I need a miracle and not someone's charity.

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

Character Names: Heather Morris (hell_is_silent), Jack Mercer (cracker_jackie)
When: Saturday, November 20th, after hearing of Eddie's death.
Location: Swanky Paris apartment building which they've been sharing.
Summary: Heather snaps. Jack is rational. Hopefully.
Ratings: ....PG?
Warnings: HURT/COMFORT


"Goddamn fucking motherfucking bitch wench WHORE!"

That would be the screaming that came from Heather's apartment in the wake of seeing Mello's post over the Blackberry.

Eddie was dead, and that goth demon succubus was to blame. Heather had known she should have done something. The whole situation was fucked up and it was clear the bitch was dangerous, but — Eddie'd seemed.... not happy. But like felt like he'd deserved it. So Heather had backed off, out of respect. And let him do... whatever that fucked up thing with Ophelia was.

And now look at what happened.

It had been almost six months now since Heather had come home to find her dad still and bloody in his living room chair. She'd thought nothing could hurt as bad as that, but Eddie Riggs, the stupid giant oaf of a roadie that he was, had filled the void left by Harry Mason, whether he realized it or not... and whether Heather realized it or not. Distancing herself from him for the sake of that issue with Ophelia had been hurting her more than she'd wanted to admit.

She should have done something. People seemed to get better from death here, but... what if this wasn't one of those times? People disappeared around here all the time and never came back.

There was a way to deal with this.

First Heather was going to hurl some breakable things into the wall. In the dining room, she invaded a hutch and grabbed a stack of plates. She grunted with the effort it took to throw them, her frustration and grief turning to red thrills deep in her chest at the sight of the destruction. If the Author could create anything, Heather could destroy it. She was so sick of this goddamn place and how it could control her.

When she was done with this, she was going to take Mr. Pipey and pay the police station a visit. Maybe Mello was standing guard, but Heather was pretty fast with her trusty old steel pipe. She wanted to pay back Ophelia personally for doing this to her.

Comments

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

Jack was in his own apartment not far from Heather's, fiddling with the new guitar he'd bought. He wasn't sure if he would be allowed to take it back with him, but he was kind of hoping. If nothing else, he had it for now.

His head snapped up, wide eyed, at the sound of screaming and he set the instrument down and quickly made his way to the hall. It was definitely coming from Heather's room, and so was the sound of shit breaking. He'd heard that noise enough as a kid to know it usually didn't mean something good...

He hesitated a second, then knocked loudly on her door.

"Heather!"

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

She almost didn't hear him over the sound of smashing plates.

Actually, if she hadn't run out of her stack, she probably wouldn't have heard him at all. But the shattering sound abated and then there was the banging at the front door. And her name. Not her real name but the name they'd decided upon, her and Dad. It might as well be her, but who was she?

She was crying. Huh. How come she hadn't noticed that?

"I'm fine!" she called back shrilly. "Don't let me -- disturb. You."

Even she was aware that didn't make much sense, so she hurried to answer the door anyway.

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking alarmed as he saw her tears.

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

She wasn't going to tell him. She didn't want to talk about it.

"Eddie's dead," she blurted, and, embarrassingly, broke into a fresh set of sobs.

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

"Oh... shit," Jack said. He liked Eddie. A lot. He was kinda like a big brother. If he had a big brother that didn't constantly give him shit.

And then there was the matter of her crying. He wasn't really good with chicks and tears.

"Hey. Uh. Don't cry."

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

"Don't cry? Don't cry?!" Heather demanded. "He's dead and it's my fault!"

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

Jack frowned. "What? How is it your fault?"

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

Heather pulled him into the apartment and slammed the door. She didn't want to go blurting Eddie's personal business out where anyone might be able to hear it.

"Have you seen his crazy goth girlfriend? She's like, insane and wants to murder him. But he's still in love with her. And they were... I dunno. It's weird. But I told him he shouldn't mess with her because she's psychotic. But he didn't listen and then I didn't do anything...

And now she killed him. The crazy whore."

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

Jack hadn't really seen Eddie recently. Guess that explained why.

"Yeah, but that ain't your fault. He's a grownup, you know? He made that call, you can't blame yourself."

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

"Y-yeah, but... I promised I'd look out for him, y'know?" Heather wiped the back of one palm across her eyes. "He looked out for me when we first got here, right after my dad..."

She sniffled hard. "J-just feel like I let him down, y'know?"

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

Jack ran a hand awkwardly through his hair.

"That ain't true. And like... people come back, right?" he said. "Don't seem like people stay dead here."

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

"Well, I-I mean. Sometimes. And sometimes they just disappear forever. S-seems like it might depend on whether the Author's tired of them."

Her face crumpled. "I hate this fucking place."

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, me too," Jack said. "It sucks."

He paused, not sure what to say. "I bet he'll be back before you know it though."

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

"And then what? Do I just go back to ignoring his psycho ass girlfriend?"

She shook her head violently. "I-I can't do that..."

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

"I ain't really good at giving advice," Jack said. "But I think my mom would have said that you should talk to him. Once he's back."

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

"If he comes back," Heather stressed. She flopped down on a couch in the living room and reached for a box of tissues. "If not, I'll – I'll... fucking kill her."

[cracker-jackie.livejournal.com]

"Hey, that probably ain't a good idea," Jack said, still awkwardly standing. "Not with the wannabe po-po running around."

Policing purgatory still seemed weird to him.

[hell-is-silent.livejournal.com]

She couldn't help it. She laughed at his description.

"It is kind of a motley crew, isn't it?"