, pretend and take a moment.

He opened his eyes again and as he did so, he spoke her name, calling Maddie to him, knowing that she'd come - she had to, after all. So he called for her and waited.

Nothing.

That wasn't right - she always came, she had to come. He'd never really got why per se, but she'd told him that she had to come when he called - he'd always known that. He called her again and again she didn't appear. He could feel his heart beginning to race - no, no, this wasn't happening, this wasn't possible, she had to be here, she had to come. There was nothing to... "Maddie!" he called again, louder this time, as though volume would make a difference. "Maddie, if you're teasing, this isn't funny!"

Oz happened to be outside, sort of making a pass around the house just to make sure there wasn't any damage he had to be working on to fix to day just in case. He was around the side of it when he heard his friend, and he frowned. He could hear the stress there, and that was without actually paying attention to the words. With the words that was just equaling up to Bad. So he abandoned his task, and started to track his friend back--which wasn't difficult by any means. "Billy?" he called, when he saw him way out by the wall.

Billy span round to face Oz as he heard his name called, not for a moment thinking it was her. He was beginning to panic, but he wasn't that far gone. "She's not here," he told him, trying to come up with some kind of explanation, something that made any sense at all. He had nothing.

"Maddie's not?" Oz asked, not really looking like he was walking fast over to Billy, but he was walking at a better clip than usual. "Maybe she's busy?" Even if he really didn't think it worked like that. He remembered all too well how Billy had said she didn't come when called when she'd gone missing for a few months. Which hey! How about he didn't think of that incredibly shitty time?

"No - she doesn't get a choice in this. I call, she has to come. It... drags her, from wherever she is, whatever she's doing. Even if she doesn't want to come, she's here. Instantaneously," Billy told him. It had been the source of one of their disagreements once - he'd been reluctant to call her, because he didn't want her to think that he took her for granted, didn't want her to force her to do anything. And she'd taken it that he didn't want to see her. Typical contrary woman. Except now, now it wasn't working. And the last time she hadn't come... Oh God.

Oz was trying to wrack his brain really fast for some kind of explanation. Even a total bullshit one that sounded good would probably do, but he had nothing. Now would normally be the time to ask if it had not worked at any other time, but he knew the answer there. When she'd been shoved off in some other place, and had been cut off from him. Ohhh shit. "Try again?" he asked in a slightly weak tone, wishing he had something better to say. His brain was already going off on tangents of worst case scenarios. The thing with Billy was he was a man with a god complex--but he didn't function if she wasn't there with him. He just didn't. Last time, he'd survived, but he hadn't lived. There was a huge difference.

"I've tried!" Billy exclaimed, hotly, the panic rising more now and whilst he was aware that he was taking out unfairly on his friend, he couldn't stop himself from actually doing it. Shit, shit, shit...

Today, Oz wasn't so quick to take offense. So he let Billy shout at him. "Try to calm down. Let's go back inside, and think about this. Nothing could really have happened to her that we know of. There weren't any spells or anything that were being messed with...when was the last time you actually saw her?"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" Billy told him, not calm in the slightest. "She's missing. She's gone. Maddie!" Billy called at the top of his voice, turning round in a circle, looking for her as though she'd just appear behind him. "Maddie!!"

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. Billy was occasionally one of the most difficult people to deal with in the known universe, but usually he could in fact be dealt with. Until shit like this popped up. Oz had seen it before, they'd played this game already and it sucked. Maddie went away and there was this huge chunk of Billy that just died. A pretty accurate description was he became a shell, and oh did Oz ever not want to see that again. But what could they do? The girl was dead. She was very dead, in fact. They couldn't go looking for a body. They couldn't ring her up and see if she answered. Hell, Billy was the only one who could even see or hear her. He couldn't track her. "Billy, let's go inside." he said again, voice even if quiet.

Billy's jaw tightened and he swallowed, his whole body tense. This couldn't be happening - this just couldn't be happening. Not again - it had nearly killed him last time as he'd given his life over to what possibly amounted to many and varied original ways of committing suicide - stopping eating, then when he was forced to start again, Walking himself into exhaustion. Getting involved with a woman who'd tried to kill him. He hadn't been able to kill himself, but he'd lost all interest in living. "What good would 'going inside' do?" he asked, eventually, his voice hollow.

"...you won't be out here shouting for her." Oz said. "Come on. Maybe we can think of something." What, he had no idea. At all. Ever. Because yeah. Spirits weren't his strong suit to begin with, and he didn't know anyone who really did know anything--besides his current company. "Do you know any way of trying to locate her?" Which he felt was a question that would get him bitched at, because if Billy did, he'd probably already be trying it.

Billy allowed his friend to lead him back inside - though he didn't stop looking around all the time, looking for her. He'd stopped shouting though, at least. "In theory, I do," he told Oz. "Location spells for spirits - I have books. At home. I don't know how they work though. I've never had to use them. Last time..." Last time there'd been no point. Last time he'd known she was Gone, there was a reason behind it - an explanation. "But - it's no use, Oz. If she's here, she has to come. She has to. If she doesn't..." There was no end to that, except a deep sense of foreboding.

"Well, maybe something happened, and you can just...find her and figure it out from there. There wasn't any magic, it's not like these vamps would be able to harm her. We'll figure it out, alright?" And yes Oz put 'we' in there so Billy wouldn't start getting himself under the silly impression that he was alone here. "We can take a ride or something, get the books..." Not that any one of them knew magic, and Sophie hated it. Any real magic that was done was done by other people, or usually, Maddie herself if she could manage it. So that was just great. Why didn't they know any witches? ...not dead ones?

"There wasn't any magic - so where the hell is she, Oz?" Billy asked, now sounding more distressed than angry as the next wave of panic started to hit. "She's bound here, she can't leave, she can't go anywhere else. It took me years to find a spell that would unbind her and rebind her elsewhere - and I really, really looked. It's not a common spell and then I had to find someone good enough to cast the damn thing. But that's the only thing I can think that's happened, that would stop her coming to me - if she was bound somewhere else." Wow, part of his mind was still vaguely rational. He was holding on by a thread though, clutching at straws.

"Well if she was bound somewhere else...what did you bind her to? What did you do the spell with and everything? Or was there anything? Was it just the town? If she's been re-bound, then she should still be trackable in some sense, right? Even if we have to search around for someone good enough to pull the spells off?" Oz said, walking up the back steps and opening the door. "Do you know anyone else who knows anything about spirits?"

Questions, questions helped as he walked back into the house, feeling cold as the sun left him. "She's bound to the town, this town - she can't leave it. We tried one day and she just... can't. It's impossible. I don't know what she was bound to before. The spell was done with blood - and this," he said, pulling the raven's head pendant from under his shirt. "My blood - it was stronger that way. 'Blood of someone who loves her'. But the guy that cast it - he's not around anymore. I don't know where he went, but he's not here. I don't know if there's anyone else who could do it - I don't know anyone else who can do magic at all. I can't - Maddie always did that kind of thing. I was just her hands for the set up. And, erm - Syn, Synnove. She knows about spirits," he rattled off, taking the questions one at a time without a break, without really even connecting them together mentally, just answering them. It helped keep the abject panic away, and the feeling of an impending breakdown.

"Okay, well is Syn still around? Could you call her?" Oz asked. He was still wracking his brain, but hey--he didn't know near enough about anything to really help here. All he could do was act as sounding board, and maybe point things in directions to get Billy thinking about what he knew. That instead of sitting down and stopping or something. He didn't even know. All he did know was he had a really bad feeling in his gut, and he was already thinking about how bad things could get.

"Yeah, she's around - she's still here. I could call her, though we haven't spoken for a while." Not since the mine dream catastrophe, in fact. "You spoke to her last, I think." had he called her since then? He couldn't remember, he couldn't remember. Oh god, Maddie was gone, she was gone, she was gone. Oh god.

"Oh, hey, yeah. I could do that, I probably still have her number on my phone." Oz said. He walked through the house, which was again starting to slow down as people were going to be heading to bed after a long night of being stressed out. "How about you sit down for a second and I'll grab the phone, and....and we can call." And Chick better answer.

"yeah, okay," Billy told him, sitting down in the first available seat and staring at the floor between his legs. Oh god, she was gone, Maddie was gone, Maddie was gone. He tried to take deep breaths, concentrating on his breathing. In. Out. In. Out. It'd be okay, they'd find her, there'd be a reason, it'd be alright. But she was gone.

Oz walked through the house, and when he found Sophie, he drew her aside to speak low in her ear, letting her know what was going on. She'd been in there too, last time this had happened. Really, you'd think it would be less apt to happen--losing a dead woman. But nope. He gave her a little hug, sort of needing it in the face of Billy having lost track of Maddie again. Then he grabbed up his phone and dialed, walking back through the house as he listened to the ringing in his ear. It rang, and rang, and he was wondering if she was dead. What with all the vampire bullshit going on, tha was a possibility. Eventually, someone answered, though it was the weirdest voice he ever heard. Sounded like a little kid. "Hello, I'm sorry, Syn can't come to the phone right now, there's a family emergency. Can I take a message?" the voice asked.

"Um...yeah, could you tell her that Billy really needs her to call him back as soon as humanly possible? Um...this number is fine." Oz said, sounding a bit thrown, since he was.

"Yeah, sure thing. Fair warning though, it might be a while. Sorry about that. I'll tell her though. Have a good day?" Teddybear suggested.

"...thanks...erm...you too." Oz finished, and hung up, the conversation ending just as he got back to Billy. "She wasn't there...something about a family emergency."
Auto response from I'm here, but work's hell, so I might not respond straight away/ be really quiet

Billy didn't answer, still staring at the floor. This wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening, it couldn't. Not here, not now, not with everything going on. There had to be a reason, there had to be a reason, there had to be. This wasn't happening, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't.

Oz sat down on the couch next to Billy, sitting forward with his forearms on his knees. "...I'll try back again later." he promised. Maybe he could find out where she lived and go...well that wouldn't be fucked up now would it. Interrupt shit for 'hey, Billy's dead girlfriend is missing, can you find her?' And yet, as he watched his friend, he figured if it really came down to it, he'd do it anyways.